An October tradition at Our Game
This story first appeared in MLB’s 2024 World Series Media Guide.
Every World Series has been great, matching the champions of two rival leagues for baseball supremacy in North America … which up to now has meant the world. This may not forever be so, as the quadrennial outcomes of the World Baseball Classic might indicate.
Yet it may be said that of all the World Series played before 1924, whose centennial we mark, none might be described as great except that of 1912. Sure, there were upsets, like that of the Miracle Braves over the Philadelphia A’s in 1914, or the hitless-wonder White Sox over their crosstown rivals in 1906, when the Cubs came into the Series having won 116 games. Too, there was a seeming upset in 1919 until it was revealed that eight “Black Sox” had conspired with gamblers to toss the championship to the Reds. And there were the highly anticipated Subway Series of 1921–1923, when John McGraw of the Giants outsmarted Babe Ruth to win the first two, then succumbed to the American Leaguers in their first year at Yankee Stadium.
But only the World Series of 1912 was great in and of itself. In an eighth game necessitated by darkness calling an earlier game a draw, the Boston Red Sox, in their new Fenway Park, defeated McGraw’s Giants as Smoky Joe Wood outdueled Christy Mathewson. In the regular season, Wood had won 34 games — one more than Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators.
By 1924, the year under review now, Wood had transformed from a sore-armed pitcher to a useful right fielder with Cleveland to the baseball coach at Yale. Johnson was still the great pitcher, on his way to 417 victories and a career strikeout total that would hold for half a century. His nickname of “Old Barney” derived from the speed king, Barney Oldfield of auto-racing fame.
At age 36, in his 18th year with the same club, he was leading the Senators into their first World Series, having won 23 games and his league’s Most Valuable Player award. He had appeared in more 1–0 games than any other pitcher. That was because he held the opponents down, and his team, the Washington Senators, restrained itself from scoring. But in this moment Charles Dryden’s adage of 1909 — describing Washington as “first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League” — had, in an instant, become a thing of the past.
Facing the Senators was Old Man McGraw, still at the helm of the Giants, set to appear in their fourth consecutive Fall Classic, a record that would only be topped decades later by the Yankees. McGraw’s counterpart at Washington’s helm was second baseman Bucky Harris, the “boy wonder” whom owner Clark Griffith had tabbed to lead the team before the start of the 1924 season. And what a Series it would be, with the teams alternating in their wins through the first six games — Johnson disappointing his fans by losing both of his starts — and then an undeniable masterpiece in Game 7. Let’s set the stage for that epic finale.
In the nation’s capital, New York won Game One in 12 frames, 4–3 (which turned out to be the same score and the same number of innings as Game 7) with starters Johnson and Art Nehf going all the way. In Game Two, outfielder Goose Goslin and second baseman Bucky Harris homered to give the Senators a 3–0 lead through six innings. The Giants scored once in the seventh and drove out starter Tom Zachary with two more in the ninth to tie the game, but in the last of the ninth shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh doubled in the tiebreaker to even the Series.
Moving up to New York, the teams split Games Three and Four — but in Game Five, Johnson lost again. In Game Six, Washington’s two runs in the fifth inning overcame a first-inning Giant run and gave Tom Zachary all he needed for the Senators’ third win, which set the stage for a memorable game and Johnson’s improbable return.
Who would be the starting pitchers? For the Giants, who had run through Art Nehf and Jack Bentley, it would be Virgil Barnes, who had been hit hard in Game Four. The Senators were leaning toward lefty George Mogridge but then Harris had a brainstorm, which became the debut of The Opener and, in a way, The Closer, as Fred Marberry was their relief ace. Let Griffith tell the story:
Bucky Harris had come to my house the night before with the plan that made baseball history.
“Tell me, if you think I’m crazy,” Bucky said, “but I’ve got an idea of how we can get a big edge on the Giants tomorrow.” And then he explained his idea. “That Bill Terry is murdering us,” said Bucky, “and McGraw is sure-pop to have him in there at first base if we start a righthander. Terry loves righthanded pitching. He’s got 6 hits in 12 times at bat so far against our righthanders. Against lefthanded pitching McGraw will play George Kelly at first base.
“Here’s my idea,” recited Harris. “George Mogridge is the fellow who figures to beat the Giants tomorrow, but if we start him and have to shift to a righthander, McGraw will switch on us and bench Kelly and put Terry in there. I’m going to start Curly Ogden, a righthander, and that will get Terry in their lineup, and then I’m going to lift Ogden after he pitches to one batter and put in Mogridge. McGraw won’t leave Terry in there against Mogridge, and we ought to be rid of him for the day.”
That strategy sounded logical enough to me, even if it was a bit radical at first glance. I told Bucky I liked the idea. If he had nerve enough to try it, I was going along with him.
The trick worked. McGraw did let Terry stay in there and take two turns at bat against the lefthanded Mogridge, but in the sixth inning, after he failed to get a hit, McGraw put in Bob Meusel to pinch hit for Terry, despite the fact that Terry at the time was the leading hitter of the series with a .429 average. That got Terry out of the way, and Kelly was at first base for the rest of the game.
Washington scored first in Game Seven on Harris’ homer in the fourth inning, but the Giants scored three runs in the sixth. Marberry replaced Mogridge and, though victimized by errors, held the fort. In the last of the eighth, however, Harris’ grounder to third struck a pebble and bounced over the head of rookie Freddie Lindstrom for two more Senator runs and a 3–3 tie. Walter Johnson came in to face the Giants in the ninth, and shut them out through the twelfth, though with men on base constantly. Let him tell the tale:
I was in trouble every inning. After getting Fred Lindstrom in the ninth, Frankie Frisch hit a fastball to right-center for three bases. We decided to pass Ross Youngs and then I struck out George Kelly and Irish Meusel grounded to third. In the tenth I walked Hack Wilson and then, after striking out Travis Jackson, I was lucky enough to grab a drive by the old catcher Hank Gowdy and turn it into a double play.
Heinie Groh batted for Hugh McQuillan, the Giants pitcher, in the eleventh and singled. Fred Lindstrom bunted him along. I fanned Frisch this time, on an outside pitch, and once more passed Youngs. Kelly struck out again.
They kept after me, though. Meusel singled in the twelfth, but I’d settled down to believe, by then, that maybe this was my day, and I got the next three hitters. I’d tried to win my own game in the tenth with a long ball to the wall, but Wilson pulled it down. So I was up again in the twelfth when it was getting pretty dark. Muddy Ruel had lifted a pop foul to Gowdy, who lost it, and on the next pitch Ruel hit past third for two bases.
Then I sent an easy grounder to short … and Jackson fumbled. We all sat there staring at Earl McNeely as he hit an easy grounder to Lindstrom.
The ball never touched Fred. It hit a pebble and arched over his head into safe territory. I could feel tears smarting in my eyes as Ruel came home with the winning run. I’d won. We’d won. I felt so happy that it didn’t seem real.
“There was never a ball game like this before,” wrote Grantland Rice that day after the final run scored, “never a game with as many thrills and heart throbs strung together in the making of drama that came near tearing away the soul to leave it limp and sagging, drawn and twisted out of shape…. Destiny, waiting for the final curtain, stepped from the wings today and handed the king his crown.”
75 Years Ago
The year 1949 presented an odd confluence of events. Casey Stengel, who had played for McGraw and homered twice in the 1923 Series to give the Little Napoleon his final championship, has replaced his 1924 nemesis, Bucky Harris, as manager of the Yankees. Harris had won the title for them in 1947!
Stengel won in 1949 and went on to surpass McGraw by (a) managing his club to five straight pennants and (b) winning the world title all five times.
The National League representatives were the formidable Brooklyn Dodgers, who had taken the Yanks to seven games in 1947. In 1949, though bolstered by two new Black stars (Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella) in addition to Jackie Robinson, the Dodgers lost in five games. Each of the first two contests ended in a 1–0 score: in Game One, Newcombe lost to Allie Reynolds; in Game Two Preacher Roe topped Vic Raschi.
Rex Barney lost the finale — not Old Barney, who had won his, 25 years earlier. Tommy Henrich, Joe DiMaggio, and Joe Page starred for the Yanks, as they had in 1947.
50 Years Ago
The Yankees dynasty of the 1950s, like the earlier one of the Giants, gave way in the 1970s to two new powerhouses: the Oakland Athletics, winners of three straight World Series (1972–1974), and the Cincinnati Reds, who followed with two in 1975–1976. The 1974 Series was, like that of 1949, not a thriller, ending in five games.
Although the Dodgers had a great infield — Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, and Ron Cey — and the defending champion A’s had Reggie Jackson, the fans’ focus was fixed on the bullpens. The A’s had Rollie Fingers, who saved two, and the Dodgers had Mike Marshall, who had appeared in a prodigious 106 games as the NL’s Cy Young Award winner.
The teams split the first two games in Los Angeles, then moved up the coast in baseball’s first all-California World Series. In Oakland the A’s swept all three games for the trophy.
25 Years Ago
The Yankees, the great team of the year before, when they had won 125 games including those in the postseason, matched up against the Braves. Reliever Mariano Rivera won one game and saved two others as New York swept Atlanta. The 1999 Yankees thus became the first team to win the World Series in consecutive sweeps since their 1938–1939 predecessors.
World Series Centennial Review: 1924 was originally published in Our Game on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.