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The 1926 season brought Red Sox owner, Bob Quinn, no hope for his declining team. The Red Sox battled the St. Louis Browns for a last-place, before sinking to new lows and rapidly distancing themselves from the competition. The 1926 Red Sox managed to be worse than the 1925 edition. They lost 107 games and were 15 1/2 games out of seventh place. Lee Fohl remained as manager of the Red Sox and so too did the team's losing ways. The Red Sox began the year at Fenway Park with a 6-1 exhibition victory over the Boston Braves on April 9th. This was the first of many "City Series" games that would be played between the Red Sox and Braves franchises on a frequent basis until the Braves moved from Boston.
On Opening Day, the Red Sox burned through six pitchers and lost to the Yankees, 12-11. Notably, it was the first Red Sox game broadcast on radio, with Gus Rooney from the Boston Traveler, at the WNAC microphone. The weather was windy and cold, and the Red Sox were just as miserable, trailing early 11 to 1, causing many fans to head for the exits. But Gus persisted in trying to make the game interesting for the audience. He told stories of the old days, he discussed baseball strategy, and in the late innings the Sox began to mount a comeback. The game dragged on for three hours, during which Gus was the only person talking. His newspaper colleagues noted that the next day, he was so hoarse he could barely speak at all. That didn’t stop him from doing several other ballgames in subsequent weeks. Throughout much of 1926 he could be found doing play-by-play, although more often for the Braves.
The Sox started the season by losing 2-of-3 to the Yankees. All the losses were by one run. Ira Flagstead wielded a hot bat however, going 4-for-6 in the first game, 4-for-5 in the second game, and 3-for-4 in the third game. Flagstead set a record on April 19, 1926, in the second game of the Patriot’s Day doubleheader against the visiting Athletics, by taking part in three double plays in one game, all from center field. In New York, Phil Todt was the Sox hero on April 22nd. His second homer of the game gave the Sox a 9 to 8 victory in the 10th inning. Babe Ruth had tripled in the ninth inning and then broke for home on a short fly to Flagstead. Flaggy's throw to home was perfect, but Babe bowled over Sox catcher, Alex Gaston, who dropped the ball and allowing the Yanks to tie the game. The "Babe" homered twice in the four game set. The Red Sox moved down to face Washington and in their first match-up, the Sox prevailed 8 to 6 in 10 innings. Roy Carlyle started the 10th with a double over Goose Goslin's head to the wall in left. Phil Todt was hit by a pitch and both players moved up a base on a sac bunt. Topper Rigney was next intentionally passed to load the bases. Two runners then scored on Mike Herrera's double to left center. Finally, catcher, John Bischoff tripled in two more runners for four total runs. The Nats scored two in the bottom of the 10th but it wasn't enough. The Sox (5-11) finished the month of April by losing five straight games and were already 7 1/2 games out.
May started with a 2-1 pitching duel that Ted Wingfield won over the A's and Eddie Rommel. Of the Sox six wins, Wingfield had won three of them. Phil Todt was the difference at the plate, going 4-for-4 with a double and a homer. The Sox returned to Fenway and lost three straight to Washington. Their next victory was a 1-0 decision over the Indians on May 6th. Rookie Hal Wiltse allowed the Tribe only five scattered hits in his first major league shutout. The low-light of the year however, was the day Fenway Park nearly burned to the
ground. During the game on May 7th, several small fires broke out in the
papers and refuse strewn beneath the wooden frame bleachers that ran down
the left-field foul line, from the concrete grandstand to the wall on
Lansdowne Street. The fans who saw what was going on, alertly
distinguished each blaze before any damage was done.
The firemen chopped holes through the fence behind the bleachers and ran water into the park. They then cut holes in the grandstand roof to allow the trapped heat to escape, before the fire spread to the entire ballpark. It took nearly an hour to extinguish the blaze.
The grandstand roof and fence were repaired, but the remains of third base stands were just roped off, and weren't demolished and hauled away until August. The fire caused $25,000 damage and the insurance covered the damage. Bob Quinn was happy to get the money. His plan was to put in new concrete stands, but he didn't rebuild and used the windfall to make payroll and gain a few months of breathing room. The area was left as a vacant lot, inadvertently creating one of Fenway Park's unusual features. For the rest of Quinn's ownership, the ground beyond the grandstand along the left-field foul line was the most expansive area of foul territory in the league. Foul balls hit beyond the grandstand remained in play all the way to the fence on Jersey Street. While chasing foul balls, fielders sometimes disappeared from sight, sending the base umpire running and leaving baserunners unsure whether to tag up or not. The ballpark’s luck didn’t improve. A historically powerful storm struck New England in July, wreaking havoc on the entire region. Tearing through Boston, the storm triggered a tornado to touch down in the Fenway neighborhood midway between the Boylston Street bridge and Westland Avenue. Fenway Park escaped direct contact but still experienced severe wind damage. Against the Tigers, the Sox lost three of four in the middle of May at Fenway. But Ira Flagstead had a great series, getting nine hits in 17 at bats. One of the season's highlights took place on May 21st against the White Sox. Down 7-5, Flagstead doubled to start off the ninth inning. The next two batters were retired before Phil Todt lined a single to center to score Flaggy. Then Fred Bratschi walloped a double over the head of the White Sox centerfielder and Todt sprinted home with the tying run. Fred Haney finally lined another one to center and Bratschi dashed home with the game winner. The Red Sox scored three runs for a walk-off 8 to 7 victory. The Red Sox took the next game also, 14-8. It was the first time this season the Red Sox had won two straight. Topper Rigney, who Quinn and purchased from the Tigers before the season started, walked twice, collected four hits and knocked in four runs. After this the Sox lost five straight to the Yankees and two to Washington, falling 18 1/2 games out and into the basement of the American League. Meanwhile, at Braves Field on May 28th, "Christy Mathewson Day"
was observed by major league baseball. On hand were state and city
officials, representatives of the armed services, the American Legion and
many of his friends and former teammates. Mathewson served in World War I
in the Chemical Warfare Service and died last fall, fighting the ravages
of tuberculosis from what he had been exposed. Judge Kenesaw Mountain
Landis led the tribute as a plaque was unveiled on the right wing of the
grandstand, followed by an old-timers game.
The month of June started on the road for the Red Sox, where they won only four of the seventeen games they played. They came back to Boston three weeks later, 26 games in the rear of the American League. One of the wins came in Chicago on June 6th, when Phil Todt broke up a tie game in the eight inning with a home run. It gave the Red Sox a 4 to 3 decision. Then in the home half of that inning, Boston pulled off a triple play. Rookie Bill Regan was the star in a Sox win against the Tigers, in Detroit, on June 13th. He lined out four singles and handled 11 chances in the field without a slip. Newcomer Howie Fitgerald also starred, with three hits that brought home three runs. On June 15th, Bob Quinn traded his only player of value, Howard Ehmke, to the Philadelphia Athletics for pitchers Slim Harriss, Fred Heimach and Bill "Baby Doll" Jacobson. Like most of Quinn's trades, it looked great on paper, as Ehmke was in decline, and the two Philadelphia pitchers looked good while Jacobson was a great hitter. But Ehmke pitched well for Philadelphia while Harriss and Heimach won only 8 games and lost 19 for the Red Sox.
Todt (.310 BA) had a great day on June 19th. He went 4-for-4 in Cleveland, including two doubles and a home run, as the Sox beat the Indians by an 8 to 3 score. The first place Yankees rolled into Fenway Park for a four game set and took three of the games. But the game the Red Sox won was an exciting one. On June 24th, in 11 innings, the Sox walked off with a 6 to 5 decision. With the game tied in the ninth inning, Tony Lazzeri belted a homer to put the Yanks up 5-4. In the Sox half, with Topper Rigney on second base via a walk and a ground out, Fred Bratschi singled him home to tie the score and send the game into overtime. Two men got on base in the Sox half of the 11th inning when Phil Todt slammed a hot grounder toward Lou Gehrig at first. Gehrig got in front of the smash, but the ball bounced past him and the winning run scampered home. The next day 14,000 fans showed up to watch a doubleheader, and see Babe Ruth. He did not disappoint, hitting his 24th home run of the season halfway up the right field bleachers in the second game, which the Yankees won 11-4 after beating the Sox, 12-2 in the opener. The Sox finished the month of June by taking 2-of-3 from the Washington Nationals. On June 28th, Hal Wiltse pitched a dandy three-hitter, winning 6 to 2. The next game, newcomer Slim Harris won a 5-hitter, 2 to 1.
July started on the road with trips to Philly and Washington. The Sox won only two of the eight games played. They won 10 to 5 on July 1st, again beating Lefty Grove. Ira Flagstead and Wally Shaner led the Sox' 14 hit attack with three hits apiece. The next three weeks were spent at home and the Sox continued their lack-luster decline, winning just five of the eighteen games played. The first match-up was against the Tigers and the Sox overcame a three run deficit to take the contest, 7 to 3 on July 9th. It was only the third time this season, the Sox won two straight games.
It wasn't the prettiest of efforts, but two days later the Sox split a doubleheader with Detroit. After being down 5-0 in the fifth inning of the first game, the Sox rallied and tied up the game in the eighth inning. "Baby Doll" Jacobson, who was batting .397 since being traded to Boston, homered to knot the game at five apiece. Then the Tigers got sloppy and handed the Sox the game in the 11th. Topper Rigney reached on a booted grounder, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored the walk-off run on a base hit to right by Fred Bratschi, 6-5. On July 17th, the Red Sox swept a doubleheader from the White Sox for their second and third consecutive wins. Wally Shaner's base hit scored Phil Todt in the eighth inning of the first game, to give the BoSox a 3-2 victory. The nitecap was a 4-3 decision for Ted Wingfield, who had to be bailed out by Red Ruffing. With the Red Sox up two in the ninth inning, Wingfield gave up a single and a double with nobody out. Ruffing came in, struck out Johnny Mostil, got Bill Hunnefield on a sacrifice fly that scored one runner and moved up the runner from second to third. He finally got Eddie Collins to ground out to notched a clutch save. "Baby Doll" Jacobson (.330 BA) continued to rake. On Jul 22nd, he banged out five hits in six times up, against the Browns. Then, against the Tigers in Detroit, on July 27th, he got five hits in five times at bat. Included were a run-scoring single, a two-run double and a two-run homer.
The Red Sox picked some satisfaction by beating the second-place Cleveland Indians in a doubleheader on August 3rd. In the fourth inning of the first game, the Sox scored six runs, but the Indians came back with seven in their half of the inning. Three successive Sox singles tied the score at 7-7 in the eighth. Bill Regan opened the 10th inning with a double, but was cut down at third when Alex Gaston bounced one back to the pitcher. Gaston took second on the play and moved over to third when Ted Wingfield beat out an infield hit. Jack Tobin, who the Sox picked up as a free agent at the end of July after being released by the Nats, knocked Gaston home with the go-ahead run with a single to center. Wingfield retired the Tribe in the 10th and the Sox won 8 to 7. The second game was a 2-0 shutout by Paul Zahniser, who gave up just five hits. The Sox scored their two runs in the first inning on three singles by Tobin, Wally Shaner and Phil Todt. The doubleheader sweep stopped Cleveland's seven game winning streak and was their first doubleheader lost that season. Jack Tobin came through again on August 8th in St. Louis. His bases loaded single broke up a ninth inning tie, with the Sox winning 4 to 2. The Sox and the Yankees split a doubleheader in New York on August 15th. On his road to 60 homers, Babe Ruth hit his 39th home run in the first game and then went 3-for-3 in the second game, knocking out two doubles off Sox pitcher, Paul Zahniser. Lou Gehrig also had two doubles in the game. The Red Sox did something they hadn't done all season on August 19th. They won their fifth straight game, on a 1-0 shutout by Ted Wingfield over the White Sox at Fenway Park. It also was six wins in their last seven games. But then they lost their next 17 games.
There was a slugfest at Fenway on September 1st. The Sox lost to Washington, 14-12. They were losing 9-2 in the fifth inning and came back to within a run in the sixth. "Baby Doll" Jacobson had three hits, Sy Rosenthal banged out four and Phil Todt collected three. The losing streak finally ended when the Sox won a game in New York on September 8th. Hal Wiltse limited the Yankees to five hits and the Sox offense led by Sy Rosenthal's three hits helped him win 5 to 2. The Sox exploded for three runs in the top of the ninth inning to beat the Browns, in St. Louis, 5 to 4. The Sox final win came in Cleveland on September 20th. Ted Wingfield hurled a brilliant game, holding the Tribe to seven hits. Tris Speaker homered to tie the game in the Cleveland ninth. The Sox won it in the tenth on an infield hit, a sacrifice and a go-ahead single by Fred Bratche, making the score 3 to 2, in favor of the Red Sox. The Red Sox finished with just 46 wins, one fewer than in 1925, and there wasn't even one starting pitcher on the team who could manage to win more than eight games. Three other starters were tied with six wins apiece, giving the team's top four hurlers an aggregate 26 victories. Slim Harriss wound up with a combined 9-15 season with a 4.34 ERA and Fred Heimach was 2-9 with a 5.65 ERA. Ted Wingfield won a team high 11 games while Red Ruffing and Paul Zahniser won only six each. Only reliever, Tony Welzer (4-3) managed a winning record. "Baby Doll" Jacobson batted .305 with six homers in 98 games with the Red Sox. Phil Todt led the team with seven home runs. Ira Flagstead, who suffered a broken collarbone at the end of July, making a diving catch of a low liner, was out for the rest of the season. He’d hit .299 and was on track for his fourth year in a row of solid baseball. Thirdbaseman Fred Haney hit .221 while leading the league in errors. But he led the team with 13 stolen bases. Topper Rigney, their shortstop, was the top A.L. shortstop defensively and once handled 24 chances without an error. The Red Sox were last in the league in the standings, last in batting average, last in slugging, last in stolen bases, last in ERA, and just missed being last in attendance (the St. Louis Browns drew 1,169 fewer patrons). On October 22nd, Lee Fohl resigned after losing 299 games in his three seasons as Red Sox skipper.
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