Author Topic: A great Nats game but way before my time  (Read 239 times)

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Online welch

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A great Nats game but way before my time
« Topic Start: September 06, 2014, 12:59:46 AM »
I can't think of any Nats' game I've seen that equals the win over the Dodgers, although I listened to the astonishing Tom Cheney victory over the Baltimore Orioles (Cheney pitched the entire 16 inning game and set the MLB record with 21k's. Given the way pitchers are used now, that's not likely to be surpassed).

However, I have read about Game 7, 1924 WS. We all know, or should know, that Walter Johnson entered the game with the score tied in the 9th, then pitched four innings on one or two day's rest (try that, modern pitchers!), striking out five Giants. We know about Bucky Harris, who hit a ground-ball single to LF scoring two and tying the game in the bottom of the 8th. Plus the miracle bad hop that caused a ball to jump over Giant 3B Freddie Lindstrom's head. (Not suprising that a ground-ball single to LF would score the runner from 2B. Griffith Stadium was about 405 feet down the LF line. I thnk they built temporary bleachers in CF...had so much room at a CF, traded to Washington before the 1933 season, said, approximately, "I like Griffith Stadium because I don't have to worry about running into a wall")

A striking thing is Bucky's strategy to neutralize the Giants fine hitting against right-handed pitchers? I thought I had mis-remembered an old Shirley Povich story. But my memory is accurate. Harris started a young pitcher, his number four or five starter, RH Curley Ogden. The Giants great manager, McGraw, countered with a LH-heavy lineup...including Bill Terry, star 1B and a LH hitter. After two hitters, Bucky Harris replaced Ogden with George Mogridge, a good LH pitcher and maybe the Nats second-best pitcher. Mogridge did well, so McGraw pulled Terry about the sixth inning. Bucky countered by bringing in Firpo Marberry (one of the first relief-pitching specialists). In the 9th, he brought in Walter Johnson ("Povich: "Lovable Walter Johnson...."). who won the game in the 12th.

Slick move by Bucky Harris, who managed the Senators three times, and who managed the last Nats team with a winning record until Ted Williams led the 1969 team to 86 wins. I'm not sure any other pitcher has started a WS game and pitched to only two batters.)

For details, see http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192410100.shtml.

(Mostly, it was more fun to read about the 1924 WS winning game than to watch the Nats after Soriano blew the save.)

Offline More of #34

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Re: A great Nats game but way before my time
« Reply #1: September 07, 2014, 08:57:49 PM »
I've never seen anything like the Nats' win over the Dodgers.  That was a classic.