The 1935 Chicago Cubs were the talk of baseball. They had reeled off 21 straight wins in September o overtake the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League pennant. Manager Charlie Grimm’s squad had a pair of 20-game winners in Lon Warneke and Bill Lee as well as three .300 hitters–the Triple H combo of Gabby Hartnett, Stan Hack and Billy Herman.
They would split the first two games of the World Series with the Tigers in Detroit then return home for Game 3 at Wrigley Field on October 4. A photo of the ballpark, packed with Cubs fans, as that contest got underway 82 years ago, is the RMY Auctions Photo of the Day. The 8×10 International News photo shows how much–and how little–has changed at the ancient ballyard since that time. It’s one of several hundred photos being offered in RMY’s May Collector Auction, which runs through Saturday.
The Tigers had gotten some bad news as the series shifted to the home of the NL champs. Star slugger Hank Greenberg had broken his wrist in a collision with Hartnett in Game 2 and would be lost for the rest of the series. However, they hung with the Cubs all afternoon. A tie-breaking single by JoJo White in the 11th inning of Game 3 gave them a 6-5 win and a huge boost in the series as they rolled to a championship in six games. It was their first World Series victory in five tries.
The Cubs would have to be content with their 100-victory regular season, something that wouldn’t happen again until last year’s team came along.
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