April 16, 1935: Wes Ferrell two-hits ‘Ruth-less’ Yankees on Opening Day, wins on Gehrig error

Opening Day is always about new beginnings; the hope associated with a fresh start. But the 1935 New York Yankees were not merely launching a new season; they were embarking on a new era: Babe Ruth no longer was to be found at Yankee Stadium.

In February 1935 the 40-year-old Ruth – his weight increasing, his skills decreasing – had been released to play for the Boston Braves, who made vague promises to Ruth about becoming their manager. Now, on April 16, for the first time since The Babe joined the Yankees in 1919, New York was opening the season without Ruth, the man who changed the game of baseball and became its most famous player.

The day’s weather was frigid, with the thermometer registering less than 40 degrees. Nevertheless, fans were treated to the usual pregame pomp, including a band, a flag-raising ceremony, and an honorary first ball thrown by New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. In a game lasting a mere 1:35, the crowd of 29,287 saw the Yankees lose to the Boston Red Sox, 1-0.

Perhaps no one was more aware of Ruth’s absence than 27-year-old George Selkirk, who had just 46 major-league games – and five home runs – to his credit. Not only did Selkirk replace Ruth in right field, he wore Ruth’s famous number 3 on his pinstriped uniform, and batted third in the Yankees’ lineup. “I felt sorta on the spot when I went out there before the Ruthville fans in the right field bleachers,” Selkirk confessed after the game. “I wondered particularly about the bleacher fans. But not one of them let out a boo at me. A lot of them kept yelling encouragement.”1 Selkirk knew he could not make fans forget Ruth, but he hoped to “fill his old post in bang-up fashion.”2

The Yankees still had plenty of talent without Ruth. The lineup card turned in by manager Joe McCarthy listed five future Hall of Fame inductees: catcher Bill Dickey, first baseman Lou Gehrig, second baseman Tony Lazzeri, outfielder Earle Combs, and pitcher Lefty Gomez. Another future Hall of Famer, Red Ruffing, was scheduled to pitch the next day. The Yankees were intent on overtaking the reigning American League champion Detroit Tigers and capturing their first pennant since 1932.

Boston had revamped its infield over the winter in hopes of grabbing its first pennant since 1918. Billy Werber was back at third base, but 22-year-old rookie Babe Dahlgren manned first base, sharp-fielding Oscar “Ski” Melillo covered second (although Max Bishop was there on Opening Day), and 28-year-old Joe Cronin – who piloted Washington to the 1933 World Series – took over at shortstop and as manager. If pitchers Lefty Grove and Wes Ferrell returned to form from arm injuries, the Red Sox would have all the pieces in place to exceed their fourth-place finish of 1934.

As could be expected on Opening Day, the pitching matchup was a dandy. New York’s Gomez had finished 1934 with a 26-5 record, leading the AL in wins, winning percentage (.839), strikeouts (158), and ERA (2.33). Ferrell, who won 14 games for Boston in 1934 after being acquired from the Cleveland Indians, opposed Gomez. During Ferrell’s tenure with Cleveland, he had won more than 20 games each year from 1929 to 1932 before injuring his arm in 1933.

Both pitchers coasted through the opposing lineup the first time around. Werber tagged Gomez for a single in the first, and Bishop coaxed a walk in the third, but neither advanced beyond first base. As for Ferrell, it was nine-up and nine-down: Five fly-ball outs and four groundball outs were all the Yankees could muster.

In the fourth, Boston’s Carl Reynolds led off with a double to left, giving the Red Sox the game’s first runner in scoring position. But Gomez was unfazed. Reynolds remained at second when Cronin flied out, then was thrown out attempting to advance when Rick Ferrell – another future Hall of Famer and Wes Ferrell’s older brother and batterymate – grounded to short.

In the bottom of the inning, Wes retired the first two Yankees. Then Selkirk slammed a pitch into deep center for a single, ending Ferrell’s string of 11 consecutive outs to start the game. Gehrig could not keep the rally going, grounding out to second baseman Bishop.

After an uneventful fifth, Bishop started the sixth inning with a sharp single to center. With Werber batting, Bishop took off for second and was thrown out by Dickey, Yankees shortstop Frankie Crosetti applying the tag.

The out did not end Boston’s attack. Werber, who struck out on four pitches in his previous trip to the plate, slammed a pitch to left field and hustled to second, stretching what appeared to be a single into a double. With Werber leading off second, Gomez whirled and threw to pick him off. The throw was wild, off the tip of Lazzeri’s outstretched glove, and into short center field; Werber dashed to third, making it ahead of Lazzeri’s throw by a stride.

Werber’s charmed trip around the bases continued. Reynolds popped a ball foul past third base, just out of Red Rolfe’s reach, then dribbled the next pitch foul along the third-base line, falling behind in the count 0-and-2.

Gomez next unleashed a wide, sweeping curve that Reynolds swung at for strike three. Dickey blocked it but could not tag Reynolds, who streaked for first. As Dickey threw to Gehrig to complete the putout, Werber, the reigning AL stolen-base champ, broke for home.

Gehrig’s return throw was too high, bouncing off Dickey’s raised glove for an error and reaching the grandstand. Werber slid home with an unearned run that proved to be the only marker of the game.

Both teams prevented runs with their leather in the seventh. With Rick Ferrell perched on second after a double, Combs – returning from a 1934 head injury – outraced a shot by Dahlgren, catching it near the 402-foot sign in left for the third out. The crowd rose in unison to cheer Combs all the way to the dugout.3 Dahlgren got a measure of revenge by leaping at first to spear Cronin’s errant throw and applying a sweeping tag on Rolfe that kept the bases empty ahead of Gehrig’s double – the Yankees’ final hit.

Boston had the lone baserunner of the final two innings, Cronin, who singled, only to be erased by a double play. The Red Sox won, 1-0, presenting Cronin with a win in his first game at the helm. Cronin managed Boston through 1947, logging 1,071 wins and capturing the 1946 AL pennant.

Wes Ferrell gave up only two hits and faced just 29 batters. He struck out no one, and issued no walks. Afterward, Rick Ferrell declared that his younger brother had more stuff and more speed than at any time in the past three years. Wes told reporters he had not tried for strikeouts. Instead, “Make them hit what you throw, even though the balls are hardly worth swinging for.”5

The Boston Globe’s Melville E. Webb Jr. called Ferrell’s control marvelous, and praised Ferrell for the finest Opening Day pitching performance he had seen.6 Ferrell was hitting the corners with his curveball and giving the Yankees no choice but to take a strike or pound the ball into the ground for an easy out.7 “He looked easy to hit,” said New York’s Ben Chapman in the clubhouse, “but he never gave you a ball that you could really lay some wood on; you either popped up or grounded out.”8

Ferrell began 1935 the same way he had ended 1934: a 1-0 shutout. He went on to a 25-14 record with an ERA of 3.52, and three shutouts. Ferrell led AL pitchers in games started, complete games, innings pitched, and batters faced. He also surrendered more hits, runs, and doubles than any other AL pitcher. Ferrell shined in the batter’s box, too, hitting .347 with 7 home runs and 32 RBIs in 150 at-bats.

Gomez had pitched well enough to win; instead, he lost to Boston for the first time in his career after 11 wins. The loss was due in part to Gomez’s errant pickoff throw, one of his two errors in 1935 in 57 fielding chances.

It would have been difficult for Gomez to duplicate the remarkable 26-5 campaign of 1934, but no one could have foreseen his final 12-15 record. From 1930 to 1934, Gomez had compiled an 89-36 record for New York, a .712 winning percentage.

In Boston, the city’s National League team also opened its season. Ruth crushed a home run to help defeat the New York Giants, and the Associated Press reporter covering the Yankees remarked that their impotent offense could have used Ruth’s home run.9 But Ruth lasted only 28 games with the Braves, batting .181 with six home runs; he played his final game before the end of May.

The 1935 Yankees settled for second place, three games behind repeat champion Detroit. Boston finished fourth.   

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Stew Thornley and copy-edited by Len Levin.

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. The author also relied on game coverage in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald, and reviewed SABR BioProject biographies for several players involved in the game.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1935/B04160NYA1935.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA193504160.shtml

Notes

1 “The Man Who Succeeds Ruth,” Albany (New York) Knickerbocker News, April 17, 1935: 16.

2 “The Man Who Succeeds Ruth.”

3 John Fenton, “Wes Ferrell Gives Yankees Two Hits as Werber Scores Lone Boston Run,” Boston Herald, April 17, 1935: 1.

4 Fenton.

5 Frank Reil, “Make ’Em Hit What You Hurl Says Ferrell,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 17, 1935: 24.

6 Melville E. Webb Jr., “Red Sox Beat the Yankees, 1-0,” Boston Globe, April 17, 1935: 1.

7 Reil.

8 Reil.

9 “Ferrell Beats Gomez in Duel,” Albany Knickerbocker News, April 17, 1935: 17.