History of the World Series – 1924
For the eighth time in 14 years, the National League representative was the New York Giants. Manager John McGraw’s club, despite a .300 team batting average, had to scramble to win the NL pennant by 1 1/2 games over the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Johnson and Series veteran Art Nehf were pitching opponents in Game 1 of the Series, and both went the distance in what turned out to be a 12-inning cliffhanger witnessed by, among others, President Calvin Coolidge. Backed by home runs from George Kelly and Bill Terry (a promising first baseman who had played only 80 major-league games), Nehf took a 2-1 lead into the last of the ninth inning. However, Ossie Bluege’s single and Roger Peckinpaugh’s double sent the game into extra innings. In the 12th, Ross (Pep) Youngs’ bases-loaded single and Kelly’s run-scoring fly ball netted two runs for the Giants, who held off a Washington rally in the bottom of the inning to nail down a 4-3 victory.
Johnson didn’t exactly flash his old form in this game, although he did strike out 12 New Yorkers. The Big Train allowed 14 hits and walked six.
Washington won two of the next three games and Johnson was pounded again in Game 5. This time, he gave up 13 hits — including four by Fred Lindstrom and a home run by pitcher Jack Bentley — as the Senators went down, 6-2. Johnson was now 0-2 in his first Series, and Washington was one loss from elimination.
Harris and Tom Zachary brought the Senators back from the brink. Harris came through with a two-run single in the fifth inning of Game 6 and Zachary, after allowing a first-inning run, was in command the rest of way. Washington’s 2-1 triumph tied the Series at three games each.
Game 7 unfolded in a manner not unfamiliar to longtime Giants fans. Oh, the Giants and their supporters had enjoyed their share of ecstasy over the years, as reflected by three World Series championships. But they also had endured more than their share of agony as the legacies of Merkle, Snodgrass and Zimmerman would suggest.
This time, though, the Giants didn’t succumb to the errors of their ways. McGraw’s athletes did make mistakes, all right; in fact, they made three errors in the final game of the ’24 Series (Washington had four). But it was Lady Luck who really did them in.
The Giants guarded a 3-1 lead entering the bottom of the eighth inning of Game 7 at Griffith Stadium, and a leadoff pop foul by Washington’s Bluege drew New York within five outs of another Series crown. However, pinch-hitter Nemo Leibold doubled off the Giants’ Virgil Barnes, Muddy Ruel collected an infield single and Bennie Tate, another pinch-hitter, walked. After Earl McNeely flied out (all three runners held), Harris hit a grounder that skipped over the head of 18-year-old third baseman Lindstrom. Two runs scored on the bad-hop single, tying the game. Nehf relieved Barnes and got Sam Rice to ground out.
Johnson came on in relief for the Senators in the ninth and, after retiring the first batter, yielded a triple to Frank Frisch. With the game on the line, Johnson intentionally walked Youngs, struck out Kelly and got Irish Meusel ground out. The Giants had squandered a golden opportunity.
The 3-3 deadlock continued until the bottom of the 12th. With one out, Giants reliever Bentley got Ruel to hit a foul pop. But the “sure” second out never materialized as Hank Gowdy, World Series hero for the Boston Braves a decade earlier, stumbled over his mask and dropped the ball. Given a new life, Ruel cracked a double down the third-baseline. Johnson reached base on shortstop Travis Jackson’s error, with Ruel holding second. McNeely grounded to third and, as happened four innings earlier, the ball took an inexplicable hop over Lindstrom’s head and Ruel scurried home with the Series-deciding run.
Fittingly, Johnson, after tough sledding in his two Series starts and some anxious moments in a four-inning relief sting in this climactic game, was the winning pitcher in this 4-3 game that netted Washington its first World Series title.
First baseman Joe Judge batted .385 for Washington, while left fielder Goose Goslin and Harris provided the power by combining for five home runs and 14 RBIs. Goslin hit a two-run homer and Harris socked a bases-empty shot in Game 2, which Washington won, 4-3, on Peckinpaugh’s ninth-inning double. Goslin had four hits, including a three-run homer, in Washington’s 7-4 victory in the fourth game, and he also homered in Game 5, a 6-2 Giants victory.
Terry hit .429 for the Giants, while Frisch and Lindstrom, a fill-in for the injured Heinie Groh, each batted .333 for the National Leaguers. Frisch’s performance marked the fourth consecutive Series in which he had batted .300 or higher. New York had four homers, half being struck by pitchers (reliever Rosy Ryan, who connected in New York’s 6-4 victory in Game 3, preceded Bentley in the homer column).
While McGraw would preside over many more outstanding teams and manage the Giants into the 1932 season, this was the final World Series for Little Napoleon. And although he met his Waterloo a record six times in the postseason extravaganza (against three victories), only one man has surpassed the great McGraw in total Series managerial appearances –Casey Stengel, with 10.
This article was originally published on TSN
Game Recaps from Retrosheet
1924 World Series Stories
The 1924 Post-Season Games
World Series: Washington Senators (4) defeated New York Giants (3)
World Series Game 1 Played on Saturday, October 4, 1924 (D) at Griffith Stadium
NY N 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 - 4 14 1 WAS A 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 - 3 10 1
BOX+PBP WP: Nehf (1-0) LP: Johnson (0-1) HR: Kelly (1), Terry (1)
World Series Game 2 Played on Sunday, October 5, 1924 (D) at Griffith Stadium
NY N 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 - 3 6 0 WAS A 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 - 4 6 1
BOX+PBP WP: Zachary (1-0) LP: Bentley (0-1) SV: Marberry (1) HR: Harris (1), Goslin (1)
World Series Game 3 Played on Monday, October 6, 1924 (D) at Polo Grounds V
WAS A 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 1 - 4 9 2 NY N 0 2 1 1 0 1 0 1 x - 6 12 0
BOX+PBP WP: McQuillan (1-0) LP: Marberry (0-1) SV: Watson (1) HR: Ryan (1)
World Series Game 4 Played on Tuesday, October 7, 1924 (D) at Polo Grounds V
WAS A 0 0 3 0 2 0 0 2 0 - 7 13 3 NY N 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 - 4 6 1
BOX+PBP WP: Mogridge (1-0) LP: Barnes (0-1) SV: Marberry (2) HR: Goslin (2)
World Series Game 5 Played on Wednesday, October 8, 1924 (D) at Polo Grounds V
WAS A 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 - 2 9 1 NY N 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 3 x - 6 13 0
BOX+PBP WP: Bentley (1-1) LP: Johnson (0-2) SV: McQuillan (1) HR: Goslin (3), Bentley (1)
World Series Game 6 Played on Thursday, October 9, 1924 (D) at Griffith Stadium
NY N 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 7 1 WAS A 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 x - 2 4 0
BOX+PBP WP: Zachary (2-0) LP: Nehf (1-1)
World Series Game 7 Played on Friday, October 10, 1924 (D) at Griffith Stadium
NY N 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 8 3 WAS A 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 - 4 10 4
BOX+PBP WP: Johnson (1-2) LP: Bentley (1-2) HR: Harris (2)
