May 1927: A Bizarre Month for the Cubs

In May of 1927, the Model T Ford was in its final year of production. Movies were silent, but would soon learn how to talk. Home radios were becoming so popular that supply could not keep up with demand. Calvin Coolidge was in the White House.

In a Europe that seemed far away to most Americans, ominous events were already in the mak­ing. Still a little known soap box agitator, Adolf Hitler was haranguing small gatherings in Germany, draw­ing more flies than people. Inside the dark labyrinths of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin was checkmating his hated rival, Leon Trotsky, at every move.

The month in question was hardly the most success­ful in Chicago Cubs annals—that had occurred in August of 1906, when they went 26-3. By contrast, they finished 15-10 in May of ’27, good but hardly earth-shattering. Yet, the latter month was easily the most unusual in the team’s history. It was weird, excit­ing, historic, and at times hilarious. A brief review of the events that transpired will explain why.

On May 1, a crowd of 33,000 squeezed into Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs draw swords with the Pirates. In the seventh inning, Chuck Tolson, a second-string utility man, connected off Ray Kramer for the first pinch-hit grand slam home run in Cub history. Pittsburgh won the game, however, 7-6.

After a rainout the following day, the Cubs took the Reds 4-3 on May 3 and 13-9 the next afternoon. The May 4 contest witnessed an eight-run Cub uprising in the third inning, highlighted by right fielder Earl Webb’s double and three-run homer. Four years later, as a member of the Red Sox, Webb would set the major league record for doubles in one season with 67. There was no game May 5, as the Cubs took a train to New York for a series with the Giants. What was supposed to be a four-game set ended up as two, thanks to rain on May 6 and 9. In between cloud­ bursts, the Cubs beat the Giants, 6-4, after which New York edged Chicago, 5-4, in contests that saw nothing out of the ordinary.

By May 10, Chicago’s North Side heroes were in Philadelphia for another four-game series. The Cubs took the first match, 6-3, on four baggers by Riggs Stephenson, Hack Wilson, and Gabby Hartnett. Hardly intimidated, the Phillies came back to kick the Cubs, 5-2, the next day.

On May 12, a drunken fan was ejected from the staid Baker Bowl bleachers while Phillies catcher Jimmy Wilson was tossed from the game for protesting a close safe call at home plate. The Cubs won, 4-1, but the undaunted Philadelphians bounced back to win by the same score on the 13th.

Saturday, May 14, saw the Cubs in Boston to play the hapless Braves. It would turn out to be a long day, as after 17 innings the score was knotted up at two apiece. Finally, in the top of the 18th, Chicago broke loose for five runs, going on to win,7-2. Cub starter Guy Bush went the distance for a well-earned victory. Charlie Robertson, who five years earlier had pitched a perfect game for the Chicago White Sox, hurled the first 17½ innings for the Braves.

Due to Boston’s Sunday blue laws, no baseball was performed the following day, giving both teams a much needed rest. On Monday, Mother Nature rather than the Boston Brahmins intervened, awarding them another day of recuperation.

But baseball is a game of unbelievable oddities, and never was this more evident than on May 17. This time, the Braves Field fans—such as they were, after a while—sat through 22 innings, only to see their favorites fall, 4-3, when Cub first baseman Charlie Grimm drove home Hack Wilson in the top of the last frame for the eventual winning run. Despite the mod­est score, Chicago had collected 20 hits during the game while Boston amassed 15. Loser Bob Smith, later a Cub, pitched the entire game for Beantown while winner Bob Osborn threw the last 14 for Al Capone’s turf. This was the longest game, inning-wise, in Cub history, yet the clock time was “only” four hours and 13 minutes. Today, many a nine-inning contest will take almost as long. Moreover, it had taken Chicago and Boston a whole 40 innings to play two games. This remains the record for most innings played by the same teams in two successive matches.

After the Boston marathons, the Cubs were on their way to Brooklyn, always an adventure. On May 18, the Cubs took the Dodgers, or Robins as they were then more commonly called, 7-4. This was followed by­ you guessed it—another rainout.

By the time the showers ceased on May 20, the natives of Ebbets Field were restless as they heaved several pop bottles and one whiskey bottle at plate umpire Peter McLaughlin over one of his calls. Ignoring the soda containers, McLaughlin picked up the whiskey bottle but discarded it when he discov­ered that it was empty. In the meantime, the Cubs out­ lasted the Robins, 7-5, despite two home runs by Brooklyn idol/clown Floyd “Babe” Herman, a fun-lov­ing character whose personality was a cross between that of Babe Ruth and Dizzy Dean.

On May 21, Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris before a crowd that was so frenzied he was not sure whether he was being welcomed or lynched. Back in Brooklyn the locals had lost the morning game of a doubleheader, 6-4, but held a 6-2 lead over the Cubs in game two as the top of the ninth began. It looked as if the Dodgers would at last salvage a game.

Darkness was already encroaching the ballpark as bleacherites poured onto the field, angry at plate ump Frank Wilson for not calling the game. But Wilson ignored them, ordering that the contest be continued. Batting for catcher Mike Gonzales, Cub flychaser Cliff Heathcote led off with a walk off Dodger starter Bill Doak. Floyd Scott then pinch hit for third baseman Clyde Beck, beating out an infield hit. Up came the third consecutive Chicago pinch-hitter, Chuck Tolson, in place of pitcher Sheriff Blake. Tolson doubled down the right-field line, and Heathcote and Scott crossed the plate to make it 6-4.

At that point, Dodger manager Wilbert Robinson yanked Doak and replaced him with Rube Ehrhardt. With Woody English pinch-running for pinch-hitter Tolson, Earl “Sparky” Adams grounded to Robin third baseman Johnny Butler for the first out. Then Jimmy Cooney singled and Earl Webb walked, filling the bases for the most dreaded man in the Cub lineup, Hack Wilson. Normally a slow runner, Wilson this time legged out a bases-clearing triple to give his teammates a 7-6 lead.

When Riggs Stephenson walked, Jumbo Elliott replaced the befuddled Ehrhardt on the mound. Proving no more effective than his predecessor, Elliott walked Charlie Grimm to fill the bags once more. Gabby Hartnett then batted for previous pinch-hitter Heathcote, running out an infield single as Wilson scored for an 8-6 margin. Floyd Scott, making his sec­ond pinch appearance of the inning, sent the ball bouncing into the left-field stands for a ground-rule double. Stephenson and Grimm were allowed to score, but Hartnett was held at third as the Bruins expanded their lead to 10-6.

Jumbo Elliott was then sent to the dugout as Guy Cantrell came in to pitch. Howie Freigau, the fifth and final Cub pinch-hitter of the inning, drew a walk to fill the bases again. This led to Cantrell’s immediate replacement by Norman Plitt, the fifth Brooklyn pitcher of this dream that had become a nightmare. Plitt promptly gave Sparky Adams a base on balls, forcing Hartnett home to put the Cubs further ahead, 11-6. Mercifully, Jimmy Cooney hit into a double play to end the carnage. In collecting four pinch hits and two pinch walks in the same inning, the Cubs had set a unique record that stands to this day.

Pitching in relief, Charlie Root put down the humil­iated Robins in order, turning defeat into victory for Sheriff Blake. In time-honored Flatbush tradition, Dodger coach Otto Miller led an angry mob of fans after umpire Wilson. The police, however, escorted him to safety.

Having made bums out of the Dodgers in four straight, the Cubs met their match in Cincinnati when the Reds clipped them, 8-4, during a one-day stand on May 22. The following afternoon was an off day as the Cubs headed back to Chicago for a two-game set with the defending world champion Cardinals.

But on the 24th, the Cubs sat through their sixth rainout of the month (whether or not this is a record is for a more ambitious researcher than the pres­ent one to determine), necessitating a twin bill the following day. Former Cub Grover Alexander bested his ex-teammates, 8-5, in the opener, but Chicago came back to take the nightcap, 8-4. In game one, Earl Webb hit an inside-the-park home run—getting rare since the advent of the lively ball seven years earlier­—in a losing cause.

The Reds were in town on May 26 as the Cubs won their easiest game of the month. Buoyed by a six-run fifth, they coasted to an 11-2 laugher. The next day, they again beat Cincinnati, but this time, it took them 11 innings to do it. 

Charlie Root, who had gone the distance only 24 hours before, came on in relief to get his second victo­ry in as many days. To make it even more satisfying, Root drove in Gabby Hartnett with the winning run in a 3-2 thriller. For Charlie, it was his ninth career win over the Reds against only one loss. However, the Reds got even the following day with an 8-0 shellacking.

The morning game of the Memorial Day double­header at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field began in auspi­ciously enough. In the bottom of the fourth, the Pirates had Lloyd Waner on second base and Clyde Barnhart on first as Lloyd’s brother Paul came to bat. At shortstop for the Cubs was Jimmy Cooney.

Sunday, May 29, saw the Pirates sail into Lake Michigan to clip the Cubs, 8-5, for their 11th consecu­tive victory despite Hack Wilson’s eighth home run of the season. As soon as the game was completed, both teams packed their bags to travel to the Steel City for the remainder of the series. The reason for this was that Pennsylvania, like Massachusetts, still banned Sunday baseball at that time.

The morning game of the Memorial Day double­ header at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field began inauspi­ciously enough. In the bottom of the fourth, the Pirates had Lloyd Waner on second base and Clyde Barnhart on first as Lloyd’s brother Paul came to bat. At shortstop for the Cubs was Jimmy Cooney.

With the hit-and-run on, Cooney snagged the elder Waner’s line drive, stepped on second to double Lloyd, then tagged Barnhart coming down the line for an unassisted triple play. It was all over in seconds. The Cubs went on to win the game, 7-6, in 10 innings, snapping the Bucs’ winning streak. Not disheartened, the Pirates won the afternoon contest, 6-5, also in 10.

Cooney had become one of only ten players in his­tory (including those since) to pull off an unas­sisted triple killing. To make the story even more unbelievable, Johnny Neun of the Tigers did it against the Indians the very next day.

After that, the feat was not duplicated until July 20, 1968, when the Senators’  Ron Hansen scalped three Indians again. Cooney’s remained the last in the National League until Mickey Morandini of the Phillies tripled up the Pirates on September 20, 1992. For a touch of irony, Cooney while a member of the Cardinals in 1925 had been one of the victims of an unassisted triple play himself when Pittsburgh’s Glenn Wright had turned the trick.

As for the Cubs on May 31, they fell to Pittsburgh again, 10-9, blowing leads of 4-0, 6-1, 7-5, and 9-6. The month had ended in embarrassment.

Just eight days after his history making feat, Jimmy Cooney was traded to the Phillies for pitcher Hal Carlson. The Cubs had 20-year-old Woody English waiting in the wings for the shortstop job, so the 33-year-old Cooney was an unneeded commodity. Thanks largely to a 12-game winning streak in June, the Cubs soared into first place, a position they held as late as September 1. Unfortunately, a 12-18 log during the final month dropped them to fourth place as the Pirates copped the flag. So, who says the “September swoon” started in 1969? It was already a long-stand­ing Cub tradition.

A SABR member since 1971, ART AHRENS has co-authored five books on Cubs history with fellow SABR member Eddie Gold, and has written many articles on baseball history.