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The stock market crash in 1929 doomed any hope Bob Quinn had no hope of selling the Red Sox. Bill Carrigan did not come out of retirement to pilot a terrible last place team and went back to Maine. Quinn replaced him with Carrigan's former teammate, shortstop Heine Wagner. Wagner could not do any better with the rag-tag ballplayers left to him. Then in one of his frequent financial crises, Quinn had to raise $67,000 in 48 hours to make a bank payment. So he swapped 25-year-old Red Ruffing to the Yankees for backup outfielder Cedric Durst plus $50,000 and an additional $50,000 loan from Yankees ownerowner Jacob Ruppert. The trade made Ruffing's career. With a powerful lineup around him, he finished the year with a 15-5 record for New York. Durst played in 102 games for the Sox, hitting .245 with 24 RBIs. Quinn next traded Bill Barrett to the Washington Nationals for, Earl Webb. Webb joined Tom Oliver and Russ Scarritt as the primary outfielders for the Red Sox. He played right field, and really wasn't good. He stumbled. dropped fly balls, misjudged them, and almost had his head knocked off by line drives. He was hooted by the fans, and it seemed as if he might not last a month with the Red Sox. But it was his hitting that kept him on the team. In preparation for the 1930 season, pitcher Ed Morris briefly flirted with another off-season activity for keeping in shape – professional boxing. Along with teammate Bill Barrett, Morris applied for a boxing license. Unfortunately, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis short-circuited his heavyweight championship ambitions. Landis decided that the “sweet science” really wasn’t a proper activity for professional baseball players under his dominion. Possibly due to the loss of projected boxing revenue, Morris was a salary holdout when the Red Sox 1930 spring training camp opened. The team had more than doubled his salary from $3,500 to $7,500 after his tremendous rookie campaign and Big Ed felt another nice pay increase was due, despite a decrease in effectiveness as a sophomore. Once in the fold, he was suffering from a severe head cold and had been put under the care of specialists and began the season in the bullpen. He got his first start in May, yielding four runs in five innings in a loss to the White Sox. He seemed to be hitting his stride when he threw a brilliant two-hitter to beat the St. Louis Browns five days later, but he was ineffective in his next two starts. Arm miseries again cropped up and continued to plague him until he was shut down for the year in mid-August. For the 1930 season, he pitched only 18 times (nine starts). His won-lost record was a disappointing 4-9 although his 4.13 ERA Tom Oliver was the sensation of the spring training camp in Pensacola, Florida and quickly clinched the starting center field job. He started the season on a tear at the plate, which included a 19-game hitting streak, batting over .400 the first five or six weeks.
The Sox opened with a 4-3 come back win in Washington. The next day, both teams met at Fenway for the Sox home opener. The Nats jumped out to quick lead and held on to win 6-1. The Yankees came to Fenway and lost both games of a Patriots Day doubleheader on April 19th. The Sox took the first game, 4-3 in 15 innings and then repeated with a decisive 7-2 win in the afternoon. Russ Scarritt got on base on a low throw to first in the 15th inning of Game #1. Bill Regan singled him to second base and Phil Todt tried to bunt Scarritt over, but Russ was thrown out at third. Then Johnny Heving stung his forth hit of the game out to center and Regan flew home with the game winner. In Washington, Red Ruffing had a fine pitching and batting performance spoiled by a pesky error that gave him a 3-2 loss in 12 innings on April 22nd. After losing two games to the Yankees in New York, on April 27th, they clobbered the Yanks with 8 runs and 19 hits, 8 to 7.
Home to Fenway, where the Sox lost 2-of-3 to the Athletics and then three straight to the Indians. But then on May 5th, the Sox batters erupted for 18 runs as they beat down Cleveland 18-3, in the final game of the series. Charlie Berry banged out four of the 23 hits for the Red Sox. Then after losing the opening game of the series with the visiting Chicago White Sox, the Red Sox won five straight against Chicago and then the St. Louis Browns. On May 7th, Tom Oliver connected on four hits, including a double and scored two runs, while the Red Sox won 6 to 4. The next day, Oliver got two more hits. Then against the Browns at Fenway, Oliver added two singles for an 18 game hitting streak. The Sox won this one, 5 to 2. The next game, Milt Gaston limited the Browns to just two hits, shutting them out, 2-0, on May 10th. Ed Morris gave the Browns just two hits the next day, for a 2-1 Sox win. The Sox ended their homestand by losing three of the four games they played with the Yankees. The first game was a thriller that the Sox won on May 16th, by scoring two runs in the bottom of the eighth to go ahead 4-3. Charlie Berry tripled and scored on Earl Webb's sacrifice fly. But the Yanks scored on Bill Dickey's homer in the ninth to tie the game up. In the bottom of the ninth the Sox came back once more. With Russ Scarritt on first, Bill Sweeney connected for a blast to center that allowed Scarritt to come all the way around with the winning run, 5 to 4. The rest of the month saw the Red Sox (12-28) losing every game played. For the month of May, they won only seven games of the twenty played and were in last place, 14 1/2 games out.
The losing streak ended on June 1st at Yankee Stadium, when the Sox beat the Yanks 7-4. The Sox pulled off a triple play in this one. In the fourth inning with Bill Dickey and Dusty Cooke on base, Jimmie Reese lined the ball over first base. However Phil Todt jumped high and snared the ball, landed back on first base to double-up Cooke and threw to shortstop, Hal Rhyne to get Dickey, who was sprinting toward third base. The Sox next took one in ten innings at Cleveland on June 4th. The Sox had tied the game in the seventh inning and in the 10th, a single, followed by an infield out, put a runner on second, who was driven in by Russ Scarritt for a 5-4 win. In Detroit on June 9th, the Sox came from behind with five runs in the seventh inning to beat the Tigers, 7 to 6. Otis Miller had three of the ten Red Sox hits. The next day, Miller got three more to lead the Sox past Detroit, 12-6.
They finished the long road trip by sweeping three from the White Sox in Chicago. The first game was won 8-4 on June 14th. Earl Webb (.333 BA) banged out four hits in five times up. The Sox returned home to greet the St. Louis Browns on June 19th. Danny MacFayden was brilliant beating them, 4 to 1, and limiting them to just three hits, and for seven innings had allowed just one hit. They took 2-of-3 against the Browns, winning by a 3-2 score, two days later. Six games were played against the visiting Detroit Tigers next. The Sox only could win two however. MacFayden was brilliant again in one of the victories on June 23rd, shutting out the Tigers, 2-0, and again allowing just three scattered hits. The Sox continued their dominance over their counterparts from Chicago, taking 3-of-4 when the White Sox came to Fenway. On June 26th, the Red Sox came from behind to win the first game of the series, 9-to-7. Otis Miller had another three-hit game to lead the Boston attack. In the next game, Danny MacFayden made it five straight wins beating Chicago, 4-2. In his last three games, he had allowed only his opponents three runs. They split a doubleheader the next day, but the Red Sox had taken eight of the ten games played against the White Sox so far this season.
Milt Gaston had a fine game against the Cleveland Indians to start the month of July. He went 3-for-3 at the plate and on the mound allowed on three hits, beating the Tribe, 3-1. Bill Regan led the Sox attack with three hits, including a double and a triple. On July 2nd, the Sox found themselves down 4-0, when they came to bat in the fifth inning. They scored one that inning and then in the eighth inning, Phil Todt tied things up with a two-run homer into the right field bleachers. In the ninth inning, Ed Morris won his own game, when he doubled off the wall to score Otis Miller from second, with the walk-off run, winning 5-to-4. The first place Philadelphia Athletics came to town to celebrate the July 4th holiday. The Sox beat them in the first game of the doubleheader at Braves Field, on a wild pitch that gave them the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. Philly won the next three games, putting the Sox 20 1/2 games behind them. The Washington Nationals had won 10 straight until Milt Gaston stopped them in the second game of a doubleheader on July 9th, 5 to 1. The Sox banged out 17 hits, with Charlie Berry going a perfect 4-for-4. Bill Sweeney and Otis Miller also had three hits, two of which were doubles for Miller. The Sox embarked on an 18 game road trip in the middle of the month. Earl Webb had a great day on July 17th in Detroit, getting five hits in six times up, including three singles, a double and a home run. Again in St. Louis on July 24th, Webb went 4-for-4 with a home run. The Sox went 5-13 on this particular road trip, however.
On August 5th, the Sox rallied to overtake the first place Philadelphia Athletics, 4 to 3. Down a run in the eighth, Phil Todt's homer tied the score. Then Cedric Durst doubled to start the ninth and scored the winning run on Otis Miller's single to right. At Fenway, the Sox squandered a 4-0 lead to let the St. Louis Browns back in the game to tie things up in the ninth on August 12th. But in the bottom of the ninth the Sox loaded the bases on two walks and a double. Bobby Reeves then lined a single to center to give the Sox a 5 to 4 walk-off victory. Two days later, Ed Durham allowed the Browns just four hits, shutting them out, 3-0. Horace "Hod" Lisenbee (8-13) defeated the first place A's for the second straight time on August 28th, by a 2 to 1 decision. He walked only one and allowed six scattered hits. But the Sox lost the next two and finished the month 41 1/2 games behind Philadelphia.
At Braves Field for an old timer's game to benefit Children's Hospital on September 8th, were stars from the Boston champion Braves and Red Sox teams of 1897, 1898, 1903, 1912, 1914, 1915, 1916 and 1918. The starting Boston team was Harry Hooper (rf), Jimmy Collins (3b), Tris Speaker (cf), Duffy Lewis (lf), Freddie Parent (ss), Frank LaChance (1b), Hobe Ferris (2b), Bill Carrigan (c) and Cy Young (p). They played against Ty Cobb (cf), Fred Clarke (lf), Eddie Collins (2b), Frank Baker (3b), Stuffy McInnis (1b), Ed Roush (rf), Jack Barry (ss), Jimmy Archer (c) and Ed Walsh (p). The Boston Old Timers beat the All Star Old Timers, 8 to 4. Meanwhile in Chicago, on September 10th, Danny MacFayden allowed the White Sox six singles, while teammate Bill Regan blasted a two-run homer into the upper deck, Earl Webb homered also and Phil Todt collected three hits. The Red Sox won 6 to 2. The Sox finished the season decently, winning five of their last nine games. On September 20th, they beat the Indians, 10-3. Earl Webb slammed his 16th homer of the season. The next game saw the Sox erupt for five runs in the 10th inning to win 9-4. Webb drove in the game winning run in the tenth. Milt Gaston notched the final victory of the season against the Washington Nats at Fenway on September 28th, with his second straight win. He also drove in two runs. The Sox finished the season against the Yankees. When the announcer shouted out the battery for the Yankees, it was Babe Ruth doing the pitching, and the crowd thought it was a joke. The Babe hadn't pitched a game in nine years, but beat his old team 9 to 3. He pitched the entire game, gave up 11 hits and struck out three. It was the Sox 102nd loss, the worst in franchise history, and they finished a full 50 games behind the Philadelphia A's. Earl Webb appeared in 127 games and accumulated 449 at-bats. His .323 average led the team by a sizable margin. Not one of the other regulars hit over .293. Sixteen of his hits were homers, helping drive in 66 runs. He hit 30 doubles. Second baseman Bill Regan played a solid season, hitting .266 in 134 games with 53 RBIs (third on the Red Sox). Tom Oliver finished the season with a .293 average and led the American League in games played (154) and at-bats (646). In center field, he led the league with 477 putouts, a record that stood until it was broken by Dom DiMaggio in 1948, and in fielding percentage. Russ Scarritt drove in 48 runs in 1930 and hit .289. Only occasionally did he make the headlines; when he did, it was a little more often for defensive gems than for his offense. Catcher Charlie Berry hit .289 in 88 games and proved himself to be a dependable man behind the plate. Pitcher, Jack Russell led the league in losses. With a 9-20 record, he was that rare 20-game loser and tied for the honor with teammate Milt Gaston (13-20), another right-hander. The pitching staff surprisingly finished third in runs allowed with a 4.70 ERA. The Red Sox offense scored less than 100 runs behind their nearest opponent. |
