Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

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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