The 1932 New York Yankees

Book excerpt: At the outset of the Great Depression, as FDR campaigned to replace Herbert Hoover, a baseball season was played across America. In the National League, the Chicago Cubs narrowly won the pennant thanks to the likes of Gabby Hartnett, Charlie Grimm, Billy Herman, Riggs Stephenson, Kiki Cuyler, Johnny Moore, Lon Warneke, and Guy Bush. In the American League, former Cub manager Joe McCarthy's New York Yankees ran away with the pennant, leaving Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics in the dust. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey, Earle Combs, Tony Lazzeri, Ben Chapman, Frankie Crosetti, Joe Sewell, Lefty Gomez, Red Ruffing, George Pipgras, and Johnny Allen led the way to one of the winningest teams in the early American League, overshadowed only by the 1927 Yankees. Chicago and New York then clashed in one of the most lop-sided and talked-about World Series in baseball history.