The 1924 Washington Nationals

[welch]

This season will lead to the 100th anniversary of the Nats World Championship, the only won by the original Griffith Nats. They also won the pennant in 1925 and 1933. I've heard that there might be a celebration.

Two books about that season:

- Hank Thomas wrote a biography of his grandfather, Walter Johnson: Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train

- Gary Sarnoff: Team of Destiny: Walter Johnson, Clark Griffith, Bucky Harris, and the 1924 Washington Senators

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Do the Twins have any celebrations planned?

[Five Banners]

Do the Twins have any celebrations planned?

They could do one for the 40th anniversary of Calvin Griffith selling them

[machpost]

This season will lead to the 100th anniversary of the Nats World Championship, the only won by the original Griffith Nats. They also won the pennant in 1925 and 1933. I've heard that there might be a celebration.

Two books about that season:

- Hank Thomas wrote a biography of his grandfather, Walter Johnson: Walter Johnson: Baseball's Big Train

- Gary Sarnoff: Team of Destiny: Walter Johnson, Clark Griffith, Bucky Harris, and the 1924 Washington Senators

I'm hoping that they wear those 1924 throwbacks like they did back in 2012. Those were really sharp. I still have the slightly too small ballcap that I bought when they wore them. The merch was super limited and sold out quickly.

[welch]

I might start posting game-by-game, but the 1924 season started, as every season did, on April 15. Opening Day was a Washington home game, where the President threw out the first pitch. That's why all those seasons from 1972 through 2004 have an asterisk. They could not have been official seasons.

As we wait for the 1924 season to start, here is a taste of Opening Day: Walter Johnson started and pitched a four-hit shutout with 8Ks and 2BBs. Curiously, Philadelphia pitcher, Curly Ogden, hit Nats 3B, Doc Prothro. Ogden would be put on waivers and the Nats would pick him up on May 23. He would start Game 7 for the Nats in the Bucky Harris switcheroo.

[machpost]

I was just talking with my wife about how absurd it is that we haven't had a presidential first pitch since 2010. It's really a shame that the tradition hasn't been carried on, now that we have a team again.

[HalfSmokes]

I was just talking with my wife about how absurd it is that we haven't had a presidential first pitch since 2010. It's really a shame that the tradition hasn't been carried on, now that we have a team again.

They don't want to be booed

[Senatorswin]

They don't want to be booed

I think you're right about that. I think it used to be once a president was elected, even if you didn't vote for him, there was respect for the office and when the presidents of the past threw out the first pitch there wasn't much booing if any. Today, any president who throws out the first pitch will be booed by half the crowd.

I noticed when Muriel Bowser was announced before the home opener to do the "Play Ball" prior to the first pitch a lot of people booed her. I think she's done a good job for the city and especially has been supportive of DC sports but that's the way things go these days.

[welch]

Let the President hand the ball to the starting pitcher, like Taft handing the ball to Walter Johnson. Or let the President flip the ball, the way I saw Ike do it. Yes, players nearly s[iked each other, so let the President flip the ball to the pitcher or catcher.

(Yes, I remember when Trump was booed during Game 5 in 2019. Maybe he is the exception.)

[welch]

Today was Opening Day, 100 years ago. As always, since about 1912, the President flipped the ball to the Nats' starter, Walter Johnson again. Johnson pitched a 4-hit shutout, striking out eight of Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, as Washington won 4 - 0. Manager Bucky Harris fielded a team built around Joe Judge (triple), Sam Rice, Goose Goslin, Muddy Ruel, and SS Sam Peckinpaugh. Doc Prothro played 3B, and was hit by a pitch through by the A's Curly Ogden. Remember Curly.

Game drew a full house: 25,500 fans, who saw a game that lasted all of 1:45 minutes. Not much time, it appears, for TV or radio commercials.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192404150.shtml
 

[welch]

April 16: lost badly to Eddie Rommel and the A's, 6 - 1. Something wrong with Nats' starter, George Mogridge, pulled after giving up three runs in the first.

Anyone else remember Eddie Rommel?

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192404160.shtml

[welch]

Nats lost a close one yesterday, a hundred years ago. Took a 3 - 2 lead into the sixth, when the A's tied it. Philadelphia went ahead in the 8th. Paul Zahniser went the distance, gave up 7 hits, but took the loss. I've forgotten to mention that Philadelphia has been started Jimmie Dykes at 2B. I remember Dykes as a manager when I was a kid.

https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Jimmy-Dykes/

One of the best-known figures of major league baseball in the middle of the 20th century, Jimmy Dykes was a fixture in American League dugouts during a career that spanned more than 40 years. His major league experiences began with Connie Mack and ended with Charles O. Finley-no greater contrast in baseball characters can be imagined! In all, he managed six teams in the majors and one in the minors, and had five big league coaching jobs. Dykes saw it all, and shared his knowledge with three generations of big league ballplayers and personalities.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192404170.shtml

[welch]

Nats had the day off on April 18, 1924, as they travelled to the Yankees travelled to Washington to play a series against the Yankees. the Nationals. [Correction. Games were at Griffith Stadium, capacity 25,000. Yankees travelled from Boston, about an eight-hour train ride.]

[Senatorswin]

The article imref referenced in another thread mentioned the 1924 Senators had the same 8-10 record as the present day Nats.

[Smithian]

I'm hoping that they wear those 1924 throwbacks like they did back in 2012. Those were really sharp. I still have the slightly too small ballcap that I bought when they wore them. The merch was super limited and sold out quickly.

The Senators throwback merch went like wildfire and people loved them. It's I can't believe they only wore it once. I am not saying they should be common like the Cherry Blossom unis are now, but they could have been worn a few times.

My guess is there were sensitivities about teams outside D.C. technically owning that history.

[machpost]

The Senators throwback merch went like wildfire and people loved them. It's I can't believe they only wore it once. I am not saying they should be common like the Cherry Blossom unis are now, but they could have been worn a few times.

My guess is there were sensitivities about teams outside D.C. technically owning that history.

Yeah, I'd love it if they wore those '24 unis maybe one Sunday per month, or something like that. And I wish they'd list ahead of time which uniforms they'd be wearing each day, like the Caps do.

[welch]

The Griffmen pummeled the Yankees today, 7 - 2. The Nationals got 12 hits, including triples by Joe Judge -- his second of the season -- and Doc Prothro. Joe Martina got the win, one of only six he would get in a one-year MLB career. Nats are now 2 - 2.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192404190.shtml

[Five Banners]

The Griffmen pummeled the Yankees today, 7 - 2. The Nationals got 12 hits, including triples by Joe Judge -- his second of the season -- and Doc Prothro. Joe Martina got the win, one of only six he would get in a one-year MLB career. Nats are now 2 - 2.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192404190.shtml

It’s early

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

No paper bags with flasks of bootleg rye were on that train, nope

Nats had the day off on April 18, 1924, as they travelled to New York to play a series against the Yankees.

[welch]

No paper bags with flasks of bootleg rye were on that train, nope

It was early in the season, but...

Of course, Clark Griffith kept the Stadium dry until about 1953, when the Nats shortened the LF line to install the Beer Garden.

[welch]

Walter Johnson cruised as the Senators wiped out the Yankees, 12 - 3. Johnson eased through nine innings, giving up ten hits, but the Yankees never came close after the bottom of the sixth. Babe Ruth got his first home run and his first triple. Showboat Fisher got four hits, and Doc Prothro and Goose Goslin got triples. Yes, Griffith Stadium was huge: 424 down the LF line, and 421 to straight-away CF, angling back to 430 or more. See:

http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/GriffithStadium.html#Diag

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192404200.shtml

[nobleisthyname]

Really enjoying reading these.

[welch]

Really enjoying reading these.

Thanks, and I am enjoying reading through each game. I keep telling myself to add some context from Gary Sarnoff's "Team of Destiny", but it is fun to discover each game from the box scores. It was a surprise to see Curly Ogden pitching for the A's, and hitting a Nat, and even more surprising to see Eddie Rommel starting for Philadelphia. Rommel was an AL umpire when I was a kid.

Also a delight to linger over the nicknames used in the box scores. Bing Miller, Chick Galloway, Slim Harris for the A's, Whitey Witt, Sad Sam Jones, and, of course, Babe Ruth for the Yankees.

But who was Doc Prothro? Aha! He was a dentist, and

Doc Prothro never played professional baseball until he was 26 years old. He was a dentist with his own practice in Dyersburg, Tennessee pitching for a town team when he was spotted by a scout and signed, skipping the minor leagues and heading straight to a major-league debut in Washington DC. He spent over a dozen years in organized ball, managed in the minor leagues and then as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1939 through 1941.

(I remember his son, Tommy, head coach at Oregon, UCLA, the Rams, and the Chargers)

[welch]

You can't win 'em all. Yankees edged the Nats 4 - 2. George Mogridge gave up three runs in the first, and that was about all the Yankees, behind Bullet Joe Bush, needed.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192404210.shtml

Nats are at 2 - 2 now.

[welch]

You can't win them all, times two: Yankees beat Nats 6 - 3.

Paul Zhniser "held serve" in the top of the first, striking out Babe Ruth after a double play wiped out Whitey Witt.
In the bottom half, Joe Judge led off with a triple to CF, and was singled home by future Hall of Famer Sam Rice. Future HoF Goose Goslin tripled down the RF line, scoring Sam. Nats take a 2 - 0 lead.

It began to fall apart in the top of the 2nd, after Bob Meusel led off with a triple to CF/RF. In the old ballpark, straight-away CF was about 421 feet from home, edging to a thirty or forty foot fence that zig-zagged around the back yards of a couple of row houses, then stretching back to 438 feet, the deepest part of the park. Few players hit one into the backyard trees at 438 feet, and few of them were right-handed hitters. But Walter Johnson dis, according to his grandson, Hank Thomas in the biography. Bob Meusel was an important slugger in the first Yankees dynasty. Nats would meet his brother in October. Wait Hoyt and Whitey Witt added singles, so Bucky Harris pulled Zahniser for Slim McGrew. Yes, yhose are the names in the box score and ply-by-play.

Yankees picked up another un in the 3rd, when Wally Pipp, himself, got a single, moved along on another single, and scored on Wally Schang's bloop to center.

The teams traded runs, later, but that was about it: Yankees 6 runs, 14 hits, 1 error; Washington 3 runs, 7 hits, 3 errors.


https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192404220.shtml

Griffith Stadium: http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/GriffithStadium.html#Diag