Washington DC Baseball

[ValKehl]

More Mogridge:

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

More Mogridge:

Mogridge and Tom Zachary were the real pitching heroes for the Nationals in the 1924 World Series, bringing the Nats even with the Giants each time after Walter had lost his games. And in the seventh game, Mogridge and Fred Marberry held off a ferocious Giants lineup--almost to a man in the HOF--long enough for Johnson to come in with the game tied 3-3 in the top of the ninth inning, one of the most dramatic moments in baseball history and prelude to its greatest pitcher rising to his greatest challenge to win the series.

[GeoPoto]

Player #107A: Warren H. "Curly" Ogden. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1924-1926. 18 wins in 5 MLB seasons. Served as "decoy" starting pitcher in Game 7 of the 1924 World Series. He was removed after two batters -- an early example of an "opener". He debuted with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1922-1924. His best season was probably 1924 with Washington as he posted a 9-5 record with a 2.58 ERA in 108 innings pitched.

Ogden's SABR biography sums up his time in Washington: Arm trouble limited Curly to 46⅓ innings in 1923. The next season started much the same. He was 0-3 with a 4.85 ERA when Mack tried to slip him through waivers and send him to the minors. Bucky Harris sent scout Joe Engel to take a look at Ogden, and, based on a positive report, Washington picked up the pitcher for the $7,500 waiver price on May 24.

Beginning on May 26, Ogden in seven starts went 6-0 with three shutouts and a 1.58 ERA. After a loss, he won two more. Four of Ogden’s 16 starts were in the second games of doubleheaders, when pitching staffs tend to be stretched thin. Ogden won all four, pitching complete games in three and eight innings in the other. In three of those twin bills, the Senators had lost the opener.

By the time Ogden won his final game, on August 26, he was 9-3 and helping himself at bat with a .302 average. He finally wore down after losing his next start, 2-1, to the Yankees in the bottom of the ninth. Had his teammates capitalized on their 11 hits and made the plays in field — one of the Yankees’ runs was unearned — Ogden’s five-hitter might have been enough.

Instead, he essentially was done for the season. Despite the excellent results, he had worked through arm pain all year. Ogden tried to start two more games, on September 7 and September 24, but didn’t retire a batter either time. “After each day’s pitching,” Shirley Povich wrote in his 1954 team history, “he would walk the floor of the hotel suite he shared with Harris and Muddy Ruel and hold his arm in pain and wonder if he could ever work again.” “He amazed me every time he won a game,” Harris recalled.
“Only Ruel and I could appreciate what Ogden went through. He pitched his heart out.”

Ogden’s last appearance in 1924 was as a pinch-hitter on September 30. So it’s doubtful he expected to be called upon in the World Series. Yet no contemporary accounts indicate that McGraw knew that Ogden wasn’t really capable of pitching for long.

Harris told Ogden the night before of his plan and got approval from owner Clark Griffith. Curly was to face just one batter, but after he struck out Lindstrom on three pitches, Harris motioned for him to stay in. When Ogden walked Frisch, Harris put his plan into effect and brought in Mogridge.

The game turned out to be one of the most memorable in World Series history, with bad hops aiding Washington twice and the well-loved Big Train holding down the Giants in relief until his teammates pushed across a run in the 12th to win it all.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1677837922
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1677837928

[ValKehl]

Interestingly, Warren "Curly" Ogden had an older brother, John "Jack" Ogden, also a pitcher, who had a 5-year MLB career, mostly with the Browns and Cincy.

This 1924 Diaz card of Warren Ogden shows him with the Athletics, from whom he was acquired via waivers in May 1924, as George mentioned above.

[GeoPoto]

Great cards, Val! Thank you. I've always thought Peck's HC card was in the running for scariest portrait.

Player #95B: Roger T. Peckinpaugh. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1922-1926. 1,876 hits and 205 stolen bases in 17 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. His best season at the plate was probably 1921 as he helped the New York Yankees reach the World Series and posted a .380 OBP with 128 runs scored and 72 RBIs in 694 plate appearances. He debuted with the Cleveland Naps in 1910 and finished his playing career with the Chicago White Sox in 1927. He managed the New York Yankees in 1914 and the Cleveland Indians in 1928-1933 and 1941.

Peck's SABR biography gets us to the 1924 season: Roger Peckinpaugh was one of the finest defensive shortstops and on-field leaders of the Deadball Era. Like Honus Wagner, the 5’10”, 165-lb. “Peck” was rangy and bowlegged, with a big barrel chest, broad shoulders, large hands, and the best throwing arm of his generation. From 1916 to 1924, Peckinpaugh led American League shortstops in assists and double plays five times each. As Shirley Povich later reflected, “the spectacle of Peckinpaugh, slinging himself after ground balls, throwing from out of position and nailing his man by half a step was an American League commonplace.” The even-tempered Peckinpaugh was equally admired for his leadership, becoming the youngest manager in baseball history when he briefly took the reins of the New York Yankees in 1914. Described as the “calmest man in baseball,” Peckinpaugh’s steadying influence later helped the Washington Senators to their only world championship, and won him the 1925 Most Valuable Player Award, making him the first shortstop in baseball history to receive the honor.

In his first World Series in 1921, Peckinpaugh played poorly in the Yankees’ eight game loss to the New York Giants, as he batted just .194 and his crucial error in the final game allowed the Giants to win 1-0 on an unearned run. In the off-season Babe Ruth complained about the managerial skills of Miller Huggins (not for the first or last time) and said the Yanks would be better off if Peck managed them. Probably to avoid more conflict, New York traded Peck and several teammates to the Red Sox for a package that included shortstop Everett Scott and pitcher Joe Bush. However, three weeks later, Senators owner Clark Griffith, sensing that his team was one shortstop away from contention, managed to engineer a three corner trade in which the Red Sox received Joe Dugan and Frank O’Rourke, Connie Mack‘s Athletics received three players and $50,000 cash, and the Senators received Peckinpaugh.

The veteran shortstop teamed with the young second baseman Bucky Harris to form one of the best double play combinations in the American League. Everything fell into place by the 1924 season when owner Griffith appointed Harris the manager. Harris considered Peck his assistant manager, and together they led the Senators to back-to-back pennants in 1924 and 1925. Peck was the hero of the 1924 World Series, .417 and slugging .583, including a game-winning, walk-off double in Game Two. However, while running to second base (unnecessarily) on that hit, Peckinpaugh strained a muscle in his left thigh, which sidelined him for most of Game Three and all of Games Four and Five. But in what Shirley Povich called “the gamest exhibition I ever saw on a baseball field,” Peckinpaugh took the field for Game Six with his leg heavily bandaged and went 2-for-2 with a walk before re-aggravating the injury making a brilliant, game-saving defensive play in the ninth inning. Although Peckinpaugh had to sit out Game Seven, he had already done more than his share to bring the Senators their first world championship.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1677918359

[ValKehl]

These depict "Peck" in his earlier years with the Yankees:

[brianp-beme]

And heck, speaking of Peck, here is a little W514 of him as a Yank, straight out of Brockelman's current auction.

Brian