Joe Cronin had been right in terms of how the pennant race would go. The A's were out of it early and never really posed a threat. There was an obvious reason. Owner Connie Mack, engineering a fire sale reminiscent of what he'd done 20 years earlier to keep his operation afloat, had gotten rid of Al Simmons, Mule Haas, and Jimmy Dykes at the end of the previous season. The whole lot of them were sold to the White Sox for a cool $100,000.
In terms of competing with the Yankees, Earl Whitehill and Lefty Stewart were indeed the answer for Washington. On Independence Day, exactly a year after the Dickey-Reynolds dustup, Whitehill and Stewart pitched a doubleheader at Griffith Stadium with the Nationals going into the day with a scant half-game lead. The Senators took the first game in ten innings, 6-5, when Cronin singled to drive in Manush. Walter "Lefty" Stewart went all the way in the second game and the Senators prevailed 3-2 to sweep the twin bill.
Lefty Stewart shared the bulk of the mound chores on the '33 Senators with General Crowder, who finished with 15 losses to go along with his 24 wins, and with Earl Whitehill, 22-8 with a superior (for the inflationary times) 3.33 ERA. Stewart contributed a 15-6 slate. Jack Russell, the third pitcher added before the season, led the league in saves with 13 and posted a 12-6 record with a stingy 2.69 REA.
The pitching arsenal was stacked. Monte Weaver, coming off a 22-win campaign, pitched much less but showed much-improved mastery of the strike zone, culminating in a fine 10-5 year for him. Alphonse "Tommy" Thomas, a veteran righthander who had once won 19 games for the White Sox and led the A.L. in innings pitched, was only 7-7. Thomas had simply pitched his arm out for the White Sox and his career had been on a downslide since 1930. In '33, his first full season in Washington, his ERA was a characteristically high 4.80.
Backed by the best-fielding club in the league, the pitching staff as a unit allowed fewer runs than any other A.L. club in 1933. Nats hitters combined for the best batting average in the league, .287. All of these factors have a good chance of spelling success of course, and 1933 would in fact stand forever as the best season in Washington Senators history. Lead-off man Buddy Myer raised his average 23 points to .302 and scored 95 runs. Young Joe Kuhel topped anything he'd done previously and hit .322 with 117 RBIs. Manager and shortstop Joe Cronin showed leadership in the most tangible of ways with another stellar year, batting .309 with 118 ribbies.
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