Joe Cronin
 

Player #128B: Joseph E. "Joe" Cronin. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1928-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1945. 2,285 hits and 170 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .390. He was a 7-time All Star. Boston Red Sox #4 retired. Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. In 1956, he was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. His best season was probably 1930 for Washington as he posted a .422 OBP with 127 runs scored and 127 RBIs on 686 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1933-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1947. He was General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1948-1958. He was president of the American League in 1959-1973. When he left the Red Sox in 1959, they were the only MLB team without a black player. He and team owner Tom Yawkey are generally viewed as responsible for this injustice which ended six months after Cronin's departure.

Cronin's SABR biography: Other than baseball, the principal excitement in Joe’s life was his relationship with Mildred Robertson. Per Joe Engel’s prophesy, Joe and Mildred had taken to each other right away, but it was anything but a whirlwind romance. Joe began by dropping in to the office more often than he needed to, but their courtship became more traditional in the spring of 1930 during spring training. As her uncle’s secretary, Mildred accompanied the team to their spring camp in Biloxi, Mississippi, every year. By the time the Senators returned from spring training to Washington in 1930, Joe and Mildred were dating twice a week when the team was home. Joe was adamant that the relationship remain a secret lest people write that Joe was trying to get in good with the boss.

On the field, Joe maintained his new plateau of excellence. In 1931 he hit .306 with 12 home runs and 126 runs batted in, as his club won 92 games, again well back of the Athletics. The next year he overcame a chipped bone in his thumb, suffered when he was struck by a pitch in June, to hit .318 with 116 runs batted in and a league-leading 18 triples. His club won 93 games, its third straight 90-win season and the third best record in team history. Nonetheless, after the season, Clark Griffith fired Walter Johnson, the team’s greatest hero. Griffith surprised everyone by selecting Cronin, just turning 26, to replace him. Not only did Cronin have to gain the respect of the veterans, he still had to worry about hitting and playing shortstop. Of course, there was the extra financial reward.

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Yes, it is.

Carl Fischer
 

Player #130B: Charles W. "Carl" Fischer. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1930-1932 and 1937. 46 wins and 10 saves in 7 MLB seasons. His best season was 1933 with the Detroit Tigers as he posted an 11-15 record with 3.55 ERA in 182.2 innings pitched. He last pitched in MLB in 1937, but pitched another 10 seasons in the minor leagues.

Back to Fischer's SABR biography: Fischer couldn’t maintain his performance over the rest of the (1931) campaign, but still finished with 13 wins against 9 losses while logging over 190 innings. After the season, The Sporting News named him as one of three pitchers on its 1931 All-Star Major Recruit Team, a predecessor to today’s All-Rookie Team.

Expectations were high for Fischer entering the 1932 season. However, he did not get off to a good start and there were whispers that he had lost his fastball. The Senators, widely expected to battle for the pennant, were thin on patience and in early June traded him to the St. Louis Browns . . .

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Sheriff Harris
 

Player #133B: David S. "Dave" Harris. "Sheriff". Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1930-1934. 406 hits and 32 home runs in 7 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Boston Braves in 1925. His best season was 1931 for Washington as he posted a .434 OBP with 50 RBIs in 284 plate appearances.

David Stanley "Sheriff" Harris was a fifth important contributor to Walter Johnson's outfield in 1932, and he was at the center of a couple of truly unusual occurrences involving the Senators in this year. Not related to and not to be confused with Stanley "Bucky" Harris or Joe "Moon" Harris, heroes of earlier days, the Sheriff was one of those original baseball types common back in the thirties, but extinct today. He was essentially an uneducated hillbilly from North Carolina who had explained in his best drawl upon joining the club that he really was no sheriff at all. Harris had the demeanor of a sheriff, but insisted that the real story was that he'd been deputized once only, so that he could help chase mule thieves down in the Carolinas.

All Dave Harris had done since coming to Washington in 1930 as a journeyman 30-year-old, with less than two years of mediocrity in the big leagues behind him, was hit well over .300. In 1932, he came off the bench to pinch hit a league-high 43 times and bat(ted) .326 in that role. His status on the club, however, was limited by his erratic fielding. But, as Sheriff Harris liked to say, he could drive in more runs than smarter guys could think across. While this opinion was not shared by all, and in fairness to him this Senators outfield was stacked with talent, Harris hit .327 for the season and drove in 29 runs in only 156 official chances (a rate good for 90-100 RBIs over a full season).

At spring training 1932, held in Biloxi, Miss., Sheriff Harris, an easygoing country bumpkin if ever there was one, had drawn as a roommate the man who was likely the brightest ever to play professional baseball. Catcher Moe Berg, a New Yorker, had been kicking around the majors since 1923 with little success. Known as an able handler of pitchers with an exceptional throwing arm, he had hit only .240 over that span. In 1929, Berg had played more and hit .288 for the White Sox. The Senators would not get much offence from the catching position in '32 -- Berg would hit .236, and Roy Spencer, who played twice as much, only .246. . . .

. . . What a pair Moe Berg and Sheriff Harris made! Berg respected the coarse Harris for what he could do -- come up to the plate in any situation and perform with confidence. Berg reasoned that Harris owed this skill to what actually boiled down to a lack of mental acuity. Harris' brain was totally devoid of outside encumbrances, and with nothing else on his mind, he was better able to focus on the pitcher and the task at hand. The Sheriff, who thought Berg was the smartest man ever to grace the planet, would respond that, with runners on base, what the Senators needed was "a genius like me."

It was in such a situation that Dave Harris made the most memorable hit of the season for the Senators, albeit in a woefully pitiful cause. On August 5, with the score 13-0 in favor of Detroit, Tommy Bridges was just one out away from a perfect game. Due up was pitcher Bobby Burke, but Walter Johnson, tough competitor that he was, was going to do everything in his power to prevent Bridges from attaining immortality at the expense of his boys. Johnson summoned Harris, who for years had been saying that Tommy Bridges was one of the main reasons why he had managed to survive as a big-league hitter. Sure enough, Harris, a remarkably good curveball hitter, rapped a clean single to center, sparing the Senators the embarrassment of being victimized by a perfect game. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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1933 Washington Senators Part 1
 

The 1933 Washington Senators won 99 games, lost 53, and finished in first place in the American League. It was the third and final pennant of the franchise while based in Washington. The team was managed by Joe Cronin and played home games at Griffith Stadium. They lost the best-of-seven World Series in 5 games to the New York Giants.

It would be the last time a Major League Baseball postseason series would be held in Washington until the 2012 season. The Senators franchise, which moved to Minneapolis–St. Paul after the 1960 season, has since won three American League pennants (1965; 1987; 1991) and two World Series (1987 and 1991) as the Minnesota Twins. The Series also marked the last time the nation's capital hosted a World Series game until the Washington Nationals -- spiritual successors to the Senators -- played in and ultimately won the 2019 World Series over the Houston Astros in seven games.

(We will rely on Deveaux's account of the 1933 Washington season.) Despite an outstanding ballclub and another profitable year (1932) for the team's coffers, a pennant seemed no closer in sight. A hot September, in which the Nats had won 24 of 28 games, had left them one game out of second place. This was not good enough for the assembled talent, and Clark Griffith was not going to stand for it.

The Yankees won the (1932) World Series in four straight. That Series would long be remembered for something which may or may not of happened in the third game. Babe Ruth made a gesture which some interpreted as a sign that he was going to belt one over the fence, which he promptly did. The pitcher, Charley Root, maintained until his death in 1970 that he would have decked Ruth if the Babe had really been calling his shot, and that Ruth had merely been indicating that he had but one strike left.

It is very likely that Clark Griffith had other things on his mind at this particular time. As soon as the 1932 season ended, he asked Walter Johnson -- the great Walter Johnson -- whether he was set financially and whether he could have his permission to dismiss him as an employee. In other words, he was firing the Big Train. This came as no surprise to Barney, who'd been working on a one-year contract after his initial three-year deal to manage had expired. The writing had been on the wall, and 1932 was a crutial year for him if he was to continue on as field boss of the Senators. A relationship begun 26 years earlier was severed, but the two parted on amiable terms. After all, for most of the period between 1912 and 1928, Griff had made Johnson the highest-paid pitcher in the American League.

By the following summer, a third of the way into the 1933 campaign, Johnson would be hired to manage the Cleveland Indians, replacing his old teammate, Roger Peckinpaugh, who'd been field boss of the Tribe since 1928. (Peck would later serve as the Indians' president and general manager.) Wes Ferrell, a North Carolina farmer and banjo picker who was to pitch his way into the Hall of Fame, was then with the Indians. Ferrell said he'd never been able to get along with Peckinpaugh, who he said was surly and uncommunicative.

Ferrel preferred Johnson, although he thought the Big Train's idea of managing was to give inane rah-rah speeches punctuated by plenty of "dadgummits" and "doggonnits." Barney brought the Indians in fourth '33 and third in '34, when he had Sam Rice and Moe Berg on the squad, but was relieved of his duties after a 46-48 start in 1935. There exist varied opinions as to his proficiency as a manager. There is support for the school of thought which holds that Johnson should have had more success, especially in light of what was to transpire in 1933. To the charge that he was not a good handler of pitchers, the Big Train answered that, having been a pitcher himself, he felt that no one could know how any pitcher was going to do on any given day. All a manager could do in terms of deploying pitchers was to hope for the best.

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1933 Washington Senators Part 2
 

It was indeed, as Cronin had expected, the Yankees, and not the A's, who represented the Senators' main adversary in 1933, and the rivalry was exacerbated by the unforgotten incident involving the departed Carl Reynolds and Bill Dickey the previous year. The Yankees leapt out of the starting gate and won their first seven in a row before coming to Washington. Things got hot when Joe Cronin challenged Babe Ruth to a fight after Ruth came into him hard while Cronin was covering third. But all hell broke loose at Griffith Stadium a few days later, on April 25, when outfielder Ben Chapman of the Yankees, who ran the bases like a wild goose, came in with spikes high on Buddy Myer at second in order to break up a double play. Myer, who the Yankees were accusing of having spiked Lou Gehrig on a play at the first base bag, bounced right back to his feet and began kicking Chapman -- some onlookers estimated Chapman might have absorbed as many as a dozen kicks. The benches emptied and some fans came out of the stands to attack the Yankees as well.

Yankees ace Lefty Gomez brandished a bat and waved it around, reportedly striking a policeman. Dixie Walker, a rookie outfielder with New York who would later star in the National League, as would his younger brother Harry, managed to reach Myer, jumped him, and began punching him repeatedly as Myer lay on the ground. Someone decked Yankees manager Joe McCarthy. Police had to be called in to bring some order to the proceedings, and arrested five fans who had gotten involved.

Myer, Walker, and Chapman were thrown out of the game, but Chapman's woes weren't over. On the way to the dressing room, he had to pass by the Senators' dugout, where the belligerent Earl Whitehill began berating him. Chapman, who would in the future, on two occasions, join the Senators, took a swing that connected with Whitehill's left eye, knocking Washington's ace pitcher back. More Senators players and the police stepped in. Perhaps what infuriated the Nats most in this game was the final score: 16-0 Yankees.

Lost in the shuffle was the performance of New York's Russ Van Atta, who gave up just five hits in posting a shutout in his big-league debut. A few days later, Clark Griffith was angered again when suspensions were announced by league president Will Harridge. Both Myer and Whitehill drew five-day suspensions and $100 fines, while only Chapman of the Yankees incurred the same fate. Dixie Walker got nothing.

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1933 Washington Senators Part 3
 

Joe Cronin had been right in terms of how the pennant race would go. The A's were out of it early and never really posed a threat. There was an obvious reason. Owner Connie Mack, engineering a fire sale reminiscent of what he'd done 20 years earlier to keep his operation afloat, had gotten rid of Al Simmons, Mule Haas, and Jimmy Dykes at the end of the previous season. The whole lot of them were sold to the White Sox for a cool $100,000.

In terms of competing with the Yankees, Earl Whitehill and Lefty Stewart were indeed the answer for Washington. On Independence Day, exactly a year after the Dickey-Reynolds dustup, Whitehill and Stewart pitched a doubleheader at Griffith Stadium with the Nationals going into the day with a scant half-game lead. The Senators took the first game in ten innings, 6-5, when Cronin singled to drive in Manush. Walter "Lefty" Stewart went all the way in the second game and the Senators prevailed 3-2 to sweep the twin bill.

Lefty Stewart shared the bulk of the mound chores on the '33 Senators with General Crowder, who finished with 15 losses to go along with his 24 wins, and with Earl Whitehill, 22-8 with a superior (for the inflationary times) 3.33 ERA. Stewart contributed a 15-6 slate. Jack Russell, the third pitcher added before the season, led the league in saves with 13 and posted a 12-6 record with a stingy 2.69 REA.

The pitching arsenal was stacked. Monte Weaver, coming off a 22-win campaign, pitched much less but showed much-improved mastery of the strike zone, culminating in a fine 10-5 year for him. Alphonse "Tommy" Thomas, a veteran righthander who had once won 19 games for the White Sox and led the A.L. in innings pitched, was only 7-7. Thomas had simply pitched his arm out for the White Sox and his career had been on a downslide since 1930. In '33, his first full season in Washington, his ERA was a characteristically high 4.80.

Backed by the best-fielding club in the league, the pitching staff as a unit allowed fewer runs than any other A.L. club in 1933. Nats hitters combined for the best batting average in the league, .287. All of these factors have a good chance of spelling success of course, and 1933 would in fact stand forever as the best season in Washington Senators history. Lead-off man Buddy Myer raised his average 23 points to .302 and scored 95 runs. Young Joe Kuhel topped anything he'd done previously and hit .322 with 117 RBIs. Manager and shortstop Joe Cronin showed leadership in the most tangible of ways with another stellar year, batting .309 with 118 ribbies.

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1933 Washington Senators Part 4
 

Ossie Bluege, a fixture for 11 years at third and 32 in his last season as a full-fledged regular, enjoyed a typical year for him, with .261 and 71 runs driven in. On May16 of this season, the Nats introduced for the first time a lefthanded-hitting third baseman who would take over the hot corner and eventually prove himself to be one of the great Washington Senators. His name, Cecil Travis, became known to all serious readers of the sports pages on the morning of May 17, 1933.

In his debut, Travis a lefthanded slap hitter who at this point in his development drove nearly everything to the opposite field, had on the previous day connected for five hits in his first five big-league opportunities. Travis was put out in his final two at-bats in a 12-inning game at Griffith Stadium won by the home side 11-10 over the Indians. Incredibly, Joe Kuhel also rapped out five hits in the same 12-inning game. Travis got into only 17 more games during the course of the regular season, batting .302. In the minors with Chatanooga Lookouts, the Senators' affiliate in the Southern Association, Travis, himself a Southerner from Riverdale, Georgia, posted an ominous .352 bat mark.

The 1933 Washington outfield, predictably potent, did not really disappoint, with Goslin, Schulte, and Manush averaging .297, .295, and .336 respectively. Goslin's power numbers, however, did diminish significantly, and he hit just 10 homers and produced 64 runs. On the way to placing second in the league in batting to Jimmie Foxx, who won the triple crown with gigantic figures of 48-163-.356, Manush hit in 33 consecutive games. This established the still-standing team benchmark, which eclipsed the record of 31 games set by Sam Rice in 1924.

By the second week of September, this best-ever version of the Washington Senators had opened up a nine-game lead, and the pennant was wrapped up by the end of the third week, against the St Louis Browns. The Senators recorded 99 wins in a year in which they played only 152 games. (It was more common back then to leave some games unplayed at the end of the schedule if those games were to have no bearing on the final standings.)

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1933 Washington Senators Part 5
 

The Yankees were in fact involved in two games fewer than the Senators, but when play stopped the Nats finished seven full games ahead of New York, spelling the end of the heyday of Murderers' Row. While Babe Ruth still hit .301 with 34 homers, his production was down and his career was petering out fast. It would be nearly three years before the Yanks would be able to regroup around a rookie named Joe DiMaggio and once again dominate the American League.

The Senators influenced firsthand New York's demise, and Lady Luck was on their side at crucial times during the season. Back in April, Washington was ahead by three runs when Tony Lazzeri, with Lou Gehrig on second and Dixie Walker on first, launched a bullet which ricocheted off Yankee Stadium's rightfield fence. Gehrig thought Goose Goslin might catch the ball, so he tagged up. The much-faster Walker did not, and so here they both came, one behind the other, barreling toward third.

Coach Art Fletcher, confused, couldn't stop one baserunner and not the other. Joe Cronin's relay was on time for Luke Sewell to tag Gehrig out, and then to spin around and tag Walker also. Later in the season, in a game in which the Senators trailed 1-0 in the ninth, with a man on first and two out, Buddy Myer fouled one to the screen which Bill Dickey went back on and caught. Umpire Bill McGowan ruled the ball had grazed the screen, just barely, and Myer had a reprieve. He hit the next pitch out of the park to win the game, one of his four homers of the 1933 campaign.

In the final game of the season, coach Nick Altrock was given a chance to become the oldest player to participate in a major-league game up to that time by being allowed to pinch hit. Unsuccessful in the attempt, against Rube Walberg of the A's, Altrock had played at the age of 57 years, 16 days, a record now held by Satchel Paige, who pitched for the Kansas City Athletics in 1965 at the age of 59 years, 2 months, 18 days. Minnie Minoso fell just a few months short of Paige's record when he appeared for the Chicago White Sox in 1980 so that he could become the second player in history to appear in five decades as a player. The first had been Nick Altrock.

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Moe Berg
 

Player #142B: Morris "Moe" Berg. Catcher with the Washington Senators in 1932-1934. 441 hits and 6 home runs in 15 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Brooklyn Robins in 1923. His most productive season was 1929 with the Chicago White Sox as he posted a .323 OBP with 47 RBIs in 384 plate appearances. He finished up with the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1939. His MLB career was statistically mediocre, but he is remembered as a colorful personality. He was a graduate of Princeton University and the Columbia Law School. He spoke several languages and read 10 newspapers a day. He worked as a spy during and after WW2.

Berg's SABR biography explains how he became a catcher (as does the back of his 1933 Goudey): It was in 1927 with the White Sox that he inadvertently became a catcher. Ray Schalk, manager of the Sox and a reserve catcher, was out with a broken thumb. Buck Crouse was also injured. Then in a game in Boston Harry McCurdy had his hand slashed accidentally by a Boston batter.

Schalk was in a panic. Looking up and down the bench, he said, “Can any of you fellows catch?” Moe said he used to think he could. Schalk asked who said Moe couldn’t. Moe’s answer: “My high school coach.” Schalk assured Berg that he’d be obliged if Moe could prove his high school coach wrong.

Moe strapped on the so-called tools of ignorance and proved that indeed he could catch. Schalk was so delighted with Berg after the game he hugged and kissed him. There was no turning back. The brightest man in baseball was now wedded to the tools of ignorance. Berg was an excellent defensive catcher. Possessing a strong arm, he could gun down the swiftest baserunners. His hitting left something to be desired. Berg batted only .243 with six home runs lifetime. But his baseball acumen in calling games and his knowledge of the hitters put him in great demand around the league. Moe went on to play for Cleveland, Washington and Boston in the American League until his retirement after the 1939 season. In all he spent fifteen seasons in the majors mainly because of his defensive skills and his knowledge of baseball.

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Ossie Bluege
 

Player #89F: Oswald L. "Ossie" Bluege. Third baseman for the Washington Senators in 1922-1939. 1,751 hits and 43 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. 1935 All-Star. 1924 World Series champion. He played his entire career in Washington. He was best known for his defense, but his best season at the plate was 1928 as he posted a .364 OBP with 78 runs scored and 75 RBIs in 588 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1943-1947.

Bluege's SABR biography: The 1933 season was Bluege’s last as a regular. The emergence of Cecil Travis gave Cronin good reason to make the switch. The young Georgian might not be able to field like Bluege, but he could hit like no one’s business. From 1934 through 1941, Travis batted over .300 all but one year, and in that season he hit .292.

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Bob Boken
 

Robert A. "Bob" Boken. Infielder with the Washington Senators in 1933-1934. 113 hits and 6 home runs in 2 MLB seasons. He last played for the the Chicago White Sox in 1934. He was on the Senators roster but did not appear in any of the 1933 World Series games.

In addition to his time in the major leagues, Boken had an extensive minor league career, playing from 1929 to 1947. His lifetime production was notable, amassing 1,787 hits, 149 HRs and 232 RBIs across 1,710 games and 5,969 at bats. He achieved a .299 lifetime average and .452 slugging percentage.

Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner, one of the game's premier power hitters, referenced Boken in his HOF induction speech in 1975: "Going back to my early days, I have to mention a fellow by the name of Bob Boken who is the man who got me started playing baseball. And his son was about four years older than I, and he used to pitch to his son across the street and I’d go out in the outfield and shag the balls. This went on for about a year and I finally got a chance to bat, and I realized what a great game this was."

This thread will now enjoy a pause: Next expected post -- 1 November.

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Cliff Bolton
 

Player #125B: William Clifton "Cliff" Bolton. Catcher for the Washington Senators in 1931, 1933-1936, and 1941. 280 hits and 6 home runs over 7 MLB Seasons. His best season was 1935 as he posted a .399 OBP with 55 RBIs in 435 plate appearances. He also had a .500 OBP in 46 plate appearances coming off the bench in 1933 as Washington won the A.L. pennant.

Cliff Bolton was a catcher who played several years in the big leagues, most notably hitting .410 in 33 games for the 1933 Washington Senators who won 99 games and went to the 1933 World Series. The only three catchers used that year by the Senators were Luke Sewell, Moe Berg, and Bolton. Bolton also hit .304 with 11 triples in 1935, a year in which he appeared in 110 games. His 11 triples were 8th in the league. One source says that after his 1933 season, he held out for more money, and Moe Berg was given the catcher's job. Berg was released in midseason, and Bolton ended up playing 42 games. Eddie Phillips had 53 games at catcher, and Luke Sewell played 50 games.

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Bobby Burke
 

Player #127B: Robert J. "Bobby" Burke. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1927-1935. 38 wins and 5 saves in 10 MLB seasons. In 1931, he pitched a no-hitter against Boston at Griffith Stadium. He was the last Washington pitcher to pitch a no-hitter until Jordan Zimmerman in 2014. His best season was 1934 as he posted a 8-8 record with a 3.21 ERA on 168 innings pitched. He ended his career with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1937.

Burke's SABR biography covers his less-than-stellar contributions to Washington's 1933 pennant: A holdout in 1932, Burke reported late to spring training. Sportswriter Harold C. Burr reported that team owner Clark Griffith as well as skipper Johnson had grown tired of Burke’s inconsistencies. Nonetheless the 25-year-old started off well, tossing a complete-game five-hitter with no walks to defeat the Red Sox, 4-3, in his season debut, on April 20. With two outs in the ninth inning, Burke (a career .194 hitter with 54 hits) slashed the game-winning single to drive in Ossie Bluege. In his next start, Burke issued a career-high 12 free passes to the New York Yankees, yet somehow managed to surrender just one earned run in a 6⅔-inning no-decision. He was erratic and often roughed up in his occasional starts. Burke’s big-league career seemed to be at a crossroad after a disastrous relief appearance on August 5 (seven runs in 4⅔ innings). “[Burke] is about washed up after six years in Washington regalia,” wrote Denman Thompson. Burke was optioned to Chattanooga in the Southern Association; however, he complained of a sore arm, did not pitch for the Lookouts, and was ultimately placed on the voluntarily retired list.

Burke was reinstated in the offseason, but his future with the club remained murky under first-year player-manager Joe Cronin. Coming off a dismal (1932) season (5.14 ERA in 91 innings), Burke was playing for his career. Thompson reported excitedly that Burke was “one of the most pleasant surprises” at Washington’s spring training in Biloxi, Mississippi. Once described as a “lobby sitter, his interests in the game negligible,” Burke seemed, according to Harold C. Burr, “refreshed,” while Thompson noted a different “attitude.” Unfortunately, Burke’s arm and shoulder pain returned by the end of camp. He was sent to Selma, Alabama, for medical treatment, and also trained with Chattanooga before returning to Washington for the start of the season. In limited action, Burke went 4-3 with a 3.23 ERA in 64 innings for the surprising pennant-winning Senators, who won a franchise-record 99 games. Burke did not pitch in Washington’s World Series loss to the New York Giants in five games.

Shamelessly pumping Washington baseball images in fine forums everywhere. Burke is second from left in the final image.

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Ed Chapman
 

Player #144: Edwin V. "Ed" Chapman. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1933. Appeared in 6 games with one start and a total of 9 innings pitched.

Chapman didn't play much, but he made it into this picture set and the photograph of relief pitchers shown in the previous post (furthest left):

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Earl Clark
 

Player #145: B. Earl Clark. Outfielder with the Boston Braves 1927-1933. 240 hits and 4 home runs in 8 MLB seasons. In 1929 he posted a .346 OBP with 43 runs scored in 303 plate appearances. He finished his career with the St. Louis Browns in 1934. He was once a ball boy with the Washington Senators.

My pre-war collection is supposed to be limited to players in Washington uniforms. But this fringe big leaguer elbowed his way in. Besides a beautiful card, Clark has many connections to Washington (and the Senators). He served as a ball boy for the Washington Senators before playing eight seasons in MLB, mostly with the St. Louis Browns. He was born in Washington and 30 years later (having just retired from MLB to take a job with the FBI) was struck and killed by a streetcar in Washington. He played for the Browns for seven seasons, including the start of the 1933 season. Nevertheless, he is shown here playing for the Albany -- wait for it -- Senators.

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Joe Cronin
 

Player #128C Part 1: Joseph E. "Joe" Cronin. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1928-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1945. 2,285 hits and 170 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .390. He was a 7-time All Star. Boston Red Sox #4 retired. Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. In 1956, he was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. His best season was probably 1930 for Washington as he posted a .422 OBP with 127 runs scored and 127 RBIs on 686 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1933-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1947. He was General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1948-1958. He was president of the American League in 1959-1973. When he left the Red Sox in 1959, they were the only MLB team without a black player. He and team owner Tom Yawkey are generally viewed as responsible for this injustice which ended six months after Cronin's departure.

There is no doubt that chopping Walter Johnson's $25,000 salary was a key consideration for Clark Griffith when he politely showed Barney the door. Attendance at the stadium had plummeted from 614,000 two years before to 371,000 during the throes of the depression in 1932. The intelligent guess was that Griff would again dip into the ranks of his own club to find a replacement for Johnson. Since he'd given up managing in 1920, he'd followed this pattern on five successive occasions, hiring George McBride, Clyde Milan, Donie Bush, Bucky Harris, and Walter Johnson. There was also widespread speculation that Griffith wanted to purchase Al Simmons' contract from Connie Mack and make him the manager. The old man added fat to the fire by reminding members of the media that he'd once himself managed an American League pennant winner, and that he wasn't too old to do so again.

On October 8, 1932, just four days before his 26th birthday, Joe Cronin was named manager of the Washington Senators, making him at the time the youngest to be appointed manager of a big-league team before the start of the season. (Roger Peckinpaugh still holds the big-league record as the youngest manager to ever end a season, having guided the Yankees for the final 17 games as a 23-year-old in 1914.) Cronin was more than a year younger than Bucky Harris had been when he was hired to skip the Nats back in '24.

Cronin had first been spotted by the Pirates as a 17-year-old playing semi-pro ball around his hometown of San Francisco. After impressing many in his first season by hitting .313 at Johnstown of the Middle Atlantic League in 1925, the Pirates brought him up to the big team to sit on the bench during the hard-fought World Series against the Senators. He got to pose for the team picture with the world champs. But Cronin hit only .257 in brief tryouts with the Pirates over the next two seasons and was batting only .245 for Kansas City of the American Association in midsummer 1928 when Joe Engel came calling.

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Joe Cronin Part 2
 

Player #128C Part 2: Joseph E. "Joe" Cronin. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1928-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1945. 2,285 hits and 170 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .390. He was a 7-time All Star. Boston Red Sox #4 retired. Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. In 1956, he was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. His best season was probably 1930 for Washington as he posted a .422 OBP with 127 runs scored and 127 RBIs on 686 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1933-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1947. He was General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1948-1958. He was president of the American League in 1959-1973. When he left the Red Sox in 1959, they were the only MLB team without a black player. He and team owner Tom Yawkey are generally viewed as responsible for this injustice which ended six months after Cronin's departure.

Washington's ace scout (Joe Engel) had been "beating the bushes," looking for a good shortstop the likes of whom the Nats had not had since the departure of Peckinpaugh. As the story goes, the owner of the Kansas City ballclub was entertaining a number of scouts in his brewery one night and proclaimed with discust that a week before, he could have gotten $15,000 for Cronin's contract, but that he'd stupidly turned the offer down. Now, he said, he'd accept $10,000.

Joe Engel, not quite sure he had the authority, nonetheless immediately chimed in with an offer of $7,500. The deal done, he reached Griffith by phone and the old man exploded, wondering very loudly whether Engel had lost it completely by agreeing to pay such a large sum for a minor-league shortstop batting .245. So furious was the old man that Engel thought it best to keep Cronin with him for a week or so while he continued his scouting trip. This seemed far preferable to sending the youngster to Washington right away, and thereby possibly exposing him to Griffith's wrath firsthand.

If Griffith was not smitten with Cronin at first, finding him awkward in the field and with an open stance that showed little likelihood of any power in his batting stroke, he of course came to realize that Joe Engel's purchase had been as good a deal as he'd ever made. Now he'd be making even more money with that investment. Cronin was getting a raise of $2,500 for managing as well as playing in 1933. Griff could thereby pocket the rest of Walter Johnson's $25,000 salary. But what the Old Fox had come to like beyond all else about his perennial all-star shortstop was the man's combativeness. The handsome, square-jowled Irishman had a temper that came to the surface quickly on the field. That was why Clark Griffith made his great shortstop his manager.

A couple of months after being hired, in early December 1932, Joe Cronin arrived in Washington from San Francisco to meet with Griffith and plot strategy for the coming campaign. The owners of the major-league clubs would be meeting the following week in New York for the annual trading sessions. Cronin would come to that meeting with his owner, and he would come prepared. Based on his own experiences as a batter, and on a hunch that the men involved could be acquired by Washington, Cronin announced to Griffith that he had a short list of pitchers that he just had to have. He boldly challenged Griff to get those men for him, emphasizing that from all accounts he'd heard, if there was any baseball man who could make a deal for these men, Clark Griffith was that man. The acclamation may well have helped Cronin's case.

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Joe Cronin Part 3
 

Player #128C Part 3: Joseph E. "Joe" Cronin. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1928-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1945. 2,285 hits and 170 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .390. He was a 7-time All Star. Boston Red Sox #4 retired. Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. In 1956, he was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. His best season was probably 1930 for Washington as he posted a .422 OBP with 127 runs scored and 127 RBIs on 686 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1933-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1947. He was General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1948-1958. He was president of the American League in 1959-1973. When he left the Red Sox in 1959, they were the only MLB team without a black player. He and team owner Tom Yawkey are generally viewed as responsible for this injustice which ended six months after Cronin's departure.

The three pitcher's Cronin named were lefthanders Earl Whitehill of the Tigers and Walter Stewart of the Browns, and righty Jack Russell of the Indians. (This is the same Jack Russell for whom the Phillies' spring training facility in Clearwater, Florida was named -- in his later years, Russell was City Commissioner of Clearwater and instrumental in getting the facility built.) It was Cronin's opinion that the Yankees were the team to beat, and that what separated the Yankees from the Senators was pitching, particularly of the lefthanded variety. Whitehill and Stewart were two who matched up well against the Bronx Bombers. As for Russell, Cronin wanted him for quite another reason -- he had owned the Senators the previous season, and that had to mean something.

Griffith decided to accede to Cronin's demands, possibly spurred on by vanity after Cronin expressed confidence in his skill as a shrewd negotiator. When they got to New York, Cronin was dispatched to the hotel lobby to accost some of the officials of the three teams the Senators wanted to deal with. Their first move was to reverse a trade they had made on June 9 by reobtaining southpaw Carl Fischer (who had had one good year with the Senators in '31 when he went 13-9) in exchange for Dick Coffman. Fischer had gone 3-7 for the Browns after the June deal, but the Detroit Tigers had some interest in him. Coffman, a lefthanded, had registered a 1-6 on a strong Washington club. . . .

. . . Joe Cronin now had all he had asked for, and more. In addition to the three pitchers, the Senators were better set behind the plate with the reliable Sewell. Goose Goslin's lefthanded power and Fred Schulte's righthanded bat were expected to round out an even better outfield with Heinie Manush, the high-percentage lefthanded-hitting left fielder for whom Goslin had been traded 2 1/2 years earlier, being the third flycatcher.

At the Biloxi training camp, the young manager sought to enlist the support of the veterans the way Bucky Harris had during the Senators' salad days in the midtwenties, and he got it. One day, however, General Crowder, yanked out of a game by Cronin, hurled his glove all the way from the mound to the dugout. When fined $25 on the spot, Crowder yelled at Cronin that $25 amounted to a bush-league fine. To which Cronin retorted that Crowder's outburst had been exactly that -- bush. There was nothing bush about General Crowder's results in 1933, however, as he went on to win 24 games, best on the staff. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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General Crowder
 

Player #129B: Alvin F. "General" Crowder. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1926-1927 and 1930-1934. 167 wins and 22 saves in 11 MLB seasons. 1933 All-Star. 1935 World Series champion. 1932 and 1933 AL wins leader. His nickname came from General Enoch Crowder, who designed the World War I draft lottery in the United States. His best season was 1932 for Washington as he posted a 26-13 record and a 3.33 ERA in 327 innings pitched. He was known as "Yankee Killer", for his success against the Yankees and Babe Ruth in particular. He finished his career with the Detroit Tigers in 1934-1936, including a complete-game, 2-1 victory in Game 4 as the Tigers won the World Series in 1935. He pitched in three consecutive World Series in 1933-1935.

We go back to Crowder's SABR biography to pick up the story of his second stint in Washington: Named Opening Day starter in 1932, Crowder pitched a ten-inning, 1-0 shutout of the Red Sox. It set the tone for his career year, arguably the best season for a Senators pitcher not named Walter Johnson. On May 13 he tossed his seventh and final career two-hitter, shutting out the Tigers, 7-0. The General also went 2-for-3 at the plate with a triple, scored once, and knocked in a run. A capable hitter, Crowder batted .221 in 1932 and finished with a career .194 average (164-for-847). He followed his best start in the big leagues with one of his worst slumps, dropping 11 of his next 16 decisions. But after surrendering nine hits and six runs in an ugly five-inning loss to the lowly Browns on July 28, Crowder did not lose again all season. Typically starting on three days’ rest, he reeled off 15 consecutive victories, completed 10 of 15 starts, and proved to be the most durable pitcher in the major leagues, leading both leagues in wins (26), innings (327), and starts (39). Only teammate Firpo Marberry appeared in more games (54), though he relieved in 39 of them. . . .

. . . Since the Senators’ two-year reign as the American League champions (1924-25), the Yankees and Athletics had captured every AL crown, and it appeared to be the same by June 1933. But the Senators overcame a six-game deficit to tie the Yankees behind Crowder’s tenth win in a slugfest against the White Sox on June 22. Washington went 62-30 after that to cruise to the pennant. Crowder and Whitehill formed the best pitching duo in the league. The General pitched consistently all season, won a league-high 24 games, and logged 299⅓ innings, second most in the league; Whitehill won a career-high 22 games. Respected by his fellow players and managers, Crowder was one of five pitchers (Crowder, Wes Ferrell, Lefty Gomez, Lefty Grove, and Oral Hildebrand) chosen by Connie Mack to represent the American League in the inaugural All-Star Game, held at Comiskey Park. The General pitched three innings, surrendering three hits and two runs in the junior circuit’s 4-2 victory.

The winningest pitcher in baseball from the previous two seasons struggled in the World Series against the New York Giants, “appear[ing] to be pitched out.” Crowder breezed through the first five innings of Game Two, but then yielded seven hits leading to six runs in the sixth inning and was tagged with the loss. Facing elimination in Game Five, Crowder failed to make it out of the sixth inning once again and was rocked for seven hits and three runs in 5⅓ innings. The Giants won the game and the World Series on Mel Ott’s tenth-inning home run.

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Goose Goslin Part 1
 

Player #90H Part 1: Leon A. "Goose" Goslin. Left fielder for the Washington Senators in 1921-1930, 1933, and 1938. 2,735 hits and 248 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. 1936 All-Star. 1924 and 1935 World Series champion. 1928 AL batting champion. 1924 AL RBI leader. 1968 inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. He drove in the game-winning, walk-off run to win the 1935 World Series for the Detroit Tigers. With Gehringer and Greenberg, was one of the Detroit "G-Men". In 1936 he had an inside-the-park HR when both outfielders (Joe DiMaggio and Myril Hoag) collided and were knocked unconscious. He had one of his best seasons for the WS-winning Washington Senators in 1924 as he posted a .421 OBP with 100 runs scored and 129 RBIs in 674 plate appearances.

The minute Goslin heard that Walter Johnson had been fired as the Nats manager, he knew he’d end up back in Washington. On December 14, 1932, he was traded back to the Senators with left-hander Walter Stewart and outfielder Fred Schulte. The Browns received outfielders Sam West and Carl Reynolds and pitcher Lloyd Brown. When he traveled to Washington to sign his 1933 contract, sportswriters immediately noticed how he had changed during his tenure in St. Louis. The years away from Washington matured him; he was no longer as loud or boisterous as previously remembered.

Goslin fancied himself a managerial candidate and reportedly thought he’d be in line for the Senators’ top job; however, Joe Cronin was appointed the new skipper. Washington won the 1933 pennant but was defeated in the World Series by the New York Giants.

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Goose Goslin Part 2
 

Player #90H Part 2: Leon A. "Goose" Goslin. Left fielder for the Washington Senators in 1921-1930, 1933, and 1938. 2,735 hits and 248 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. 1936 All-Star. 1924 and 1935 World Series champion. 1928 AL batting champion. 1924 AL RBI leader. 1968 inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. He drove in the game-winning, walk-off run to win the 1935 World Series for the Detroit Tigers. With Gehringer and Greenberg, was one of the Detroit "G-Men". In 1936 he had an inside-the-park HR when both outfielders (Joe DiMaggio and Myril Hoag) collided and were knocked unconscious. He had one of his best seasons for the WS-winning Washington Senators in 1924 as he posted a .421 OBP with 100 runs scored and 129 RBIs in 674 plate appearances.

Goslin never agreed with Cronin’s management style and the differences resulted in a trade to Detroit after the season. Coming off a subpar 1933 season (.297, 64 RBIs) and thought to be washed up, he was swapped for outfielder John “Rocky” Stone. On the surface the edge in the trade appeared to go to the Senators; however, the Tigers specifically sought a more powerful left-handed bat to complement the right-handed power of young Hank Greenberg.

Mickey Cochrane became player-manager of the Tigers in 1934, and Goslin further helped the pennant-bound Tigers by recommending that Cochrane deal for General Crowder to strengthen the pitching staff. The addition of both Goslin and Crowder helped the Tigers secure the 1934 flag, their first pennant since 1909.

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Sheriff Harris
 

Player #133B:Player #133B: David S. "Dave" Harris. "Sheriff". Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1930-1934. 406 hits and 32 home runs in 7 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Boston Braves in 1925. His best season was 1931 for Washington as he posted a .434 OBP with 50 RBIs in 284 plate appearances.

Harris said that he had never been a sheriff but had once been deputized. He was described as "essentially an uneducated hillbilly" and said he had been deputized to chase mule thieves in the Carolinas.

He roomed with Moe Berg in 1932, and oddly enough they got along well.

Harris had four plate appearances in the 1933 World Series, going 0-for-2 but getting two walks.

Harris played roughly equal amounts of right and left field, and also played occasionally in center field, at third base and at first base. However, his defensive appearances number only 395, while his offensive appearances number 542, so he was clearly being used as a pinch-hitter rather frequently too.

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Joe Judge
 

Player #73I: Joseph I. "Joe" Judge. First baseman with the Washington Senators in 1915-1932. 2,352 hits and 71 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. In 1924, as Washington won the AL pennant and the World Series, he had one of his better years as he posted a .393 OBP with 71 runs scored and 79 RBIs in 593 plate appearances. He finished his career with the Boston Red Sox in 1933-1934. He may have been the basis for the character of Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees, whose author dated Judge's daughter in the 1940's.

Judge's SABR biography: Judge retired (in 1934) with a .298 batting average and a slugging percentage of .422. He knocked in 1,034 runs in his career. He still ranks among the all-time leaders in games (2,084), assists (1,301), putouts (19,264) and double plays (1,500) by a first baseman.

Judge was never far from the game of baseball, or from Washington D.C. for that matter. He was the head coach of the Georgetown University baseball team from 1937 until his retirement in 1958 except for a two-year leave beginning in 1945 as a Senators coach when Ossie Bluege managed the team.

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John Kerr
 

Player #146: John F. Kerr. Second baseman for the Washington Senators in 1932-1934. 388 hits and 6 home runs in 8 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1923. In 1931, for the Chicago White Sox he posted a .324 OBP with 50 RBIs in 490 plate appearances.

After the 1931 season, Kerr was traded to the Senators with outfielder Carl Reynolds in exchange for pitchers Bump Hadley and Sad Sam Jones, as well as infielder Jackie Hayes, who would replace him as the starting second baseman. He spent the next three seasons on the Senators' bench behind second baseman Buddy Myer and future Hall of Fame shortstop Joe Cronin. During his tenure in Washington, he never played more than 51 games. He was on the Senators roster in 1933 when they lost in the World Series to the New York Giants. Kerr's sole appearance came in the finale (Game 5) when he pinch ran for centerfielder Fred Schulte with 2 out in the bottom of the 10th inning. In 1935, he served as a coach for the Senators, but in 1936 he became a player-manager in the Boston Red Sox organization.

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Joe Kuhel
 

Player #135B: Joseph A. "Joe" Kuhel. First baseman for the Washington Senators in 1930-1937 and 1944-1946. 2,212 hits and 131 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. He had 107 RBIs in Washington's pennant-winning 1933 season, but his best season was probably 1936 as he posted an OBP of .392 with 118 RBIs and 107 runs scored in 660 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1948-49.

Kuhel's SABR biography covers his 1933 season: Walter Johnson had replaced Bucky Harris as the Washington skipper in 1929, and the Senators had topped 90 victories in each season 1930-1932. Despite a winning record, club owner Clark Griffith was forced by dwindling attendance to replace Johnson (and his $25,000 salary) with his shortstop, Joe Cronin.

By now Kuhel was firmly entrenched at first base, giving the Senators a solid infield with Ossie Bluege at third base, Cronin at short, and Buddy Myer at second base. The Senators solidified their club with the additions of veterans Luke Sewell, Fred Schulte, and Goose Goslin for the 1933 season. Led by General Crowder (24-15), Earl Whitehill (22-8), and Lefty Stewart (15-6), the Senators pitching staff was sound.

In late July and early August of 1933, Washington played the Yankees, the closest competition for the flag, eight times. They split both series at four games apiece. However, the two victories over New York in August were a springboard to a 13-game win streak, culminating with a doubleheader sweep of the Browns on August 20. The Senators opened up an 8 ½-game lead and never looked back.

Kuhel led the team in home runs with 11, was second on the team in batting with a .322 average and RBIs with 107. He also collected a career-high 194 hits and smacked 34 doubles. One of the biggest offensive days of his career occurred on May 16, 1933, at Griffith Stadium, as Kuhel went 5-for-8 in a twelve-inning, 11-10 victory over Cleveland. Kuhel hit a home run and drove in a career-high five runs, the last one the game-winner in the bottom of the twelfth inning.

However, the New York Giants made quick work of the Senators, as it took only five games to win the World Series. Kuhel cooled off considerably, batting .150 with three hits and one RBI.

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Heinie Manush -- Part 1
 

Player #136B Part 1: Henry E. "Heinie" Manush. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1930-1935. 2,524 hits and 110 home runs in 17 MLB seasons. Had a .330 career batting average. 1934 All-Star. 1926 AL batting champion. Had more than 200 hits four times. In 1964, was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. Debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1923. Leading batter on the 1933 Washington Senator team that won the AL pennant. First and last player to be ejected from a World Series game. Had 241 hits in 1928. Coach for the Washington Senators in 1953-1954.

Manush's SABR biography goes on . . . the Tigers paid for their quick dismissal of the former batting champ, who returned to the top of the batting race in 1928. He was in a battle with Washington slugger Goose Goslin for the batting title. Again, Manush finished the season at .378, almost completely reversing his 80-point slide from the prior season. Fittingly, the Tigers and Senators faced off on the final day of the season. After July, Goslin was still hitting above .400, and had a comfortable lead in the batting race. He cooled off in August, but by the end of the month was still leading the league and appeared on his way to his first batting title. In September, Manush got hot and closed in on Goslin, setting the stage for an unusual conclusion to the season.

As luck would have it the Senators were scheduled to play the last four games of the season in St. Louis, with Goslin’s average at .376, Manush’s at .372. In the first two games Manush went 5-for-8, but Goslin retained his lead by going 2-for-3 in the third game and had a two-point lead with one game left to be played. Players on both teams wanted to help their respective teammate win the title, and the umpiring crew was fully aware of the close battle, including the man who would get the assignment to work behind the plate for the final game of the season, Bill Guthrie.

Goslin struck out and grounded out the first two times he came to the plate, then got hold of one and sent it over the center field fence. But in his next at-bat he grounded out to fall three-tenths of a point behind. Manush, however, made an out in his last at-bat to give Goslin a one-point lead.

With the game headed into the top of the ninth, Goslin was due to bat. A note came to the dugout from the press box updating Goslin on the batting race, with the author including his advice to sit out the at-bat, reminding him if he batted and made an out he would lose the title. Joe Judge warned him Manush might think he was yellow if a pinch-hitter batted for him. The other players got involved in the conference, with everyone giving his opinion, and as the debate went on Goslin made a decision. He would bat. (We'll finish this tomorrow.)

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Heinie Manush Part 2
 

Player #136B Part 2: Henry E. "Heinie" Manush. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1930-1935. 2,524 hits and 110 home runs in 17 MLB seasons. Had a .330 career batting average. 1934 All-Star. 1926 AL batting champion. Had more than 200 hits four times. In 1964, was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. Debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1923. Leading batter on the 1933 Washington Senator team that won the AL pennant. First and last player to be ejected from a World Series game. Had 241 hits in 1928. Coach for the Washington Senators in 1953-1954.

. . . In no time Goslin was in trouble with two strikes, no balls, and his (1928) batting title in jeopardy (of being lost to Manush). He thought of an idea to save his title: if he could make the umpire angry enough to throw him out of the game, he therefore wouldn’t be charged with an out and would preserve the batting title. And what better umpire was there than Bull Guthrie, who had a short fuse, and was known to be quick to eject a player.

“Why those weren’t even close,” Goslin told Guthrie.

“Listen, wise guy, there’s no such thing as close or not close. It’s either dis or dat,” responded Guthrie.

Goslin responded by acting mad; he yelled, stepped on Guthrie’s big feet, and called him names. Guthrie waited for Goslin to finish before speaking.

“OK, are you ready to bat now? You are not going to get thrown out of this ball game no matter what you do, so you might as well get up to the plate. If I wanted to throw you out, I’d throw you to Oshkosh. But you are going to bat, and you better be up there swinging. No bases on balls, do you hear me?”

Goslin heard him, all right. The next pitch Goslin swung and hit a fly ball to right-center field. Browns right fielder Beauty McGowan, knowing if he made the catch Manush would win the batting title, ran hard, reached out with his glove hand, but couldn’t get the ball in time, and when the ball landed on the outfield grass Goslin won the batting title.

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Alex McColl
 

Player #147: Alexander B. "Alex" McColl. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1933-1934. 4 wins and 2 saves in 2 MLB seasons. He made his MLB debut at age 39, one of 8 players in MLB history to debut at 39 or older. He pitched two perfect innings in Game 2 of the 1933 World Series.

Alex McColl was an American professional baseball pitcher who appeared in 46 games in Major League Baseball for the Washington Senators in 1933 and 1934. McColl made his MLB debut at the age of 39, one of eight pitchers in MLB history to debut at 39 or older.

McColl had played for 18 seasons in the minor leagues before making his major league debut with pennant-bound Washington on August 29, 1933, by throwing 3 1⁄3 innings of shutout relief against the Cleveland Indians. In his fifth career game, McColl recorded two perfect innings in Game 2 of the 1933 World Series against the New York Giants, retiring Hall of Famers Mel Ott and Travis Jackson in the process.

His 46 American League games pitched included three starts. He posted a 4–4 won–lost record and a 3.70 earned run average, with two complete games and three saves. In 119 innings pitched, he allowed 142 hits and 43 bases on balls, and registered 34 strikeouts.

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Buddy Myer
 

Player #139B: Charles S. "Buddy" Myer. Second baseman with the Washington Senators in 1925-1927 and 1929-1941. 2,131 hits and 38 home runs in 17 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .389. 2-time All-Star. 1935 AL Batting champion. 1928 AL Stolen Base leader. His best season was 1935 for Washington as he posted a .440 OBP with 115 runs scored and 100 RBI's in 719 plate appearances. He was involved in one of baseball's most violent brawls when he was spiked and possibly racially derided by the Yankees' Ben Chapman.

We will follow Myer's SABR biography as we track his career -- Part 2: . . . Myer’s next stop (in 1925, after rejections by Cleveland and Cincinnati) was the New Orleans Pelicans’ training camp. When the Pelicans offered him a contract, his older brother, Jesse, stepped in to represent him and asked for the same (as the one rejected by Cleveland) $1,000 bonus. New Orleans manager Larry Gilbert said he had never heard of a young player demanding a bonus (probably not true) and had never seen a young player bring along an agent (probably true). The team gave him what he wanted.

The Pelicans had an instant star, a left-handed hitting shortstop with quick feet and a quick bat. A first year professional in the fast Class A Southern Association got the attention of major league scouts. Washington scout Joe Engel claimed to have stolen Myer from under the nose of a rival from the Chicago Cubs. Washington paid $17,500 for him in June, according to contemporary accounts, and agreed to let him stay with New Orleans for the rest of the season. Soon other big league clubs were offering more money. The Pelicans tried to buy him back from the Senators, but owner Clark Griffith wasn’t selling.

In August Myer was batting .336 when a spike wound on his leg became infected. He contracted blood poisoning, had surgery, and went home to recover. Griffith, hearing that his expensive prospect was seriously ill, sent his own man to fetch Myer to Washington. The young player was carried off the train on a stretcher.

His sudden departure raised a stink in New Orleans. Some fans suspected that Myer and Griffith had concocted a fake illness so the shortstop could join the Senators right away. Griffith denied the charge in a letter to a Times-Picayune columnist, adding that Myer “was deeply grieved to think anyone in New Orleans would accuse him of disloyalty, as he gave everything he had when he was playing for them.” After several weeks of treatment, he got into four games at the end of the season.

The Senators won their second straight American League pennant in 1925. In Game 2 of the World Series against Pittsburgh, Washington third baseman Ossie Bluege was beaned. Myer, seven months removed from a college campus, went in as a pinch runner and was thrown out stealing. He delivered a single in his only at-bat. He started the next two games at third before Bluege was able to return.

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Sam Rice
 

Player #74P: Edgar C. "Sam" Rice Part 1. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1915-1933. 2,987 hits and 34 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. 1920 AL stolen base leader. He was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 1963. Led the Senators to three AL pennants (1924,1925, and 1933). Best known for controversial "over the fence" catch in the 1925 World Series. He had many excellent seasons, but one of his best was 1930 as he posted a .407 OBP with 121 runs scored in 669 plate appearances. He had 63 stolen bases in 1920. He last played in 1934 with the Cleveland Indians. His early life was marred by tragedy when his wife, two daughters, parents, and two sisters were all killed by a tornado in Indiana.

Carroll takes us to the end of the 1933 season and, sadly, the end of Rice's time with the Nationals: After the Giants were finally set down (after gaining a one-run lead in the top of the eleventh inning of Game 4 in the 1933 World Series, a Series they led two-games-to-one), the bottom of the eleventh began. It was an inning that would haunt (Washington player-manager, Joe) Cronin all offseason and perhaps for the rest of what would turn out to be a brief managerial stay in Washington.

Cornered into a desperate situation, (Fred) Schulte got Washington hopes going, singling to left field to begin the inning. (Joe) Kuhel, who had started the fourth-inning rally with a bunt that Hubbell mishandled, laid one down again. And he was safe again, a bunt single that put two men on base with nobody out.

(Ossie) Bluege, up next, made the first out of the inning on a sacrifice bunt. It was Cronin's first strategic call of the frame. It wouldn't be his last.

The Senators now had runners on second and third with just one out. A base hit would likely win the game and knot the series at two games apiece. But now it was time for Terry to counter Cronin's move, and he intentionally walked (Luke) Sewell to load the bases. He made one more key move -- though he was in trouble in the eleventh, Terry, after consulting with his ace, decided to stick with Hubbell.

Now it was decision time for Cronin. The pitcher's spot was up, and the young manager scanned his dugout for a man who could come up clutch with the season potentially on the line. Dave Harris had already entered the game earlier, taking over for Manush in left field. His choices came down to Rice and catcher Cliff Bolton. . . . (To be finished tomorrow.)

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Sam Rice
 

Player #74P: Edgar C. "Sam" Rice Part 2. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1915-1933. 2,987 hits and 34 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. 1920 AL stolen base leader. He was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 1963. Led the Senators to three AL pennants (1924,1925, and 1933). Best known for controversial "over the fence" catch in the 1925 World Series. He had many excellent seasons, but one of his best was 1930 as he posted a .407 OBP with 121 runs scored in 669 plate appearances. He had 63 stolen bases in 1920. He last played in 1934 with the Cleveland Indians. His early life was marred by tragedy when his wife, two daughters, parents, and two sisters were all killed by a tornado in Indiana.

. . . Cronin settled on Bolton. Almost immediately, Giants coach Charley Dressen hopped out of the dugout, consulting with shortstop Blondy Ryan. Dressen had remembered Bolton from the days when they both were in the Southern League, and instructed his shortstop to shade toward second base -- Bolton was a dead-pull hitter.

The positioning was perfect. Bolton hit a sharp grounder directly to where Ryan was standing, and the shortstop scooped up the ball and started a game-ending double play. The Giants lead was three games to one, and they would go for the clinch the next day.

If Cronin's selection of the seldom-used Bolton over Rice in Game Four wasn't enough to symbolize the end of Rice's long tenure with the Washington organization, the next day would see to it. Though fighting for their postseason life, the Senators battled to a 3-3 tie through nine innings, and the game again went into extra innings.

In the tenth, Mel Ott lifted a fly ball to deep center field, and (Fred) Schulte got his glove on the ball. But as he crashed into the fence, the ball squirted out of his glove and the ball landed in the first row of seats for what would turn out to be a game-winning and World Series-clinching home run.

In the 1925 World Series, Rice had tumbled into the bleachers to rob Pittsburgh's Earl Smith of a sure home run. Eight years later, one of the men who had squeezed him out of the Senators outfield had not only been unable to duplicate the feat, he had actually knocked the ball into the stands.

With Rice watching from what had become his customary spot on the Washington bench, his teammates went down quietly in the bottom of the inning. (Sam Rice by Jeff Carroll.)

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Jack Russell
 

Player #148: Jack E. Russell. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1933-1936. 85 wins and 39 saves in 15 MLB seasons. 1934 All-Star. He debuted with the Boston Red Sox in 1926. His best season was 1933 for Washington as posted a 12-6 record with 13 saves and a 2.69 ERA in 124 innings pitched. He ended his career with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1940.

Deveaux details the acquisition of Russell: President Alva Bradley of the Cleveland Indians was the next to be brought in by Cronin to talk turkey with Griffith at the late 1932 New York meetings. The Senators were playing on Cleveland's desperate need for a first baseman. Secure in his belief that Joe Kuhel would be around for a long time (which would prove to be correct), Washington would part with promising Harley Boss from its Chattanooga farm club and an undisclosed amount of cash for Jack Russell, the third pitcher Cronin had requested for his team. Russell at this time had an atrocious 46-98 record in the big leagues, but the 27-year-old had spent most of his career in the National League with the sad-sack Boston Braves. Griffith even managed to wrangle an outfielder, Bruce Connatser, from Bradley as part of this exchange. This would prove of no consequence as, Connatser, a part-timer with the Indians the two previous years, never again appeared in a single major-league game. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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Fritz Schulte
 

Player #149A: Fred W. "Fritz" Schulte. Center fielder for the Washington Senators in 1933-1935. 1,241 hits and 47 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .362. He debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1927. His best year was 1932 for St. Louis as he posted a .373 OBP with 106 runs scored in 639 plate appearances. He also posted a .366 OBP with 98 runs scored in 622 plate appearances in 1933 as Washington won the AL pennant. He finished his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1936-1937.

Deveaux explains how Schulte came to Washington: To make it a three-for-three transaction (as Washington traded Sam West, Carl Reynolds and Lloyd Brown to St. Louis for Lefty Stewart and Goose Goslin), the Senators settled on righthanded outfielder Fred Schulte, who'd enjoyed what was for him a typical .294 season in '32.

The loss of centerfielder Sam West had to be seen as leaving the biggest void on the Washington side, and he would indeed hit an even .300 and nearly double his home run output for St. Louis in 1933. But the Browns would finish last. The mild-mannered Schulte, truly a fine fielder, kept right on hitting and would drive in nearly twice as many runs for the Senators as West would for the Browns while batting .295. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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Luke Sewell
 

Player #150: James L. "Luke" Sewell. Catcher for the Washington Senators in 1933-1934. 1,393 hits and 20 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. 1937 All-Star. He debuted with the Cleveland Indians in 1921. His best season at the plate came in 1933 for Washington as he posted a .335 OBP with 65 runs scored and 61 RBI's in 537 plate appearances. He finished his playing career while managing the St. Louis Browns in 1942. He managed St. Louis in 1941-1946. He also managed the Cincinnati Reds 1949-1952.

We let Deveaux explain Sewell's introduction to Washington: The (December 1932) trade with the Indians may have been incomplete, for at the end of the first week of January, another deal was struck. The Senators sent their most reliable catcher, Roy Spencer, to Cleveland, for Luke Sewell, an experienced veteran receiver. Sewell, a year younger than Spencer and at least his equal as a hitter, had turned 32 two days before the trade was made. He had hit .253 in 300 at-bats for the Browns in '32, and was a good defensive catcher, as demonstrated by the fact that he'd led American League backstops in assists three years straight years, 1926-28. He had already spent 12 years in the American League, all with the Indians, and was the younger brother of future Hall of Famer Joe Sewell. (The same Joe Sewell who had begun his career under a microscope as the replacement for star shortstop Ray Chapman of the Indians, the victim of the majors' only on-field player fatality, in 1920.) (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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Lefty Stewart
 

Player #151: Walter C. "Lefty" Stewart. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1933-1935. 101 wins and 8 saves in 10 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1921. His best season was 1930 with the St. Louis Browns as he posted a 20-12 record with a 3.45 ERA in 271 innings pitched. He ended his career with the Cleveland Indians in 1935.

Deveaux gives us the trade that brought Stewart (among others) to Washington: The trade for Whitehill (which sent Firpo Marberry to the Tigers) appeared relatively insignificant, however, compared to the other deal swung by the Senators on the same day, December 14, 1932. Since the firing of Walter Johnson, Goose Goslin, who didn't get along with Johnson, had put the word out to Clark Griffith that he would love to come back to the capital. As Griffith negotiated with the Browns for Walter "Lefty" Stewart in exchange for Sammy West, he kept Goslin's plea in mind. He offered Carl Reynolds if the Browns would include Goose, who'd hit .299 with 17 homers and 104 ribbies in the last campaign. The Browns didn't think that was quite equitable, and asked Griffith about Lloyd Brown, the lefty who'd won 15 in '32. (Brown would never again win more than nine games in a season and would be gone from St. Louis after just eight games at the start of the '33 campaign.)

Deveaux goes on about Lefty: Stewart born in 1900 in central Tennessee, nearly died in 1927 when his appendix burst while he was out hunting. Told he'd never play baseball again, lefty persisted and eventually proved the experts wrong. Nevertheless, he was only 24-26 over three years with the Browns, who had been enjoying relatively good years over that same period. Then, in 1930, Stewart came into his own, sounding the death knell for the Washington Senators in the process. Lefty beat the second-place Nats five times that year on his way to a breakthrough 20-12 season during which the Browns made a swift return to mediocrity. While he remained the Brownie's ace in '31 and '32, he recorded a composite 28-36 over those two seasons. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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The below entry evidently got attached to the wrong thread. I am tipping the Net54 world back into semi-equilibrium with the attached post from earlier today.

Brian

Tommy Thomas
 

(Thanks Brian: I'm not sure where this post ended up, and I appreciate Brian's rescue. It looks "wrong" on my desktop, however, so I am inserting it again, just for the record.)

Player 119B: Alphonse "Tommy" Thomas. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1932-1935. 117 wins and 13 saves in 12 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1926-1932. His best season was 1927 with Chicago as he posted a 19-16 record with a 2.98 ERA in 307.2 innings pitched. He finished his career with the Boston Red Sox in 1937.

Thomas' SABR biography talks to his injury-prone career in Washington: Thomas was still having arm problems during the summer of 1932 but still managed to win games on three consecutive days for the Senators in the middle of July. The first two victories were in relief, and on July 16th he threw a five-hit shutout against the St. Louis Browns. At the end of the season, he had surgery to remove a growth in his pitching arm and to relieve what was reported in the newspapers to be a locked elbow. The numerous innings that Tommy pitched during his early days on the mound contributed heavily to the myriad of injuries and maladies he struggled with later in life.

Tommy was a decent pitcher for Washington over the next few years, but the harsh reality was that his arm was never the same after the 1932 operation. The Senators captured the American League pennant in 1933 but lost out to the New York Giants in the Fall Classic. Thomas, playing in his first and only World Series, made two brief relief appearances, allowing one hit in a little over an inning of work.

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Montie Weaver
 

Player #152A: Montie M. Weaver. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1931-1938. 71 wins and 4 saves in 9 MLB seasons. In 1933 as Washington won the AL pennant, he posted a 10-5 record with a 3.25 ERA in 152.1 innings pitched. He finished his career with the Boston Red Sox in 1939.

Weaver's SABR biography sums him up and then takes us though his 1933 season in Washington: Sportswriters treated pitcher Monte Weaver as a curiosity during his nine seasons with the Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox. He was a college professor, a mathematician, a hypochondriac and – most radically – a vegetarian, according to the sports pages. . . .

. . . In that game (April 19, 1933, against the New York Yankees) Weaver was the beneficiary of what Povich called “the play of the century.” Lou Gehrig reached base on a topped ball that traveled only four feet. Gehrig advanced to second and Dixie Walker was on first when Tony Lazzeri hit a drive to right-center. Gehrig held up until he was sure Goslin couldn’t catch the ball. Then he took off, with the speedy Walker close behind. The relay – Goslin to Cronin to catcher Luke Sewell – cut down Gehrig at the plate, and Sewell spun around to tag Walker for a double play at home. Clark Griffith said, “Forty-eight years in baseball and I’ve never seen the likes of it before.”

The revamped Nats won the 1933 pennant, the last for a Washington team. Weaver pitched even better than in his rookie season – when he was able. He missed more than a month with a sore right shoulder. Without him, the Nats charged into a pennant race with the Yankees. When he recovered, he contributed six wins to the club’s successful stretch drive, two of them over the Yankees.

That summer Povich commented that Weaver was “given to worrying over every ailment, be it hang-nail or toe-nail.” It was the first mention of what would become a familiar criticism. He also acquired a new sports-page nickname: “Brain Truster” Monte Weaver, after the college professors who advised the new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Weaver finished with a 10-5 record in 21 starts; his 3.26 ERA was ninth best in the league. Cronin chose him to start the fourth game of the World Series, with Washington trailing the New York Giants two games to one. His opponent was Carl Hubbell, that season’s National League MVP, who had beaten the Nats in game one.

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Earl Whitehill
 

Player #153A: Earl O. Whitehill. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1933-1936. 218 wins and 11 saves in 17 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1923-1932. His best season came as Washington won the AL pennant in 1933 as he posted a 22-8 record with an ERA of 3.33 in 270 innings pitched. He ended his career with the Chicago Cubs in 1939. His only World Series start was a complete game shutout in Game 3 of the 1933 World Series, which Washington lost in 5 games.

Deveaux addresses Whitehill's entry to Washington: On the following day (December14, 1932), (Carl) Fischer became part of a trade that also brought Earl Olliver Whitehill to Washington, but the cost was much higher than just Fischer. The Tigers insisted on Firpo Marberry, the starter-reliever who'd recorded a stunning 39-13 record over the past three years. However, Marberry had passed his 34th birthday two weeks earlier. Earl Whitehill was only two months younger, but he'd been logging a lot of innings for the Tigers for ten years and was considered a reliable starter and a fierce competitor. Whitehill took a back seat to no one on the field -- he was a win-at-all-costs type of player, as evidenced by his arguments with his manager at Detroit, Ty Cobb, whenever the abrasive Cobb came to the mound to tell him how to pitch.

Dubbed the "Earl" for his dazzling wardrobe, good looks (he was married to the model who gained perpetual life by posing as the original Sunshine Raisin girl), and temperamental air, Whitehill wasn't afraid to tell off teammates or umpires, depending on the particular game situation. While Marberry would have a good year for Detroit, posting a 16-11 record, Earl Whitehill, who'd never won more than 17 for the Tigers, would win 22 games and be the Senators' best pitcher in 1933. Whitehill would eventually retire from baseball with 217 wins, but with the highest ERA (4.36) of any 200-game winner in history. He regularly walked more batters than he struck out in a season, and as late as the 1980s he was still on the top-ten all-time list for bases on balls given up over a career. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

(We are now going to pause briefly before beginning treatment of the 1933 World Series. Expected re-start: Sunday.)

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1933 World Series -- Washington at New York Giants
 

If the Senators dominated the league in 1933, Bill Terry's New York Giants did the same in the rival loop, emerging as clear-cut champs with a five-game edge over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The upcoming World Series would pit two "boy managers" against one another. At 34, Terry had taken over from John McGraw early in the 1932 campaign, marking the end of the Lil' General's 30-year reign as the Giants' field boss. Cronin, eight years Terry's junior, became the youngest manager in World Series history, a distinction he still held at the beginning of this century.

So it would be, as in 1924, a confrontation between the Giants and the Senators. However, unlike the '24 Giants team, which was built around hitting, this outfit centered around an outstanding pitching staff. Its ace was Carl Hubbell (Hubbell would be forever remembered in baseball lore for something that would happen during the following year. In the 1934 All-Star game, he struck out, in succession, no less a group of sluggers than Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin.), a lanky, floppy-eared, 30-year-old lefthander who'd been pitching in the National League for six years with some success.

Carl Hubbel's specialty was the screwball, and he delivered it with a slow, cartwheeling movement toward the plate. Until this season, his best showings had been a pair of 18-11 efforts in '29 and '32. But in 1933, Hubbell occupied another stratosphere, leading all National League pitchers in wins (23), ERA (an overpowering 1.66), innings pitched, and shutouts. His ten shutouts were three more than were posted by his teammate, Hal Schumacher, second best in the league in that category. "Prince Hal," a righthander who threw a heavy ball and had a very good overhand curve, went 19-12 with a 2.16 ERA, third best in the league. Hubbell and Schumacher were 1-2 in the N.L. in allowing the fewest number of hits per nine innings, and third on that list was another Giant, Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons, 16-11 with another ERA under 3.00.

Rival managers and future Hall of Famers, Bill Terry and Joe Cronin exchange pleasantries before game 1 at the Polo Grounds:

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1933 World Series -- Game 1 Part 1
 

Giants manager Bill Terry wasted no time making known who his starter would be for the first game -- Carl Hubbell. The lefty's screwball was said to be even more effective against lefthanded hitters, and of theose, Washington had plenty in its starting lineup -- Myer, Goslin, and Manush, who would be penciled into the 1-2-3 slots in the batting order in game one, and Joe Kuhel, who would bat sixth.

It was the Washington Senators, a truly balanced ball club, who were considered runaway favorites to win the 1933 World Series. As the first contest at New York's Polo Grounds, slated for October 3, approached, Joe Cronin remained mum regarding who would start the first game for the Senators. Terry had already declared that Carl Hubbell would win the first and fourth games, and this may have contributed to Cronin's determination to remain silent. After dallying for a week, he settled on a lefthander as well, but baseball observers were shocked that it wasn't Earl Whitehill, the 22-game winner. Instead, Lefty Stewart, loser of only six games all season, got the nod.

Game 1 starters Carl Hubbel and Lefty Stewart shake hands before the contest:

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1933 World Series -- Game 1 Part 2
 

The day of the first game started off very badly for the Senators . . . even before play even began. On his way to the Polo Grounds, lead-off batter Buddy Myer was reportedly a witness to a traffic accident in which a pedestrian was killed. Myer, visibly and understandably shaken by the experience, would make three errors in the field on this day. He was easy prey for Hubbell leading off the game and struck out. Goose Goslin and Heinie Manush both struck out as well.

In the field, right away Myer had to handle a ground ball off the bat of lead-off man Jo-Jo Moore (not the same player as Eddie Moore, the second baseman who'd played for the Pirates against Washington in the 1925 Series). Myer booted the play, and the error would be costly. Lefty Stewart got the next two batters but then Mel Ott, the Giants' most powerful hitter, propelled a drive into the lower rightfield stands.

Stewart, Cronin's "hunch," pitched just two innings. He was lifted after giving up three singles, one of them off the wall, and a run, without getting anyone out in the top of the third. Jack Russell came in and got three straight outs, but another run came in when a shot off the bat of Travis Jackson, a 1924 World Series alumnus, went off Kuhel's glove to Myer, who relayed to Russell covering first.

The Senators scored single runs in the fourth and ninth, both unearned, off Hubbell, who went all the way and gave up just five hits. Buddy Myer opened the fourth with a single, advanced on an error by second baseman Hughie Critz, and scored on Fred Schulte's single. In the top of the ninth, with the Nats still down 4-1, New York shortstop Blondy Ryan muffed a Manush grounder to start the inning. Joe Cronin and Fred Schulte then singled, both of them for the second time in the game. Here were the makings of a rally. Joe Kuhel then grounded to short for the first out. Manush scored. The next batter, Ossie Bluege, struck out for the third time, proving that Hubbell was no picnic for righthanded hitters either. Luke Sewell then grounded to short to end the game.

The Caption on the reverse of this photograph reads: "With New Yorkers still bemoaning the decline of Babe Ruth as their son of swat, a new idol popped into the picture at the Polo Grounds in the first game of the series between Giants and Senators yesterday. 'Twas Mel Ott. To make the roaring fans forget Babe Ruth for the day at least, Ott tied a World Series record with a homer and three singles out of four official times at bat. He drove across three of his team's four runs."

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1933 World Series -- Game 2
 

The events of game two would in no way inspire any second guessing about Joe Cronin having picked Lefty Stewart as his starting pitcher in the Series opener. This is because of what happened when the Nats' top winner, General Alvin Crowder, was handed the ball for the second game. With two down in the third, Goose Goslin, hitless in his first five at-bats in this Series, belted a Hal Schumacher pitch into the upper right field stands. The ball sailed over a sign sponsored by the NRA proclaiming "We Do Our Part." Crowder was doing his part, coasting through the first five innings, giving up just one walk and two harmless singles.

In the sixth, however, the roof caved in. In the top half, the Nats had men on second and third with one out when Goslin, the lead runner, got caught in a rundown when Fred Schulte grounded toward third. Joe Kuhel walked to load the bases, but Ossie Bluege struck out for the fourth time in five official at-bats so far in the Series. In the bottom of the inning, the Giants sent 12 batters to the plate, bunching seven singles, a double by Terry, and an intentional walk, to score six runs and chase Crowder. The tying and winning runs were driven in by pinch hitter Lefty O'Doul, a pitcher who had been transformed into an outfielder while already in his thirties. O'Doul had proceeded to win the National League batting championship in 1930 with a .398 average.

Tommy Thomas came in to relieve Crowder with two outs and the score 6-1, and gave up an inconsequential infield single before getting Bill Terry to ground into a force play to end the slaughter. The score remained as it was at the end of New York's six-run sixth, 6-1. The Giants, who had ten hits in each of the first two games to the Senators' five in each game, were well positioned now with a 2-0 lead with the sixth and seventh games, should the Senators succeed in rendering them necessary, to be played at the Polo Grounds.

One aside to this unhappy story from the Nationals' perspective was that Sam Rice, owner of a .290 career batting average in the World Series, got one last crack at the bat. The 43-year-old was brought in as a pinch hitter for Tommy Thomas after the sixth-inning debacle. With one out in the top of the seventh, Rice singled to center to raise his average above the magical .300 barrier (.302) for all eternity. As things would go, this was Sam Rice's final at-bat with the Senators after having donned a Washington uniform over a span of 19 consecutive years. (Note: Deveaux makes mention here of Rice's career .302 average in the World Series; his career average in the regular season is .322.)

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1933 World Series -- Game 3 Part 1
 

The weather may not have matched the mood at Griffith Stadium for the third game on October 5. The teams had traveled by train from New York, and there were still no off days scheduled during the fall classics of this era. It rained hard before the game, drenching a relatively sparce crowd of under 26,000 which included President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a large congressional retinue -- the largest, it was said, ever to see a baseball game. President Roosevelt threw out the first ball, and the custom then in vogue was for the players to scramble to catch it. On this occasion, a wild melee ensued, and it was lucky on one was injured. For the record, it was Heinie Manush who finally emerged from the scrum with the ball.

A short while earlier, Joe Cronin had a few choice words for his troops. As manager, but also as their shortstop, he told them that he hoped every man in the room was as ashamed as he was about what had happened in New York. He told them that they were a better team than the New York Giants, and now was the time to show that.

Cronin's words didn't hurt. As the Giants had done in the first game, the Senators struck for two runs right off the bat in this one. After Earl Whitehill mowed New York down in order, lead-off man Buddy Myer, who up to this point was a dismal 1-for-7 with three errors on only ten fielding chances in the first two games, singled off Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons. Goose Goslin, up next, unloaded on one of Fred's fat ones, propelling it off the top of the fence in right field. Mel Ott gamely retrieved it, keeping Myer from scoring.

After Heinie Manush popped up, Cronin hit a bouncer back to the mound. Myer had moved quickly, however, and Fitzsimmons had no choice but to go for the easy out at first, making the score 1-0 Washington. Fred Schulte kept the rally going, tagging a double to right to bring in Goslin with the second run of the inning. The rally ended moments later when Schulte got caught in a rundown after Kuhel had hit a ground ball toward Travis Jackson, the former shortstop who was just recently starting to play some at the hot corner.

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1933 World Series -- Game 3 Part 2
 

Like Myer had done in the Washington half of the first inning, Ossie Bluege gained a measure of redemption in opening the second. Ossie needed it. He was 0-for-6 with four strikeouts in the Series to date, but this time he banged a double down the third-base line. The veteran Luke Sewell hit expertly behind the runner, and Bluege was quickly moved up to third with one away.

What happened next was thrilling, although it would end up being unimportant. Pitcher Earl Whitehill drove a bouncing ball toward the mound and Fred Fitzsimmons made a split-second decision to try and nab Bluege off third. He didn't, and there were now runners on the corners. The beleaguered Buddy Myer promptly doubled down the first-base line, bringing in a third run and putting Whitehill on third. The next batter, Goslin, drove a fly to left on which Whitehill was given the go-ahead to try and score, but Jo-Jo Moore's relay to Gus Mancuso got Whitehill at the plate and the inning was over. But it was 3-0 Washington.

The flashy Whitehill would allow but six hits on this day and only one for extra bases -- a harmless fourth-inning two-out double which resulted in Travis Jackson being stranded on second. With the score unchanged in the bottom of the seventh, Buddy Myer singled to right, his third hit of the day, off reliever Hi Bell, who'd been brought in after six innings to relieve Fitzsimmons. The hit brought in Luke Sewell, who had beaten out a grounder to short, stolen second, and made it to third when Whitehill grounded to second.

Whitehill, winner of 22 games, the Senators' best lefthander and ace of the staff, completed the shutout, the only one there would be in this Series. He kept hitless the trio of Moore, Terry, and Ott, who between them had made eight hits in the first two games. That Whitehill had had to wait until the third game for his chance, particularly in light of the fact that it was Carl Hubbell's turn again, was an issue that was at this point certainly gaining importance in the psyche of many a fan of the Washington Senators. By Heinie Manush, Whitehill was presented with the hard-earned "game ball" President Roosevelt had thrown out. But would he get another start? The likelihood that Whitehill would pitch again seemed reduced all the more by Cronin's choice of Monte Weaver as his fourth-game starter. If the Senators kept winning and Lefty Stewart and General Crowder did not miss their turns, Whitehill would have to wait until a seventh game.

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1933 World Series -- Game 4 Part 1
 

Weaver and Carl Hubbell were responsible for making game four the jewel of this World Series. With one out in the fourth and Weaver having allowed but a walk and a weak single in the first inning, Bill Terry catapulted a rocket far into the Griffith Stadium centerfield bleachers. It was still 1-0 when the Senators, who had but two singles and a walk off Hubbell after five frames, threatened in the sixth. Buddy Myer, batting first in the inning, had beaten out a base hit into the hole behind second base, and had made it to second courtesy of a Goose Goslin sacrifice.

Up next was Heinie Manush, the American League's second-leading batsman in 1933. Manush knocked the ball on the ground between first and second, and first baseman Bill Terry thought he had a chance to make the play. Carl Hubbell saw that as well and scooted toward first to cover. It was a good thing for the Giants that he did, because it was second baseman Hughie Critz who made a sensational grab in the hole and relayed to Hubbell.

Charley Moran, a National League umpire, motioned that Manush was out, at which time Heinie began gesticulating to indicate to everyone in Griffith Stadium that he could not believe what he was seeing and hearing. Not only did manager Cronin leap out of the dugout, as managers are still wont to do many decades later, but the whole Senators bench was out there to argue the call as well. But players didn't win arguments with the umpires back in the thirties either. What happened next got Manush thrown out of the game. As he passed by Moran while retreating unhappily back to the dugout, he brushed or wiped his hand on the nape of the umpire's neck. Moran wheeled around suddenly and gave Manush the heave-ho.

Heinie didn't abide by the order, though. After Joe Cronin struck out, leaving Myer to die on third, Manush trotted back to his position in left field. Moran would have none of that, but when he began waving for Manush to get off the field, he got an uncomplimentary gesture back. The chief of the umpiring crew, George Moriarty, had to make the long walk to retrieve the outfielder. Following a lengthy discussion, Manush started the long walk back. All the while, the partisan home crowd was screaming for him to stay in.

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1933 World Series -- Game 4 Part 2
 

With Goose Goslin moved over to leftfield and the more defensively uncertain Dave Harris now guarding right, the Senators were not only weaker in the field, but without their best hitter as well. Monte Weaver allowed a one-out double to left center by Jo-Jo Moore, but then got an infield out and a pop-up to the mound to get out of the seventh inning. The Nats then tied the score. Joe Kuhel made it to first safely when Hubbell messed up on his bunt attempt with one out. Cronin opted to go for the sacrifice, which Bluege promptly delivered. Luke Sewell then took the mail all the way home, singling to knot the score at one, bringing immense relief to the assembled partisans.

The Senators nearly took the lead in the eighth following a Myer walk and a Texas League single off the bat of Cronin, but Fred Schulte, who would tie Mel Ott for most RBIs in this Series, couldn't do it this time. His pop-up to the infield ended the inning. The ninth was entirely uneventful from an offensive standpoint, except for New York shortstop Blondy Ryan's single just past Joe Kuhel's head to lead off the inning. In the tenth, Weaver, being kept in the game (a very unhappy move in retrospect), struck out. Buddy Myer continued his torrid hitting, with his second single and third appearance on the bases. He advanced to second on Goslin's groundout, and Dave Harris walked. Cronin then squandered another chance to put his boys ahead, hitting the ball to short for the force at second.

Would this be another 12-inning World Series game, as there were on not one, but two occasions, between these two teams back in '24? With two of the next three games slated for New York, one thing seemed sure -- the Nats could not get down 3-1 in games and realistically expect to come back. Travis Jackson surprised the Senators with a bunt to start the 11th. Jackson was quickly sacrificed to second and Blondy Ryan singled to left to break the tie and the hearts of the Washington faithful. Weaver than yielded a single over Cronin's head to Carl Hubbell, a .183 hitter during the regular season. Cronin had finally seen enough of Weaver and brought Jack Russell into the ballgame. Russell threw four pitches and got the side out, fanning Jo-Jo Moore on three pitches and enticing Hughie Critz to fly out to center on his first offering.

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1933 World Series -- Game 4 Part 3
 

Fred Schulte, who'd had four hits in the first three ballgames but none in this one, restored some hope with a single over shortstop for the Senators' seventh hit of the ballgame to start the bottom of the 11th. Joe Kuhel, up next, made it eight with a bunt that hugged the first-base line. Bill Terry let the ball roll, hoping it would go foul. Bluege sacrificed an out for the second time in the game, putting the tying run on third and the winning run on second with only one out. With the table set, Luke Sewell wasn't allowed to partake in the banquet. The Giants' brain trust dictated that Sewell be walked, loading the bases with pitcher Jack Russell, who wouldn't bat of course, up next.

The next player called into this high drama was Cliff Bolton, a young reserve catcher who nearly never caught, as the Senators still had Moe Berg to back Sewell behind the Plate. Bolton was with the club for one purpose only -- to come off the bench and drive in some runs. He hit .410 during the season but was given just 39 at-bats (he was 9-for-22 as a pinch hitter, for a .409 mark in that role). But Bolton was a lefthanded hitter, and one might have wondered about the wisdom of letting him face the great lefty, Carl Hubbell. The Senators, after all, had a capable gentleman on the bench who just happened to swing from the right side. He also happened to be the owner of a .323 career batting average over 19 big-league campaigns. We refer, of course, to Sam Rice.

Oh, for what might have been. Bolton did make solid contact, sending a shot toward second. Blondy Ryan, who'd driven in the tie-breaking run in the top of the inning, moved in and scooped up the ball, instantly flipping it to Critz, who completed a game-ending double play by relaying to first on time to nail the slow-footed Bolton. Cronin's failure to drive in runs despite opportunities in the fourth, sixth, and tenth innings, his decision to let Weaver bat for himself in the tenth and continue pitching, his reluctance to send in the illustrious Rice, or Manush's rash behavior to get himself thrown out of the game -- these were all points the second-guessers would be able to mull over forever. But it was really all academic now. The fact of the matter was that the best team in this World Series was but one loss away from elimination.

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1933 World Series -- Game 5 Part 1
 

(Yesterday's entry contained an error regarding the side of the plate from which Sam Rice batted. Rice was a lefthanded batter. Our thanks go to Val Kell (who else) for catching it. While it is embarrassing for me to have to admit I missed the error, it is presented as Deveaux wrote it. I am not going back to yesterday's post and correcting the error because to do so would make Deveaux's text nonsensical. Instead, I apologize for the annoyance, and offer only the timeworn excuse: "Deuce happens!")

Joe Cronin would observe many years later that he wished he'd never agreed to play and manage at the same time. Having had to deal with players, management, and the press, while maintaining a high caliber of play on the field was an exceedingly tall order. After this season, Cronin would nearly reconsider and ask to step down, but would decide not to. That would be something he would always regret.

For the fifth game of the World Series, the New York Giants would evidently be going with Hal Schumacher, winner of game two. Cronin, who'd used four starters, as opposed to Bill Terry's three, opted to break his own pattern and bypass Lefty Stewart, the starter of the first game, and to go instead with General Crowder, the righthander. This seemed, in the eyes of more than a few keen observers, to defy logic. Firstly, Cronin would be playing right into his opponent's power -- the Giants' two best hitters, Bill Terry and Mel Ott, were both lefthanded hitters. Secondly, Cronin had thought enough of Walter Stewart to start him in the all-important first game.

While it was true that Stewart had gotten shelled early in the first game, Crowder had hardly done any better in game two. Given that he been handed the ball less often than had Crowder during the regular season, Stewart had done just as well. Nonetheless, Cronin had more confidence in Crowder during the year, and regardless of the righty-lefty matchup, it would be the General who the Senators would follow into this last battle at Griffith Stadium.

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1933 World Series -- Game 5 Part 2
 

The very first batter of the game, Jo-Jo Moore, singled off Crowder and made it to third on a Bill Terry single. Crowder, though, got out of the inning by striking out the deadly Mel Ott and inducing Kiddo Davis to hit the ball on the ground for an infield force-out. When the General again gave up a lead-off single in the second inning, to Travis Jackson, the Giants, for the fourth time in five games, were the first to score. After Gus Mancuso walked and Blondy Ryan sacrificed for the first out by advancing the runners, pitcher Hal Schumacher, not a particularly good hitter even for a pitcher, singled to center to drive in both runners.

After a 1-2-3 Washington second, Bill Terry opened the Giants' third with, predictably, another single. But Alvin Crowder got nine straight outs and surrendered just a walk in the fourth. The Nats, however, were not generating any kind of offence in support of him. Until the fifth, the only one to get on base was Goose Goslin, who singled past short in the first inning and walked in the fourth.

With two out in the fifth, the Nationals did mount what looked like a serious threat, getting the first two batters on. Fred Schulte had opened with a single, beating a slow roller toward Travis Jackson at third. Schulte quickly found himself on second when Joe Kuhel singled cleanly to left.

With nobody out and the fans entranced now, Ossie Bluege followed the book and attempted to bunt the runners ahead. When Hal Schumacher got two strikes on him, the Nats decided to try again anyway. The bunt attempt went foul, and Bluege was out. After Luke Sewell lined to left, failing to advance any runner, Prince Hal let a pitch slip off his fingers and Schulte made it to third while Kuhel held first. With two out and baserunners on the corners, it was the pitcher's turn to bat, and Joe Cronin let General Crowder take his turn.

In the manager's defense, it was less common in this era to pinch hit for starting pitchers in the middle innings. Nevertheless, Lefty Stewart was on the bench, and so was Jack Russell, who'd already pitched very well in his two appearances, and obviously, the Senators were in desperate need of some runs. In fact, they'd scored but one run since the seventh inning of the third game. The options were Sam Rice, a .294 hitter during the regular season, or Cliff Bolton, a super hitter in a pinch in '33, as the batter in Crowder's stead. But Cronin stuck with his man Crowder, decidingly a poor-hitting pitcher. The Prince got the General to ground out to short.

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1933 World Series -- Game 5 Part 3
 

Again in the top of the sixth, with the Giants still ahead 2-0, New York's first batter, outfielder Kiddo Davis, got a hit off Crowder, this time a double down the leftfield line. Travis Jackson sacrificed Davis along, but it was unnecessary because Gus Mancuso then slammed a double beyond Schulte's reach in Griffith Stadium's very deep center field. This put New York up three runs and knocked Crowder out of the game. Second-guessing aside, everyone in the park then knew that the Senators really had squandered an opportunity to get on the board in the previous half inning.

Jack Russell, who'd allowed but four hits and no walks in 5.2 innings so far in the Series, was brought in. He threw seven pitches and struck out Blondy Ryan and Hal Schumacher to put an end to the Giants' festivities. The downcast crowd was soon upbeat again. In the bottom of the sixth, after Myer and Goslin made routine outs, Heinie Manush and Joe Cronin hit back-to-back singles. Fred Schulte, 1-for-2 and batting .294 for the Series as he stepped up to the plate, then crunched a Schumacher offering and sent it sailing into the left field pavilion for a three-run homer. It was 3-3, just like that.

Now it was anybody's ballgame, and the Nats were showing signs of wanting to make it theirs. Joe Kuhel followed Schulte with a hard smash along the ground that rattled off second baseman Hughie Critz's legs. The ball was hit solidly enough for Kuhel to be credited with a base hit by the official scorer. Ossie Bluege then shot a hot potato toward third that sent Jackson scrambling, but the veteran came up with it. His throw to first was wild, pulling Bill Terry off the bag and allowing Joe Kuhel to bring the tie-breaking run as far as third.

Terry had seen enough, as Prince Hal had given up five consecutive hits, with the latter three crushed particularly hard. A new player was introduced into this Series. Terry called in 43-year-old Cuban Dolph Luque. A Caucasian, Luque had been a big star in American baseball in the 1920s. Having first come to the States in 1912, he'd had a couple of unsuccessful trials with the Boston National League club before catching on with the wartime Cincinnati Reds. He'd won 189 regular-season games since that time, and had shown consistency despite winning 20 or more only once -- in 1923, when he won 27 and led the league in earned run average, which he did again in 1925.

Washington Senators' 1933 Infield Quartet -- Ossie Bluege (3B), Joe Cronin (SS), Buddy Myer (2B), and Joe Kuhel (1B):

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1933 World Series -- Game 5 Part 4
 

In 1933, Luque still had a very good curve, and retained the meanness and guile which allowed him to last 20 years in the major leagues. Luke Sewell, who would hit just .176 in these games, was the first to toe in against the 5'7" portsider. Kuhel and Bluege were left stranded at their stations, as Luque got Sewell to ground out to Critz at second. But the Senators were so much better off than they'd been minutes before.

Jack Russell continued to pitch well, and so did Luque. They coasted through the next three innings, with Russell yielding three inconsequential singles and Luque one. For the second day in a row and the fourth time in 12 games dating back to 1924, a World Series game between these two clubs would be decided in extra innings -- and decided suddenly.

After Russell obtained two easy outs, he served up a pitch to Mel Ott that "Master Melvin" expelled with a long arc toward deep center field. Fred Schulte, the Senators' man of the hour, had a bead on the ball, tracked it, and got his glove on it. Just as he did, he came into collision with the wall and when he did, the ball plopped into the first row of the bleachers. It was a home run. Or was it?

The umpire at second base, Charles Pfirman, thought the ball had bounced off the ground and over the fence, and when Mel Ott reached second, Pfirman stopped him there. Bill Terry came storming out of the Giants' dugout, and Pfirman was coerced into consulting with the plate umpire, who happened to be the crew chief, Charley Moran. With the approbation of Moran, who'd been much further from the play than Pfirman, the call was reversed. It was the right call, though, and the Nats faced elimination as never before in this game.

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1933 World Series -- Game 5 Part 5
 

Joe Cronin, the major leagues' best shortstop, who'd given no evidence in this World Series of being anywhere near that status as a manager, came up to bat with two down in the bottom of the tenth and, worse still, with no one on base. Luque had already disposed of Goslin and Manush, but Cronin got his second straight hit off him, the only Washington player to get on base against "The Pride of Havana." Fred Schulte, who'd gone from hero to goat in a single inning, looked at four straight pitches and bumped Cronin along to second. Everything would rest on the shoulders of the lefthanded-hitting Joe Kuhel, a potent .322 slugger with 107 runs driven in during the season. Kuhel had entered the game batting .067 but had managed two hits in this contest. It wasn't to be his moment, though. He struck out, and the season was over.

For the old Giants manager, John McGraw, who'd been in professional baseball since 1891, the victory of the young manager, Bill Terry, was also his. Not well enough physically to continue to occupy his place in the dugout, McGraw nonetheless thought of this Giants team as his own. Before the beginning of the next season, he would be dead at age 60. As for the Senators, the players received their losers' share of $3,019.86 per man (it was $4,256.72 for the Giants), as receipts were the lowest for a World Series since 1922. The Series had been witnessed by fewer fans than any since 1918 despite the fact that, since that time, four Series had gone just four games.

As for the supporters of the losing side, they knew in their hearts that the favored team, the Washington Senators of 1933, was indeed the best team in all of baseball and should have won the Worls Series. The everlasting sentiment among the fans of the nation's capital was that the Nats had been victimized by bad breaks, ill-advised decisions, and worse umpiring. It was a cruel fate for what history shows was the best Washington Senators' baseball club ever. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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1934 Washington Senators
 

The 1934 Washington Senators played 154 games, won 68, lost 86, and finished in seventh place in the American League. They were managed by Joe Cronin and played home games at Griffith Stadium. In the eighth inning of their game against the Boston Red Sox on June 9, the Washington Senators hit 5 consecutive doubles – the most ever hit consecutively during the same inning.

Deveaux takes us into the 1934 season: In the real world, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover's G-men (short for Government men) made significant inroads into bringing down a criminal element that had become increasingly prevalent in American life during the desperate depression. As for Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, and Pretty Boy Floyd, the fate met by baseball's G-men (short for Griffithmen) in 1934 was a miserable one. While the gangsters paid with the price of their lives, our Senators incurred physical injury on such a widespread basis that the club dropped further in the standings in just one year than any other pennant winner in major league history.

The history of the Senators became once again intertwined with that of the Yankees during this (1934) campaign. Lou Gehrig's consecutive-games streak, begun against the Senators on June 1, 1925, was placed in jeopardy on June 29, 1934, when he was hit in the head by a pitch during an exhibition game with the Yank's Norfolk affiliate. As Gehrig was taken to hospital, manager Joe McCarthy moaned that the pennant was surely lost. Diagnosed as a concussion, not a fracture, the injury did not keep Gehrig down. He traveled to Washington by steamboat and made it on time for the next game against the Senators. Equally amazing is the fact that the Iron Horse hit three triples in three at-bats, one to each field. Happily for the Senators, who were trailing as a result of this onslaught, the game was washed out by heavy squalls before it became official. Gehrig of course kept the streak going until it reached 2,130 games, an all-time record no one thought would be broken. But it was, of course, by Cal Ripkin, Jr., on September 6, 1995.

On September 29, 1934, Babe Ruth hit his last American League home run at Griffith Stadium. The 708th of his career was off of Sid Cohen, a rookie and younger brother of Andy Cohen, a middle infielder with the Giants in the late twenties. The following day marked the last time Babe Ruth appeared in the pinstripes that he, more than anyone, had made famous. With Ruth's wife and daughter on hand, Senators fans presented him with a scroll of appreciation. The band from St. Mary's Industrial School in Baltimore, where Ruth was raised, provided music for the occasion. With 0-for-3 on the day, the Babe flew out to Nats prospect Jake Powell in center to end the game. He left the field crying. In this way, an era drew to a close.

I don't have an image for 1934, so, before we leave Washington's pennant-winning 1933 season completely, one last image from 1933 -- manager and owner celebrate winning the American League, a pennant they would struggle to defend in 1934:

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Ossie Bluege
 

Player #89G: Oswald L. "Ossie" Bluege. Third baseman for the Washington Senators in 1922-1939. 1,751 hits and 43 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. 1935 All-Star. 1924 World Series champion. He played his entire career in Washington. He was best known for his defense, but his best season at the plate was 1928 as he posted a .364 OBP with 78 runs scored and 75 RBIs in 588 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1943-1947.

Bluege's SABR biography: Bowie Kuhn, baseball’s fifth commissioner, worked at Griffith Stadium as a youth. He earned $1 a day working the scoreboard. Of Bluege, Kuhn commented, “He had that smoothness that stood out. He never seemed to strain at the position. There was nothing dramatic. I think Bluege was so quick, you never saw the rough edges. He was a natural.”

Bluege played the shallowest of third base anyone had ever seen. He cut off countless hits with his catlike reflexes, which became his nickname to some, “The Cat.” Washington Post writer Shirley Povich wrote that Bluege was a “devourer of bunts, with his dashing one-handed pickups and accurate off-balance throws to first.”

This thread will now enjoy an extended pause. Next post expected in the second half of January 2024. Happy holidays to all, and a well-centered, unaltered new year!

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Worch Cigar Premiums circa 1933, 1934 : Postcard-Sized
 

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Thanks George, this World Series review has been interesting! Happy Holidays!

Nice set of cards, Mike!

Cliff Bolton
 

Player #125C: William Clifton "Cliff" Bolton. Catcher for the Washington Senators in 1931, 1933-1936, and 1941. 280 hits and 6 home runs over 7 MLB Seasons. His best season was 1935 as he posted a .399 OBP with 55 RBI's in 435 plate appearances. He also had a .500 OBP in 46 plate appearances coming off the bench in 1933 as Washington won the A.L. pennant.

In 1930, he (Cliff Bolton) hit .380 for the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern Association, and in 1931 he made his major league debut with the Washington Senators. Bolton spent the next few years with Washington. In 1933, he hit .410 coming off the bench; Washington won the American League pennant that season, and Bolton batted twice in the World Series. His only two years as a major league regular were 1935 and 1936.

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I love the fox - team mascot perhaps?

Joe Cronin -- Part 1
 

Player #128D: Joseph E. "Joe" Cronin. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1928-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1945. 2,285 hits and 170 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .390. He was a 7-time All Star. Boston Red Sox #4 retired. Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. In 1956, he was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. His best season was probably 1930 for Washington as he posted a .422 OBP with 127 runs scored and 127 RBIs on 686 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1933-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1947. He was General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1948-1958. He was president of the American League in 1959-1973. When he left the Red Sox in 1959, they were the only MLB team without a black player. He and team owner Tom Yawkey are generally viewed as responsible for this injustice which ended six months after Cronin's departure.

Deveaux on Cronin's 1934 season and his eventual departure: All of these tribulations (injuries to many of Washington's front-line players) had to weigh heaviest on Joe Cronin, who was hard-pressed to pencil in a decent starting lineup every day, let alone fulfill his duties as a shortstop. Cronin's average dipped to .284, but he led the club once again with 101 RBIs. For the fifth straight year, he was selected the top player at his position in all of baseball. Cronin did, unlike his subordinates, manage to stay healthy, at least until early September, when he broke his wrist in a baserunning mishap. His season was over, his hand in a cast for the duration. . .

. . . All added up, it is little wonder that the Washington Senators, the proud defending champions of the American League, finished 34 games out of first place in 1934. They'd gone from 99 wins to 66 in one year. How bad had things gotten? Bad enough that Allen Benson, a member of the House of David baseball team, was signed by Griffith in an effort to boost fan interest in his sagging franchise. The House of David team consisted of good amateur players who toured the country, playing teams of local all-stars wherever they went. Their gimmick, apart from playing good baseball, was that every member of the club wore a long beard.

Griffith thought that might work well at Griffith Stadium, and Benson, known as "Bullet Ben", attracted a large Sunday crowd on August 19, 1934. He was battered about by the league-leading Tigers, but apparently not so badly that Griffith wouldn't give him another shot. Slated to next appear against the St. Louis Browns, Benson begged the owner to let him shave his beard so that he wouldn't feel like he was making such a spectacle of himself. Griffith insisted that if the beard went, Bullet Bob would have to go too. So, the pitcher relented and was trounced by the Browns as well.

So ended an ill-advised career in the major leagues, with Allen Benson having allowed 19 hits in 9.2 innings, for a 12.10 ERA that lives on in infamy. These same words could be used to describe the '34 season for the Washington Senators. The injured Joe Cronin turned over his managing chores toward the end of the season to Al (the Clown Prince of Baseball) Schacht. This somehow seemed fitting -- Schacht had already made his mark in baseball as a comedian. . . .

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Joe Cronin -- Part 2
 

Player #128D: Joseph E. "Joe" Cronin. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1928-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1945. 2,285 hits and 170 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .390. He was a 7-time All Star. Boston Red Sox #4 retired. Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. In 1956, he was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. His best season was probably 1930 for Washington as he posted a .422 OBP with 127 runs scored and 127 RBIs on 686 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1933-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1947. He was General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1948-1958. He was president of the American League in 1959-1973. When he left the Red Sox in 1959, they were the only MLB team without a black player. He and team owner Tom Yawkey are generally viewed as responsible for this injustice which ended six months after Cronin's departure.

. . . If the season had been nothing but disappointing for Senator fans, the greatest calamity was yet to befall them. The bombshell came 2 1/2 weeks after the conclusion of the World Series, which the Tigers of Goslin and Crowder lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. Clark Griffith had always maintained that his reputation as a flesh trader aside, he had never sold a player outright for a large sum of cash. Sure, he had sold bit players at times, but never anyone who could, by his absence, have drastically impaired the ballclub's fortunes.

All of this changed on October 26, 1934, when Griffith stole some headlines from Hoover's G-men. Just four days earlier, federal agents had gunned down Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, the bank robber and murderer who'd been dubbed the "most dangerous man alive," when he attempted to flee from them in Ohio. With his news, Clark Griffith was to get a lot of attention not only in the baseball world, but with Americans in all walks of life.

Joe Cronin, already Griffith's best player and manager, had become part of the family a month earlier, in late September 1934. Three weeks after he'd broken his wrist, he had married Mildred Robertson, who was not only Griffith's secretary, but also his niece. The Cronins had met shortly after Joe was first assigned to the Senators on Friday the 13th of July 1928.

Joe Cronin had come to Washington highly recommended not only as a shortstop, but as a prospective beau for Mildred, who'd received a note from scout Joe Engel that he was bringing her "a real sweetie." When Cronin walked into Griffith's office on July 16th, there was Mildred, the girl of his dreams, something Joe said he immediately recognized. She, apparently, didn't recognize the boy of her dreams right away, and in fact it would be a number of years before she would even pay any attention to him, according to Cronin. Mildred Robertson was a font of baseball knowledge -- Cronin once said he would have put her up against anyone in terms of the wealth of baseball information her brain contained.

It is not difficult to imagine, then, Clark Griffith's dilemma when he got a phone call from Tom Yawkey of Boston during the 1934 World Series. Yawkey said that he had a check made out in Griffith's name in the amount of $250,000, and that he would part with it in exchange for Joe Cronin. To provide some idea of what this sum meant, Babe Ruth, already a superstar when he was sold by the Red Sox in 1920, had fetched only half that amount. Nothing of the kind had been seen since. Now, in much harder times, here was an offer of a quarter of a million dollars!

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Joe Cronin -- Part 3
 

Player #128D: Joseph E. "Joe" Cronin Part 3. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1928-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1945. 2,285 hits and 170 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .390. He was a 7-time All Star. Boston Red Sox #4 retired. Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. In 1956, he was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. His best season was probably 1930 for Washington as he posted a .422 OBP with 127 runs scored and 127 RBIs on 686 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1933-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1947. He was General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1948-1958. He was president of the American League in 1959-1973. When he left the Red Sox in 1959, they were the only MLB team without a black player. He and team owner Tom Yawkey are generally viewed as responsible for this injustice which ended six months after Cronin's departure.

The Senators' owner was incredulous, thinking that not even Cronin could be worth that much. He was very emphatic in stating that there was no chance that he would sell the rights to his nephew, the majors' premier shortstop. Yawkey was not deterred and called again a couple of weeks later. Griffith once again told him that he was not selling, and politely requested that Yawkey please consider the matter closed. Another week passed and Yawkey called again, more insistent than ever. The heir to a lumber and iron empire worth millions kept making the point that he could do a darn sight more for Griffiths new nephew than Griff himself could. Griffith was no millionaire. His club's nosedive in 1934 had cost him dearly, and he owed the banks about $125,000. Tom Yawkey was requesting a meeting in New York, and he expected Clark Griffith to be there.

Now Yawkey had the Old Fox really wondering. Was he doing the best thing for young Joe? Cronin would be the manager at Boston, just like he was in Washington. Besides, Griffith had taken a lot of heat during the year, as it had become popular, unfairly so, to poke fun at Cronin's marriage into the family. Unfair charges of nepotism, Griffith envisioned, would never go away. He agreed to at least listen to what Tom Yawkey had to say.

The negotiations did not go smoothly. Griffith thought the exchange might be done if the Red Sox would include shortstop Lyn Lary in the transaction. But Yawkey had just paid $35,000 for Lary, and balked at including him in the negotiations. That appeared to be the end of the discussion, and Griffith and his business manager, Ed Eynon, got up to leave. The old man was likely not bluffing, and mentioned to Eynon that they didn't have much time if they were to catch the train for Washington that night. Yawkey turned abruptly to his general manager, Eddie Collins, and asked what Collins thought of giving up Lary. Collins indicated that it would be okay with him as long as the boss, Yawkey himself, didn't have any objections.

Tom Yawkey grabbed a bill of sale, made it out for $225,000, which had been agreed upon as the adjusted price following the inclusion of Lary, and signed it. There were some final conditions. Griffith requested a healthy raise for his nephew, and Yawkey would go along with a five-year pact, unheard of in this period. The contract would stipulate that Cronin could not be released, which would guarantee his salary. There was one last proviso -- Joe Cronin would have to be agreeable to all this. When he got back to Washington that night, it was with great trepidation that Griffith phoned Cronin, who was in his hometown of San Francisco, having just arrived there on a honeymoon trip that had taken him and his new bride through the Panama Canal.

Whatever apprehension Griffith might have had was quickly dispelled by Cronin, who took it all in stride, like a fat pitch right down the middle. This was the Depression, and his uncle needed the money. Joe and Mildred decided to consider the matter overnight. When he called back the next day, Cronin told Griffith not to worry about what he thought of the proposal, and that he should immediately call Boston and tell them that they had themselves a deal. Cronin reportedly cut the conversation short by insisting that he should hang up, joking that long-distance telephone charges were going to eat up all the profits. Unlike the decision he'd taken to be a player-manager at Washington, this was something Joe Cronin would never regret.

Cronin's passing from the local baseball scene prompted at least one contemporary columnist to write that he thought Clark Griffith really had something there -- that he sure wished he could have sold his own son-in-law for a quarter of a million dollars. The Washington Senators Baseball Club would never, arguably, have a star player of the caliber of Joe Cronin again. For Cronin, this move began an association with the Red Sox organization which would last a quarter of a century, and which would someday lead to the position of President of the American League. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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General Crowder
 

Player #129C: Alvin F. "General" Crowder. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1926-1927 and 1930-1934. 167 wins and 22 saves in 11 MLB seasons. 1933 All-Star. 1935 World Series champion. 1932 and 1933 AL wins leader. His nickname came from General Enoch Crowder, who designed the World War I draft lottery in the United States. His best season was 1932 for Washington as he posted a 26-13 record and a 3.33 ERA in 327 innings pitched. He was known as "Yankee Killer", for his success against the Yankees and Babe Ruth in particular. He finished his career with the Detroit Tigers in 1934-1936, including a complete-game, 2-1 victory in Game 4 as the Tigers won the World Series in 1935. He pitched in three consecutive World Series in 1933-1935.

General Crowder was a durable right-handed pitcher who won more games (124) than any big-league pitcher other than the immortal Lefty Grove in a six-year span from 1928 to 1933. A three-time 20-game winner, Crowder led the American League in victories in 1932 and 1933 as a member of the Washington Senators. “If you’d let him,” said Walter Johnson, who managed Crowder with the Senators, “he’d pitch every day. His arm is made of rubber, and he doesn’t know the meaning of fatigue.” After leading Washington to the World Series in 1933, Crowder appeared washed up in 1934, but a late-season waiver transaction took him to Detroit, where he briefly revived his career. Playing in his third consecutive World Series in 1935, Crowder notched his only postseason victory, a five-hitter over the Chicago Cubs in Game Four, to help the Tigers capture their first World Series championship. . . .

. . . (After enlisting in 1919, hoping to travel the world,) Crowder was stationed in the Russian seaport of Vladivostok and Lake Baikal in Siberia. When his division was transferred to the Philippines in 1920, he reluctantly volunteered for the baseball team in order to avoid the menial, mundane tasks of an enlisted soldier. The team recognized that the hesitant ballplayer had a strong arm. They asked him to pitch, and his new career was born. . . .

. . . (In 1926, after being acquired from Birmingham,) Crowder reported to the reigning American League pennant winners in mid-July with the (Washington) team fighting to remain above .500. At 5-feet-10 and about 170 pounds, Crowder did not possess an intimidating presence on the mound (though his tattoo of a naked woman draped over his shoulders and arms was often described as risqué). . . .

. . . (After struggling in Washington and after a mid-1927 trade to St. Louis,) In his first full season with the Browns (1928), Crowder unexpectedly transformed from a reliever assigned to mop-up duty to the hottest and one of the best starters in the American League. . . . En route to walking just 91 batters in 244 innings, Crowder concluded the 1928 season by winning 10 of 11 decisions, including his last eight in a row, and finished his “sensational” campaign with 21 wins against just five losses for a league-leading .808 winning percentage. The Sporting News described Crowder and right-handed teammate Sam Gray, himself a 20-game winner acquired from the Philadelphia Athletics in the offseason, as the “greatest pair of ‘discard’ pitchers” in baseball as they led the Browns to a surprising third-place finish.

. . . Crowder and (Sam) Gray were the Browns’ workhorses for a second consecutive season in 1929. Crowder pitched better than his 17-15 record suggested. In ten of his losses, the Browns scored three runs or fewer (a total of 22 runs). The General pitched his best during the last two months of the season, completing 12 of his 14 starts (many on short rest) and logging 121 innings. In a six-week period, he tossed three complete-game victories over the eventual World Series champion Athletics (including a two- and a four-hitter) and shut out the second-place New York Yankees twice. The first shutout was a masterful two-hitter that took just 1:38 to play. Crowder amassed 266⅔ innings for the fourth-place Browns, completed 19 games for the second consecutive season, and led the junior circuit with four shutouts.

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Bucky Harris
 

Player #83K: Stanley R. "Bucky" Harris. Second baseman for the Washington Senators in 1919-1928. 1,297 hits and 167 stolen bases in 12 MLB seasons. 1924 and 1947 World Series champion. In 1975, inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. Named player-manager of the Washington Senators in 1924 at age 27. "The Boy Wonder" led Washington to World Series victory as "rookie" manger. Managed Washington Senators in 1924-1928, 1935-1942, and 1950-1954. Managed the Detroit Tigers in 1929-1933 and 1955-1956. Managed the Boston Red Sox in 1934. Managed the Philadelphia Phillies in 1943. Managed the New York Yankees in 1947-1948, including winning the 1947 world Series. Served as the General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1959-1960.

We continue with Deveaux as he progresses from Cronin to Harris: While replacing his shortstop would be another matter entirely, Clark Griffith knew all along who would be taking Cronin's place as manager -- Bucky Harris. Harris had just completed a one-year term as manager of Tom Yawkey's Bosox and had led them to a .500 record in '34, an improvement of 11 1/2 games over the previous campaign. Bucky had known no real success, however, since his salad days with the Senators. His Tiger teams from '29 to 33 had been buried in the league's second division. But Griffith's feelings about Bucky Harris ran deep.

The old man had often freely admitted that Harris had not been the disciplinarian he would have preferred to have seen in the late twenties. On the other hand, Griffith liked to say, there was no one who in his mind could get as much out of a baseball team during the crucial afternoon hours as Bucky could. The 39-year-old Harris, who hadn't played on any kind of regular basis since his last year with the Senators (1928), praised the old man as well. Bucky told the press he was flattered to be hired by the likes of Griffith. The Old Fox wasn't just any baseball owner, but a former player, a man with a profound understanding of the game. If Clark Griffith wanted you as his manager, Harris contended, that ought to be considered an honor.

Joe Cronin the shortstop, however, would not be replaceable, and certainly not by "Broadway Lyn" Lary, whose Senator career would amount to just 39 games and a .194 average before Griffith got rid of him in exchange for another shortstop, Alan Strange of the Browns. Strange would do even worse, with .185, and wouldn't play in the majors again until 1940. Lary did go on to lead the league in stolen bases with the Browns in '36 and, transferred to the Indians in '37, had a good year there as well. His failure in Washington, though, and that of Strange, meant the Senators had yet to obtain anyone useful with the cash Griffith had collected from the Red Sox when he'd sold Cronin.

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Joe Kuhel
 

Player #135C: Joseph A. "Joe" Kuhel. First baseman for the Washington Senators in 1930-1937 and 1944-1946. 2,212 hits and 131 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. He had 107 RBIs in Washington's pennant-winning 1933 season, but his best season was probably 1936 as he posted an OBP of .392 with 118 RBIs and 107 runs scored in 660 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1948-49.

Kuhel's SABR biography sums up his role in Washington: The major league baseball season is a marathon to be sure. A team’s journey is often fraught with periods of starts and stops, twists and turns, heartbreaking defeats and miraculous victories. Injuries, trades, and slumps test a manager’s mettle. For those fans who are fortunate enough to root for a team that is in the thick of the pennant race, the word “clinch” becomes a part of the everyday lexicon. Out-of-town scores are of the upmost importance and provide as much interest as those of the local heroes.

On September 21, 1933, the Washington Senators were in prime position to end the suspense for their faithful followers. Washington held a 7½-game lead over second place New York with eight games left on their schedule. The Yanks had 10 games remaining. The Nats were poised to break through the tape at the finish line. Their lone hurdle was the St. Louis Browns.

The attendance was announced as an even 18,000 at Griffith Stadium for the Thursday afternoon tilt. Toeing the rubber for Washington was Walter (Lefty) Stewart, who was sporting a fine 14-6 record. Stewart was no stranger to the Browns, as he had spent six seasons in the “Mound City” before being traded with Goose Goslin and Fred Schulte in December 1932. His opposition was Bump Hadley, a journeyman pitcher who would find success with the New York Yankees in later seasons.

The Senators had a lot of “offensive punch” in their batting order. But on this day, both hurlers were in command. Washington scored in the bottom of the second inning, only to have the Browns knot the score at one in the top of the seventh. With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Joe Kuhel singled to center field. Bob Boken walked, bringing Luke Sewell to the plate. Sewell lifted a fly ball to center field. Kuhel, mindful that Browns centerfielder Sam West might make the catch, did not stray far from the bag at second. When the ball dropped cleanly, Kuhel checked in at third base. But Boken, who was running all the way, also arrived at third. Sewell was standing at second. “With the ball sailing in from the outfield, Kuhel broke for home and just managed to slide in under (Browns’ second baseman Oscar) Melillo’s relay to the plate with the game’s most important run.”

The run scored by Kuhel was indeed the winning run, giving the Senators the American League pennant as the result of the 2-1 win. Kuhel, who had two hits on the day, also contributed with defense from his first base position. In the third inning, the first two Browns hitters reached base. Hadley attempted to move them over with a bunt to first. But Kuhel swooped in, fielded the ball and rifled it over to Boken to nail the lead runner. The next two batters were retired; the St. Louis rally was nullified.

Washington manager and shortstop Joe Cronin was a former teammate of Kuhel’s at Kansas City of the American Association in 1928. Cronin knew full well of Kuhel’s capabilities on the diamond. “He’s an ideal team man and one of the best reasons we are where we are in the American League race,” said Cronin. “Not only does he hit well, but his fielding has done much to put confidence in the team. We infielders need only to catch the grounders and throw the ball to first. Kuhel does the rest.”

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Heinie Manush
 

Player #136C: Henry E. "Heinie" Manush. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1930-1935. 2,524 hits and 110 home runs in 17 MLB seasons. Had a .330 career batting average. 1934 All-Star. 1926 AL batting champion. Had more than 200 hits four times. In 1964, was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. Debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1923. Leading batter on the 1933 Washington Senator team that won the AL pennant. First and last player to be ejected from a World Series game. Had 241 hits in 1928. Coach for the Washington Senators in 1953-1954.

Back to Manush's SABR biography and a reprisal of the 1933 pennant: Missing from Manush’s career was a World Series championship. In 1933, Goslin returned to Washington, creating a formidable one-two punch in the outfield. Manush was on fire the entire season. He cranked out hitting streaks of 26 and 33 games during the season and finished at .336, second to Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx. Manush got his wish of playing in the World Series when the Senators, led by player-manager Joe Cronin, won the American League pennant on September 21, 1933.

Thursday afternoon, September 21, was a beautiful day in the nation’s capital as a ladies’ day crowd of 10,000 filed into Griffith Stadium. The sun was bright, the temperature was a comfortable 68 degrees, and the Senators got ready to face the Browns, with one more victory, or one more Yankees defeat, to wrap up the pennant. The good news was the Yankees were idle, meaning the Nats had the opportunity to clinch in a winning effort. With one out to go for the pennant, the crowd began to buzz, as Browns second baseman Oscar Melillo was ready at the plate. In left field, Manush needed time to adjust his sunglasses, and he frantically waved his arms to get the umpire’s attention. Cronin noticed and called to Stewart, but the pitcher had already started his windup. Melillo swung and lifted a fly to left field. Manush ran to his left, his sunglasses dangling from his left hand, got under the ball, and snared it with his glove hand to clinch the 1933 American League pennant.

Buddy Myer Part 3
 

Player #139C: Charles S. "Buddy" Myer. Second baseman with the Washington Senators in 1925-1927 and 1929-1941. 2,131 hits and 38 home runs in 17 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .389. 2-time All-Star. 1935 AL Batting champion. 1928 AL Stolen Base leader. His best season was 1935 for Washington as he posted a .440 OBP with 115 runs scored and 100 RBIs in 719 plate appearances. He was involved in one of baseball's most violent brawls when he was spiked and possibly racially derided by the Yankees' Ben Chapman.

We will follow Myer's SABR biography as we track his career -- Part 3: The Senators’ shortstop, Roger Peckinpaugh, had been named the American League Most Valuable Player in 1925, but he was the goat of the World Series, committing a record eight errors. The next spring Peckinpaugh, 35 years old and slowed by sore legs, lost his job to the 22-year-old Myer. By July the rookie was batting cleanup. He turned in what would be a typical Buddy Myer season at the plate: .304/.370/.380. But manager Bucky Harris, who was also the second baseman, complained about Myer’s defense. His 40 errors were third most among AL shortstops, even though he played only 118 games at short. Harris faulted his feeds on double-play balls, a critical skill for the manager who was on the receiving end.

The respected veteran Tris Speaker, who joined the Senators in 1927, told Harris and Griffith the club needed a new shortstop if it was going to contend. After Myer committed five errors in his first 15 games, Washington shuffled him off to the sorriest team in the league, the Boston Red Sox, in return for the shortstop Speaker recommended, Topper Rigney. Harris said, “Myer is not ready for the majors.”

Myer’s .288/.359/.394 production with Boston was just about league average, but his defense at short failed to satisfy even a last-place club. In 1928 the Red Sox shifted him to third base. He led the team with a .313 batting average and led the league with 30 stolen bases.

In Washington, Rigney had been a bust; Clark Griffith wanted Myer back. After several weeks of dickering, he sent the Red Sox five players for his onetime reject. Counting what he had paid to acquire Myer from New Orleans, plus the value of the men he traded to Boston, Griffith estimated that Myer had cost him $150,000. “I must have been crazy to have let Myer go in the first place,” he said. (Continued tomorrow.)

Buddy Myer -- Part 3 (Cont.)
 

Player #139C: Charles S. "Buddy" Myer. Second baseman with the Washington Senators in 1925-1927 and 1929-1941. 2,131 hits and 38 home runs in 17 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .389. 2-time All-Star. 1935 AL Batting champion. 1928 AL Stolen Base leader. His best season was 1935 for Washington as he posted a .440 OBP with 115 runs scored and 100 RBIs in 719 plate appearances. He was involved in one of baseball's most violent brawls when he was spiked and possibly racially derided by the Yankees' Ben Chapman.

We will follow Myer's SABR biography as we track his career -- Part 3 (Continued): (In 1929,) Bucky Harris was gone from Washington, so the new manager, the former pitching great Walter Johnson, had to sort out a crowded infield. He had a slick-fielding third baseman in Ossie Bluege and Jackie Hayes was the favorite to replace Harris at second. Joe Cronin had won the shortstop job in 1928 but didn’t hit. Johnson and Griffith decided Bluege would move to short with Myer at third and Hayes at second. During spring training in 1929 the Senators and New York Giants barnstormed north together, and Giants manager John McGraw, a former third baseman, tutored Myer.

Johnson moved the pieces around the board before settling on Bluege at third, Cronin at short, and Myer at second—another new position. When Bluege went down with a knee injury, Myer stayed put and Hayes filled in at third. Through all the juggling, Myer’s bat was consistent: .300/.373/.403. In the heavy-hitting climate of 1929, that was no better than average, and the Senators brass still didn’t trust his defense. After four years as a regular player, he had to win his job again in 1930. Hayes was a better glove man, but couldn’t match Myer’s bat or speed.

The Senators installed Myer as their leadoff hitter in 1931 and he was a fixture in the lineup after that. Griffith called him the most improved fielder in the league. But he quickly turned belligerent whenever a base runner hit him hard on a double play, maybe because he remembered the spiking that had sent him to a hospital in New Orleans. The writer Robert C. Ruark recalled him as a “cocky little second baseman [who] would hit you before he was properly introduced.”

Carl Reynolds
 

Player #155: Carl N. Reynolds. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1932 and 1936. 1,357 hits and 80 home runs in 13 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1927. He had a career OBP of .346. His best season was 1930 with the White Sox as he posted an OBP of .388 with 103 runs scored and 104 RBIs in 602 plate appearances. He finished his career with the Chicago Cubs in 1939.

Carl Reynolds played 13 seasons in MLB and twice played seasons for Washington in 1932 and 1938. Nevertheless I do not have any cards for either of those years showing Reynolds in a Washington uniform or designating him as a member of the Senators. I do, however, have these two 1934 cards showing Carl in a Washington uniform and designated as a Senator:

Rocky Stone
 

Player #155A: John T. "Rocky" Stone. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1934-1938. 1,391 hits and 77 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. His career OBP was .376. he debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1928-1933. His most productive season may have been 1932 with Detroit as he posted a .361 OBP with 106 runs scored and 109 RBIs in 643 plate appearances. His best season in Washington was 1936 as he posted a .421 OBP with 95 runs scored and 90 RBIs in 500 plate appearances.

Stone's SABR biography: Meanwhile (following Stone's marriage in early 1933), according to writer Al Costello, Clark Griffith, president and owner of the third-place Washington Senators, “sniffed the air which hinted pennant breezes in 1933.” Trying to strengthen his outfield, Griff attempted to lure Detroit into letting Johnny Stone go. Griffith packaged Sam West, Carl Reynolds and Lloyd Brown, into a proposed deal for Stone. The Tigers declined, explaining they did not want to part with the outfielder. Stone had no idea how close he came to being a member of the Senators and earning a World Series share.

Johnny spent 1933 patrolling right-field for the fifth-place Tigers, contributing a .280 average with 11 home runs and 80 RBIs. Following the season, Detroit sought a powerful left-handed hitter to complement the right-handed power of young Hank Greenberg. Griffith again talked turkey and this time dangled Goose Goslin in front of the Tigers. The bait worked and on December 14, 1933, the Tigers sent Stone to Washington in a straight-up deal for Goslin. Goose would become part of the pennant-winning Detroit clubs in 1934 and 1935. Once again, Stone missed out on the chance to play in a World Series.

Upon learning of the transaction, Senators’ player-manager Joe Cronin was delighted, stating: “In acquiring Stone, I think I have materially strengthened the offense, as well as the defense. Stone’s ability to drive in runs and his youth made him attractive to me.” Another contributing factor may have been the fact that Cronin and Goslin never really got along. In addition, Stone was five years younger than Goslin and a much better defensive outfielder.

Shirley Povich of the Washington Post described the Senators’ new outfielder: “He was undoubtedly one of the handsomest men in the big leagues. Handsome in body as well as face. If a human can have the legs of a thoroughbred, Stoney had them – stout but shapely calves, nicely tapering ankles. He was 6 feet, broad but not too broad of chest, and thin of waist.” Stone’s playing weight was a muscular 180 pounds.

Senators’ owner Clark Griffith may have been enamored with his new acquisition but had trouble recognizing the outfielder in street clothes. Just before the start of spring training 1934, Griffith was chatting with Cleveland Indians skipper Walter Johnson in Biloxi, Mississippi, when he inquired: “Who’s that big strapping fellow over there? He’s a nice-looking chap, all right. What does he play?” That fellow,” said Johnson “is John Stone, your new outfielder.”

It didn’t take long for the Griffith Stadium faithful to get acquainted with “Stoney”, as they lovingly called the new right fielder. Possessing the speed of a center fielder, he’d smoothly chase down long fly balls, hauling them in while perfectly positioned to throw with power. Wrote Povich, “There are possibly better arms in the American League than that possessed by Stone. But it is doubtful if there is an arm more feared. Base runners refuse to take liberties with that ‘gun’ of Stone’s and unless that single to right when a runner is on first is a long one, few will dare to try to go to third.” As a base runner, “Stoney” would gladly take an extra base when the opportunity arose and rarely made a mistake on the base paths.

Unfortunately for Johnny and his teammates, the defending American League champion Senators would be decimated by injuries in 1934. Johnny was not exempt; his playing time limited to only 113 games by a fractured ankle suffered in Cleveland on Friday, July 13. Overall, Stone posted a .315 average, as the Nationals fell to seventh place in what would be Joe Cronin’s last season as player-manager of the club.

Fritz Schulte
 

Player #149B: Fred W. "Fritz" Schulte. Center fielder for the Washington Senators in 1933-1935. 1,241 hits and 47 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .362. He debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1927. His best year was 1932 for St. Louis as he posted a .373 OBP with 106 runs scored in 639 plate appearances. He also posted a .366 OBP with 98 runs scored in 622 plate appearances in 1933 as Washington won the AL pennant. He finished his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1936-1937.

From Schulte's SABR biography we get the highlights of his time in Washington: Schulte got off to a hot start (in 1933) and had his average over .400 as late as May 10. Despite missing time after breaking a finger, he was still hitting .330 in late July. By then the rest of the Washington lineup was picking up any slack. Schulte hit and fielded well enough that fans soon stopped lamenting the loss of (Sam) West (who had been part of the deal to obtain him).

In a potent Senators lineup, Schulte held his own: second in runs scored (98), fourth in RBIs (87), and fifth in hits (162, one behind Goslin). On a team with four regulars who hit .302 or higher, Schulte’s .295 was just sixth best. As a team, Washington hit a league-leading .287.

Schulte’s numbers fell off after the All-Star break, when he was hitting .337 with a .406 on-base percentage. His second-half average was .259 with a .329 OBP. After an ice-cold August (.191), however, Schulte hit .316 in September. So, he was ready when the Senators, AL champs for the first time since 1925, faced the Giants in the World Series.

In Game Five, with two men on base in the sixth, he homered on the first pitch from Hal Schumacher to tie it, 3-3. The game, played in Washington, remained tied after nine. With two outs in the 10th, Ott hit a 2-2 pitch to deep center. As in the 1924 and ’25 Series, outfield depths had been reduced to increase Griffith Stadium’s seating capacity. Fans were allowed behind a low barrier erected in front of the outfield walls. Schulte went back on Ott’s fly and leaped near the barrier. His glove tipped the ball, which ended up in the temporary bleachers. At first, Cy Pfirman, the second base umpire, ruled it a double, but after consulting with his colleagues, the hit was correctly ruled a home run.

In the bottom of the inning, Dolf Luque allowed a two-out single to player-manager Joe Cronin and walked Schulte before striking out Kuhel to give the Giants a 4-3 win and the championship.

Despite Washington’s defeat in the World Series, Schulte was received as a conquering hero when he returned home to Belvidere. He was well-known locally as newspapers had chronicled his baseball career.

“The Washington centerfielder was greeted at the station by a 75-piece band, which headed a parade staged in his honor,” the Washington Post reported. “A banquet was held at a local country club to mark ‘Schulte Day.’”

(This thread will now enjoy (yet another) pause. Expected restart is 16 February,)

1935 Washington Senators -- Part 1
 

The 1935 Washington Senators won 67 games, lost 86, and finished in sixth place in the American League. They were managed by Bucky Harris and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

Deveaux sums up the 1935 season: In late November 1934, the Yankees made a much better deal (than their 1927 purchase of Lary and Reese from Oakland) with another Coast League club, purchasing the rights to a terrific outfielder, just turned 20, who was a cinch to be a star. The youngster had injured his knee while getting out of a cab the previous June, and, given his age, the New York brain trust felt it might be a good idea to leave the phenom, a fellow named Joe DiMaggio, in the minors another full year. The Yanks had just come off a 94-win season, which in most years is enough to win the pennant. In '34, however, the Bombers fell seven games short of the Tigers. The rumors flying about in the New York newspapers were to the effect that the Yanks, badly in need of a left fielder, were about to close a deal with Washington for Heinie Manush. What's more, the Yankees might even land Buddy Myer, too.

None of that came to pass, and a good thing indeed that was for the Senators. Nineteen thirty-five was to be Buddy Myer's big year. He stayed injury-free, rapped out 215 hits, and hit .349. Defensively, he led all American League second baseman in put-outs and double plays. Going into the last game of the '35 season at Philadelphia, Myer, now 31, trailed Cleveland outfielder Joe Vosmik by one point in the batting race. Vosmik, just 25, was having the season of his life, leading the league in hits, doubles, and triples. The Indians were sitting Vosmik down for the first game of their doubleheader, protecting his lead for the time being. But at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, Myer was having a terrific day. When news reached Cleveland of his three singles, one of them a bunt (Myer was an expert drag bunter who, it was estimated, had gotten as many as 60 bunt singles in 1935), the Indians had to play Vosmik in their second game. He went 1-for-4.

Buddy Myer needed a hit in his last at-bat against the A's to win the batting title. As related by Shirley Povich in The Washington Senators (Povich's book about the team), Myer had found a pin on the sidewalk that day on his way to board a morning train from Washington to Philadelphia. He'd remarked to his wife, in these more superstitious times, that this was a sign of a two-base hit. He got it in his last at-bat of the season, and his .349 won the batting crown.

Myer thus became the third Washington Senator, after Ed Delahanty (1902) and Leon Goslin (1928) to win a batting championship. The margin over Vosmik went down in the books as .3490 to .3483. Some Senators fans would have considered Myer's title particularly sweet simply because of the fact that he had edged out a Cleveland player. The Indians had ditched Walter Johnson as their manager on August 5, two weeks after Walter Johnson Day at Griffith Stadium, where he had been showered with gifts and adulation by his old fans. As it turned out, this brought the Big Train's managing career to a permanent end. . . .

The President's party is pictured at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D. C., April 17th, as the Washington Senators opened the baseball season in the Capital by defeating the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-2. Left to right are Buddy McIntyre, son of the secretary to the President; Captain Wilson Brown, White House aide; Commander Ross McIntyre, White House physician; Postmaster General James A. Farley; President Roosevelt; Clark Griffith, President of the Senators; Bucky Harris, Manager of the Senators; and Jimmy Fox, Athletics slugger:

1935 Washington Senators -- Part 2
 

. . . Buddy Myer's batting title was the best thing to happen on the Washington baseball landscape during the summer of 1935, unfortunately. The team never got untracked. It lost exactly the same number of games as in '34, 86, and won one more game, 67. It stayed reasonably injury-free, but of course, there was no 100-RBI producer at the shortstop position either. There was no ready solution there, with Ossie Bluege, now 34, given some of the work at the position. If Bluege's range was not what it had once been, it certainly didn't hurt the Nats to have him at short.

Red Cress, the old Browns shortstop who hadn't played short with any regularity in five years, ended up with Bluege's job by year's end. This was quite a turnaround for Kress. He had hit poorly after coming over to the Senators during the '34 season, and at mid-season 1935, he was demoted to Chattanooga. While packing his bags, he got a phone call. Buddy Myer had been ejected from the first game of a doubleheader and would not be allowed to play the second game. Kress got four straight hits against Cleveland that day and, with Myer obviously a fixture at second, was promptly installed at short for the rest of the season.

Kress hit .298 for the year, and sophomore Cecil Travis followed up a .319 season with .318. But Travis, almost strictly an opposite-field hitter, had zero homers. Kress had two all year, Bluege none. Buddy Myer had five. The other infielder, first baseman Joe Kuhel, showed some rust after missing half the previous season with his broken ankle. Kuhel had just two homers in 633 at-bats and batted just .261, the lowest mark of his career. Cliff Bolton, always a hitter and given a chance to catch almost regularly, responded predictably well but he too had only two home runs. Joe Cronin, out in Boston, hit nine home runs and drove in 95, while batting .295. However, the Red Sox, like the Senators, didn't improve, winning only two more games than they had in '34.

The lack of power hitting on this edition of the Washington Senators was so pronounced as to be laughable. Rookie Jake Powell was able to wrest the centerfield position away from incumbent Fred Schulte, who'd been one of the few Senators to play in nearly all the games the previous season. A true gentleman in an era when players were, in the main, rambunctious country boys, Schulte was 34 years of age and would be out of the big leagues for good within two years.

Young Powell, a native of nearby Silver Spring, Maryland, who had been plucked off the local sandlots, doubled Schulte's home-run output. That meant he hit only six all year, however, but it led the club. The Senators, playing half their games in the vast expanse of Griffith Stadium, hit only 32 as a team, the lowest collective total in the majors in four years. Right fielder John Stone, who had eight hits in a doubleheader on June 16th, contributed a .315 average, but with only one homer. Heinie Manush slumped badly, and his .273 mark was by far the worst of his career.. . .

George, I'm glad you have continued your history of the Senators. Here's a tough Buddy Myer card that I meant to post following your piece yesterday about Myer.

1935 Washington Senators -- Part 3
 

(Thanks for the encouragement, Val, and for showing the cool Myer item.)

. . . An old rookie at 27 whose years exceeded his maturity, Jake Powell hit .312 and produced 98 runs, just two short of Myer's output of exactly 100. Powell wouldn't be kept on, though, and by mid-June of the following season would be traded to the Yankees. After starring in the 1936 World Series, his life would unravel quickly. Daring on the ballfield and prejudiced off it, Powell had a reputation of not getting along well with his teammates. In 1938, he was suspended for slurring black people during the course of a radio interview. In 1948, at the age of 40, while being detained in a Washington police station on a charge of passing bad checks, Jake Powell shot himself to death.

In terms of the discussion of the 1935 Senators, we have saved the worst for last. The pitching staff continued its slide, allowing an appalling 903 runs. The team ERA was an eye-popping 5.25, an iota better than the 5.26 of the Browns. Southpaw Earl Whitehill was by far the best of the starters, at 14-13, 4.29. Stocky curveballer Bump Hadley followed up his 10-16, 4.35 totals in '34 with 10-15, 4.92. A year after leading the league in saves and appearances, Jack Russell's days as an effective reliever seemed pretty much over. He wound up 4-9 with an abhorrent 5.71 earned run average. Ed Linke did manage his 11 wins, but with an ERA over 5.

To sum up the 1935 season for the Washington Senators -- teams with lousy pitching and no power don't go anywhere in the game of baseball. The pitching staff did provide, however, the best comic relief in an otherwise relatively dull season. This came in the person of one Norman Louis "Bobo" (or "Buck") Newsom. The brash Bobo, a tall chunky fellow from Hartsville, South Carolina, had seen limited action with the Dodgers and Cubs before winning 30 games in the Pacific Coast League in 1933. Bobo liked to say he'd actually won 33 in '33 and, when challenged and told the record books said 30, he'd respond "Who are you going to believe?" (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.) We will hear more from Deveaux regarding Bobo as we progress.

1935 was also the last time Walter Johnson wore an MLB uniform as part of his job: he was fired as manager of the Cleveland Indians in August:

Ossie Bluege
 

Player #89H: Oswald L. "Ossie" Bluege. Third baseman for the Washington Senators in 1922-1939. 1,751 hits and 43 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. 1935 All-Star. 1924 World Series champion. He played his entire career in Washington. He was best known for his defense, but his best season at the plate was 1928 as he posted a .364 OBP with 78 runs scored and 75 RBIs in 588 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1943-1947.

Bluege's SABR biography: Bluege showed his versatility, moving over to shortstop to replace Cronin, who had been shipped to Boston before the 1935 season to become the Red Sox’ manager. When second baseman Buddy Myer was sidelined the next season with a stomach ailment, Bluege moved over to the keystone position, started 50 games, and hit .311 while playing second base, and .288 for the year.

Cliff Bolton
 

Player #125D: William Clifton "Cliff" Bolton. Catcher for the Washington Senators in 1931, 1933-1936, and 1941. 280 hits and 6 home runs over 7 MLB Seasons. His best season was 1935 as he posted a .399 OBP with 55 RBIs in 435 plate appearances. He also had a .500 OBP in 46 plate appearances coming off the bench in 1933 as Washington won the A.L. pennant.

1935 was the only season that saw Bolton get more than 400 plate appearances. He had a very good year at the plate as he posted a .399 OBP with 55 RBIs in 436 plate appearances. The next year fell off a little but was still respectable as he posted a .349 OBP with 51 RBIs in 315 plate appearances. After the 1936 season, Bolton would reach the plate only 77 more times as his career quickly petered out.