August 17, 1934: Ed Coleman’s three bombs help A’s overcome White Sox

Fans of the Philadelphia Athletics could be excused for being confused when they walked into Shibe Park on August 17, 1934, and wondered which team they should support that day. The opponent for the A’s this day were the Chicago White Sox, and four of the White Sox had recently been wearing the uniform of Connie Mack’s charges. Mack sold Al Simmons, Mule Haas, and Jimmy Dykes to the White Sox after the 1932 season, and one year later he further gutted the recently great A’s by trading George Earnshaw to Chicago. All four would feature for the White Sox in game one of a doubleheader this day. (Dykes was the White Sox’ player-manager, having succeeded Lew Fonseca early in the season.)

This was the fourth time Earnshaw faced his old mates since he moved to Chicago, and things had gone well so far – he was 2-0 against the A’s to that point and had also won all three of his starts in August.1 Opposing Earnshaw would be A’s rookie Al Benton, who had been brilliant in his last start, on August 11, beating the Washington Senators 2-1, allowing only three hits while going the distance. Today would be different.

The White Sox got a runner to second base in the first and second innings on walks but could not advance either runner further. Right fielder Ed Coleman came up second for the A’s in the bottom of the second. Coleman, who along with outfielders Bob Johnson and Doc Cramer helped Mack decide to sell off Haas and Simmons to the White Sox,2 had never really produced with the power that Mack envisioned when the deal was made. He had hit only six home runs in an injury-plagued 1933 season and had 11 coming into the doubleheader. On this day, he found the power he had showed in the minor leagues. After a leadoff walk to Pinky Higgins, Coleman smacked a drive over the right-field wall to give the A’s a 2-0 lead.

The advantage lasted two batters into the White Sox third inning. Evar Swanson led off for the White Sox with a walk, giving Haas a chance to torment his former employer – an opportunity he did not waste, following Coleman’s homer to right with his own to right field to tie the game. This was the first of 11 times that the game had a lead change or was tied.

In the home half of the fourth inning, after Earnshaw retired Jimmie Foxx and Higgins, Coleman hit his second home run and gave the A’s the lead again at 3-2.

The White Sox tied the game in the top of the sixth. With one out, Jackie Hayes doubled to left-center, and after another out, Ed Madjeski singled to left. Johnson’s throw from left appeared to be in time to get Hayes at the plate, but catcher Charlie Berry could not handle the throw. The error allowed Hayes to score and tie the game again.

The White Sox took the lead in the seventh, again thanks to the ex-Athletics. With one out, Philadelphia second baseman Dib Williams made an errant throw on Haas’s grounder to the hole and Haas got to third base. (He was credited with a single on the play.) Simmons’s single to center plated Haas. After Luke Appling lined out to center, Dykes doubled down the left-field line and Simmons scampered home to give the White Sox a 5-3 lead. It quickly disappeared.

Johnny Marcum reached first on an error by first baseman Dykes. Lou Finney pinch-hit for Benton and hit a fielder’s choice grounder for the first out, then Cramer doubled to right to put the tying runs in scoring position. Earnshaw struck out Williams for the second out, but Johnson’s single to center tied the game, 5-5.

Bill Dietrich relieved Benton in the White Sox’ eighth and with two out gave up consecutive singles to Earnshaw and Swanson, then walked Haas to load the bases. Simmons now had the chance to make Mack regret his moves, and he did with a double to right to restore the White Sox’ two-run lead.

But Chicago’s Earnshaw couldn’t hold the lead again. Higgins beat out a grounder to shortstop leading off the bottom of the eighth, bringing up Coleman, who found right field to his liking for a third time, tying the game once again with a home run. With that blast, Coleman became the fifth Athletic to hit three home runs in a game since 1908.3

Now it was Dietrich’s turn to give up the lead. He started the top of the ninth inning by walking Dykes. Hayes’s bunt moved Dykes to second, and he scored on Marty Hopkins’s single to center. Earnshaw had a chance to extend the lead to two runs (again) but grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the ninth for the visitors.

Manager Dykes might have been inclined to remove Earnshaw who twice was unable to hold a two-run lead, but with the second game of a doubleheader looming and another doubleheader scheduled for the next day, he gave Earnshaw one more chance to close out the game. For the third time in three attempts, Earnshaw failed. Dib Williams led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, and Foxx’s walk moved him to second. Higgins followed with a single to tie the game for the fifth time. Coleman came up with a chance to become the second American League player to hit four home runs in a game but flied out to center.4

Dietrich finally had a one-two-three inning in the top of the 10th, and the Athletics finally came to bat without chasing the lead. Earnshaw was still in the game, and after striking out Hayes, he walked his counterpart Dietrich to put the winning run on base. Cramer moved that winning run to third with a double, and Williams ended Earnshaw’s misery by driving a fly ball to deep center over Haas to score Dietrich with the winning run.

Coleman was the hero of the day, but that status faded quickly. He had four hits in five at-bats four days later in a 12-11 loss to the Cleveland Indians but finished the month of August on a 0-for-23 run and had only two pinch-hitting appearances in September. Despite a solid spring in 1935, he lost his job to the rookie Wally Moses and was traded to the St. Louis Browns. It was later revealed that Coleman was actually five years older than he had claimed and was not the potential young star Mack thought he had.5

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, SABR’s BioProject via SABR.org, The Sporting News archive via Paper of Record, and the Chicago Tribune and Philadelphia Inquirer via Newspapers.com.

NOTES

1 Earnshaw’s three wins were also the last three the White Sox had achieved in August, entering the doubleheader on August 17 with a 4-10 record in the month.

2 David Skelton, “Ed Coleman,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ed-coleman/.

3 This was the sixth time an Athletic had hit three home runs in a game – Jimmie Foxx achieved the feat twice. Three home runs in a game remain the A’s record, with it having occurred 28 times, the most recent (as of 2019) by Khris Davis of the Oakland Athletics on May 17, 2017

4 Lou Gehrig hit four home runs against the A’s on June 3, 1932. Three of the home runs were hit off Earnshaw.

5 Skelton.