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1924 BOSTON RED SOX ...
1924 was the first year for Red Sox new owner Bob Quinn. He started by firing manager Frank Chance and brought in ex Browns manager Lee Fohl. He then traded George Burns, Chick Fewster and Al Walters to the Cleveland Indians for secondbaseman Bill Wambsganns, catcher Steve O'Neill, pitching prospect Dan Boone and some others. The Detroit Tigers sold their long time star, Bobby Veach to the Red Sox and shortstop Dud Lee was acquired from the Browns. Attendance doubled during the season and was the highest since 1916. But then Quinn's partner, Palmer Winslow, passed away and he had controlled the purse strings of the Red Sox syndicate. Without him and his support, Quinn lost any chance to make gains. Winslow had $425,000 invested in the club and his widow still held a dim hope that the Red Sox would turn things around. She did not want to sell, but did not want to further invest any of the money she had left to her.
Opening Day was against the Yankees on April 15th at Fenway Park and close to 24,000 fans saw the Sox lose to New York in the last inning. Down 1-0, Babe Ruth got his only hit of the game to start a ninth inning rally, that saw his Yankees pull out a 2-1 win. But the Sox came back the next day and tagged old friends Sam Jones and Joe Bush to earn a 9-6 win. Jack Quinn was masterful for the Sox and allowed only three hits, striking out the Babe twice. Alex Ferguson held the Yankees to five hits in the third game, as the Sox ran away in a 9 to 1 romp on April 17th. A ten run second inning on nine hits gave the Sox all the runs they could use and then some, in beating the Philadelphia A's, 12-0 on Patriots Day. Rightfielder Ike Boone knocked out three hits and leftfielder Bobby Veach had two doubles, good for three RBIs.
Then the Sox went down to play the Yankees and New York and were swept four straight. In the first game, Babe Ruth got three hits, including a homer in a 13-4 white-wash of the Sox. The Babe also homered in the third game. The fourth game on April 26th was a one-run 4-3 loss, but Joe Harris had four hits for the Sox and Veach homered. In Washington on April 27th, the Sox lost but pulled off a triple play. With men Bucky Harris on first and Nemo Leibold on second, Sam Rice crashed a liner to Sox firstbaseman, Joe Harris. Harris grabbed the drive, threw to shortstop Dud Lee, who tagged second, getting Leibold and threw back to Joe before Bucky could get back to first safely. The Sox scored 15 runs on April 29th, to beat the Nats 15-6 in the third game. Harris (.375 BA) collected four hits including two doubles and Ira Flagstead also had two doubles, good for bringing home three runs. The Sox finished April in 6th place, four games behind the Yankees and Tigers.
In Philadelphia, the Sox took three straight from the A's to start the month of May. In the first game, Harris' triple in the third inning gave the Sox the lead and they won, 5 to 1. The next day, while Howard Ehmke shut down the Athletics on three hits, Bobby Veach and Ike Boone had three hits apiece, while Ira Flagstead homered to score 11 runs, 11-0. In the third game, Joe Harris homered in the first inning, and got two more hits bringing home five runs, leading the Sox to a 9 to 6 win. The Sox next returned home to meet Washington and successfully took three of the four games. In the first meeting on May 5th, there were 23 hits, including seven doubles, three men hit by pitches, four errors and 16 free passes. The Sox prevailed 8 to 3, and it was Flagstead who led the way with three hits. The second game was a 14-4 Sox runaway for their sixth straight win. Danny Clark scored five runs, including a long double to the left field bank, with the bases loaded in the first inning. He then singled in the sixth inning with runners on second and third. The Sox then went on to score nine runs in the eight inning. The third game went to the Nats, but it took them 11 innings to win it. The final game went to the Sox, 4 to 2. Ahead 2 to 0, thanks to a triple with two men on, by John "Shano" Collins, the Sox put the game away in the third inning with a run-scoring double by Danny Clark. Rain was the opponent for the next four days and when they were able to play again on May 13th, the Sox lost to the Browns. But then the White Sox came to Fenway and the Sox again took three of the four games they played. The Sox ran all over Chicago in their first meeting, winning 12 to 0. Jack Quinn was invincible on the mound, allowing just four hits, while Bobby Veach, Joe Harris, Ike Boone and Steve O'Neill knocked out three hits apiece. After losing the second game the Red Sox overcame a 3-0 deficit and took the White Sox to 12 innings when Bill Wambsganss laced a base hit, with a man on second, for a walk-off 4 to 2 win on May 16th. The next game was an exciting 5-4 Red Sox win, as Danny Clark brought in two runners with a base hit, to break a 1-1 sixth inning tie. In Detroit for the next game, former Tiger players Bobby Veach and Ira Flagstead punished their former teammates by leading the Sox to a 5 to 4 win. Back in Boston for the next three games, the Sox took two from the Tigers. On May 19th, the score was 9 to 1 as Wambsgnass and Boone each had a pair of doubles to lead the Sox. After a rain out, Clark again produced the game wining hit, bringing home Wamby in the bottom of the eighth inning for a 5-4 win. Cleveland next came to Fenway and were subdued by Howard Ehmke. He gave up four scattered hits until the ninth inning and won the game 5 to 1. The next day the Sox won again, 6 to 2. Joe Harris (.407 BA) led the way with two hits, one of them a double in the first inning to score the tying run, 1 to 1. Flagstead and Boone finished the job with three hits apiece.
In a slugfest on May 26th, the Sox prevailed over the Tribe, 10-9. The Sox were down by five runs in the fourth inning and the scored seven runs in the bottom half of the inning. The next inning saw the Indians score three to go up a run, only to have the Sox tie it up in their half. Two more runs in the bottom of the eighth, put the Sox ahead to stay and earn a sweep of the series. As a result, the Sox (19-11) now sat with the Yankees atop the American League. In Philadelphia, the Sox split a doubleheader with the A's on May 28th. Ehmke lost the first game, allowing only two hits, one of which was a game-winning homer. Jack Quinn came thru in the second game, leading the Sox to a 1-0 win. The Washington Nationals battled the Sox to a Memorial Day doubleheader split at Fenway on May 30th. The Sox took the first game 9-4 and lost the nitecap, 10-5 in front of 36,000 fans. Ike Boone walloped a grandslam homer and accounted for six RBIs, adding two more hits. Meanwhile, the Sox infield pulled off a lightning triple play. For a short time the crowd saw the Sox in sole possession of first place, winning the first game, while the Yankees lost. But that was reversed in the second game, as the day ended with both teams tied atop the American League. The Sox lost the final game of the series to close out the month of May with a 21-14 record, 1/2 game behind the Yankees. The Sox record for the month was 17-7.
A long road trip started in St. Louis against the Browns. The Sox took the first two games 8 to 7 and 6 to 5. The first meeting was tied three times with Harris and Boone slugging home runs that put the Red Sox in the lead each time. The second game was equally exciting. Boone banged another home run in the eighth inning that put the Sox ahead to stray. And so for the first time, the Red Sox stood atop the American League at day's end, 1/2 game ahead of the Yankees. They were a happy bunch, having been in last place on April 27th. Pennant fever began to sweep Boston by storm. Everybody started singing "Tessie" and there was talk about bringing back the "Royal Rooters".
But the Sox lost the next two games, with the Browns earning a split of the series. Ike Boone (.373 BA), however maintained a strong bat, belting another homer in the final game. A trip to Chicago was next and there the Red Sox also split the four game series, starting with a 3-1 win behind Jack Quinn on June 7th. He was there in the clutch each time the White Sox threatened and was close to a shutout when the Chicagoans broke thru for their only tally in the ninth inning. The White Sox got a win in the second game of the series but the Red Sox bounced back to take the third game, 5 to 1. Thirteen base hits rattled of their bats and the victory was never in doubt. Howard Ehmke held Chicago to four hits to mark the high water mark of the Red Sox season. This win on June 9th, put the Sox ahead of the Yankees by a full game on top of the American League standings. But then reality set in, as the Sox stumbled, losing the next eight of their remaining ten games on the road trip. They split with the Indians in Cleveland, winning the middle two games of the four game series. Their win on June 13th was highlighted by Bobby Veach and Ike Boone, who each knocked in three runs, with Veach blasting a homer. It would be the last time they were atop the American League, as they lost the next four games in Detroit. Veach did have a great game against is old team in Detroit, on June 18th. The Sox were beaten 5 to 3, their fifth straight loss, but Bobby had three hits, including a double and a triple. So the Sox headed to New York to play the Yankees, but they were two men short. Pitcher, Bill Piercy, who was hit in the head by a line drive during the last game with the Tigers, suffered a fractured skull. And the Sox leading hitter Joe Harris, was hospitalized after having his tonsils removed. The two teams met in a doubleheader on June 21st. The first game went to the Yankees, 5 to 3, with the Yanks pounding Jack Quinn. The second game ended in a 3-3 tie when rain caused the game to be halted. The Sox were up 3-0 in the fifth inning, when the Yanks loaded the bases with two outs. Alex Ferguson was pitching to Babe Ruth and with the count at 3 and 2, Ferguson caught Ernie Johnson off second base and threw to shortstop Dud Lee in an attempted pick-off. Herb Pennock was on third and broke for home and Dud intercepted Fergie's throw and threw Herb out at the plate. But umpire George Moriarty declared that Fergie had balked on his throw to second and declared the play dead. He advanced the runners one base, Pennock scoring the run that tied the game at 3 to 3. Move ahead to the sixth inning and the Sox loaded the bases with nobody out. At that point the skies opened and the umpires had no choice but to call the game a tie. It was just the kind of bad luck that happens to a Red Sox team that went from winning to losing. The Sox did win the final game in New York, but returned to Boston having won only four of their last fifteen games. On the trip overall, Jack Quinn lost three starts and won one, and Alex Ferguson lost three starts and won two. Howard Ehmke won three and lost two and George Murray lost two, while the injured Bill Piercy won one and lost one. The Sox were in third place, two games behind New York. The Sox started the homestand losing and doubleheader to the Athletics and then winning the next two games. The third game, Alex Ferguson allowed just five scattered hits, winning 4 to 1. The next day, on June 25th, in the ninth inning, with Phil Todt and Danny Clark on base and the score tied, Ike Boone delivered the winning blow, 4 to 3. The Yankees came to Fenway next and the Sox could only manage one win in the four game set. That was in the first game. The Yanks got to Ehmke for 15 hits, but he struck out Babe Ruth twice with men on base. The Sox had 12 hits of their own with Wambsgnass banging out a pair of doubles and a pair of singles, to lead the Sox to an 8 to 5 win, and pushing New York into fourth place. The Yankees took revenge the next day, sweeping a doubleheader and pounding Sox pitching, 12-7 and 10-5. The fourth game went to 12 innings in a pitchers duel between Alex Ferguson and Herb Pennock. Ex-Sox iron man, Everett Scott, who was playing in his 1200th consecutive game, turned the trick on his old teammates. With the scored tied a two apiece and men on first and third in the 12th, the Yankees tried a suicide squeeze. Wally Pipp was the runner on third and broke for home. But the pitch was too wide and Scott couldn't do anything, so he threw his bat at the ball. Pipp was a dead duck, but the runner on first, Ernie Johnson, scooted down to second. Scotty lined the next pitch up the middle and Johnson scored a run. A base on balls and an error, allowed Scott to then score and put the Yankees up 4-2. The Sox scored a run in the bottom of the 12th but lost 4 to 3. The Sox next assignment was to play the first place Washington Nationals down in Washington for six games. They lost five of the games, scoring only six runs, and fell into close to the cellar of the American League, seven games behind. The pitching wasn't bad, but the Sox batters couldn't get a hit. Over the last 36 innings of the series, the Sox only managed 16 hits in 118 at bats, scoring only two runs. Ehmke did win his 10th game however, in a fine pitcher's duel with Walter Johnson on June 30th. The Sox pulled out a 2-1 victory in 11 innings as Danny Clark went 4-for-5 and scored the winning run on a single by Howie Shanks in the 11th.
They next traveled north to Philadelphia for six games with the eighth place Athletics. There, they won only two, concluding the road trip with a 3-9 record. But they did sweep both games of a doubleheader from the A's on July 5th, 6-3 and 7-2. Flagstead was a perfect 5-for-5 in the first game, including a double and a triple. At home, the Red Sox hosted the St. Louis Browns for six games and split the series, winning the middle three games, including a doubleheader sweep on July 9th. The first game saw the Sox overcome a 3-0 deficit and go on to win 5 to 4. On July 11th, in the second game of a doubleheader, they overcame a 5-0 Browns lead, to take the game, 7 to 6. Dud Lee went 4-for-4, two of the hits being triples. And so, the Sox took four of the six games played with St. Louis. The bottom fell out for the Red Sox after that, as they lost their next nine straight games and fell deep into the American League basement, 13 games out of first place by July 21st. During the losing streak, Sox opponents (White Sox, Tigers and Indians) out-hit them 110-62 and outscored them 76-31. Wambsgnass lined a base hit in the 11th inning with the bases loaded, to break a 3-3 tie with the Indians, thus breaking the Sox losing streak on July 22nd. The next day was a free-for-all 16-12 victory and then on July 24th, the Sox engaged the Indians in a see-saw battle that went in the Sox favor, with a walk-off 10-9 extra inning win. The Sox next took off for a western road trip and started off by beating the Browns, in St. Louis, 4 to 2, their fourth straight win. On July 28th the Sox beat the Browns 10-5 in a protested game. The protest was that umpire Brick Owens did not have pinch runner Norm McMillan bat in the proper position in the Browns batting order. McMillan entered the game in the eighth inning, running for catcher Hank Severeid. In the same inning Ernie Wingard hit for shortstop Wally Gerber. McMillan stayed in the game and took Gerber's place at shortstop the following inning. Tony Rego took Severeid's place behind the plate. Then in the ninth inning, with the Sox ahead 5-4, Gene Robertson doubled home the tying run. McMillan followed and came up to bat in Severeid's position in the batting order. But umpire Owens ruled incorrectly that Rego, the catcher, was the appropriate batter in Severeid's spot. Rego grounded out and at that point the protest was lodged by the Browns that Rego was forced to bat because of the umpire. The Sox scored five runs in the 10th inning and won the game 10-5. The protest was later upheld by Ban Johnson, but he gave the Red Sox the victory.
The Sox split the series with the Browns and then lost three of four in Chicago. They won on August 2nd, 7 to 3 thanks to Flagstead's bat, who went 4-for-4 with a home run. But then the Sox lost for straight in Cleveland and three of four in Detroit, having won only four games of the 16 game road trip. They were in the American League basement, 16 games behind.
Then at home the Sox embarked on a long and successful homestand that pulled them out of last place. They started by sweeping a doubleheader from the White Sox on August 13th, 6 to 0 and 4 to 1. Ehmke and Curt Fullerton pitched brilliantly. Ehmke pitched 7 1/3 no-hit innings while Fullerton only gave up a run because of a wild pitch. Ike Boone had five hits during the course of the afternoon. The Sox ended up sweeping the four game set from the White Sox to start the homestand. On August 18th, the Red Sox defeated the Browns in a last ditch effort by a 3 to 2 score. In the ninth, five clutch hits had produced three runs in two-thirds of an inning for the walk-off come-from-behind win. The next day the Sox won again, 11-5. Flagstead doubled and homered while Joe Harris tripled with two men on and had 3 RBIs for the game. Having split the series with the Browns, the Sox next took 3-of-4 from the Indians. In the first match, Flagstead got four hits to lead the Sox to a 5 to 4 win. The winning run came in the eighth inning on a double by Harris and a base hit by Homer Ezzell. The second game belonged to Jack Quinn. Not only did he pitch a masterly game, but he drove in the winning run in the 10th inning, to give him a 2-1 walk-off victory. A double by Wambsgnass in the eighth inning, brought the Sox from behind and a 5-4 win in the third game. Next was the Detroit Tigers and the Sox took two of the three games they played. On August 25th, in the 11th inning, Flagstead was sent home, after he doubled, by Wamby's base hit, giving the Sox an exciting 4-3 walk-off victory. Then the Sox hosted the Philadelphia A's for five games and won three. The first two games on August 28th, were a doubleheader sweep, 6 to 3 and 8 to 7. The opener was an easy win for pitcher Curt Fullerton, but in the second game, the Red Sox blew a 7-0 lead and let the A's tie the game up. Then in the eight inning, Boone blasted a home run into the bleachers to provide the winning margin. The next day, Howard Ehmke kept Philly under his thumb, striking out seven, without allowing a free pass. The Sox won the game 5 to 1. The A's bounced back the next day, however, and swept a doubleheader. So the Sox won 14 of the 20 game homestand and crept back up in the standings to 6th place, but still a hefty 14 games behind the first place Yankees.
September started with a five game meeting in Yankee Stadium and New York took four. The Yankees started by sweeping a doubleheader. Herb Pennock shut out the Sox 3-0 in the first game even though Wambsgnass went 3 for 3. Then the Yankees beat up the Sox 12-2 in the second game. Wamby had two more hits in the finale, for a five hit day, the only bright spot for the Red Sox. The only Sox win came in the first game of a doubleheader the next day. The Sox banged out 15 hits in the 14-6 triumph, including a grandslam homer from the bat of Danny Clark. It was on to Washington to meet the Nats, who had overtaken the Yankees atop the American League standings. There, the Sox lost 2 of 3 and fell back to 18 games behind. The Yankees then came to Fenway Park and took all four games played. So although the Sox had played well against everyone else in the American League, against the top two teams, they won only 2 of the last 13 match-ups. Then they split with the Browns and lost four straight in Chicago, but won three in a row in Cleveland. On September 19th, Ira Flagstead knocked out four hits in a 5-3 Sox win. The Sox finished their last road trip losing two in Detroit, falling to 24 1/2 games out. The Washington Nationals came to Fenway Park to close the season. They were two games ahead of the Yankees for a first place battle, so the series was anything but meaningless. The Sox took the first game, 2 to 1, as Alex Ferguson out-dueled Walter Johnson. The Sox grabbed a 2-0 lead on four singles in the fourth inning. Fergy held the Senators scoreless until the eighth, but buckled down with a man on third to get out of the jam. And then in the ninth, with a man on first, Roger Peckinpaugh of the Nats, blooped a single to right, but was thrown out at second to end the game.
Washington assured themselves of at least at tie by beating the Red Sox, 7 to 5 in the second game, and maintaining a two game lead over the Yankees. The winning hit came in the fifth inning with two outs and the Sox leading 4-2. Rookie Wade Lefler slashed a double down the right field line to put Washington ahead to stay. In the third game, on the second to last game of the season, Washington clinched the American League pennant, by beating the Red Sox, 4 to 2. The 1924 Red Sox had some good hitting, but the pitching cost them. Only Howard Ehmke (19-17) had a winning record for the Sox pitchers. Ike Bonne hit .335 and Joe Harris batted .302, but Bill Wambsgnass and Steve O'Neill who had come to the Sox, way past their prime, were a bust. The Red Sox (68-87) finished tied for seventh place, only being kept out of the basement by the equally inept, Chicago White Sox.
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