September 4, 1927: Waner brothers both hit ‘bouncing’ home runs in Pirates’ win over Reds

Babe Ruth was well on his way to hitting his historic 60 home runs in 19271 when Paul and Lloyd Waner became the first brothers to homer in the same game. Unlike Ruth’s trademark towering shots over the fence, the Waners’ home runs were the “cheap” kind – they bounced over the left-field fence in a unique configuration at Cincinnati’s Redland Field.2 What is now a ground-rule double was considered a home run at the time.3

The Waners were early in their careers with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1927. Twenty-four-year-old Paul was in his second season in right field, while his brother Lloyd, 21, made his major-league debut on April 12 and replaced injured veteran Kiki Cuyler as the center fielder in late May.4 Both brothers were already accomplished hitters. Paul batted .336 in his 1926 rookie season and led the National and American Leagues with 22 triples. Through September 3 in 1927, he was slashing .388/.440/.577 with 203 hits and was tied with the New York Yankees’ Earle Combs with 18 triples. Lloyd was batting .340/.388/.391 with 174 hits.

The brothers and their teammates Pie Traynor, Clyde Barnhart, Joe Harris, and George Grantham had been instrumental in the Pirates’ rally from a six-game deficit to the NL-leading Chicago Cubs on August 16. A six-game winning streak put Pittsburgh ahead of the Cubs and the New York Giants by two games on September 3.

The Pirates’ game on September 4 against the Cincinnati Reds at Redland Field was important to maintaining their lead. The Reds, under fourth-year manager Jack Hendricks, were a distant fifth-place team, 16½ games behind the Pirates. Hendricks named 12-year veteran right-hander Dolf Luque his starter, while first-year Pirates manager Donie Bush countered with 33-year-old righty Vic Aldridge, who had pitched two complete-game victories for the Pirates in the 1925 World Series against the Washington Senators.

The Sunday afternoon game attracted a crowd of 16,000. It was the Reds’ sixth-largest home crowd at that point in the season. With Sunday baseball banned in Pennsylvania, the Pirates were on their fifth one-game Sunday road-trip “series” of 1927.5

Lloyd Waner batted in the leadoff position for Pittsburgh. Paul hit third. Short in stature (Paul 5-feet-8 and Lloyd 5-feet-9), both batted left-handed. The brothers had combined for 12 hits in the past two games, both wins over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Against the Reds, the Pirates scored the first two runs of the game in the top of the second. Traynor led off with a double and went to third when Grantham reached first on a fielding error by first baseman George Kelly. Harris followed with a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Traynor. Johnny Gooch singled to score Grantham before Luque got out of the inning with a groundball double play.

The Pirates increased their lead to 3-0 in the fourth. Grantham got a single that bounced off first baseman Kelly’s leg. The Pittsburgh second baseman was erased at second on a force out by Harris, but Gooch followed with a double that scored Harris from first base.

The Reds tagged Aldridge with two runs in the bottom of the fourth, when Hughie Critz’s double scored Kelly, who had walked, and Horace “Hod” Ford, who had singled.

With the Pirates leading 3-2 in the top of the fifth, Lloyd Waner led off by hitting the ball off the handle of his bat, slicing it to the opposite field. It landed barely inside the left-field foul line and bounced over the fence.

The Reds modified Redland Field for the 1927 season by adding field-level box seats in left field.6 A small fence separated the new field boxes from the field. Balls clearing the fence on one side of a stake were ruled two-base hits. The other side of the stake was considered a home run.

Lloyd’s ball cleared this fence on the home-run side, just beyond a stake 250 feet from home plate.7 Lloyd had stopped at second base, unsure of the ruling, before being waved around the bases by an umpire.8 It was his second home run of the season.

After Barnhart grounded out, Paul Waner hit a ball to a similar spot as his brother’s, except a few feet deeper, for his ninth home run, making the score 5-2.9 A Cincinnati Post sportswriter called the Waners’ home runs “freak, flukey cheap” and “nothing over which they can brag about.”10 In any case, the Waners are credited with being the first brothers to homer in the same National or American League game.11

The Reds countered with two unearned runs in the bottom half of the inning. Luque, who had batted .346 in 1926, led off with a single. After Chuck Dressen walked, Ethan Allen flied out to deep left-center field on Lloyd Waner’s leaping catch of the ball, which was held up by a strong wind. On the play, Luque ended up scoring on a throwing error by shortstop Glenn Wright, while Dressen advanced to third. A weak groundball to shortstop by Rube Bressler scored Dressen.

In the sixth, Aldridge showed he could handle the bat, too, when his single scored Gooch, who hit a double past Kelly. Following Barnhart’s single, Paul Waner singled Aldrich home to make the score 7-4. Ray Kolp relieved Luque to finish the inning.

The Pirates added their final run against Kolp in the seventh. Grantham dribbled a ball down the third-base line that third baseman Dressen didn’t field, thinking it would roll foul. Harris hit a single that right fielder Curt Walker nearly caught at his feet12 as Grantham advanced to third base. Gooch’s fly ball scored Grantham.

Aldridge had retired 10 straight batters after the fifth inning, but ran into trouble in the ninth. He loaded the bases on two singles and a walk. With two outs, Allen hit a groundball to third for an unassisted out, ending the game. The Pirates claimed their seventh consecutive win, 8-4, and retained their two-game lead over the Giants.

Aldridge collected his 11th victory, while giving up nine hits and four walks. Only two of the Reds’ runs were earned. Aldridge lasted only one more major-league season, with the Giants, in 1928.

Luque, the first Cuban-born pitcher in the National or American League, suffered his 10th loss on 12 hits and two walks in 5⅔ innings. From 1920 to 1928, Luque’s 2.98 ERA was the lowest in the NL of pitchers with a minimum of 300 innings. He pitched until 1935, retiring at age 44 with 194 career wins.

Every Pirates player recorded at least one hit, except Wright. Gooch smacked three hits, including two doubles, and drove in three runs. The Waners accounted for four of the Pirates’ 15 hits.

The Pirates went on an 11-game winning streak September 9-17, led by their pitching staff, which allowed only 16 runs. They won the NL pennant, topping the Cardinals by 1½ games, but were swept by the Yankees in the World Series, their last until 1960, when they defeated the Yankees in seven games.

The Waners arguably had the best season of any brother combo in major-league history. Paul was voted the NL MVP, based on his league-leading statistics for hits (237), triples (18), batting average (.380), RBIs (131), and total bases (342). Lloyd led the league in runs scored (133) and finished third in batting average (.355) and second in hits (223).

The Waners also homered in the same game on June 9, 1929, and September 15, 1938 (hit back-to-back). The feat wasn’t accomplished again by brother teammates until May 15, 1961, when Felipe and Matty Alou homered for the San Francisco Giants.13

The Waner brothers are inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. As of 2024, they were the only brothers to have bronze plaques in Cooperstown as players.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Jim Sweetman 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.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN192709040.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1927/B09040CIN1927.htm

Photo: Paul Waner, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 As of September 4, Ruth had hit 44 home runs. He put on a splurge during his last 26 games, hitting 16 more home runs to establish the mark that stood for 34 years. Ruth hit more home runs than 12 entire American or National League teams in 1927, including the Pirates, who hit 54.

2 Redland Field was renamed Crosley Field in 1934.

3 Batted balls that bounced over the fence were considered home runs until 1931.

4 Cuyler tore ankle ligaments sliding into third on May 28. He missed 17 games, but Lloyd Waner stayed in center after his return. See Gregory H. Wolf, “Kiki Cuyler,” SABR BioProject, accessed August 23, 2024.

5 The Pirates had two one-game stops in Cincinnati; their previous visit had been July 3. They also had Sunday games in Chicago on May 1 and May 29 and a game against the Dodgers in Brooklyn on June 12.

6 “Metamorphosed Redland Field Ready for First ‘Play Ball,’’’ Cincinnati Post, April 12, 1927: 2.

7 Tom Swope, “Pirates Not Playing Convincing Ball,” Cincinnati Post, September 5, 1927: 5.

8 Edward Balinger, “Pirates Pound Luque, Kolp Hard in Easy Triumph, 8-4,” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, September 5, 1927: 12.

9 Swope, “Pirates Not Playing Convincing Ball.”

10 Tom Swope, “This Is Station Swope Broadcasting,” Cincinnati Post, September 5, 1927: 5.

11 “Brothers Homering in Same Game,” Retrosheet. https://www.retrosheet.org/Research/VincentD/Brothers%20HR%20in%20Same%20Game.pdf. Accessed July 3, 2024.

12 Tom Swope, “Pirates Not Playing Convincing Ball.”

13 “Brothers Homering in Same Game.”