Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

The 1930 Washington Senators won 94 games, lost 60, and finished in second place in the American League. They were managed by Walter Johnson and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

Deveaux runs over Washington's 1930 season, which included a "murderous rivalry": Since the Washington Senators of 1930 distinguished themselves by having five pitchers with 15 or more wins (a record not to be tied for 68 years), it is readily understandable that they were able to make a remarkable turnaround. The Nats won 94, against just 60 losses. The 22-game improvement nevertheless landed the Senators a full eight games out of first place at the end of the year, second to the defending world champions, the Philadelphia A's. With the bats of young players Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Cochrane, and Al Simmons supplementing the veteran arms of Lefty Grove, George Earnshaw, and Rube Walberg, the Athletics were on their way to a second straight world championship.

The Senators roared through a terrific 17-2 preseason, and won ten of their first 12 to start the 1930 campaign, including six of seven against Philadelphia. But this Washington team could not win with any kind of regularity on the road, and by mid-June the club was already well off the pace set by the A's. At this time, a murderous rivalry between the two clubs, more specifically between big Firpo Marberry and Al Simmons of the A's, came to a head.

Marberry was not afraid to pitch batters tight. It came out in print that Simmons was accusing him of trying to bean him, a charge that Marberry would not deny. Every game played against the A's thereafter featured a dustup, with Simmons having to pick himself off the ground. On several occasions, the eventual Hall of Famer took off after Marberry, his bat brandished high. Firpo wasn't backing off, and on each occasion, players from both clubs had had to restrain the two from coming to blows.

Al Simmons did show the Senators what a Hall of Famer is made of in the Fourth of July doubleheader in Philadelphia, and many Washington baseball observers felt that the season turned on that day. Hobbled by a lame ankle, Simmons sat out the first game, which in those days was played in the morning. In the ninth inning, however, he was called upon to pinch hit with the bases loaded and homered off Bump Hadley to win the game. In the afternoon, he again came off the bench to hit a home run off Ad Liska to beat the Senators. . . .

. . . (manager) Walter (Johnson) lost his beloved wife Hazel on August 1, but was back with the club within four days of her funeral. The Nats won 21 of 30 in the month and left the Yankees far in their wake. They got to within 5 1/2 games of the Athletics during the first week of September before fading into a .500 pattern over the rest of the month. They finished eight games behind the A's, and eight ahead of the Yankees. Their 94-60 record was two games better than that of the Washington team which had won the World Seies six years before.

Early reports to spring training in Biloxi in 1930 -- Mike Martin, Fred Marberry, C. Moore, Lloyd Brown, and Clark Griffith:

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