Tag: 1923

It’s Zack Wheat Day at Ebbets Field, and the retiring Dodger outfielder collects two hits and is given an automobile. Cy Williams of the Phillies spoils the special day as he ties the score in the seventh inning with his 39th homer and his 40th in the 12th frame gives Philadelphia the victory, 6-4.

At Yankee Stadium, the Bronx Bombers beat the Red Sox, 24-4. En route to their one-sided victory, New York bangs out thirty hits in the game to set an American League record.

Red Sox owner Bob Quinn announces that Frank Chance will not manage the team next year.

Signed in June for a $1,500 bonus, and recently brought up from Hartford (Eastern League), Lou Gehrig hits the first of his 493 home runs. It comes off Bill Piercy at Fenway Park in an 8 – 3 New York win.

1923 – Rogers Hornsby is fined $500 and suspended indefinitely by the Cardinals when, feeling ill, he refuses to take the field for a game against the Robins, despite the team doctor’s opinion that he is in condition to play. Raj is not needed as Jesse Haines tops Brooklyn, 4 – 1, for his 20th win.

Bill Terry takes his first swings in a Giants uniform as a pinch hitter. On September 30th he will play his first game at 1B and get his first hit in a 4 – 3 win over Boston.

Detroit pitcher Ray Francis, with a 3 – 0 lead over the Yankees, issues a bases-loaded walk to Babe Ruth, but hangs on for the victory.

1923 – Babe Ruth is the unanimous choice of the American League committee of baseball writers for the MVP award.

At Washington, Walter Johnson notches two wins against the Browns, winning one game in relief, and the other as a starter. The first game is 5 – 4, in 10 innings, and the second is 12 – 2, in seven innings.

The Giants’ George Kelly sets a major-league record by homering in the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings against the Cubs’ Vic Aldridge as New York rolls to a 13 – 6 win. Kelly adds a single and double to run his total bases to 15 for the game. Kelly has now hit a record six homers off cousin Aldridge this year, a mark off one pitcher that will be tied by Ted Williams (in 1941, off Johnny Rigney) and Ted Kluszewski (in 1954, off Max Surkont). Kelly is the first player to homer in three successive innings.

1923 – The Cubs lose, 10 – 6, to the Giants in Chicago, despite the hitting of Hack Miller who collects three doubles and a triple. A riot occurs in the 8th inning when umpire Charlie Moran makes an out call at second base on Sparky Adams, Moran is pelted by hundreds of pop bottles. Judge Landis, in attendance at the game, shakes his cane at the angry mob, and play is held up for 15 minutes. John McGraw and the umpires need a police escort at the conclusion.

1923 – Paul Strand, RF for Salt Lake City (Pacific Coast League), makes his 290th hit, a pro baseball record. He will play in 194 games, make 325 hits, including 66 doubles, 13 triples, and 43 home runs, for a .394 BA, with 180 runs and 187 RBI. He also has 612 total chances in the OF. Strand, 30, had come up to the Boston Braves as a pitcher in 1913 and was 6 – 2 for the 1914 pennant winners, mostly in relief. The Athletics will pay a reported $100,000 (which Connie Mack later says was really $40,000) for him, but he will hit just .228.

Red Sox first baseman George Burns completes an unassisted triple play against the Indians as he gathers in Frank Brower’s line drive, tags Rube Lutzke coming from first, and beats Riggs Stephenson back to second.

Red Sox first baseman George Burns completes an unassisted triple play against the Indians as he gathers in a Frank Brower line drive, tags Rube Lutzke coming from first, and beats Riggs Stephenson back to second.

The Cubs’ Vic Keen stops the Giants, 7 – 1, cutting the National League leaders lead down to a half-game. The lone Giants score is a George Kelly homer.

1923 – The White Sox buy OF Maurice Archdeacon from Rochester (International League) for $50,000. After batting .402 in 22 games, the little speed merchant will drop to .319, then to .111, then out of sight.

After Yankee leadoff hitter Whitey Witt reaches first base on a controversial infield hit that is ruled a single, Boston P Howard Ehmke retires the next 27 batters for a 3 – 0 win, his 20th of the year. The Yankee crowd exhorts the scorer Fred Lieb to reverse his call on the hard grounder that 3B Howie Shanks booted, but the one hit stands. Ehmke has now given up just one hit in his last two games.

Minor league head Michael Sexton fines the president of the Norfolk club $1,000 and suspends the team indefinitely for an attack on the umpire. Sexton also accused the Virginia League president of laxity in that this is the second attack on an ump in the league this year. Since the season is closed the suspension of the team does not affect the standings.

1923 – In an International League game, the Syracuse Stars are leading 3 – 2 in the 7th and final inning when umpire George Magerkurth calls a Baltimore runner safe, giving the Orioles a last chance at bat. Stars manager Frank Shaughnessy protests and the fans agree with him by pouring out onto the field, and the ump awards the forfeit win to the O’s.

1923 – The A’s are hit with a no-hitter for the second time in four days as Boston’s Howard Ehmke strikes out one while pitching a 4 – 0 no-hitter against them. “Ehmke’s zippy crossfire came out of the shortstop’s chest like bad news from a gatling gun” (Philadelphia Public Ledger). Preserving the no-hitter is rival pitcher Slim Harriss, who hits the ball to the wall in the 7th and winds up on second base, but he is called out for failing to touch first base. An 8th-inning liner by Frank Welch is fumbled in LF and he reaches first. The liner is initially ruled a single but changed before the inning is over. Ehmke has now won six straight over the A’s this season. For Ehmke’s batterymate, Val Picinich, it is his third no-hitter, each with a different team.

Sam Jones no-hits the A’s, 2-0 at Shibe Park. The Yankee hurler does not strike out any Philadelphia batters, a feat which will not be repeated until 1969 when Ken Holtzman becomes another pitcher to record a no-hitter without fanning a hitter.

1923 – Yankee Sam Jones no-hits the Athletics, 2 – 0, beating Bob Hasty. Babe Ruth makes the only strikeout of the game as he slips a point behind Detroit’s Harry Heilmann in the batting race. Not till Ken Holtzman’s no-hitter in 1969 will another pitcher record a no-hitter with no strikeouts. In a twilight charity game, Babe Ruth plays 1B for Philadelphia’s Ascension Catholic Club. Ruth scores the only run in a 2 – 1 loss to the Lit Brothers.

Sam Jones no-hits the A’s, 2-0 at Shibe Park. The Yankee hurler does not strike out any Philadelphia batters, a feat which will not be repeated until 1969 when Ken Holtzman becomes another pitcher to record a no-hitter without fanning a hitter.