The two pennant winners in 1926, the National League's Cardinals and the American League's Yankees, were a study in contrasts. The Yankees were heavily composed of first- and second-generation Americans and based in New York, the epicenter of baseball; the Cardinals, on the other hand, were mostly a collection of farm boys playing at the western fringe of the major leagues. But both teams arrived battle-tested, as St. Louis had fought a long, close race with Cincinnati and New York had survived a dramatic late-season run by Cleveland. Their classic World Series meeting went seven games and produced one of the legendary pitcher-batter confrontations of baseball history.
