Bottomley Bats Brooklyn Bonkers
The 1924 Dodgers are in a heated pennant battle against the crosstown Giants
I have been following the baseball pennant races from precisely 100 years ago each day. And the action keeps getting more exciting. Here’s my report on my latest virtual trip back to 1924.
EBBETS FIELD, BROOKLYN - September 17, 1924
The last time the Cardinals and the Dodgers met was for a 4 game series in St. Louis last month, from August 24 - 26. On the 24th, the Cards swept a doubleheader by scores of 7 - 6 and 17 - 0. The 17 run nightmare left the Dodgers 7.5 games behind the Giants and seemingly dashed any hopes of a pennant run.
And then something magical ensued as the Dodgers ran off a franchise record 15 game winning streak.
Going into yesterday’s game in which the Dodgers were playing Cardinals again, this time at Ebbets Field, the Dodgers had a record of 19 - 3 since that shellacking in St. Louis and were just 1 game behind the 3-time defending National League champion New York Giants.
The Cardinals meanwhile were in 6th place and just playing out the schedule. At 59 - 83 they were 27.5 games behind the league leading Giants.
In their most recent game, played against the league leaders, 3 days ago, on September 14th, the Cards had looked lackluster as reported by George W. Daley in an article on the game that appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
The Cards had lost 8 - 2 at the Polo Grounds, committing 3 errors, and displaying an ineptitude in the field that led Daley to declare:
The Cardinals had a day to think about their next game which was scheduled for Tuesday, September 16th in Brooklyn.
Going into yesterday’s game, on September 16th, The Dodgers had every reason to believe they could find themselves in first place at the end of the day.
The Giants were playing a doubleheader against the 4th place Cincinnati Reds who had been on a tear winning 15 of their last 21 games.
Thomas Meany, writing in the Brooklyn Daily Times noted that, “The Reds are the toughest club the Giants will meet for the remainder of the season.”
The Dodgers, on the other side of town, were playing a Cardinals team that had won just 7 of their last 22 games (since the 17 - 0 game in St. Louis), while the Dodgers were 19 - 3 in that same span.
And the Dodgers had won 13 of the 18 games they had played against the Cards this season.
Meany could almost taste the pennant champagne as he wrote this:
NOTE FROM THE SPORTS TIME TRAVELER:
“Robby’s Robins,” is a nickname for the Dodgers here in 1924. “Robby,” refers to Wilbert Robinson, manager of the Dodgers. And “Robins,” was how sportswriters often referred to the Dodgers, using a moniker created from the last name of the team’s manager as was often done when writing about baseball in the 1920s.
Now back to 1924.
MORE REASON TO BELIEVE
The Dodgers had further reason to believe that they could be victorious in this Tuesday afternoon game. Starting for Brooklyn would be Rube Ehrhardt, who George W. Daley was calling, “The Florida Find.”
Ehrhardt had come up to the majors, from Florida, for the first time in July and had compiled a 5 - 1 record and was sporting a 1.85 ERA coming into the game.
In his prior 2 starts, Ehrhardt was getting even better. He had pitched a pair of 5-hitters in winning 2 complete games, one by a shutout and the other by allowing just 1 earned run.
And Erhardt had allowed just 3 earned runs in his last 47 innings pitched.
Now he faced the Cardinals to start the game in Brooklyn.
CARDINALS at DODGERS - September 16th
Before Rube Ehrhardt tossed his first ever pitch to a St. Louis Cardinals batter at 3:30pm yesterday afternoon, the Dodgers day already wasn’t going as hoped.
The Reds had lost to the Giants in the first game of the doubleheader at the Polo Grounds in a game that had started at 1:30pm and was already completed.
Now it was up to Rube Ehrhardt to set things right for the Dodgers.
Ehrhardt walked the leadoff batter, Heinie Mueller. Then he gave up an infield hit to Taylor Douthit, who beat the throw on a grounder to Dodger’s shortstop Johnny Mitchell.
With runners on first and second and no outs, up came the leading batsman in the major leagues, Rogers Hornsby. “Rajah” was hitting .426 on the season.
Hornsby, despite hitting for a higher average than had ever been seen in modern times, laid down a bunt. It was a perfect bunt. And the bases were loaded with no outs.
Next up came the first baseman, Jim Bottomley.
JIM BOTTOMLEY
Jim Bottomley, from Nokomis, Illinois, about 85 miles northeast of St. Louis, quit school at age 16, because his family needed him to make money. He played semi-pro baseball and had a run in with a policeman. It was a good kind of case however. The policeman saw his potential playing baseball and contacted St. Louis Cardinals’ manager/GM Branch Rickey. Rickey arranged a tryout and the rest is history.
In his first full season last year, in 1923, Bottomley hit .371 and drove in 94 runs. This year at age 24, Bottomley is hitting “only” .326, but he is on his way to driving in over 100 runs. Coming into this game he had 94 RBIs with 11 games left on the schedule.
Bottomley had also pummeled Brooklyn the last time he had been here at Ebbets Field. In 5 games from August 8 - 11 he had hit 11 for 21 with 4 HRs and 13 RBIs.
Bottomley was now at bat with the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the 1st inning against the hottest young pitcher in baseball.
Thomas Meany described the start of the Dodgers - Cardinals game in the Brooklyn Daily Times, including Bottomley’s at bat:
With Bottomley’s single, that drove in 2 runs, followed by Chick Hafey’s 2-run triple, the Cardinals had put the first 5 batters on base and scored 4 runs without a single out.
It was enough for Wilbert Robinson to take Ehrhardt out of the game.
It was the most disastrous start of Ehrhardt’s short career to date. He had allowed 4 earned runs with no outs after having allowed just 3 earned runs in his past 141 outs.
This was a shocking start to the afternoon.
Dodgers’ relief pitcher Bonnie Hollingsworth then retired 3 straight Cards to get out of the inning.
CARDS 4 DODGERS 0 - middle of the 1st inning
The Dodgers went down in order in the bottom of the 1st inning. And when Hollingsworth came back to the mound to start the 2nd inning he walked the Cards pitcher, Bill Sherdel. Then Heinie Mueller drew his 2nd walk of the game. Taylor Douthit tried to bunt the runners over but popped up for the 1st out.
Next up was Rajah, who was now hitting .427 after his bunt single in the 1st inning.
Dodgers’ pitcher, Bonnie Hollingsworth, must have been star struck. This was only Hollingsworth’s 3rd game this season and the 29th of his career. He had never pitched to Rogers Hornsby before.
He struck him out!
I would have to do some more research to confirm this, but it is quite possible that no one has ever been batting .427 or higher this late in the season.
The situation was grave for the Dodgers with Hornsby at the plate with men on 1st and 2nd and just 1 out, with the Dodgers down by a 4 - 0 score already. Hornsby could have broken the game wide open. And Bonnie Hollingsworth had struck him out.
It must have been a great moment for Hollingsworth. Imagine how he must have felt striking out the great Rajah at his peak.
Now with 2 outs and 2 on base up came Jim Bottomley. Bottomley had singled and driven in 2 runs in the 1st inning. This time he doubled and drove in another run.
Hollingsworth regrouped and got Chick Hafey to ground out to end the inning. All-in-all it was not a terrible inning for the inexperienced Hollingsworth. He had only allowed 1 run while facing the top of the order.
And he had fanned the great Rajah.
CARDS 5 DODGERS 0 - middle of the 2nd inning
The Dodgers scored a run in the 2nd on a walk and 2 singles to make it a 5 - 1 game.
In the 3rd inning, Hollingsworth set down the Cards in order, for the second time. He had now pitched 3 full innings and allowed just 1 run and the 1 hit to Bottomley. It was the best 3 inning stretch of his short career.
The Dodgers went in order in the bottom of the 3rd.
In the top of the 4th, Hollingsworth was back on the mound and he gave up a double to the Cardinals’ pitcher, Bill Sherdel. When he walked walked the next batter, Wilbert Robinson decided Hollingsworth had lost his touch and he brought in one of his more trusted pitchers, Art Decatur.
Meany wrote in the Brooklyn Daily Times that Hollingsworth, “made a fine job of relief hurling for three innings.”
The new pitcher, Art Decatur, has pitched well over the past 3 seasons in both relief and as a spot starter and had a 10 - 9 record on the year. Robby must have trusted Decatur would keep the game from getting out-of-hand.
After Taylor Douthit bunted the runers over to second and third, Robby, as they call manager Wilbert Robinson, decided to have Decatur walk Hornsby rather than risk the Rajah getting a hit that would drive in a couple of more runs.
It was an interesting decision by Robby. Decatur a righty would have been throwing to Hornsby a right handed hitter. Now with the bases loaded, Decatur had to throw to Bottomley, a lefty hitter.
In fact it was a tragic error. Jim Bottomley unloaded on an Art Decatur pitch and sent it over the high fence in right field.
Bottomley had hit a grand slam, driving in 4 runs, giving him a total of 7 RBIs on the game, and it was just the 4th inning.
There was no more scoring in the 4th inning. Decatur retired the last 2 Cardinals and Sherdel got the Dodgers 1-2-3.
And there was no scoring in the 5th inning as Decatur got the Cards out with just 1 hit and Sherdel had yet another 1-2-3 frame.
CARDS 9 DODGERS 1 - end of 5 innings
In the 6th inning Decatur gave up a leadoff walk to Taylor Douthit. Then he got Hornsby to fly out to center. Next up was Bottomley.
Sunny Jim, as he is often called in the newspapers, hit an Art Decatur pitch even farther than he had in the 4th inning. This one not only cleared the high right field wall, but landed on the far side of Bedford Avenue according to Thomas Meany.
It was a 2-run shot that gave Bottomley 9 RBIs on the game.
There were more fireworks in the inning as the Cardinals unloaded on Art Decatur and ran up the score to 13 - 1.
Sherdel kept the Dodgers quiet in the bottom of the 6th.
In the 7th, the top of the Cardinals order was up again. They were facing a new pitcher, Tex Wilson. A 23 year old from, you guessed it, Texas, was pitching in just his 2nd major league game.
Tex gave up a single to Mueller. Douthit hit a grounder but was safe when the Dodgers’ couldn’t get the lead runner, Mueller, out at second. Hornsby then bunted to move the runners over to second and third. This brought up Bottomley.
Bottomley responded with a single that drove in 2 more runs. The score was now 15 - 1 and Jim Bottomley had 11 RBIs.
Tex Wilson got out of the inning after Bottomley’s hit. And Sherdel continued his mastery over the Dodgers in the bottom of the 7th.
CARDS 15 DODGERS 1 - end of 7 innings
Wilson and Sherdel each gave up a run in the 8th.
In the top of the 9th, Robby brought in his 5th pitcher of the game, Jim Roberts. Roberts was a 29 year old rookie pitching in just the 11th major league game of his career. The first batter he faced was Hornsby who rapped a triple down the left field line. Next up was Jim Bottomley.
Bottomley slashed a single down the right field line scoring Hornsby.
It was his 12th RBI of the game.
In the bottom of the 9th, Sherdel was relieved by Flint Rhem who gave up 2 meaningless runs before closing the book on this historic game.
The Cardinals had won the game 17 - 3. It was an eerily similar score to the 17 - 0 thrashing the Cards had delivered to the Robins back on August 24th. That had been the last loss before the Dodgers 15 game winning streak had put them into pennant contention.
Across town at the Polo Grounds, the Reds took the 2nd game of the doubleheader against the Giants.
That left the Dodgers 1.5 games back at the end of the day. The Dodgers are certainly not out of it, with 10 games remaining, but this day must have shaken the team.
While they mathematically seems close, many sportswriters outside of New York are starting to write the Dodgers off. Take a look at this headline in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in today’s paper - September 17, 1924:
JIM BOTTOMLY’S RECORDS
The man of the day most responsible for putting the Dodgers’ pennants hopes in peril is Jim Bottomley.
With 12 RBIs in the game, Jim Bottomley set a new major league record.
Here is how it was celebrated in the St. Louis Star and Times this morning:
And the record he had broken had belonged to none other than Dodgers’ manager, Wilbert Robinson.
Here was the headline in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in a story written by Thomas Holmes:
Here’s an excerpt from that article that provides the details on the old record that had been set by Robby 32 years ago in 1892.
The New York Times pointed out that Bottomley also may have set other records. In going 6 for 6 in the game, he accounted for 13 runs, since he also scored a run in which he was batted home. And he got hits off 5 different Dodgers pitchers. The Times specifically suggested this feat may be a record.
FINAL NOTES FROM THE SPORTS TIME TRAVELER
100 years later, Jim Bottomly’s record of 12 RBIs in a game still stands.
It has however been tied, and by another Cardinals hitter, Mark Whitten, who drove in 12 runs in a game on September 7, 1993 against Cincinnati. But Whitten didn’t do it against a contender with a strong pitching staff like the 1924 Dodgers. The 1993 Reds were 22 games back in 5th place coming into the game in which Whitten got 12 RBIs. And the Reds pitching staff was dead last in the National League in ERA.
THINKING OF MY GRANDPA JOE
The Jim Bottomley 12 RBI game and the Dodgers pennant run in 1924 makes me wish I could make a virtual trip back 100 years to see what my Grandpa Joe was doing. But alas, sports time travel does not enable me to track my relatives as easily as ballplayers who were so well documented in the newspapers of the time.
I do know that my grandfather, who had turned 12 years old 100 years ago the day before the Bottomley game, on September 15th, was living in Brooklyn at the time of this game in 1924.
I also know he was a sports fan and that he did attend some baseball games in the 1920s.
I can only imagine from reading the newspapers this past week about the near hysteria in Brooklyn over the 1924 Dodgers, who were in a real battle for the pennant after being 13 games behind in August, that my grandfather must have been following this incredible finish to the 1924 season.
The Sports Time Traveler will continue following the pennant races in both the American and National Leagues to their conclusion and will report to you when there is something so exciting I must share it.