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EARL JOHNSON |
THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, PART 2 ...
A POWERFUL RED SOX TEAM FAILS
IN THE WORLD SERIES ...
The Red Sox romp 13-6, but the Nats route Boo Ferriss
April 17, 1946 ... The Red Sox won everything except Ted Williams' colorful attempt to revolutionize baseball this afternoon, as the Sox made it two straight over the sluggish Washington Senators, with a 13-6
knockout registered before 9872 stands at Griffith Stadium.
The uninhibited sluggers sudden tried to add something new to the two often conventional national past time in the sixth inning of the ballgame that also saw Dave Ferriss knocked out in his sophomore debut.
Williams had a single and a pair of two baggers, one of them a foot from a home run, in his first three appearances at the plate. Where the Earl Johnson on third and Dom DiMaggio on second, the Senators wisely decided to hand, Ted his first intentional pass of the season.
Max Wilson had thrown only the first of his wide pitches to catcher Evans, standing halfway down the third base line, when Williams suddenly took off for first on the gallop. The home plate umpire Bill Grieve suddenly realized what was going on and summoned the grinning, Ted back to the
plate to await three more useless pitches by Wilson. It was in the same sixth inning, that Don DiMaggio pulled the smartest play of the day. Right after. Williams finally got down to first base, Bobby Doerr slapped a grounder to third baseman Sherry Robertson. While the Senators just missed
making a doubleplay around the horn, Dom scored all the way from second.
Don made only two of the 15 sox base hits, but he scored four runs and had four RBI, because one of his blows was a three-run inside-the-park homer off the starter, Walt Masterson in the second inning.
The Sox handed Ferriss a 4-0 lead, but Dave didn't have it today. Ferriss finally departed in the fourth inning with the Sox leading 8-5, and after being nicked for eight hits, three walks, and a hit batsman. He was relieved by war hero Earl Johnson. It was Earl's first American League
appearance since the fall of 1941 when he marched off to stop the Nazis.
For the second straight day, every one of the Sox regulars hit safely at least once, and the when no errors in the field. |
