Clark Griffith, right, and Philadelphia A’s manager Connie Mack shake hands on Opening Day 1919 at Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC. The Washington Senators began playing at Griffith Stadium in 1911. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)

As the 1911 season started, Griffith Stadium represented a work in progress after an offseason fire. Nevertheless, Washingtonians eagerly anticipated their new ballfield. On Opening Day Joe S. Jackson gushed in the Washington Post, “This is the day, and National park the place, on and at which it is expected that all Washington records for baseball attendance and related enthusiasm will be smashed, shattered and tossed into the discard.”1

Boston arrived in Washington the day before the game “to get in a few licks … but orders were … that the team could not practice [at] the [new] park on account of the workmen who were … clearing away … debris.”2

The ballpark received praise from Boston reporter Tim Murnane, a leading knight of the keyboard before his premature passing in 1917. “A new grandstand and bleachers, built in less than three weeks and affording fine accommodations for fully 15,000 spectators, was the work of magic,” marveled Murnane.3

With “overcast skies and a prediction of rain,” the conditions did not live up to the grounds.4 The “game was slowly played in a chilly east wind. [Making his second Opening Day appearance,] President Taft sat muffled up in a heavy fur overcoat throughout the struggle.”5 Taft had done his Opening Day duties when he “swung his arm and hurled the ball straight and true to ‘Dolly’ Gray, the Washington pitcher.”6

Vice President James Sherman joined Taft. “Sherman is a genuine, expert scoring, and peanut-eating regular. Truly, this is an administration which is correct from a base ball standpoint,” noted Sporting Life.7

The politicians missed seeing the ace of the Senators pitch, although before the game “he fooled around in the outfield for quite a while.”8 Demanding a $9,000 salary, Walter Johnson finally signed for $7,000 two days before the opener.9 As a result, Gray started for the Senators and retired the Red Sox in order in the first inning. 

The 21-year-old Smoky Joe Wood, “expected to be the Red Sox star pitcher,”10 started for Boston. Washington’s leadoff hitter, Clyde Milan, reached on an error by Heinie Wagner, one of four committed by the Boston captain in the contest,11 and stole second. After a strikeout, Kid Elberfeld reached on a fielder’s choice retiring Milan and stole second. A foul tip knocked out catcher Red Kleinow12 in favor of backup backstop Bunny Madden. Wood got another strikeout to escape the eventful but scoreless first.

After a second straight one-two-three inning by Gray, Wood walked John Henry with one out in the second, but got two grounders to strand the Washington first baseman. 

Batterymates Madden and Wood, the latter an excellent-hitting pitcher who later became a good-hitting outfielder, hit consecutive singles to begin the Boston third. Wood took second on the throw to put two runners in scoring position with none out. Groundouts cashed in both Bostonians and put the Red Sox up 2-0. Milan singled and stole another bag in the third, but the Senators still could not score.

Boston plated another pair in the fourth. Duffy Lewis hit a ground-rule double into the outfield crowd, and Wagner walked. In his first big-league game, Rip Williams hit to pitcher Gray, who threw wildly to third to load the bases with none out. Clyde Engle reached on a fielder’s choice force at the plate, but Madden’s single put the Sox up 3-0. Milan threw out Williams trying to score, but Gray uncorked a wild pitch to give Boston a four-run lead.

Henry singled and stole second in the fourth, but remained stranded. Washington had four steals in four innings but no runs. The ease with which the Senators ran the bases boded well for the hosts. “Neither Boston catcher seemed to be in any shape to stop base runners,” wrote the Post. “In fact, the whole [visiting] team looked far from being ready for a hard season.”13

After Gray sailed through the top of the fifth, Washington scored in its half with a run on a walk to Gabby Street and singles by Milan and Elberfeld.

Gray set down Boston easily in the top of the sixth. In the bottom of the inning the Senators transformed a 4-1 deficit into a 7-4 lead. With one out, Henry singled. Wagner made another error on a ball hit by George McBride. Street singled in Henry to cut the Red Sox lead to 4-2.  Batting for Gray, Wagner fielded Warren Miller’s grounder and threw wildly to home as McBride scored to trim the lead to 4-3. Milan’s single loaded the bases. Ed Karger came on for Wood, who got little help from his fielders. 

Karger “failed to show any real stuff when called upon.”14 Germany Schaefer, the second pinch-hitter used by Washington manager Jimmy McAleer in the inning, singled to tie the game. (“McAleer used excellent judgment … and won his game by his substitutions in the sixth,” the Washington Post observed.)15 Then Elberfeld doubled in two runs and Washington led, 6-4. Bill Cunningham walked to reload the bases, and Karger plunked Doc Gessler16 to score Washington’s seventh run and the sixth in an inning in which nine straight Senators reached.

Pitcher Ewart “Dixie” Walker, the father of outfielders Dixie and Harry the Hat, replaced Gray in the seventh. Each team scored in the eighth. Boston’s Harry Hooper walked and Tris Speaker singled him to third. The Gray Eagle tried for second, but Gessler threw him out. Speaker’s overaggressive baserunning hurt Boston. Lewis singled in Hooper as the Red Sox edged to within 7-5, but Wagner’s misery continued as he hit into a rally-killing double play.

Doubles by Elberfeld and Gessler in the eighth provided insurance for Washington, restoring the three-run margin at 8-5.

In the ninth Walker lived up to his name by walking Williams and pinch-hitter Steve Yerkes.  With two outs, Larry Gardner singled to load the bases. With the tying runs on, Hooper sent a fly deep to left, but Schaefer made the catch to end the game.

While a later scorer could would have given Gray the win and Walker the save, the official scorer on this day anointed Walker with the winning laurels (coming off consecutive 19-loss campaigns, Gray could have used the help in 1911, his last season in the majors, which he finished with a 2-13 record). Give an assist to Wagner and the defective Boston defense. Fans of the Senators may have gotten an exaggerated sense of the team’s prowess, as Washington would not score as many as six runs in an inning again until the third frame of a 14-7 win on June 2 against Detroit. On that day, the Senators would make six errors but triumph. On this day, six Red Sox errors gifted Washington with a wild win in the first Griffith Stadium game.

Notes

1 Joe S. Jackson, “‘Play Ball’ Today,” Washington Post, April 12, 1911: 1.

2 “Wood to Be Sent after Senators,” Boston Globe, April 12, 1911: 1.

3 T.H. Murnane, “Red Sox’ 4-to-0 Lead Is Turned into 8-5 Defeat,” Boston Globe, April 13, 1911: 6. As Retrosheet has no play-by-play data for this game, this account relies on Murnane’s reporting to describe what happened.

4 “Baseball’s Opening Day,” Boston Evening Transcript, April 12, 1911: 6.

5 “Taft Starts Senators Off,” New York Times, April 13, 1911.

6 “Nations Win, 8 to 5, as 16,000 Cheer Them,” Washington Post, April 13, 1911: 1. Gray kept the ball that Taft threw him and planned to take it to the White House at a later date for an autograph. “Heard and Seen at the Ball Game,” Washington Post, April 13, 1911: 2.

7 Paul W. Eaton, “From the Capital,” Sporting Life, April 22, 1911: 3.

8 “Johnson in the Fold,” Washington Post, April 13, 1911: 8.

9 Shirley Povich, The Washington Senators (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2010), 58-59.

10 “American League Notes,” Sporting Life, April 22, 1911: 11.

11 Wagner suffered from a sore arm in this game according to A.H.C. Mitchell, “Boston Briefs,” Sporting Life, April 22, 1911: 5. Wagner did not play again until May 13.

12 Kleinow did not play again until May 29.

13 “Notes of the Nationals,” Washington Post, April 13, 1911: 8.

14 “Echoes of the Game,” Boston Globe, April 13, 1911: 6.

15 Joe S. Jackson, “Nationals Play Better Ball and Deserve Their Victory,” Washington Post, April 13, 1911: 2.

16 In 1910 Gessler had finished in a three-way tie for the AL lead by getting hit by a pitch 16 times. In 1911 he upped his total to a career-high 20, but finished second behind teammate Elberfeld’s 25. Washington finished no better than fourth in any offensive category in 1911 save for its league-leading total of 80 HBPs.

As if the Nationals didn’t have enough to worry about, on March 17, less than a month from Opening Day, National Park burned down. According to the Washington Evening Star, “[T]he superintendent of the grounds … attributes the fire to the carelessness of a plumber who left a blast lamp unwatched for a moment while he left his work to step outside the room. … The flames ate up the wooden structure with such speed that by the time half the [city’s] engines … were coupled to the hydrants the interior of the park was a great crater of flame.”2 Rebuilding began right away and in a little more than four months, a new park was ready for the Nationals to inaugurate.

After a 20-game road trip ending in St. Louis on Sunday, July 23, the Nationals returned to Washington to open the new park with a three-game midweek series with the Tigers. Walter Johnson would not be available on the 25th, having thrown a complete-game 5-1 victory against St. Louis on Sunday3 and three innings on Monday at a benefit game played in Cleveland in memory of Addie Joss, who died in April.4

Pitching for the Nationals on the 25th would be left-hander Dolly Gray, their Opening Day starter. Washington was 30-58, by now well entrenched in seventh place. The Nationals’ opponents, the Detroit Tigers, were 59-28, in first place by four games.

George Mullin pitched for the Tigers. He was 10-5 and had bested Walter Johnson twice earlier in the season.

“Tigers Are Here; Fur Sure to Fly,” shouted the Washington Herald on the 25th over a story by sportswriter William Peet that began, “Hughie Jennings’ Detroit Tigers, leaders of the American League, will oppose the Nationals at the brand new concrete castle on Florida Avenue at 3:30 o’clock this afternoon and a grand surprise awaits the Washington fans. The surprise is in the nature of the ball park, now complete except in a few minor details. …”5

The Detroit Free Press noted that “the Tigers were accorded the honor of opening Washington’s new ball park and ran true to form to the extent of a whipping their hosts 5 to 2, taking an early start and leading them wire to wire. This new ball park is a sort of Phoenix-like affair, having risen from the ashes of the plant that burned down early in the spring. There was a makeshift arrangement that provided for the earlier games of the season, but today the splendid new concrete stands practically are completed. …”6

As for the game itself, the Herald’s headline the next day summed it up: “Opening Battle Goes to Tigers: Nationals Unable to Solve Mullin’s Shoots when Hits Are Needed – Hughes Does Well after Gray Blows – Score, 5 to 2.”7 Reported Peet, “The Tigers won because George Mullin was able to keep eleven big swats apart, while Dolly Gray gave up the ghost in the second inning, after a quartet of slams and two runs went to the credit of the league leaders. Tom Hughes, who finished the job, was there with bells on. Had he started, the result might have been a different story.”8 Joe S. Jackson of the Washington Post could not agree more. “Only the little matter of a misplaced guess stood between the home folk and happiness on the occasion of the return of the Nationals and the dedicating of the revamped ball yard. That guess was on the matter of pitching. Gray … looked the logical choice against a left handed club like the Tigers. It took less than two innings to prove that he wasn’t what we have already said, while the ensuing seven rounds, through which Tom Hughes toiled, serve to show that the long boy might have brought it home had he been first picked.”9

With the temperature in the low 80s, the game began on a ceremonial note, with Vice President James S. Sherman (but not President Taft) in attendance. In the top of the first, Delos Drake singled but was thrown out on an attempted steal. Donie Bush then walked and took third as Ty Cobb singled. Sam Crawford bunted and Bush scored, beating the tag. Cobb was now on third and Crawford on first. Jim Delahanty hit a fly ball to Clyde Milan and Cobb scored. George Moriarty’s grounder to short ended the inning.

In the bottom of the first, Milan promisingly tripled to lead off, but was stranded.

The Tigers scored two more in the top of the second, and in the process drove Gray to the showers. After Charlie O’Leary grounded out, Oscar Stanage singled to right. Mullin doubled off the short right-field wall with Stanage going to third. McAleer removed lefty Gray and brought in Tom Hughes, a right-handed sidewinder. In response to the pitching change, Jennings substituted Davy Jones for Drake, who grounded to first baseman Germany Schaefer. Schaefer threw home and nailed Stanage at the plate. With two outs and men on first and third, the threat was almost contained. However, Bush doubled to bring in Mullin and Jones, making the score 4-0. Cobb then flied out to end the inning.

The score remained unchanged through four innings, although the Herald noted, “Mighty good chance to score in the fourth, with three men on bases and only one out.”10 After a walk and two infield hits, the stage was set. J. Ed Grillo of the Evening Star reported, “It is doubtful if a faster double play than the one turned by Bush, O’Leary and Delahanty in the fourth inning, with the bases full, has been seen on the local grounds this season. With one out and all the sacks occupied, Wid Conroy hit a sharp grounder to second base. Bush made a great stop, and without steadying himself, threw to O’Leary, who shot the ball to first in time to double up Conroy. The play was worked like a flash, and did much to win the game for the Tigers, for that fourth inning threatened for a time to be disastrous to Mullin.”11

The Nationals scored a run in the fifth when Eddie Ainsmith tripled past Crawford in right (Peet: “the ball rolling past Sam Crawford, and the fans let out a bunch of roots that jarred the concrete stands”12). Hughes hit a grounder to Bush deep in the hole at short and was retired at first; Ainsmith stayed at third. (Some sportswriters thought he could have scored). Milan flied to left to drive in Ainsmith.

In the Tigers sixth, Delahanty singled and took second on one of Walker’s two errors. (“Walker is credited with a pair of errors on fumbled balls, but the poor condition of the turf doubtless had a lot to do with Walker’s slips, and the fans should not criticize too harshly.”13) Moriarty’s sacrifice moved Delahanty to third. “O’Leary drove up a short fly which Walker gathered in. Delahanty tried to reach home and as the throw as perfect, Ainsmith had his man by two feet, but dropped the ball from the force of the impact.”14 It was one of three errors by Ainsmith in the game, for a total of five Washington miscues. The play made the score 5-1.

“Although the home folks choked a hit out of Mullin in each of the next two rounds, nothing happened, and it was not until the eighth that another tally showed up,” the Herald reported.15 In the eighth, Milan singled to left off Mullin, Schaefer struck out, and Kid Elberfeld singled, Milan going to third. Jack Lelivelt grounded to second and, in the words of Joe S. Jackson of the Washington Post, “O’Leary grabbed Lelivelt’s grounder, and tagged Elberfeld, the latter delaying the play long enough to kill a double [play]. Milan scored while this was going on.”16 Tillie Walker got on board with an infield hit, but George McBride flied out to Cobb to end the inning. That made the score 5-2, Tigers, and that was how the game ended after a playing time of 2 hours before a crowd of 8,000.

The loss put the Nationals at 30-59, but they went 34-31 the rest of the way to salvage something of a lost season. In September the owners hired Clark Griffith as player-manager to replace the departing McAleer. Better times were ahead.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author relied on Baseball-reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 Tom Deveaux, The Washington Senators: 1901-1971 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2001), 15.

2 “Baseball Park Is Swept by Flames,” Washington Evening Star, March 17, 1911: 1.

3 Baseball-reference.com: baseball-reference.com/teams/WSH/1911-schedule-scores.shtml.

4 Henry W. Thomas, Walter Johnson: Baseball’s Big Train (Washington: Farragut Publishing Company, 1995), 83.

5 William Peet, “Tigers Are Here; Fur Sure to Fly,” Washington Herald, July 25, 1911: 7.

6 E.A. Batchelor, “Tigers Drive Gray to the Bench and Rout Washington,” Detroit Free Press, July 26, 1911: 8.

7 William Peet, “Opening Battle Goes to Tigers: Nationals Unable to Solve Mullin’s Shoots when Hits Are Needed – Hughes Does Well after Gray Blows – Score, 5 to 2,” Washington Herald, July 26, 1911: 7.

8 Peet, “Opening Battle.”

9 Joe S. Jackson, “Tigers Make a Sad Day of New Park Inaugural,” Washington Post, July 26, 1911: 8.

10 Peet, “Opening Battle.”

11 J. Ed. Grillo, “Lively Ball Is No Longer Used in American League,” Washington Evening Star, July 26, 1911: 10.

12 Peet, “Opening Battle.”

13 Peet, “Opening Battle.”

14 Peet, “Opening Battle.”

15 Peet, “Opening Battle.”

16 Jackson.

The Washington nine had been ensconced in seventh place in the eight-team American League for most of the 1911 season. Recently the Nationals had shown some improvement, winning 15 of their last 20 games.

The Highlanders looked like one of the better teams in the loop in the early season but, plagued by inconsistent pitching as well as injuries, they quickly fell out of contention. New York had been fluctuating between the third, fourth, and fifth spots in the junior circuit standings since early April.  

After the Highlanders dropped a doubleheader to Washington the previous day, player-manager Hal Chase gave the starting nod to pitcher Ray Fisher (8-7). Nationals manager Jimmy McAleer countered with rookie pitcher Jay Carl Cashion (1-0).

Fisher posted a 24-5 record with 243 strikeouts for the Hartford Senators in the Class B Connecticut State League in 1909. At the behest of Highlanders scout Arthur Irwin, New York purchased Fisher’s contract, along with that of infielder Jack Wanner, from the Senators for $5,000. Fisher was allowed to complete his studies at Middlebury College in Vermont before reporting to the Highlanders in 1910.

Fisher had a good fastball along with a variety of curves, yet he was best known for throwing the spitball. Sportswriters who covered his games noted that Fisher didn’t throw the spitter on every pitch but went through the motions as if he did. This psychological warfare between pitcher and batter worked to Fisher’s advantage throughout his career.    

Cashion was playing for the Greenville Spinners in the Class D Carolina Association when he was purchased for $2,500, reported to be the highest price to date for any player from that circuit. Cashion was signed by Nationals scout Mike Kahoe. Cashion had made his big-league debut a week before, on August 4, squaring off against Chicago ace Big Ed Walsh. Cashion allowed just three hits that day in a 3-2 Nationals victory. The youngster’s pitching repertoire consisted of a lively fastball, hard-breaking curve and deceptive change of pace, but his control was lacking. Every now and then Cashion would drop down into an almost completely underhanded delivery. Considering his wildness, this submarine pitch created quite a bit of trepidation among opposing hitters.            

August 12 started out as a hot and muggy day in Washington. By game time ominous storm clouds had moved directly over the ballpark, limiting the attendance to about 5,000.

Cashion started the contest on a bad note by walking leadoff man Harry Wolter. The next batter, Charlie Hemphill, lashed a single to right, Wolter scampering to the third on the well-executed hit-and-run. Washington right fielder Doc Gessler attempted to throw Wolter out on the play. Gessler’s heave from right bounced a few times before being knocked down by third baseman Wid Conroy. Sensing a chance to take an extra base, Hemphill bolted for second. Conroy hurriedly threw toward the middle of the diamond. Off the mark, the sphere rolled into right-center field. By the time the ball was thrown back into the infield, Wolter had crossed the plate and Hemphill was standing on second.

Hemphill stole third as Hal Chase struck out. A wild pitch to Birdie Cree allowed Hemphill to race home with New York’s second run. Cree eventually went down on strikes. The next batter, Jack Knight, grounded out to end the inning.  

Fisher stymied the Washington batsmen in the bottom of the first, a theme that would play out for the rest of the afternoon. A potential New York rally was thwarted in the next inning thanks to a pair of nice plays by second baseman Bill Cunningham. For the next few frames neither team mustered up much offense.

In the fourth, Highlanders third baseman Roy Hartzell smacked a 3-and-2 pitch from Cashion high over the right-field fence for a home run. Hartzell had broken into the majors with the St. Louis Browns in 1906. After posting a .218 batting average in 1910, he was traded, along with $5,000 to the Highlanders for Jimmy Austin and Frank LaPorte. Hartzell came into the game against the Nationals hitting .300 with 17 stolen bases. This homer was his second of the season. 

For the next few stanzas both pitchers were on their mettle. The Washington Evening Star observed, “Fisher could not be hit, his speed, control and most deceptive spit ball, which he bluffed with now and then made him almost invincible.”1

Cashion, behind in the count on nearly every batter, kept Washington in the game by mixing up his pitches just enough to keep the Highlanders batters off balance.

For the remainder of the contest a pitching duel ensued between the two young hurlers.    

In the Highlanders sixth, first baseman Chase made a nice defensive play when he snagged a hot grounder off the bat of Clyde Milan then beat him to the bag for the putout.

Bill Cunningham, who recorded the first home run by a Washington player at National Park on June 2, nearly duplicated the feat off Fisher in the seventh. Cunningham’s long drive fell just a bit short as Highlanders outfielder Birdie Cree made a nice grab at the left-field fence after a long run.           

The Highlanders eighth started with Wolter connecting for a triple. The next batter, Charlie Hemphill, hit a grounder to shortstop George McBride. Wolter, who broke from third on contact, was gunned out at the plate by a perfect throw from McBride.

The Nationals threatened in their half of the eighth. After Gabby Street grounded out, Cashion and Milan reached base via a pair of singles. Germany Schaefer, who already had two hits to his credit, stepped to the plate. With the count full, Fisher spun a slow curveball to the dish. Mistiming the pitch, Schaefer launched a high popup behind the plate that catcher Ed Sweeney was able to haul in near the stands for the second out. At that point Nationals manager McAleer removed Tillie Walker in favor of pinch-hitter Jack Lelivelt. Walker had been struggling against Fisher, going 0-for-3 with a pair strikeouts. The crowd cheered McAleer’s managerial strategy as Lelivelt had tripled in the Nationals’ extra-innings victory in the second game of the doubleheader the previous day. On this occasion Lelivelt fell victim to a Fisher breaking ball, grounding out to Chase to end the Nationals’ short-lived rally.

With two out in the top of the ninth, Hartzell stroked Cashion’s full-count offering into the gap in left-center field, the ball rolling to the fence. Clyde Milan quickly fired the ball toward the relay man, McBride, whose strong throw home landed in the catcher’s mitt seconds after Hartzell had crossed the plate, bumping up the score to 4-0. With this second round-tripper, Hartzell became the first player to hit two home runs in one game at the newly built National Park.     

In the bottom of the ninth Fisher needed only five pitches to retire the side and seal the win.

He allowed six hits, four of which came with two outs, and walked one batter. He struck out four. No Washington runner advanced past second base. Cashion was touched up for eight hits and walked five in the loss.   

Hartzell’s long-ball display along with a recent clout by Doc Gessler didn’t impress a Washington Times sportswriter who wrote under the pseudonym “Senator.” “There is something about a home run where the hitter has only to jog around the four sacks that takes much away from the value of his drive as a spectacle,” Senator wrote. “Short fences in the National League park at Boston have come close to killing the interest in the sluggers there, and it is to prevent this in Washington that manager McAleer wants a higher fence in right field.”2

The Nationals went on to post a 17-11 record in August. From there they reverted to their former ways, finishing the 1911 campaign in seventh place. Although he had another year remaining on his contract, McAleer left the Nationals at the close of the season to become president and part-owner of the Boston Red Sox. The underachieving Highlanders ended up one rung above Washington in sixth place. Hal Chase resigned as manager in November.      

Author’s Note

There were a few instances of conflicting information in the newspapers regarding specific plays during the game. The author endeavored to discern what actually took place by cross-referencing game information from available articles pertaining to the plays in question.   

Sources

Baltimore Sun  

Baseball-reference.org 

Bridgeport (Connecticut) Evening Farmer

Cairo (Illinois) Bulletin

New York Sun

New York Times

New York Tribune  

 Sporting Life

The Sporting News

Times Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia)

Washington Evening Times

Washington Herald

Washington Times

Notes 

1 J. Ed  Grillo, “Fisher’s Pitching Causes the Nationals to Be Shut Out by the Highlanders,” Washington Evening Star, August 13, 1911: 50.  

2 Senator, “Long Clouts by Heavy Sluggers Heighten Fences,” Washington Times, August 14, 1911: 10.    

Washington skipper Clark Griffith had reason to be confident. The former star pitcher, seven-time 20-game winner, and successful player-manager for three different franchises had transformed the Senators from laughing stock to baseball’s biggest surprise in his first season in the nation’s capital. A charter member of the AL, the Senators had never posted a winning record or finished higher than sixth. Preparing to complete a three-game set with the sixth-place Cleveland Naps (51-61) as part of a three-week homestand, the Senators (69-44) were firmly ensconced in second place, nine games behind the Boston Red Sox. Though the chances of dislodging Boston from their perch seemed slim to none, the Old Fox was not about to give up trying.

Rain the previous day had necessitated a doubleheader on a warm and muggy Tuesday afternoon with temperatures in the mid-80s. Before the twin bill could get underway in the one-year-old steel-and-concrete National Stadium, a controversy erupted when Griffith attempted to jockey for position and pull a fast one. After informing home-plate umpire Tommy Connolly that Lefty Schegg was his starter, Griffith changed his mind when Naps skipper Harry Davis announced that his ace Vean Gregg would start. Griffith quickly recognized that Schegg, a 22-year-old southpaw making his big-league debut, was no match for Gregg, an emerging star coming off 23 wins and an AL-best 1.80 ERA in his rookie campaign. Sensing a disaster, Griffith backtracked and told Connolly that Walter Johnson would start. “Griff forgot the rules,” opined D.C. sportswriter J. Ed. Grillo, “and thought that he could announce Schegg as his pitcher and then send Johnson to the slab.”1

Connelly objected to Griffith’s rules violation and ordered Schegg to the mound. In what proved to be his only big-league start, Schegg retired leadoff batter Buddy Ryan and then saw Griffith approach the mound. The Old Fox yanked him and called on the Big Train. The Senators’ strong suit was their pitching, which eventually led the AL in team ERA (2.69), more than compensating for an average offensive club. Griffith wanted a matchup of aces, especially with his on a historic roll. The 24-year-old was coming off consecutive seasons with 25 wins and entered the ’12 campaign with an 82-78 lifetime slate. Laying claim as the majors’ best hurler, Johnson had won his last 14 decisions, tying Jack Chesbro’s 1904 AL record, and led all big leaguers with 27 wins (7 losses) and seven shutouts. During the streak, which had begun on July 3, the Big Train had made 17 appearances, 11 of which were starts, logged 113 innings, and limited batters to a paltry .177 average.

After Johnson breezed through the first, Gregg walked leadoff batter Clyde Milan and, like Schegg’s, his outing was done. Feeling the pressure to win in the midst of the Naps’ steak of 25 losses in their last 37 games, first-year-skipper Davis felt a victory was unlikely against the Big Train, and pulled his star for “supposedly easier game,” noted sportswriter Joe S. Jackson.2 Jogging in to replace Gregg was 24-year-old Bill Steen, a rookie right-hander with a 5-4 slate as a swingman.

Notwithstanding the manipulation of pitchers, the game unfolded as an unlikely pitching duel. Steen held the Senators hitless through four innings. Howie Shanks led off the fifth with a scorcher to Naps shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh, who corralled the ball near the outfield grass, but his off-balance throw, according to the Washington Post, eluded first baseman Art Griggs and landed near the stands, enabling Shanks to take second.3 Shanks advanced to third on Steen’s wild pitch and then scored the game’s first run on George McBride’s single. After Eddie Foster walked in the sixth, Danny Moeller’s blast to right field “scratched the paint off the scoreboard ads,” reported the Washington Times, for a double.4 Chick Gandil, acquired in a trade with the Montreal Royals of the International League in late May and in his first full season in the majors, hit a blooper into short center, scoring both runners to make it 3-0.

Staked to a three-run lead and given the way Johnson had pitched since the beginning of July, a Senators victory seemed imminent. The “star slinger was great for six innings,” gushed Jackson in the Post, and had yielded only three hits, two of which were scratches.5 Johnson was a different pitcher in the last three innings, when he “seemed to lose everything except a turn of speed,” reported Jackson, and the Naps “threatened to annihilate” him, opined sportswriter William Peet of the Washington Herald.6 Shoeless Joe Jackson, who entered the game batting .382 after posting a .408 average the previous campaign, led off the seventh by belting one “far over Milan’s head [in center field],” according to the Post, and reached third.7 Nap Lajoie, the former skipper after whom the team was named, followed with a single to put the Naps on the board. Three batters later, Lajoie scored on a single by Fred Carisch, who scampered to second when Milan overran the ball.8 With the game-tying run in scoring position, Johnson retired Peckinpaugh to end the threat.

The Big Train helped his own cause on the bottom of the seventh. McBride led off with a scratch single to first, moved up a station on Eddie Ainsmith’s sacrifice bunt, and then reached third on Steen’s wild pitch. Proficient with the bludgeon, Johnson collected one of his 20 RBIs in 1912 by grounding through the box and into center field to give the Nationals, as the club was often called, a 4-2 lead.9

Johnson was “forcing himself to the finish line,” wrote Grillo in the Evening Star.10 With one out in the eighth, Ryan singled. Joe Birmingham followed with another single, but right fielder Danny Moeller made a remarkable play that the Post claimed “probably saved the game.”11 His long and accurate throw to Foster at third nailed Ryan for the second out. Birmingham was subsequently caught trying to swipe second to end the inning. A “combination of bad baserunning and inability to follow up cost the Naps,” declared the Post.12

After Willie Mitchell tossed a one-two-three eighth in relief of Steen, a taxed Johnson took the mound in the ninth facing the heart of the Naps’ order. Shoeless Joe led off with a single. Lajoie, who at age 37 was still a threat and batted .368 in ’12, went for the win instead of sacrificing and popped up. Griggs’s single brought the potential winning run to the plate with only one out. But the ever-cool Johnson retired both Olsen and Carisch on routine flies to Moeller to end the game in 1 hour and 50 minutes.

The Big Train recorded his AL-record-setting 15th consecutive victory and 28th of the season despite yielding 10 hits (his most since a 13-hit complete-game victory over the New York Yankees on May 28 in which he also fanned 10) in 8⅔ innings. He didn’t walk a batter and fanned only three. Three days later he tossed a six-hitter to beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-1, for his 16th straight victory. The streak ended on August 26 when Johnson gave up two runs hurling the final 2⅔ innings of relief in a 4-3 loss to the lowly St. Louis Browns. He finished the season with a 33-12 slate and led the majors with a 1.39 ERA and 303 strikeouts.

Less than a month after Johnson’s record-setting victory, the Boston Red Sox’ Smoky Joe Wood equaled his mark with his 16th straight win. Wood ended the season with a big-league-most 34 victories for the eventual World Series champs.13 As of 2020, Johnson and Wood still held the AL record for most consecutive victories, and were later joined by the Philadelphia Athletics’ Lefty Grove (1931) and the Tigers’ Schoolboy Rowe (1934).

The 1912 season was an extraordinary campaign for winning streaks by pitchers. Johnson and Wood fell short of the New York Giants’ Rube Marquard, who began the season by winning his first 19 decisions, which as of 2020 was still the major-league record for most consecutive victories in one season. Carl Hubbell of the Giants holds the big-league record for most consecutive victories over multiple seasons, stringing together 24 in 1936-1937.

Davis sent Gregg back to the mound in the second game and had the matchup he wanted against his ace. Carl Cashion, a robust 6-foot-2, 200-pounder, was Griffith’s choice. Praised by beat reporter Grillo as the “most promising pitcher on the staff” other than Johnson, the 23-year-old Cashion was in his first full season and had a 5-2 slate (6-7 career) as a swingman.14 Beat writer Peet asserted that Cashion “would be one of the best in the world [if] he could only control the ball.”15 And for one abbreviated game, he could claim he was.

Gregg, who entered the game with a 14-10 slate en route to winning 20 games, came out “like a house afire,” wrote the Washington Times.16 He “had his south side slants working properly,” noted Peet.17 Through five innings, he fanned nine batters, including the side in the fifth; however, he struggled with control in one inning which, along with some shoddy defense, led to his demise.

The bottom of the second commenced innocuously with Gandil whiffing and Ray Morgan being thrown out trying to steal after he had coaxed a walk. Shanks drew another free pass and took a long lead, planning “delayed steal,” wrote Peet.18 Catcher Steve O’Neill rifled a bullet to rookie first baseman Doc Johnston, who had been acquired a week earlier from the New Orleans Pelicans in the Class A Southern Association and was making his first start at first. According to Grillo, Johnston “whirled around and touched the bag,” anticipating that Shanks would slide back, but the speedy rookie was well on his way to second.19 McBride walloped a missile to third, which “nearly knocked the underpinnings off Olson,” reported Peet.20 In an inexplicable move, Ivy Olson took left fielder Buddy Ryan’s return throw and attempted to nab McBride at first, but threw the bill wildly past Johnson, enabling Shanks to saunter home for the game’s first run while McBride advanced to second. The next batter, John Henry, playing in his first game since July 12 after injuring his left knee, doubled, driving in McBride.21

The Senators’ two runs were more than enough for Cashion, who “never looked better,” gushed the Times.22 Errors by McBride at short gave the Naps one baserunner in each of the first two frames. Catcher Henry atoned for the first by erasing Birmingham on an attempted steal. With two outs in the second Olson hit a screecher to McBride, who according to Peet “got in front of the drive, had both hands on the ball, and fumbled” and had no play at first.23 In what proved to be the only potentially tricky scoring decision of the game, Peet noted that all three official scorers ruled unanimously that the play was an error and not a hit. Cashion’s “speed was terrific, his control good,” said the Times.24 The Carolina Curver (Peet’s moniker for the North Carolinian25), walked only one batter, his mound opponent Gregg, in the third.

Rolling along, Cashion tossed his third straight one-two-three inning in the sixth, but didn’t have a chance to finish the game. As reported by the Cleveland Press, the teams had agreed prior to the first game to conclude the second contest early so that the Naps could catch a train to Boston, where they had a game against the Red Sox the next afternoon.26

Cashion’s abbreviated no-no lasted just 65 minutes. He fanned two and faced 20 batters. Over the final six weeks of the season, Cashion proved to be a durable hurler, completing seven of his eight starts; however, he was unable to harness his heaters and curves, walking 7, 8, and 10 batters in three of those distance-going affairs. He concluded the campaign with a 10-6 record and a 3.17 ERA, and completed 13 of 17 starts among his 26 appearances. He walked 103 in 170⅓ innings, which eventually spelled his doom.  He made only four more starts for the Senators over the next two seasons, finishing his career with a 12-13 record and one shutout: his no-hitter.

The next truncated no-hitter in the majors was also by a Senators hurler and also took place in Griffith Stadium: Walter Johnson held the St. Louis Browns hitless through seven innings in the rain-shortened first game of a scheduled doubleheader on August 25, 1924. Griffith Stadium witnessed only one regulation no-hitter in its 51-year history (1911-1961) and it came from an unlikely hurler. Swingman Bobby Burke, who made only 88 starts in his 10-year career, defeated the Boston Red Sox, 5-0, on August 8, 1931.

In 1991 Major League Baseball’s Committee for Statistical Accuracy changed the definition of a no-hitter, defining it as a regulation complete game of at least nine innings.27 This definition eliminated 36 shortened no-hitters from the record books, among them Cashion’s and Johnson’s in Griffith Stadium.

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 J. Ed. Grillo, “Griffith’s Team Is on Another Winning Streak,” (Washington) Evening Star, August 21, 1912: 10.

2 Joe S. Jackson, “Johnson Sets New League Record; No-Hit Game Is Pitched by Cashion,” Washington Post, August 21, 1912: 8.

3 Jackson.

4 Senator, “Johnson and Cashion Make Records at National Park,” Washington Times, August 21, 1912: 10.

5 Jackson.

6 William Peet, “Johnson Wins Fifteenth; Cashion Allows No Hits,” Washington Herald, August 21, 1912: 6.

7 Jackson.

8 Jackson.

9 Johnson collected 547 hits and batted .235 in his career. He knocked in a career-best 20 runs twice: in 1912 and 1925.

10 Grillo.

11 Grillo.

12 Jackson.

13 Both pitchers were remarkable during their record-braking streaks, though Johnson might have been slightly better. He made 19 appearances (12 starts, 7 relief outings), logged 130⅔ innings, yielding 87 hits (.186 batting average), fanned 109, and walked 20. Smoky Joe also made 19 appearances, including 16 starts, logged 145⅔ innings, held opponents to a .219 batting average (114 hits), fanned 122, and walked 30.

14 Grillo

15 Peet.

16 Washington Times.

17 Peet

18 Peet.

19 Grillo.

20 Peet.

21 Peet.

22 Washington Times.

23 Peet.

24 Washington Times.

25 Washington Times.

26 “Johnson Makes New Record; Naps Tie Old Losing Mark,” Cleveland Press, August 21, 1912: 10.

27 “Close, but No Cigar,” Nonohitters.com (nonohitters.com/near-no-hitters/).

The Senators owner-manager Clark Griffith needed a more than miracle for his third-place club (70-56) to have a chance to catch the Philadelphia Athletics, whom Washington trailed by 13 games with a month to play in the season. The Nationals, as sportswriters often called them, had been plodding along since July 31 and had lost 16 of their last 31 games, including the first game of a five-game set against the last-place Yankees (44-80) to kick off a 20-game homestand.

If the Senators had any chance for the AL flag, they’d need Walter Johnson to lead them. The 25-year-old side-armer laid claim the previous season as the best twirler in the sport, winning 33 games (one behind Smoky Joe Wood of the Boston Red Sox) and leading the majors with a 1.39 ERA and 303 strikeouts, the second time in three seasons that he surpassed the 300 mark. In 1913 the “Big Scythe,” as the Washington Times called him, was on a rampage.2 He began the day with a 29-7 slate, which pushed his career record to 144-97, and he had something to prove. In his last start, four days earlier at Shibe Park in the City of Brotherly Love, he uncharacteristically struggled, yielding a season-high six runs in a complete-game, walk-off loss in the 10th, his second consecutive defeat after 14 straight winning decisions.

On an unseasonably warm Friday afternoon, with temperatures in the mid- to upper 80s, an estimated 4,500 spectators had gathered for an afternoon of the national pastime at National Park, the Senators’ two-year-old steel-and concrete playing field. (It was renamed Griffith Stadium in 1920.) Scheduled to start the second game of the twin bill, Johnson was required to make an emergency appearance in the opener. Senators starter Joe Boehling cruised through eight innings and began the ninth with a 3-0 lead, then fell apart, surrendering two runs and loading the bases with no outs. In came Johnson, who defused the situation on four pitches. Pinch-hitter Ray Caldwell hit a fly to deep left field, which Joe Gedeon caught, then hurled a “remarkable throw,” gushed sportswriter J. Ed. Grillo of the Evening Star, to catcher Eddie Ainsmith, who tagged out the sliding Frank Gilhooley for a crushing twin killing. Johnson fanned Fritz Maisel on three pitches to end the game.

Sufficiently warmed up after his first-game heroics, Johnson took the mound in the second game in search of his 30th victory. “Unlike most managers in the Ban Johnson circuit,” suggested the Washington Herald, “[Yankees] skipper Frank Chance refused to put in a dub pitcher against the Nationals with Walter Johnson on the job and ordered Russell Ford to go to work.”3 The 30-year-old right-handed spitballer burst on the scene in 1910, winning 26 games as a rookie; so far in 1913, he sported a 12-13 slate and a 73-51 lifetime record.

“The Chancemen simply walked to the plate,” gushed sportswriter William Peet of the Washington Herald, “sniffed at Walter’s smoke, and trekked back to the bench.”4 The Big Train was dominant, as he had been in almost every game that season. He faced just 29 batters, yielding three hits and a walk, and only one batter reached second. In the first he issued a free pass to Harry Wolter, who was caught stealing; three innings later Wolter reached on a single and was gunned down again by Ainsmith attempting to swipe second. The two other hits were by, of all batters, the pitcher. Ford, who collected 32 hits in ’12, led off the third with a single and swiped second, and singled again in the ninth. Johnson fanned eight, including Birdie Cree three times, and was never in trouble. Newspapers also praised the Senators fielders. “The Nationals gave a splendid demonstration of their defensive strengths,” opined J. Ed. Grillo of the Evening Star,5 while the Times added that “senatorial speed marveled during the game.”6

Despite Johnson’s dominance and his fielders’ brilliance, the game unfolded as an unlikely pitching duel. An average offensive team, finishing fifth in the league in runs scored, averaging 3.8 runs per game, the Senators were perplexed by Ford’s wet ones. Through eight frames, the Senators had a man in scoring position only twice. In the second Frank LaPorte singled over short and stole second, but Ford punched out Ainsmith and George McBride. Johnson singled with one out in the sixth and moved to third on a groundout and passed ball, but was left stranded when Clyde Milan grounded out. Ainsmith led off the eighth with a single, but was caught stealing.

The Yankees “never had a chance” against Johnson, the New York Times sadly recounted.7 Nonetheless Ford was in “fine fettle,” noted the Washington Times, yielding only five hits and walking one through eight innings;8 while the Herald suggested that the game “would have gone into extra innings” or would have been “terminated by darkness” if not for an inopportune defensive miscue by the visitors that gave the Senators the victory.9

Ford dispatched the Big Train on a popup to third to begin the ninth. Danny Moeller followed with a single, which newspapers in the nation’s capital and New York considered only the Nationals’ second hard-hit ball of the game. After Moeller swiped second, Milan hit a routine grounder to second baseman Roy Hartzell. The eight-year veteran fumbled the ball (no error was charged) and Moeller reached third. Eddie Foster followed with what would have been the final out of the game, a fly to left fielder Cree. Moeller scored easily to tally the only run of the game and give the Senators a dramatic 1-0 victory in 1 hour and 45 minutes.

The Big Train’s 30th victory was also his 10th shutout of the season and commenced an awe-inspiring stretch to end what was surely his best season and one of the best by any hurler in baseball history. Including both games on September 5, Johnson closed out the season by winning seven straight decisions and posting a 0.62 ERA in 57⅔ innings before an ill-fated relief outing in the season’s last game. He captured the Triple Crown of pitching, leading the majors with 36 wins, a 1.14 ERA, and 243 strikeouts. He also led the big leagues with 29 complete games, 11 shutouts, and 346 innings pitched.

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 “Johnson Saves One Game, Wins Another,” New York Times, September 5, 1913: 8.

2 “Johnson Is Star of Close Battle,” Washington Times, September 6, 1913: 14.

3 William Peet, “Nationals Won Both Ends of Double Bill from Yankees,” Washington Herald, September 6, 1913: 10.

4 Peet.

5 J. Ed. Grillo, “Johnson Saves Boehling’s Game, Then Wins His Own,” Evening Star (Washington), September 6, 1913: 6.

6 “Johnson Save One Game, Wins Another.”

7 “Johnson Save One Game, Wins Another.”

8 “Johnson Is Star of Close Battle.”

9 Peet.

Walter Johnson was on a roll of historic proportions as he prepared for his final start of the season. Beginning with his three-hit shutout against the New York Yankees in the second game of a doubleheader on September 5 for his 30th victory of the season, the Washington Senators hurler had yielded only two earned runs in his last 47⅔ innings, and won all six decisions. His 36th victory seemed a foregone conclusion when Connie Mack, owner-manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, trotted out a “kindergarten brood,” noted the Philadelphia Inquirer, instead of his regulars.1

Perhaps taking the group of ragtag green recruits for granted, the Big Train “did not exert himself,” opined Washington sportswriter J. Ed. Grillo in the Evening Star. “He loafed most of the day, and did not use a single curve ball.” Nonetheless Johnson was no ordinary pitcher and “hitting and scoring on him are two entirely different propositions,” continued the scribe.2

The second-place Senators (85-63) had no chance to catch the front-running A’s (95-52) in the final six games of their last homestand of the season. A Monday afternoon affair at National Park, the club’s two-year-old steel-and-concrete ballpark, drew a robust crowd of 15,000 spectators, with boys under 12 admitted free, to celebrate George McBride Day.3 (National Park was renamed Griffith Stadium to begin the 1920 season.) The captain of the club, McBride was widely considered the AL’s best fielding shortstop, a position he had held down for the Senators since 1908, his first season with the team. In a pregame ceremony at home plate, McBride was presented a diamond-studded watch fob from fans and US Vice President Thomas Marshall gave a short speech praising the hard-nosed, scrappy player. Described as McBride’s closest friend on the team, Johnson requested to pitch this game. Baseball’s most dominant pitcher, the 25-year-old sidewinder entered the game leading the major leagues with 35 wins, 10 shutouts, and a 1.12 ERA.

With the A’s third pennant in four years wrapped up, the Tall Tactician gave his starters the day off against Johnson’s heater. The club’s vaunted “$100,000 Infield” (Stuffy McInnis, Eddie Collins, Jack Barry, and Home Run Baker) were replaced by little-used rookie Billy Orr and three players making their big-league debut, Press Cruthers, Monte Pfeffer, and Harry Fritz.

The game commenced in “emphatic manner,” gushed D.C. sportswriter William Peet, when Tom Daly led off with a single and moved to third on Jimmy Walsh’s single.4 Fritz’s grounder put Walsh in scoring position before the Big Train buckled down, fanning Cruthers and retiring George Brickley on an infield popup. In the next frame, Orr “hammered a hot one through Johnson’s glove” with one out, noted the Washington Times, but Johnson recovered and punched out the next two batters.5

“Either Connie Mack has gathered about him a most promising bunch of youngsters,” suggested the Washington Herald, or the “team produced a feeling bordering on stage fright.”6 At no time was that more evident than in the fourth. Still looking shaky, Johnson served up a “slow ball,” which Brickley clubbed over the head of 17-year-old Cuban-born left fielder Merito Acosta, making his first big-league start, and scampered to third with a one-out triple.7 In a rare bout of wildness, the Big Train loaded the bases by grazing the sleeve of Pfeffer’s uniform with a pitch and then walking Orr. Another player making his major-league debut, Wickey McAvoy, grounded to McBride, who initiated a 6-4-3 inning-ending twin killing. Johnson must have decided he was done toying around after his second rough inning and held the A’s’ newbies hitless over the last 5⅔ innings. Sportswriter Stanley Milliken of the Washington Post noted that Nationals second baseman Ray Morgan “pulled the feature of the afternoon,” robbing Pfeffer of a hit by snaring his screeching liner in the sixth.8

Johnson’s uninspired pitching early in the game might not have been newsworthy had the Senators managed any semblance of offense against rookie Weldon Wyckoff (2-2, 5.10 ERA). The 22-year-old right-hander was coming off a bizarre complete-game victory, 10-9, over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park five days earlier, despite yielding 24 baserunners on 12 walks, 11 hits, and a hit batter. In this game, however, Wykoff did his best Big Train impersonation and held the Senators hitless for 5⅓ innings until McBride connected squarely for a single that left fielder Walsh misplayed, allowing the ball to go through his legs while the captain reached second.

Walsh’s miscue was symptomatic for the A’s fielding woes, including five errors, all afternoon in a game that Wyckoff deserved to win. Two innings earlier, an errant throw by Fritz and a flubbed grounder by Pfeffer put runners on first and third with two outs, but both were left stranded.

“In thrills the game was lacking in many respects and at times dragged considerably,” lamented the Post.9 Thankfully for the Post, the game was completed in a swift 1 hour and 25 minutes, with the sole run scored in a sloppy seventh. Chick Gandil led off with a single, the second hit Wyckoff surrendered, and then raced to third when Morgan beat out a slow roller to third base that Fritz probably did not charge. Rip Williams, making just his fifth start of the season as a catcher, hit a tailor-made double-play grounder to Pfeffer at short; however, keystone sacker Cruthers’ relay throw to first baseman Orr was high and pulled him off the bag as Gandil crossed the plate. Poor baserunning by the Griffithmen led to the next two outs: Williams was picked off first and Acosta was caught stealing after drawing a walk.

Washington’s 1-0 victory improved Johnson’s record to 36-7 and lowered his ERA to 1.09. The Big Train had a disastrous relief appearance in the season’s last game and was charged with two earned runs without retiring a batter, pushing his ERA to 1.14. It was by all accounts one of the greatest seasons by a pitcher in baseball history. Johnson led the majors in wins, complete games (29), shutouts (11), innings (346), strikeouts (243), and ERA. Johnson was awarded the third annual Chalmers Award, bestowed by baseball writers as an MVP-type award, which was discontinued after the next season.

Connie Mack placed little value on the outcome of this game, nor the next two against the Senators, both shutout losses, while he rested his starters so that they could be fresh for the World Series. His strategy paid off: The A’s defeated the New York Giants in five games for their third championship in four seasons.

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 “Johnson Had No Cinch Winning,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 30, 1913: 12.

2 J. Ed. Grillo, “Doc Ayres to Face Mack’s Rookies in Game Today,” Evening Star (Washington), September 30, 1913: 16.

3 “Johnson Is to Pitch in ‘McBride Day’ Game,” Washington Post, September 9, 1913: 5.

4 William Peet, “Connie Mack’s Recruits Bow to Walter Johnson,” Washington Herald, September 30, 1913: 10.

5 “Mack’s Uniforms Played Fine Ball,” Washington Times, September 30, 1913: 12.

6 “Mack’s Uniforms Played Fine Ball.”

7 “Mack’s Uniforms Played Fine Ball.”

8 Stanley Milliken, “Nationals Defeat Athletic Youngsters 1 to 0 – Ayres to Pitch Today,” Washington Post, September 30, 1913: 8.

9 Milliken.

However, on May 14, 1914, the fans at Griffith Stadium were treated to a pair of stellar pitching performances not from Johnson, but from the opposing moundsmen. The starting pitcher for the visiting Chicago White Sox, Jim Scott. Scott pitched a no-hitter for nine innings, but gave up two hits in the 10th and lost the game, 1-0. Scott, who grew up in Wyoming and acquired the nickname Death Valley Jim, was a hard-luck pitcher. Each year of his major-league career he posted an ERA well under 3.00, and at 2.30 is ranked 19th all-time in lowest career ERA, but he had a winning record in only two of his nine seasons in the big leagues and finished with a 107-114 slate.  Scott’s major-league career ended when he enlisted in the military to fight in World War I after the 1917 season.1 Scott had an astonishing career but somehow never received any form of recognition for his performance. After returning from the war, Scott had a nine-year career in the minors, winning 125 games, but with markedly higher ERAs.

The Senators starter, Doc Ayers, didn’t disappoint either that day, giving up just three hits in 10 innings pitched. Ayers, who picked up his nickname because he had been a medical student in Virginia, won 64 games and lost 78 in a nine-season career with the Senators and the Detroit Tigers, and had a career ERA of 2.84.

The Washington Post wrote of the Scott-Ayers pitching duel, “There has never been a greater ball game staged in this city.”2

After pitching nine brilliant innings, Scott had a disastrous 10th. He surrendered a leadoff single to Chick Gandil. Then on a 1-and-2 count, Howie Shanks smacked a ball into right field where Ray Demmitt made a diving attempt, only to miss the ball. Gandil scored and the game was over. Sportswriter Stanley Milliken of the Washington Post described Shanks’s hit as “like a thunderbolt out of clear sky.”3 The game had changed so quickly. Scott went from not allowing a hit for nine innings to surrendering two hits that dealt him the loss. It was a marvelous performance, but an unfortunate ending. The Chicago Livestock World described Scott’s experience as “only to be robbed of the fame and the feel of victory because the White Sox could not make one little run for him out of several good chances.”4

As for Ayers, he gave up a two-out triple in the first inning to first baseman Hal Chase, but then retired the side. In the second inning Chicago’s Ping Bodie led off with a single and Scotty Alcock reached on an error by Senators second baseman Ray Morgan. Ayers escaped the jam by getting a double-play ball. After that no one reached base until the sixth inning when Demmitt hit the ball to center field. The Post’s Milliken wrote, “Then came one of the best plays of the contest. [Clyde] Milan sprinted toward the scoreboard in right-center and picked up Demmitt’s drive with one hand. The runner tried to go to second but his life was snuffed out.”5

In the White Sox’ 10th, Senators third baseman Eddie Foster made a wild throw on a ball hit by Ping Bodie. Ayers walked the next batter, Alcock (the only walk he gave up). But Ayers escaped a jam yet again, and Scott was undone in the bottom of the inning.

Each pitcher struck out two batters. Scott walked two Senators; Ayers walked one. Milliken noted that the game “was replete with sensational plays not only in the infield but the outfield as well.”6

This game was the highlight, so to speak for both teams, in their 1914 season. The White Sox (70-84) ended up in seventh place while the Senators (81-73) took third place, though 19 games behind the Philadelphia Athletics. Washington’s bright spots were 28-game winner Johnson and Foster, who finished seventh in MVP voting. This game is one to be remembered as one of the greatest pitching duels ever to be hosted at Griffith Stadium. 

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 Stanley Milliken, “Nationals Lone Two Hits in Tenth Bring Victory Over White Sox, 1-0,” Washington Post, May 15, 1914.

2 Milliken.

3 Milliken.

4 Chicago Live Stock World, May 15, 1914.

5 Milliken.

6 Milliken.

Washington’s best player was future Hall of Famer Walter Johnson, now finishing his ninth season. The veteran staff ace led the AL in wins, innings pitched, strikeouts, and shutouts the previous two seasons. He was complemented by pitchers Bert Gallia and Doc Ayers, third baseman Eddie Foster, and outfielder Clyde Milan. When the season opened, Clark Griffith, Washington’s manager, planned on returning his entire infield: first baseman Chick Gandil, second baseman Ray Morgan, shortstop George McBride, and Foster; however, concerns existed about their low offensive production.3 The 1916 Reach Guide labeled the 1915 Washington squad as the “chief disappointment of the season” based on its slow start, lackluster pitching, and little offensive prowess from the Senators’ outfield.4

By comparison, Philadelphia was faring even worse. From 1909 through 1914 the Athletics won three World Series titles and at least 90 games each season. Though Philadelphia won the pennant by 8½ games over the Red Sox in 1914, the Athletics were swept by the Boston “Miracle Braves” during the 1914 World Series. The famed “$100,000 Infield,” which consisted of Hall of Famers second baseman Eddie Collins and third baseman Frank “Home Run” Baker, perennial Chalmers Award vote-getter first baseman Stuffy McInnis, and stalwart veteran shortstop Jack Berry,5 and identified as the top infield in baseball history, according to Bill James’s Win Shares methodology,6 played together from 1911 to 1914 while forming the nucleus of Philadelphia’s championship teams. After the 1914 season, part-owner and manager Connie Mack disassembled his first Athletics dynasty,7 including the $100,000 Infield. Though Mack retained McInnis another three seasons, he sold 1914 Chalmers Award winner Collins to the Chicago White Sox in December and Barry to the Red Sox the following summer; Baker was sold to the Yankees in February 1916. Mack also gutted his pitching staff, releasing Hall of Fame hurlers Chief Bender and Eddie Plank. Mounting financial pressures, combined with the threat of players jumping to the Federal League, had forced Mack to dismantle his ballclub.8 Expectations were extremely low for the 1915 season,9 and the Athletics were solidly occupying the cellar by July. Philadelphia had compiled a dreadful 4-25 September record entering the doubleheader.

Earlier that afternoon, the Nationals10 defeated the Athletics 10-2 in the first game. Philadelphia scored first when Amos Strunk and Rube Oldring came home on Napoleon Lajoie’s two-run double. Washington responded with three first-inning runs and scored seven unanswered runs to easily defeat the Mackmen. Washington right fielder Turner Barber enjoyed a career day, scoring three runs and delivering five hits in six plate appearances.11

For the nightcap, Griffith tapped Bert Gallia for the start. Gallia was concluding his first full year with Washington and was arguably the staff’s second-best starter behind Johnson. He compiled a 16-11 record and 2.39 ERA over 248⅔ innings. Gallia expected to join the rotation as a backline starter, though during spring training one writer noted, “Gallia, the former ‘firecracker,’ seems to have developed into a 42-centimeter Krupp cannon now.”12

Rookie Tom Sheehan started for Philadelphia. The 21-year-old joined the Athletics in July, debuting against Chicago by pitching three scoreless innings.13 Sheehan had initially faced Washington three weeks earlier and allowed five runs on 11 hits in a complete-game loss. The Senators had quickly jumped on Sheehan, scoring one run each in the first and second innings.14 Since his Washington outing, Sheehan had shut out Boston but lost his next two starts. Still, one writer noted that Sheehan was “probably the most promising of Mack’s young twirlers.”15

Gallia walked Philadelphia leadoff hitter Wally Schang to start the second game. Schang stole second base and scored the game’s first run when Washington center fielder Clyde Milan’s throw to the plate sailed over catcher Rip Williams’s head. The Senators evened the score in the bottom half when Foster and Milan singled, rookie Joe Judge – playing in just the sixth game of a 20-year, 2,171-game career – walked to load the bases, and Barber’s sacrifice fly scored Foster. In the next inning the Senators inched ahead when Williams tripled and Tom Connolly singled, providing Washington with the lead it never relinquished. Neither team scored in the third inning so Philadelphia led 2-1 after three innings.

Gallia maintained his effectiveness during the middle innings, but Sheehan was ineffective and didn’t receive the same defensive support. In the fourth the Senators extended their lead when two doubles, Foster’s triple, a single, and a sacrifice fly, plus some poor fielding by the Athletics gave the Senators five runs and increased their lead to 7-1. The Senators’ fifth was scoreless as Washington runners took a quick breather from the basepaths.

In the sixth inning a mixture of three singles, a double, a walk, and multiple errors resulted in Washington’s second five-run inning. Their third came in the next inning on four singles, a double, and errors, making the score  a laughable 17-1.

After the errant throw that gave Philadelphia the initial lead, the Athletics were scoreless until they rallied for four eighth-inning runs. While one Washington sportswriter suggested that the four runs were due to Washington errors,16 another observed that that Washington “took advantage of everything until late in the second encounter, when ‘Bert’ Gallia started to toss them over to stir up a little enthusiasm. As a result, the visitors were handed four runs.”17 Philadelphia scored those four runs on a walk, two errors, and two hits, and the score was a slightly more respectable 17-5.

The Nationals scored their final three runs in the eighth inning on two walks, two hits, and an error. Mercifully blanking Philadelphia in the ninth and ending the slugfest, Washington won 20-5. Gallia pitched the complete game, allowing only five hits; all five Philadelphia runs were unearned.

Although the Senators scored 20 runs, only 12 were earned.18 One sportswriter commented, “[Mack’s fielders] … played in a half-hearted manner typical of a team that is hopelessly last, with nothing to gain in battle. They ran circles around fly balls, stepped on their own feet in going after grounders, and never exerted themselves on the base paths.”19 Washington’s 20 runs and 23 hits represented the highest offensive output in the major leagues that season, topping the 20 runs and 22 hits set by the Boston Braves when they walloped the St. Louis Cardinals 20-1 on September 18.20 Washington’s team record for 20 runs scored in a single game lasted until August 5, 1929, when the Senators defeated the Detroit Tigers 21-5 at Griffith Stadium. Joe Judge, the only Senator who played in both the 1915 and 1929 slugfests, hit in the leadoff spot in the latter game and went 1-for-2 with two runs, two RBIs, and two sacrifice hits.

Rip Williams recorded a career-high four runs and five consecutive hits in six plate appearances, including a triple and double; he popped out to the catcher for his lone recorded out.21 Light-hitting Washington rookie leadoff hitter Charlie Jamieson, who was hitting a miserable .143 entering the game, went 3-for-5 and scored three times. Jamieson hit safely over the next five games, raising his average to .288 entering the season’s final game. Washington shortstop Tom Connolly, who played only one major-league season, also enjoyed the finest offensive day of his career, 3-for-5 with a double and two stolen bases.

Adding salt to the Athletics’ wounds was the success of the crosstown Philadelphia Phillies. The same day the Athletics dropped the doubleheader by a combined 30-7 score, the Phillies defeated the 1914 World Series champion Braves 5-0 to capture the NL flag.22 Pete Alexander fired a one-hitter, striking out four batters and walking one, to earn his 31st victory in dramatic fashion. Phillies manager Pat Moran, in his rookie managerial season, was supported by nearly 3,000 friends in attendance from his nearby hometown of Fitchburg, Massachusetts.23 The Phillies had moved into first place on July 13 and held off the surging Braves with a 21-10 September.

Washington finished fourth with an 85-68 record, 39 games behind pennant-winning Boston and 7½ games behind third-place Chicago. Gallia finished 17-11 with a 2.29 ERA in 259⅔ innings pitched and remained with the ballclub for another two seasons. The 34-year-old Williams was Washington’s backup catcher another season, joining the International League’s Baltimore Orioles and ending his career in 1918 with the Cleveland Indians.

Sources

Besides the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Almanac.com, and the following books:

James, Bill. The Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers from 1870 to Today (New York: Scribner, 1997).

James, Bill, and Jim Henzler. Win Shares (Morton Grove, Illinois: STATS, Inc., 2002).

Macht, Norman. Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007).

Mack, Connie. My 66 Years in the Big Leagues (Philadelphia: John C. Winston Company, 1950).

Neyer, Rob, and Eddie Epstein. Baseball Dynasties: The Greatest Teams of All Time (New York: W.W. Horton & Company, 2000).

Thorn, John, and Pete Palmer, et al. Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball (New York: Viking Press, 2004).

Notes

1 “Twenty Thousand Veterans, Remnants of Grant’s Victorious Army, Retread Triumphal Way of Half Century Ago, in Review Before President Wilson,” Washington Post, September 30, 1915: 1.

2 A.G. Spalding & Bros. Spalding’s Official Base Ball Guide (Chicago: A.G. Spalding & Bros., 1915), 161. Accessed at loc.gov/item/spalding.00159/.

3 Louis Dougher, “Dougher Grows in Dubiousness Daily,” The Sporting News, April 15, 1915: 3.

4 B.B. Johnson, “American League’s 1915 Race,” In Francis C. Richter, ed., The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide 1916. (Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Company, 1916), 63.

5 Leonard Koppett, The Man in the Dugout: Baseball’s Top Managers and How They Got That Way (New York: Crown Publishers, 1993), 68-83.

6 Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 548–553.

7 Lew Freedman, Connie Mack’s First Dynasty: The Philadelphia Athletics, 1910-1914 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company), 170-195. Jack Barry benefited from joining another World Series champion with Boston in 1915, his fourth championship team in six years.

8 Bryan Soderholm-Difatte, “Connie Mack’s Second Great Athletics Team: Eclipsed by the Ruth-Gehrig Yankees, but Even Better,” in Morris Levin, ed., The National Pastime: From Swampoodle to South Philly, SABR, 2013; Connie Mack, “‘I Broke Up the Athletics to Prevent Baseball Ruin,’ Declares Connie Mack,” Philadelphia Evening Ledger, July 5, 1915: 1.

9 Weart, William, “Eve of Season Finds Unusual Base Ball Situation in Philly,” The Sporting News, April 15, 1915: 1.

10 Washington Nationals 2018 Official Media Guide (Washington: Washington Nationals Baseball Club, 2018), 260-261. The Washington team was known as both the Senators and Nationals from 1905 to 1955. When Washington joined the AL at its inception in 1901, the team was named the Senators. In 1905 the nickname was changed to the Nationals. In 1956 the nickname reverted to the Senators. However, from 1905 through 1955 Senators and Nationals were used interchangeably by fans and sportswriters.

11 William Peet, “Mackmen Badly Beaten; Nationals Sting the Ball,” Washington Herald, September 30, 1915: 8. A discrepancy exists as to whether Barber hit one or two doubles in the first game of the doubleheader. The game account in the September 30 editions of the Washington Post and the Washington Herald differ; the Post reported one double for Barber while the Herald listed two doubles in its box score and game description. Retrosheet and Baseball-Reference credit Barber with one double.

12 Louis A. Dougher, “Rondeau and Hopper Are Promising Looking Lads,” Washington Times, March 10, 1915: 8.

13 “Athletics Stall but Lose Again,” Camden (New Jersey) Courier-Post, July 15, 1915: 8.

14 Jim Nasium, “Macks Drop Two Without a Murmur,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 7, 1915: 13.

15 Stanley T. Milliken, “Pair of Farcical Games to Nationals,” Washington Post, September 30, 1915: 8.

16 Peet.

17 Milliken.

18 A discrepancy exists regarding the number of errors committed by Philadelphia in the game. The box score in the Evening Star reported the Athletics were charged with 10 errors, the Washington Herald noted eight errors, and the Washington Post stated seven errors. Today’s box scores listed on Retrosheet and Baseball-Reference show eight errors on their box scores. The number of Washington hits fluctuates by slightly different numbers.

19 Milliken.

20 W.J. O’Connor, “Bescher Lands on Pitcher Rudolph; Cards Lose Twice,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 19, 1915: 31.

21 J. Ed. Grillo, “Dumont and Johnson Listed to Face the Red Sox Here,” Washington Evening Star, September 30, 1915: 22.

22 “Phillies, Beating Braves, Capture National’s Flag,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 30, 1915: 1.

23 J.C. O’Leary, “Phils Win Pennant,” Boston Globe, September 30, 1915: 1.

On June 23 Babe Ruth had started in Boston against the visiting Senators. “After walking the leadoff man, second baseman Ray Morgan, Ruth began jawing with the umpire, Brick Owens.”2  The arbiter ejected Ruth, and Ernie Shore came on in relief. Morgan went out stealing second; Shore retired the next 26 Senators in a 4-0 win over Washington. Doc Ayers took the loss.

More than a century later, Shore’s legacy faintly persists due to his connections to Ruth (Shore had also come to the Red Sox in the same transaction in which Boston had secured Ruth from Baltimore of the International League). In 1917, his last of four straight stellar seasons as a stalwart in the Red Sox rotation, Shore would finish with a 13-10 record and a 2.22 ERA. Relying nearly exclusively on a natural sinker and mixing in a few changeups and curveballs, Shore long after his career blamed overwork in the 1917 season for a shoulder injury that essentially ended the effective part of his career.3

But even hard-core baseball fans have likely never heard of Ayers in spite of his distinguishing characteristic. According to his SABR biographer, “Among the 17 spitball pitchers exempted when the pitch was banned, Doc Ayers was unique. He was the only one who hurled with an underhand motion.”4 

Only six pitchers started games for Washington in 1917. Walter Johnson led the way with 34, and Ayers brought up the rear with just 15. Besides Johnson, the team featured one other Hall of Famer in the prime of his career, the 27-year-old Sam Rice. For each team, baseball-reference.com ranks players by the retroactively calculated Wins Above Replacement, often abbreviated as WAR. Surprisingly, sixth starter Doc Ayers ranks second in WAR at 4.0 for the 1917 Senators, far behind the sublime Johnson (8.0) but a bit ahead of the much more renowned Rice (3.7).

Ayers would have a sparkling 2.17 ERA in 1917 yet finish with a record of only 11-10. He had a better ERA but a worse winning percentage than Shore because Washington provided its spitballer with insufficient support at the plate and in the field. On August 26, just a few weeks before his re-engagement with Shore, Ayers yielded only one earned run but dropped a 2-1 decision in a game captured by Jim Bagby of Cleveland. According to The Sporting News, “Ayers outpitched Bagby … but lost, because Bagby got faultless support, while two errors of commission and one of omission gave Cleveland its two runs.”5

In contrast to the June 23 game, both Ayers and Shore would start and star in the September 12 contest. A game report in the Boston Globe praised Ayers, who “never had shown any better form than that which he displayed today. Although his slants were touched for 13 safe clouts he was master of the situation at all times and time and again pulled himself out of what looked to be ticklish positions.”6

Neither team scored a run until the bottom of the fifth inning. Shore walked Eddie Foster. Morgan hit a groundball to Boston shortstop Everett Scott, who “stood inanimate … thus losing a fine chance for a double [play.]”7  Morgan reached on the fielder’s choice. Trying to advance the runners, Joe Leonard beat out a bunt to load the bases with none out. Eddie Ainsmith drove in Foster on a fly ball to Harry Hooper to give the Senators a 1-0 lead. Hooper must have made a fine catch as he not only threw out Morgan at second for a double play but almost contributed to a rare 9-4-2 triple play.8 Alas for the Red Sox, Jack Barry’s relay nearly nipped but did not quite get Morgan at the plate as he scored the lone Washington run.

The Red Sox rapidly responded in the top of the sixth thanks to a big hit from a most unlikely source. Playing in only his 14th game of the season, Hick Cady doubled for his first extra-base hit of 1917 and his first two-bagger since August 24, 1916. Shore singled his batterymate to third. Playing key roles in the two runs scored in the game, Hooper singled in Cady to tie the score and snap a career-best 27-inning scoreless streak by Ayers.

Boston looked poised to take the lead with runners on the corners and none out before Washington catcher Ainsmith “made a fine throw to Foster to catch Shore off third. …  Had he not been put out of the way the pitcher could have scored on [Dick] Hoblitzell’s fly to [Sam] Rice.”9 

“In the seventh inning each side filled the bases with one out, but neither could score.”10 Before darkness descended, the game would conclude with 10 straight scoreless innings, a slight but not severe surprise given the lack of punch of both teams. (The Red Sox hit 14 home runs in 1917, a titanic total compared with the four struck by Washington, which finished last in the AL in home runs, slugging percentage, and total bases.) 

The Senators did threaten in the 15th with a walk, a stolen base, and an intentional walk to get to the pitcher’s spot. Given the rally, the amount that Ayers had already pitched, and the lateness of the hour, one might have expected a pinch-hitter, but Ayers went to the plate before futilely “fouling out to Cady.”11 Both Ayers and Shore finished the final inning and both set career marks for innings pitched in a game. 

Washington’s second 16-inning tie of the season12 meant little for the Senators, but the failure of the Red Sox to win more than a single game in a four-game set against Washington lengthened the already long odds against a third consecutive pennant in 1917. The game represented some measure of revenge for Ayers  After losing to Shore and bottoming out at 1-6 after June 23, Ayers as part of a season-closing run that saw him take 10 of his last 14 decisions, matched the more heralded Shore frame-for-frame in this game.

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 Shirley Povich, The Washington Senators (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2010), 94.  Washington would draw a franchise-low 89,682 fans in 1917.

2 Michael Clair, “Ernie Shore Once Threw a Quasi-Perfect Game … After Babe Ruth Punched an Umpire,” mlb.com/cut4/ernie-shore-threw-quasi-perfect-game-after-babe-ruth-ejection/c-132245176, June 23, 2015 (accessed August 13, 2018).

3 Roger Birtwell, “Ernie Shore’s Greatest Thrill Not Perfect Game,” Boston Globe, December 13, 1959: 187. From 1914 to 1917, Shore went 58-33 with a 2.12 ERA for the Red Sox. After serving in the Navy in 1918, Shore pitched two more seasons for the Yankees and went 7-10 with a 4.39 ERA. He last appeared in a game in the majors at the age of 29.

4 Charles F. Faber, “Doc Ayers,” sabr.org/bioproj/person/95ee682f (accessed August 13, 2018).

5 “Rain Halts Griffith on His Upward Way,” The Sporting News, September 6, 1917: 3.

6 “Red Sox Play a 16-Inning Tie,” Boston Globe, September 13, 1917: 9.

7 “Notes of Red Sox Game,” Boston Globe, September 13, 1917: 9. Another reporter thought that Scott (and his Washington counterpart Howie Shanks) played well defensively in this game: “Both teams gave a fine fielding exhibition, the works of Shanks and Scott, the opposing shortstops, standing out prominently.” The Sporting News, September 20, 1917: 6.

8 Hooper in 1917 finished second in the American League in assists by a right fielder with 20 and holds the career mark (for players since 1908) for right fielders by a comfortable margin with 332 baserunner kills.

9 “Ayers and Shore Pitch Superbly When in Trouble in Contest Ended by Darkness,” Washington Post, September 13, 1917: 8.

10 Paul W. Eaton, “Griffmen Making a Belated Splurge,” The Sporting News, September 20, 1917: 3.

11 J.V. Fitz Gerald, “Nationals and Red Sox in a 16-Inning 1-1 Tie Game,” Washington Post, September 13, 1917: 8.

12 The Washington Post reported that the Senators tied 2-2 on June 11, but baseball-reference.com lists that game as taking place on June 12. “Second 16-Inning Game This Year for Griffs,” Washington Post, September 13, 1917: 8.

The American League standings were jumbled a month into the season. Only three games separated five teams from the first-place Boston Red Sox. Chicago sat out a game in fourth place with an 11-9 record, placing the White Sox two games ahead of the 10-12 Senators, who were tied for fifth position with the St. Louis Browns, while the Yankees and Indians were tied for second place, each a half-game back.

Johnson’s only real trouble came in the first and final innings. As the game opened, the White Sox got to him for two hits, by Eddie Murphy and Buck Weaver, but neither runner scored. Johnson’s counterpart Williams was cruising with a perfect game and allowed his first hit in the seventh inning. With two outs, Clyde Milan “[pulled] a drive over [Swede] Risberg’s head for the swat that wrecked the chance of a no hit game.”3

In the eighth, Williams hit Ray Morgan with a pitch to start the inning and Eddie Foster followed with a single. Two outs later, Burt Shotton beat out a grounder to short, loading the bases, but Williams worked his way out of the jam. The game kept going with little to no offensive action. Each team put a runner at second base in the 12th inning, only to strand him there.

The Senators had a chance in the bottom of the 17th. With one down, Clyde Milan hit a looping fly ball past second base that dropped between center fielder Shano Collins, right fielder Murphy, and second baseman Risberg, who managed to get a glove on the ball but could not hold on. Howie Shanks singled and again the Senators had a rally, but again Williams killed it. Joe Judge hit a ball up the middle, but “Williams stabbed Judge’s bounder and forced Milan at third brilliantly.”4 Morgan then fouled out to end the inning.

In “the first half of the fatal eighteenth,”5 Risberg stroked a one-out double. After Fred McMullin flied out, Johnson’s wild pitch let Risberg advance to third. Ray Schalk worked Johnson to a full count and, according to the Chicago Tribune, “Johnson tried to pass him intentionally with a fourth ball.”6 However, Schalk reached out with his bat and made contact, attempting to drive the ball into right field. He “hit a mean grounder to Morgan, but not too hot for Ray to stop and hand the ball”7 to first baseman Judge to get the third out of the inning.

With one down in the bottom half, Eddie Ainsmith singled past second base. That brought up Johnson, who was “so tired he could hardly drag his feet to the plate,”8 yet the pitcher drove the ball for a single into left-center, sending his batterymate Ainsmith to third. With Shotton now in the batter’s box looking at a two-strike count, Williams “heaved the ball far over [catcher] Schalk’s head to the grandstand and Ainsmith romped across the plate, sending the small crowd home rejoicing.”9 The walk-off wild pitch ended the game.

Johnson and Williams had earned five wins apiece before this game. Johnson had lost his first three decisions of the season, while Williams had won his first four. Both pitchers had almost perfect control in this matchup. Each “let slip one wild pitch in that last inning, but Walter’s came with a runner on second, while Claude’s happened with a man at third.”10

Neither team made an error in the game, and a total of 125 batters stepped up to home plate. The time of the game was 2 hours and 50 minutes, and according to the Chicago Tribune, “it would have been possible to play at least two more rounds before dark.”11 The crowd was small (the attendance was not recorded), but according to the Washington Times, “hardly a handful left the park until the end. They sat and rooted for the home boys, but did not keep back their applause for clever fielding plays by the champions.”12

Johnson struck out nine batters, including his counterpart Williams “five times in succession.”13 Washington’s ace yielded 10 hits (eight singles and two doubles) with only one walk. In earning his sixth win of the season, en route to a league-high 23 victories, he had 11 three-up, three-down innings. The Big Train’s earned-run average dropped from 1.25 to 0.98. He ran his scoreless streak to 31 innings, dating back to May 7. He pitched another complete-game shutout against the Detroit Tigers on May 26 (only nine innings), and then allowed three earned runs in a loss to the Boston Red Sox on May 29. For the season, Johnson allowed no earned runs in 20 of his 39 appearances, and he finished the 1918 campaign with a 1.27 ERA and 162 strikeouts, which, with the 23 wins, gave him his second pitching Triple Crown.

For Chicago, Williams held the Senators to just eight singles and two bases on balls (he also hit a batter), and he struck out three. Despite the earned run, his ERA dropped from 2.49 to 1.96 in this, his fifth complete game of the season. Williams used his defense, especially his outfield. The Chicago Tribune reported, “All told the Nationals hit the ball into the air for 35 outs.”14 The outfielders had made 22 putouts and the rest were by the infield. Chicago’s Eddie Murphy had the best offensive day for either team, getting a double, two singles, and a walk in seven plate appearances.

Although this was the longest outing in his career, Johnson twice pitched a 15-inning shutout; first against the Boston Red Sox on July 3, 1913, and then against the Philadelphia Athletics on April 13, 1926 (Opening Day for the 1926 season). In 1918 Johnson led the American League with eight shutouts, which also gave him the best career mark (with 79).15 Johnson retired as the career shutout leader with 110.

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the notes, the author consulted baseball-reference.com and retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 W.H. Hottel, “18-Inning Game to Nationals, 1 to 0,” Washington Post, May 16, 1918: 10.

2 Louis A. Dougher, “Griffmen Make New League Record When They Win, 1 to 0, in 18 Innings,” Washington Times, May 16, 1918: 18. According to the Washington Times, the National League record for the longest 1-0 contest was set on August 17, 1882, when it took 18 innings for the Providence Grays to defeat the Detroit Wolverines. The previously longest 1-0 game in the American League was played on August 14, 1903, as the Senators defeated the St. Louis Browns in 15 innings in the first game of a doubleheader.

3 Dougher.

4 Dougher.

5 Dougher.

6 Dougher.

7 Hottel.

8 I.E. Sanborn, “Williams’ Wild Pitch Loses 18 Inning Battle for Sox, 1-0,” Chicago Tribune, May 15, 1918: 11.

9 Hottel.

10 Sanborn. According to both Retrosheet and the Tribune’s own box score, Johnson did not throw a wild pitch. Instead, his catcher Ainsmith was charged with a passed ball.

11 “Notes,” Chicago Tribune, May 15, 1918: 11.

12 Dougher.

13 “Washington Wins 18-Inning Game,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 15, 1918: 12.

14 Hottel.

15 Johnson shared the career mark of 79 shutouts with Christy Mathewson until the 1919 season, when he added seven more to his total and became the outright leader. As of 2018, his tally of 110 career shutouts has led the major leagues since 1927.