History of the World Series – 1925
Pittsburgh had won the second game, 3-2, on Kiki Cuyler’s two-run home run in the eighth inning, while the Senators had prevailed in the third game, 4-3, thanks largely Sam Rice’s late-game circus catch in right-center field.
Vic Aldridge, who had pitched the distance in the Pirates’ lone victory of the Series, was called upon by Manager Bill McKechnie to keep his club afloat in Game 5. Aldridge did just that, pitching his second straight complete-game, eight-hit victory. The 6-3 triumph — like his earlier success — had come at the expense of Stan Coveleski, the onetime Cleveland pitching great who had been obtained by Washington after the ’24 season.
Second baseman Eddie Moore, playing is first full season as an everyday player in the big leagues, then combined with second-year major leaguer Ray Kremer to help Pittsburgh tie the Series. Moore broke a 2-2 tie with a fifth-inning homer and Kremer set down the faltering Senators on six hits. The Pirates’ 3-2 victory in Game 6 meant it would all come down to one game at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. And it would be that man, Johnson, going against Aldridge.
Johnson had reached the 20-victory plateau for the 12th and last time in 1925 and, in the process, climbed within four victories of the 400 mark in his big-league career. He had spent his career with the Washington Senators, and that career dated to 1907. Aldridge, acquired from the Chicago Cubs after the ’24 season, was coming off a 15-7 year with the Pirates. A righthander, Aldridge was 10 days from his 32nd birthday.
An outstanding pitching matchup. At least on paper.
In fact, Aldridge lasted one-third of an inning. But Johnson, given a 4-0 first-inning lead and a 6-3 edge in the fourth, couldn’t contain the Pirates and was tagged for 15 hits in eight innings. Despite Johnson’s ineffectiveness, the Senators carried a 6-4 lead into the last of the seventh and seemed poised to ring up their second consecutive Series championship. The inning got off to a shaky start for Manager Bucky Harris’ team, though, when shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh muffed Moore’s pop fly. Moore reached second on the error — Peckinpaugh’s seventh of the Series — and scored on Max Carey’s third double of the game.
Two outs later, Pie Traynor laced a game-tying triple off Johnson, but the Pirates’ third baseman was out trying to stretch the hit into a home run.
With Game 7 tied at 6-6, tension was high when Washington came to bat against Pirates reliever Kremer in the eighth. After Ossie Bluege grounded out, Peckinpaugh strode to the plate. At this point, the Series had been a nightmare for the 34-year-old veteran. He had made one error in Game 1, two in Game 2, one in Game 3, another in Game 5, one in Game 6 and, to this juncture, one in Game 7. And he had collected only five hits in 23 at-bats. Possessing very little power — he had hit 10 homers in the last four seasons — Peckinpaugh, in a goat-to-hero turnaround, caught hold of a Kremer delivery and drilled it into the left-field seats. Washington was back on top, 7-6.
The prospect of Johnson holding on for his second Series-clinching victory in two seasons — after the superstar pitcher had toiled for one Washington also-ran after another for the bulk of his career — seemed the stuff of which baseball dreams are made. And the chances of same grew brighter as Johnson retired the first two Pittsburgh hitters in the bottom of the eighth, getting Glenn Wright to foul out and Stuffy McInnis to fly out.
Earl Smith and pinch-hitter Carson Bigbee followed with consecutive doubles, however, and for the second straight inning Johnson had frittered away the lead. Moore walked and Carey reached base when Peckinpaugh made a poor throw while attempting to record a forceout at second. Cuyler broke the 7-7 tie with a two-run ground-rule double, the Pirates’ eighth two-base hit of the rainy afternoon.
The Big Train had jumped the tracks. And the Senators crashed with him, falling 9-7 and losing a World Series they seemingly had locked up a few days earlier. The Pirates’ comeback marked the first time a team had rallied from a 3-1 deficit in games to win a best-of-seven Series.
While Carey batted a Series-leading .458 for Pittsburgh and Aldridge and Kremer each won two games, the individual spotlight fell mainly on Washington players. Of particular note was the performance of the Senators’ outfield, as Goose Goslin whacked three home runs in the Series for the second straight year, Joe Harris hit .440 with three homers and Rice batted .364 and made an unforgettable defensive play.
With the Senators ahead by one run in the eighth inning of Game 3, Rice ran down a long drive by Smith at the wall in right-center and tumbled into the stands. There was no immediate indication whether Rice had speared the ball before falling and it took him about 15 seconds to untangle himself from the fans and return to the field — at which time he held up the ball to signal he had made the catch. The Pirates disputed the call, saying a Washington fan may have stuffed the ball into Rice’s glove, but umpire Cy Rigler called Smith out.
Rice parried questions about the play the rest of his life, but in a letter to Hall of Fame officials — a missive to be opened only after his death, which occurred in 1974 — he tried to put an end to nearly 50 years of suspense. “At no time did I lose possession of the ball,” Rice wrote.
Peckinpaugh, of course, was always losing possession of the ball.
The AL MVP in 1925, he suffered a stinging comedown against the Pirates by setting a record with eight errors in one Series (regardless of position).
And then there was Johnson, overpowering in his first two starts but underwhelming in the decisive seventh game.
For the Pirates, it was a return to a supremacy of the baseball world they had not enjoyed since 1909 when rookie pitcher Babe Adams led the club to the World Series title by beating the Detroit Tigers three times. There was even a link to that previous title — Adams, who at 43 pitched one inning of relief against Washington in Game 4.
This article was originally published on TSN
Game Recaps from Retrosheet
1925 World Series Stories
The 1925 Post-Season Games
World Series: Pittsburgh Pirates (4) defeated Washington Senators (3)
World Series Game 1 Played on Wednesday, October 7, 1925 (D) at Forbes Field
WAS A 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 - 4 8 1 PIT N 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 - 1 5 0
BOX+PBP WP: Johnson (1-0) LP: Meadows (0-1) HR: J. Harris (1), Traynor (1)
World Series Game 2 Played on Thursday, October 8, 1925 (D) at Forbes Field
WAS A 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 8 2 PIT N 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 x - 3 7 0
BOX+PBP WP: Aldridge (1-0) LP: Coveleski (0-1) HR: Judge (1), Cuyler (1), Wright (1)
World Series Game 3 Played on Saturday, October 10, 1925 (D) at Griffith Stadium
PIT N 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 - 3 8 3 WAS A 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 0 x - 4 10 1
BOX+PBP WP: Ferguson (1-0) LP: Kremer (0-1) SV: Marberry (1) HR: Goslin (1)
World Series Game 4 Played on Sunday, October 11, 1925 (D) at Griffith Stadium
PIT N 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 6 1 WAS A 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 x - 4 12 0
BOX+PBP WP: Johnson (2-0) LP: Yde (0-1) HR: Goslin (2), J. Harris (2)
World Series Game 5 Played on Monday, October 12, 1925 (D) at Griffith Stadium
PIT N 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 1 1 - 6 13 0 WAS A 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 - 3 8 1
BOX+PBP WP: Aldridge (2-0) LP: Coveleski (0-2) HR: J. Harris (3)
World Series Game 6 Played on Tuesday, October 13, 1925 (D) at Forbes Field
WAS A 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 6 2 PIT N 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 x - 3 7 1
BOX+PBP WP: Kremer (1-1) LP: Ferguson (1-1) HR: Goslin (3), Moore (1)
World Series Game 7 Played on Thursday, October 15, 1925 (D) at Forbes Field
WAS A 4 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 - 7 7 2 PIT N 0 0 3 0 1 0 2 3 x - 9 15 3
BOX+PBP WP: Kremer (2-1) LP: Johnson (2-1) SV: Oldham (1) HR: Peckinpaugh (1)
