October 11, 1929: The Mississippi Mudcat shuts down the Mackmen

Guy Bush “pitched one of his finest games,” gushed sportswriter Irving Vaughn, following the hurler’s resounding 3-1 victory over the seemingly invincible Philadelphia Athletics. “[He] curved them into complete silence.”1 “The Cubs’ victory started and ended with Guy Bush,” emphatically stated A’s beat writer Stan Baumgartner, as Bush recorded the NL’s first win in the fall classic in 11 games.2

Skipper Joe McCarthy’s Cubs (98-54) were reeling after the A’s (104-46) ambushed them at Wrigley Field in the first two games of the World Series. In what had been expected to be an evenly matched series featuring baseball’s two highest-scoring teams,3 the Cubs were outscored 12-4, fanned 26 times, and played uncharacteristically poor defense.

Marse Joe’s decision to call on right-hander Guy Bush for the pivotal Game Three in Philadelphia was controversial. Called the Mississippi Mudcat, Bush was known as much for his pitching as he was for his appearance and personality. “He has the sideburns of an adagio dancer and his hair is so slick it looks like enamel,” quipped sportswriter Jimmy Powers;4 while Baumgartner described him as a “tall, lanky, dark-skinned rebel with the courage of a Robert E Lee and the heart of a Patrick Henry.”5 Not overpowering like Cubs Charlie Root or Pat Malone, 18-game winner Bush was a rubber-armed hurler who had appeared in an NL-best 50 games in ’29, including 30 starts, and logged 270⅔ innings, third-most in the circuit. Despite his accomplishments, he was considered the Cubs’ “big problem in the pre-series dope,” opined Chicago Tribune sportswriter Edward Burns.6 After starting the season with a 16-1 record, Bush struggled the last five weeks, losing all four of his decisions and posting a 7.74 ERA in 43 innings. His two-inning relief outing in Game One, in which he surrendered three hits and two unearned runs, didn’t inspire confidence either.

The Tall Tactician, A’s owner-skipper Connie Mack had another trick up his sleeve. Presiding over the big league’s best staff (its 3.44 ERA and 4.1 runs per game were easily baseball’s best), Mack had already surprised the Cubs by starting 35-year-old, seven-game winner Howard Ehmke in the opener. The submariner responded by fanning a World Series-record 13 batters. Either Lefty Rube Walberg (18-11) or 45-year-old ageless wonder Jack Quinn was expected to start Game Three; however, Mack called in George Earnshaw, who had started Game Two just two days earlier and was knocked out after 4⅔ innings, yielding eight hits and three runs. Big George, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound behemoth, led the majors with 24 wins in 1929 and Mack was confident the hard-throwing right-hander could neutralize the Cubs’ right-handed-heavy lineup.

The City of Brotherly Love braced for record crowds at Shibe Park, hosting its first World Series since 1914, but the turnout was smaller than anticipated on a cloudy Friday afternoon with temperatures in the 60s. The paid attendance was 29,921, but Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter George Dixon noted “scores of empty seats.”7 Even the newly erected viewing stands on row houses on 20th Street from Lehigh to Somerset drew little attention. Unlike at Wrigley Field, Shibe Park seemed devoid of festivities, with no bunting along the stands and no bands or dignitaries, though baseball comedians Al Schacht and Nick Altrock performed before the game. John Drebinger lamented in the New York Times that it “the most silent world’s series in the history of the great fall classic.”8

Earnshaw came out smoking. Through five innings he fanned seven, the same amount he had punched out in Game Two, thus already exceeding his average of 5.27 strikeouts per nine innings, which ranked second in the AL. He yielded only two hits, both by Hack Wilson, and escaped a jam on the first one. Wilson, who had smashed 39 home runs and led the NL with 159 RBIs, led off the second with a long shot that Vaughn of the Tribune thought “looked like a sure run” over center fielder Mule Haas’s head.9 The ball rolled to the wall, but Wilson held up at third. With one out, Wilson broke for home, but Riggs Stephenson grounded to Max Bishop, and his throw home easily erased Wilson, who wasn’t able to slide because Stephenson’s bat inadvertently landed on the third-base line.10

Unlike Earnshaw, Bush was hit freely, bent, but didn’t break. In the first four innings, he yielded six hits and walked one, and another reached via an error, but the Mississippi Mudcat was tight in the pinches and stranded all eight baserunners. Even when the Cubs recorded an out, something bad happened. After first baseman Charlie Grimm retired leadoff hitter Max Bishop on a popup, he was subsequently struck in the mouth by the ball as it went around the horn.11 Bush escaped his first jam, in the second, when Jimmy Dykes and Joe Boley singled with two outs. With two strikes on Earnshaw, Dykes attempted to steal home. Catcher Zack Taylor dropped the ball as Dykes crossed the plate, but home-plate umpire Charlie Moran had already called strike three on Earnhart, prompting a loud protest by Dykes.12

Bush was tested again in the third inning after Haas and Mickey Cochrane singled with one out with Al Simmons and Jimmie Foxx due to bat. With Sheriff Blake warming up in the Cubs bullpen, Bush went to an 3-and-0 count on Simmons. Bucketfoot Al, who hit 34 home runs, batted .365, and led the AL with 157 RBIs, popped up to third. Foxx, the 21-year-old slugger, who emerged as a star with 33 round-trippers, sent an easy grounder to shortstop Woody English who fumbled it to load the bases. On his 24th pitch of the inning, Bush retired Bing Miller on an outfield fly.13 “That was pitching, pitching that requires skill and courage,” opined sportswriter Don Maxwell.14

The vaunted A’s offense finally broke through in the fifth when Cochrane led off with a bounder to short and beat the throw to first. Bush retired the slugging Simmons-Foxx duo, but Cochrane advanced to second and then scored on Miller’s single.

Bush’s antics at the plate in the sixth helped wake up the Cubs’ sputtering offense. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Bush toyed with Earnshaw, “deliberately jutting his head out over the plate.”15 Earnshaw’s bugaboo was his control (he led the AL with 125 free passes in ’29) and he walked Bush, who had just 10 walks in 397 plate appearances thus far in his career. Earnshaw “should have dusted him off and had every right to do so,” continued the Inquirer. After Norm McMillan popped up to Cochrane on a bunt attempt, reliable Jimmy Dykes fumbled Woody English’s potential inning-ending double-play grounder. The Cubs’ fortunes turned on hits by NL MVP Rogers Hornsby (39-149-.380) and Kiki Cuyler, both mired in 1-for-10 slumps with six strikeouts each. The Tribune described them as the “goatiest goats that ever amazed the baseball world with unexpected inefficiency.”16 Hornsby singled to left to tie the game. After Wilson’s infield grounder moved up the runners, Cuyler singled over Earnshaw’s head to put the Cubs in the lead, 3-1. On his 28th pitch of the inning, Big George retired Stephenson to retire the Cubs.17

The Cubs had a man in scoring position in two of the final three innings, but Earnshaw clamped down the threat. With two outs in the eighth, Hornsby smacked a two-out double and Wilson drew Earnshaw’s second and last walk of the game; Stephenson (17-110-.362) doubled to lead off the ninth, but failed to advance. With his 130th pitch of the game, Earnshaw fanned Bush, his 10th strikeout. It was also the Cubs 36th strikeout of the World Series, easily the most ever through three games, and just nine away from the then-Series record.

Staked to a 3-1 lead, Bush pitched his best ball in six weeks. After a one-two-three sixth, Bush once again faced Simmons and Foxx with men in scoring position, and once again held the dangerous sluggers hitless. After Bishop led off with a single and Cochrane smacked a one-out single, Simmons connected for a hard smash to deep center field, which looked as though it was “heading for the stands,” wrote the Inquirer’s James Isaminger.18 Wilson raced back to snare the ball, but both runners advanced. Needing a single to tie the game, Foxx topped one in front of the plate. Taylor easily grabbed it and threw him out to end the threat.

Bush retired the last six batters he faced to end the game in 2 hours and 9 minutes. The first victory by the NL team in the World Series since the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the New York Yankees in Game Seven in 1926, Bush’s victory rekindled the Cubs’ title hopes. In the biggest win of his career, Bush tossed 140 pitches (85 strikes), scattered nine hits, fanned four, and walked two.19

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, SABR.org, and The Sporting News archive via Paper of Record.

NOTES

1 Irving Vaughan, “Bush Pitches Cubs to 3-1 Victory,” Chicago Tribune, October 12, 1929: 1.

2 Stan Baumgartner, “Victory Began and Ended with Bush as Teammates Lagged,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 1929: 18.

3 Highest-scoring teams based on runs per game. The Cubs averaged 6.3 runs per game; the A’s 6.0. The Detroit Tigers also averaged 6.0 runs per game.

4 Jimmy Powers, “Guy Bush Has Gobs of What It Takes,” New York Daily News, October 12, 1929: 28.

5 Baumgartner.

6 Edward Burns, “Hear That Din? It’s from the Cubs’ Dressing Room,” Chicago Tribune, October 12, 1929: 23.

7 George Dixon, “Shibe Park Battle Stirs No Whoopee From Polite Fans,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 1929: 1.

8 John Drebinger, “Cubs Triumph, 3-1, In 3d Series Game Before 30,000 Fans,” New York Times, October 12, 1929: 1.

9 Vaughan.

10 Vaughan.

11 Drebinger.

12 Drebinger.

13 Pitch counts from “Number of Balls Pitched Per Inning,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 1929: 19.

14 Don Maxwell, “Here’s Chance AT Last! Pick a Cub Hero,” Chicago Tribune, October 12, 1929: 23.

15 “Footnotes of the A’s-Cubs Battle,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 1929: 18.

16 “Kai and Raja Awake from Strikeout Nap,” Chicago Tribune, October 12, 1929: 23.

17 Pitch counts from “Number of Balls Pitched Per Inning.”

18 James C. Isaminger, “Cubs Beat A’s, 3-1′ Bush Outsmarts Macks in Pinches,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 1929: 1, 18.

19 Pitch counts from “Number of Balls Pitched Per Inning,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 1929: 19.