George Uhle: The Bull Leads the Tribe in the 1926 AL Pennant Race
This article was written by Steve Krevisky
This article was published in The National Pastime: Baseball on Lake Erie (2026)
While Cleveland couldn’t catch the Yankees to win the 1926 AL pennant, George Uhle dominated them in the second half of the season. (Wikimedia Commons)
George (The Bull) Uhle led the Tribe to a near pennant in 1926, going 27-11, as Cleveland finished three games behind the Yankees. Uhle debuted in 1919, pitching in the World Series, won by the Tribe. He enjoyed 20-win seasons in 1922 and 1923, but 1926 was his best yet.
In 1926, he won nearly one-third of the Tribe’s 88 wins, and led the AL in WAR for pitchers, wins, win-loss percentage, innings pitched, complete games, and adjusted ERA. He was second in overall WAR, and second in ERA.
Uhle had a very strong second half, going 16-4, as compared to 11-7 in the first half. Additionally, he was 16-4 in his home park, as compared to 11-7 on the road.
Table 1. George Uhle Pitching Stats for 1926
Table 2. George Uhle by Month, in 1926
George had a winning record against every other AL team, except for the White Sox, against whom he was 0-3. Two of those losses were on the road, and all 3 losses were in the first half of the season. He went 61 against the Yankees, the team whom the Tribe needed to beat for the pennant. He was also 5-1 against Detroit and 5-2 against Philadelphia. Five of his six wins against the Yankees came in the second half of the season!
Table 3. Cleveland vs. the Rest of the AL, 1926
Uhle was the clear leader of the pitching staff, but three other pitchers won in double figures. Emil Levsen went 16-13, Joe Shaute was 14-10, and Sherry Smith came in at 11-10. Cleveland didn’t have a strong offense, but George Burns had an MVP season, with 216 hits, 64 doubles, 115 RBIs and a .358 batting average. Joe Sewell had 41 doubles, 84 RBIs, and a .324 BA. And the Cleveland outfield consisting of Tris Speaker, Homer Summa and Charlie Jamieson all batted around .300.
The Tribe fell behind the Yankees early on, but had a strong finish, almost catching the Pinstripers late.
Table 4. Yankees vs. Indians, 1926
We can see that Cleveland got hot in the second half, very nearly catching New York. Uhle went 6-1 vs. the Yanks—and 5-1 from July.
Table 5 will show how effective Uhle was against the Yankees in the second half, noting that his first start against New York occurred on June 7.
Table 5. Uhle Against The Yankees In 1926
We can see how effective George was against the Yankees, and his overall second half was so good that it lowered his ERA from 3.68 on July 7 to 2.83 by season’s end. And considering that the Yankees had Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and the beginning of their Murderers Row team, Uhle’s effectiveness against them was remarkable!
Uhle really carried the Tribe in 1926, and he would have been a good choice for league MVP. According to The Hidden Game of Baseball, by Pete Palmer and John Thorn, Uhle was second to Lefty Grove in Pitching Runs and Normalized ERA, was third behind Grove and Eddie Rommel in Park Adjusted Pitching Runs, and was first in Percent of Team Wins and Wins Above the Team. Cleveland’s Ball Park Factor was 98<100, which somewhat favored the pitcher, while Philadelphia’s Ball Park Factor was 117 >1, which strongly favored the batter. Thus, the A’s pitching numbers were adjusted up, while the Indians’ pitching numbers were adjusted down.
Grove’s win-loss numbers were nowhere near what Uhle’s were, so hats off to Uhle and the Tribe for a good season which nearly brought them the AL pennant!
STEVE KREVISKY is a retired Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Connecticut State Middlesex Campus, and still teaches part time. He enjoys using baseball in his math classes, as he feels it motivates his students. He has also presented at national and international math and statistics conferences. He has been a frequent presenter at regional and national SABR meetings, and has written several articles for the convention journals. He has been on seven teams which won the national trivia championship, and is the chapter president of the SABR’s Smoky Joe Wood chapter in Connecticut. A Yankees fan, Steve takes guitar and banjo lessons, and also enjoys chess and travel.
Sources
Peter Jedick, League Park (SABR, 1992).
Baseball Reference.
Retrosheet.org.
Palmer, Pete and John Thorn. The Hidden Game of Baseball (Doubleday & Company, 1984).
Wancho, Joe, “George Uhle,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/george-uhle/.
Daguerreotypes.