# 1921 New York Yankees season

The 1921 New York Yankees season was the 19th season for the Yankees. The team finished with a record of 98–55, winning their first pennant in franchise history, winning the American League by 41⁄2 games over the previous year's champion, the Cleveland Indians. New York was managed by Miller Huggins. Their home games were played at the Polo Grounds.

## Regular season

With star slugger Babe Ruth hitting 59 home runs, setting a new major league home run record for the third consecutive year, while also having his greatest overall season statistically, the Yankees appeared to be the team to beat in the World Series. Their landlords, the New York Giants, had rebuilt after slipping a bit in the late 1910s, and had won the National League pennant. For the first time, all the games of a World Series would be held in the same ballpark, the Polo Grounds. The best-5-of-9 Series (its last before returning to the best-4-of-7 format) saw the Yankees take a 2 games to 0 lead and later a 3–2 series lead, but Ruth suffered a serious injury in game 3 that limited his appearances in the remaining games, save for one pinch-hit appearance, and the Giants rallied to win the Series 5 games to 3.

### Season standings

vteAmerican League :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| New York Yankees | 98 | 55 | .641 | — | 53‍–‍25 | 45‍–‍30 |
| Cleveland Indians | 94 | 60 | .610 | 4½ | 51‍–‍26 | 43‍–‍34 |
| St. Louis Browns | 81 | 73 | .526 | 17½ | 43‍–‍34 | 38‍–‍39 |
| Washington Senators | 80 | 73 | .523 | 18 | 46‍–‍30 | 34‍–‍43 |
| Boston Red Sox | 75 | 79 | .487 | 23½ | 41‍–‍36 | 34‍–‍43 |
| Detroit Tigers | 71 | 82 | .464 | 27 | 37‍–‍40 | 34‍–‍42 |
| Chicago White Sox | 62 | 92 | .403 | 36½ | 37‍–‍40 | 25‍–‍52 |
| Philadelphia Athletics | 53 | 100 | .346 | 45 | 28‍–‍47 | 25‍–‍53 |

### Record vs. opponents

1921 American League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | BOS | CWS | CLE | DET | NYY | PHA | SLB | WSH |
| Boston | — | 15–7 | 8–14 | 15–7 | 7–15 | 12–10 | 9–13 | 9–13 |
| Chicago | 7–15 | — | 7–15 | 8–14 | 13–9 | 14–8 | 7–15 | 6–16 |
| Cleveland | 14–8 | 15–7 | — | 13–9 | 8–14 | 15–7 | 17–5 | 12–10 |
| Detroit | 7–15 | 14–8 | 9–13 | — | 5–17 | 14–7–1 | 12–10 | 10–12 |
| New York | 15–7 | 9–13 | 14–8 | 17–5 | — | 17–5 | 13–9 | 13–8 |
| Philadelphia | 10–12 | 8–14 | 7–15 | 7–14–1 | 5–17 | — | 5–17 | 11–11–1 |
| St. Louis | 13–9 | 15–7 | 5–17 | 10–12 | 9–13 | 17–5 | — | 12–10 |
| Washington | 13–9 | 16–6 | 10–12 | 12–10 | 8–13 | 11–11–1 | 10–12 | — |

### Roster
## Player stats

* = Indicates team leader

### Batting
#### Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| C | Wally Schang | 134 | 424 | 134 | .316 | 6 | 55 |
| 1B | Wally Pipp | 153 | 588 | 174 | .296 | 8 | 98 |
| 2B | Aaron Ward | 153 | 556 | 170 | .306 | 5 | 75 |
| 3B | Frank Baker | 94 | 330 | 97 | .294 | 9 | 71 |
| SS | Roger Peckinpaugh | 149 | 577 | 166 | .288 | 8 | 71 |
| OF | Babe Ruth | 152 | 540 | 204 | .378 | 59 | 171 |
| OF | Bob Meusel | 149 | 598 | 190 | .318 | 24 | 138 |
| OF | Elmer Miller | 56 | 242 | 72 | .298 | 4 | 36 |

#### Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| Mike McNally | 71 | 215 | 56 | .260 | 1 | 24 |
| Chick Fewster | 66 | 207 | 58 | .280 | 1 | 19 |
| Braggo Roth | 43 | 152 | 43 | .283 | 2 | 10 |
| Ping Bodie | 31 | 87 | 15 | .172 | 0 | 12 |
| Chicken Hawks | 41 | 73 | 21 | .280 | 2 | 15 |
| Fred Hofmann | 23 | 62 | 11 | .177 | 1 | 5 |
| Al DeVormer | 22 | 49 | 17 | .347 | 0 | 7 |
| Johnny Mitchell | 13 | 42 | 11 | .262 | 0 | 2 |
| Tom Connelly | 4 | 5 | 1 | .200 | 0 | 0 |

### Pitching
#### Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Carl Mays | 49 | 336.2 | 27 | 9 | 3.05 | 70 |
| Waite Hoyt | 43 | 282.1 | 19 | 13 | 3.09 | 102 |
| Bob Shawkey | 38 | 245.0 | 18 | 12 | 4.08 | 35 |
| Bill Piercy | 14 | 81.2 | 5 | 4 | 2.98 | 35 |
| Harry Harper | 8 | 52.2 | 4 | 3 | 3.76 | 22 |
Note: Carl Mays was team leader in saves with 7.

#### Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Rip Collins | 28 | 137.1 | 11 | 5 | 5.44 | 64 |
| Jack Quinn | 33 | 119.0 | 8 | 7 | 3.78 | 44 |
| Alex Ferguson | 17 | 56.1 | 3 | 1 | 5.91 | 9 |
| Babe Ruth | 2 | 9.0 | 2 | 0 | 9.00 | 2 |

#### Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
| Tom Sheehan | 12 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5.45 | 7 |
| Tom Rogers | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7.36 | 0 |

## World Series

| Game | Date | Visitor | Score | Home | Score | Record (NYG-NYY) | Attendance |
| 1 | October 5 | New York Yankees | 3 | New York Giants | 0 | 0–1 | 30,202 |
| 2 | October 6 | New York Giants | 0 | New York Yankees | 3 | 0–2 | 34,939 |
| 3 | October 7 | New York Yankees | 5 | New York Giants | 13 | 1–2 | 36,509 |
| 4 | October 9 ‡ | New York Giants | 4 | New York Yankees | 2 | 2–2 | 36,372 |
| 5 | October 10 ‡ | New York Yankees | 3 | New York Giants | 1 | 2–3 | 35,758 |
| 6 | October 11 ‡ | New York Giants | 8 | New York Yankees | 5 | 3–3 | 34,238 |
| 7 | October 12 ‡ | New York Yankees | 1 | New York Giants | 2 | 4–3 | 36,503 |
| 8 | October 13 ‡ | New York Giants | 1 | New York Yankees | 0 | 5–3 | 25,410 |
| New York Giants win 5–3 ||||||||

## Awards and honors
### Major league records

* Babe Ruth, major league record, Most total bases in one season (457)

### Franchise records

* Babe Ruth, Yankees single season record, runs scored in a season (177)