I have done a similar post previously and can’t say that I won’t repeat it again sometime in the future on 10/11.
Today’s Buzzy Twofer Tuesday has a lot of two’s for you. I start by referencing back to 1924 when my Dad was born on the 11th, the day after the Washington Senators won the World Series. (Shows you how much the MLB season has been extended in that back in 1924 they had finished a 7 game World Series by now and today the Series won’t even start until the 28th of this month and is scheduled to end 5 November if it goes 7 games.)
The 1924 World Series is still ranked by many baseball sources as one of the best World Series ever (click here.) While I knew that Walter Johnson was the winning pitcher in that 7th game of the 24 Series, something I was unaware of is that he had lost his 2 previous starts in that Series but won that 7th game as a relief pitcher.
At 36 years of age and after pitching 17 years, Johnson in 1924 was on the down side of his illustrious 21 year career with the Senators. Even at that stage of his career however, he was named the American League MVP for the second time in his career and had still won 23 games that year. (He would win 20 games the following year. Something else I was not aware of is that the Senators returned to their second World Series in 1925 but lost to the Pirates in 7 games. In that Series, Johnson ironically enough easily won his first 2 starts only to lose the concluding 7th game. That final game was played in terrible weather conditions consisting of fog and pouring rain. Johnson, despite having a couple leads in the game, could not hold off the Pirates who eventually won 9-7. Those Baseball Gods sure have a weird sense of karma or something the way they giveth and taketh away don’t they?)
But back to the glory days of 1924 when the Gods were kind to Walter and Company. Check out this great video here with some classic film footage of the World Series. Note the two pebble incidents (7:40 and 9:40) during the 7th game that heped Washington win. Also note (8:50) the Muddy Ruel double hit after his pop foul of the previous pitch was dropped by the catcher because he had tripped over his mask. It was Muddy who eventually scored the winning run that gave the Senators their first championship.
As for Buzzy, he rolled into this world on the day after Walter, the Senators and all of D.C. celebrated their 1924 World Series victory. And while there is no video commemorating Buzzy’s debut on 10/11/24, still we celebrate his birthday and memory today. Stop by the Store later to have one on him.
