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1924 World Series
After struggling to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers for the National League pennant by only 1½ games, the New York Giants once again found themselves competing in their eighth World Series in fourteen years. Their challengers, the Washington Senators, had topped the American League and were determined to bring home a championship to the nation's capital.
Game 1 promised a great Series as league-standout Walter Johnson and veteran Art Nehf went head-to-head in a twelve-inning nail-biter that ended in a 4-3 Giants victory. Although Johnson had struck out twelve New Yorkers, "The Big Train" had allowed fourteen hits and six walks. After winning two out of the next three, Washington was pounded in Game 5 when Johnson surrendered thirteen more hits including four by Freddie Lindstrom on the way to a devastating 6-2 loss. The Senators' ace was now 0-2 and they were one game away from elimination.
Washington managed to stay afloat thanks to a solid performance at the plate by Bucky Harris (who knocked a two-run single in the fifth) and the arm of Tom Zachary, who held the Giants in tow for a crucial 2-1 win that tied the Series at three games each. Game 7 at Griffith Stadium provided a perfect backdrop for the Senators "Grand Finale". Although the Giants looked to add yet another title to their resume (with a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the eighth) a critical fielding error by the Giants' eighteen-year-old third baseman Freddie Lindstrom (on a routine grounder) netted two runs and a last minute tie. The stalemate continued until the twelfth thanks to "big" relief from "The Big Train".
Once again, the Giants committed two major fielding errors including a replay of the missed grounder to third and a dropped foul by catcher Hank Gowdy, who tripped over his mask. Fittingly, it was Walter Johnson who had turned his game around (after two poor outings) in a 4-3 triumph that gave the Senators their first world championship. The 1924 contest was John McGraw's last championship appearance (although he would manage the Giants until 1932) and he would end it with a 3-6 Series record. Despite losing twice as many match-ups, the Giants skipper is currently tied (with Joe McCarthy) for second all-time for World Series appearances (behind Casey Stengel with ten).
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"That was one of the strangest games (Game 7 of the 1924 World Series) I ever played in. With one out, catcher (Hank) Gowdy did a sun dance on Ruel's pop foul and stepped into his mask and dropped the ball. Ruel doubled and then there was an error at short, then McNeely hit that grouder. That was a hell'uva way to lose a World Series." - Jack Bentley
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| 1924 World Series Game 1 Capsule |
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Team
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
R |
H |
E |
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New York
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0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
4 |
14 |
1 |
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Washington
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
10 |
1 |
| New York Pitchers |
Washington Pitcher(s) |
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Art Nehf (W)
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Walter Johnson (L)
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| New York Home Runs |
Washington Home Runs |
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George Kelly (2nd)
Bill Terry (4th)
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None
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| 1924 World Series Game 2 Capsule |
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Team
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
R |
H |
E |
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New York
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0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
6 |
0 |
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Washington
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2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
6 |
1 |
| New York Pitcher(s) |
Washington Pitcher(s) |
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Jack Bentley (L)
-
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Tom Zachary (W)
Firpo Marberry (S, 9th)
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| New York Home Runs |
Washington Home Runs |
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None
-
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Goose Goslin (1st)
Bucky Harris (5th)
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| 1924 World Series Game 6 Capsule |
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Team
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
R |
H |
E |
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New York
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1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
7 |
1 |
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Washington
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0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
x |
2 |
4 |
0 |
| New York Pitcher(s) |
Washington Pitcher(s) |
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Art Nehf (L)
Rosy Ryan (8th)
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Tom Zachary (W)
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| New York Home Runs |
Washington Home Runs |
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None
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None
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The day after (October 11, 1924) the Washington Senators won their first, and only, World Championship the headlines in The Washington Star read as follows:
CAPITAL CELEBRATES ITS JOYOUS DELIRIUM
FAR INTO NIGHT FRENZIED THRONG MAKES MERRY ON "MAIN STREET"
100,000 FANS GO MAD AS RUEL SCORES
Time may erase the Solemn pages of history, fleeting ages may sink nations into the dust of forgotten pasts. But nothing will ever dim the memory of that wondrous hour when Washington won the world baseball championship.
Washington's stout hearted gladiators rose freom the forlorn ruins of crumbling hopes and crushed the mighty Giants in the twelfth inning of the greatest contest in the history of the game.
The whole city went mad , in the aromatic ecstacy of a delirious frenzy, and even refused to be quieted through the long hours of thenight. ...a night of delirious revelry, a veritable orgie of joy, a celebration that was spontaneous, tumultous, overwhelming.
Hour after hour throbbing thousands marched and rode up and down Pennsylvania Avenue; and that old thoroughfare, long accustomed tom the tinseled dignity of military panoply, laughed and rocked to sounds and noises that were as strange as they were joyous toits ears. Restraint was left at home, and it was the happiest-go-luckiest mob that ever howled itself ragged. by Harold K. Philips
Did you know that the New York Giants hit four (4) home runs during the seven (7) games of the 1924 World Series, but half of them were hit by the team's pitchers?
Author Donald Honing wrote in The October Heroes: Great World Series Games Remembered by the Men Who Played Them, "'It's possible,' he (Freddie Lindstrom) says with unembarrassed matter-of-factness, 'that if it hadn't been for that ball bouncing over my head in the 1924 World Series a lot of people would have forgotten I existed. The association is made so often: Lindstrom, the bad bounce, the World Series. I still hear about it. Some people think I hit the ball, some think I scored the winning run. I have to refresh them on it. I didn't do anything but just stand there, I tell them. It was very easy. Anybody could have done it.'"
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