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1923 BOSTON RED SOX ...
During the final months of Harry Frazee's ownership of the Red Sox, he decided to milk the team for as much as he could, before leaving town. He had little incentive to preserve the resources for whoever the new owners might be. The problem he had is that no one in Boston, who had any money, wanted to buy the team. But Frazee was moving on and spending money for his Broadway ventures. His show "No No Nanette" would eventually become the most successful musical comedy on Broadway, touring the world and netting him upwards of $4 million. Any claims that Babe Ruth was sold to finance the show were entirely without foundation. On October 30, 1922 Howard Ehmke, along with utility-man Danny Clark, pitcher Carl Holling, minor leaguer Babe Herman, and $25,000, was shipped to the Red Sox for righty Rip Collins and infielder Del Pratt. Ehmke arrived from the Detroit Tigers to a Boston club that had finished in last place in 1922. On January 11th, Frazee traded rookie George Pipgras, who had never pitched an inning in Boston, and another player to the Yankees for their backup catcher Al DeVormer. Herb Pennock was sold to the Yankees on January 30th for $50,000 in cash and three minor league players. After that, catcher Muddy Ruel also demanded to be traded. Frazee packaged him, along with Allen Russell, for three backup players and some cash from Washington.
Hugh Duffy was let go as manager and Frank Chance, the former Chicago Cubs firstbaseman and manager was brought in to lead what was left of the team. Bob Quinn, the business manager of the St. Louis Browns negotiated with Frazee to buy the Red Sox. The asking price was $1.15 million and Quinn used his association with other minor league business executives, to put together a syndicate to buy the team. He was named president and the deal met with approval from American League President Ban Johnson. At the end of July it was finalized, but not in time for the July 31st trading deadline, keeping the Red Sox from getting any new players. On August 1st the Red Sox passed from the ownership of Harry Frazee to the syndicate headed by Bob Quinn. The Boston papers were thrilled and saw Quinn as one of their own. Any mistakes Quinn would make, were quickly forgiven, as he turned the once proud world champion franchise into a running joke.
When Howard Ehmke faced his former Tigers teammates for the first time, he went the route in a 10-inning, 6-2 victory, that revived the animosities between the himself and Ty Cobb. While in Detroit, Cobb had levied accusations that had dogged Ehmke the previous several years, namely that he was indifferent, disinterested, and lacked the mental toughness to be a winner. However, Ehmke was described as an inspiration to his new teammates in Boston. Ehmke tossed a no-hitter on September 7th, and in his next start, he threw a one-hitter. As memorable as these two games were, his final start of the season was one of the worst in big-league history. He surrendered a whopping 21 hits and 17 runs (16 earned), and walked four in a sobering 24-4 loss to the Yankees at Fenway Park. For a terrible team, Ehmke won 20 and lost 17, posting a sturdy 3.78 ERA. He set career highs in complete games (28), starts (39), and innings (316), and by at least one modern metric was the best pitcher in the American League. The 1923 Red Sox were a terrible team. Other than Ehmke's no-hitter, their other highlight came when firstbaseman George Burns turned a rare unassisted triple play against the Cleveland Indians. With runners on first and second, moving because of the hit-and-run play that was put on, he grabbed a line drive, tagged one runner and outraced the other to second base. Burns led the league in doubles and got the first hit in Yankee Stadium.
April 18th was opening day and Ehmke lost 4-1, to the Yankees in their inaugural game in Yankee Stadium. The Yankees swept four straight and with the blink of an eye, the Sox were in 7th place, four games behind. The Sox did take two of three from the Athletics before returning home for the Fenway opener on April 26th against the Yankees. The Sox were up 4-2 after eight innings, but scored two runs in the ninth inning. The Sox, however came right back in the bottom of the ninth. Joe Harris got his third hit of the game when he doubled down the right field line. Mike Menosky went in to run for him and sprinted home when George Bush drove the ball hitting Mike McNally. McNally blocked the shot, but not in time to get Menosky, who hustled home with the winning run, 5 to 4. The Red Sox ended up winning two of the three games played with the Yankees at Fenway. They then traded Eddie Goebel, who was newly arrived from Washington, to Detroit for outfielder Ira Flagstead.
Against the Philadelphia Athletics on May 1st, the Sox overcame a four-run deficit and overtook the A's, 5 to 4. Two rallies, both started by Joe Harris did the trick. Harris had two doubles and a single in four times up. Howard Ehmke got the win, striking out ten batters. Jack Quinn made his first start on May 3rd against the A's and dominated the game, winning 3 to 1. An error gave Philly their only run, but other than that, Quinn was solid. George Burns' three singles provided two of the runs.
Down in Washington, the Sox rallied in the 12th inning on May 5th, to be the Nats, 4 to 1. Ehmke picked up his third win, holding Washington to five hits. Four base hits in the 12th, led to three runs for the Sox. After numerous rain-outs and five losses, the Sox beat the Tigers in Detroit on May 18th. Down 2-0 in the ninth inning, the Sox tied the game. Harris opened with a base hit and scored on a triple by Dick Reichle. Mike Menosky's line drive single to center scored Reichle with the tie run. The Sox went on to score four runs in the 10th inning and walked away with a 6 to 2 victory. Howard Ehmke got the win and banged out three hits to help his cause. The Sox won only four games of the twelve played on the road and returned home in seventh place, 11 1/2 games behind the league-leading Yankees. Back at Fenway, the Sox played three games with Washington. The highlight was a win on May 25th against Walter Johnson. He had a three run lead going into the eighth inning and walked off the mound behind 6 to 5. The deciding run was the result of a squeeze play that saw Howie Shanks lay down a perfect bunt that scored John Collins from third. In Philly on May 28th, newcomer Ira Flagstead doubled and homered, bringing home four runs in an 8-6 win. Then on Memorial Day, home runs by Flagstead and Burns helped the Sox sweep a doubleheader from the A's, 6-5 and 6-2.
June started with the Sox taking two of three from the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Jack Quinn beat the Yanks 5-0 on June 1st. In only one inning did the Yankees get more than one hit off him. Homers by Flagstead and Joe Harris supplied most of the offense in Quinn's support. Burns knocked out four hits the next day and the Sox won again, 7 to 3. On the short trip down the coast, the Sox went 5-2. At Fenway on June 5th, against the Indians, the Sox hit Cleveland pitchers for 15 hits and 20 total bases. Every Sox hit got on base and Chick Fewster had three base hits and brought home three runners. On June 7th, Ehmke held the Indians to six hits, three of which came in one inning, and coasted to a 7-1 decision. Flagstead and Harris again supplied most of the offense. Flagstead had three hits and Harris two hits drove home three runs.
Ehmke easily won against the White Sox, 10-4 on June 12th. The next day Burns had five safe hits with three doubles and the Red Sox won again, 10-9. Then on June 16th, Ehmke held his old teammates on Detroit to three clean hits and two infield singles in beating them 9-1. On June 21st Ehmke out-dueled Dixie Davis of the Browns, 3 to 1. St. Louis only had one hit thru the first seven innings and that was followed by a doubleplay. It was his tenth win of the season and sixth straight. The four games he had lost were only by one run. As good as Ehmke was pitching, Bill Piercy was the opposite. He hadn't won a game and had lost 11 straight. On the bright side was the performances of Ira Flagstead (.323 BA), George Burns (.349 BA) and Joe Harris (.317 BA). The Browns took 4-of-5 from the Sox and then the Yankees came to Fenway and took 4-of-5. In Washington on June 28th, Harris lined a base hit in the ninth inning, that scored two runners, and the Sox won, 3 to 1. With a 10-14 record for the month, the Sox were in last place, 16 games behind.
Ehmke (12-4) along with Urban Shocker of the Browns, were the top pitchers in the American League, in beating the Athletics on July 2nd. Then on July 5th, Jack Quinn, who got hit by the A's quite easily, came through with his stick. Coming to bat twice when he needed a hit, he came through each time. Once, in the eighth inning he drove in the run that won the game, 7-5. After losing four straight to the Indians in Cleveland, the Sox came back to win the finale in the ninth inning on July 9th. With Ira Flagstead on base, Joe Harris lined a single to left that got by the leftfielder and rolled all the way to the fence for an inside-the-park homer and a 4 to 1 win. The Sox lost four of the five games in Cleveland. The Red Sox split four games in Detroit and took the Tigers to 11 innings on July 13th and scored two runs to beat them 6 to 4. Norm McMillan's double scored George Burns and Harris counted after a sacrifice fly, to provide the two extra innings runs. The trip to St. Louis was a disaster. Only six runs were scored in the five games they lost to the Browns. In Chicago the going wasn't much better. Of the seven games they played, the White Sox won five. And so their record on the western road trip was five wins and sixteen losses, with one tie. Back home, against Washington, veteran Jack Quinn allowed just three hits on July 24th, while his mates, led by Val Picinich (4-for-4) banged out 11 hits in a 6-1 victory. The next game, the first of a doubleheader, saw the Sox overcome a four run deficit. They scored the tying run in the seventh inning and the winning run an inning later, for a 7-6 win. But they lost the second game, 15 to 3. Against the Indians on July 28th, in spite of Tris Speaker getting five hits, the Sox had a seven run inning and overcame a 5-3 deficit, winning 10-5. The Indians won the next two games and pushed the Sox deeper into the American League cellar at month's end, 29 1/2 games behind.
August, now with the Boston Red Sox under Bob Quinn's ownership, started with the split of a doubleheader with the White Sox. The first game went Chicago's way, but it took 11 innings for them to squeak out a 4-2 win. The second game belonged to the Red Sox 7 to 3, with four runs scored in the first inning on three singles, a triple by Joe Harris and a wild pitch.
On the evening of August 2nd, President Warren G. Harding died of a heart attack. Harding's unexpected death came as a great shock to the nation. He was liked and admired, and major league baseball cancelled it's full slate of games out of respect, the next day. An error by Pinky Pittenger in the ninth inning spoiled a shutout for Howard Ehmke. Ehmke won his 14th game on August 4th, 8 to 1, against the White Sox. The Sox took an overnight trip to play the Tigers in Detroit the next day. Down 2-1 in the ninth inning, the Sox scored two runs in the ninth inning to win, 3 to 2. The two teams then traveled back to Boston and arrived the following day to play at Fenway. Bill Piercy pitched a great game and the Sox won 2-1. The teams played a doubleheader on August 8th. The Sox lost the first game but came back to take the second game. With the core knotted at two apiece in the seventh inning, George Burns homered over the left field wall and the Sox won 3-2. Ehmke won his 15th game by out-pitching Urban Shocker when the Browns came to Fenway on August 9th. The score was 4 to 3 and Burns banged out two doubles and a triple good for driving in two of the runs. Two days later, on August 11th, after a rain-out, the Sox beat the Browns with two outs in the ninth inning. John Collins doubled off the scoreboard that tied the game 3-3. After a free pass and a hit batsman loaded the bases, Joe Harris brought home the game winner with a line drive to right center, 4 to 3. In Cleveland on August 12th the ability of Harris and Burns to come through with clutch hits, earned the Sox an 8 to 3 win. Burns had three hits and Harris, who was 3-for-4 drove in four runs and was the real hero. In the sixth inning, down 3 to 2, Burns had doubled to deep left. Harris got hold of a fastball and deposited it into the left field pavilion to give the Sox the eventual game winning runs. Tris Speaker got five hits, but Boston's clutch pitching was the key in the next game with the Indians, that the Sox won, 8 to 6. Bill Piercy (7-15) pitched one of his best games of the season in limiting the Tigers to four hits and winning 6 to 2 on August 20th. The Sox were down 2-1 in the seventh inning and went ahead to stay on Harris' triple and Nate McMillan's double. Burns added the insurance runs with a two-run homer in the next inning. After losing four straight games in St. Louis the Sox moved into Chicago. On August 26th, they snatched the game out of the fire, tying the score in the sixth inning, 4 to 4, and putting across the winning run in the seventh, 5-4. Burns scored, what proved to be the winning run in the seventh, scoring on a grounder by Howie Shanks. The Sox returned to Fenway from their western trip having only won four games of the thirteen they played, still in last place 29 1/2 games out.
The Red Sox made another ninth inning rally on September 3rd. Against Washington at Fenway Park, down 4 to 1, John Collins, Ira Flagstead and Burns singled in succession, and Harris lined a double off the wall to bring the Sox back to within a run. In came Walter Johnson to stop the rally and Howie Shanks singled in the tying and winning runs to give the Sox a 5 to 4 walk-off victory. After losing four straight games, Howard Ehmke led the Sox to new heights, as he pitched a no-hitter on September 7th against the A's in Philadelphia. The score was 4 to 0, but not without some drama. In the sixth inning, pitcher Slim Harris slugged a line drive to center field for a double. But he didn't touch the first base bag on his way, and was called "out". Then in the eight inning Mike Menosky fumbled a difficult low line drive hit to him by Frank Welch. At first, it was ruled a hit, but later changed to an error. Three men did reach first on Ehmke. One was on the error, a second on a base on balls to Joe Hauser, and the final one when Hauser was forced at second by Bing Miller. The Sox moved north to Yankee Stadium where they lost a doubleheader to the Yankees on September 9th. In the first game, old friend Joe Bush was on the winning side of a 6 to 2 loss. The Yanks shutout the Sox 4-0 in the second game. In that one Babe Ruth slammed his 34th home run and then the next day hit his 35th. In that one, another former Soxer, Sam Jones, who had also pitched a no-hitter in Philadelphia last week, allowed Sox just two hits in his 8 to 1 win. He had not allowed the Sox a hit for six innings. In his next start after the no-hitter, Ehmke was nicked for a base hit by Whitey Witt, the first Yankee batter of the game on September 11th. The ball was hit to shortstop Johnny Mitchell and bounced off his glove against his chest. The second or so delay allowed Witt to reach first safely. Most of the players, in retrospect, thought it should have been ruled a error. Little did anyone know it would be the only hit of the game allowed by Ehmke, as he proceeded to no-hit New York for the rest of the game, winning 3 to 0. It was that one questionable hit that Ehmke had allowed in 18 innings of work. The next game was against Cleveland at Fenway Park on September 13th. Down 8 to 6, the Sox scored three runs in the eighth inning and brought home a come-from-behind 9 to 8 win. With the bases loaded on a single, a double and a walk, Indians pitcher George Uhle, walked Val Picinich to bring in one run. Al DeVormer singled to bring in one more run and George Burns scored the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly. The following day, September 14th, the Sox took the Indians to 12 innings, winning 4 to 3. With the bases loaded, Flagstead provided the thrilling finish with a sizzling line drive to left, that scored Al Devormer, who had doubled and Harris, who was walked with the tying and winning runs.
But the game highlight wasn't that. It was the unassisted triple play pulled off by George Burns. In the second inning, Riggs Stephenson singled to center off Jack Quinn, who next walked Rube Lutzke. The next batter, Frank Brower, hit a line drive on a hit-and-run, that looked like it was headed to right field. Burns sprinted toward second and cut off the ball 15 feet from the first base bag, just as Lutzke shot by him on his way to second. Burns sprang after Lutzke, who pulled up and was tagged for the second out. Burns then beat Stephenson, tagging him as he tried to get back to the second base bag, for the final out. There have been 15 unassisted triple plays in MLB history. Red Sox players have done it twice. John Valentin did it again for the Red Sox in 1994 against the Seattle Mariners. Flagstead was again instrumental in the final game of the series with the Indians. Coming to bat in the fifth inning with the bases full and two outs, he slammed the ball up against the wall for a double, giving the Sox, who were trailing at the time, a lead which game them a clean sweep of the series with Cleveland, 11 to 6. The Chicago White Sox were next to come to town and they split a doubleheader with the Red Sox on September 17th. Again, it was Flagstead who made the lives of the White Sox miserable. Twice in the second game, he came through in the clutch. He knocked in four runs and scored one of the six Red Sox runs in the 6 to 1 decision. Howard Ehmke won his 20th decision on September 19th. Down 1-0 and engaged in a pitcher's duel with Charlie Robertson of the White Sox, his Red Sox teammates came thru in the ninth inning and won the game for him 2 to 1. The Yankees closed out the final homestand of the year at Fenway Park with a split of four games that meant little to the American League champs. The only incentive to win was to carry some momentum into the World Series. The first game on September 27th was an 8 to 3 loss for the Sox. Babe Ruth had a double and a triple in four times up, but their new rookie, Lou Gehrig, homered into the right field bleachers. Babe (.391 BA) slugged his 38th homer and had two doubles in the next game, that was a 24-4 massacre of the Sox. He went 5 for 6 with 3 RBIs. Gehrig went 4 for 7 with four RBIs, including three doubles. Then on September 29th, the Sox closed the year at Fenway with the sweep of a doubleheader from the Yanks, 5 to 4 and 3 to 2, in front of the largest crowd of the year. The Sox put over the winning run in the eighth inning of the first game, breaking a tie game. Mike Menosky tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly. The second game went 16 innings before the Sox won it. Johnny Mitchell had drawn a pass, was sacrificed to second and scored on a single to center by George Burns. The Sox again finished in last place with a 61-91 record, 37 games behind the New York Yankees. They finished last in batting, fielding and ERA. The Yankees went on to win their first World Series, with eleven former Red Sox players.
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