April 23, 1925: Walter Johnson beats Yankees with pinch-hit double in 9th

Whenever the New York Yankees were in Washington, Miller Huggins enjoyed spending time in the archives of the Library of Congress. With a passion for law, the Yankees’ manager would delve into the tomes available on the subject.1

After the second game of New York’s April 1925 series at Washington’s Griffith Stadium, there was something else on Huggins’s mind: “He is interested in knowing and learning just how long a team can hold up a game while sending for a pinch-hitter,” quipped New York veteran sportswriter Will Wedge.2

The Yankees were forced to start the 1925 season without Babe Ruth, who was resting at New York City’s St. Vincent Hospital following surgery on April 17 to remove an abscess in the region of his stomach. Without Ruth, the Yankees won their home opener, 5-1, over the Washington Nationals, but lost the next three games of the series. They swept a two-game series from the Boston Red Sox, then traveled to Washington for the Nationals’ first home series of the season. Hoping to put one in the win column today, Huggins was banking on left-handed pitcher Herb Pennock.

Coming off a two-game split against the Athletics in Philadelphia, the Nationals creamed the Yankees, 10-1, in their home opener on April 22. A 14-hit attack against Urban Shocker and two relievers backed a solid pitching effort by 37-year-old Walter Johnson for the defending-world-champion Nationals’ fourth straight win over the Yankees.

A day after his first win of the season,3 Johnson didn’t put on a uniform. Dressed in civilian clothes, the great pitcher sat on the dugout bench and watched left-hander Tom Zachary – already with a rain-shortened six-inning win over New York on April 15 – take the ball in the second Nationals-Yankees game.

As blue skies smiled overhead, the Yankees broke the ice in the top of the second, when Ben Paschal singled, Wally Pipp sacrificed, and Ernie Johnson doubled to left field to score Paschal with the game’s first run. In the bottom of the second the Nationals put two runners on base with two outs, but Zachary struck out to end the inning.

Through the next five innings, Pennock and Zachary locked horns in an old-fashioned pitching duel to keep the score at 1-0. From the third through the seventh inning, Pennock allowed just two hits, walked a batter, hit a batter, and did not allow an opponent to advance beyond first base, while Zachary allowed only four hits and no walks.

In the top of the eighth, Zachary retired the first two New York batters before Earle Combs and Bob Meusel hit back-to-back singles. But Combs, eager to take an extra base on Meusel’s hit, was out at third, as right fielder Sam Rice fielded Meusel’s hit and threw to third baseman Ossie Bluege, who applied the tag.

With no runs on four hits through seven innings, Washington manager Bucky Harris decided to turn to his bench. Pinch-hitter Mule Shirley started the top of the eighth by singling to right field. “The fans, remembering last year, began stamping and whistling. Electricity was in the air,” wrote Washington Times sportswriter Louis Dougher.4 After the next batter, Earl McNeely, fouled out to Yankees catcher Benny Bengough, Harris sent Pinky Hargrave to pinch-hit for Spencer Adams, and Hargrave delivered a single to left to put runners on first and second. But Rice and Goose Goslin grounded out to end the threat. “The fans sank back in their seats, figuring it was all over,” penned Washington Post sportswriter Frank Young.5

Since Harris had lifted Zachary for a pinch-hitter, he needed a new pitcher in the top of the ninth, and his choice was 40-year-old lefty Vean Gregg. Making his second appearance of 1925 after a seven-year absence from the majors, Gregg retired the first batter he faced, but infield hits by Pipp and Johnson put the former Red Sox, Athletics, and Cleveland Naps starter in a jam. He managed to escape the crisis when Everett Scott lifted a pop fly to Nationals shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh and, for some unknown reason, Pipp didn’t tag up before racing for third base, resulting in an easy out to complete the double play.

First baseman Joe Judge, who had not hit the ball out of the infield in three prior at bats, “pried the lid off the frame”6 for a double to left-center field to begin the bottom of the ninth. Bluege followed by attempting to sacrifice, but Pennock fielded the bunt and fired to third baseman Joe Dugan in time to retire Judge.

On the play, Bluege briskly rounded first base and kept running. Dugan heaved the ball to second baseman Ernie Johnson in time for what looked like a sure out. “The Senator [Bluege] appeared to slide right into Johnson’s waiting glove, but umpire (Bill) McGowan called him safe.” The decision aroused a tempest of an oratory that took two minutes by the village clock to subside,” described New York Times sportswriter James Harrison.7

The next batter, Peckinpaugh, patiently took four straight pitches that missed the strike zone to put Washington baserunners on first and second with only one out.

As the due-up hitter, catcher Muddy Ruel, headed to the plate, Walter Johnson left the bench and headed to the clubhouse to undress and take a shower.

Ruel grounded to third for what looked like an easy out. Dugan cleanly fielded the ball but made a wide throw to second base. All runners were safe, the bases were now loaded, and a crowd of 10,000 went wild. “Folks in Alexandria must have heard the roaring of the fans,” wrote Dougher.8

Gregg’s spot was up. Harris had planned to pinch-hit but waited for Huggins to play his hand. He had noticed Yankees veteran right-hander Bob Shawkey throwing in the bullpen and assumed there would be a pitching change, but upon realizing that Huggins was going to stick with Pennock, he reviewed his options and concluded that he had used all his right-handed hitting reserves: Shirley, Hargrave, and Adams.9 In addition Harris, who didn’t start due to a sore finger, had himself run for Hargrave in the eighth and remained in the game at second.10

A messenger was dispatched to the Washington clubhouse. When the messenger stepped inside the locker room, he found Walter Johnson stark naked and ready for his shower.

The messenger then reappeared and delivered his first message: “Johnson is dressing.”11

Huggins, already seething about catcher Steve O’Neill’s sixth inning ejection for disputing a hit-by-pitch ruling and the recent safe call on Bluege, had something to say. “Why in hell don’t you make them send up a pinch hitter?!” he yelled to home plate umpire Red Ormsby while clenching a fist. “We have to eat tonight, you know!”12

The messenger then reappeared and delivered another message: “Johnson is putting his stockings on.”13

Huggins continued to protest and questioned why Johnson even had the right to bat, claiming that a pinch-hitter should be sitting on the bench to be legally available.14

 A few minutes later came another report from the messenger: “He’s lacing up his shoes.”15

Huggins snatched Ormsby’s whiskbroom and heaved it down the third base line. 16

The messenger then reappeared and delivered another message: “HERE HE COMES!”17

The clubhouse door opened and out came Johnson, who adjusted his belt as he walked up the few steps leading to the dugout. “Houdini might be able to explain this one, but the Yankees can’t,” joked Harrison. “All they know is that it was a dirty trick at the crossroads.” After he grabbed a bat and headed to the plate, Johnson – who hit .202 in 124 career at-bats as a pinch-hitter – was said to be cool, calm, and smiling, “as if pinch hitting with the bases full was something he had been doing all his life.”18

Johnson watched three pitches go by for balls. He took the next pitch, and thinking it was ball four, he stepped toward first base, only to be told the pitch was a strike.

Now with a 3-and-1 count, Pennock threw one down the alley. Johnson swung, there was a crack, and a hit streaked between Dugan and Scott. As the ball rolled into left field, Bluege easily scored from third, and Peckinpaugh rounded third and scored the game-winning run. Washington won, 2-1.19

“Robbed by the umpires,” wrote Harrison. After the game the Yankees were unhappy, especially with the umpires. “If I ever had a guy out, it was that Bluege in the ninth,” complained Ernie Johnson.20

Huggins was speechless and said to be apoplectic. “I do not think his opinion of Ormsby is high right now,” opined Harrison.21 When Huggins finally said something, he claimed that Johnson’s hit should be null and void, because in his opinion the great pitcher was trespassing.22

When the Nationals heard about Huggins’s comment, they laughed.

Two months later, American League president Ban Johnson issued an edict that only players on the bench or warming up on the sidelines could be used as substitutes.23

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Photo credit: Walter Johnson, Trading Card Database.

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/WS1/WS1192504230.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1925/B04230WS11925.htm

Notes

1 Will Wedge, “Yankees Team Is Idle Today,” New York Sun, April 24, 1925; 37. Miller Huggins had a law degree from the University of Cincinnati.

2 Wedge, “Yankees Team Is Idle Today.”

3 Johnson’s first outing of the season was a 3-0 defeat by the Athletics on April 18.

4 Louis Dougher, “Griffmen Resting Today,” Washington Times, April 24, 1925: 22.

5 Frank Young, “Nationals Rally in Ninth to Defeat Yankees.” Washington Post, April 24, 1925: 13.

6 Young, “Nationals Rally in Ninth to Defeat Yankees.”

7 James Harrison, “Yanks Lose to Senators in Ninth,” New York Times, April 24, 1925: 13.

8 Dougher, “Griffmen resting today,” Washington Times, April 24, 1925: 22. Alexandria is directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

9 Young, “Nationals Rally in Ninth to Defeat Yankees.”

10 John A. Dugan, “Harris Shows Way to Yank Manager,” Washington Herald, April 24, 1925: 2-S.

11 Ford Frick, “Walter Johnson Is Hero of Dramatic Game,” New York Evening Journal, April 24, 1925: 38.

12 Wedge, “Yankees Team Is Idle Today.”

13 Frick, “Walter Johnson Is Hero of Dramatic Game.”

14 Wedge, “Yankees Team Is Idle Today.”

15 Frick, “Walter Johnson Is Hero of Dramatic Game.”

16 Wedge, “Yankees Team Is Idle Today.”

17 Wedge, “Yankees Team Is Idle Today.”

18 Harrison, “Yanks lose to Senators in Ninth.”

19 Walter Johnson went on to hit .433 in 97 at-bats in 1925, with two home runs and 21 RBIs.

20 Harrison, “Yanks lose to Senators in Ninth.”

21 Harrison, “Yanks lose to Senators in Ninth.”

22 Wedge, “Yankee Team Is Idle Today.”

23 Henry W. Thomas, Walter Johnson: Baseball’s Big Train (Bison Books, April 1, 1998), 265. The Nationals repeated as AL pennant-winners with a 96-55-1 record in 1925 but lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a seven-game World Series. The Yankees finished seventh at 69-85-2, 28½ games behind the Nationals.