[GeoPoto]

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: