Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

Player #80: Elmer J. Smith. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1916-1917. 881 hits and 70 home runs in 10 MLB seasons. He was a 2-time World Series champion -- 1920 with Cleveland and 1923 with the New York Yankees. In 1920, he hit the first grand slam in World Series history. In 1916, he was the first to hit a fair ball over the wall at Griffith Stadium. He debuted with the Cleveland Naps/Indians in 1914-1916. His best season was 1920 with Cleveland as he posted a .391 OBP with 12 home runs in 527 plate appearances. His last season was with the Cincinnati Reds in 1925.

Smith's time in Washington was relatively uneventful, but his SABR biography talks to his participation in a World Series game that included some important "firsts": It is often said that no matter how many times a person may go to the ballpark, chances are good they might see something occur that they had not seen before. That experience is even more enhanced if the achievement or the play is of the record-setting variety. The 26,884 patrons who pushed through the turnstiles at League Park in Cleveland on October 10, 1920, witnessed a day of “firsts” in World Series history.

With the best-of-nine Series tied at two games apiece, Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson selected spitball pitcher Burleigh Grimes to face Cleveland’s Jim Bagby in a rematch of Game Two. In that contest, Grimes had little trouble dispatching the Indians in a 3-0 shutout to even the Series at a win apiece. Now he was being called on again to deliver the victory on enemy soil.

But the drama was short-lived as Cleveland loaded the bases in the first inning on consecutive singles by Charlie Jamieson, Bill Wambsganss, and Tris Speaker. Up stepped right fielder Elmer Smith, who had not fared well in Game Two against Grimes, going hitless in four at-bats. But the left-handed Smith led the Indians with 12 home runs in the regular season, including two grand slams. Grimes threw his money pitch, offering two spitballs that Smith swung at badly and missed. After throwing a pitch for a ball, Grimes fired a fastball down the middle. Smith connected solidly, sending the baseball high over the right-field fence, clearing the attached screen, and across Lexington Avenue. The crowd cheered with delight, as the Tribe took an early 4-0 lead, a lead they would not relinquish. It was the first grand slam in World Series history.

In the fourth inning Bagby connected on a homer, a three-run shot. The home run was the first by a pitcher in the World Series and ended Grimes’s day. In the fifth inning the Robins got consecutive singles from Pete Kilduff and Otto Miller. Clarence Mitchell stepped up to the plate and the relief pitcher hit a liner to second baseman Wambsganss. Wamby moved to his right, leaped, and snared the liner. The runners were moving, and Wamby stepped on second base, turned, and tagged a shocked Miller for the third out. The Robins catcher was not the only one caught off guard. The whole park fell silent, trying to figure out what had just unfolded on the field. Then an eruption of cheers echoed through the autumn air. Almost a century later it remained the only unassisted triple play in a World Series.

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