April 14, 1925: Urban Shocker, Yankees open season with win over defending champion Nationals

“The baseball writers, on the eve of going South to watch the athletes in action, are beginning to write pieces for their assorted papers regarding the coming campaign and, strange as it may appear to the followers of the fighting Griffs, few are picking the World champions to repeat,” Washington Times sportswriter Louis Dougher told his readers in January 1925.1

Most sportswriters were predicting the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees to finish ahead of the Washington Nationals in 1925, even though the Nationals had won the World Series the year before.2 Washington writers like Dougher believed the Nationals would repeat because of offseason acquisitions of veteran pitchers Stan Coveleski from the Cleveland Indians and Dutch Ruether from the Brooklyn Robins, a factor also noted by the Yankees’ manager.

“They’ve strengthened more than any other contender,” said Miller Huggins in January. “They have acquired veteran pitching talent that has improved their chances greatly. Pitching strength is what Washington needed most. [Nationals manager Bucky] Harris has a great infield. Backed up by great twirling, his club will cause us the most trouble. I don’t look for Detroit to be a serious contender.”3

A week before the first game, however, Huggins changed his tune, calling the Tigers their biggest threat.4      

The Yankees had won three consecutive pennants and the 1923 World Series prior to finishing second in ‘24. “The Yankees had their lesson in 1924,” Huggins assured. “They were too sure of themselves. But it will be different this year. The men realize that they must buckle down to hard work right from the start and show a sustained attack.”5

When the Yankees reported to St. Petersburg for spring training, they appeared to be the same overconfident team as the year before. They were so sure of victory, they were claiming that they had already won the 1925 pennant. When a sportswriter traveled to Tampa to watch the Nationals, he told the Washington manager about the Yankees claiming victory.

“Yes, so we have heard,” answered Harris. “Well, you go back and tell them that if they beat us, which they won’t, they will have to beat a better team than the one that beat them last year.”6   

As luck would have it, the two teams met in the 1925 season opener on April 14 at Yankee Stadium. But before that date arrived, the Yankees suffered a serious setback when Babe Ruth became ill. At the time, nobody knew how sick Ruth really was. Thinking Ruth would miss only one week of the 1925 season, the New York skipper was confident. “I’m more completely satisfied with my team this year than I have ever been with any club I have managed,” Huggins said a few days before the season’s first game. “We are ready for the gong to sound.”7

Clouds hovered over a chilly and overcast afternoon. “The skies were what most poets would call drab,” quipped well-known sportswriter Damon Runyon. “There wasn’t any sun to speak of. The air of the Bronx was crimpy enough to justify overcoats, and other wrappings.”8

Three bands performed on the field as more than 50,000 fans filed into three-year-old Yankee Stadium and noticed a few things missing.

For one, the absence of Babe Ruth. “I guess I will have to take Dr. King’s advice,” said a disappointed Ruth, referencing team physician Dr. Edward King. Ruth was in his hospital bed in room 19 at New York City’s St. Vincent Hospital.9

Taking Ruth’s place in right field was 29-year-old Ben Paschal, a right-handed hitter who had a brief trial with two other AL teams and hit .341 in 1924 with Atlanta of the Class A Southern League before becoming a Yankee. Batting in Ruth’s number three spot was a highly-touted 25-year-old center fielder named Earle Combs, “The greatest outfield prospect in a decade,” the New York Times said.10  

Pitching for the Yankees was 34-year-old Urban Shocker, re-acquired from the St. Louis Browns in a December 1924 trade. Originally a Yankee when he reached the majors in 1916, Shocker was traded to St. Louis in 1918 because Huggins wanted Browns second baseman Del Pratt.11 Meanwhile, Shocker had developed into a four-time 20-game winner, and Huggins traded three pitchers, including veteran “Bullet Joe” Bush, to get Shocker back.12 “I’m no prophet,” said Huggins, “but I say Shocker will win 20 games for us this year.”13 He entered the game with a 26-9 career mark in 49 appearances – including 37 starts – against the Nationals.

The starting pitcher for Washington was a surprise, because it wasn’t going to be 37-year-old Walter Johnson. Unlike the previous year, when Johnson reported to spring training in tip-top shape, this wasn’t the case in 1925. After the 1924 World Series, Johnson attempted a career change by heading West to negotiate for the purchase of a Pacific Coast League team. Unsuccessful in swinging a deal, Johnson decided to return to baseball, but it was already time to join his teammates in Hot Springs, Arkansas, for a conditioning session prior to spring training.14

His hard work, conditioning, and pitching failed to prepare him for the season opener. Needing more time to work himself into shape, Johnson waited for the next series, when the Nationals were in Philadelphia, to make his 1925 debut.15 In place of their star pitcher the Nationals banked on 36-year-old George Mogridge, a 16-game winner for Washington in 1924 who had hurled brilliantly in the 1924 World Series.

In the top of the first, Shocker faced the minimum, and in the bottom of the inning, Mogridge retired the first three New York batters. In the top of the second the Nationals put two men on base but didn’t score.

The Yankees loaded the bases after two were out in the second, when Aaron Ward and Everett Scott singled, and catcher Steve O’Neill walked. When Shocker – whose 22 walks in 1924 gave him a .439 on-base percentage – followed with another walk, Ward crossed the plate for a 1-0 New York lead.

After both teams went quietly in the third inning, Washington evened the score with a run in the top of the fourth. With two outs, Goose Goslin singled, Joe Judge walked, and Ossie Bluege continued to surprise his critics by delivering an RBI single.

One year earlier, Bluege was described as the weak link in the Washington batting order, because the critics thought he couldn’t hit, but he hit .303 in the second half of the season. “Ossie is a real honest-to-goodness hitter right now and he’s getting better right along,” New York Giants pitcher Art Nehf said after facing the 24-year-old Bluege during the 1925 exhibition season. “You know, Bluege started to come along at the end of last season. He picked up confidence and got himself out of the habit of taking too many good balls.”16

Washington almost took the lead in the top of the fifth when catcher Muddy Ruel got hold of a Shocker pitch and sent it for a ride into deep left field. Yankees left fielder Bob Meusel turned, charged toward the left-field barrier, reached over the railing, and made a one-handed grab for a putout.17 One day later, Meusel robbed Ruel of a home run in similar fashion.18

In the bottom of the inning the Yankees retook the lead, 2-1, when Shocker tripled and scored on a hit by Paschal.

Shocker set the Nationals down in order in the top of the sixth. In the bottom of the sixth, with a runner on first, Paschal got hold of a Mogridge curve – Runyon fingered “[o]ver-confidence of Mogridge’s ability on his curve ball” – and whistled it into the left-field seats for his first big-league home run.19 One inning later, Meusel blasted one close to the same landing spot of Paschal’s drive in the left-field bleachers to extend the New Yorkers’ lead.20

A 5-1 lead was more than enough for Shocker. He sent down the Washingtonians in order in the top of the eighth and ninth innings. Shocker blanked the Nationals in the last five innings for his 27th career win against Washington.

Meanwhile, in room 19 at St. Vincent Hospital, Babe Ruth was all smiles following the Yankees’ victory. “They didn’t seem to miss me much,” he said.21

One day later, the world learned that the cause of Ruth’s illness was an abscess in his stomach region, surgery would be necessary, and Ruth would be absent from the lineup for much longer than originally expected.

“That comes as a shock,” said a disappointed Miller Huggins in the Yankees dugout during the second game of the series with Washington. “We all felt that the Big Boy would help us in a week. Damn! That’s tough luck.”22 

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by John Fredland.

Photo credit: Urban Shocker, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA192504140.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1925/B04140NYA1925.htm

Notes

1 Louis Dougher, “Looking ‘Em Over: Now They’re Leaving Us Out,” Washington Times, January 17, 1925: 18.

2 Heinie Miller, “Spots on Sports:,” Washington Herald, April 9, 1925: 1-S.

3 “Huggins Tells Baseball World to Watch Griffs,” Washington Herald, January 30, 1925: 1-S.

4 United Press, “Huggins Praises Tiger Team,” Los Angeles Record, April 10, 1925: 10.

5 “Yanks Will Go to Post with a Veteran Outfield,” Washington Star, January 21, 1925: 29. 

6 “Major League Races of 1925 Promises to Rival Those of Last Year: Harris and Huggins Enter Early Claim for Pennant Honors,” The Sporting News, April 9, 1925: 5.

7 Ford Frick, “Huggins satisfied with team’s chances,” New York Evening Journal., April 10, 1925: 37.

8 Damon Runyon, “40,000 See Yanks Defeat Our Champions, 5 to 1,” Washington Herald, April 15, 1925: [17] 1.

9 “Ruth out of danger after convulsions on arrival here,” New York Times, April 10, 1925: 6; “Ruth sits in bed, smiles cheerfully,” New York Times, April 12, 1925: 10, 1.

10 “Big League Races Start Tuesday,” New York Times, April 12, 1925: 10, 2.

11 Bozeman Bulger, “Huggins Never Spoke Ill of Any Player Under Him,” Jersey Journal, September 30, 1929: 15.

12 “Trading of Shocker to Yanks for Bush, Gaston, Girard Is Outstanding Baseball Deal,” Buffalo Courier, December 18, 1924: 14.

13 “Strongest Team I Ever Had, We Will Win Flag, Says Huggins,” New York Times, April 5, 1925: 11, 1.

14 Henry W. Thomas, Walter Johnson: Baseball’s Big Train, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998), 255-260.

15 “Johnson May Not Pitch Opener,” Washington Post, April 4, 1925: sports section, 1.

16 R.D. Thomas, “Ossie Bluege glimmers as Griffs start pennant fight,” Washington Times, April 15, 1925: 20.

17 “Zachary, Covey and Ruether Slated to Face Yank Batters,” Washington Evening Star, April 15, 1925: 30.

18 “Notes of the Nationals,” Washington Post, April 16, 1925: 19.

19 Runyon, “40,000 See Yanks Defeat Our Champions, 5 to 1.”

20 Runyon, “40,000 See Yanks Defeat Our Champions, 5 to 1.”

21 “Ruth Grins Restive as Yankees Win,” New York Times, April 15, 1925: 13,

22 Marshall Hunt, “Babe Ruth Under Knife Today,” New York Daily News, April 17, 1925: 34. Ruth finally made his 1925 debut on June 1; the Yankees were already 13½ games behind the first-place Philadelphia Athletics by then. They finished seventh in the AL at 69-85-1, 28½ games behind the Nationals, who repeated as pennant-winners but lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a seven-game World Series.