September 25, 1934: Ferrell brothers propel Red Sox past Senators

On September 25, 1934, the Boston Red Sox – appearing at Fenway Park for the first time since August 28 – hosted the Washington Senators in a doubleheader. While away, Boston had visited all seven American League rivals, compiling an 8-13 record (with one tie). Despite the losing road trip, by the time the Red Sox returned for their final homestand of the season they had clinched fourth place;1 it was the franchise’s highest finish since 1918, when Boston was crowned World Series champions.

Tom Yawkey had purchased the Red Sox in February 1933, right after the franchise’s dismal 43-111 season of 1932. He immediately brought in Eddie Collins – whose stellar playing career had spanned both the Deadball Era and the home-run explosion of the 1920s – to run baseball operations, and obtained third baseman Bill Werber and catcher Rick Ferrell; those moves edged Boston into seventh place in 1933.

Before the 1934 season Yawkey had spent $125,000 on Lefty Grove,2 and invested $1.25 million to improve Fenway Park.3 The seating capacity was increased to 37,500, shabby wooden bleachers became concrete, the 37-foot-tall left-field wall later dubbed the Green Monster was erected, and Fenway Park became the jewel it remains.4

Yawkey again opened his wallet during the season to obtain 26-year-old Wes Ferrell when Grove’s health was uncertain. Right-handed Wes joined brother Rick on the Red Sox in a trade with Cleveland that involved players and cash.

From 1929 to 1932 Wes posted 21, 25, 22, and 23 wins for Cleveland, but in 1933 an injured arm slowed his fastball, and dimmed his future, limiting him to an 11-12 mark. Over the winter of 1933-34 the Indians unsuccessfully offered Wes in trade to several teams. Ferrell remained on Cleveland’s roster when the 1934 season began, but demanded a better contract, and refused to report. The stalemate between Ferrell and Cleveland continued until Boston stepped in.

During spring training Rick Ferrell – 28 months older than his brother – arranged for Wes to throw to Red Sox hitters when Boston played an exhibition in Greensboro, North Carolina.5 Wes demonstrated to Boston manager Bucky Harris that he “was getting into trim,”6 but nothing further came of it until Grove– purchased in the offseason from the Philadelphia Athletics to be Boston’s pitching ace – could not shake off an arm problem that had begun in March.7

Negotiations with Cleveland began in mid-May,8 and Collins, Boston’s business manager, told reporters, “It took some time to come to an understanding.”9 On May 25 Boston sent pitcher Bob Weiland, outfielder Bob Seeds, and $25,000 to Cleveland in exchange for Ferrell, and outfielder Dick Porter. Both teams got what they wanted: Cleveland subtracted an unhappy pitcher, and added cash to its Depression Era coffers; the Red Sox obtained a top-of-the-rotation pitcher to stand in for Grove, who at the time of the trade had made only two starts.10

Wes Ferrell was worth the price. He entered the first game of the September 25 doubleheader – his final start of the season – with a 13-5 record and a 3.77 ERA. Against the Senators, Boston featured Wes on the mound, and Rick behind home plate; it was as if they were still children, playing ball on their North Carolina farm. James C. O’Leary of the Boston Globe remarked, “Those Ferrell brothers make a fine battery, which has helped the Red Sox win many a game.”11

Washington opposed Ferrell with 27-year-old left-hander Bobby Burke (8-7). Burke, in his seventh season with the Senators, had thrown a no-hitter against Boston in 1931 at Griffith Stadium.12 Throughout Burke’s tenure with Washington, he had primarily worked from the bullpen; he was making the 74th start in his 213th career game. Beginning on August 17, however, Burke had been used strictly as a starter, posting a 4-1 record in his six turns on the mound.

Washington and Boston both placed runners on base in the first inning, but neither team scored. Washington’s Buddy Myer singled sharply to left with one out, and remained there while Heinie Manush flied to right and Fred Sington flied to center. Boston rookie Al Niemiec, who had joined the Red Sox on September 19 after hitting .301 for the American Association’s Kansas City Blues, walked to lead off the bottom of the inning; he reached second on a groundout, and went no farther.

In the second inning, Wes Ferrell coaxed three consecutive fly-ball outs, thereby doubling the duration of his most recent start, when he had pitched a scoreless first inning, but was ejected for disputing a strike call while batting in the second. Rick Ferrell had come to his brother’s defense, and he too was ejected.13

Ferrell and Burke dominated throughout the contest. Ferrell was tagged for five scattered singles, and did not issue a walk. He never allowed more than one baserunner in any inning; only once did a Washington runner reach second base.

Burke was nearly as good; he did not surrender a hit until the fourth – a one-out single up the middle by Dusty Cooke. Boston could not capitalize on Cooke’s hit; rookie Skinny Graham (a native of Somerville, just outside Boston), struck out, and Cooke was doubled up at second by catcher Luke Sewell while attempting to steal.

Burke allowed four hits through eight innings, and was in peril just once. With one out in the fifth, Ed Morgan singled and Lyn Lary doubled, placing runners at second and third. Wes Ferrell – who hit .280 with 38 home runs over his 15-year career – struck out, and Niemiec grounded to shortstop Ossie Bluege, ending the threat.

Burke benefited from alert defense in the sixth. Boston’s Werber, the 1934 AL stolen-base champ with 40, shot a ball to center field, and tested rookie outfielder Jake Powell’s arm by racing for second. Powell, in his fifth game since joining the Senators from Albany (New York) of the International League, scooped the ball, fired it to Bluege covering the bag, and Werber was tagged out.

The game remained scoreless entering the ninth. Washington’s Manush singled with one out. Sington tapped a ball right back to Ferrell; he fired to Niemiec at second to force Manush, then Niemiec relayed the ball to Morgan at first to complete a double play.

Boston broke through in the bottom of the inning. Cooke started things with a double, and when Burke booted Graham’s attempted sacrifice, Boston had runners perched at the corners. With no one out, Rick Ferrell singled to center, sending Cooke across home plate with the game’s only run and handing his brother a 1-0 win.

Wes Ferrell notched his staff-leading third shutout, and finished the season at 14-5. He led the Red Sox in wins despite missing Boston’s first 36 games.

Whenever a baseball discussion turns to great hitting pitchers, Ferrell is sure to be mentioned. His 38 career home runs top all pitchers, and Ferrell also holds the single-season home-run record for pitchers (9). He often pinch-hit, and in 1935 Ferrell hit .347 in 150 at-bats.

As this game illustrates, Ferrell was a formidable pitcher as well as a great hitter. Six times he won 20 or more games, and his won-lost mark of 193-128 gives him a .601 winning percentage over his major-league career.

The contest was also Burke’s final game of 1934. The hard-luck loss dropped his record to 8-8, with a 3.21 earned-run average – the lowest ERA of his career. While in the starting rotation he had pitched 63 innings, allowing 44 hits, and limiting foes to 10 earned runs. The Washington Evening Star called Burke the Senators’ “best mound bet” over the season’s final six weeks.14

Boston grabbed the nightcap, 9-3. Lary and Graham each stroked three hits, and Lary drove in three runs. The two wins over Washington evened Boston’s record at 75-75. In a scheduling quirk, the Senators – the reigning 1933 AL pennant winners – left town, leaving the Red Sox with three offdays before concluding the season against Philadelphia with a single game on Saturday and two games on Sunday.

Saturday’s game was called off 30 minutes before its scheduled start because of rain, and it was not rescheduled.15 In Sunday’s opener the Red Sox snatched their fourth straight win before losing the season finale, 4-2, ending the season at 76-76. Wins had increased by 13 from 1933, and fans noticed; attendance more than doubled to 610,640.16

Boston trailed AL champion Detroit by 24 games; nevertheless, the first-division finish earned the players a small share of 1934 World Series proceeds.17 With an owner willing to invest in the team – in the depths of the Depression – Red Sox players and fans had reason to hope for continued success.

Acknowledgments

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

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. The author also relied on game coverage in the Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, and Washington Evening Star, and SABR BioProject biographies for several players involved in the game.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1934/B09251BOS1934.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS193409251.shtml

Notes

1 Boston and the fifth-place Philadelphia Athletics each had five games remaining, including three against each other. If Boston lost all five, its final record would be 73-80, .4771; if Philadelphia won all five, its final record would be 72-79, .4768.

2 Jim Kaplan, Lefty Grove: American Original (Cleveland: SABR, 2000), 167.

3 Kaplan, 175.

4 Kaplan, 175.

5 Melville E. Webb Jr., “Wesley Ferrell to Pitch for Red Sox,” Boston Globe, May 26, 1934: 1.

6 Webb.

7 Kaplan, 179.

8 Webb.

9 Webb.

10 Grove did not fully recover in 1934, ending the season with an 8-8 record and a 6.25 ERA, by far the worst ERA of his Hall of Fame career.

11 James C. O’Leary, “Red Sox Are Secure in First Division,” Boston Globe, September 26, 1934: 21.

12 It was the last no-hitter pitched in Washington until Jordan Zimmermann of the Washington Nationals against the Miami Marlins on September 28, 2014.

13 The game took place September 18 in St. Louis against the Browns. St. Louis’s Bobo Newsom pitched nine no-hit innings in that game but allowed an unearned run in the ninth, then a hit and the go-ahead run in the 10th.

14 “Burke, Much Ridden, Turns Out to be Best of Griff Hurlers,” Washington Evening Star, September 26, 1934: 12.

15 “A’s Tilt Rained Out; Bargain Bill Today,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 30, 1934: 46.

16 Kaplan, 195.

17 O’Leary.