1925 BOSTON RED SOX ...

Red Sox owner, Bob Quinn, had no revenue in which to build a good baseball team. But he still held out to the dim hope that he could be as successful as he was with the St. Louis Browns. His ego also got in the way, because owning a major league baseball club meant membership into one of the most exclusive men's clubs in America and he didn't want to lose that.

But without money, the Red Sox soon became one of the worst teams in the history of baseball. All of Quinn's high-priced phenoms proved to be unsuccessful and the attendance at Fenway Park soon dropped and Quinn could hardly make payroll. Babe Ruth was paid more money in New York than the whole Red Sox team. It was a classic Catch-22. Without good players there would be no fans and without fans, there was no money to acquire good players. Many clubs were making agreements with minor league teams and Quinn couldn't afford to buy any good prospects.

BOB QUINN

Nothing about the entire Red Sox operation was of major-league quality and there was also no money to maintain Fenway Park. The ballpark soon fell into a state of disrepair and looked like an abandoned warehouse. Attendance plunged more than 180,000 less than in 1924 and averaged barely 3000 fans per game. And that figure was usually only reached only on holidays, and on the occasional appearance of the "Babe" and the Yankees.

Quinn brought up everybody he had from the minor leagues. Young players like Jack Rothrock, Bill Rogell and Hall-of-Famer, Red Ruffing would eventually become quality baseball players and stars, but not with the Red Sox.

Promising young players were sold or traded as quickly as possible, and Quinn spent all his time playing catch-up instead of getting ahead. The pitching was terrible. The Sox were first in the league in runs allowed. Ted Wingfield had 20 losses, Howard Ehmke lost 19 games and the young rookie, Red Ruffing lost eighteen.

In early 1925, the New York Yankees offered to trade Lou Gehrig to the Red Sox for first baseman Phil Todt, to repay Boston for the blockbuster Babe Ruth trade a few years earlier, but Quinn turned it down.  Todt had proven himself at the major-league level with one year’s experience under his belt (.262 in 103 at-bats), while Gehrig’s short stints in 1923 and 1924 didn’t provide enough of a sample size for him. 

And so, the Red Sox were overmatched and finished the season losing 105 games. It was the first time since 1906 that the Sox had lost over 100 games. They scored 639 runs but allowed 922 and committed 63 more errors than they had in 1924.

Spring training started and Howard Ehmke was diagnosed with a “twisted ligament” and was sent to a hospital in Rochester, New York, where he contacted influenza. He therefore missed the first two weeks of the season.

The Sox started the season in Philadelphia and lost 3-of-4, but Ira Flagstead was 4-for-5 with a homer on April 14th. Then went to New York and lost two. They opened the season at Fenway against the Athletics and lost three straight, before winning 3-2 with an 11th inning walk-off on April 25th.

On April 29th, Quinn traded Joe Harris to the Washington Nationals for outfielder Roy Carlyle and pitcher, Paul Zahniser. The Red Sox finished the month with only two wins in twelve game and were in last place, seven games behind.

Jack Quinn picked up his third straight win to start the month of May against the Yankees at Fenway. The Yankees has a 3-2 lead going into the seventh inning. Herb Pennock was pitching for the Yankees and gave up singles to Val Picinich, Ira Flagstead, Bill Wambsgnass, Tex Vache and Doc Prothro, sandwiched around a free pass to Ike Boone. The result was five runs and a 7 to 5 Sox win.

The next day, May 2nd, the Sox made it two straight over the Yankees, winning 5 to 4 in the ninth inning. Bob Shawkey, who had issued nine free passes to the Sox, issued another when he walked Vache with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, in a 4-4, tied game. Vache stole second and Todt bounced a grounder that secondbaseman Aaron Ward booted, allowing Vache to score the walk-off game winner.

Bobby Veach and Alex Ferguson were the next to be sold off. On May 5th, they were sent to the Yankees in exchange for $9000 and pitcher, Ray Francis.

In Washington, the Sox lost two of the three games, but in the middle contest, they jumped out to a 9-0 lead and coasted to a 9 to 4 victory. Ike Boone had three hits and four RBIs, in the game, including two doubles.

Then in Detroit, two games later, the Sox pummeled the Tigers, 15 to 7. Boone had three more hits to go along with five RBIs, and Wambsgnass brought home five runners with his four hits, that included a pair of doubles. Flagstead was only 1-for-1 in the game, but scored five runs (he walked five times.) 

The Sox and Tigers split their four game series, with the undefeated Jack Quinn pitching his fourth straight win, 7 to 4, in the last game. Boone knocked out another three hits, boosting his average to .375.

Four straight losses in Cleveland followed. In the first game, a 9-to-4 loss on May 12th, Phil Todt went 4-for-4 with three doubles. The Sox made 10 or more hits in every game, but for the most part, they came in the wrong places when men were on base.

Then in St. Louis the Browns took three of the four games played. On May 18th, Red Ruffing picked up his first win in the big leagues, winning 12 to 7. The Sox banged out 11 hits, including a home run and two doubles by the newcomer, Roy Carlyle.

After two days of idleness, the Sox split a doubleheader with the Yankees in New York on May 26th. Ira Flagstead's home run gave the Sox a 3-2 win in the first game. The Yankees won the next day, but two days later the Sox and Yankees split another doubleheader. Jack Quinn (6-1) took credit in the opener, 3 to 1. Ike Boone's second homer of the series was the difference.

Following a series in Washington, the Sox returned to Yankee Stadium on May 31st. In the 12th inning, the Sox pushed three runs across the plate to win, 9 to 6. The road trip ended the month of May. The Sox had won 10 and lost 16, finishing the month in the American League basement, 15 games behind.

Boone's home run and good pitching from Ruffing, started the month of June on a positive note, the Sox beating the A's, 5 to 3.

On June 5th, Flagstead came off the bench as a pinch hitter, with the bases loaded, in the bottom of the ninth. The Cleveland Indians had just taken the lead in a tie game with a home run in the top of the ninth, 4-3. Flaggy laced a single to right that scored two runners, giving the Sox a 5 to 4 walk-off win.

Two games later Howard Ehmke held the Indians under his thumb, beating them 3-1. He gave up three hits in the first inning and held them hitless until the seventh, facing only 27 batters in the last eight innings.

After having three games in the June homestand, where Red Sox pitchers allowed more than ten runs, on June 15th, the Sox hitters had some payback. Against the White Sox on June 15th, Flagstead and Boone homered, Todt got a single and a triple, Wambsgnass had four hits, including two doubles, and Ruffing collected three hits, good for 3 RBIs. The Red Sox scored thirteen runs, winning 13-5.

The next day Ehmke won his fourth straight game, 2 to 1, allowing just five hits. In his four wins, he allowed five runs, giving him a 1.25 ERA over the stretch.

Finally, against the White Sox on June 17th, the Red Sox split a doubleheader. In the second contest they were behind by five runs in the sixth inning. They had cut the deficit to just one run going into the ninth inning. Two walks and a throwing error loaded the bases. Then Ray Carlyle drove the ball to the bank in deep left center, his third hit of the game, scoring two runs and giving the Red Sox a 7 to 6 walk-off win. Ike Boone (.370 BA) continued his torrid hitting with a double and two triples.

The Sox had played pretty good .500 ball until the middle of the month. They then finished by losing 10 of the next 11 games and were 22 games out of first place on June 30th.

July didn't start off any better. The Red Sox (24-54) again lost 10 of the 11 games they played, and in the first four games played in July, Sox pitchers gave up 38 runs. Six wins were all the Red Sox could manage over the whole month.

On July 10th, pitcher Jack Quinn's career with the Red Sox was over. He was sold to the Athletics for cash.

One of the very few Red Sox highlights for the month, took place in a game on July 13th. The Red Sox were down a run going into their last at bat in the ninth inning. Roy Carlyle came in as a pinch hitter with Dud Lee on first. He knocked a home run over the right field wall in Cleveland, to give the Sox a 12-11 victory. Phil Todt was 4-for-4 with a homer.

Then, on July 21st, Carlyle hit for the cycle in a 6-3 win at Chicago.

But the Sox were 6-23 for the month and were 22 games behind.

The Sox started off the month of August with five straight losses, but on August 8th, they swept both games of a doubleheader from the White Sox at Fenway. The first game was a walk-off 4-3 win, when Carlyle was passed with the bases loaded in the tenth inning. Ted Wingfield next threw a 2-0 shutout in the second game.

In August, Red Ruffing showed what the future Hall-of-Famer would become. On August 7th, he lost a pitcher's duel with Ted Lyons of the White Sox, 2-0. In his next start, on August 11th, he shut out the Detroit Tigers, 1-0, and then on August 15th, shut out the Athletics, 5-0, in the start after that. That was two earned runs in 27 innings.

A western road trip that started in mid-August was another disaster. The Sox (36-88) won only three games of the 18 they played and were 46 games out and locked in the basement when they returned in September.

Back home, Howard Ehmke beat the New York Yankees, 5-1, on September 7th. Doc Prothro (.317 BA) had three hits, for 12 in his last six games. Two days later on September 9th, the Sox won 5 to 4, as Sy Rosenthal raced all the way home from first base to score a walk-off victory on Ira Flagstead's double.

In New York, Ted Wingfield out-dueled Waite Hoyt and came out on top 2 to 1. The Yankees got five scattered hits, three of which were of the scratch variety.

Wingfield tossed a shutout against the Browns at Fenway in his next start, 2-0, on four scattered hits. That was the first game of a September 17th doubleheader. The Sox surprisingly won the second game also, 4-0. Paul Zahniser pitched this shutout and got the support from three doubleplays. Doc Prothro (.325 BA) was the offensive star, banging out six hits.

On September 19th, the Sox won the first game of a doubleheader with the Indians, 3 to 2. It was won in the ninth inning on a base hit by Bill Wambsgnass, who broke a 2-2 tie, when he scored the walk-off run on a double by John Bischoff.

RED RUFFING

Red Ruffing was another pitcher who threw a late season gem. On September 24th he blanked the Tigers 5 to 0. Four hits were all that Detroit could garner against him, a not more than one in an inning. His final win of the season came on September 30th, a 5 to 4 win over the A.L. champion Washington Nationals.

The 1925 Red Sox only won 47 games and lost 105 and were 47 1/2 games out of first, in the basement of the American League. The only positive thing about where they finished, was that the Yankees were terrible also. The Yanks finished in seventh place, but still 21 games ahead of the Red Sox. In no season since were the Boston Red Sox as bad as they were in 1925.

Howard Ehmke finished with a 9-20 record, but it was somewhat misleading. He led the American League with 22 complete games in 31 starts, and his 3.73 ERA ranked him 12th in the league.

Ted Wingfield won 12 games, three more than anyone else on the staff, but he lost 19. In addition to his 27 starts, he relieved in 14 other games. The team ERA was 4.97, so his 3.96 was pretty good by comparison. 

Offensively, the Red Sox weren't as bad. At the plate, Ike Boone (.330 BA) had another good year. Roy Carlyle batted .326 with seven home runs and 49 RBIs in 276 at-bats, second only to Boone.

New thirdbaseman, Doc Prothro (.313 BA), who had been traded to the Sox from the Washington Nationals, batted .313 and it was higher than the team’s .309 winning percentage. His 52 walks helped him post a .390 on-base percentage.

Phil Todt's 75 RBIs and 11 home runs led the team, but the team was last in the league in runs scored.