Having lost all five games to the Browns, now having lost six in a row and falled 3 1/2 games behind the Yankees and Tigers, a battered Nationals team took the roughly six-hour train ride to Chicago for a series against the Pale Hose. A team still struggling to rebuild itself from the 1919 Black Sox disaster. And the first game went well, on Thursday, August 7, 1924.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA192408070.shtmlHere is a photo of Comiskey Park toward the end of its service
The White Sox played in Comiskey Park, a big place that held about 50,000 fans. It was a generous 455 foot to straightaway CF, 365 feet down the lines, and about 395 feet to left-center and right-center. See
http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/ComiskeyPark.html#diagHere is a photo of Comiskey Park toward the end of its service:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/comiskey-park-history-photos-and-more-of-the-chicago-white-sox-former-ballpark--290834088447410633/Having ridden the train, probably an Illinois Central liner, to Chicago, Bucky Harris decided that the team should ride the Big Train out of its slump. And he did, carrying the Nats through ten innings. Harris had held Johnson out of the series in St. Louis because St. Louis was enduring its typical hot and humid summer. I have been wondering why Johnson had not pitched, so, just this once, I sneaked a peak at Gary Sarnoff's brilliant "Team of Destiny". Gary says that Harris had looked at the pleasant weather in St. Louis, pleasant, that is, until the Senators arrived. Bucky did not want to wear down "Barney".
The Nats scored three in the tenth to win it. We don't know how many pitches Johnson threw, but it must have been so many that a modern manager would shriek "His arm's going to fall off". In fact, Mike Martin, Washington's trainer, said that Walter Johnson threw with such an easy motion that he could pitch until he was fifty.
Walter Johnson was nicknamed "Barney" as well as "the Big Train". Why Barney? I haven't looked it up, but, best I remember, Johnson was driving with his friend, Ty Cobb, to Navin Field in Detroit, when Johnson got pulled over for speeding. Cobb told the policeman, "Don't you know this is Barney Oldfield? He doesn't know how to drive slow". [Oldfield was a famous race-car driver and showman]
The Griffmen got a run in the first in classic fashion. Nemo Leibold led off with a walk, and Bucky got him to second on a sacrifice bunt. Washington loaded the bases as Sam Rice singled on a grounder that SS Bill Barret snagged on the OF grass. Leibold made third, but cautiosly stopped there. With one out, Goose Goslin walked to load the bases. Joe Judge hit a fly to right that scored Leibold, but the rally died when the next batter, Ossie Bluege, flied out. 1-0, Washington.
The score stayed 1-0 until the sixth, when Ossie Bluege homered to deep LF. Nats 2, ChiSox 0.
Unfortunately, it did not last.
In the bottom half, Harry Hooper doubled to left, more or less. The play-by-play reads "Double to LF (Deep 3B)". The next batter, Eddie Collins, doubled down the LF line, scoring Hooper. Collins, as I might have mentioned the last time Chicago played the Senators, was Chicago's 2B and player-manager. He hit .319 for the 1919 White Sox, but only .226 in that World Series. He was elected to the Hall of Fame 1in 1939. In 1924, he was 37, but still led the AL in stolen bases, and hit .349 with an OPS of .849.
Because today's game, 100 years later, is in rain-delay, maybe this is a good time to read about Eddier Collins in his SABR bio.
An excellent place-hitter, slick fielder, and brainy baserunner, Eddie Collins epitomized the style of play that made the Deadball Era unique. At the plate, the 5-foot-9, 175-pound left-handed batter possessed a sharp batting eye, and aimed to hit outside pitches to the opposite field and trick deliveries back through the box. Once on base, Collins was a master at stealing, even though his foot speed wasn’t particularly noteworthy. A believer in the principle that a runner steals off the pitcher and not the catcher, Collins practiced the art of studying pitchers – how they held the ball for certain pitches, how they looked off runners, all the pitcher’s moves. He focused especially on the feet and hips of the pitcher, rather than just his hands, and thus was able to take large leads off first base and get excellent jumps.
Lou Gehrig was not the first Columbia University man to star in the majors, nor was Gehrig the first Columbia Lion elected to the Hall of Fame. Collins beat him to it.
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Eddie-Collins/Back to Comiskey Park and our game. With Collins on leading off second base, Johnson struck out 1B Earl Sheely. Now with two out, Barney intentionally walked Cicago's best hitter, LF Bib Falk, to get to ,250-hitting Willie Kamm. That makes sense, because Falk was hitting .382 with .538 SLG, and a .978 OPS. But this is baseball, not chess, so Kamm tripled to Sam Rice in right, scoring Collins and Falk. Kamm thought he would get an inside-the-park homer, but Rice fired to Bucky Harris, who relayed the ball to Muddy Ruel, and Ruel tagged out Kamm to end the inning. Good to get that out, but Chicago now led, 3-2.
Chicago's Charlie Robertson was no slouch, and he gave up nothing in the 7th. Memories of St. Louis might have rippled up and down the Nats dugout, but, in the 8th, Goose Goslin led off with a walk and Joe Judge singled to CF. Remember, dead CF was more than 450 feet, and Goslin ran to third. The White Sox brought in Sarge Conally to face Ossie Bluege, the 3B who had homered in the 6th. Alan Miley has told us that Clark Griffith and Bucky Harris had traded Doc Prothro to a minor league club, even though Prothro was hitting .333 at the time; Bluege was thought to be a better fielder.
Bluege's fielding?
Whenever American League President Joe Cronin was asked to rank big-league third basemen, he always gave the same answer: “Well, you start with Bluege.”1 Of course shortstop Cronin was referring to his old partner on the right side of the Washington Senators teams of the 1920s and ’30s, Ossie Bluege. At the 1970 World Series, watching Baltimore’s Brooks Robinson make one outstanding play after another, Joe would remark “That’s another Ossie Bluege play.”2 He would often comment that he never had to worry about a ball that was hit to his right side with Bluege manning the hot corner.
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Ossie-Bluege/Bluege tied the game with a sacrifice fly that scored Goslin.
In the bottom of the 8th, Hooper singled and, following strategy, Eddie Collins advanced Hooper to second with a sac bunt. This time, Kamm lined out to Goslin in left.
In the 9th, Connally held serve, and got a hit in the bottom half. Roger Peckinpaugh held on to Maurice Archdeacon's line drive, to end that mini-threat.
The Nats won it in the 10th. Bucky Harris singled and Sam Rice walked. Bucky was caught stealing third, but Goslin walked, movng Rice to second with ine out. Joe Judge reached on an error by SS Bill Barrett, loading the bases. Bluege reached on a fielder's choice that scored Rice and left the bases loaded. Maybe this was a fielder's choice that did not get the runner, because Bluege scored right after Joe Judge on a strange play. As best I can tell, Muddy Ruel grounded to SS Barrett, who threw home, forcing Goslin. Two outs. But Buck Crouse, the Chicago catcher, tried to get a double play by catching the slow-footed catcher Ruel at first. Crouse threw the ball away, allowing Judge and Bluege to score. Washington leads, 6-3.
With the win sight, Johnsonson mowed down the White Sox in the bottom half.
The Red Sox beat the Tigers, so Wahington gained a game on Detroit, and the A's took a double-header from the previously mighty Browns, so Washington got a half gane hold on third place, However, the Yankees won.
1. NYY 61-46
2. DET 58-47 (2 games back)
3. WSH 58-49 (3 games back)
4. SLB 55-49 (4 1/2 games back)
