In April of 1943, St. Louis Browns manager, Luke Sewell discussed his greatest day in baseball with Chicago Daily News writer, Jack Ryan. Sewell had a long career with no shortage of memorable baseball days, including catching three no-hitters. But he had little difficulty choosing his biggest day with, as we shall see, one major qualification. Sewell's chose an April 29, 1933, game at Yankee Stadium between his Washington Senators and the defending World's Champion New York Yankees.
Although an April game can't have much impact on the pennant race, this one was unforgettable because Sewell became the first major league player to achieve one of baseball’s rarest feats. Rarer than a perfect game, rarer than an unassisted triple play and even rarer than hitting four home runs in a single game. What could possibly be rarer than this trinity of extraordinary baseball feats?
Washington led the game 6-2 in the bottom of the ninth, but the Yankees had one run in with two on and none out. Lou Gehrig was on second, Dixie Walker on first and Tony Lazerri was at the plate. The power hitting Yankee second baseman hit a long drive to deep right center beyond the reach of Goose Goslin. The Hall of Fame right fielder recovered the ball and threw to another future Hall of Famer, Joe Cronin, the Washington shortstop who threw home to Sewell.
Let's let Sewell describe what happened next.
Now I saw this throw coming in from Cronin and I saw Gehrig who must have delayed on the chance that Goslin would catch the ball, coming down the baseline from third to home. My glimpse of Gehrig was just out of the corner of my eye because I was watching the ball but never by as much as a twitch, revealing to Gehrig that I was expecting a throw. That’s why Gehrig never slid, if he had I would have been licked.
It all happened so quickly Washington pitcher Monte Weaver didn’t realize he only had to get one more out to win the game, which he did. Also surprised was Senators owner Calvin Griffith who had seen more than his share of baseball and believed it the “first play of its kind.” And he was right. Not only was it the first ever two-tag double play by a catcher, but there have only been five since. Far fewer than perfect games (24), unassisted triple plays (15) or four home run games (21).
Contemporary reaction depended on one’s point of view. Bob Considine of the Washington Herald, called it “most poetically perfect play I’ve ever seen.” Considine claimed Goslin’s perfect shoulder high throw to Cronin had the “speed and thrust of a 16-inch shell.” Equally exceptional was Cronin’s throw home a foot ahead of Gehrig who was himself only a foot ahead of Walker. It was said the scribe, the “greatest play ever seen here.” Considine also mentioned another two-tag double play by Yankee catcher Wally Schang, "11 years" before, but my research thus far has not confirmed his claim.
New York writers, however, focused on the Yankees problematic base running. In an article headlined “Yanks Steal Dodgers Act,” Marshall Hunt of the Daily News, claimed Gehrig waited so long to leave second Walker “wasn’t any further behind the large fellow than his fly shirt tails.” Since the Yankees managed to score only one lone run on four hits, the "hilarity" led fans "to roll in the aisles" and "cackle with mirth." Hunt claimed it “couldn’t have been any funnier to the gallery if the victims had been a couple of daffiness boys,” otherwise known as the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Once they stopped laughing those in attendance realized they’d seen a play they would never forget. Obviously, Sewell, never forgot it, but he made one qualification to choosing the two-tag double play as his greatest day in baseball. It would he thought be surpassed should he manage “a pennant winner for the St. Louis Browns.” Since the Browns had never won an American League pennant, those who read the story in 1943 must have thought “That will be the day.” But just a year later, Sewell led the Browns to their first and only American League pennant. He did not, however, at least publicly, retract his original choice of what Considine fittingly called an “ornate double play.”
No comments:
Post a Comment