The death of Manager Miller Huggins during the 1929 season was a major blow to the morale of the New York Yankees. The 2-time defending champions weren't catching the Athletics that season, but the next couple of seasons saw no improvement either. But with Joe McCarthy at the helm in 1932, the Bronx Bombers didn't just return to the top of the league, they returned to their dominant form with a 107-47 record. 2nd place Philadelphia were 13 games back by seasons end, while last place Boston finished 64 games in the cellar.
Meeting NY in the World Series were the Chicago Cubs, who had a slightly more uncertain time holding off the Pirates to claim the NL flag in '32. When the World Series began, the Yankees kept up their dominating ways, sweeping the lowly Cubs in four straight games, and extending their then record World Series winning streak to 12 games (since broken by the '96-'00 Yankees)
The Yankees are known for their insane runs of championships and dynasties. A this point in time, that destiny wasn't yet realized. The 1923 title kind of stood on it's own, and the Murderers Row titles were more like a blip on the radar like the Big Red Machine turned out to be. In 1932, the dynasty wasn't quite ready to take root, but there were numerous players on roster that were ready to be the foundations of streak of future championships. This would also turn out to be Babe Ruth's final title.
Speaking of Ruth...
I plan to do a proper standalone post regarding this moment, but the most famous home run of Babe Ruth's life happened in the 1932 World Series, where he called his shot. Any commentary and analysis will be reserved for that future post. The numbers don't lie for Ruth, his on-base was beastly, his homers were plentiful and his chart doesn't feature too many outs. A lot of walks (he led the league, after all), and a lot of empty space in the XBH areas save for the 18+ homers, but Ruth was getting on in the years by this point. Still, he tied for 6th in MVP voting. The 41 homers helped.
Lou Gehrig was his usual dominant self behind Ruth in the batting order. Gehrig belted his own homer after Ruth's called shot, but as he once mentioned, he could stand on his head at the plate and no one would notice. MVP voters noticed though, where he finished behind only Jimmy Foxx in the vote.
Lazzeri stayed one of baseballs best 2nd basemen. Great on-base and solid defense for the future Hall of Fame member. He was 8th in MVP voting.
The end wasn't far off for Earle. He still had one more season as the starter and three more years overall in baseball, but this would be his last ring. 11 on-base isn't bad, and the C speed doesn't matter when you had the sluggers hitting all over the lineup like Combs did.
6 of the 8 regulars in the '32 lineup were destined for the Hall of Fame. Four of them were holdovers from the Murderers Row years, but Bill Dickey joined the collection properly. Technically he was on roster in 1928, but he barely counted. Now in '32 he can properly wear a ring. I kinda liked the Catcher trio of Bengough-Collins-Grabowski of the Murderers Row days, but Dickey displaced them all and became the first of a long, proud Yankee tradition of elite Catchers. This man helped mold Yogi Berra, which only bridged the streak of great Catchers.
Joe Sewell was the 6th future HoF player in the field, though the majority of his resume came while playing in Cleveland. Still, adding a ring with the Yankees sure didn't hurt. Sewell's card reflects his end-of-career stage, not much power, just a 9 on-base and no speed, but his defense at 3rd base was solid.
The other two guys in the lineup. Chapman brought the speed to lead the majors with 38 steals and a nice even chart.
Crosetti was just a rookie in '32, and he'd go on to lead a distinguished career in pinstripes. His card now isn't too great, but get ready to see a lot more of him holding down Shortstop for the dynasty Yankee teams.
Yankees bench in 1932 wasn't too shabby for some reserves. Some bad charts for the most part, but many of them didn't have a great sample size to draw from. Hoag had a great 14 on-base to take a chance with off your bench.
Gomez, Ruffing, Pennock, three future members of Cooperstown. Some teams nowadays would kill for just one such pitcher taking the mound for them.
Lefty Gomez was here to become one of baseballs best pitchers for a long time. His 24-7 record led the team and he finished 5th in MVP voting. He struck out 176 batters in '32, which was more than in 2/3 years he would go on to lead the league.
The rest of the gang featured nice high controls and mainly 8 or 9 IP that helped them lead the league in team ERA (3.98), Ks (780), Complete Games (96) and Shutouts (11)
A few familiar faces, though for the last time. Pennock had admittingly lost a bit of his edge by 1932, but was still able to step up with clutch relief pitching in the World Series.
Jumbo Brown looks exactly like you'd imagine him to be, which is awesome. Pretty average card otherwise. Ed Wells, meanwhile, let's just say the internet kept giving me more pictures of David Wells, but I'm fairly sure that the man above is indeed Ed.
Rhodes started the season in pinstripes, but soon found himself traded to Boston for the Yanks to bring back Wilcy Moore. Moore, the former "Closer" would go on to "lead" the team with 4 Saves.
Johnson and Andrews started the year doing alright before the Yankees saw fit to package them in a trade to Boston (again) to bring in Danny MacFayden. Not enough glasses wearing major leaguers.
