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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