The Real McCoy (September 1927); You can't win them all (May 1926)

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   From "Sports of the Times" by John Kieran, NEW YORK TIMES, 4 September 1927, pg. S2:

   _The Real McCoy._
   The expression often heard in sporting circles, "He's the real McCoy," is reported to be founded on a similar incident.  As the story goes, Kid McCoy was wandering around the hinterlands amusing himself by sparring with local heroes.  He wandered into the town where there was a particularly boastful lad who thought he would have been a pugilistic champion if fate hadn't chained him to a butcher wagon.
   Somebody wandered up to the butcher boy and said: "There's a nut in town looking ofr a boxing match.  He sure is crazy.  He thinks he's Kid McCoy."
   The butcher boy offered to knock the foolishness out of him and the bout was staged.  The "crazy" gent feinted once and then smote the butcher such a blow that he stretched himself on the canvas and forgot all about the price of lamb chops.
   Coming to his senses a few minutes later, he murmured solemnly:
   "Boys, he's the real McCoy!"
   And so he was.


   From the NEW YORK TIMES, 4 May 1926, pg. 33:

   You can't win them all, and the Yankees are no exception to this old time rule.