Mark Koenig was the last surviving member of the great 1927 New York Yankees. He was a sensitive and modest man, self-critical to a fault. He contributed more with his bat (hitting) than with his glove (fielding) as the young Yankee shortstop of the late 1920s. He made a key error in the 1926 World Series but came back to star in the 1927 World Series, when he hit .500.

Later in his career, he played for the Chicago Cubs and the New York Giants. He returned to the World Series with both teams, where he faced his old club, the Yankees. Late in his life, Mark recalls the stories and people with whom he played baseball.

Mark Koenig was interviewed by Norman Macht.

George Sisler One of the game’s all-time greats, he held the record for the most hits in a season for more than 80 years, until Ichiro broke it in 2004. Sisler hit .407 with 257 hits in 1920, yet 1922 may have been his best year. Despite missing 12 games and playing with a severely injured shoulder for a number of games, he hit .420 with 246 hits.

A severe eye ailment, from which he never fully recovered, cost him the entire 1923 season. The player-manager of the St. Louis Browns from 1924 to 1926, Sisler was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. A career .340 hitter, he exuded class and was one of the game’s true gentlemen.

Bob Shawkey was the ace of the New York Yankee pitching staff from the mid-`teens (when they were a weak team) to the early 1920s (when they were a rising power). He pitched and won the first game in Yankee Stadium, in April 1923, and threw out the first ball in the re-modeled Yankee Stadium in 1976, 53 years later.

Bob was on the Yankee roster from 1915 to 1927, coached the team’s pitchers in 1929 and managed the Yankees in 1930, after the death of Miller Huggins. An even-tempered and good-natured man, he had a long and rich baseball life. A few years before his death, he reminisces about some of baseball’s characters and events of the 1920s.

Bob Shawkey was interviewed by Eugene Murdock.

Ray Caldwell A pitcher of immense talent, the Washington Senators once offered to trade the great Walter Johnson for him, even up (in the winter of 1915-16). The ace of the New York Yankees of the mid-’teens, Caldwell won 37 games in 1915-16, despite missing a significant amount of playing time.

Yet he never came close to realizing his talent. Sportswriter Fred Lieb wrote of him, “He was one of the playboys of his time. Caldwell loved baseball, but he loved the high lights better.” He made a comeback with the 1920 world champion Cleveland Indians, one of three 20-game winners on that staff.

Burleigh Grimes The last legal spitball pitcher—he retired in 1933 with 270 wins—he and Dazzy Vance anchored the Brooklyn pitching staff from 1922 to 1926. He led the Dodgers to the 1920 NL pennant and did the same with the Cardinals a decade later, in the twilight of his career, 1930 and 1931.

A fierce competitor, he gave no quarter and was known for his brushback pitches. Grimes was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964, along with Miller Huggins.

Stan Covelski was a great spitball pitcher in the American League at the same time that Urban Shocker played. Stan starred in the 1920 World Series, winning three games for the champion Cleveland Indians. In 1925, he made a comeback with the Washington Senators, and his 20-5 record wins helped them win the AL pennant the second year in a row. He ended his career with the New York Yankees in 1928, Shocker’s last year.

Stan was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. A few years later, he talks about growing up in coal-mining country, how he learned his control, and facing the great hitters of his time.

John Picus Quinn an eastern European who took the name Quinn in an era when baseball was dominated by Irishmen, his major league career spanned more than a quarter century, from 1909 until 1933. The Yankees traded him after the 1921 season, when he was in his late 30s and seemed to be at the end of the line.

Yet he pitched for another dozen years and won 122 more games. A spitball pitcher who won 247 games, he was a key member of the world champion Philadelphia Athletics of 1929-30.

Ed Walsh Perhaps the greatest spitball pitcher ever, he dominated baseball from 1906 to 1912. Walsh led the underdog 1906 Chicago White Sox, the “Hitless Wonders,” to an upset win in the World Series. In 1908, he pitched 464 innings, with a record of 40-15 and 42 complete games.

He had a commanding superstar presence in Chicago, just as Michael Jordan would almost a century later. Walsh was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.