The 1924 Washington Nationals

[welch]

Sunday, June 22, the the streak continues. Nats beat the Athletics, 5 - 4. https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192406220.shtml

The battle continues with Connie Macks Athletics, but this time at Griffith Stadium, where 20,000 fans nearly filled the Stadium. The Athletics started strong, taking a 3 - 0 lead into the bottom of the 3rd. Nats got a run back in the bottom of the inning on a Wid Matthews triple to deep CF that scored Sam Rice. The Senators took a permanent lead with four runs in the 4th.

Ex-Athletic Curley Ogden started and gave up the A's first three runs. He was pulled, and Oyster Joe Martinha held Connie Macks team to a run over the rest of the game. In the bottom of the 4th, the Nats loaded the bases and Sam Rice cleared them with a triple. Sam scored on an error by SS Chick Galloway.

Nats are now in 4th place, one percentage point behind Boston and only two games (!) behind the Yankees.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/index.fcgi?year=1924&month=06&day=22

[welch]

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA192406231.shtml

Monday, June 23, the Nats go to New York to face the champs again. And they win! Washington beats the Yankees 5 - 3. Is this team for real? They have worked their way up from a losing record and 5th place. How much more?

Sam Rice, and Yankee fielding, gave the Nats a start. S am hit a double to LF that Harvey Hendrick misplayed. Anyone who remembers the original Yankee Stadium will remember the huge LF. No surprise that Rice went all the way home. Next man up, Wid Matthews, tripled to LF-CF, and the great Goose drove him in.

In the top of the third, Wid Matthews -- that guy again -- doubled to deep LF/CF. Bucky Harris bunted him to third, and Joe Judge singled him home.

Judge is back. He did not hit many home runs over his long career, mostly with Washington, but he was a career .300 hitter with a career .800 OPS, and a WAR of .47.9.  And a great fielder.

George Mogradidge is pitching well for the Senators, and the Yankees Sad Sam Jones is no slouch.

In the 4th, trailing 3 - 0, the Yankees broke through for a couple runs. Bab Ruth led off with a single, and Hendrick, the Yankee cleanup hitter (!) pushed Babe to second with a single. Wally Schang double in the Babe and Mike McNally scored Henrick with a sac fly. The Nats holding a one-run lead.

Sam Rice singled in the 5th, and advanced to third when Sad Sam threw a Wid Matthew sac bunt into CF. Harris drove in Rice with a SF.

The Yankees picked up a ruun in the bottom of the 8th, but Goose Goslin lined a home run to RF. How many homers would Goslin have gotten playimng his home games in Yankee Stadium?

The Griffs, at 31 - 26, have tied the mighty Yankees for second,a half-game behind Detroit. As Mel Allen used to say, How about that!

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/index.fcgi?year=1924&month=06&day=23

[welch]

With the Senators having pulled themselves even with the Yankees and only a half-game behind Detroit, would they collapse?

Not yet!

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA192406232.shtml

Tom Zachry stifles the Yankees and the Nats win it, 4 - 2. It was a scoreless game until the 6th, when the Nats got two runs on a Sam Rice triple and a Goose Goslin sac fly. Joe Judge doubled home Bucky Harris. Those are the guys: Sam Rice, Bucky Harris, Goose Goslin, and Joe Judge. Back in the mid 1950s, every Washington kid knew those names, the Natsionals' all-time greats.

The Yankees tied the score in the bottom of the 7th, as Bullet Joe Bush drove in drove in Wally Pipp (he was real) and Mike McNally. But the Griffmen were not finished: they scored two more in the top of the 8th. WEid Matthews doubled, Goose Goslin drove him in with a single. A Joe Judge single got Goslin to third, and Muddy Ruel scored Goslin with a sac fly,

The standings: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/index.fcgi?year=1924&month=06&day=23

[JCA-CrystalCity]

curious Welch: We are in July now. Are you tracking just key series regardless of the date, or games left in the season, or what relative to the date or game played?

Same for Alan Miley.

[welch]

Can the Senators make it three in a row over the defending champion NY Yankees? Yes, they can and did on Tuesday, June 24, winning 4 - 3.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA192406240.shtml

Paul Zahniser started for the Nats, and was pulled after four mediocre innings, and three runs. Alan Russell finsihed the game, and struckout 2 against 4 walks. Awful looking, but Russel gave up no runs. Washington picked up single runs in the first, second, and fourth innings, but the Yankees got one in the first, and tied the game in the fourth. That's when Bucky Harris had seen enough of Zahniser. "The usuals", Sam Rice, Wid Matthews, and Bucky Harris combined for Washington's run in the first. The bottom of the Nats order picked up a second run in the second, with help from a wild pitch by New York's Herb Pennock. The Nats picked up a third run in the 4th on Roger Peckinpaugh's inside the park hmer to CF, a line-drive to left-center that nestled way, way out. Remember that Yankee Stadium's CF was so deep that they could put some monuments out there with no worry that a fielder would run over one? It was that deep.

The game was tied inito the 10th. Yankees starter Herb Pennock gave up a one-out double to Sam Rice (future Hall of Famer because of hiting like this) that pushed pitcher Alan Russell to third. Russell had been safe at first when he tried to advance Ossie Bluege. Wid Matthews scored Russell with a sac fly. In the home half, Russell struck out Babe Ruth (looking), and got Bob Meusel on a flyball.

Clark Griffith's warriors just won't go away!

Incidentally, I've been struck by how many Yankee pitchers are famous enough that I've heard of them. Here is the NY roster from 1924: https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/1924.shtml)

The Washington Senators have taken first place!!! A game ahead of the Yankees and the Detroit Tigers, at 32-26.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/index.fcgi?year=1924&month=06&day=24

[welch]

curious Welch: We are in July now. Are you tracking just key series regardless of the date, or games left in the season, or what relative to the date or game played?

Same for Alan Miley.

I am taking it game by game. Working to get it back to exactly the 100 year mark. Alan is putting his 1924 on his facebook site, giving a bit more about what Griff was doing with the roster, a bit more about injuries. For instance, Joe Judge had been out for a couple weeks, and Alan cover the injury.

I'm trying to do four games a day, but without reading Hank Thomas's account of 1924 or Gary Sarnoff's new "Team of Destiny".

[welch]

Yes, the Nats insist that they belong at the top of the league. Next game, they beat the Yankees again -- another tight game -- 3-2, on Wednesday, June 25, with reliever / spot-starter Firpo Marberry carrying them to the win.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA192406250.shtml

Nats took a 2-0 lead over Bullet Joe Bush in the top of the first, and the Yankees tied it in the bottom half. Goose Goslin's single drove in Sam Rice, who had walked, and Wid Matthews, who had reached on an error by Yankees 2B Ernie Johnson. In the bottom of the 1st, Babe Ruth homered and Wally Schang drove in Bob Meusel.

In the third, Joe Judge drove in Bucky Harris with a sac fly. And that was it.

Nats now a game ahead of Detroit and two games ahead of Boston and New York.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/index.fcgi?year=1924&month=06&day=25

[welch]

Thursday, June 26, and the Philadelphia Athletics vist Griffith Stadium. Walter Johnson shuts them out, 5-0.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192406261.shtml

The Nats take a lead in the first on a Bucky Harris double and a Goose Goslin triple. I notice that the Nats have never trailed in the last few games. The Nats scored two more runs in the 8th, on hits by Joe Judge, Bucky Harris, and Muddy Ruel.

With Walter Johnson pitching and a lead, this was a quiet game. He drops his ERA to 2.79. In a modern calculation called "game score", Johnson's is 72. By the way, Johnson is now 10-3.

Nats in First, 34-27.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/index.fcgi?year=1924&month=06&day=26

[welch]

Washington has edged its way into 1st place. In the '50s and '60s, we would read Shirley Povich and dream about such a thing. Fans in 1924 felt the same way, as 30,000 bought tickets to Griffith Stadium, tickets that put them behind pillars in the grandstand or out in the bleachers for a day game June 26. Capacity at The Stadium was 25,000, so many people must have been standing.

They had seen Walter Johnson shut out the A's in the first game of this double header. Could Griff's men do it again?

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192406262.shtml

Almost, but not quite. Eddie Rommel, future umpire, held the Senators to 2 hits to win a pitcher's duel over Joe Martinha, 1-0. Oyster Joe gave up 6 hits, but that was enough to lose.  In the top of the 2nd, future Hall of Famer, but then a 22-year-old rookie, Al Simmons doubled. A sac bunt pushed him to 3rd...and who says you should never bunt? Chick Galloway scored Simmons on a sac fly.

After that, Joe Judge got the Senators' first hit, in the 5th, and got their second hit in the 7th. A sad game, but Washington still holds 1st by a game.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/index.fcgi?year=1924&month=06&day=26

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I am taking it game by game. Working to get it back to exactly the 100 year mark. Alan is putting his 1924 on his facebook site, giving a bit more about what Griff was doing with the roster, a bit more about injuries. For instance, Joe Judge had been out for a couple weeks, and Alan cover the injury.

I'm trying to do four games a day, but without reading Hank Thomas's account of 1924 or Gary Sarnoff's new "Team of Destiny".

It's awesome to see the effort both of you are putting into this.

Somehow I doubt we'll see anyone do the same for the 2009 team, whose poor finish got us the Harper pick.

[welch]

It's awesome to see the effort both of you are putting into this.

Somehow I doubt we'll see anyone do the same for the 2009 team, whose poor finish got us the Harper pick.

Ah, who could have the stomach to go game by game through 2009? But 2019 would be something for a young WNFFer in ten or fifteen years. Jesse D's "Buzz Saw" might stand comparison to Gary Sarnoff's "Team of Destiny" or Hank Thomas account in the bio of his grandfather, "The Big Train". I grew up reading Shirley Povich "The Washington Senators"; Shirley doesn't have the week-by-week detail of Gary's book, but nobody wrote sports like Povich.

[welch]

Streak broken, yes, but the Senators are still much better than the Athletics. Back in action on Saturday, June 28, the Senators beat the Athletics 4 - 1 behind Paul Zahniser and Allen Russell. Zahniser has improved, and his improvement coincides with the Nats winning their way from 5th to 1st. A llen Russell pitched the 9th, earning a retroactive save. Russell, as well, had been sloppy, but he was good today.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192406281.shtml

Both Fred Heimach of Philadelphia and Washington's Zahniser scattered singles over the first five innings, but no more than a single single in each. Then, in the top of the 6th, young Al Simmons homered to left. The play-by-play remembers that as a drive to "deep LF", reminding us that any homer to left had to be very deep at old Griffith Stadium.

(The third-base line ran more than 400 feet to the bleachers, until the Griffith family "shortened" the line to 380 and then a mere 355 feet; they had, almost by accident, snaffled Roy Sievers from the newly-moved Baltimore Orioles. Roy had wrecked his throwing shoulder, and, although Browens owner Bill Veeck valued him and re-trained him to 1B, Baltimore dumped him. Sievers immediately began hitting homers, and Clark and Calvin Griffith began giving Sievers a "short porch". Sievers, who is both my hero and Tom Boswell's hero...and nearly every Washington kid who grew up playing baseball in alleys and vacant lots in the '50s.)

Down 1-0, the Nationals struck back in the bottom of the 7th. catcher Muddy Ruel singled, and old Roger Peckinpaugh singled to the A's 3B, Harry Riconda. Ruel motored to 3B on Riconda's throw to first. Two out, Washington runners on 1st and 3rd. Then Ossie Bluege singled to LF, scoring Ruel and advancing Peck to 3rd. Zahniser who died youngish in 1964, too young to have an opinion on the DH, the .143hitting Zahniser drove in Peckinpaugh with a single to CF and advancing Ossie Bluege to 2nd. Leadoff hitter Sam Rice drove in Bluege. Washington 3-1.

In the 8th, Bucky Harris singled and scored on Goose Goslin's single when Philadelphia's SS Chick Galloway tried to throw behind Gioslin and, instead, threw the ball away.

Nats hold 1st, a game ahead of Detroit and two games ahead of the defending champion Yankees.

Washington 36 - 27.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/index.fcgi?year=1924&month=06&day=28

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I wonder what the crowd cheered back then. Was there an equivalent of "Let's Go, Nats" or even "N-A-T-S Nats Nats Nats -woooh!" Was there singing from the stands like the Royal Rooters used to sing Tessie at Red Sox games in the teens? I'm guessing there was no "Yankees [stink]"

[welch]

I wonder what the crowd cheered back then. Was there an equivalent of "Let's Go, Nats" or even "N-A-T-S Nats Nats Nats -woooh!" Was there singing from the stands like the Royal Rooters used to sing Tessie at Red Sox games in the teens? I'm guessing there was no "Yankees [stink]"

I don't know. It was "Let's go, Nats" when I saw my first game in 1954, and continued until Bob Short (spit) took the "New Senators" of to Texas. And from what I remember of Shirley Povich's history of the Senators, everyone hated the Yankees. Even then.

While many of us called our team "The Senators", and had learned it from our dads and grandfathers, it was always "Come on Nats" (with a groan) and "Let's go Nats". If you are yelling and screaming, "Nationals" and "Senators" is too much.

And there was lots of cheering for individual players, such as "Killer! Killer!" for Killebrew, and "Go, Roy", or "Camilo! Camilo" after Camilo Pascual threw a curve that cause a right-handed batter to collapse backwards on a ball that broke over the outside of the plate.

I'll ask Gary Sarnoff, who wrote a book about "The Wrecking Crew of '33". Mild-mannered Washington fans? Not the day that Ben Chapman spiked Nats 2B Buddy Myer one too many times, and Myer jumped up to kick Chapman again and again. The benches emptied and the stands emptied. Chapman was arrested for slugging a DC cop, and Clark Griffith had to bail him out of jail. Gary calls it "The War at Griffith Stadium".

PS...of course there were no organized cheers in 1924 or later. No electronic scoreboards to tell the crowd when or what to chant.

[welch]

Then, the Senators and Athletics played the second game of this double-header, with 13,000 fans filling most of the good seats at Griffith Stadium.

Bucky Harris started George Mogridge, who is pitching his way into the top three of the Nats' rotation. Mogridge responded with a 6-hit shutout. Senators 4, Athletics 0.

In the bottom of the 2nd, Muddy Ruel shakes up the game with a bunt single. Roger Peckinpaugh singles to RF, allowing Muddy to take 3rd. Like a gazelle. Ossie Bluege, who would manage the Senators during WW2, drove in Muddy. In the next inning, Goose Goslin doubled in Bucky Harris, after Bucky had singled on a bunt and advanced to 2nd when reached on an error by 2B Max Bishop. In the 5th, the Nats picked up a couple more runs on a triple by (who else?) Goose Goslin and a single by Joe Judge.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192406282.shtml

It has been a good day in the Nation's Capital. Washington keeps hold of 1st place.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/index.fcgi?year=1924&month=06&day=28

[welch]

I wonder what the crowd cheered back then. Was there an equivalent of "Let's Go, Nats" or even "N-A-T-S Nats Nats Nats -woooh!" Was there singing from the stands like the Royal Rooters used to sing Tessie at Red Sox games in the teens? I'm guessing there was no "Yankees [stink]"

I asked Gary Sarnoff, on the "Washington D.C. Baseball Yesterday and Today" Facebook group. Gary answered:

The old Griffith Stadium fans of the "Roaring Twenties" and during the Great Depression had their set of cheers. When a rally was needed, the fans engaged in a clap-clap-clap-clap-clap that echoed and echoed throughout the ball park. In 1926, when our Senators got off to a slow start and were in the process of losing to the Yankees, 21-5, the Griffith Stadium fans sang the "Raspberries" to our Nats, with one line as "Those of you who aren't hams are cheeses." In 1933, after despised White Sox outfielder AL Simmons spent the season bad-mouthing the Senators, the Griffith Stadium fans got on his case, especially after he told a Washington sportswriter that he would hate to be compared to Ty Cobb. Each time Simmons came ot the plate, the Griff Stadium fans chanted, "Ty! Ty! Ty!"

Gary adds

Cowbells were a big thing with the Washington baseball fans in the 1920's, or at least the fans who ventured to Yankee Stadium for the big series at Yankee Stadium in August of 1924. Also, before Game 3 of the 1924 World Series, the Washington fans at the Polo Grounds made themselves heard when the megaphone speaker announced the Giants starting lineup: "What position is (Jimmy) O'Connell playing? Put Cozy Dolan in the coaches box!"

[welch]

A showdown began June 29, a Sunday, at good old Griffith Stadium. The Boston Red Sox came to tow, eager to swat the "upstart" Senators. If you look bacck, you will se that Boston, Detroit, and New York have battled each other for 1st place, while the Nats hung around at 4th and 5th place. Can Griff's men defend 1st place?

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192406290.shtml

Yes, so far. The Nationals -- Clark Griffith used that name -- smashed Boston with five runs in the second inning. The Red Sox never got close. Tom Zachary, another pitcher growing to be a top choice starter, held Boston to 2 runs and 6 hits over 6+ innings. Allen Russell again got the retroactive save.

In the second, Muddy Ruel put a double into CF, scoring Joe Judge and Goose Goslin. Those of us who saw a game at Griffith Stadium probably remember that CF ran deep, cut around a 30 or 40 foot wall because a couple of homeowners refused to sell, and then reached back to abouty 438 feet. Yes, 438 feet with a 30 foot wall.

Then Tom Zachary hit into a fielders choice that caught Ruel at home. Now with two outs, Sam Rice doubled home both Ossie Bluege and Tom Zachary. Wid Matthews scored Rice with a single. Five runs, on 4 hits.

In the 4th, the Nats puicked up another run on Peckinpaugh's triple and Ossie Bluege's sac fly.

In the top of the 7th, Boston rallied for a couple, but it was not enough. Alan Russel replaced Zachary with two outs, and finished the game.  Overall? the Nats got 10 hits, including two doubles and a triple. Nearly everyone in the lineup had a hit, except Goose, who, however, walked three times. And Bluege, who drove in a run. Incidentally, Tom "No DH For Me" Zachary went 2-for-3. He's now hitting .308.

The Grif men remain in 1st place, to the consternation of all the other teams, at 37-27, and 2 games ahead of 2nd place Detroit. Boston has dropped to 31-31.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/index.fcgi?year=1924&month=06&day=29

[welch]

Can't win 'em all, but the Nats came close on Monday, June 30, as they lost 2 - 1 to Boston in 11 innings. Walter Johnson, himself, went the distance, giving up 10 hits and no walks, striking out 3, for a Game Score of 72. Boston's Howard Ehmke was no Walter, but no slouch, either. In that Bill James peculiarity, Ehmke's Game Score was 85.

Sam Rice tripled in the 1st, but was stranded. In the 3rd, Walter Johnson led off with a double...had The Big Train lived long enough, he might have asked "Why shouldn't pitchers hit?" Johnson reached 3rd when Sam Rice reached on a throwing error by Boston's SS, Dud Lee, scoring when Wid Matthews hit into a double-play.

Boston tied the game in the top of the 5th. From there, the play-by-play reads inning after innings of fly out, double play, groundout, popfly to P, flyout LF.

In the top of the 11th, Boston's led off with a double, but was erased on a fielder's cjhoice. Ira Flagstead, who had reach on the FC, was then caught stealing. With two outs, Danny Clark singled, stole second, and moved to 3rdnd when Joe Judge bobbled a ground ball the ball. Should have been 3 outs, we see a hundred years later, but Howie Shanks singled to score Clark. The Nats got a single from Goslin in the bottom half, but that was all.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192406301.shtml

But the day was not finished. This was the first game of a double-header, of the olf-fashined kind where you paid one admission for both games. This is June, so daylight lasts longer.

[welch]

Nope. The day was not over. Firpo Marberry, the game's first relief pitcher, but also a spot starter, gave the Senators a lift by pitching a 5-hitter. Washington 3, Boston 1.

The Nats pretty much won the game in the third and fourth innings. Sam Rice began it with a double, and walks loaded the bases for a Joe Judge sac fly. Then more walks and Boston's Curt Fullerton had walked in a second run. That was it for Fullerton, who was replaced by George Murray. In the 4th, Sam Rice walked and Bucky Harris's double drove in the speedy Sam.

(Years later, Ty Cobb and Shirley Povich led the campaign to put Rice into the Hall of Fame. Rice was the last to play in the "dead-ball" style, one that Cobb admired. Sam fretired in 1934, at 44 years old, after he had hit .293 (.706 OPS). Rice had a .322 lifetime batting average, stole 351 bases, and had an OPS of .801. Rice had a powerful arm, having begun as a pitcher. )

Fred ("Firpo") Marberry cruised to the win, and his pitching kept the Nats in 1st place.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192406302.shtml

More than that, by splitting the double-header, Washington finished the day at 38-28, 2.5 games ahead of Detroit and New York.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/index.fcgi?year=1924&month=06&day=30

[welch]

Tuesday, July 1, the first gasme of a double-header against Boston at Griffith Stadium. Oyster Joe Martinha pitches another strong game, nearly matched by Boston's Bill Piercy, reminding us of the fine lefty, Billy Pierce of the late-1950s White Sox. No, of course, different guy. Both starters throw six-hitters, but Washington got runs in the second and fourth innings. That won it.

In the second, Roger Peckinpauch walked. Ossie Bluege got Peck to second on a sac buint. Then Oyster Joe, continuing the campaign against the DH fifty years in advance, singled. Peckinpaugh scored.

In the top of the 4th, Boston tied the score when Homer Ezzell drove in Ira Flagstead, who had led off with a triple to Griffith Stadium's endless CF. In the bottom half, Ossie Bluege led off with a single to LCF and took second on a bad through by Sox CF, that same Ira Flagstead. Sam Rice drove in Ossie with a sacrifice fly. An unearned run, but Nats fans might have rung their cow-bells and said "Who cares?"

Boston got pinch-runner Joe Connoly to second with a sac bunt, but Bill Wambganss and Joe Harris hit nothing more dangerous than fly balls, and that was that.

Joe Martinha was pitching so poorly about a month ago that I thought he would be sold to the minors, but he has picked himself up. However, 3B Doc Prothro, has not played lately. Something wrong? Is he back practicing dentistry in a small town in Tennessee? (Yes, he was. On June 28, Griffith traded him to Memphis, in the Southern Association, for utility infielder Tommy Taylor. Prothro spent the rest of the season at his dental practice. Master-trader Clark Griffith later traded to get Prothro again. Doc must have preferred baseball, because he played in the minors, managed in the minors, and managed the Philadelphia Phillies from 1939 through 1941.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192407011.shtml

[welch]

In the second game, the Senators flattened Boston 5 - 0. Curly Ogden, happier pitching for the Senators than pitching against Washington, pitched a 3-hitter.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192407012.shtml

The Nats jumped on Boston's starter, Jack Quinn, in the 1st. Sam Rice led off with a single, and Bucky Harris sacrificed Sam to second on a bunt. Two outs. Goose Goslin tripled, scoring Rice, and Joe Judge singled. Boston was getting nothing off of Curly Ogden. In the 7th, Roger Pecinpaugh walked and Ossie Bluege tripled.

Boston replaced Quinn with future Yankee star, and future Hall of Famer, Red Ruffing. Red did not have it that day, walking Bucky Harris, giving up a run-scoring double to Joe Judge, followed by a single to Peckinpaugh that scored Judge.

In all, it was Curly Ogden's day, and by the end of the day the Nats had a 3 game lead on the Yankees and the Tigers. Nats fans are entitled to hope.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/index.fcgi?year=1924&month=07&day=01

[alanmiley]

Late in the game, I just noticed the July 5 question about dates.  My posts go out on Tuesday and they are timed for a report exactly 100 years earlier.  John and I are out of synch on dates, so I am going to limit my posts to Facebook in order to minimize confusion.

[welch]

Late in the game, I just noticed the July 5 question about dates.  My posts go out on Tuesday and they are timed for a report exactly 100 years earlier.  John and I are out of synch on dates, so I am going to limit my posts to Facebook in order to minimize confusion.

Although my posts are closing in to yours, Alan.

[alanmiley]

Although my posts are closing in to yours, Alan.

Indeed.  -- But annotating every game is quite a challenge.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Indeed.  -- But annotating every game is quite a challenge.

please chime in here if there's a point about the games Welch recaps that would be fun to point out. I stay off Facebook just because I don't like lining Zuck's pocket with tracking info. Same for Xitter. Of course, I don't think twice about lining Bezos's pocket since he gives away free bananas to the neighborhood at HQ2