Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

Player #98C: J. Thompson "Tom" Zachary. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1919-1925 and 1927-1928. 1924 and 1928 World Series champion. 186 wins and 23 saves in 19 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1918. In Washington's World Series-winning 1924 season, he posted a 15-9 record with a 2.75 ERA in 202.2 innings pitched. In 1949 with the New York Yankees, he went 12-0, an MLB record that still stands for most wins without a loss in one season. He also gave up Babe Ruth's 60th home run in 1927. He finished his career with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1936.

Deveaux's account of the Bambino's home run record: The Senators became even more indelibly linked with the Yankees when, at season's end, they arrived at Yankee Stadium for the last three games (of the 1927 season). Babe Ruth was three home runs shy of breaking his record of 59, set in 1921. Lord knows he'd been trying, but the closest he'd been to approaching 59 in the six years since was 47. Until now. On September 29, Ruth chalked up number 58 when he got hold of a curveball that submariner Hod Lisenbee tried to sneak by him.

What followed may well be one of the most dramatic beginnings to any major leaguer's career. Young Paul Hopkins, graduated four months earlier from Colgate University, had been working out with the Nationals for three weeks when Bucky Harris, with the bases loaded, finally called upon him. Hopkins had no idea whose turn it was to bat. Seventy-one years later, he still recalled standing on the mound wondering who the first batter would be.

When Paul Hopkins found out the first man he would face in the major leagues would be none other than Babe Ruth, he was nervous, he admitted later, but not scared, since he felt he was capable of getting anybody out. The youngster threw nothing but curves, most of them slow. The Babe ripped foul balls down both lines, and the count got up to 3-and-2. Then Hopkins threw yet another curve, extra slow, and Ruth had to pull up a bit before launching a rocket toward the right field stands, a grand slam for his 59th homer of the year. Paul Hopkins may never have recovered from the blow, although he would always remember striking out the next batter, Lou Gehrig. When he got back to the bench, his self-image shattered, he said he sat down and cried because he couldn't get Babe Ruth out. Hopkins' major-league journey lasted all of 27 innings.

The next day, with the score knotted at two runs apiece in the eighth inning, Tom Zachary had the task of keeping Ruth from driving in the potential game-winning run, which was standing on third in the person of Mark Koenig, who had tripled. Zachary, reacquired by the Nats from the St. Louis Browns at midseason and 4-7 the rest of the way for Washington, hadn't done too well thus far this day, yielding a walk and two singles to the Bambino. The Babe unleashed a mighty wallop on a 1-1 pitch, a low inside fastball that barely stayed fair. "Foul ball!" yelled Tom Zachary, but fair it stayed.

There was never any doubt about the distance on home run number 60, and the sphere came to rest way up in the bleachers, about 15 rows from the top. The game ended with the score still 4-2 Yankees a few minutes later, when pinch-hitter Walter Johnson flew out to the Babe in right field. "Let's see some other son of a bitch match that!" challenged the Babe, as the Yankees prepared for the beginning of the World Series five days later against the Pirates in Pittsburgh.

Gentle Tom Zachary, when pressed later on in life to give his impressions of surrendering Ruth's 60th homer, declared, "If you really want to know the truth, I'd rather have thrown at his big, fat head." (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

We finish back with Zachary's SABR biography for his most lasting "accomplishment": . . . On July 7 (1927) he was traded back to the Senators for pitcher Alvin “General” Crowder. Zachary picked up three wins but then went on a six-game losing streak in August and early September, which was followed by a string of no-decisions. On September 25 he shut out the Browns for his first win since August 4. His next start would be in New York on September 30.

Babe Ruth had 57 home runs entering the final series against the Senators. He smashed two homers and drove in six on September 29. The dingers tied his career high of 59 and he had two games left to set a new standard. Zachary had faced the Babe many times since 1919. The Babe had hit eight home runs off his offerings, including two earlier in the season. “But few recall how many times I struck ol’ Babe out.”

Zachary claimed that pitchers always bore down when facing Ruth. He would joke that if pitchers had tried that “hard against everyone else, they would have pitched many of the weaker hitters out of the league.” The Babe walked on four pitches in the first inning. He singled and scored on a Bob Meusel sacrifice fly in the fourth to cut the Washington lead in half. He singled and scored on a Meusel single in the sixth to tie the game. The game was still tied in the eighth when Mark Koenig slammed a one-out triple. Ruth connected on Zachary’s third pitch and sent the ball curving towards the right field corner. It settled into the seats “no more than a foot inside” fair territory according to Senators catcher Muddy Ruel and plate umpire Bill Dinneen. New York won the game, 4-2, sending Tom to his 13th loss of the year.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688894052
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688894056