Yankees, Guardians ALCS Scouting Reports, Prediction | “It’s time for America to see…”

NEW YORK — More than 100 years before the Cleveland Indians became the Cleveland Guardians in 2020, their rivalry with the Yankees took a tragic turn.

In 1920, three years before the original Yankee Stadium opened, the Yankees shared the Polo Grounds with the New York Giants. During a Monday matinee on August 16, with Babe Ruth in right field and Wally Pipp at first base, the Indians’ fifth baseman began the inning with the Yankees turning right-hander Carl Mays sideways, rubbing some dirt on a baseball and then throwing a legal spitball high and inside in an era when no one wore a batting helmet.