Three Thrills in Washington - The 1924 AL Pennant Race Heats Up!

Griffith Stadium, Washington D.C. - August 24, 1924

I’ve been making virtual trips daily back precisely 100 years to follow the 1924 American League pennant race.

It’s a drama for the ages that has a thrill almost every day.

The Washington Senators are in the pennant hunt for the first time in franchise history.

And they’re pitted in an epic three way battle with the defending World Series champion New York Yankees and the Detroit Tigers.

SEASON RECAP

In mid-June, the Senators were mired in 6th place, just as expected for this franchise that has never won a pennant and had never even been in 1st place during the summer.

Then they embarked on a wholly unexpected stretch of near perfect baseball in the most magical 15 day stretch in franchise history to date.

They went 17 - 2 from June 17 to July 3, including a 10 game winning streak.

As a result, on the morning of July 4th, the traditional date on which baseball enthusiasts expect the 1st place team to be in the drivers seat for the pennant, the Washington Senators were on top of the American League.

Here were the standings on the morning of July 4th:

The Senators held a 3.5 game lead over the Tigers and 4 games over the Yankees.

But on July 4th the Yankees came to Washington and they proceeded to take 4 out of 5 from the starry eyed Senators.

The Yankees proceeded to win 31 of their next 50 games coming into today.

Meanwhile the Senators Cinderella season seemed to be waning. Starting with their July 4th loss at home to the Yankees they went on a stretch of under .500 ball going 21 - 24.

The Yankees seemed to have the momentum back to ride towards their 4th straight American League title.

But its still very much a 3 team battle. The Senators won 5 straight coming into yesterday. And the Tigers seem to be clawing along well enough to stay in the race.

Here were the American League standings going into yesterday’s games of August 23, 1924:

The top 3 teams were all within 2.5 games. But the Yankees held a 2 game advantage in the loss column over the Senators and 3 over the Tigers.

Each of these 3 teams is led by one of the greatest players of this generation and perhaps in the entire history of the game:

BABE RUTH of the New York Yankees

WALTER JOHNSON of the Washington Senators (officially known as the Nationals here in 1924)

TY COBB of the Detroit Tigers

Yesterday, August 23, 1924, the Tigers were at Yankee Stadium for a 3pm start.

The Senators were hosting the White Sox at Griffith Stadium where game time was 3:30pm game.

TIGERS at YANKEES

A crowd of 35,000 came out on a Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, the 2nd season the Yankees have played in their cavernous new ballpark.

The Yankees had to face Tigers pitcher Earl Whitehill. Whitehill had never lost to the Yankees in the prior 6 times he had faced them. In the early going it looked like Whitehill had the stuff to beat them again. He held the Yankees to 2 singles and 0 runs in the first 5 innings.

But Yankees pitcher Herb Pennock was just as good. He allowed the White Sox no runs and 3 hits through the first 6 frames.

In the bottom of the 6th, the Yankees finally figured Whitehill out.

Thomas Holmes, covering the game for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, wrote, “George Herman Ruth started it with a hefty single that caromed off the right-field wall.”

That opened the floodgates. Yankees hitters pounded Whitehill. After Ruth’s single Yankees batters had a run of 6 straight batters reaching base.

Throughout this attack, Tigers manager (and center fielder) Ty Cobb, refused to remove his pitcher.

The Yankees batted around with Ruth, who had scored the first run of the inning, driving in the 6th run of the inning. Ruth then ended the rally with an unsuccessful attempt to steal second base.

The Yankees were on their way to an 8 - 1 rout of the Tigers.

WHITE SOX at SENATORS

Just one week ago, the Senators were 3 games out and looked like they were out of gas. 5 straight wins have the hometown fans re-energized in Washington.

Sadly, a light rain, that persisted on and off throughout the game, kept the crowd to just 12,000 here at Griffith Stadium.

Those 12,000 fans got quite a thrill for sticking it out.

The game was tied at 1 - 1 in the bottom of the 5th when veteran Sam Rice’s single scored rookie center fielder Earl McNeely to put the Senators up 2 - 1.

That scored held all the way till the top of the 9th.

Senators pitcher George Mogridge was having one of his better starts of the season. He had allowed just 3 hits and 1 run in the first 8 innings.

Now he needed 3 outs to seal the victory.

If the scoreboard was updated at Griffith Field, the fans would have seen that the Yankees were comfortably ahead of the Tigers and headed for their 68th victory of the season.

The Senators needed to close out the White Sox to keep pace with the Yankees in the win column.

The first White Sox batter in the 9th inning was second baseman Eddie Collins. Collins had been in the league longer than any player besides the Tigers’ Ty Cobb. At 37, he was still one of the best batters in baseball, with an average of .340 coming into the game.

Collins hit a ground ball towards the hole between shortstop and third base. The ball was set up for Senators superb shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh. But according to Denman Thompson, of the Washington Evening Star, third baseman,“Oss Bluege became overzealous and missed connections with a one-hand stab after sprinting directly in the path of Peckinpaugh.”

Bluege muffed a play that Peck could have perfectly executed.

Collins was safe at first base.

The next batter, Earl Sheely, “lifted a short Texas-leaguer to centerfield,” per John A. Dugan of the Washington Herald.

Racing for the ball were both center fielder Earl McNeely and the second baseman, Bucky Harris. Harris is also the manager of the Senators.

Dugan described the play, “When the ball started on its journey it appeared that it was out of the reach of either Harris or McNeely. The ‘oil of California,’ (an apparent nickname for McNeely) oiled up his mercury feet and kept digging in with hopes of making the catch. He took a head first clipping football dive and grasped the ball… Umpire Evans ruled that McNeely had caught the ball.

It was a spectacular catch for the rookie who was playing in just his 12th major league game, having been purchased from Sacramento in the Pacific Coast League less than 3 weeks ago, and playing his first game for the Senators on August 9th. McNeely had batted .333 in 112 games in Sacramento this year.

The Senators had high hopes for McNeely. Tom Laird of the San Francisco Daily News had described McNeely as, “far and away the best outfielder to break into the Coast League in years,” in an August 6th story on his graduation from the Pacific Coast League to the Big Show.

WAIT A MINUTE

Coming back to McNeely’s grab, the play was not over. Eddie Collins had run back to first base after the catch, but what he didn’t see was that when McNeely smacked into the ground he lost the ball. Dugan described it this way, “The force of his dive made him drop the sphere.”

Umpire Evans then ruled the ball was in play.

In a heads up play, McNeely recovered the ball, and threw to Peck covering second base who got the easy force out of the veteran Eddie Collins.

Now there was 1 out and a runner on first base. The Senators still needed 2 more outs to win the game.

Bib Falk, the next White Sox slugger, who was hitting .357 coming into the contest, was up next.

Falk set up the 2nd thrill for Senators fans. He hit another fly ball to short center field. This time the manager, Bucky Harris, called for the ball and he made, “a difficult catch,” according to Dugan.

But this play wasn’t done yet either. Manager Bucky Harris decided to gamble on a game ending double play chance by trying to get out Earl Sheely who was caught off the bag at first. Dugan wrote, “(Harris) finished off the thrill with a throw to Judge (the Senators’ first baseman) taking a big chance with the wet ball. Sheely got back to first in time.”

Now there were 2 outs and a runner still on first base.

The Senators needed 1 more out to seal the victory and tie the Yankees with 68 wins.

Now in a chess move, White Sox manager Johnny Evers decided to take Sheely out of the game, apparently he was not thrilled by Sheely’s baserunning gaffe that almost cost the game.

Evers brought in Maurice Archdeacon as a pinch runner. Denman Thompson called Archdeacon, “the fastest human in baseball,” in the Evening Star.

The next White Sox hitter was Willie Kamm. Kamm had scored the White Sox lone run when he had walked and scored on a double by Bill Barrett.

Now Kamm represented the potential winning run with 2 outs.

Here was Dugan’s account of what happened next, “Willie Kamm, generally dangerous in the pinch, hit a smashing drive to centerfield. The hit-and-run was on and Archdeacon was nearing the second sack when the base blow was made. He turned the midway sack as McNeely juggled the ball. Racing to third, the reformed human crab, Johnny Evers, who was coaching at third, waved him on to the plate. California Earl had retrieved the ball and was pegging on to Harris who went into short center to take the relay.”

Archdeacon was racing home with the tying run.

Kamm was racing around the basepaths behind him with the potential winning run.

Senators manager Bucky Harris was in short centerfield receiving the relay throw from the rookie McNeely in center.

The game was on the line.

In the Evening Star, Denman Thompson described the climactic play, “Archdeacon had passed third before Harris could get the pill winging plate-ward. But Bucky’s aim was true and his throw forceful with the result that it reached its goal just in time for (Muddy) Ruel (the Senators catcher) to turn and tag the speed merchant of the Hose as he slid into the put-out that ended the battle.”

It was a fairy-tale finish with the manager throwing out the league’s fastest player in a close play at the plate to preserve the win.

The wet Washington fans had been treated to at least three thrills and went home happy, knowing their Senators have now won 6 straight, and are even at 68 wins with the world champion Yankees.

There are still 36 games left in the 1924 season. It’s going to be a fantastic finish. And The Sports Time Traveler will be bringing you the action until this pennant race ends.

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