May 7, 1925: Glenn Wright turns unassisted triple play as Cardinals rally past Pirates

“Nice work, kid,” St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Rogers Hornsby said to Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Glenn Wright as Wright tagged Hornsby.1 It was the top of the ninth inning at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field on May 7, 1925. The 24-year-old Wright had caught a line drive and stepped on second before tagging Hornsby, completing the sixth unassisted triple play in American or National League history.2

Wright’s triple play thwarted the Cardinals’ bid to expand their one-run lead, but St. Louis held on to beat the Pirates, 10-9, after overcoming a six-run deficit.

Wright was in his second season with the Pirates. As a rookie he had set a major-league season record for assists by a shortstop.3 With Wright playing next to future Hall of Fame third baseman Pie Traynor, many believed Pittsburgh’s left side of the infield had the strongest arms in the game.4

Hornsby – another future Hall of Famer who was, at age 29, headed for his sixth consecutive batting crown in 1925 – often counseled Wright about his baseball career. Whenever Pittsburgh played in St. Louis, the Pirates stayed at the Chase Hotel, where Hornsby rented rooms. Hornsby and Wright talked baseball frequently in the lobby during those series.5

A native of Missouri, Wright played football instead of baseball at the University of Missouri, but in 1921 he was signed by the Kansas City Blues of the American Association. Three years later he was sold to Pittsburgh, where he was immediately installed as the everyday shortstop.6

Bad weather had kept the Pirates and Cardinals from playing the first two games of the series. They managed to play this game despite what Edward Balinger of the Pittsburgh Post described as a “wintry breeze” that made “4,500 fans shake all over.”7

Emil Yde was pitching for Pittsburgh. The 25-year-old lefty had gone 16-3 as a rookie in 1924, giving him an .842 winning percentage, best among AL or NL pitchers. In 1925, however, he had lost his first three decisions.

Yde was opposed by Allen Sothoron, 2-3, who was in his 10th season in the majors and second with the Cardinals.

The game was scoreless when the Pirates came to bat in the bottom of the third. Second baseman Eddie Moore, Pittsburgh’s leading hitter at .379, doubled with one out. After a walk to Clyde Barnhart, Traynor singled to center, scoring Moore and sending Barnhart to third. Wright’s grounder to third was thrown away by Les Bell as Barnhart scored. Traynor advanced to third on the error, and Pittsburgh led, 2-0.

First baseman Al Niehaus knocked in Traynor with a single to right, and once more the Pirates had runners at the corners. Wright scored on a groundout to make it 4-0.

The Cardinals cut into the lead in the fourth with some help from Pittsburgh’s defense. Bell hit a one-out single and right fielder Chick Hafey followed with a bunt single. With two outs, a passed ball and second baseman Moore’s error on a grounder hit by catcher Mike González allowed two runs to score.

Back-to-back singles by pinch-hitter Ray Blades and left fielder Ralph Shinners scored González with the third unearned run of the inning, cutting the lead to one, 4-3.

The Pirates answered in the bottom of the inning. Pea Ridge Day, who had relieved Sothoron, was greeted with three consecutive singles. The third hit, by Moore, scored Max Carey.

Branch Rickey, in his seventh season managing the Cardinals, replaced Day with Bill Sherdel. The left-hander got out of the inning, but not before Wright’s sacrifice fly to center made the score 6-3.

The Pirates doubled their lead the next inning. After a leadoff single, three consecutive two-out extra-base hits – including Moore’s second double and third hit of the game – gave Pittsburgh a 9-3 advantage.

With two outs in the top of the sixth, the Cardinals mounted a rally as two hits and a walk loaded the bases for Hornsby. Traynor couldn’t handle Hornsby’s groundball single past third, and Hi Myers,8 who had pinch-hit for Sherdel, came home with St. Louis’s fourth run of the game. Yde got out of the inning when Jim Bottomley fouled out to Traynor.

Wild Bill Hallahan, the Cardinals’ 22-year-old rookie left-hander, worked two scoreless innings in relief, allowing no hits while living up to his nickname by walking three.9

The Cardinals trailed by five in the top of the eighth, but pinch-hitter Howard Freigau drew a leadoff walk, Yde’s second free pass of the game. Shinners followed with his fourth hit, a bunt single to third. Jimmy Cooney got the Cardinals’ 15th hit when his ball back to the mound deflected off Yde’s glove. For the second time in three innings, Hornsby came to the plate with the bases loaded.

Pirates manager Bill McKechnie replaced Yde with veteran Babe Adams. The 42-year-old began his major-league career pitching one game for the Cardinals in 1906. Acquired by the Pirates the next year, he had 187 career wins. The 1909 World Series hero10 hadn’t pitched in 11 days, when he had thrown a complete game, allowing only one run in a win over St. Louis.

Hornsby singled to left, scoring two and bringing the tying run to the plate. Bottomley scorched the ball to Moore’s right. The second baseman had committed a costly error in the fourth inning and couldn’t make this play either. It was ruled a base hit, and the bases were loaded again.11 Bell cleared them with a triple to center, tying the game, 9-9.

McKechnie replaced Adams with Johnny Morrison. Bell stayed at third on an infield hit by Hafey, and one out later scored the go-ahead run on a single by González.12

Rickey called on Flint Rhem, the fifth St. Louis hurler of the game, to protect the Cardinals’ 10-9 lead in the eighth. Rhem, 24 years old and in his second season with St. Louis, was making his second relief appearance of the season to go along with three starts. He had been idle since he gave up seven runs on eight hits in 4⅔ innings nine days earlier against the Pirates.

Two of the first three batters Rhem faced singled, but with help from his right fielder, he escaped with no runs. Max Flack, who stayed in the game after pinch-hitting, threw out Niehaus at second when the first baseman tried to stretch his single into a double.

Pittsburgh’s Vic Aldridge came in to pitch the ninth. An offseason trade acquisition,13 Aldridge was appearing in his second game for the Pirates after five seasons with the Cubs.

Aldridge walked the first two batters, Cooney and Hornsby. Bottomley, the 25-year-old left-handed cleanup hitter, came to the plate looking to increase the Cardinals’ lead. With the hit-and-run on, Bottomley blistered a line drive that Wright caught near second.

He stepped on the bag to retire Cooney and tagged out Hornsby, completing his triple play.14 In recounting the play later, Wright said that he was getting ready to throw to first, but Hornsby was in his way. Because his throws were strong but not always accurate – hence, the nickname Buckshot – he ran over and tagged Hornsby, who made no effort to return to first.15

Wright called it an easy play. It was over so quickly that many of the fans didn’t know what happened.16

Rhem set the Pirates down in order in the bottom of the ninth to close out the Cardinals’ victory.17 Hallahan was credited with his first career win, and Adams took the loss to fall to 1-2.

Pittsburgh had blown a six-run lead. The Pirates, who had not finished a season with a losing record since 1917, dropped into last place with a record of 6-10.18 The Pittsburgh Post described their performance: “[T]hey can do no worse. Recall to memory all the bad games you have seen, pick out the things which struck you as most atrocious and then put them all together. Then you have a near conception of the happenings.”19

After the game, McKechnie expressed his disappointment with the pitching staff, which Lou Wollen in the Pittsburgh Press called the team’s weak link.20 In six of their first 16 games, the Pirates had given up eight or more runs and were averaging 5.8 runs allowed per game.21

After a loss the next day in Philadelphia, the Pirates turned things around. Their .654 winning percentage after May 8 led the AL and NL. By June 29 they had caught the New York Giants atop the NL. After trading places in the standings over the next month, Pittsburgh took sole possession of first place on August 3 and never trailed again, winning the pennant by 8½ games. The “weak link” pitching staff finished with five starters each having at least 15 wins.22

Pittsburgh faced the defending champion Washington Senators in the World Series. After falling behind three games to one, the Pirates won the next three games and were World Series champions for the first time since 1909.23

Wright batted .308 with 18 home runs and 121 RBIs. He led all AL and NL shortstops with 530 assists24 and finished fourth in NL Most Valuable Player voting, which Hornsby won.25 “Nice work,” by the kid.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo and copy-edited by Len Levin. Thanks to John Fredland, Kurt Blumenau, and Gary Belleville for their insights and suggestions.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT192505070.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1925/B05070PIT1925.htm

Photo credit: Glenn Wright, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Notes

1 Eugene C. Murdock, “Glenn Wright, Last of the 1925 All-Stars,” Baseball Research Journal (SABR, 1979), https://sabr.org/journal/article/glenn-wright-last-of-the-1925-all-stars/.

2 Unassisted triple plays had been turned previously by Paul Hines in May 1878, Neal Ball in July 1909, Bill Wambsganss in Game Five of the 1920 World Series, George Burns in September 1923, and Ernie Padgett in October 1923. Whether the Hines triple play was unassisted is disputed. Major-league official historian John Thorn recognizes it as an unassisted triple play.

3 Wright’s record for assists in a season, 601, was broken by Ozzie Smith in 1980 when Smith had 621 assists. As of 2024, Wright’s total ranked second all time.

4 Bob Broeg, “‘Buckshot’ Wright Earns Niche in State Sports Shrine,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 26, 1976: 4F.

5 Murdock, “Glenn Wright, Last of the 1925 All-Stars.”

6 Bob Broeg, “‘Buckshot’ Wright Earns Niche in State Sports Shrine.”

7 Edward F. Ballinger, “Emil Yde Blows Up With Five Run Lead; Relief Corps Fails,” Pittsburgh Post, May 8, 1925: 11. In the same article, Ballinger describes the fans as the “shivering populace” and the “frostbitten fish.”

8 Henry Harrison Myers went by both Hy and Hi. Both Baseball-reference.com and retrosheet.org refer to him as “Hi.” SABR.org refers to Myers as “Hy.”

9 Hallahan was making only his fourth major-league appearance. He pitched a total of 15⅓ innings in 1925. He had a reputation of being a hard thrower with a lack of control. Hallahan became an effective pitcher with 102 career wins. He was the starting pitcher for the National League in the first All-Star Game in 1933. He also pitched in seven World Series games for the Cardinals, winning three of his five starts. He earned a retroactive save in Game Seven of the 1931 World Series, sealing the Cardinals championship over the Philadelphia Athletics.

10 Adams had three complete-game wins and an ERA of 1.33 in the World Series as Pittsburgh beat the Detroit Tigers in seven games.

11 “Pirate Shortstop Thrills Fans with Great Play as Club Loses to Cardinals, 10 to 9,” Pittsburgh Gazette, May 8, 1925: 13.

12 “Cardinals Stage Six-Run Rally in Eighth to Beat Pirates, 10 to 9,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 8, 1925: 19. Both baseball-reference.com and retrosheet.org have Bell scoring on Hafey’s infield hit, but other papers including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Press and Pittsburgh Post, concur with the St. Louis Globe-Democrat that Bell scored on González’s hit.

13 On October 27, 1924, Aldridge was acquired from the Cubs along with George Grantham and Niehaus for Wilbur Cooper, Charlie Grimm, and Rabbit Maranville.

14 Cooney, who was the second out of the triple play, completed his own unassisted triple play two years later. On May 30, 1927, playing shortstop for the Chicago Cubs, he got his revenge by turning it against the Pirates. As of 2024, Cooney was the only player to have been involved in two unassisted triple plays. Art McKennan witnessed both of those unassisted triple plays while operating the manual scoreboard at Forbes Field. He also saw Mickey Morandini’s unassisted triple play for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1992 while working as the public-address announcer in Pittsburgh.

15 Murdock, “Glenn Wright, Last of the 1925 All-Stars.”

16 Murdock.

17 Reference sources like Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org retroactively credit Rhem with a save in this game. Saves weren’t an official major-league statistic at the time, but they have since been retroactively awarded.

18 The Cardinals were a half-game ahead of the Pirates at 7-10. They lost 15 of their next 21 games, and Hornsby became player-manager on May 30, with Rickey shifting to solely executive duties. Under the new arrangement, St. Louis had a .557 winning percentage over the final four months of the season, coming in fourth at 77-76, 18 games behind the Pirates. Hornsby remained as player-manager and Rickey as vice president in 1926, and the Cardinals won the National League pennant.

19 “What the Post Clock Saw,” Pittsburgh Post, May 8, 1925: 13.

20 Lou Wollen, “Sullen Pirate Crew Starts Eastern Trip,” Pittsburgh Press, May 8, 1925: 38.

21 The Pirates defense contributed to the high number of runs allowed as 25 of the 93 runs were unearned.

22 Lee Meadows led the team with 19 wins. The other four starters were Ray Kremer, Aldridge, Morrison, and Yde.

23 In 1909 the Pirates defeated the Detroit Tigers in seven games in the World Series.

24 Wright also committed 56 errors, the second-highest total in the AL or NL behind Phillies shortstop Heine Sand, who had 60.

25 Hornsby won the Triple Crown, batting .403 with 39 home runs and 143 RBIs.