October 5, 1931: Cardinals tag Grove early; Burleigh Grimes grinds in Game 3

When the 1931 World Series opened at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis on October 1st, it appeared to be a mere continuation of the regular season. The Philadelphia A’s star pitcher, Robert Moses “Lefty” Grove, rebounded from an early 2-0 deficit to cruise to a 6-2 win for Connie Mack’s team. Grove had outdone himself in 1931, improving upon a career year in 1930 in which he posted a 28-5 record and a 2.54 earned-run average. In ’31, Grove sailed to a 31-4 mark and a minuscule 2.06 ERA. With a fastball so rapid he could “throw a lambchop past a wolf,” as one witness asserted,1 Grove struck out 175 batters, leading the American League for the seventh straight season (a streak beginning in his rookie year of 1925). His ERA had been the lowest in the circuit in each of the past four. Grove had lost only twice since the first week of June.

After Grove’s Game One victory, the resolute Cardinals rebounded in Game Two with a 2-0 shutout from Bill Hallahan, as center fielder Pepper Martin began a personal vendetta against A’s stalwart catcher Mickey Cochrane. In going 5-for-7 in the Series’ first two games, Martin had also swiped three bases.

As the battle shifted east to Shibe Park for Game Three, Grove was summoned to the mound once again by Mack while St. Louis manager Gabby Street handed the ball to right-hander Burleigh Grimes. Grimes, in his 16th major-league season, was one of 17 veteran pitchers permitted to continue throwing a spitball when the pitch was banned in 1920. Grimes was looking to avenge himself against Grove; he had lost twice to the southpaw in the 1930 World Series between the A’s and Cardinals.

The weather for Game Three “couldn’t have been better had it been made to order for a mid-July afternoon,” the Philadelphia Inquirer noted.2 The temperature climbed to 84 degrees near game time, 11 degrees above normal in the city for early October. The festivities were launched – literally – by President Herbert Hoover throwing out the first ball from his box seat; his errant fling sailed over the head of Cochrane deflecting off the shin of third-base umpire Dick Nallin, standing nearby. (After Grove fired a strike on the first pitch to the Cardinals’ Sparky Adams to start the game, home-plate umpire Dolly Stark went over and gave Hoover the ball as a replacement for his original toss.)

Both teams went down in order in the first inning, but the Cardinals pounced on Grove in the second. “That sinister word called ‘depression’ that has worried economic authorities for some time hit baseball yesterday,” wrote James Isaminger in the Philadelphia Inquirer. “It hit the best team in baseball anyway.”3 A lead-off walk to Jim Bottomley preceded singles by Martin and Jimmie Wilson. Charley Gelbert followed with a run-scoring liner to Bing Miller in right for a 2-0 St. Louis lead.

Two more Cardinals tallies came in the fourth, with the big blow coming from Grimes himself – a two-out single to right-center that scored Martin and Chick Hafey, increasing the advantage to 4-0 as the Cardinals were “screaming and tearing around like birds of prey,” noted Isaminger’s colleague at the Inquirer, John McCullough.4

Aside from his momentous offensive blow, Grimes was even more impressive on the mound. Threatening to become the first pitcher to ever fire a no-hitter in a World Series game, he entered the A’s eighth maintaining the 4-0 lead.

At that juncture, it appeared the bats of the Mighty Macks had awakened. Jimmie Foxx walked to start the inning, and Miller followed with the A’s first hit of the day – a scorching single to center that nearly carried Grimes with it to the outfield. But the spitballer righted himself to get Jimmy Dykes to pop to third, Dib Williams to fly to left, and Doc Cramer – batting for Grove, who had now permitted 23 hits in his two series starts – to line a shot that was snared by Frankie Frisch at second, quelling the rally as quickly as it had begun.

Roy Mahaffey took over on the Philadelphia mound in the top of the ninth. Bottomley stroked a double that sent George Watkins home from second base. Watkins had pinch-run for Wally Roettger after Roettger reached first on a force play.

Grimes (“wearing a two-day growth of beard,” noted J. Roy Stockton of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch5) continued his scoreless domination into the ninth as Max Bishop tapped to Bottomley unassisted at first and Mule Haas grounded out to Grimes. But on the latter play, the pitcher attempted to field the hot grounder barehanded and injured the index finger on his pitching hand. “There was a long conference on the mound before Burleigh decided to carry on,” Stockton wrote.6 After Cochrane walked and was replaced by pinch-runner Eric McNair, Al Simmons connected for an opposite-field home run over the wall in right, plating a pair of runs to narrow the gap to 5-2. “It seemed the injury impaired his control,” wrote Stockton, “or at least, that was an explanation of the pass to Cochrane and the homer by Simmons.”7

More trouble loomed, as next up was the intimidating Foxx – having taken his place alongside the New York Yankees’ Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig as one of the most feared sluggers in the game. But a pair of whistling fastballs and a final spitter flew past the flailing slugger, as Stark hollered and raised his right arm three times. The strikeout sealed the contest and a two-games-to-one lead in the Series for St. Louis in a game that took 2 hours and 10 minutes in front of 32,295 spectators.

Martin had taken a break from his basestealing rampage on the afternoon but nonetheless posted two more hits, giving him seven in three games. In addition to Grimes, other hitting stars on the day for the Cardinals were Wilson (3-for-4 and an RBI) and Bottomley and Roettger (a double for each). But it was the two-hit pitching performance crafted by Grimes against the powerful Philadelphia lineup that truly stole the show, one of the finest World Series performances on the mound to that time as he gained revenge for his two defeats against Grove the previous autumn. “To be frank,” Isaminger concluded, “the A’s never looked sourer in a World’s Series.”8

Sitting amid Isaminger, McCullough, and Stockton in the crowded Shibe Park press box was the Yankees’ star Ruth, trying to cheer on the American League representative. In pulling for the A’s, the Babe had “doffed the uniform of the Yanks for the more somber garb of a journalist. Mr. Ruth pushed his broad shoulders into the throng struggling to get out of the arena of disaster yesterday. Said Mr. Ruth, ‘They gotta start hittin’ ’em.”9

SOURCES

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

NOTES

1 Ken Burns’ Baseball series, PBS Television.

2 Philadelphia Inquirer, October 6, 1931.

3 James Isaminger, “Hoover Sees Grimes Beat Athletics, 5-2, as Cards Lash Grove,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 6, 1931.

4 John McCullough, “St. Louis Ace Allows Macks Only Two Hits,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 6, 1931.

5 J. Roy Stockton, “Cards Beat Athletics, 5-2; Lead in Series,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 5, 1931.

6 Stockton.

7 Stockton.

8 Isaminger.

9 McCullough.