This recap, with no byline, of the 1924 World Series first appeared in the Oct. 16, 1924, issue of The Sporting News under the headline “Senators Wage Uphill Battle to Capture Series” and a smaller headline “Walt Johnson, After Two Defeats, Proves Hero in Deciding Contest.” It points out the Washington icon Walter Johnson, who went 23-7 in the regular season and that year would win his second AL MVP award, wasn’t at his best in the Series. But he shut down the Giants in extra innings in Game 7 to get the only World Series victory in his Hall of Fame career. Elsewhere in that issue, “The Base Ball Paper of the World” wrote: “No, Johnson did no flop, and next year, if he decides to play, he will pitch as well as he has in 1924. And anyway, had it not been for Barney’s work in the pennant race, the Griffs would not have been in the World’s Series.” He would play three more seasons.
THE WORLD’S championship rests with the American League for the thirteenth time since the inter-league classics to decide baseball supremacy were begun in 1903, as compared to eight triumphs for the National League. It was the plucky Washington Senators who brought home the laurels to the junior league this season, defeating the New York Giants in one of the closest and hardest fought Series that had ever marked the championship play, four games to three.
Always with their back to the wall, so to speak, the Senators waged an uphill battle throughout the Series. Getting off one game behind on opening day, the Senators evened the count the next day. But in the third game, they again fell behind, only to even it in the fourth game. Back came the Giants in the fifth struggle to take the lead, three games to two, and with the title but one game out of reach of the Giants. It seemed like a hopeless job for the men of Manager Harris. But they managed to even the count to three-all on the sixth game and nosed out the National Leaguers in the seventh and deciding game.
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The final game will go down in history as one of the most exciting ever played in the World’s Series, and to use a sport vernacular, the Senators out-dogged the Giants. Perhaps to Manager Harris a great deal of the glory must go, for it was his ever encouraging leadership and skill which kept his team fight in the face of great obstacles. Harris had seen his great veteran Walter Johnson, upon whom he had placed great dependence, defeated in the opening contest and battered unmercifully in the fifth game. He had seen Roger Peckinpaugh, the great shortstop, go out of the game with an injury to his leg. He had seen a make-shift infield collapse more than once. But he also saw his men come back when the going was roughest and the outlook least propitious and repel the National Leaguers.
Marberry Plays Fine Role
When, too, it was Johnson who took to the pitching in the ninth inning of the deciding game and carried his team courageously in victory in that memorable 10-inning struggle which gave the Senators the championship. Much credit must also go to Fred Marberry, who lifted the hopes of the American Leaguers several times during the Series as a relief pitcher.
Tom Zachary is given credit for two of the victories won by his team, one a brilliantly achieved triumph. George Mogridge is accredited with another, while the honors as related went to Johnson in the deciding fray.
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Goose Goslin, hard hitting outfielder of the Senators, did himself proud during the Series, tieing the record held by Babe Ruth by hitting three home runs in a Series and establishing a new mark for extra bases with 21, that representing, along with the homers, a double and seven singles. In addition to this, he set another by beating out six consecutive hits.
Sam Rice likewise played the offensive part and several of his fielding plays will be long remembered by World’s Series fans. Peckinpaugh, in the games he was able to appear in, got five hits, two of them timely doubles, in 12 times at bat. His fielding also was superb and it was the absence of the latter that was missed by the American Leaguers in at least two of the game.
Goes Down Again in Comeback
Peck was forced out in the early innings of the third game of the Series, but managed to get back in the sixth game, only to buckle up in his tracks in the ninth inning after making a difficult play. Harris played Bluege in his place most of the time, switching Miller to third. In the final game, he tried both Taylor and Miller at third. Sight must not be lost of the fact that the Giants played a strong, aggressive game all the way. They outfielded and out-hit the Senators in a majority of games and were challenging continuously when Washington was in the lead.
Nehf, Bentley and McQuillan were the New York pitchers credited with the victories.
A strange feature of the Series was the fact that Muddy Ruel, the great little catcher of the Senators, did not get a hit until the final game and then became one of the most conspicuous figures in the deciding victory.
Day by day, for the first six games, Muddy was rolling out, popping up and generally failing with the stick. It is true he got on base often by virtue of walks, but he simply could not hit them where they weren’t.
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In St. Louis, where the young lawyer got his start in the game, was John Sheridan, the veteran baseball commentator, who taught Ruel many of the fundamental points of baseball. Sherry could not understand what was the matter. Finally, the night before the final game he wired Muddy: “You’re hitting at ’em too late.”
Next day, the catcher got two hits, one a double which placed him in a position to score the winning run in the twelfth inning when McNeely uncorked his drive. So Sheridan, whether his advice meant anything or not, feels pretty good about his protege.
One of the outstanding features of the Giants’ play was the work of Freddy Lindstrom, the youngster who held down third base in the absence of Heinie Groh, who was out of active service with a leg injury. This kid, for he is said not to be 20 years old, fielded without error and got ten hits, two of them doubles, for an average of .333.
Frisch’s great work also stood out. He accepted a total of 44 chances afield, many of them resulting in sensational plays, and turned in a hitting mark of .333.
Series Sets Receipts Mark
The Series established a new high mark for receipts, the money taken in for the seven games being $1,093,104 or $38,288 in excess of the other million dollar Series, and six-contest battle between the Giants and Yankees in New York last year.
Attendance figures were not shattered, however. The mark of 283,695 set in 1924 Series, falling 17,735 short of the 301,430 who saw the classic last season.
Washington players will divide $143,291.60 of the total fund and New York will split $99,327.75. The remaining 25 per cent of the total players’ share will be divided between the second and third place clubs in each league.
The Washington money will be split into 28 shares of $5,730 each, Manager Harris announced after a meeting of players, which followed the final game. Miller and Taylor, substitute infielders, and Al Schact, coach, will each receive two-thirds of a share and the 24 remaining portions will be equally divided among the other players and Coach Nick Altrock and Trainer Mike Martin. Lump sums will be donated by the players to Wade Lofler, outfielder, who was ineligible for the Series, to the clubhouse boy, Frankie Baxter, and to the Senator batboy.
The approximate figure for each of the 26 men on the Giant team, including Coach Jennings, is $3,820.
Sidebar: Final Contest Will Live Long in Memories of Fans
Excerpts from TSN’s story in the Oct. 16, 1924, issue about the deciding Game 7, in which Walter Johnson held the Giants scoreless over the last four innings before the Senators won the Series in the 12th.
FIGHTING THE GIANTS all the way, taking advantage of every opportunity and hitting when the punch was needed, the Senators took the seventh and deciding game from the Giants, 4 to 3 in 12 innings. Strangely enough it was the same score by which the opening game was decided in New York’s favor and the same number of innings were required to decide the issue. And with the World’s Championship which rests with Washington until next fall, came glory to Walter Johnson, glory which had been denied him in his two previous attempts to pitch a winner in the annual classic.
Johnson, as relief hurler, went into the fray in the ninth inning with the score tied and thereby received credit for pitching the victory. What’s more, he did a heroic job of it, three times being called upon to repel the Giants when they became dangerous. The game was a grim struggle from the start, each manager resorting to strategic moves in an effort to swing the balance of victory. …
The President of the United State and his wife, watching their third game, clapped and waved their hand with the enthusiasm of the most ardent fans. Men and women, many of them prominently known throughout the country, joined with the rabid throng of fandom in that tumultuous outburst.
Never has baseball’s premier crown been won under circumstances so remarkable as those in the deciding game of a Series that swayed back and forth with brilliancy, uncertain until the last thrilling moment. Not since the famous Series of 1912 have American and National League rivals fought with such tenacity and courage for the title, and, oddly enough, it was the Giants who went down to defeat this time as they did 12 years ago before the Boston Red Sox.
The game sparkled with the most thrilling sort of play, terrific hitting, spectacular defensive work, brilliant and erratic pitching, good and bad baseball. One dramatic moment followed another, from the earliest withdrawal of Curly Ogden, Washington’s first hurler, after he had pitched to only two batters in the opening inning, until the veteran Johnson, the “old master,” came to the rescue in the last four innings.
Johnson had sustained two heartbreaking setbacks at the hands of the Giants, and it seemed the irony of fate would keep him from the goal of a lifetime. But Johnson came back. He was the Johnson of his prime when the situation was the most dangerous, and the “smoke ball” that had failed him twice before lifted the veteran to his greatest glory and his team to triumph.
Johnson was under fire in those last four innings, for the Giants fought to the final ditch. Twice, when they threatened, Johnson walked Ross Young purposely to get George Kelly, and twice Kelly fanned in the pinch. Frisch, tripling with one out in the ninth, was on third and Young on first when Kelly whiffed for the first time, and Irish Meusel closed the inning by grounding out. A double play checked the Giants in the tenth, but in the eleventh, Southworth, running for Groh, a pinch hitter, and Young were on second and first with one out, when Kelly again was a victim of Johnson’s fast ball.
The twelfth saw Johnson hold back another charge, after Meusel opened with a single before the Senators broke through after themselves threatening in the ninth and eleventh innings. …
Buel, who had failed to get a hit until this game, brought the crowd to its feet with a striking double down the left field line, after Gowdy, veteran Giant backstop had ingloriously dropped an easy foul pop up that would have retired Buel. Where they had been steadier, the Giants were now crumbling and Johnson got safely to first when Jackson fumbled his sharp grounder. Buel was held at second on this play, but after McNeely had fouled off the first pitch of Jack Bentley, Giant southpaw, he caught the next one for a drive that hopped over Lindstrom’s head and bounded to left field for a double.