The world championship won by the New York Giants from the Washington Senators last week was their first since 1922 when they beat the New York Yankees. Attendance was smallest in 15 years. From a total gate of $679,000 the players on both teams got $284,000, divided 60-40 between winners and losers. Each Giant player collected about $4,600, each Senator about $3.400. Manager William ("Memphis Bill") Terry got a five-year contract as player-manager at a rumored salary of $40,000 a year.
First Game. Betting odds for the series were 10-to-7 against the Giants, but odds for the opening game shifted to 4-to-3 pro-Giant when the bookies learned that lanky Carl Hubbell would pitch. Hubbell's tricky "screwball" was considered the Giants' prime defense against the American League's hard-hitting Senators. It began to work right at the start when Hubbell struck out the first three men on the Washington list—a feat for which sport writers could find no world series precedent. The Senators' long-jawed Manager Joe Cronin kept his starting pitcher secret until the last minute. "It all makes for a lot of good fun," he explained. Then he sent in Walter Stewart, like Hubbell a lefthander. It made good fun, but not for Pitcher Stewart. The first man to face him made first base on an error. Mel Ott, short, boyish rightfielder. stepped to bat for his first time in a World Series and bashed a home-run into the right-field stand. Again in the third, Ott (who was to make four hits in four chances) drove in a run, and drove Stewart out of the box. The Giants, whom sports writers had called "the hitless wonders" of the National League, were ahead 4-to-0.
A run was squeezed in by Washington in the fourth but not one Senator had yet hit one of Hubbell's pitches squarely by the seventh inning when a few confident Giant fans started home. By so doing they spared themselves the risk of apoplexy in the eighth and ninth. Hubbell walked two men. Myer knocked a hot grounder to Shortstop "Blondy" Ryan. Ryan juggled it and then, without waiting to get hold of the ball, batted it three yards with the flat of his hand to Critz at second base, nailing the runner from first. Next up was old "Goose" Goslin. He whacked the ball against the right-field fence. It was foul by a few feet. He whacked a liner over first base but it streaked smack into Giant-Manager Bill Terry's glove. The tension thus lifted returned redoubled in the ninth. The Senators filled the bases. A sacrifice pushed one runner across the plate. One square hit could tie up the game. But Hubbell pulled himself together. He fanned Bluege, his tenth strikeout of the game; and the next man, Sewell, grounded out. New York 4, Washington 2.