A three-alarm blaze burns down Fenway Park’s grandstand roof and left field bleachers. The Boston Red Sox, desperately in need of cash, use most of the insurance proceeds to pay for operations and leave a vacant lot where the bleachers once stood.
1926 – 17-year-old Mel Ott makes his first major league appearance with the New York Giants pinch-hitting for Jimmy Ring. Ott strikes out as the Giants win, 9 – 8, over the Phillies. He won’t play regularly until 1927.
1926 – Unfazed by Forbes Field’s ample dimensions, St. Louis Cardinals player-manager Rogers Hornsby leads by example, slugging his team to a 9 – 3 thrashing of the Pittsburgh Pirates. 3 for 3 with a single, double, sacrifice fly and tape-measure IPHR good for 5 RBI, the Rajah’s exploits are documented by Lou Wollen of the Pittsburgh Press: “Manager Rogers Hornsby is an ideal leader. Not only does he pilot the Cardinals in expert fashion, getting all the baseball possible out of his players, but he shows them on the ball field how the game should be played. Yesterday, for instance, he demonstrated the latest approved methods in clouting, leading his club in this department. He batted perfectly and saw his team vanquish the Pittsburgh world’s champions by a 9 to 3 score.” Hornsby finishes with a flourish, as Wollen can attest: “The Cardinals wound up by tallying twice in the 9th when Heinie Mueller tripled past Clyde Barnhart in left center and Hornsby smashed a home run to the (450-foot-distant) flagpole in center.”
April 13, 1926, one of the greatest Opening Day pitchers’ duels ever occurs, 25,000 fans filled Griffith Stadium to see, 38-year-old Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators battle Eddie Rommel and the Philadelphia Athletics. Johnson the aging future Hall of Famer was playing in his second to last season. Johnson and Rommel matched goose eggs…
Tris Speaker, player-manager for the Indians, takes some swings on March 11, 1926 as the Indians go through their spring training paces in Lakeland, Fla.
On February 24, 1926, Hall of Famer Eddie Plank dies at the age of 50 in his native Gettysburg, PA.. Plank won 326 games and posted a 2.35 over a 17-year career. In 1905, the durable Plank completed a league-leading 36 of his 41 starts.
Babe Ruth, mixing business with pleasure, on Feb. 12, 1926, off the coast of St. Petersburg.
New York Yankees sell first baseman Wally Pipp to the Cincinnati Reds
History of the World Series – 1926 Hornsby’s directive was no mistake. The battle-tested Alexander was the man Hornsby wanted to take over for Jesse Haines, who had shut out the Yankees in Game 3 and pitched reasonably well in Game 7 until a finger blister and a mounting New York threat brought about his…
1925 – In a trade of pitchers, the New York Giants send Jack Bentley and Wayland Dean to the Philadelphia Phillies for Jimmy Ring. Bentley will return to the Giants before the end of next season.
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