Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

After Miller led off the 12th with a groundout, catcher Muddy Ruel, 1-for-20 in the Series, fouled behind home plate. At this point, as Clark Griffith later put it, Giants catcher Hank Gowdy's mask came up to bite him. Gowdy's left foot came down squarely onto the mask and he tried to kick it off as he looked for the ball, which eluded him. Griffith had moved from his box seats to steps near the dugout in the eighth inning so as to be in a better position to escort President Coolidge and his wife from the stadium. When the Nats had come back to tie the game, he hadn't dared budge for fear of upsetting whatever karma might have been at work in favor of his men. He didn't move until the game ended.

With his second life, Ruel doubled past third base and down the line in left. Walter Johnson then of course came up to hit for himself and drilled the first offering to the right of shortstop. Travis Jackson, future Hall of Famer, booted it. Ruel held to his base, but the Senators were in business, with just one out and the top of the order coming up. With Earl McNeely next, the Nats expected Irish Meusel and Ross Youngs to switch places again, as the righthanded McNeely was a dead pull hitter, but they didn't.

McNeely sliced Bentley's second pitch in the direction of third base, just a few feet fair. Muddy Ruel, on second with a man on first, decided to go for third right away in order to attract a tag in hopes of keeping the inning alive by avoiding a double play. The wonderful rookie, Lindstrom, stood at the ready. All of a sudden, the ball bounced way up high. It was way over Lindstrom's head . . into left field.

Muddy Ruel, of all people, came bounding in all the way from second base. Irish Meusel, still in left field, had not planned on the unexpected, and this was costly. When Meusel finally got hold of the ball, with Ruel past third and on the way home, he did nothing and would get chewed out by John McGraw for it on the train ride home. Bedlam ensued as the winning run of the 1924 World Series crossed the plate. In the bottom of the 12th inning, the Washington Senators had won the world championship -- their first -- and in front of their long-suffering home fans at that.

(Editor's note: For all the shade that is thrown at Muddy Ruel's running ability and Muesel's lack of urgency on the final play of the 1924 World Series, it is worth noting that earlier in Game 7 it was Ruel who scampered home with the tying run on Harris' "sharp" single to left in the eighth inning. If Ruel stops at third or is thrown out in the eighth, the game never gets to extras.)

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