Robert Moses Grove was born to John and Emma Grove on March 6, 1900, in the bituminous-mining town of Lonaconing, Maryland. His father and older brothers preceded him into the mines, but Lefty quit after two weeks, saying, “Dad, I didn’t put that coal in here, and I hope I don’t have to take no more of her out.”

Lefty drifted into other jobs: as a “bobbin boy” working spinning spools to make silk thread, as an apprentice glass blower and needle etcher in a glass factory, and as a railroad worker laying rails and driving spikes. In his spare time, he played a kind of baseball using cork stoppers in wool socks wrapped in black tape, and fence pickets when bats weren’t available. He did not play genuine baseball until 17, nor genuinely organized baseball until 19, when Dick Stakem, proprietor of a general store in nearby Midland, began using him in town games on a field sandwiched between a forest and train tracks. “Bobby never pitched a game [for Midland] until Memorial Day, 1919,” Stakem told the Philadelphia Bulletin’s John J. Nolan. “He pitched a seven-inning game which was ended by rain. He fanned 15 batters, walked two men, hit two, and made a wild pitch.

“Here’s the scorebook to prove it.

“Bob’s best game was a postseason series against [the Baltimore & Ohio railroad team in] Cumberland, the big team around here…. We went down there with Bobby and he held them hitless, fanned 18 batters, and the only man to reach first eventually got around to third. The reason he got there was because Bobby told me he let him steal second and third as he was so sure he could fan the next batters and the runner wouldn’t steal home. The score was 1 to 0, the other pitcher allowing just one hit.”

The B & O manager supposedly wanted Grove, and the next year Bob was cleaning cylinder heads of steam engines for B & O in Cumberland, Maryland. Before he could put in a baseball season there, a local garage manager named Bill Louden, who managed the Martinsburg, West Virginia, team of the Class D Blue Ridge League, offered him a princely $125 a month, a good $50 more than his father and brothers were making. With his parents’ blessing, Lefty took a 30-day leave from his job, signed a contract on May 5, got a roundtrip rail pass from his master mechanic and was driven across the mountains in a large car supplied by the Midland team. While Grove was going 3-3, with 60 strikeouts in 59 innings, word reached Jack Dunn, owner of the International League (Double-A) Baltimore Orioles. Dunn sent his son Jack Jr. to watch Grove. As it happened, the Martinsburg team had started the season on the road because it lacked a fence around the home field. Dunn bought Grove for a price in the $3,000-$3,500 range that satisfied Louden. “I was the only player,” Grove said later, “ever traded for a fence.”

According to some accounts, the Orioles signed Grove just ahead of overtures from the Giants, Dodgers, and Tigers. It will forever be debated how many major-league games Grove would have won if he hadn’t spent five seasons with the Orioles. We’ll never know the answer, but we do know that Grove enjoyed playing for the Orioles. Starting at $175 a month, he won his debut, 9-3, over Jersey City, prompting owner Dunn to say he wouldn’t sell Lefty for $10,000. In 1920-24, Grove was 108-36 and struck out 1,108 batters for a minor-league record, though he was often wild and went 3-8 in postseason play. By his last season in Baltimore, however, Grove was certainly pitching like a major leaguer. He went 26-6 despite missing six weeks with a wrist injury, struck out 231 batters in 236 innings and reduced his walks from 186 to 108. Moreover, Grove routinely struck out between 10 and 14 major leaguers in exhibition games (they may have been reluctant to dig in against him), told Babe Ruth “I’m not afraid of you,” and made good his boast by whiffing the Bambino in nine of 11 exhibition at-bats.

With no minor league draft in the 1920s, Dunn could wait for the best offer before selling Grove to the majors. By the 1924-25 offseason, he couldn’t resist. The Cubs and Dodgers offered $100,000, according to the Philadelphia Evening Ledger, but Dunn sold Grove to an old friend, Philadelphia owner/manager Connie Mack, for $100,600. The extra $600 supposedly made it a higher price than the Yankees had paid the Red Sox for Babe Ruth after the 1919 season — higher if you discount notes, interest on notes and a $300,000 loan that swelled the Yankees’ cost to more than $400,000.

The much-ballyhooed sale backfired on Grove, who was called the “$100,600 Lemon” when he went 10-12 in 1925 and led the American League in both walks (131) and strikeouts (116). He was too pumped up and overthrowing as he had in the postseason with Baltimore. “Catching him was like catching bullets from a rifleman with bad aim,” the Athletics’ catcher Mickey Cochrane told sportswriter Frank Graham years later. Nonetheless, Mack stuck with him, and Grove, taciturn and sullen during the season, returned home with a mission. “Huh, so I’m the wild guy of the league?” Grove said to the Evening Bulletin’s Nolan, who had taken an 11-hour train ride from Philadelphia. “I’ll show ’em something next year. See that chalk mark on the barn door. I measured off sixty feet. I reckon it is, and at six o’clock every morning I hit the chalk mark twenty times before I quit. Then I tramp the hills hunting and cover about twenty miles a day.”

Up at 5:30 AM, asleep by 9 PM, Grove was rested and ready for spring training. Though he was only 13-13 in 1926, his ERA dropped from 4.75 to a league-best 2.51, his walks dropped from 131 to 101 and his strikeouts climbed from 116 to an AL-best 194. A victim of non-support, he was shut out four times in the season’s first two months. To Yankees manager Miller Huggins, Grove was night-and-day improved over 1925: “Now he has wide, bending curves, better control, is mentally fit, has a lot of confidence and plenty of natural ability,” Huggins said. “He mixes his speed and curves and he’s the speediest pitcher in baseball.” Huggins could afford to be generous, because Grove failed to beat the Yankees when they pulled away from the pack in September. It was a pattern that would repeat.

Grove led the league in strikeouts the next five years and won 20 or more games for the next seven. Alas, there was no catching the 1927 Yankees, and Grove lost six of his last seven decisions to them in a heartbreaking 1928. A Babe Ruth homer in a decisive September tilt especially victimized Grove. However, both he and the Philadelphia club, 2 ½ games back of the Yankees at 98-55, were poised for greatness.

In 1929, the Athletics broke through. Grove was 2-1, with one save, against the Yankees, 20-6 overall, and the A’s won the pennant. Apparently fearing the Cubs’ right-handed hitters, Mack declined to start either Grove or fellow lefty Rube Walberg in the World Series, but Grove made his mark in relief. After Howard Ehmke won the opener, 3-1, Grove replaced a struggling George Earnshaw in Game Two with two outs in the fifth, two men on base, and the A’s leading, 6-3. Grove fanned Gabby Hartnett on five pitches and finished with six strikeouts, three hits, one walk and no runs allowed over 4 1/3 innings. For some reason, Earnshaw was given the win; Grove had to enjoy the greatest long-relief save in Series history. “How can you hit the guy,” Hartnett asked, “when you can’t see him?”

In historic Game Four, when the A’s rallied from an 8-0 deficit to win, 10-8, Grove pitched the last two innings in relief. The A’s took the Series, four games to one, and Grove struck out 10 batters in 6 1/3 innings. “When danger beckoned thickest,” Heywood Broun wrote, “it was always Grove who stood towering on the mound, whipping over strikes against the luckless Chicago batters.”

Thanks to Mack, who had convinced Grove to move some of his money to a bank that wasn’t later closed down, Lefty survived the stock market crash. Indeed, he spent $5,700 to build Lefty’s Place, a Lonaconing establishment with three bowling alleys, a pool table and a counter filled with cigar cases, candy, cigarettes, and soft drinks. Terse at tributes in his honor, Grove quietly employed his brother Dewey, out of work since the glass factory burned down, and his physically challenged brother-in-law, Bob Mathews. Lefty was always more comfortable with the homefolk than city dwellers.

Grove returned to spring training in 1930 as truculent as ever. When a rookie named Doc Cramer doubled against him in an intra-squad game, Grove whacked him in the ribs the next time Cramer batted. While the first-place A’s went 102-52, Grove won the Triple Crown of pitching by leading the league in wins (28), strikeouts (209), and ERA (2.54), the latter an incredible 0.77 ahead of the next best pitcher. He also led the league with nine saves, though the stat wasn’t tabulated until years later. He was excelling in the clutch, not just rolling up big numbers. In what the Philadelphia Inquirer called “a copyrighted situation” — the A’s up 3-2, two outs, two on and Babe Ruth at the plate in the ninth — he fanned Ruth on a 2-2 pitch, hushing the crowd in Yankee Stadium on September 1.

In the World Series, the A’s faced the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals, who had batted .314. The entire NL batted .303 for 1930 season, with the Cardinals’ .314 only third best (the Cards scored the most runs/game). Only two of the six NL teams didn’t hit at least .300 and they each hit .281 for the season. Grove won the opener, 5-2, while throwing 70 strikes and just 39 balls, fanning five and allowing nine hits. After George Earnshaw, Lefty’s polar opposite (right-handed, sharper-breaking curve, slower fastball, a party boy), throttled the Cards, 6-1, in Game Two, St. Louis beat Rube Walberg, 5-0, and got by Grove, 3-1, on two unearned runs. Lefty relieved George in the eighth inning of a scoreless Game Five and won it, 2-0, on Jimmie Foxx’s two-run homer. Whereupon Earnshaw returned on one day’s rest to end the series in Game Six, 7-1. For the series, MVP Earnshaw was 2-0, with 19 strikeouts in 25 innings and a 0.72 ERA, while Grove was 2-1, with 10 strikeouts in 19 innings and a 1.42 ERA.

Grove still had not had his best year. By August 23, 1931, he was 25-2 for the season and tied for the American League record with 16 straight wins. The first-place A’s were 84-32. Their opponent: the hapless St. Louis Browns. It didn’t seem to matter that the A’s were a little nicked up. Among other things, left fielder Al Simmons was in Milwaukee being treated for a sprained, blistered and infected left ankle. A rookie named Handsome Jimmy Moore replaced him. With 20,000 sweltering fans creating an unusually large crowd at Sportsman’s Park, Grove faced Dick Coffman, who, with his 5-9 record, was nearly released three weeks earlier but had saved his job by winning three straight.

Grove and Coffman kept the game scoreless through two innings. Then came an event for which Grove would forever be remembered. After Fritz Schulte’s two-out bloop single in the third mildly annoyed Grove, Oscar (Ski) Melillo unnerved him. Melillo hit what appeared to be a routine liner to left. Partially blinded by the sun, Moore raced in, realized he had misjudged the ball, and reversed course. The shot nicked his glove and rolled to the fence, with Schulte scoring on the double.

Grove slapped his glove against his side in disgust, got out of the inning and returned to the dugout in muttering retreat. He righted himself to finish the game, a neat seven-hitter with six K’s and no walks. Unfortunately, Coffman was even better, getting his usually problematic curve over and yielding just three hits. In stark reversal of his season-long fortunes, Grove lost, 1-0, in only an hour and 25 minutes.

Moore never used the sun as an excuse. “If I’d stood still, I’d have caught it,” he told the Boston Globe’s Harold Kaese 34 years later. Grove didn’t blame Moore. Instead, he raged at the absent Simmons for a good 20 minutes. In what was probably an unprecedented display of postgame pique, Grove tried to tear off the clubhouse door, shredding the wooden partition between lockers, banged up the lockers, broke chairs and ripped of his shirt, buttons flying. “Threw everything I could get my hands on — bats, balls, shoes, gloves, benches, water buckets, whatever was handy,” he told author Donald Honig. If Grove couldn’t break one record, he might as well break another.

Quickly enough, Lefty righted himself. Responding to Yankee bench-jockeying (“kicked over any water pails lately?”) on August 29, he struck out eight of the first 10 batters he faced. By season’s end, he was 31-4; only three innings of grooving the ball in a final-day Series warmup cost him an ERA under 2.00 (he finished at 2.06). Winning his second straight Triple Crown with 175 strikeouts, he was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player. The Athletics won the pennant again, this time in a walk. At 107-45, the A’s were 13 1/2 games better than second-place New York.

With a blister on a throwing finger, Grove yielded 12 hits in the Series opener but got good fielding support and won, 6-2. “Nah, the blister didn’t hurt,” said Grove, who had to rely on curves and slowballs, “but them dinky hits they made got me mad. I started thinking my control was too good. You know I was putting them right over the plate.  

“I started thinking, and you know what happens when a lefthander gets to thinking. Well, I began to chuck up slow ones and a little curve. Every time I tossed one the Cards got ahold of it. From now on, they won’t see nuthin’ but fastball pitching.”

The Cardinals won Game Two, and a rain delay gave Grove several days to heal his blister. He still wasn’t sharp. Allowing 11 hits and four earned runs in eight innings, he lost Game Three, 5-2. Earnshaw evened the Series, but then Pepper Martin got three hits and drove in four runs, the Cardinals winning Game Five, 5-1. With the A’s on the brink of elimination, Grove won, 8-1, on five hits and one walk. In this, his last Series appearance, he was “pitching at the very peak of his form for the first time in this intersectional warfare,” wrote the AP’s Alan Gould. Grove was poised for another outing, warming up on the sidelines, when a ninth-inning A’s rally fell short in Game Seven and the Cardinals took the clincher, 4-2.

In his three World Series (1929 through 1931), Grove went 4-2, with a 1.75 ERA, 36 strikeouts in 51 1/3 innings and two saves. In these same seasons, he was 79-15 in regular-season play. It was the high-water mark for both Grove and the Philadelphia Athletics, though neither seemed to be drowning in 1932 when the second-place A’s won 94 games and Grove went 25-10. Used extensively in relief the next season and totaling an exhausting 275 1/3 innings, Grove still had a 24-8 record and led the league with a .750 percentage and 21 complete games, but his strikeouts declined from 188 to 114. As the A’s finished third in 1933 with a 79-72 record, the word went around the league that Grove’s arm had gone south on him.

Soon Grove was headed north. Stung by poor attendance in the Depression, Mack began unloading his roster and traded Grove to the Boston Red Sox. Years later, summing up Lefty’s performance with his club, Mack said Grove had been a “thrower” and never really learned how to pitch until later. Others praised him, but as a one-pitch pitcher. “When planes take off from a ship, they say they catapult,” Yankee shortstop Frankie Crosetti said. “That’s what his fastball did halfway to the plate. He threw just plain fastballs — he didn’t need anything else.” 

These evaluations didn’t quite describe Grove’s pitching. Though he relied on his fastball, he moved it around smartly, and his curve was strong enough to spot. As he showed in the ’31 Series, he could even win when his fastball wasn’t working.

Grove arrived in Sarasota, the 1934 Red Sox spring training camp, anointed as team savior. They had won 43 and 63 games in the previous two seasons, but newsmen called them contenders. Grove promptly announced he wouldn’t train on Sundays — why not, when young owner Tom Yawkey was in thrall to him? Indeed, alone among Red Sox, he got a single room on the road. Unfortunately, Lefty developed a sore arm in mid-March, struggled all season and went 8-8 with a 6.50 ERA while the Sox limped to fourth at 76-76. The improvement of 13 games and the record 610,640 home attendance didn’t satisfy the naysayers, too many of whom blamed Grove. Once again, he was a lemon.

Yet he didn’t sour. As wily and ingenious as ever, Grove spent three weeks at Hot Springs, Arkansas during the offseason, playing 36 holes of golf a day or using a rowing machine when it rained. He pitched only four innings against major leaguers in spring training and proclaimed himself fully recovered for 1935. With a new approach of “curve and control,” Grove, now 35, went 20-12 with a league-leading 2.70 ERA. The curve became his major out pitch, Grove explained, because he had lost his fastball. “I actually was too fast to curve the ball while with Baltimore and Philadelphia,” he said. “The ball didn’t have enough time to break because I threw what passed for a curve as fast as I threw my fastball. I couldn’t get enough twist on it. … Now that I’m not so fast I can really break one off and my fastball looks faster than it is because it’s faster than the other stuff I throw.” He paused and added, “A pitcher has time enough to get smarter after he loses his speed.”

Grove won three more ERA titles in the next four years while winning 17, 17, 14, and 15 games and mellowing in his behavior. That is not to say he was a model citizen.  Grove had no respect for Red Sox manager Joe Cronin and wasn’t above saying so.  In one unforgettable instance, Cronin ordered Grove to walk Hank Greenberg with two outs, a man on second and the Sox leading the Tigers, 4-3, in the top of the ninth.  After grudgingly complying, Grove gave up three straight singles to trail, 6-4, at inning’s end.  Leaving the field, Grove threw his glove into the stands, ripped off his uniform and smashed one of Cronin’s bats before heading into the clubhouse.  Amazingly, Boston won when Wes Ferrell, pinch-hitting for Grove, hit a three-run homer.  When the happy winners told the steaming Grove the news, he silently rolled a bottle of wine over to Ferrell.

He slipped to 7-6 in 1940, but he had won 293 games and no one doubted he’d reach 300 in 1941. Oh, what a strange season it was! In April, all baseball eyes were on Grove, but they refocused on the pennant races and Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak before watching in awe as Ted Williams went 6-for-8 on the last Sunday to hit .406. All this while Americans were awaiting the latest word on approaching war clouds.

Meanwhile, Grove labored to get the big one. He had six wins by midseason. On July 25, Red Sox manager Joe Cronin told Grove, “Pop, this is a nine-inning game. I’m not coming out to get you.” Cronin didn’t, and Grove survived a rock-’em, sock-’em slugfest to beat the Indians on 12 hits, 10-6, with his best friend in baseball, Jimmie Foxx, getting the decisive two-run triple. His final win was no pathetic last gasp, some descriptions notwithstanding. Grove threw only 38 balls and walked just one batter. The 12th 300-game winner, the first since Pete Alexander in 1926 and the last until Warren Spahn in 1961, he had earned his place in history. He was roundly toasted at a champagne dinner party he threw for teammates that night.

All too soon, Grove lost his last three decisions while Boston writers told him to quit. “A nice lesson in irony these days is to see reporters, photographers and feature writers stumbling over such fading stars as Foxx, Cronin and Lefty Grove in their haste to get at Ted Williams,” Harold Kaese wrote in mid-September. While the Sox played the A’s on the last day of the season, Grove was honored between games of a doubleheader. “Well, he’s a better guy now,” said an unnamed Athletic. “All he used to have was a fastball and a mean disposition.” Connie Mack said, “I took more from Grove than I would from any man living. He said things and did things — but he’s changed. I’ve seen it year by year. He’s got to be a great fellow.”

Grove quietly told owner Yawkey that he was retiring while they walked through Yawkey’s hunting preserve in South Carolina in early December. The news was upstaged by the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Though he suffered reverses in retirement that would have soured many — getting divorced, outliving his only son, needing financial help from baseball — Grove nurtured the kinder, gentler side of his character long suppressed. He outfitted Philadelphia sandlotters, sent two youngsters through college and coached kid teams around Lonaconing. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1947, his first year of eligibility. 

Grove was a boisterous presence in his appearances at Cooperstown. “When he saw the other old players, like Joe Cronin, he would just haul off and sock them,” says Grove’s friend David Schild. “If he considered you a friend, he would punch you in the stomach or slap you on the back. If he really liked you, he’d hit you both ways.”

After his ex-wife Ethel died in 1960, Grove relocated to his daughter-in-law’s home in Norwalk, Ohio. He died there on May 22, 1975, at the age of 75. He is buried at Frostburg Memorial Park in Frostburg, Maryland, about nine miles from his hometown.

Sources

Kaplan, Jim. Lefty Grove: American Original by Jim Kaplan (Cleveland: Society for American Baseball Research, 2000)

www.baseball-almanac.com

www.retrosheet.org

www.baseballlibrary.com

Something had to give as the league-leading Philadelphia Athletics and their ace, Lefty Grove, took on undefeated hurler George Uhle and the Detroit Tigers. The streaking Athletics had won five games in a row and 16 of 17, to open up a 5½-game lead atop the American League standings, with a 30-9 record. Grove was having another outstanding season, coming into the game with a 7-1 record and a 2.34 ERA.

The Tigers, on the other hand, were 24-22, and in fourth place. However, George Uhle had been dominating. He’d won every one of his starts, going 9-0 with a 1.86 ERA.1 Two games before, he’d thrown an eye-popping 20 innings to defeat the Chicago White Sox. In order to earn his 10th consecutive victory he’d have to beat Grove and the high-flying A’s.

Even though Detroit was struggling, and had dropped the first two games of the series, Athletics manager Connie Mack had a favorable opinion of the Tigers and their ability to turn their fortunes around. Mack told the Detroit Free Press, “I believe now that it is the club that we will have to beat if we win the pennant.”2

The much anticipated third game of the series began as expected, as Grove “throttled the Tiger side in order at the outset.”3 In the Athletics half of the inning, Uhle “started like a mowing machine working on a field of grass” as he struck out the first two hitters he faced and retired the side in order.4

The first hit of the game came in the second inning, when A’s cleanup hitter Al Simmons, who was batting .357, “birched a single to right.”5 After taking second on a passed ball, Simmons was sacrificed to third, and Uhle faced his first big test of the afternoon, as 21-year-old Jimmie Foxx strode to the plate with a runner at third and one down. Foxx was having a terrific season, entering the game with a .422 batting average and 9 home runs. However, Uhle fanned the slugger on an inside curve and got Bing Miller to fly out to left field to get out of the inning.

Grove didn’t allow a baserunner until the fourth inning, when his “complete mastery over the Tigers” was finally solved.6 After Roy Johnson struck out on three pitches, Harry Rice doubled to left field and Charlie Gehringer singled to bring home the game’s first run. However, Foxx cut the throw to the plate, fired the ball to second and Max Bishop slapped the tag on Gehringer for the second out. Grove got out of the inning by inducing Harry Heilmann to ground out to short.

A poor throw by Uhle in the fifth inning proved to be costly. Miller led the inning off with a single and Jimmy Dykes attempted to advance him by dropping down a bunt. Uhle fielded the ball and fired a low throw to second that shortstop Heinie Schuble was unable to handle. Both runners were safe and Uhle was charged with an error. The Detroit Free Press wrote that the “misplay could have been converted into an out had not Schuble failed to handle cleanly a ball that bounded perfectly into his hands.”7 Grove sacrificed the runners up a base. Max Bishop then grounded out to second and Miller raced home with the A’s first run. Mule Haas continued the rally with a single to center “just out of Rice’s reach” to give Philadelphia its first lead of the game, 2-1.8 Because of Uhle’s error, both runs were unearned.

The Tigers scratched out a run off Grove in the seventh to tie the score. Charlie Gehringer drew a one-out walk and went to third on Heilmann’s single to left. Dale Alexander “chopped a high bounder”’ shortstop Jimmy Dykes fielded it and fired a “smoking throw” to get the runner at first.9 But Gehringer crossed the plate to knot the score, 2-2.

The teams remained deadlocked as the game moved into extra innings, with both pitchers able to buckle down and work out of jams when necessary. The Free Press wrote that “Uhle was in trouble more consistently than Grove, yet he was the master when it came to getting out of it unscathed.”10 Uhle was also aided by a terrific catch by right fielder Harry Heilmann in the 10th inning. With two down and runners at the corners, Heilmann “saved the game from ending when he made a brilliant catch of (Sammy) Hale’s liner.”11

Both teams threatened to score in the 11th, but failed to bring a run home. Grove walked a pair of batters in the Tigers half of the frame, but Gehringer lined into an inning-ending double play to bail him out. Dykes singled with two down in Philadelphia’s half of the inning. Grove followed that up with a single, and after center fielder Harry Rice bobbled the ball, the runners ended up at second and third. However, Max Bishop grounded one to second base to end the inning and send the game to the 12th.

The A’s finally broke through in the 13th. Jimmie Foxx “rattled the numerals on the scoreboard” for a double to lead off the bottom of the inning, his third hit of the day, raising his average to .425.12 After Foxx was sacrificed to third, Uhle gave Dykes an intentional pass to put runners at the corners with one down. Connie Mack then sent 42-year-old Eddie Collins to the plate to pinch hit for Grove. Uhle “decided to take no chances on the vintage emergency man” and walked Collins to load the bases.13

Max Bishop, known for having a keen batting eye, stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. Bishop was hitting just .238 at the start of the game, but because he had more walks (49) than hits (34), his on-base percentage was .435. Due to his penchant for drawing walks, the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, “In such a situation, Bishop was perhaps the most dangerous man in the east for Uhle to confront.”14

The first two pitches in the critical at-bat did not portend well for Uhle, as they were both balls. He then delivered strike one, followed by ball three. Bishop watched Uhle’s next pitch go past for strike two, to make the count full. He then took another pitch, which home-plate umpire George Hildebrand judged as low. The bases-loaded walk allowed Foxx to trot home with the winning run, as Uhle “went through a pantomime that registered dissent over the umpire’s decision.”15

The walk brought home the first run Uhle had allowed since the fifth inning, and the first earned run he allowed in the game. The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that it was “a freakish finale to a rousing battle and it gave the 15,000 spectators an idea of how highly important a base on balls can sometimes loom in these humming days with constant flurries of home runs in every park.”16

The game had lived up to its billing, with both pitchers performing masterfully. Lefty Grove threw 13 innings, allowing two runs on four hits, while striking out seven and walking five. He earned his eighth win against one loss, lowered his ERA to 2.20, and helped lead the A’s to their 17 th win in 18 games.

George Uhle surely deserved a better fate after allowing three runs, just one earned, in 12⅓ innings, but his throwing error in the fifth and the bases-loaded walk in the 13th proved to be his undoing. The right-hander allowed 11 hits in the game while walking six (three intentionally) and striking out six. He took his first loss of the season after nine victories. Harry Bullion in the Detroit Free Press commented, “Uhle should have won today and continued indefinitely to compile his triumphs, but fate stepped in and precluded that.”17

In such a superbly pitched game, perhaps it was fitting that the contest was decided by a single full-count pitch that had to be judged either a ball or strike by the home-plate umpire, rather than a ringing double off the wall or a long home run. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s James Isaminger wrote, “No majestic drive over the wall or into the stands, no booming crash against the fence beat Uhle, but just a meek and colorless base on balls, which under the conditions leaped into tremendous importance. …”18 A game that had been dominated by two pitching aces ultimately came down to a single pitched ball in the 13th inning.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com.

NOTES

1 Baseball-Reference has Uhle’s ERA as 1.86. Retrosheet has it at 1.96. The difference stems from his start on May 29 against the St. Louis Browns, when Baseball-Reference charges him with four earned runs, while Retrosheet charges him with five.

2 “Connie Mack Avers Tigers Team to Beat,” Detroit Free Press, June 4, 1929: 22.

3 James Isaminger, “Pass to Max Bishop With Winning Tally Brings Foxx Across,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 4, 1929: 22.

4 Isaminger.

5 Isaminger.

6 Harry Bullion, “Unearned Tallies Win for Mackmen,” Detroit Free Press, June 4, 1929: 24.

7 Bullion, 21.

8 Bullion, 24.

9 Isaminger.

10 Bullion, 21.

11 Isaminger.

12 Bullion, 21.

13 Isaminger.

14 Isaminger.

15 Isaminger.

16 Isaminger.

17 Bullion, 21.

18 Isaminger.

The 47-43 Red Sox were in third place, 15 games behind the New York Yankees. Boston was coming off an 11-1 drubbing of the Chicago White Sox the previous afternoon, led by Jim Tabor’s six RBIs and Frankie Pytlak’s two runs and two doubles.5 However, the Red Sox had started the season slowly, sitting in fifth place as May ended, before their 17-11 June record propelled them into third. Besides the 22-year-old Williams, Boston was led by player-manager Joe Cronin, veteran first baseman Jimmie Foxx, second baseman Bobby Doerr, outfielder Dom DiMaggio, and pitchers Dick Newsome, Joe Dobson, and Charlie Wagner.

The 53-39 Indians stood just ahead of Boston in second place, 10 games behind New York. In contrast to Boston, the Indians started the season strong, then experienced an early-summer swoon. Cleveland’s 11-4 April record and 18-13 May record positioned them in first place when May ended. However, their 13-13 June record, while the Yankees went 19-7, dropped the Indians into second place. Furthermore, Cleveland was swept in a three-game series by the Yankees just before the Boston series. The Indians were managed by Roger Peckinpaugh and led by staff ace Bob Feller, outfielder Jeff Heath, shortstop Lou Boudreau, and third baseman Ken Keltner.

Grove was attempting for the third time to earn his 300th career victory.6 He had lost his previous two outings, both complete-game efforts; on July 11, the Detroit Tigers shut out the Red Sox7 and on July 18, the Chicago White Sox scored the winning run on a 10th-inning misjudged fly ball.8 Through 14 starts in 1941, Grove was 6-4 with a 3.55 ERA over 101⅓ innings, including eight complete games. The left-hander threw a fastball, curve, and forkball, delivering his forkball more often later in his career.9

Joe Krakauskas received the starting nod from Peckinpaugh, replacing scheduled starter Mel Harder. Krakauskas was playing his first season in Cleveland after spending the first four years of his career with the Washington Senators. The 6-foot-1 left-hander had been traded during the offseason from Washington to Cleveland in exchange for Ben Chapman. Krakauskas’s primary pitch was his fastball.10

Sixteen thousand fans attending ladies day at Fenway Park watched Grove retire the Indians in order to start the game. Boudreau started the game with a fly out to left field. Rosenthal bunted and was thrown out. Grove finished the inning strong by striking out Gee Walker. Krakauskas retired the Red Sox on two groundouts and a strikeout during in the bottom of the first inning.

Cleveland reached the legendary left-hander during the second inning. Heath led off with a single, Keltner doubled, and Hal Trosky walked. Heath scored on Oscar Grimes’s fly ball. Cleveland missed an opportunity to score more runs when Gene Desautels popped out and Krakauskas struck out, but the Indians had a 1-0 lead.

Grove struggled again during the third inning. Boudreau singled and stole second base. Larry Rosenthal singled. Walker singled, scoring Boudreau and moving Rosenthal to third base, but was thrown out at second attempting to advance on the outfield throw. Heath plated Rosenthal with another single, the fourth single off Grove in the inning. Keltner doubled home Heath, the fifth consecutive Clevelander to hit safely off the struggling Grove. The future Hall of Famer finally escaped further damage when Keltner was caught stealing third base and Trosky struck out, but Grove appeared likely to need another day to reach his milestone victory. Cleveland led 4-0.

An offensive meltdown and a defensive breakdown had cost Grove in his previous bids for his 300th win, but the Red Sox were not going to fail him this time. Their offense awoke in the fourth inning. Cronin reached first on a muffed groundball. Williams singled. Foxx walked. With the bases loaded, Tabor walked, forcing home Boston’s first run. Although Krakauskas had allowed only one hit through three-plus innings, and only one ball reached the outfield during the first three innings,11 his four walks compelled Peckinpaugh to summon Mel Harder from the bullpen. Doerr popped out in foul territory for the first out, and Johnny Peacock singled home Williams. The Red Sox stranded the two remaining baserunners in scoring position after a fly out and groundout, but Boston cut Cleveland’s lead in half, 4-2.

The Red Sox reached Harder during the fifth inning. Lou Finney beat out a bunt down the third-base line. Cronin lined out. Williams slammed his 19th homer “into the extreme left section of the right field covered seats, a few rows out of rightfielder Jeff Heath’s reach,”12 and tied the game, 4-4. Foxx walked. Tabor singled. With Boston threatening to jump ahead, Doerr popped out, Dom DiMaggio hit into a fielder’s choice, and the game remained tied.

In the Cleveland seventh inning with one out, Boudreau homered over the left-field wall to put the Indians back ahead. One out later, Walker tripled to left-center and scored on Williams’s errant throw to third. The Indians had regained the lead, 6-4. Both offenses took a quick break in the sixth inning, the only inning other than the first in which no runs crossed the plate.

During the bottom of the seventh, Williams walked. With one out, Tabor tied the game with a two-run clout over the wall in left. Doerr struck out looking, but Peacock singled and Harder’s day was finished. Al Milnar, who struggled in his previous five starts, relieved for the first time in the season. Grove doubled to left, but Gee Walker fired the ball to Boudreau, whose relay to the plate caught Peacock attempting to score the go-ahead run. The teams were tied 6-6 after seven innings.

The Red Sox delivered their crushing blow in the eighth inning. DiMaggio walked and moved to second on Finney’s sacrifice. Cronin was intentionally walked. Williams popped out in foul territory. Foxx, Grove’s longtime teammate in Philadelphia and Boston, blasted a triple off the center-field bleacher wall, scoring DiMaggio and Cronin; Foxx himself scored on a wild relay throw from second baseman Ray Mack.13 Tabor followed Foxx’s triple with his second home run of the afternoon, pushing Boston’s lead to four runs.

Grove retired Rollie Hemsley, Beau Bell, and Boudreau in order, all on fly balls, during the ninth inning to end the game. Boston won 10-6, with Grove earning his milestone victory.

Tabor’s two home runs, Foxx’s timely two-run eighth-inning triple, and Williams’s three runs highlighted Boston’s offense, while Boudreau’s homer, double, and single and Keltner’s two doubles paced Cleveland. The Red Sox benefited from eight walks issued by Indians pitchers and three errors by Cleveland’s defense. Grove improved to 7-4, though his ERA increased slightly to 3.67. His six strikeouts were one off his season high.

The Red Sox overtook the Indians at the end of August, and finished in second place, 17 games behind New York. Their 84-70 record was a slight two-game improvement over their 1940 season. Boston led the AL in team batting average, OPS, and several other offensive categories, but their slightly-below-average pitching counteracted their dynamic offense. The Indians muddled through a terrible August (10-21) and September (10-16), falling into a fourth-place tie with Detroit, finishing 75-79 and 37 games behind the pennant-winning Yankees.

Grove called this contest “the toughest game I ever sweated through,” having dropped 8½ pounds in the sweltering sun and 90-degree temperature during the 2½-hour game. After the game, baseball’s newest 300-game winner received a police escort off the field when fans mobbed the field. The game ball was sent to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.14 He pitched the complete game, allowing six runs (five earned) on 12 hits while striking out six and walking one. This sweet victory was the final win of his storied career. The AL’s oldest player that year finished his last major-league season with a 7-7 record and a 4.37 ERA in 134⅓ innings, his highest season ERA since his 1934 campaign and his second-fewest innings pitched. Grove completed his career with a 300-141 record and a 3.06 ERA, recording 2,266 strikeouts in 3,940⅔ innings. He was the AL ERA leader for nine years. Grove was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1947.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks John Fredland for his article recommendations, Evan Katz for his detailed fact-checking, Len Levin for his editing, and Lisa Gattie for her meaningful input.

Sources

Besides the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and the following:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS194107250.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1941/B07250BOS1941.htm

Notes

1 Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: The Free Press, 2001), 848.

2 Bill James and Rob Neyer, The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers (New York: Fireside Books, 2004), 225.

3 Robert W. Creamer, Baseball and Other Matters in 1941 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991), 3-10.

4 Nathan Bierman, “July 17, 1941: DiMaggio’s Streak Stopped at 56 by Cleveland’s Stellar Defense,” SABR Games Project, Accessed June 14, 2021: https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-17-1941-dimaggios-streak-stopped-at-56-by-clevelands-stellar-defense/.

5 James O’Leary, “Harris-Tabor Star as Hose Win, 11-1,” Boston Globe (Main Edition), July 25, 1941: 16.

6 Fred Barry, “Third Time Won’t Fail, Grove Vows in 300 Quest,” Boston Globe (Other Edition), July 25, 1941: 6.

7 Gerry Moore, “Grove Fails to Win 300th,” Boston Globe, July 12, 1941: 5.

8 Gerry Moore, “Grove Beaten in 10 Innings,” Boston Globe, July 19, 1941: 4.

9 James and Neyer, 225.

10 James and Neyer, 271.

11 Gordon Cobbledick, “Indians’ Weak Pitching and Fielding Enable Grove to Bag No. 300,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 26, 1941: 14.

12 Gerry Moore, “Lefty Grove Scores 300th Pitching Win,” Boston Globe, July 26, 1941: 4.

13 “Lefty Grove Scores 300th Pitching Win,” Boston Globe, July 26, 1941: 1.

14 “Lefty Grove Scores 300th Pitching Win,” Boston Globe, July 26, 1941: 4.

An arrival message board at the station publicized a statement related to the captivating Mound City center fielder by displaying “Pepper Martin and Red Birds, 12:45 P.M.” on the marquee.2 Pepper Martin, who had transitioned from untested rookie to national phenomenon in less than a week, hurried with his wife from the team’s rear car to the front end to try to exit without notice. But the crowd was there and surged forward with a roar. Martin grinned, blushed, and obliged a local photographer’s request for some camera shots.3

“Everybody in St. Louis wonders what you really look like, ‘Pep.’ Come over here and pose for a good picture,” said the cameraman. “All right,” said Pep. “I’ll pose. Let ‘er go.”4 Martin, dressed in a brown suit and a tan sombrero cocked on the back of his head in approved Oklahoma style, finally made it out of a 20th Street side door to secure a taxi for the ride to their hotel.5 Police struggled almost frantically to get the Martins and outfielder Chick Hafey into the taxicab and then keep boys and even men from climbing all over the cab.6

Later that evening, Martin returned to the hotel lobby carrying two huge bundles and was asked by teammate Jimmie Wilson what he had under his arms. “Two gallons of ice cream,” replied Martin. “What’s the idea?” asked another player. “Oh, ever since I was a kid I dreamed of being a big league star — making lots of money and buying as much ice cream as I could eat — and now I have done it,” concluded Martin.7

Martin’s .667 batting average and his running the basepaths with abandon had produced four steals with five runs scored, while his overall hustle afforded him the unique moniker of “The Wild Horse of the Osage.” Upon learning that there was a new home plate installed at Sportsman’s Park due to the previous “dish” being dug up by a souvenir hunter after Game Two, a scribe jokingly remarked that Martin would have been accused of stealing it had that happened in Philadelphia.8

With all of the positive ink applied to Martin, some consternation from Cardinals team officials percolated when a wire story appeared about first baseman Jim Bottomley. E. T. Bales, sports editor of the Chattanooga News, repeated in his column an unfounded report “from two authoritative sources” that Bottomley had been sold to the Chicago Cubs for the 1932 season.9 Branch Rickey of the Cardinals and William Veeck of the Cubs denied the report.10 Bales responded, “Of course they can’t let it get out now while Bottomley is playing in the World Series for the Cardinals.”11

Gabby Street altered his lineup before Game Five by shifting Martin to cleanup with the struggling Bottomley batting sixth, and his decision produced positive results as the two men combined for five hits. Street conveyed confidence, “If we’d had any luck in the first game, the series would be over right now. But what’s the difference, it’s taking just a little longer.”12 Connie Mack was concerned about his Philadelphia team on both sides of the baseball. He was worried about the inability of his players to hit consistently against the Cardinals’ hurlers, and the inability of his pitchers to stop the hitting of Martin.13 After five games, the A’s were batting just .217 to the .257 mark posted by the Redbirds.

For Game Six, it would be the same mound matchup as Game One with Lefty Grove for the Athletics going against the Cardinals’ Paul Derringer. Grove was 1-1 and had been tagged for 23 hits, but just four of those safeties had gone for extra bases. In 17 innings, he had given up six runs, struck out nine and walked just one. Derringer was 0-1 in two appearances covering eight frames, and had allowed six runs on 11 hits, fanned 10, and permitted three walks. Jake Flowers would be at third base for St. Louis as the ankle problem affecting Sparky Adams would keep him out for the remainder of the series.14

A crowd of 39,401 jammed into Sportsman’s Park anticipating that the Redbirds would clinch the championship in six games as the A’s had done versus St. Louis in 1930. John Heydler, president of the National League, was all smiles as he stated, “This certainly looks like our year. The Cardinals have played great baseball against a great club.”15 Pepper Martin was so busy signing scorecards that he missed most of fielding practice, but he received a great ovation as he ran to his outfield position. Once he got there two men dashed from the stands and across the field to present the Cardinals ace with a rifle. Teammate Wally Roettger trotted over, not to help Martin, but to inspect the gift.16

Exceptional baseball weather was present as Derringer warmed up to begin the contest. Max Bishop took a called third strike on a 2-2 count to begin the game and protested mildly to veteran plate arbiter Dick Nallin, who was umpiring in his fourth World Series.17 Derringer took the possible clincher to heart as he put up four scoreless innings, giving up just one hit, and striking out three. Meanwhile, Grove matched zeroes with Derringer while allowing two singles and fanning a pair. Martin, who was 5-for-8 (.625) versus Grove, was retired on a pop foul to first and a line drive to center. This had to hearten those pulling for the A’s because Martin’s fame was growing so fast that the daily sports question had changed from “Who won the game?” to “What did Martin do?”18

It all fell apart for Derringer in a flash. On a Jimmie Foxx grounder to open the fifth, Flowers’ throw pulled Bottomley off first for an error. A bunt sent Foxx to second base before Jimmy Dykes drew a walk. Foxx broke in the “new” home plate when he scored on a single to center by Dib Williams. After Grove fanned, Derringer became too careful with the top of the A’s order and then lost his composure. Bishop walked, and another free pass on a disputed full-count pitch to Mule Haas forced Dykes home. Mickey Cochrane’s hard grounder went off the glove of second baseman Frankie Frisch for another tally. Derringer’s stint ended after he walked Al Simmons to plate the fourth run. Syl Johnson relieved a seething Derringer, and retired the 10th batter of the inning, Foxx, on a pop fly to shortstop.19 All of the runs were unearned, but it was little solace with the score now reading Philadelphia 4, St. Louis 0.

Grove permitted a single to Hafey to open the Redbirds’ fifth, but then retired the next three batters. The Cardinals finally tallied in the sixth when Flowers, who had doubled, scored after Frisch lined a two-out single past Foxx into right field.20 Martin, looking to extend the inning, popped out to second baseman Bishop in short right. In the seventh, Street went with right-hander Jim Lindsey, who had been effective in Game Four. But on this afternoon Lindsey gave up four runs (two earned) on three singles, a hit batsman, another bases-loaded walk, and a dropped fly ball by Hafey, which concluded the carnage, let in two runs and yielded an 8-1 Philadelphia advantage.

The Cardinals’ faithful saw little that mattered during the final three innings. Cochrane was charged with the first Philadelphia error of the series when he mishandled a third strike and allowed a batter to reach first to start the ninth. One out later, Martin walked. But Grove worked out of the jam and earned his second complete-game win in the series with a sparkling five-hit, seven-strikeout performance that took one hour and 57 minutes. The pair of fielding miscues by Flowers and Hafey factored in six of the Athletics’ eight runs.

Derringer was still steaming afterwards about the perceived mid-game missed strike that plated the Athletics’ second run. “The ball I pitched to Haas with a 3-2 call in the fifth inning was a perfect strike, but Umpire Nallin called it a ball.” 21 Derringer thundered. “I don’t mind being beaten, but I hate to be robbed — and by an American League umpire.”22 While Street affirmed his hurler’s scrutiny of Nallin’s judgement, Martin, who was held hitless for the first time in this Fall Classic, noted, “The umpires are human, like everybody else, and make mistakes, but they’re trying to do their best.”23 Martin also praised Derringer, “He’s a great pitcher. I played with him last year at Rochester, and I ought to know. The breaks just went against him, that’s all.”24

Martin predicted that the Cardinals would win Game Seven.25

Connie Mack stopped long enough to offer his assessment, “I said when we came back we would keep the championship in the American League and today’s game certainly did not change my thought on the matter.”26

This article appears in “Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis: Home of the Browns and Cardinals at Grand and Dodier” (SABR, 2017), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. Click here to read more articles from this book online.

Sources

In addition to the sources noted in this game account, the author also accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, SABR.org, newspapers.com, and The Sporting News archive via Paper of Record.

Notes

1 “Street Names Paul Derringer To Pitch Tomorrow,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 8, 1931: 1B.

2 Walter W. Smith, “Pepper’s’ Big Show Arrives Here,” St. Louis Star-Times, October 8, 1931: 19.

3 Ibid.

4 ‘Photo Caption’, St. Louis Star-Times, October 8, 1931: 19.

5 Smith, “Pepper’s’ Big Show Arrives Here.”

6 “Street Names Paul Derringer To Pitch Tomorrow”: 3B.

7 Stan Baumgartner, “Through The Series Sieve As Connie Cut The Cards,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 10, 1931: 16.

8 “Gossip of Sixth Game,” The Sporting News, October 15, 1931: 6.

9 Author’s Note-The report by E. T. Bales proved untrue as Bottomley remained with the Cardinals for the 1932 season. He was subsequently traded to the Cincinnati Reds on December 17, 1932.

10 “Reported Sale of Bottomley Denied by Branch Rickey,” St. Louis Star-Times, October 8, 1931: 19.

11 ‘United Press’, “Bottomley Sold, Report,” Pittsburgh Press, October 8, 1931: 29.

12 “Worried,” The Pittsburgh Press, October 8, 1931: 29.

13 “Happy,” The Pittsburgh Press, October 8, 1931: 29.

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

15 Ibid.

16 Wecke, “Grimes and Earnshaw to Pitch Tomorrow; Mound Duel Likely,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 9, 1931: 1C-2C.

17 “Grimes and Earnshaw.”

18 “Introducing The World Series Hero,” Pittsburgh Press, October 8, 1931: 29.

19 J. Roy Stockton, “Cards Lose 8-1; Deciding Game Tomorrow,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 9, 1931: 1C.

20 Ibid.

21 “Grimes and Earnshaw.”

22 Baumgartner, “Derringer Bitter At Umpire Nallin,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 10, 1931: 16.

23 Pepper Martin, “‘Think I’ll Do It,’ Martin Confides As He Visions Victory,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 10, 1931: 1.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid.

26 “Derringer Bitter.”

“Marvelous. It is the last word in baseball parks. A great thing for baseball.” – National League President John Heydler1

John Heydler was not the only visitor who was in awe of the newly opened Cleveland Stadium. Many dignitaries were on hand as the Cleveland Indians hosted the Philadelphia Athletics in the first ever game at the new ballpark located on the shores of Lake Erie. The VIP list also included Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, American League President Will Harridge, Athletics owner Thomas Shibe, Ohio Governor George White, Cleveland Mayor Ray Miller, and Indians alumni: Cy Young, Tris Speaker, Napoleon Lajoie, Bill Wambsganss, Jack Graney, Elmer Flick, Charlie Jamieson, and Chief Zimmer.

The new ballpark was erected on a landfill, and the project took 370 days to complete at a cost of $3,035,245. It was christened on July 3, 1931, with a heavyweight boxing match between Max Schmeling and Young Stribling. Schmeling was awarded the victory with a 15-round TKO.

The Tribe ventured about five miles west from League Park to the new ballpark. League Park, like many ballparks in their day, was built within a neighborhood. With limited parking, the main transportation was streetcars and buses. Cleveland Stadium offered large parking lots and easier access for potential fans. The Cleveland Press estimated about 80,184 came out for the Sunday matinee. It was by far the largest crowd to see a major-league baseball game.

Governor White threw out the first pitch to Mayor Miller, as they both gave speeches along with A’s manager Connie Mack. They all spoke to the crowd via a microphone and a powerful sound system. Cleveland general manager Billy Evans served as master of ceremonies. “I am so glad to be here,” said Mack. “Once we played in New York against the Yankees before a paid crowd of 76,261 people. It was the largest baseball crowd in history. I believe Cleveland has surpassed that number.”2

Of course it was not an official opening without the presence of Tommy Connolly. The chief umpire of the American League came down from the office and onto the playing field to be present for yet another ballpark opening. Connolly had been present for the opening of Fenway Park, Comiskey Park, League Park, Yankee Stadium, and Griffith Stadium. The retired arbiter took his place down the third-base line.

After all, there was a ballgame to be played. That simple fact may have gotten lost in all of the hoopla that came with the extravaganza. As the curtain came down on the month of July, it went up on the shiny new ballpark, with the Yankees atop the American League standings. The A’s were in second place, 8 games out; while Cleveland was in third and right on the Athletics’ heels at 8½ games back.

Philadelphia was the kings of the AL, winning the pennant in the past three seasons. In 1929 the A’s bested the Chicago Cubs in the World Series and in 1930 the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals then outlasted the A’s in the rematch the following season in seven games.

The A’s had a club that could hit with anyone. Their lineup included Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, Mule Haas, Jimmy Dykes, and Bing Miller. Lefty Grove (14-7, 3.06 ERA) who was the starting pitcher for this game, led a capable staff that included George Earnshaw, Rube Walberg, and Roy Mahaffey. Grove had lost two games to Cleveland on consecutive days earlier in the month. He was charged with a loss on July 12 as he went the distance in a 7-6 defeat. The next day he came in to relieve Mahaffey. Grove surrendered three runs, two earned, in four innings of work in a 7-5 loss in 10 innings. Both games were at Shibe Park.

The Indians may not have been as offensively prolific as the Athletics, but they could score. Willie Kamm at third base and Johnny Burnett at shortstop were a formidable pair on the left side of Cleveland’s infield. The outfield of Joe Vosmik, Earl Averill, and Dick Porter were a solid trio of batsman. Mel Harder (11-8, 4.15 ERA) was the starting pitcher for the Indians. Harder was on a five-game win streak, and like Grove had solid mound mates including Wes Ferrell and Willis Hudlin.

The leadoff hitter for the Athletics was Max Bishop. The left-handed-hitting second baseman singled to center field for the first hit. After Haas struck out, Cochrane walked. But Harder whiffed Simmons and Foxx flied out to snuff out any threat.

Harder and Grove kept the bats quiet, and the teams scoreless, throughout the game. Cleveland’s best chance to break the deadlock came in the bottom of the seventh inning. Averill led off with a single to right field, and Vosmik followed with a bunt single to put runners on first and second. Grove made the defensive play of the day when Ed Morgan also laid down a bunt, but this time Grove made the play, throwing to third to nip Averill by an eyelash. The Cleveland Press reported that if the pitcher were a right-hander, he would have had to turn his body to make the play. But the southpaw Grove had little trouble firing the throw to the third baseman. The rally ended when Luke Sewell went down on strikes and Bill Cissell grounded out to Grove.

In the top of the eighth, Harder got two quick strikes on Bishop. But the diminutive second baseman battled Harder and worked him for a walk. Bishop advanced to second base on a bunt by Haas and scored on a single by Cochrane.

The Athletics led, 1-0, and that was how the game ended, with Grove shutting out the Indians. He struck out six, walked two and scattered four hits in nine innings of work to raise his record to 15-7. Harder was the hard-luck loser. He went eight innings before giving way to Oral Hildebrand. Harder struck out seven and walked two over eight innings.

“What a wonderful crowd,” said Mack. “What a fine spirit prevails over the fans. The fact that our team played the first game in such a stadium before such a crowd is a great compliment. Baseball has certainly changed.”3

At season’s end, the A’s hold on the rest of the AL had been broken. The Yankees (107-47) once again claimed the top spot, as the A’s finished in second place with a 94-60 record. Cleveland ended its season with an 87-65-1 mark, good for fourth place.

Because of falling attendance, the Indians returned to League Park. Owner Alva Bradley moved Sunday doubleheaders, and specific games that were thought to bring in large crowds, to the stadium. When Bill Veeck bought the Indians, he moved the entire home schedule to Cleveland Stadium beginning in 1947.

The Indians closed the chapter on Cleveland Stadium just as they began it. They were shut out by the Chicago White Sox, 4-0, on October 3, 1993.

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com for box scores/play-by-play information, and other data, as well as Retrosheet.

https://baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE193207310.shtml

https://retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1932/B07310CLE1932.htm

Notes

1 Al Silverman, “Landis Lauds Stadium as Perfect for Baseball,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 1, 1932: 17.

2 Franklin Lewis, “Connie Mack Marvels at Crowd’s Spirit, Cleveland Press, August 1, 1932: 18.

3 Lewis.

The Athletics had won 98 games that year, finishing just 2½ games behind the New York Yankees.

Other major leaguers of note in the game were Athletics teammate Max Bishop at second base, the Detroit Tigers’ Johnny Neun at first base, and rookie catcher Spud Davis of the Phillies, in the first year of a 14-year career. The rest of the “All Stars” were, John Holway writes. “fleshed out with Triple-A Baltimore Oriole players.”1 The players were only listed by last name in the box score, but looking at the Orioles roster from 1928, one guesses that Dick Porter was the center fielder and that Eddie Mooers was almost certainly the third baseman.

Randy Moore or Eddie Moore, both major leaguers, may have been the left fielder.

George Maisel played right field. He’d played in part of four big-league seasons ranging between 1913 and 1922. The year 1928, with the Orioles, was the last of the Catonsville, Maryland, native’s 16 seasons in professional baseball.

His older brother Fritz Maisel, who had played his six major-league seasons with the New York Yankees, pinch-hit in the game. Fritz was the one who had organized the team billed as All-Stars.

The Baltimore Black Sox-All-Stars series was played at Maryland Park, the first on October 7 and the final one on October 21.

The Black Sox featured a pair of future Hall of Famers, Biz Mackey behind the plate and Oscar Charleston playing left field and first base.2 Rap Dixon played right field. And Luther “Red” Farrell pitched. Farrell had no-hit the Chicago American Giants the previous October 8, winning 3-2 for the Bacharachs at Atlantic City. He’d walked five in the game and seen his teammates commit a few errors, but not allowed a base hit.

The October 14 game was the second of three played on successive Sundays between the two teams.

Some 10,000 fans had watched the game on October 7 when the All-Stars came from behind in the sixth inning and prevailed, 8-5, even though Farrell had struck out 14. Pitching for the All-Stars was Eddie Rommel (177-119 as a major-league pitcher in 13 seasons for the Athletics. He later umpired in the American League for 22 years, 1938-59.) There was to have been a second game, and it started, but was called in the second inning with the Stars ahead, 6-3, “due to the crowd swarming out on the field.”3

The October 14 game was scoreless for the first two innings. In fact, it took only three pitches for Farrell to retire all three batters in the second. In the bottom of the third, the Black Sox got to Grove. Second baseman Frank Warfield reached first on a fielding error and Rap Dixon homered over the left-field fence. It was 2-0, but the Stars tied it with a pair of their own in the top of the fourth. Porter reached on a one-out walk. Moore reached when first baseman Ben Taylor dropped the throw on a grounder. Mooers hit a Texas leaguer and both baserunners scored.

The Sox scored once in the bottom of the fourth, and then added two in the fifth and four more in the sixth. Warfield doubled. Left fielder Christopher “Crush” Holloway reached first base on a muff by Mooers. It appears that Warfield scored on a single by Dixon and that Wilson and Charleston doubled in succession. With a double in the game as well, Dixon was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle. He was also said to have “return[ed] the ball from deep right field to home plate with deadly speed and accuracy.”4

Combining two of their six hits, the All-Stars got their third run in the top of the ninth. Holloway reportedly made a spectacular one-handed catch of a smash that might have driven in two more.

Grove struck out 10, and Farrell struck out seven. (He whiffed Grove three times.) Grove walked seven; Farrell walked three. The Black Sox outhit the All-Stars, 11-6. One of the hits for the Stars was Fritz Maisel, who pinch-hit for Grove in the top of the ninth and doubled.

This game drew well. The New Journal and Guide reported that “10,000 fans cheered and howled.”5

There was an attempt at a second game again, this one 2-2 reaching into the third inning. No reason for the ending of the game was given but it was likely encroaching darkness.

The Black Sox beat the Stars, 2-1, in the rubber match of the three-game set, on October 21. Pitching for Baltimore was Laymon Yokely, with Jack Ogden of the St. Louis Browns pitching for the All-Stars. The lone run for the All-Stars was a solo home run by Jimmie Foxx leading off the second inning. The Black Sox’s John Beckwith (he’d played for the Homestead Grays during the 1928 season) hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first. The two home runs accounted for all the scoring in the game.

The game wasn’t the first time Grove had faced an Eastern Colored League team. On October 2, 1926, he had pitched for Earle Mack’s All-Stars in Shibe Park against Nip Winters and a squad described as “a black team composed mostly of players from the Homestead Grays and the Philadelphia Hilldales.”6 Winters gave up seven scattered singles. Grove lost, 6-1, seeing Oscar Charleston hit a fifth-inning homer into the right-field stands and Otto Briggs collect three hits off him.7 In what was a six-game series between the teams, according to Jim Kaplan, Grove also pitched on October 7, when the All-Stars were shut out, 3-0, by Phil Cockrell. The ECL team won five of the six games.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted both Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. Thanks to Larry Lester and Jim Overmyer.

Notes

1 John Holway, Blackball Stars (Westport, Connecticut: Meckler Books, 1988), 289.

2 Holway’s book has “Carter” at first base and center field, but the Afro-American’s headline, text, and box score all have it as Charleston. “Dixon, Charleston Shine in Victory,” Afro-American (Baltimore), October 20, 1928: 15. It should be noted, however, that the newspaper box score was deficient (it declared that there were six hits but showed only four; the two Holway says right fielder George Maisel got were omitted from the box score.) George Maisel was left out of the Afro-American box score with the result that there was no one at all shown playing right field. There is no way to reconcile the information available, so some elements of the game remain a mystery. There was no box score accompanying the brief article that ran in Norfolk, Virginia’s New Journal and Guide, but the text does mention Charleston. See “Black Sox Rout Lefty Grove Sunday,” New Journal and Guide, October 20, 1928: 6.

3 “Mackey’s Errors Lose for Sox,” Afro-American (Baltimore), October 13, 1928: 17.

4 “Black Sox Rout Lefty Grove Sunday.”

5 “Black Sox Rout Lefty Grove Sunday.”

6 Jim Kaplan, Lefty Grove: American Original (Cleveland: SABR, 2000), 120. The All-Stars included Heinie Manush, Emmet McCann, and that year’s American League MVP, George Burns.

7 “Hilldale Nine Victor over Mack Stars,” Chester (Pennsylvania) Times, October 4, 1926: 15.

It was justified. By August 15, The Sporting News referred to Hudson as Cinderella Sid the boy wonder.3 Hudson had pitched two one-hitters, against the Browns on June 21 (no-hitter broken up in the ninth) and against the Athletics on August 6 (no-hitter broken up in the seventh). In between the one-hitters, he had a string of six straight victories.

An excited crowd of 23,000 filled Griffith Stadium on Labor Day, September 2, when Cinderella Sid was scheduled to pitch the first game of a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox.

Hudson’s opponent, the venerable Robert Moses Grove, came as a surprise. Grove, the legendary lefty who led the great Athletics teams of 1929-1931, was pitching in his 16th major-league season. He had eight 20-win seasons to his credit, including a most impressive 31-4 record for the 1931 Philadelphia Athletics. Entering the game he stood at 292 career victories. The last time Grove faced the Senators, he drove a foul ball off his foot and suffered a broken bone that the Red Sox said had probably finished him for the season.4 In that August 11 game, Hudson had bested Grove, 2-1, thanks to the ninth-inning heroics of Buddy Lewis, who threw out pinch-runner Tom Carey carrying the tying run.5 That Grove was making this start with the injured foot was attributed to the slide of the Red Sox in the standings. They had been leading the American League as late as June 19 with a 31-18 record. Their slide had brought them to fourth place by Labor Day, seven games out of first with a 69-58 record. The Senators had spent their season firmly entrenched in the American League’s second division and at game time were in sixth place with a 52-73 record.

In the top of the first inning, Doc Cramer tripled to the center-field corner with one out. Hudson pounced on a slow roller by Jimmie Foxx and ran at Foxx for a tag out. Cramer held at third. Hudson then fanned Ted Williams. In the fourth inning, Williams tripled to the center-field corner with two out but Hudson struck out Joe Cronin. In the fifth, George Case misjudged and then failed to catch a long drive by Bobby Doerr, allowing Doerr to reach second with no outs. Doerr moved to third on Lou Finney’s groundout. Shortstop Jimmy Pofahl grabbed a ball that third baseman Cecil Travis had muffed, preventing Doerr from scoring. Grove attempted to squeeze the run in with a bunt but Hudson jumped on the ball and Doerr was tagged out in a rundown. Dom DiMaggio made the third out by grounding back to the box. In the seventh, Doerr doubled to left with one out but Hudson easily disposed of Finney on a fly ball to George Case and then whiffed Charlie Gelbert. Catcher Rick Ferrell short-circuited a potential Red Sox rally in the ninth. The 11th inning brought more drama for Hudson. Doc Cramer led off the inning with a single to center. Jimmie Foxx followed with another single to center, sending Cramer to third with no outs. At this point second baseman Jimmy Bloodworth took his turn in the heroics spotlight. After a great play on a grounder by Williams, Bloodworth tagged out Foxx going from first to second, held Cramer on third, and threw out Williams at first for the double play. Cronin then flied harmlessly to Gee Walker for the third out. In the 13th inning, Cramer doubled to center with two out. Harris ordered a walk to Foxx, and Ted Williams grounded into a force play to end the top of what was to be the final inning.

Meanwhile, while Hudson was showing incredible poise for a pitcher with so little experience, Robert Moses Grove was showing what experience could do. No longer the fireballer of old, the 40-year-old veteran used a baffling curve and guile to dominate the Senators. It was not until the ninth inning that the Nats got their first baserunner to third. Through seven innings Grove had allowed only two hits. In the eighth, Ferrell and Case singled with one out but Grove was up to the challenge. In the ninth, Cronin’s wild throw put Cecil Travis on base with one out but Travis died on third. The 12th was nearly the end for Lefty. A single by Jack Sanford, a walk to Pofahl, and an infield single by Ferrell loaded the bases with one out. Hudson struck out. Case lifted a fly ball deep to the center-field corner but Dom DiMaggio raced back and made a game-saving catch.

After three hours of great baseball, the climax arrived in the bottom of the 13th. Buddy Lewis led off the inning with a double to right field. The managerial wheels began to turn. Trying to set up a double play, manager Cronin ordered Gee Walker intentionally passed. The strategy was thwarted when Bucky Harris called for Cecil Travis to sacrifice Lewis and Walker to third and second. With the perfect execution of the sacrifice accomplished, Cronin intentionally passed Bloodworth to restore the double play. With the outfielders playing shallow to avoid a score on a fly ball, rookie Jack Sanford, who was hitting only .114 at the time, lined a single over the head of Ted Williams to drive in Lewis with the winning run, ending the marathon matchup between the rookie and the great veteran.

Lefty Grove would start three more games in the 1940 season, winning one and losing two. Two of his starts were complete games. His victory came in another 13-inning complete game in Detroit, on September 10. The 1941 season was Grove’s last. He started 21 games and pitched 10 complete games finishing with a 7-7 record. His final win was his career 300th at Cleveland on July 25, 1941. Grove officially retired as an active player on December 9, 1941. Sid Hudson finished his rookie year with three more wins and two losses for a 17-16 record. He followed that up in 1941 with a 13-14 record (an ERA more than a full run lower than his rookie year, 3.46) and an All-Star Game appearance. In 1942, his record slipped to 10-17. Like most players his age, Hudson lost the next three seasons to military service. He never quite regained his pitching effectiveness and finished a 12-year career in 1954 with a won-lost record of 104-152. Hudson finished his career with the Red Sox after being traded in 1952 for Walt Masterson, a teammate on the 1940 Senators.

Jack Sanford’s game-winning single was his fifth career hit and his first career run batted in. His career would be limited to parts of three seasons (1941, 1942, 1946), during which he collected 32 hits in 153 at-bats with only 11 RBIs.

Sources

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

Povich, Shirley. “Boston Drops Brief Second Game, 5-4,” Washington Post,

September 3, 1940: 16.

Notes

1 Francis Stann, “‘D’ Grad Counted In on Nats’ Big Four,” The Sporting News, March 28, 1940: 2.

2 Denman Thompson, “Senatorial Policies Draw Fire of Critics,” The Sporting News, May 23, 1940: 1.

3 Dick Farrington, “Sid Hudson, Nats’ One-Hit Specialist, Turned to Hill Two Years Ago, After Failing at Bat as First Sacker,” The Sporting News, August 15, 1940: 3.

4 “X-Ray Discloses Lefty Grove Broke Foot Here Sunday,” Washington Post, August 18, 1940: SP1.

5 Bill Burnett, “Nats’ Rookie Gives Bosox Only 5 Hits,” Washington Post, August 12, 1940: SP1

But Grimes, known as “Ol’ Stubblebeard” because he never shaved on days when he pitched, was freshly shaved when he arrived at the ballpark that day.1 Instead, in a game the Cardinals could ill afford to lose, Street gave the ball to 37-year-old Jesse Haines, who had yet to pitch in the Series. “If I am going to win this Series, Haines has got to win a game for me,” Street said, “and I might as well find out right now if he can come through.”2

Street may have had some second thoughts about his choice in the early going. Max Bishop led off the game for the A’s with a smash single down the first-base line that might have gone for extra bases had first baseman Jim Bottomley not gotten a glove on it. Bishop went to second base on Jimmy Dykes’ sacrifice, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on a two-out single by Al Simmons. Jimmie Foxx then reached on an infield hit when Cardinals second baseman Frankie Frisch couldn’t handle his twisting groundball, and Bing Miller followed with a slow bouncer that shortstop Charlie Gelbert charged to field behind the mound. “On any other shortstop Bing probably would have reached first and the bases would have been loaded,” James C. Isaminger wrote in the next day’s Philadelphia Inquirer, “but Gelbert is one of the most powerful throwers in baseball and he simply burned the ball to Bottomley and beat Miller there by a step” to end the inning.3

Haines got in trouble again after retiring the first two batters in the second inning. Grove reached base when Frisch fumbled his groundball for an error, and then Bishop walked after fouling off two full-count pitches. That led Street to call on Jim Lindsey to start warming up in the Cardinals bullpen. But Dykes grounded out to end the threat … and after that the A’s batters were baffled. Haines allowed only one hit over the final seven innings and no Philadelphia runner got as far as third base.

Meanwhile Haines helped his own cause in the bottom of the third. With one out, Gelbert slashed a hit down the first-base line that, according to Isaminger, struck a temporary stand in right field and took a violent bounce past right fielder Miller. By the time Miller got the ball back to the infield, Gelbert had reached third with a triple. That brought Haines to the plate. Grove’s first pitch was called a strike and Haines fouled off the second, but then Haines hit a ball up the middle through Grove’s legs for a single to tie the game, 1-1. (Haines wasn’t a bad hitter, with a .246 average during the 1930 season. And exactly four years prior to this game he had hit a home run while pitching a shutout against the Yankees in Game Three of the 1926 World Series.)

The key moment of the game came in the bottom of the fourth. After Grove retired the first two Cardinals, Chick Hafey hit a ball to right field that struck the wall on the fly and then dropped between the wall and a wire screen that had been built in front of it to protect outfielders. Hafey circled the bases while Miller tugged at the wire to try to get the ball. The umpires called it a ground-rule double.4

The next batter, Ray Blades, hit a routine groundball to Dykes near the third-base bag. Hafey was running on contact with two outs and had practically reached third by the time the ball was fielded. (Newspaper accounts had Blades anywhere from one to six feet away from Dykes once the ball was gloved.) “Hafey came to a dead stop within a step of Dykes,” according to St. Louis Star sports editor Sid Keener.5 Dykes “had only to turn around and tag Hafey to retire the side,” Isaminger wrote.6

But Dykes threw to first base to try to retire Blades. His throw was wide and first baseman Foxx “extended as far as he could and finally left the bag and knocked the ball down in front of him,” wrote Isaminger. “Hafey, quickly sizing up the situation, took a chance and charged full tilt for the plate.” Foxx didn’t realize right away that Hafey was trying to score; when he did, he made a throw home that “was both half-hearted and slow,” according to Isaminger, allowing Hafey to score what would turn out to be the winning run.

“The uproar which followed beggars description by the most trenchant pen,” wrote the Inquirer’s Stan Baumgartner. “The huge concrete stadium was turned into an inferno of noise. Wave after wave of hysterical yells piled up against each other until the park rocked.”7 (The crowd of 39,946 was the largest ever to see a baseball game in St. Louis to that point.)

Dykes was charged with an error, but Foxx “was equally culpable with Dykes for the loss of the game,” in Isaminger’s view.8 Dykes disagreed. “I can’t alibi on that one and I won’t try,” he said after the game. “I thought maybe I was too far up to get back in time to tag [Hafey]. I thought the moment I grabbed the ball that I would go back and touch him, but I changed my mind, as there were two out. So I threw to first. It was a rotten throw and that’s all there is to it. Nobody but myself is to blame.”9

The error left Blades on first base. He went to third on a hit-and-run single by Jimmie Wilson. Gelbert then hit a ball that bounced off Grove (one report said off his shin, another said off his bare hand) for a single, scoring Blades to make it 3-1 in favor of St. Louis.

And that held up as the final score, as the A’s managed only three baserunners against Haines after that, all on walks. Grove went the distance for the A’s, allowing just five hits, all in the third and fourth innings when the Cardinals scored their runs. “Grove pitched good enough ball to win,” wrote Walter S. Cahall in the Inquirer, “but his playmates played just bad enough to lose.”10

“Grove was good, but Haines was better,” Foxx (or his ghost writer) wrote in his syndicated newspaper column the next day. “That sums up why we lost.”11

The A’s had a .294 team batting average in 1930 but mustered only four singles off Haines.12 “I had to pitch mighty carefully against this great ball club,” Haines said while sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of his hotel after the game. “I pitched a great many balls during the game [123, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer].13 This was because I was afraid to give such fine hitters as Simmons, Mickey] Cochrane and Foxx a chance to get hold of a good one. All the time I was trying to make the A’s hit at bad balls. I used three styles of pitching, a fast ball, a curve and a half-speed knuckle ball which acted as a change of pace.”14

The Cardinals’ win tied the Series, 2-2, with Game Five to follow the next day at Sportsman’s Park. “I can’t see how we can lose the Series now,” Bottomley said. “We have the A’s on the run.”15

This article appears in “Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis: Home of the Browns and Cardinals at Grand and Dodier” (SABR, 2017), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. Click here to read more articles from this book online.

Sources

Game stories in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis Star, and Philadelphia Inquirer were accessed via Newspapers.com. Stories in The Sporting News were accessed via PaperofRecord.com.

Notes

1 Stan Baumgartner, “Tasty Tidbits Served for the Fans, Red Hot Off the Series’ Griddle,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 6, 1930: 16. The derivation of Grimes’s nickname is included on his page at the Baseball Hall of Fame’s website, https://baseballhall.org/hof/grimes-burleigh.

2 “Haines Hero of Fourth Game, When He Allows Four Hits,” The Sporting News, October 9, 1930: 7.

3 James C. Isaminger, “Haines Bests Grove in Twirlers’ Clash to Deadlock Classic,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 6, 1930: 14.

4 Baumgartner, “Tasty Tidbits.”

5 Sid Keener, “Sid Keener’s Column,” St. Louis Star, October 6, 1930: 14.

6 James C. Isaminger, “A’s Give Due Credit to Callahan, Haines,” The Sporting News, October 9, 1930: 1.

7 Baumgartner, “Jimmy Dykes’ Error Costly to Mackmen,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 6, 1930: 15.

8 James C. Isaminger, “Haines Bests Grove in Twirlers’ Clash to Deadlock Classic.”

9 James L. Kilgallen (International News Service), “Haines Explains How He Elected to Pitch to Stop Athletics,” St. Louis Star, October 6, 1930: 14.

10 Walter S. Cahall, “Footnotes of A’s-Cards Battle,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 6, 1930: 14.

11 Jimmie Foxx, “Foxx Still Thinks Macks Should Be Favorites to Win,” St. Louis Star, October 6, 1930: 14.

12 The A’s had four or fewer hits in a game only seven times during the 1930 regular season.

13 “Pitched Balls” chart, Philadelphia Inquirer, October 6, 1930: 14.

14 Kilgallen.

15 Jim Bottomley, “Haines’ Fine Game Tribute to Street, Bottomley States,” St. Louis Star, October 6, 1930: 14.

The Athletics arrived via train in the late afternoon of September 30, and were welcomed by St. Louis Mayor Victor Miller and a crowd of several hundred at Union Station.1 The A’s Connie Mack had earlier praised his 107-win squad after they wrapped up their third consecutive American League crown, boasting, “I have confidence in its ability to set a new record by capturing its third straight world championship.”2

Gabby Street of the Cardinals piloted his St. Louis players to a franchise record 101 victories, but seemed annoyed when asked who would win the Series. “I have always felt that a ballclub should do its playing on the field, and for that reason I am not going to begin shouting that we will win the World’s Series,” said Street.3

Many of the major-league managers had their predictions published in The Sporting News. Most of them voted the “party line” and tabbed their respective league representative as the eventual world champion. Bill Killefer of the St. Louis Browns offered some praise for the Cardinals, but declared, “I look for a short Series with the A’s a decisive winner.”4 Giants skipper John McGraw predicted a close Series and concluded his analysis: “The most significant feature of the advance preparation for the Series was the absolute confidence of the Cardinals.”5

Street knew his players were confident and ready to take on the two-time defending world champions. In the middle of each team’s lineup was its league’s batting champion – Al Simmons for Philadelphia and Chick Hafey for St. Louis. The slugging left fielders would feature prominently in the middle of the batting order. Simmons hit .390 for the season, and had catcher Mickey Cochrane (.349) hitting in front of him with first baseman Jimmie Foxx (30 home runs and 120 RBIs) behind him. Hafey squeaked in as tops in the NL at .349, which gave him a very narrow margin over New York’s Bill Terry. Hafey would be complemented by veteran first baseman Jim Bottomley (.348 in 108 games), and relative newcomer Johnny “Pepper” Martin (.300), who would patrol center field. Street had a couple of late-season injuries to deal with: the losses of stalwart pitcher Jesse Haines (right shoulder)6 and possibly starting third baseman Sparky Adams (ankle sprain). Reserve infielder Andy High was tabbed to start at the hot corner for Game One.7

While Mack felt good about his hitters, he knew that the key to capturing a best-of-seven series would be his pitching staff. Just before Game One, Mack offered that he did not know yet who would start in the opening game.8 Most notable was Bob “Lefty” Grove, who led the majors by posting a 31-4 mark, with the possibility that George Earnshaw (21-7) or Waite Hoyt (10-5) might get the nod. Grove won two games with a 1.42 ERA in 19 innings in the 1930 World Series, but was actually overshadowed by Earnshaw, who also posted a pair of victories and compiled a 0.72 ERA in 25 innings. Hoyt had been claimed off waivers from Detroit in early July, and came on board with 10 World Series starts on his résumé. Mack ultimately decided on the southpaw Grove to start the first game.

October 1 finally arrived and the ex-catcher Street, who celebrated his 49th birthday the day before, announced that rookie Paul Derringer, 18-8, with a 3.36 ERA, would start Game One. The 6-foot-3 right-hander, just shy of 25 years old, had led the Cardinals’ staff with four shutouts. Street’s lineup for Game One included only two left-handed batters, High and Bottomley.9 Mack put his batting order together and gave it to coach Eddie Collins, who later met at home plate with Redbirds’ second baseman Frankie Frisch to present the lineup cards to arbiter Bill Klem just before the 1:30 P.M. start.10

Ideal weather greeted the crowd of 38,529, with the high temperature expected to reach 80 degrees. The Sportsman’s Park fans were relatively quiet before they let out a mighty cheer as the Cardinals took the field in their new white uniforms. Underneath the new attire, as tokens of good luck, were the same stained sweatshirts that had not been washed since the season began.11 After the band played the last note of “The Star Spangled Banner,” umpire Klem called “Play Ball” as Philadelphia’s Max Bishop walked to the batter’s box.12 The 1931 World Series was about to begin.

Derringer’s opening pitch was low and outside, but the youngster came back to strike out Bishop, and then he fanned Mule Haas. After a wide pitch to start Cochrane, Derringer got the A’s catcher to ground out to shortstop for the third out. With just nine deliveries, Derringer walked to his dugout after completing a perfect first inning. Grove overmatched High and struck him out on three pitches to start the bottom half, but Wally Roettger singled to center. Frisch singled to right and Roettger raced to third. Bottomley, 1-for-22 with nine strikeouts in the 1930 Series, lined an RBI single over second to put St. Louis up, 1-0. Grove fanned Hafey, but Martin knocked a double off the right-field pavilion screen to score Frisch and send Bottomley to third. After allowing four safeties and a pair of tallies, Grove induced a groundball out from Jimmie Wilson to end a shaky first.13

The second inning was impressive for Derringer as he notched two more strikeouts with the A’s again going down in order. Charley Gelbert almost solved Grove to begin the bottom half, but Bing Miller hauled in his drive to deep right. High singled with two outs, but was left stranded. The Athletics managed their first baserunner in the third when Jimmy Dykes opened with an infield single off High’s glove. Dykes motored to third on Dib Williams’s single past first before Grove was called out on strikes. Bottomley fielded Bishop’s hard grounder and fired to the plate to put Dykes out in a rundown going catcher to third to catcher. But just as Derringer appeared ready to escape the jam, Haas followed with a clutch RBI double to put Philadelphia on the board. Derringer seemingly became unnerved as he lost his control and walked Cochrane and Simmons to force in the tying run. Foxx then smacked a two-run single back through the box to put the A’s up 4-2 before the side was finally retired. Grove settled down and recorded his first three-up and three-down frame in the Cardinals’ third.14

Both hurlers were able to pitch out of trouble from the fourth through the sixth, benefiting from good defense, avoiding the extra-base hit, and inducing timely twin killings. The Athletics padded their lead in the seventh when Simmons followed Cochrane’s single by drilling an offspeed pitch into the left-field bleachers to give Philadelphia a 6-2 margin. “I am afraid that Al’s home run has convinced the Cardinals that a slow ball is not Al’s batting weakness,” said Mack after the game. 15

Jake Flowers hit for Derringer to open the bottom of the inning and was the victim of a fine defensive play from Dykes at third base for the first out before Grove finished another scoreless half, despite allowing two more hits.16 Syl Johnson took the mound for the Cardinals to start the eighth and worked two perfect innings. Grove retired six of the last seven St. Louis hitters he faced to gain his third career postseason win and give the Athletics an early edge in the World Series. There were no errors, and the contest took one hour and 55 minutes to complete.

Simmons and Foxx led the Mackmen as five of Philadelphia’s runs were funneled through their plate appearances. The Cardinals, with Martin going 3-for-4 with a stolen base, tagged Grove for 12 hits, the most safeties the left-hander had ever allowed in World Series action, but St. Louis left nine men on base and finished 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Derringer took the loss, and pitched admirably for five of his seven frames. He struck out nine, compared to seven for Grove, but allowed three walks, and six earned runs on 11 hits.

Mack heaped postgame praise on Derringer, saying, “I think Derringer will develop into one of the greatest pitchers in baseball. His mistake today was pitching too hard at the start. He forgot that there were eight other men working on his side. His strenuous efforts in those first two innings prevented him from being as effective as he should have been later on.”17 Nonetheless, as the discouraged rookie hurler left the ballpark, Derringer waved off the many autograph hounds seeking his signature.18

This article appears in “Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis: Home of the Browns and Cardinals at Grand and Dodier” (SABR, 2017), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. Click here to read more articles from this book online.

Sources

In addition to the sources noted in this game account, the author also accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, SABR.org, Newspapers.com, and The Sporting News archive via Paper of Record.

Notes

1 “Athletics Arrive for First World Series Game Tomorrow,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 30, 1931: 1B.

2 “Major Managers Stick With Their Own Leagues in Series Selections,” The Sporting News, October 1, 1931: 5.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Gregory H. Wolf, “Jesse Haines,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/afeb716c.

7 J. Roy Stockton, “Cardinals in Final Workout Still Hopeful Adams Can Play,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 30, 1931: 1B, 3B.

8 “Major Managers.”

9 Herman Wecke, “World Series Highlights,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 1, 1931: 1B.

10 E. Roy Alexander, “Cards First on Field; Many in Line at Gates Wait All Night,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 1, 1931: 1B.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid.

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

14 Ibid.

15 William E. Brandt, “Mack Is Cheered by Men’s Batting,” New York Times, October 2, 1931: 20.

16 Ibid.

17 Brandt, “Mack Is Cheered.”

18 Wecke, “World Series Highlights.”

Despite the underwhelming season performance of both teams and a constant threat of rain that day, 5,000 fans showed up at Washington’s Griffith Stadium to watch Future Hall of Famer Robert Moses “Lefty” Grove go head-to-head with the Senators’ Bobo Newsom.

Newspaper accounts at the time referred to him as Buck, but the nickname Bobo came about later in Newsom’s career because he either could not or would not remember other players’ names, instead referring to others as Bobo, and ultimately earning the nickname for himself.1

Grove, the Lefty moniker an obvious reference to his pitching arm, had matched up with Newsom just 20 days earlier, with Bobo claiming a 4-2 victory and both hurlers going the distance. Since that matchup, Grove had won two and lost two, and with 16 wins so far, was aiming to again reach the 20-win mark before season’s end, something he accomplished seven consecutive times with the Philadelphia Athletics before a lackluster 8-8 record in 1934, his first with the Red Sox.

Despite disparities in their overall career accomplishments, on this day both pitchers showed equal command of their position in the early going. The first three innings were uneventful, as neither team hit safely, the Senators giving Newsom “amazing support in helping him hold the Cronins.”2

The “Cronins” was a reference to Joe Cronin, acquired by Boston from the Senators in October 1934 for Lyn Lary and $250,000. As a condition of the trade, Cronin signed a five-year deal for $30,000 per season. Boston fans had high expectations, and the mediocre performance of the 1935 Red Sox did little to promote a warm acceptance of the new manager.3

In the fourth inning, both offenses got on track.

Third baseman Billy Werber opened the frame for Boston, blasting a line drive down the left-field line. A groundball by Roy Johnson scored Werber. Cronin, the future Hall of Famer, then tripled to left-center when Jake Powell missed on an attempted shoestring catch. But popups by Rick Ferrell and Babe Dahlgren on each side of Dusty Cooke’s walk ended the threat.

Boston led 1-0.

For three innings, Grove had held Washington hitless, with only one ball leaving the infield. An error by Dahlgren on Newsom’s grounder to first with two out in the third gave the Senators their first baserunner, then Joe Kuhel walked, but Dee Miles popped out to end the inning.

With one out in the bottom of the fourth, Fred Schulte, Cecil Travis, and Jake Powell singled on three successive Grove deliveries, and the game was tied, 1-1.

Boston filled the bases with one out in the top half of the fifth, the result of a free pass to Grove, Mel Almada’s single, and Werber’s fielder’s choice, the result of a late throw in an attempt to force Almada at second. But Johnson hit into a double play, and the score remained even.

The Red Sox advanced runners as far as second base in the sixth, seventh, and eighth, but left them stranded on each occasion. A leadoff single by Ski Melillo in the ninth was wasted when Grove popped up while attempting to bunt, and “Spinach,”4 a nickname Melillo derived from a kidney ailment known as Bright’s disease which forced him to eat nothing but spinach to recover from the affliction,5 was doubled off first base.

The Senators were ineffective from the fifth through the ninth, with just two runners reaching base. Joe Kuhel advanced as far as second base in the fifth after hitting a single and advancing on a fielder’s choice, and Powell beat out a slow roller in the ninth, but Grove shut down the threat on each occasion.

The game moved to extra innings.

With both starters still proving effective, the 10th inning passed with limited action.

Cooke singled in the 11th for his third hit of the game, and Wes Ferrell, hitting for Melillo, was fanned “on a couple of misses by umpire Charley Donnelly.”6

The Senators again threatened in their half of the 11th, Travis and Powell posting successive singles, but shortstop Red Kress grounded out to end the inning.

With the Red Sox going down in order in the 12th, Newsom singled with one out in the bottom of the inning, only to see Kuhel hit into a double play.

Both starting pitchers remained in the game.

Boston had an excellent chance of putting the Senators away in the 13th. Johnson opened the inning with a walk and Cronin sacrificed him to second. Rick Ferrell flied to right field, pushing Johnson to third. An intentional pass to Cooke was followed by Newsom drilling pinch-hitter Bing Miller, loading the bases. Dib Williams, who earlier replaced Wes Ferrell in the lineup for the Red Sox, worked a 2-and-0 count before Newsom called time and requested a towel to wipe off his hands. He subsequently induced a fly ball to Miles in right, ending the rally.7

Washington went down in order in the bottom of the inning.

After Grove flied out to start the 14th inning, Almada hit what looked like a sure extra-base hit to right-center, but Powell made a sensational running catch. Werber walked, but Johnson popped up the first pitch with Werber attempting to swipe second, ending the Red Sox’ opportunity.

Newsom had allowed just nine hits in 14 innings, facing 57 batters with four strikeouts and seven walks.

The local news account recognized the stellar performance, but it was more than just Newsom’s mound prowess that made the difference. From the Washington Evening Star:

“Buck Newsom has been tossed one man’s share of orchids for his gameness this season, but to skip over yesterday’s 14-inning drama which he won over the Red Sox, 2 to 1, would be an injustice.

“Buck wound up a hero, the out-and-out man of the hour, but were it not for his ability to throw off a stinging jab of fate, Newsom might well have been the ‘goat’ – and might never have lived down what, from the stands, seemed an out-and-out boner to the 5,000 anxious fans.

“With the bases loaded and one down in the fourteenth frame, Newsom came up to the plate and too late became aware of a daring but smart piece of running by Jake Powell. Starting with Lefty Grove’s lazy wind-up, Powell dashed from third base and would have stolen home with ease had not Newsom ticked with ball with a swing. If Buck had held back his bat on that initial pitch, the ball game would have ended there and then.

“In the face of what seemed an unpardonable deed – and which really wasn’t, because Powell’s daring attempt was prompted by no signal but only by Grove’s laxity – Newsom merely hitched up his belt and, with two strikes and no balls, banged a single to center to win the game himself.”8

Grove’s 13⅓-inning effort went unrewarded, but he did reach the 20-win mark by season’s end, downing the Philadelphia Athletics on September 24. His 300 career victories earned him a spot in Cooperstown in 1947.

The Senators moved in to sixth place with the win, and would finish the season in that position, 27 games behind the pennant-winning Tigers.

The Red Sox, in Joe Cronin’s first season as manager, finished fourth, still 16 games off the pace.

Louis Newsom, then known as Buck later known as Bobo, was left behind on the ensuing trip to Boston, but resumed his place in the rotation five days later against the St. Louis Browns, losing a 10-inning, 2-1 contest. Including the 0-6 early-season record he posted with the Browns before being purchased by Washington on May 21, he finished the year at 11-18.

Bobo won an additional 184 games before his career ended in 1953, six years after Grove’s Hall of Fame induction.

Sources

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

Notes

1 Ralph Berger, “Bobo Newsom,” SABR BioProject, sabr.org/bioproj/person/b3eeb6d1.

2 Gerry Moore, “Lefty Grove Fails to Collect His 17th Win,” Boston Globe, September 2, 1935: 24.

3 Mark Armour, “Joe Cronin,” SABR BioProject, sabr.org/bioproj/person/572b61e8.

4 Moore.

5 Bill Nowlin, “Ski Melillo,” SABR BioProject, sabr.org/bioproj/person/c3d5add1.

6 Moore.

7 Moore.

8 “Rook Catcher, Flashes Rare Fielding Worth in Trio of Plays as Griffs Triumph, Washington Evening Star, September 2, 1935: 10.