The time the Yankees played a tie game in the World Series

In 1922, the Yankees made it to their second World Series in team history. Coming off their first ever appearance in 1921, they finished one game ahead of the St. Louis Browns to win the American League pennant.

Their opponent was the team that had defeated them in 1921, the New York Giants. Not only did the two teams share a city, but also a stadium. Every game in the 1922 World Series was played at the Polo Grounds, with the teams swapping the home distinction after every game.

The Yankees dropped game one after blowing a 2-0 lead in the eighth inning. Bullet Joe Bush allowed three runs to the Giants in the bottom of the eighth, allowing the National League team to go up 1-0 in the series.

In game two, the Yankees sent Bob Shawkey to the mound. Shawkey had the best season of any Yankee pitcher in 1922, putting up a 2.91 ERA in 299.2 innings. However, his first appearance of the World Series did not start off great.

Shawkey got the first out of out of the game, before allowing two-straight singles. Irish Meusel then gave the Giants an early lead with a three-run home run. The Yankees got a run back in the bottom of the first thanks to an RBI single from Wally Pipp.

Shawkey struggles continued after that. He put two runners on in both the second and thirds innings, but managed to escape both times. The Yankees got another run in the fourth, thanks to an Aaron Ward home run.

After escaping another jam in the fifth, Shawkey finally settled down, keeping the Yankees within reach. It was still a 3-2 game heading into the bottom of the eighth, with the Yankees 2-4 hitters due up.

Joe Dugan led off the eighth with a failed bunt attempt. Babe Ruth then got a rally started with a double. A deep Pipp fly out moved Ruth to third. Bob Meusel, brother of the aforementioned Irish Meusel, plated Ruth with a single, tying the game.

After Shawkey pitched a scoreless top of the ninth, the Yankees stranded two runners in the bottom of the ninth. In the tenth, Shawkey again threw a scoreless inning. Just as they did in the eighth, the Yankees had the heart of the order due up. This time, Ruth, Pipp, and Meusel went down in order keeping the game tied after ten innings.

After the tenth inning, as could be done back then, the game was called a tie, this one due to insufficient lighting. Predictably, fans were not particularly happy about this. It was theorized that one or both of the teams might have allowed the tie to happen to order to get more gate receipts for the series.

Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis was among those unhappy with the tie and ordered the gate receipts for the series to be donated to charity.

The Yankees would go on to score just six runs in the remaining three games and lost the series 4-0. They would finally win the first World Series the next year, beating the Giants in six games.

The 1922 World Series was not the first to have a tie game. Game One of the 1907 series between the Cubs and Tigers finished in a tie, as did game two in 1912 between the Red Sox and Giants. The 1922 tie was the last World Series game to end in a tie, and will likely be the last unless baseball gets some regressive rule changes for some reason.

Sources

http://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1922_WS.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA192210050.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/1922.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/1922_World_Series

All data courtesy of the Baseball Reference Play Index