There have been five times that seventh game of a World Series ended in extra innings.
The longest contest in the Fall Classic came in 1924 as the Washington Senators defeated the New York Giants 4-3 in 12 innings on October 10.
Future Hall-of-Fame pitcher Walter Johnson had lost his two starts in the series. In the opener, which also went 12 frames, Johnson went the distance as the Senators fell 4-3. Johnson’s next appearance ended in a 6-2 loss in game five.
Two days after his second loss, Johnson was back on the Griffith Stadium mound for the Senators in game seven with the championship on the line in what is certainly one of the more interesting affairs in World Series history.
The Opener
The concept of a pitcher known as the opener isn’t really new.
Washington player-manager Bucky Harris selected Curly Ogden to start the finale of the series. The righthander was 9-5 in 16 starts for the Senators since he was picked up off waivers from the Philadelphia A’s earlier in the season.
According to a story in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Oct. 11, 1924) by Thomas S. Rice, the move by Harris was designed to get Giants manager John McGraw to start left-handed hitting Bill Terry at first base.
It worked as Ogden, in his only game of the series, retired the first batter he faced and then walked the second.
Terry, who batted .429 in the series, didn’t get a hit in two trips to the plate and was taken out of the game in the sixth for a pinch-hitter.
Harris made a change on the mound as he called upon lefty George Mogridge, who was the winning pitcher for the Senators in the fourth game.
As a player, Harris also had quite a moment for the hometown fans including United States President Calvin Coolidge when he hit a solo homer to put the Senators on top in the fourth.
Mogridge, who was 16-11 for the Senators during 1924, would work until the sixth inning when the Giants would take a 3-1 lead.
After Firpo Marberry‘s three innings for the Senators, it was time for Johnson.
In his 18th season in the majors, Johnson tossed the final four frames to earn the first World Series victory.
The Bounce
While Johnson kept the Giants off the scoreboard, the Senators were very lucky as Rice continued in his account of the contest in his newspaper story.
Rice wrote, “Without wishing to disparage the Senators, it would be unfair not to say that they won yesterday through palpable bits of good luck.”
Harris singled in two runs in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at 3-3. That’s what one finds out when reading the box score.
However, Rice is much more descriptive of the play that involved New York’s Fred Lindstrom.
“Harris grounded straight to Lindstrom for the start of an easy out, but the ball took a bad bound and hopped over Lindstrom’s head by 10 feet,” wrote Rice.
More Luck
Fate was intervening for the Senators by the bottom of the 12th inning.
Rice had written about not wanting to disparage the Senators, but he wasn’t all that nice to Muddy Ruel.
“With one out in the 12th, Ruel, the batting joke of the first six games, doubled over third off Jack Bentley, the losing pitcher,” Rice wrote.
Johnson reached on an error and that brought Earl McNeely to the plate for his date with destiny.
Again Rice provided they real story not in the box score about the game-winning run.
“McNeely hit another simple little grounder toward Lindstrom, which took a high bound over the kid’s head and rolled away for a single that even scored the slow-footed Ruel.”
The end result was the only World Series title in Washington for the Senators.
The next time the franchise would win the World Series would be as the Minnesota Twins in 1987.