Editor’s note: The Reds Decade Tournament games are being played with Strat-o-Matic cards and dice. Injuries will only be used during the game when they occur. For this tournament, the rules include a three-man pitching rotation that starts over with each best-of-three game series. If a real life starter is not in the rotation, he can be used in relief. Cincinnati squads that did not made the post-season are featured in this event as one team from each decade from the 1910s to the 1980s were selected.
Mistakes can often determine an outcome of the baseball game.
An error in the 11th proved to be the difference as the 1924 Cincinnati Reds posted a 6-5 walk-off win over the 1948 Cincinnati Reds.
The second round best of three series in the Reds Decade Tournament is now even at one game each. Pete Donohue (0-0) gets the ball in the series finale for the 1924 squad, while the 1948 team counters with Ewell Blackwell (0-0).
Ike Caveney led off the 11th with a double off 1948 pitcher Howie Fox. Bubbles Hargrave walked to set the stage for the dramatic ending.
Chick Shorten drilled a ball into center and the misplay by Johnny Wyrostek allowed Caveney to race home with the game-winning run.
Pedro Dibut (1-0) picked up the win after entering the affair with two outs in the seventh in relief of starter Carl Mays.
Dibut didn’t give up a run, but allowed three hits with two walks and a pair of strikeouts. Mays surrendered five runs on eight with a walk, while fanning three.
Fox (0-1) faced only three hitters as he was tagged with the loss for the 1948 squad. Starter Ken Raffensberger worked six frames giving up nine hits with three strikeouts. Harry Gumbert tossed four innings and didn’t give up a run, but a RBI single by Hargrave in the ninth sent the game into extra innings.
Home runs gave the 1924 team a 3-0 advantage. Hughie Critz had a solo shot in the third before Caveney’s two-run blast in the fourth.
The 1948 team closed the gap to 3-2 in the top of the fifth when Ray Lamanno and Frank Baumholtz had run-scoring singles.
A sacrifice fly by Edd Roush gave the 1924 squad a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth.
Back-to-back run-scoring singles by Baumholtz and Bobby Adams in the seventh tied the contest as Mays was sent to the showers.
Dibut was greeted by another RBI single by Grady Hatton as the the 1948 team grabbed a 5-4 lead.
After retiring six straight batters, Gumbert gave up the lead in the bottom of the ninth setting up a third game in the series.
Second Round Schedule and Results
(Best two out of three)
1911 Reds vs. 1977 Reds (2-6, 2-1, Series Tied 1-1)
1924 Reds vs. 1948 Reds (4-5, 6-5 (11) Series Tied 1-1)
First Round Results
(Best two out of three)
1911 Reds vs. 1955 Reds (5-4, 6-4, 1911 Wins 2-0)
1934 Reds vs. 1977 Reds (3-7, 6-5, 1977 Wins 2-0)
1948 Reds vs. 1986 Reds (5-1, 8-3, 1948 Wins 2-0)
1924 Reds vs. 1964 Reds (3-2 (10), 3-0, 1924 Wins 2-0)