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Personnel History
9/27: Lou Gehrig awarded LEAGUE MVP
5/28: Lou Gehrig traded to Red Sox in 9-player deal
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1928
1927 ended way too abruptly for a team that was supposedly built to go deep into the playoffs. Unfortunately, it was the Boston Redsox that ruined the dream in 1927, but ironically the Knickerbockers came very close to returning the favor in 1928. Even more ironic is that it was the Redsox who played a part in creating the monster that the 1928 Knickerbockers became in the 2 nd ½ of the season. Our story starts with a dreadful start to the season in which the Knickerbockers after winning 3 of their 1 st 4 games against the eventual World Champs, Washington, went on to lose 25 of the next 31 games. Desperate times, require desperate measures, so management decided to dangle the most valuable chip they had which just happened to be the best player in the EBL, Lou Gehrig. After a couple of weeks of intense negotiations with several clubs the team finally did the unthinkable which was trade away Gehrig. It was a 9 player mega deal with of all teams their arch-rivals the Boston Redsox. The result was that the Knickerbockers finished the season 64-47 which was the 3 rd best record behind only Washington and Boston . Even more amazing is once Kiki Cuyler was installed into the starting lineup full-time the club really caught fire as they finished the season winning 35 of their last 51 games which outpaced every other team in the EBL. The Knickerbockers stood 11 games out of 1st place on 7/31/1928 and thanks to their blazing finish ended up winning their division for the 2 nd year in row by 2 games. Being in the right place at the right time, definitely had a lot to do with the Knickerbockers capturing their 2 nd straight division crown as despite their strong finish they were still 4 games under .500 and would have finished 3 rd or last in the other 2 divisions. However, the Knickerbockers proved their metal when they pushed Boston to the limit in the playoffs as they lost in extra innings in the 7 th game of the series.
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