October 13, 1925: Eddie Moore’s clout helps Pirates even World Series with Washington

The Pittsburgh Pirates relied on power hitting from an unlikely source, along with a solid pitching performance, to win Game Six of the 1925 World Series, defeating the Washington Nationals, 3-2, on October 13 at Forbes Field. With their second straight victory, the Pirates forced a decisive Game Seven in the fall classic.

After the Pirates’ Game Five win at Washington’s Griffith Stadium, they came home exuding what the Pittsburgh Post called the confidence of “a triumphant returning college team.”1 Although the Pirates trailed three games to two and remained on the verge of Series defeat, it was as though the team had gone through a “metamorphosis,” as newsman Ralph Davis described it.2

In the first four games, Nationals pitchers held Pirates batters to three runs or fewer, a string of success that reached a crescendo with Walter Johnson’s Game Four shutout. In the fifth game, however, the Pittsburgh offense performed more like it had during the regular season – the most prolific unit in the National and American Leagues3 – as a 13-hit attack yielded a 6-3 victory. Timely batting and a late-game surge off hurlers Stan Coveleski, Tom Zachary, and Firpo Marberry cemented the win.

Pirates manager Bill McKechnie chose Ray Kremer as the team’s Game Six starter. After a sterling 1924 freshman season, the 30-year-old Kremer had a rocky start to 1925, then regained his rookie form as the summer went on. He finished with a 17-8 record, which included eight straight wins to wrap up his season.

Kremer’s mound opponent was 28-year-old Alex Ferguson. The pitchers previously faced each other in Game Three, when Ferguson, Marberry, and Sam Rice’s controversial catch attempt propelled Washington to a 4-3 victory. Like Kremer, Ferguson had a less-than-optimal early season. In brief stints with the Yankees and Red Sox, he went a combined 4-4, with an 8.57 ERA. When Washington acquired him in August, Ferguson vindicated the Nationals’ faith in his ability and compiled a 5-1 record during the stretch drive, including a win in the pennant-clinching game on September 18.4

Game Six began two minutes ahead of schedule.5 Still riled up about Game Three’s disputed catch, the partisan crowd booed leadoff batter Rice.6 He hit the ball to second baseman Eddie Moore, who bobbled it momentarily, then gained control and lobbed it to first for the initial out of the game. A Bucky Harris groundout followed. Slugger Goose Goslin quickly dispelled any hope that Kremer or local fans might have had of an easy game. He sent a 1-and-1 pitch into the right-field stands, newly built during the 1925 season, for a 1-0 Washington lead.

A leadoff single amounted to nothing for Pittsburgh in the bottom of the inning, as a sacrifice, pop fly, and line-drive out garnered zero runs. Washington’s second began with a single, followed by a force out. With Ossie Bluege on first base, Roger Peckinpaugh doubled to right. Bluege came around to score on a close play at home,7 increasing Washington’s lead to 2-0. Peckinpaugh advanced to third on Kremer’s errant pickoff attempt, but the pitcher coaxed popups from the next two batters to prevent further damage.

Pittsburgh hit two singles in the bottom of the inning but also hit into a force out and struck out twice. The score remained 2-0.

After the shaky start, the side-arm-hurling Kremer settled in. He was “mixing a fast ball with a drop curve which he had under perfect control,” said the Pittsburgh Post.8 After Peckinpaugh’s double in the second, Kremer’s pitching was so formidable that Washington generated nothing beyond two singles and a walk over the next six innings.

In the bottom of the third, Pittsburgh broke through. Moore walked, then Max Carey hit an infield groundball. Already scrutinized for his high error count in the Series,9 shortstop Peckinpaugh had another slip in fielding fundamentals. In his anxiousness to secure the grounder in order to convert a double play, he missed touching second base to force Moore, and then his throw to first was too late to catch the speedy Carey.10

Kiki Cuyler’s sacrifice bunt moved both runners into scoring position. Moore scored when Clyde Barnhart sent a grounder to third baseman Bluege, who opted for the sure out by throwing to first base. Pie Traynor singled up the middle and scored Carey, tying the game, 2-2. Traynor attempted to steal second, and went to third on catcher Hank Severeid’s errant throw to nab him, but the inning ended when Glenn Wright grounded out to Bluege.

Each pitcher managed two strikeouts in the fourth inning. Bluege singled, then was caught in a rundown to end Washington’s half of the frame. The only substantive bat contact in Pittsburgh’s half was a long fly out by Stuffy McInnis to Rice.

Kramer quickly set down the bottom three of the Nationals’ lineup in the top of the fifth. The first batter for the Pirates’ half of the inning was Eddie Moore. Moore was a frequent target of the local press and fans’ ire due partly to his cocksure nature and mental lapses on the field.11 Additionally, his batting average was the lowest among the Pirates regulars.12

Past inadequacies didn’t matter, though, when Moore blasted a 1-and-0 pitch over the left-field barrier to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead. The home run was all the more surprising given that Moore had injured his right hand during pregame fielding practice, leaving his ability to play in serious doubt.13 In one moment, however, he proved capable, and was exactly what Pittsburgh needed.

Barnhart nearly added another home run, but his drive caromed off the left-field fence, and he was kept to a double.

In the sixth, beyond a Goslin walk, Washington batters mustered only groundouts. Pittsburgh managed no better; aside from a McInnis single, the Pirates went down via two strikeouts and a line out.

During the top of the seventh, umpires noticed that part of a field box specifically built for the World Series crowd had fallen onto the field.14 The game was paused while a rudimentary fix was administered. After Kremer set down the Washington batters, a more lengthy delay for a substantial fix occurred.15 The crowd kept their spirits up with “continual cheering”16 during the interruption. Once the delay ended, Peckinpaugh’s sixth error of the series allowed Moore to reach base, but Pittsburgh batters failed to push him beyond second.

Severeid led off the Washington eighth with a single. At this point, player-manager Harris pulled out all the stops. He substituted speedy Earl McNeely for Severeid and brought in Nemo Leibold to bat for Ferguson. McNeely stole second, but Leibold’s contribution amounted to a popout. McNeely advanced to third on Rice’s groundout. Harris then subbed himself out for a southpaw batter to face the right-handed Kremer.17 Nothing came of it; pinch-hitter Bobby Veach grounded out to second.

Win Ballou took the mound for Washington in the bottom of the inning. After giving up a leadoff walk, he coaxed a double play when McInnis lined out to first, then closed out the frame on Earl Smith’s groundout.

Goslin batted first in the ninth inning. He crushed ball after ball into the right-field stands, but all landed on the wrong side of the foul line.18 Eventually, he popped out to Moore.

The next batter, Joe Harris, launched a ball into deep center that hit near the top of the wall.19 His effort resulted in a double. It was as close as Washington could get, though: Kremer induced an infield fly and a groundout, and the Pirates held on for the 3-2 victory.

Even with the use of the less lively Reach ball during the 1925 season, the two home runs hit in Game Six pushed the total past the previous World Series home-run record of 10.20 Goslin and Joe Harris accounted for six of Washington’s seven to that point. But the main story of the game remained Moore’s round-tripper, which was quickly rhapsodized in poetry:

For never since the serpent
Conquered Adam near the tree,
Has mankind ever witnessed
Such a wondrous victory,
As our Eddie Moore recorded
When he sent that second ball
On its journey toward Altoona
Miles beyond the left-field wall.21

Moore’s career in the majors lasted well into the 1930s, but his time with Pittsburgh didn’t. After 43 games of the 1926 season, his contract was sold to the Boston Braves. Years later, Moore fondly recalled the home run as one of the greatest thrills from his playing days.22

The next day, October 14, tens of thousands of fans gathered at Forbes for Game Seven. Before game time, a foreboding sky turned into a steady rain and delayed the scheduled 2 P.M. start. During the delay, Commissioner Kenesaw Landis, decided to postpone the Series finale until the next day.23 After the dramatic series evener, anxious fans were forced to wait just a little longer.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Special thanks to the reviews of SABR members John Fredland, Kurt Blumenau, and Vincent T. Ciaramella.

Photo credit: Eddie Moore, 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/PIT/PIT192510130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1925/B10130PIT1925.htm

Notes

1 “Big Crowd Greets Battling Pirates at B. & O. Station,” Pittsburgh Post, October 13, 1925: 11.

2 “Ralph Davis, “Sport Chat,” Pittsburgh Press, October 13, 1925: 30.

3 Pittsburgh’s 5.96 runs per game led all NL and AL clubs in 1925.

4 “Flag Assured by Victories as Athletics Are Defeated,” Washington Herald, September 25, 1925: 1.

5 “Post Clock Ticks,” Pittsburgh Post, October 14, 1925: 14.

6 Katharine Brush, “Kaiser Couldn’t Get Worse ‘Razz’ Than Given Rice,” Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph, October 14, 1925: 2.

7 “Pirates Beat Nats 3-2; Series Tied,” Washington Daily Times, October 13, 1925: 1.

8 “Here’s How Pirate Pep and Punch Tied Up the Series,” Pittsburgh Post, October 14, 1925: 14.

9 “Joe Harris Saves Day,” Chattanooga Sunday Times, October 11, 1925: 14. Shortstop Peckinpaugh finished the World Series with eight errors in seven games. In his 125 games played during the 1925 regular season, he made 28 errors.

10 “Here’s How Pirate Pep and Punch Tied Up the Series.”

11 “What the Post Clock Saw,” Pittsburgh Sunday Post, August 16, 1925: 3, 3.

12 Moore’s season batting average was .298, but every other Pittsburgh regular batted over .300.

13 John B. Keller, “Play Handicapped in Lot for Sake of Few Shekels,” Washington Evening Star, October 14, 1925: 28.

14 “Here’s How Pirate Pep and Punch Tied Up the Series.”

15 The “Post Clock Ticks” section on page 14 of the October 14, 1925, Pittsburgh Post indicates the time from the original collapse to the beginning of the eighth inning lasted 10 minutes.

16 “Here’s How Pirate Pep and Punch Tied Up the Series.”

17 “What the Post Clock Saw: Harris – A Real General,” Pittsburgh Post, October 14, 1925: 14.

18  “Here’s How Pirate Pep and Punch Tied Up the Series.”

19 “Three Homer Marks Broken, One Tied in Present Series,” Pittsburgh Post, October 14, 1925: 13.

20 “Three Homer Marks Broken, One Tied in Present Series.”

21 “To Eddie Moore,” Pittsburgh Press, October 14, 1925: 29.

22 “Sideline Sidelights,” Nashville Banner, June 7, 1936: 10.

23 “Bleacher Crowd Drenched When Game Is Called Off,” Pittsburgh Sun, October 14, 1925: 1.