July 15, 1932: Al Simmons becomes first A’s player to homer three times at Shibe Park

From 1929 through 1931, the Philadelphia Athletics claimed one of the most impressive streaks in major-league history, winning at least 100 games in all three seasons and becoming the first team to do so. They won the World Series in 1929 and 1930 before losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games in the 1931 fall classic. They couldn’t maintain that level of brilliance in 1932, however, and though they won 94 games, they finished a staggering 13 games behind the pennant-winning New York Yankees.

That would prove to be the end of the Philadelphia Athletics dynasty as team owner-manager Connie Mack systematically dismantled his squad through trades, sales, or both, much as he did after losing the 1914 World Series to the Boston Braves. One of the first casualties of the purge was future Hall of Fame outfielder Al Simmons, who was sold along with outfielder Mule Haas and infielder Jimmy Dykes to the Chicago White Sox for $100,000 only three days after the 1932 season ended. However, before he headed west, he gave Athletics faithful a gift they had never received before – a three-homer game by an Athletics hitter at Shibe Park.

The Athletics’ 100-win streak was in jeopardy right out of the gate when they lost 10 of their first 14 games and were already 6½ games out of first by the end of April. They recovered and went 45-27 in their next 72 games, including a 9-2 drubbing of the Detroit Tigers in the first game of a three-game set at Shibe Park on July 14. But the Yankees were making a mockery of the race and though the Athletics had climbed to within a percentage point of the second-place Cleveland Indians, Philadelphia’s deficit had grown to 8½ games.

The second game against the Tigers was played on Friday, July 15, and pitted veterans Rube Walberg and George Uhle against each other. Neither was enjoying any success – the soon-to-be-36-year-old, left-handed Walberg was 8-8 with a 4.91 ERA while the 33-year-old, right-handed Uhle was 4-4 with a 4.65 ERA. It’s no surprise the game would feature 21 runs on 27 hits, 17 walks, and a hit batter.

The teams wasted little time jumping all over each other. Detroit poured two runs across in the top of the first on a two-run homer by John Stone after a one-out double by Charlie Gehringer. But Simmons quickly tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the inning when he deposited a Uhle pitch over the right-field wall after a two-out walk to Mickey Cochrane. Walberg walked Muddy Ruel in the top of the second, but three fly outs set the Tigers down without further damage. Then the Athletics took the lead in their half of the inning with an unearned run thanks to third baseman Nolen Richardson’s error, Walberg’s single, a walk to Haas, and a single by Doc Cramer.

Walberg immediately coughed up the lead when Stone smacked his second four-bagger over the right-field fence and onto 20th Street, again scoring Gehringer, who had reached first on a miscue by second baseman Dib Williams. Not to be outdone, Simmons knotted the score again when he belted a shot to the roof above the left-field stands to tie the game at 4-4. The Tigers continued their onslaught in the top of the fourth when they manufactured a run on a walk to Billy Rogell, Richardson’s sacrifice, Rogell’s steal of third, by Rogell, and a fly ball by Ruel.

The Athletics, sensing that their southpaw needed all the runs he could get, stepped on the gas in the bottom of the frame and plated five to retake the lead at 9-5. Walberg helped himself with another single, which knocked Uhle from the box and brought Chief Hogsett into the fray. The lefty was greeted by Haas’s single to left and it was all downhill from there.

Hogsett allowed a run-scoring single by Cochrane, a “robust” double to left by Simmons that scored two, a walk to Jimmie Foxx, and a two-run double by Eric McNair before he was lifted in favor of 22-year-old rookie Buck Marrow, who was making only his third major-league appearance.1 The North Carolina native didn’t seem to have any answers, either, and hit Dykes, then walked Williams to load the bases. But he worked out of the jam by fanning Walberg and getting Haas to pop to shortstop.

However, as James C. Isaminger wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Walberg refused to be comforted by a big lead and constantly sagged.”2 Indeed, he surrendered three more runs in the top of the fifth, all coming with two outs when Stone walked, Earl Webb singled to center, Gee Walker doubled to left to score Stone, and Rogell singled to left to plate Webb and Walker, and pulled the Tigers to within a run at 9-8.

The dust settled for a couple of innings – Marrow allowed a single to Cramer in the fifth, and issued consecutive walks to Dykes and Williams in the sixth, but no Athletic scored; Walberg was even better, surrendering only a free pass to Stone in the top of the seventh while retiring the other six batters with relative ease.

Marrow couldn’t escape harm in the bottom of the seventh, however, and Simmons, the “swashbuckling batsman as of old,” made history when he drove the ball to center field on a line and Stone failed to make a shoestring catch. The ball got past him and Simmons rounded the bases for an inside-the-park homer, his third round-tripper of the day.3 Down 10-8, the Tigers refused to surrender and tied the score in the top of the eighth, thanks in part to Walberg’s inability to locate the strike zone and ineffectiveness with two outs.

After retiring Rogell on a grounder to short, Walberg walked Richardson, who was caught stealing second with Ruel at the plate. Ruel walked, then utilityman Billy Rhiel batted for Marrow and singled to left, advancing pinch-runner Bill Lawrence to second.4 Harry Davis walked to load the bases, and Gehringer tied the score at 10-10 with a two-bagger to right before Davis was thrown out at the plate by Foxx, who took the throw from Haas and fired to Cochrane to end the inning.

The A’s had a chance to put the go-ahead run on the board in the bottom of the eighth against 24-year-old rookie hurler Izzy Goldstein, but their two-out rally that had runners at first and third thanks to a Dykes free pass and Walberg’s third single of the game fell short when Haas grounded out to Gehringer. Despite having walked eight men against no strikeouts in eight innings, Walberg took the mound for the ninth and issued his ninth walk of the game but got two groundouts to escape unscathed. “He was wilder than a man overboard,” wrote Isaminger.5

Earl Whitehill, Detroit’s fifth pitcher of the contest, retired the side in the bottom of the ninth to send the game into extra frames and Walberg followed suit in the top of the 10th. Philadelphia threatened in the bottom of the inning when McNair doubled to left with one out and Dykes earned an intentional walk to set up a possible double play, but Whitehill struck out Williams and got Bing Miller, who was hitting for Walberg, to pop to third to end the inning.

With Walberg’s day finished, Mack called on 20-year-old right-hander Lew Krausse, who entered the game with a 2-0 record and 6.44 ERA, and had only four more major-league appearances ahead of him. Not surprisingly, the youngster couldn’t keep the Tigers from scoring and surrendered the eventual winning run when he stole a page from Walberg’s script and gave up the tally with two outs.

Whitehill singled to right, but Davis and Gehringer followed with popups to Cochrane and it looked as if the game would go into the bottom of the inning still tied. But singles by Stone and Webb broke the tie and the game ended 11-10 in Detroit’s favor when Simmons flied out to center with Cochrane on first in the bottom of the 11th.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, and SABR.org.

NOTES

1 James C. Isaminger, “Simmons Hits Three Homers and Double,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 16, 1932: 8.

2 Isaminger.

3 Isaminger.

4 The hit was Rhiel’s fourth straight hit as a pinch-hitter and he would slash .481/.500/.593 in that role in 1932.

5 Isaminger.