Washington DC Baseball

GeoPoto · #1 05-31-2023, 04:23 AM

As had happened prior to the third game in Washington, it rained in Pittsburgh and the seventh game was postponed one day, with the decisive contest rescheduled for Thursday, October 15, 1925. It was still wet and cold, but Commissioner Landis in his infinite wisdom ordered the game played in a steady rain. It was thought that never had such an important game been played in such conditions. It was, wrote James R. Harrison in the New York Times, "a perfect day for water polo."

Bucky Harris' decision concerning whom to start was easier to make this time. In his statement to reporters, he announced that Washington was going to come back with the greatest pitcher the game had ever known. Walter Johnson, on three days' rest and with a sore leg, pronounced himself ready. Babe Ruth, covering the Series from his apartment in New York, thought he spoke for all American Leaguers when he said that Walter was not just respected by the players, but loved by them. Ruth admitted he'd be rooting for a man he called the greatest character in baseball.

Vic Aldridge, who had been steady in winning games two and five, was out again for this, the big one. The Pirates certainly had momentum on their side, and the fans on their side, but it was the Senators who struck first, and struck hard, again in the first inning. Sam Rice led off with a single over second base. Bucky Harris, still hampered by the spiked hand, flew out softly to left, but Aldridge then uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Rice to take second. Aldridge was wild -- he walked Goslin and then lost control of another pitch, moving the runners up to second and third. Moon Harris walked, loading the bases. Joe Judge, always selective, worked the count full and then earned a fourth ball from Aldridge, and the Nats had their first run.

Ossie Bluege was next up and singled cleanly, bringing in Goslin and precipitating Aldridge's exit. Aldridge had finally met his Waterloo and was replaces by "Jughandle Johnny" Morrison, he of the sweeping curveball. Morrison was another character on a team of characters -- a heavy drinker, he would, in the two coming seasons, be suspended by the Pirates for apparently feigning illness and running off to his home in the Kentucky hills. Morrison had given up two hits and a run in one inning in a mop-up role in game one, and had allowed five hits and a walk, but no runs, in the 4-0 loss to Walter Johnson in the fourth game.

The righthanded Morrison lured Roger Peckinpaugh into batting the ball into the ground with the bases full. This was another of the strange plays in this Series. Catcher Earl Smith had apparently tipped Peck's bat, and Peck was awarded first, Joe Harris scoring the third run of the first inning. The roof caved in just a bit more for the Pirates and poor Morrison, as Eddie Moore booted a roller off the bat of Muddy Ruel, who was enjoying a much better World Series from an offensive standpoint than he had in 1924. Moore's muff brought in Joe Judge, but Morrison then fanned Walter Johnson. Despite his great season at the plate, Barney would go 1-for-11 for the Series. Sam Rice, up next, lofted a fly to left to end the inning.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1685524866

GeoPoto · #2 06-01-2023, 04:13 AM

The 4-0 first-inning lead held until the bottom of the third, when the Pirates came back with a vengeance. Johnson, who'd yielded two singles in the second, allowed another to pitcher Morrison, a cardinal sin, to start the third on the wrong foot. Eddie Moore promptly doubled to the fence to count Morrison, and Max Carey then singled to bring Moore in with another run. After one out, Carey stole third and strode home easily when Clyde Barnhart dropped a single into short right center. The Senators were able to get two of those runs back immediately. After Rice and Goslin singled, the unbelievable Moon Harris, who hit .440 with three home runs in this World Series, doubled them both in for a 6-3 Washington lead.

By now, the drizzle had evolved into a steady rain and the playing field was an absolute mess. Walter Johnson, whose leg had been taped heavily prior to the game, got through the fourth okay, and his arm felt fine. There were three harmless flies to left following McInnis's lead-off single in the bottom of the fourth. Groundskeepers brought, as was customary, loads of sawdust onto the field to soak up the water when it rained heavily. Walter Johnson kept filling his cap with the stuff, to bring back to the mound. By the end of the game, wrote Robert Burnes years later in Baseball Digest, Walter appeared to be covered in oatmeal.

By the fifth inning, it was pouring, and the Pirates, behind by a serious margin of 6-3, were desperate to close the gap. Max Carey, who'd doubled in the first inning without result, opened the fifth with a double to right center and scored on another double, by Kiki Cuyler. Johnson then mowed the Pirates down, three at a time through the rest of the fifth and sixth. Commissioner Landis, exposed to the elements in his box seat during the whole game, reportedly told Clark Griffith sitting next to him that he was calling the game off at the end of the sixth. Griffith told the commissioner he shouldn't, because he'd made the decision to start the game in the rain in the first place, so he should see it through. In relating the story many years later, Ossie Bluege wondered how many owners, with their team ahead, would have taken such a stand. Griff would have done better to have kept his mouth shut.

Photo intentionally reversed for engraving purposes:

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1685610572

GeoPoto · #3 06-02-2023, 04:25 AM

By the top of the seventh, with Washington still hanging on to its two-run lead, the rain was coming down very hard. The Nats were doing nothing offensively against Ray Kremer, who had stepped in for Morrison to start the fifth. Johnny Moore opened the bottom of the inning with a pop fly to left which Roger Peckinpaugh dropped for his seventh error of the Series. Max Carey, 3-for-3 with two doubles, sent a Texas Leaguer down the left field line that Bluege, Goslin, and Peckinpaugh converged on. They all reacted as though the ball was foul, and had begun to return to their positions when they heard the fair call.

Carey, hampered by two ribs broken in the previous game, hustled into second with his fourth hit of the day and his third double. Moore scored, closing the gap to 6-5 in favor of Washington. With two down, Pie Traynor tripled to bring in the tying run. Traynor's smash rolled to the fence in right center and was retrieved by Joe Harris. Harris's relay to his namesake, the second baseman, found its way to the plate in time to nip Traynor, who was trying for the tie-breaking run. This ended the inning, and none too soon, as the score was knotted at 6-6.

With one out in the eighth, the harried Roger Peckinpaugh drove a ball high over the low temporary fence in left field, a magnificent moment of retribution for him. If this homer held, Peck's considerable sins would all be forgiven. His value to this club was well known -- he was going through a period of incredibly hard luck at an incredibly inopportune time. In the bottom of the eighth, Johnson got two easy outs and the Senators were getting close to their second straight world championship. With two strikes on him, Earl Smith rapped a double to right center and Carson Bigbee, pinch hitting for pitcher Kremer, slammed the Pirates' seventh double of the day to bring in pinch-runner Emil Yde with the tying run.

From an earlier game:

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1685697827

GeoPoto · #4 06-03-2023, 04:00 AM

Harris was going to sink or swim with his big man. Johnson, with the rain still driving and the score now 7-7 with two out, walked Johnny Moore. With men on first and second, Max Carey, 4-for-4 in this game, slapped the ball on the ground toward Peckinpaugh. It is easy to guess what happened next. Peck did manage to get his hands on the ball, and to field it cleanly even. He went for the force-out at second to end the inning. His short relay was off line. All baserunners were safe. This eighth error, the most costly of them all, set a World Series record that has withstood the test of time and kept the name of Peckinpaugh, a truly outstanding player, in ignominy as we enter the 21st century.

With the stations all occupied, Walter Johnson worked the count to 2-and-2 on the next batter, Kiki Cuyler, before pouring a ball down the middle which appeared waist high. Walter walked off the mound and catcher Ruel hoisted his mask off as if the inning was finally over. But the pitch was called a ball. The debacle was complete a moment later when Cuyler smoked a ground-rule double, the Pirates' eighth two-bagger of the game, into the crowd in right field. Two runs scored, and hearts were sinking in the Nats' dugout. The sounds of celebration reverberated all around them in raucous Forbes Field. Before anyone knew it, the Nats had gone down in order against Pirates reliever Red Oldham, with both Rice, who hit .364 for the Series, and Goslin, who hit .308, taking called third strikes. The unthinkable had happened. The Nats had dropped an unprecedented three World Series games in a row and lost the World Series.

It was Goose Goslin who had been the closest human being to Kiki Cuyler's game-winning hit. Goslin said that the umpires couldn't see the ball at all, it was so dark and foggy. The ball had fallen two feet foul, Goose maintained. How could he be so sure? The ball, he insisted, had fallen in the mid and stuck there! As Goslin was to point out many years later, the good Lord took, in the 1925 World Series, what He had given in 1924, and what the Goose was talking about was just plain old Lady Luck.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1685782664

GeoPoto · #5 06-04-2023, 04:06 AM

Roger Peckinpaugh, who'd committed eight of the club's nine errors in the Series, wept. He would have to wear the goat's horns, and he knew it. Walter Johnson, who'd shown what kind of man he was when he embraced Peck on the field following the game, would refuse to make excuses for his 15-hit performance, insisting instead that his arm and bandaged leg had felt fine all the way.

Bucky Harris, who'd batted only .087 for the Series, was criticized by many, including the ostentatious American League president, Ban Johnson, for having stuck with Walter Johnson until the bitter end. Harris had done so for reasons of "mawkish" sentimentality, according to Johnson, thereby costing Ban's league a world championship.

Bucky did have cause to reflect. A batting hero in 1924, he had been a bust in this Series, managing but a puny 2-for-23. Perhaps the spike wound to his hand had been more detrimental to his performance than he had thought possible. He did admit that he shouldn't have waited until the eighth inning of the sixth game to send someone to bat for him. Also, Harris would have forever to reflect on the way he had handled his pitchers. There is much to wonder about. The American League's best lefthander in 1925, Dutch Ruether, had not been handed the ball at all. Experienced Tom Zachary only appeared briefly in one game. It could well be that in attempting to crush the Pirates' appetite for southpaws, Bucky Harris had simply outsmarted himself.

Adding insult to injury, Harris, along with Roger Peckinpaugh and Muddy Ruel, was hauled onto the proverbial carpet by Commissioner Landis because of derogatory remarks the Senators had allegedly made about the quality of the umpiring. The loss had to be tremendously disappointing. It would be 1958 before such a turnaround recurred -- with a team with a 3-1 lead blowing it -- in the World Series.

Twenty-four Nats players shared a World Series booty amounting to about $3,800 apiece. The suddenly magnanimous Clark Griffith awarded $1,000 bonuses on top of this "windfall" to Coveleski and Marberry for performances during the season which he personally deemed outstanding. This ballclub, which Griffith himself had molded, had won a world championship and should have had a second consecutive one. These two World Series would, as the passing of time bore out, continue to stand among the most dramatic of all time. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1685869484

GeoPoto · #6 06-05-2023, 04:24 AM

The 1926 Washington Senators won 81 games, lost 69, and finished in fourth place in the American League. They were managed by Bucky Harris and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

Smiles summarizes the 1926 campaign: The Senators won 15 fewer games in 1926 than they had in 1925, dropping to fourth place at 81-69. But the story of the 1926 A.L. season was more about the Yankees' resurgence than the Senators' collapse. The Yankees started the season 13-3. In May they won 16 consecutive games, scoring an average of almost seven runs per game. On May 26 the Yankees were 30-9 and the Senators were nine games out at 22-19. Through June, July and August, the Senators struggled to stay around .500. On August 23 they were 59-59 and in fifth place, 16 games behind the Yankees. Between August 24 and September 6, the Senators won 13 of 14 to raise their record to 72-60. They passed the Tigers and Athletics to move into third place, but it was too late to catch the Yankees, whom they trailed by 10 games.

The Yankees cooled off in September and finished 91-63, three games ahead of the Indians and eight ahead of the fourth-place Senators. The Yankees got full years out of Ruth and, of course, Gehrig. The Babe ran away with the major league titles in RBI (146), runs (139), and home runs (47), and batted .372. Gehrig hit .313, was second in runs with 135, and led in triples with 20. Herb Pennock, Urban Shocker, and Waite Hoyt combined to win 58 games for the Yankees. As a team the Yankees slugged .437 and had an ERA of 3.86. The Senators slugged .364 and had a team ERA of 4.34.

Only Walter Johnson won as many as 15 games for the Senators, and he lost 16. Marberry was the only Senators pitcher to perform up to form. He led the league in appearances (64), games finished (47), and saves (22). The Senators lost the Yankees' number in '26, losing 12 of 22 to them after going 15-7 and 13-9 the two previous seasons. As troubling as the drop to third place was the 300,000 drop in attendance, to 551,580. (Bucky Harris by Jack Smiles.)

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1685956960

ValKehl · #7 06-05-2023, 11:53 AM

A couple of cards of the "World's greatest baseball pitcher" from one of the very few card sets issued in 1926. I'm looking for cards of Goose Goslin & Bucky Harris from this set.

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