Washington DC Baseball

[ValKehl]

After being purchased from Reading of the Int'l League on July 15, 1924, utility infielder Ralph Miller, who had played in 154 games for the Phillies during 1920-21 and batted .251, played sparingly for the Senators. For the remainder of the regular 1924 season, Miller appeared in only 9 games, with 2 hits and a walk in 16 plate appearances. Miller appeared in 4 games of the 1924 ES, with 2 hits, a walk, and 2 RBIs in 13 plate appearances. AFAIK, this 1925 Holland Creameries card is the only card issued of Miller during his playing career.

[GeoPoto]

With men on first and second and just one out in the bottom of the ninth, Ralph Miller hit into a double play. Walter Johnson headed for extra innings, as he'd done in the first game, and walked the first batter in the tenth, Hack Wilson. He then struck put Travis Jackson, who looked at strike three, and enticed receiver Hank Gowdy to bounce to the mound to start a double play. With one out in the bottom of the tenth, everyone's heart surged up to their throats -- Walter Johnson slugged a fly to left center that looked like it had a chance to go out. It didn't, as Hack Wilson pulled it in about ten feet in front of the fence.

After Earl McNeely struck out to send the Nats down in order, Johnson allowed a lead-off single in the top of the 11th to Heinie Groh, who was pinch hitting for starter McQuillan. After Lindstrom sacrificed, Johnson fanned Frank Frisch, one of the toughest men to strike out in baseball history, who took an off-balance swipe at a roundhouse curve which moved far out of the strike zone. To this day one of the all-time best hitters among second baseman, Frisch had struck out only 24 times during the regular season, the second-highest total of his 19-year career. After again walking Ross Youngs intentionally (Youngs' fourth walk of the game), Johnson then struck out the N.L.'s top RBI man, Long George Kelly, once again. Everyone in the park went batty.

Big Jack Bentley came in to try and stop the Nats in the bottom of the 11th. One run of course, and the Nats would be World Champions. The intensity was palpable, and the crowd remained on its feet. Harris and Rice, the first two batters, both flied out -- Rice hit the ball a long way, to Hack Wilson in deep left center. Goose Goslin then deposited a Texas Leaguer into right field for a double. In an odd bit of strategy, John McGraw then instructed his lefthander, Jack Bentley, to put lefty Joe Judge on intentionally in favor of righthander Ossie Bluege. With Bluege up with a chance to win it, the superior-fielding Ross Youngs moved to left, and Irish Meusel went to right. The maneuver had no bearing on what happened next, as Bluege hit the ball on the ground to short, and the potential insurgence was snuffed out.

For the third straight inning, the first Giant got on against Johnson, as Irish Meusel singled to right to open the 12th, and for the fourth straight inning, the Giants would not score, as Barney mowed them down. He registered his fifth strikeout against Hack Wilson. By this point, Walter Johnson conceded later, he'd gotten it into his mind that maybe this would be his day after all.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1681981698

[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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[ValKehl]

"Muddy" Ruel and Earl McNeely helped Walter Johnson and the Senators win Game 7 of the 1924 WS in the 12th inning:

[GeoPoto]

The field was engulfed by a sea of bodies. Walter Johnson took it all in from second base for a few seconds, and his eyes welled up with tears as he made his way through the crazed mob back to the dugout. Earl McNeely was the one who had the most difficulty making it back there. The crowd, in an enthusiastic show of its love for a hero, tore off his shirt before police could reach him and escort him to the clubhouse. The President and Mrs. Coolidge, less the focus of attention now than ever, were escorted out by the Secret Service. They passed several players on the way, including Walter Johnson. The First Couple shook hands with them and offered their congratulations.

After showering, Bucky Harris, high-strung and seemingly in a daze, was so excited that he forgot to put his clothes on. Walter Johnson came in and shook his hand, thanking him for having let him pitch. When Bucky was asked if Walter had insisted on pitching, Harris said that Johnson had been his best bet, and for anyone to have thought otherwise, would have been foolishness. Frank Frisch and Ross Youngs came over from the other side to congratulate Walter, whom Frisch called one of the greatest pitchers and one of the finest gentlemen ever associated with the game of baseball. In summing up the World Series for the Walsh Syndicate, John McGraw wrote that the game of baseball had been elevated by the great Walter Johnson and his ultimate triumph. The only thing better, the Little General declared, would have been for Johnson to have won the game himself -- to have hit that home run which had fallen just a little short in the tenth inning.

Those that were present in the hours that followed the thriller said that Clark Griffith could do nothing to stop the tears that flowed from his eyes. He embraced all his players, thanking them and telling them how proud they had made him. Walter Johnson was so happy that, he would say years later, winning the World Series in his 18th year had hardly seemed real. He had, following great tribulation, justified his place as America's darling, redeeming himself at the 13th hour (and 12th inning), and winning his first World Series game a month before his 37th birthday. As perhaps best expressed by the eloquent Grantland Rice in Collier's in January 1925: "Walter Johnson had come from a lone, dejected and broken figure in the shadows of a clubhouse to a personal triumph that no other athlete had ever drawn in all the history of sport."

Cannons, pistols, firecrackers, and the sounds of thousands of automobiles intermingled for a joyous celebration in downtown Washington. It seemed that no one wanted to miss this celebration -- the fire department of nearby Cherrydale, Virginia, showed up with all its vehicles and a banner which read "Let Cherrydale Burn!" It was to be a wonderful time. For a year, the Washington Senators would stand as champions of the world. Muddy Ruel, who'd hit .095 in the World Series, insisted he didn't mind when team owner Griffith had said Ruel had taken longer than anyone he had ever seen to come around the bases with the winning run. Ruel preferred to dwell on the positives -- a world championship, the role the Big Train had played, and how sweet it was to be victorious. Then there was the matter of the winner's share of the spoils for the World Series -- a check for $5,959.64 per man.

From the point of view of posterity, this would stand as one of the great World Series ever (at the time it was widely acknowledged as the most exciting since 1912), primarily because of its strange denouement . . . And the unlikely triumph of a man whose career may very well place him as the greatest pitcher in all of baseball history. At the end of the day, losing pitcher Jack Bentley said it best for all of America: "The good Lord just couldn't bear to see a fine fellow like Walter Johnson lose again."

For their sheer beauty, here are the words formulated by Bill Corum, as they appeared in the New York Times the following morning: To the victor belong the spoils. When future generations are told about this game they will not hear about Barnes, or Frisch, or Kelly, or even about Harris or McNeely. But the boy with his first glove and ball crowding up to his father's knee will beg: "Tell me about Walter Johnson." (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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[ValKehl]

I picked this up in the very recent Huggins & Scott auction. Now to figure out how to best display it.

[brianp-beme]

Great multi-part writeup of Game 7 George...I really got into the baseball spirit when reading it.

Brian

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

I picked this up in the very recent Huggins & Scott auction. Now to figure out how to best display it.

Way to go, Val! This makes the third one I've seen, unless yours was from Ron Menchine's collection, in which case there are two. Here's mine, purchased from Kent Feddeman, who had his framed with a pillow inside. One of the really fabulous vintage Washington pieces, IMO. My theory is that a D.C. department store sold these at some point after the Series, but who knows? There might be an ad lurking in one or more newspapers of the time that would prove that, but I've never checked.