October 7, 1931: Wild Bill and the Wild Horse of the Osage lead Cardinals’ charge in Game 5

“There were just seven wonders of the world before this world series broke out and today there are nine,” gushed sportswriter Grantland Rice after the St. Louis Cardinals rode the exploits of Wild Bill and the Wild Horse of the Osage to a convincing 5-1 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics to take a three-games-to-two lead in the fall classic.1 Scribes lavished praise on the Redbirds’ two unexpected stars. En route to his second complete-game victory of the Series, Bill Hallahan’s “steel left arm stilled the power and might of the House of Mack,” opined S.O. Grauley of the Philadelphia Inquirer.2 Pronounced an “irrepresble madcap” and “one-man show” by Cardinals beat writer J. Roy Stockton,3 Pepper Martin continued his torrid hitting and “waved his bat dramatically to pound the Athletics into submission,” quipped James Isaminger of the Inquirer, knocking in four runs and tying a World Series record with his 12th hit.4

Meeting for the second straight season on baseball’s biggest stage, owner-manager Connie Mack’s A’s “had been expected to trample over these red-breasted Cardinals with ease,” observed John Drebinger of the New York Times.5 However, the A’s (107-45) thunderous bats went silent after a victory in Game One; the team collected just 15 hits and five runs in the next three contests, endangering their quest for a third straight title and their claim to one of the greatest dynasties in baseball history, Lacking the big names and slugging stars of their opponents, Cardinals skipper Gabby Street’s rough-and-tumble lot (101-53) relied on speed and defense, and no one exemplified that better than Pepper Martin, described by sportswriter John M. McCullough as a “leather-faced, grinning, steel-muscled, fast-as-light hero” and a “swashbuckling pirate in dirt-grimed pants.”6 The 27-year-old from Osage County, Oklahoma, in his first full season in the big leagues, displaced five-year starter Taylor Douthit in center field and sparked the club with his energized play. His feats thus far in the Series cast him into the national spotlight. He scored the only two runs and swiped two bags in the Cardinals shutout in Game Two; scored two more in another victory in Game Three; and after four games had 9 hits in 14 at-bats.

The A’s pitching staff, featuring 31-game winner Lefty Grove and two other 20-game winners, George Earnshaw and Rube Walberg, was the envy of baseball; however, the Cardinals’ unheralded staff produced a slightly lower team ERA (3.45 to 3.47), but without the headline-grabbing names. Its ace was 28-year-old Hallahan, a pugnosed hard thrower, whose moniker derived from his control problems. In his second full season as a starter, Wild Bill tied for the NL lead with 19 wins, but also paced the circuit in both strikeouts and walks for the second straight season. The A’s were well acquainted with the Binghamton, New York, native. In three starts against them in the World Series in the last two seasons, Hallahan had blanked them twice in St. Louis, including a sparkling three-hitter five days earlier; but he had been pummeled in two ineffective frames in the Game Six clincher in ’30 in the City of Brotherly Love.

On a warm, 80-degree Wednesday afternoon following a late-morning thunderstorm, Shibe Park was filled to capacity, with 32,295 spectators expecting to see Walberg on the mound for the home team after Grove and Earnshaw had started the first four contests. But the Tall Tactician made one of his “copyrighted pitching upsets,” noted Isaminger, and surprisingly sent Waite Hoyt to the mound.7 A one-time star with the New York Yankees, who had excelled in the World Series, posting a 6-3 slate and a minuscule 1.62 ERA in 77⅔ innings, Hoyt’s glory days were well behind him. Mack acquired him in a midseason waiver transaction from the Detroit Tigers, after which he produced a 10-5 slate, pushing his career record to 189-131.

The Cardinals came out swinging. Sparky Adams led off with a shot down the left-field line. It “would have been a double for a man with sound limbs,” opined Stockton, but Adams, suffering from a badly sprained ankle, stopped at first and was replaced by pinch-runner Andy High.8 Two batters later, NL MVP Frankie Frisch slashed a single to center field and raced to second when Mule Haas made an ill-advised throw to nab High at third. Street’s strategy to move Martin from his customary sixth spot to cleanup paid immediate dividends as Pepper sent a fly to left field to drive in High.

The Cardinals squandered leadoff hits in the second and fourth. In the latter, Martin beat out a drag bunt to first and moved to third on Jim Bottomley’s one-out hit. Wilson followed with a screeching liner right at second baseman Max Bishop, who doubled Sunny Jim off first.

In a tense pitchers’ duel, the Redbirds broke through in the sixth when Frisch hit a bullet that ricocheted off third baseman Jimmy Dykes’ outstretched glove, according to Stockton, and rolled down the foul line as Frisch pulled into second.9 Martin, who hit seven home runs and drove in 75 runs in ’31, followed with a prodigious two-run blast into the upper deck of the left-field stands.

The Cardinals’ three-run lead looked secure the way Hallahan “silenced the big guns” in the A’s lineup, wrote Stockton.10 Through six innings, Wild Bill had yielded just two hits, both to Al “Bucketfoot” Simmons, who captured his second straight AL batting crown (.390). His first safely was a prodigious blast off the scoreboard to lead off the second. Two batters later Bing Miller hit a high bounder to shortstop Charley Gelbert, who fired to first for an easy out. Attempting to catch the Redbirds napping and kick-start the A’s moribund offense, Simmons rounded third at full speed, but Bottomley alertly threw home to erase Al in an inning-ending twin killing at the plate. Though Sunny Jim had struggled at the plate thus far in the series (2-for-14), he atoned with his defensive prowess, which he exhibited again in the fifth. Simmons’s second hit caromed off Hallahan’s leg into left field and Jimmie Foxx walked. Bottomley then made successive plays at least 180 feet apart, lauded Rice, by catching Miller’s bunt popup and then racing into foul territory to snare Dykes’ fly, potentially saving a run in a 1-0 game.11

It was a different story in the last three frames as the A’s chipped at Hallahan for seven hits, yet failed to connect in the clutch. With one out in the seventh, Simmons notched his third hit, which was followed by Foxx’s smash off Hallahan, deflecting just out of Frisch’s reach. Miller hit a looping grounder to High at third base. “Simmons could have been thrown out at the plate,” opined Stockton, but High tried for an inning-ending double play.12 His throw to Frisch forced Foxx, but the relay throw to first was late, and the A’s had finally scored a run. Dykes followed with a single off High’s glove to bring the potential go-ahead run to the plate, but Dib Williams popped up.

The Cardinals answered in the eighth against Rube Walberg, the anticipated starter for the game, now in his second inning of relief of Hoyt. George Watkins walked with one out, stole second base, and then scored on Martin’s third hit and fourth RBI of the game, making it 4-1. It was also Martin’s record-tying 12th hit of the World Series, equaling the mark of Buck Herzog (1912) and Shoeless Joe Jackson (1919), both in eight-game Series, and Sam Rice (1925).

Hallahan stopped another A’s surge in the eighth that began with two successive scratch hits with two outs. He had no play on Jimmy Moore’s high bounder near the plate; Mickey Cochrane followed with a tricky grounder, which, according to Stockton, bounced off Bottomley’s glove.13 Hallahan’s tormenter, representing the tying run, came to the plate, but Simmons grounded softly for a force at third, crushing the A’s hopes.

A relentless, scrappy team, the Cardinals bunched together three singles, resulting in another run in the ninth off knuckleballer Eddie Rommel for a 5-1 lead.

Wild Bill was back on the mound in the ninth, just three outs away from victory in the pivotal fifth game of a tied series. Foxx, who had belted 30 home runs (the third of 12 consecutive years he reached that plateau), surprised everyone by bunting. Catcher Jimmie Wilson, who, opined sportswriter Herman Wecke of the Post-Dispatch, had clearly “outplayed” counterpart Cochrane in the Series thus far,14 lost track of the ball, apparently thinking that it had bounced over his head.15 Following two groundball force outs, Williams hit a short blooper to center, just out of Martin’s reach. Hallahan fanned pinch-hitter Joe Boley to end the game in 1 hour and 56 minutes.

Hallahan threw 124 pitches (36 balls) to fashion his second complete-game victory in the Series, while fanning four and walking one.16 The star of the show, however, was Martin, the 5-foot-8 power coil and catalyst, who had thoroughly confounded A’s pitchers and rocketed to national stardom and catapulted the Redbirds to the precipice of a title. Widely anticipated to capture their third straight championship, the A’s lost in a “startling turn of events,” submitted Drebinger, as the Series moved to St. Louis.17

SOURCES

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

“The Game, Play-by-Play,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 7, 1931: 1B.

NOTES

1 Grantland Rice, “Pepper Martin’s Baseball Magic Makes A’s Dizzy,” (Minneapolis) Star Tribune, October 8, 1931: 1.

2 S.O. Grauley, “‘Pepper’ – Red Hot, ‘Wild Bill’ – Cool, Macks – Luke Warm,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 8, 1931: 18.

3 J. Roy Stockton, “‘Pepper’ Martin, World Series Sensation, Tells How He Does It,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 8, 1931: 1B.

4 James C. Isaminger, “Hallahan on Hill, Martin With Ash, Too Much For A’s,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 8, 1931: 1.

5 John Drebinger, “34,000 See Cardinals Defeat Athletics in Fifth Game of World’s Series,” New York Times, October 8, 1931: 32.

6 John M. McCullough, “A’s Defeated, 5-1, By Pepper Martin as Cards Get 5th,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 8, 1931: 1.

7 Isaminger.

8 J. Roy Stockton, “Hallahan Victor Over the Athletics for Second Time; Simmons Gets Team’s Score,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 7, 1931: 18.

9 J. Roy Stockton, “Hallahan Victor Over the Athletics for Second Time.”

10 J. Roy Stockton, “Hallahan Victor Over the Athletics for Second Time.”

11 Rice.

12 J. Roy Stockton, “Hallahan Victor Over the Athletics for Second Time.”

13 J. Roy Stockton, “Hallahan Victor Over the Athletics for Second Time.”

14 Herman Wecke, “Earnshaw Likely to be Mack’s Pitcher; High to Play Third,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 8, 1931: 1B.

15 J. Roy Stockton, “Hallahan Victor Over the Athletics for Second Time.”

16 “Pitched Balls,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 10, 1931: 18.

17 Drebinger.