Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

Player #106B: G. Earl McNeely. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1924-1927. 614 hits and 69 stolen bases in 8 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. His 12th-inning single drove in the winning run as Washington took Game 7 of the 1924 World Series from the New York Giants. His most productive season was 1926 with Washington as he posted a .373 OBP with 84 runs scored and 18 stolen bases in 503 plate appearances. He last played with the St. Louis Browns in 1928-1931.

McNeely's SABR biography relates his 1925 season: He started the first five games of the season, but managed just three hits and lost playing time, first to Leibold and then to the newly acquired Joe “Moon” Harris. Harris would play either corner outfield position with Sam Rice moving to center. McNeely’s was the tale of three seasons. Going into the game of June 10, he was hitting .211, but after four hits that day, he went 16-for-29 over the next week to raise his average to .326. He reached a high of .353 after a 2-for-5 day on July 5. He made 72 of his 91 starts between June 10 and September 9.

McNeely was hitting .301 after a four-hit day on August 26, but the final month of the season was a disaster for him. He hit .212, going 14-for-66, from August 27 until the end of the season. Even though McNeely finished at a respectable .286, it’s no surprise that manager Harris chose to put Moon Harris in the starting lineup over McNeely in the 1925 World Series. Moon ended up as the Nats’ top hitter in a losing effort against the Pirates, with McNeely getting into just four of the seven games as a defensive sub and pinch runner. Perhaps McNeely’s worst statistic of 1925 was his base-stealing: He was successful in just 15 of 31 attempts during the season.

Still, McNeely was in center field for the most memorable play of the ’25 Series: Rice’s catch of Earl Smith’s long drive in Game Three. When Smith connected, Rice ran back toward the temporary bleachers, leaped, snagged the ball and fell head-first into the stands. He disappeared for at least 10 seconds before McNeely, who had just entered the game in center, pulled him out by his uniform jersey. Rice held the ball high and the out call was made. The Pirates were furious, but as Rice said for the rest of his life, when asked if he had held onto the ball, “the umpire said I did.” In a letter opened after his death, Rice insisted he never lost possession of the ball.

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[GeoPoto]

Player #107B: 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.

We go back to Ogden's SABR biography: Warren Harvey “Curly” Ogden became part of World Series lore in 1924 when Washington manager Bucky Harris started him in Game Seven as a ploy to fool Giants manager John McGraw. The idea was to get McGraw to play rookie first baseman Bill Terry and other left-hand batters against the right-handed Ogden, so that Harris then could bring in lefty George Mogridge. . . .

. . . Ogden’s gutsy performance had earned him a spot on the 1925 staff. “Curly’s work with a damaged arm last season was sensational, and it was expected that he would be even better after Bonesetter Reese fixed his wing,” The Sporting News wrote in April 1925. After Ogden’s poor spring, “Manager Harris must have figured that the Sheik of Swarthmore is a slow starter and will be all right.”

Getting “all right” never happened in 1925, however. Although he somehow managed to pitch a shutout and complete another one of the four games he started, Ogden threw just 42 innings all year in 17 games for the pennant-winning Nats. The following season wasn’t much better. He started nine of the 22 games in which he appeared and pitched 96 innings, but his ERA was again well over 4.0, and by midseason, he found himself with Birmingham in the Southern Association.

(Aside: It appears to me that the PSA flip-writer was so distracted by Ogden's menacing demeaner, that he couldn't spell his name completely.)

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[GeoPoto]

Player #74J: Edgar C. "Sam" Rice Part 1. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1915-1933. 2,987 hits and 34 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. 1920 AL stolen base leader. He was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 1963. Led the Senators to three AL pennants (1924,1925, and 1933). Best known for controversial "over the fence" catch in the 1925 World Series. He had many excellent seasons, but one of his best was 1930 as he posted a .407 OBP with 121 runs scored in 669 plate appearances. He had 63 stolen bases in 1920. He last played in 1934 with the Cleveland Indians. His early life was marred by tragedy when his wife, two daughters, parents, and two sisters were all killed by a tornado in Indiana.

We are going to jump over Rice's 1925 season with the pennant-winning Senators and go straight to Carroll's account of "The Catch": (Bucky) Harris made a couple of defensive changes to start the eighth (of Game Three of the 1925 World series, with Washington ahead 4-3). With (starting pitcher) Ferguson having been pinch-hit for in the bottom of the seventh, Bucky Harris sent his ace reliever Marberry to the mound. He also moved Rice from center field to right, the position he had played for most of the past three years (and for the rest of his career), to start the inning. The move was necessitated by McNeely's entry into the game as a pinch runner in the bottom of the seventh. Harris kept McNeely in the game, batting in Ferguson's original ninth spot, and placed him in center.
It would be a fateful move.

Marberry dispensed of Glenn Wright and George Grantham easily to begin the inning, striking both men out. Grantham was now 0-for-11 in the three games of the series, and McKechnie's patience was beginning to wear thin.
Smith, the brash Pirates catcher, came to the plate with two outs and the Senators still clinging to that 4-3 lead they had just seized. Smith had put together a decent series to that point, reaching base once in each of the first two games, and twice already against Ferguson in Game Three. But the damage he had been able to cause was minimized by the fact that he was batting between the slumping Grantham and the pitcher's spot.

The New York Times described Smith's seeming arrogance as he looked toward Marberry: "He looked over Marberry's pitching with an arrogant sneer. Crouched at the plate, Earl is not an easy batsman to pitch to. He worried Marberry. Then Smith caught hold of one his pitches. His left-handed swing was deadly and true, and the ball went soaring far and straight into right field."

We are able to show a Sam Rice baseball card at this point courtesy of Val Kehl who has dipped into his world-renowned Sam Rice master collection to provide:

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[GeoPoto]

Player #74J: Edgar C. "Sam" Rice Part 2. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1915-1933. 2,987 hits and 34 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. 1920 AL stolen base leader. He was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 1963. Led the Senators to three AL pennants (1924,1925, and 1933). Best known for controversial "over the fence" catch in the 1925 World Series. He had many excellent seasons, but one of his best was 1930 as he posted a .407 OBP with 121 runs scored in 669 plate appearances. He had 63 stolen bases in 1920. He last played in 1934 with the Cleveland Indians. His early life was marred by tragedy when his wife, two daughters, parents, and two sisters were all killed by a tornado in Indiana.

Rice spotted Smith's drive off the bat and turned to sprint toward the right-field wall. He beat the ball to the wall, stopping and turning around to gauge his leap as the ball seemed destined for the bleachers and a tying home run. Rice leaped. Everyone in the ballpark could see him snag the ball, at least initially. But hardly anyone could see what happened next, and in fact it wouldn't be resolved for another fifty years.

The momentum of his leap and the ball's trajectory carried Rice over the wall and tumbling into the right-field bleachers. Running out to try to make a call on what had happened was second base umpire Charley "Cy" Rigler. . . .

. . . As Rice worked his way out of the bleachers, Rigler could only judge based on what he had seen. Rigler saw Rice snare the ball in his glove when he left his feet. And when Rice re-emerged from a fans lap, he still had the ball secured. What happened in between was anyone's guess, but Rigler raised his right hand to call Smith out. The Pirate half of the eighth was over, and the Senators still clung to their 4-3 lead.

"In all the future years that World's Series will be played, in all the games that have been played under high nervous tension in the past, one will never see a more thrilling catch than that grand grabby Sam Rice," Harry Cross wrote in the New York Times. "All Washington, and, in fact, American League fans from the Atlantic to the Pacific, who followed this afternoon's battle before the scoreboard or on the radio, raise their hats to Samuel Rice tonight."

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[GeoPoto]

Player #74J: Edgar C. "Sam" Rice Part 3. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1915-1933. 2,987 hits and 34 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. 1920 AL stolen base leader. He was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 1963. Led the Senators to three AL pennants (1924,1925, and 1933). Best known for controversial "over the fence" catch in the 1925 World Series. He had many excellent seasons, but one of his best was 1930 as he posted a .407 OBP with 121 runs scored in 669 plate appearances. He had 63 stolen bases in 1920. He last played in 1934 with the Cleveland Indians. His early life was marred by tragedy when his wife, two daughters, parents, and two sisters were all killed by a tornado in Indiana.

The Pirates, on the other hand, weren't in much of a saluting mood. They refused to believe Rice had made the catch, and demonstrated that belief loudly. . .

. . . Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis, usually not one to shy away from controversy, called for Rice after the game. The "czar," the unofficial title conferred on Landis often by the press in the days since his landmark Black Sox ruling, had witnessed the hysteria surrounding Rice's tumble into the bleachers. While others scrambled to assemble eyewitnesses to the play, Landis was eager to take the primary participant's account.

"Sam," the commissioner asked him, "did you catch that ball?"

Landis was nobody to mess with. Though most famous for tossing eight members of the infamous 1919 White Sox out of the game for the World Series-fixing scandal, that wasn't Landis's only decisive moment in his role. Before the 1922 season, he was so infuriated with Babe Ruth that he suspended the game's greatest player, along with slugging Yankee teammate Bob "Irish" Meusel, for a quarter of the season. The pair's offense had been participating in a barnstorming tour during the offseason, a practice banned for World Series participants. A few months later, had become irritated when umpires called a tied World Series game due to darkness in the tenth inning. He ruled that all profits from that day be given to charity to avoid baseball any embarrassment.

Rice carefully answered Landis' inquiry.

"Judge, the umpire called Smitty out," came Rice's non-answer answer.

"That's exactly what I wanted you to say," replied Landis, "and that's the way I want you to answer anybody else asking you that question."

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[GeoPoto]

Player #87C: Herold D. "Muddy" Ruel. Catcher with the Washington Senators in 1923-1930. 1,242 hits and 61 stolen bases in 19 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. He debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1915. He was the Yankees catcher in 1920 when Ray Chapman was hit and killed by a Carl Mays fastball. He scored the tying run in regulation and then the winning run in the 12th inning of game seven in the 1924 WS. His best season was 1923 with Washington as he posted a .394 OBP with 54 RBI's and 63 runs scored in 528 plate appearances. His final season as a player was 1934 with the Chicago White Sox. He was manager of the St. Louis Browns in 1947. He was GM of the Detroit Tigers in 1954-1956.

Ruel's SABR biography: From playing in the schoolyards and sandlots of St. Louis to scoring the winning run in Game Seven of the World Series; from wearing the “tools of ignorance” to holding the title of general manager; from to being a short, skinny, 19-year-old rookie to being special assistant to the Commissioner of Baseball, Muddy Ruel wore many hats in the game of baseball. Ruel, in fact, spent almost his entire life connected to the game in some fashion. And though his name is one that is probably not that familiar to many younger fans of the game, at one time, “Muddy” essentially was a household name. . . .

. . . In 1923 Ruel began his first season with the Washington Senators during the Senators’ finest period. In 136 games for the Nats, Ruel batted .316 with 54 RBI and 24 doubles. His fielding percentage was .980 in 133 games behind the plate.

Connie Mack, the elder statesman of the Philadelphia Athletics and himself a former big-league catcher, paid high praise to Ruel’s ability behind the plate in 1923. Mack said, “Ruel is the best catcher in either major league this year. . . . He has handled his pitchers in fine style and has been a terror at the bat. . . . he is tireless, the type of catcher that makes every player on his club perk up. Ruel . . . is easily the best catcher of the year in every department of play.”

Ruel was essentially the everyday catcher for the back-to-back pennant-winning Senators in 1924 and 1925, appearing in 149 games in 1924 and 127 games in 1925.

In the 1924 World Series, the Senators met the mighty New York Giants. Despite going hitless in every at bat in the series until Game Seven, Muddy Ruel caught every game of the series. Bucky Harris, the young player/manager of the Senators, liked his chances with Ruel behind the plate despite Ruel’s poor performance at the plate. Harris’ faith in Ruel’s ability paid big dividends when Ruel eventually scored the winning run that gave the Senators their one and only World Series title.

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[GeoPoto]

Player #108B: Allan E. "Rubberarm" Russell. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1923-1925. 70 wins and 42 saves in 11 MLB seasons. He also pitched for the New York Yankees (1915-1919) and the Boston Red Sox (1919-1922). For his MLB career, in 345 appearances, he posted a 3.52 earned run average with 603 strikeouts. Russell played on the 1924 World Series champion Senators, making one appearance in the World Series, giving up one run over three innings of work. He was a spitball pitcher who was allowed to throw the pitch after it was banned following the 1920 season. He was one of 17 pitchers exempt from the rule change. His brother Lefty Russell also played Major League Baseball.

We go back to Russell's SABR biography for the less-than-stellar end to his MLB career: In 1924 Russell ranked second in saves in the league with eight. In addition he won five games in relief. However, by now his teammate Fred Marberry was emerging as the leading relief pitcher of the decade, and Russell’s appearances became less frequent. Together the two relievers won or saved 39 of Washington’s 92 wins that season as the club won its first American League pennant. Russell made one appearance in the 1924 World Series, relieving in the fourth inning with his team trailing 3-2. He got Hank Gowdy to fly out; then New York Giants pitcher Rosy Ryan came to the plate. With the count two balls and one strike, Ryan hit a home run into the upper tier of the right-field stands, the first homer ever hit in a World Series by a National League hurler. Russell pitched three innings, giving up four hits and two runs, one of which was unearned.

The Senators captured the flag again in 1925, but Russell did not appear in the World Series that year. His final major-league game came on September 19. He did not go out in a blaze of glory. Relieving Tom Zachary in the fourth inning with his team trailing 7-0, Russell pitched one scoreless inning and was blasted in the next, giving up a total of eight hits in 1 2/3 innings. Win Ballou, who relieved Russell, fared little better, being roughed up for nine hits in the remainder of the game. All told, the three Washington pitchers gave up 26 hits and 17 runs, while their mates collected only one hit off Ted Lyons in a 17-0 loss. The sole hit came by Bobby Veach with two out in the ninth inning. After the game, Veach went to the visitors clubhouse and apologized to Lyons for depriving him of what would have been the American League’s first no-hit game in more than two years.

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