100 years on, a World Series caught-stealing ends the day’s baseball history page

MLB’s postseason weekend comes with a reminder of how quickly baseball stories can turn. In a daily look at the sport, MLB Trade Rumors pointed readers to ALDS Game 5 featuring the Dodgers against the Athletics, framing it as a pivotal moment in the current playoff picture even as it pivots to a separate century-old baseball milestone.

A major historical anchor arrives on the date, with the column noting that 100 years ago, the St. Louis Cardinals won their first championship by defeating the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the 1926 World Series. The Cardinals, in that account, closed the series by winning 3-2 in a game that decided the title in a seventh-and-final matchup.

The most striking detail from the 1926 finale involves a caught-stealing play that, according to the same retrospective description, is the only time a caught-stealing attempt has ended a World Series. The context given is specific: Babe Ruth, widely known for his career stealing prowess, was thrown out by Cardinals catcher Bob O’Farrell when Ruth tried to steal second in the bottom of the ninth.

The column adds a statistical backdrop for Ruth’s reputation, stating that he stole 123 bases over the course of his career. In the story of the final inning, that total matters less than the moment itself, because the attempt came at a late stage when a single play could swing both momentum and the scoreboard.

On the pitching side, the 1926 championship narrative highlights Grover Cleveland Alexander’s involvement across multiple clinching scenarios. The retrospective says Alexander delivered complete-game victories in both Game 2 and Game 6, then shifted to a late-game role in Game 7, throwing the final 2 and 1/3 innings to finish the series.

While the 1926 World Series details are the centerpiece of the historical turn, the day’s baseball framing is also aimed at the present tense, with the publication’s opener explicitly separating today’s postseason attention from the earlier era. It also references that its daily lead included a winner-take-all matchup between the White Sox and Guardians, underscoring how the calendar is loaded with elimination-style stakes across the league.

For readers trying to connect eras, the day’s pairing of ALDS Game 5 attention and the 1926 World Series ending suggests two enduring themes in October baseball: the late-inning pressure that can define a series, and the rare game-ending rarity of a baserunning decision, where one out can finalize a championship.

What to watch next is straightforward but separate for each chapter. In the present, Game 5’s importance comes from its immediate consequence in the ALDS, while the historical storyline points to how managers, catchers, and runners have always shared the same late-inning question: do you press, do you gamble, or do you manage the outcome one pitch at a time.