This is the game. Game 7. With only three starting pitchers and a World Series without travel days, the Senators' pitching is down to bare-bones. Roger Peckinpaugh is out, having ripped knee ligaments last game. The Giants have an outfield of future Hall of Famers, and an infield of Frankie Frisch and Bill Terry, both future HoF. Terry is batting .500 in the Series.
What will Bucky Harris do? He starts Curly Ogden, the young right-hander who is recovering from a sore arm. And, under the grandstand, he has lefty George Mogridge warming up. John McGraw starts Bill Terry at 1B. Ogden is told he will pitch to the first batter, and then be replaced.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192410100.shtmlFriday, October 10, 1924
Attendance: 31,667
Venue: Griffith Stadium
Game Duration: 3:00
Day Game, on grass
Starting Lineups
Giants1 Freddie Lindstrom 3B
2 Frankie Frisch 2B
3 Ross Youngs RF
4 George Kelly CF
5 Bill Terry 1B
6 Hack Wilson LF
7 Travis Jackson SS
8 Hank Gowdy C
9 Virgil Barnes P
Nationals1 Earl McNeely CF
2 Bucky Harris 2B
3 Sam Rice RF
4 Goose Goslin LF
5 Joe Judge 1B
6 Ossie Bluege SS
7 Tommy Taylor 3B
8 Muddy Ruel C
9 Curly Ogden P
Freddie Lindstrom steps in against Ogden, and strikes out swinging. Bucky Harris tells Ogden to take on another batter, and Ogden walks Frankie Frisch. With that walk, Harris replaces Ogden with Mogridge, who strikes out Ross Youngs and gets Highpockets Kelley to ground out, Taylor to Judge.
The Giants get a runner in the second on Taylor's throwing error, and Hank Gowdy singles on a liner that Taylor knocks down. But that's all. Meanwhile, Washington's hitters are flailing against Virgil Barnes. In the top of the 4th, Mogridge strikes out Bill Terry, demonstrating why McGraw has been platooning Terry to the bench against southpaws. The Senators finally get a hit in the 4th, when Bucky Harris homers to left. Note that Clark Griffith has added some seats in the outfield to expand his stadium from 25,000 seats to about 30,000, so left field is a little shorter than the normal 400 feet on the LF line.
WSH 1, NYG 0.
In the top of the 6th, McGraw has Irish Meusel pinch-hit for Terry. Bucky Harris counters by bringing in right-hander Firpo Marberry, facing runners on first and third, no outs. A logical move, but one that does not quite work. Meusel hits a flyball that scores a run. Hack Wilson singles to center, advancing George Kelley to third. Travis Jackson hits a grounder toward first, but the sure-handed Joe Judge muffs it, and Kelley scores. Wilson reaches second, and scores when Hank Gowdy grounds to Ossie Bluege at SS and Bluege also bobbles the ball. The official scorer marks two unearned runs against Marberry, but Firpo settles down. Barnes flies to Sam Rice, charging in from RF, and Travis Jackson chooses not to challenge Rice's arm. Rice was, we remember, bought and brought up as a pitcher.
NYG 3, WSH 1.Virgil Barnes continues to baffle the Nats. Thre up, three down in the 6th. Bucky Harris leads off with a single in the 7th, but Rice hits into a doubnle play. And marberry continues to stymie the Giants.
Then, in the bottom of the 8th, the veteran Nemo Leibold pinch-hits for Tommy Taylor and doubles to left. Muddy Ruel singles and Leibold takes third. Backup catcher Bennie Tate pinch-hits for Marberry, and draws a walk. It is late in the game, and Harris senses that Barnes might be tiring. He sends Mule Shirley, backup 1B, to pinch-run for Tate. Bases loaded. Earl McNeely makes Washington's second out on a flyball to LF. Bucky Harris, the "boy manager", is up, and he comes through again. Harris singles to left, scoring Leibold and Ruel to tie the game. Mule Shirley goes to second. McGraw pulls Virgil Barnes, replacing him with Art Nehf, another of his starters. Sam Rice grounds out.
WSH 3, NYG 3.Walter Johnson replaces Marberry, and fans go wild. Hope and fear: would Johnson finally win a World Series game? Or would he lose for the third time?
In the top of the 9th, the Giants threatened. Frankie Frisch tripled witjh one out. Johnson walked Ross Youngs intentionally, and then struck out George Kelley, who swung wildly at Johnson's "wrinkle", his curvebal. There is a video showing Kelley swinging out of his shoes as he lunges across the plate, like a modern player leaning far outside as he chases a sweeper. Ross Youngs then grounded out, Ralph Miller to Joe Judge. Score still tied going into the bottom of the 9th. The Senators mounted a rally in the bottom of the 9th. After Goose Goslin grounded out, Joe Judge lined a single to CF. Ossie Bluege grounded to Kelley at 1B, but Travis Jackson missed the throw from Kelley; Judge went on to third and Bluege was safe at first. McGraw brought in Hugh McQuillan, another of his top starters, and McQuillan got to ground to Jackson, who flipped to Frisch at second, and Frisch threw to Kelley at first to complete the double play.
In the 10th, "Barney" walked leadoff man Hack Wilson, struck out Travis Jackson, and got Hank Gowdy to ground into a double play. In Washington's half, McQuillan set down the Griffs in order, sending Johnson back to the slab for the 11th, with the score still tied at 3.
John McGraw decided to pull McQuillan, so he sent up Heinie Groh to pinch-hit. Groh came through with a single to RF. Managing by the book, McGraw had Billy Southworth run for Groh and ordered Freddie Lindstrom to bunt. The sacrifice moved Southworth to second. And then Johnson struck out the dangerous Frankie Frisch. The Big Train intenally walked Ross Youngs, setting up a force-out at any base but home. A force-out was unnecessary because Johnson struck out George Kelley swinging. (This might have been the famous strikeout that caused a right-handed batter to fall into the lefty batting box.) Jack Bentley replaced McQuillan for the bottom of the 11th, and he induced a quick pair of fly outs. Sam Rice hit his to deep left-center, but it was not quite deep enough. Goose Goslin doubled, so Bentley walked Joe Judge intentionally. Bluege grounded into a force at second, so the game rolled into the 12th.
Irish Meusel led off the 12th with a single, but Johnson was pitching like the ace of all-time aces. He struck out Hack Wilson, swinging. He got Travis Jackson to ground into a force-out at second. And he got Hank Gowdy to fly out to Goslin in left.
How long could this continue? McGraw had gone through all four of his starters. Johnson is the last of Washington's good pitchers, but, then, Walter Johnson is not just a good pitcher.
In the bottom of the 12th, Ralph Miller grounded out "weakly". In a famous at-bat, Muddy Ruel hit a high popup behind home. Giants catcher Hank Gowdy threw his mask away, backed up, and stepped on that mask. Gowdy dropped the popup. Ruel then doubled to left, which turned the inning. Johnson grounded to Travis Jackson at SS, but Jackson could not make the play. Ruel hung out at second, as Johnson reached first, with one out. Earl McNeely hit a sharp grounder down the 3B line. Freddie Lindstrom reached, but missed. Some legends say that the ball hit a pebble or divot or a magic spot and bounced over Lindstrom's head. Other people reported that Lindstrom missed in a glare of sunshine. Either way, McNeely was safe at second, Johnson took third, and
Ruel scored the Senators 4th and winning run! Final: WSH 4, NYG 3.
Washington won its first pennant, and first World Series until 2019.
