Meusel Redeems Himself as Yankees Edge White Sox
Bob Meusel recovered from a costly misplay to lift the Yankees, Jess Petty dominated the Cubs with his arm and bat, and the Pirates stunned the Giants with a decisive ninth-inning rally in a packed day of baseball on June 20, 1926.
Content from the NY Daily News - Sunday June 20, 1926
Table of Contents
YANK SOCKS BEAT WHITE SOX, 6—5
Meusel Wins With Single After Early Bungle
By MARSHALL HUNT.
Chicago, June 19.—Bob Meusel figured conspicuously in the affairs of the New York Yankees here this bright but chilly afternoon. Out Comiskey Park way the Yankees proceeded to win another game from the Chicago White Sox, not by a convincing margin, but it counts just the same, and the score was 6 to 5.
It was Meusel who lost a high fly in the sun in the fourth inning and it was Meusel who singled in the fifth and won the game.
What with the Yankees in town and the Eucharistic Congress attracting thousands, the old ball park was filled with more than 30,000, and it was a festive occasion, the mayor forgetting the Chicago crime wave for the afternoon to watch the Yankees indulge in some of their modified murder, and Cardinal O'Donnell of Ireland was in a box.
Babe Ruth knelt before the cardinal's box and received his blessing. Babe was very instrumental in today's victory, too.
The cardinal in fact threw out the first ball.
The pitching of Myles Thomas was nothing to ring the church bells about, for the Sox scored all their runs off him.
Hurlers Look Alike
The Yankees treated the Sox pitchers impartially, scoring some of their runs off Jim Edwards and some off Ted Lyons.
Our Lou Gehrig doubled in the first half of the fourth and the Bambino clipped a single to right for the first run of the game.
But Bibb Falk was yet to double and Bill Barrett and Ray Schalk were to single. Too, Master Thomas was to wax wild and lose all notion of the whereabouts of the plate, so that in no time at all Johnny Mostil and Johnny "Huney Boy" Hunnefield had been given bases on balls and no man alive could have crowded more people on the bases than there were right then.
Eddie Collins pushed a high fly toward our long Mr. Meusel. Our Robert gazed into the sun, wrapped his arms about his skull and then folded up like an accordion. The ball plunked down on the grass beside him and before he could retrieve it three Sox runners were on the bench and the Sox had made five runs.
Edwards Weakens
But Jim Edwards apparently couldn't stand prosperity.
He walked Joe Dugan and Pat Collins in the fifth. He disposed of Aaron Ward, assigned to do something fine and handsome for young Thomas, but bless us if Earle Combs didn't double to left, Mark Koenig sacrificed, Gehrig singled and our illustrious Bambino peeled a double to left.
Then the long Mr. Meusel hit a noisy single out toward Johnny Mostil and Gehrig came steaming in with the tying run and Mr. Ruth came puffing in with the run that put the Yankees into a fragile lead.
The score:
PETTY IN STAR ROLE AS ROBINS BEAT CUBS
Jess Shines in Box and at Bat as Dodgers Win, 7—1
By JACK FARRELL.
With Jess Petty hurling ultra-fashionable ball and limiting the Chicago Cubs to four measly singles, all scattered over a wide area, your Brooklyn Robins eased into a tie for fourth place with the Bruins by taking the odd game of a three-ply series, 7 to 1, at Ebbets Field yesterday.
Mr. Petty incidentally succeeded in making the affair something of a personal triumph by driving in four runs with two healthy doubles.
When Mr. Petty makes two hits in a single game it is a feat worthy of honorable mention, but when he delivers two extra-base hits that's an extraordinary achievement. Mr. Petty may not get another hit for the remainder of the season, but that's another story.
Deserved Shut Out
Jess really deserved a shutout and would have pitched a scoreless game excepting for a brief reversal of form in the sixth inning when he walked two batters. One of these passes was cashed in as the Cubs' lone tally.
Five of the twelve hits yielded by Guy Bush, the willowy right-hander, went for extra bases and it was these long wallops that proved his undoing.
Rabbit Maranville, former Cub leader, showed his former charges a few points in the art of free and timely hitting by macing Mr. Bush for three hits, one a triple, which started the Robins on their way in the second.
Herman Scores Felix
Gus Felix hauled off with a triple in the third and Babe Herman scored him with a single, thus running his record for hitting safely in consecutive games up to fourteen. Babe contributed further to the embarrassment of the lanky Cub pitcher by poling a double after Felix had walked in the fifth.
Mr. Petty scored two more in the sixth with his first two-bagger, and brought in the two final tallies with his second extra-base knock in the eighth.
Dick Cox's leaping one-hand stab off the right-field fence of Riggs Stephenson's liner took all the zip out of a belated Cub rally in the ninth.
The score:
PIRATES SINK GIANT CRAFT IN NINTH WHEN BARNES REPLACES RING AT HELM
Bucs Win, 4—2, on Timely Hits in Last Frame.
By WILL MURPHY.
After Jimmy Ring had pitched marvelously for eight innings at the Polo Grounds yesterday afternoon, he was taken out for a pinch hitter. Virgil Barnes went in for the first time in more than five weeks and allowed the hits that gave the Pittsburgh Pirates a 4 to 2 victory over the New York Giants.
About 35,000 fans saw the doings, which were full of bright happenings all the way.
Ray Kremer went the full distance for Pittsburgh, and most of the time the Giants didn't know whether he was throwing a baseball or a buckshot.
Each side got six hits, but the Pirates made very canny use of their half dozen.
Frankie Frisch started the Giants off with a run when he tripled in the first inning and kept right on home when Glenn Wright threw crazily past third.
Ring held the Pirates nicely in hand until the fifth. Then James gave one of his rather frequent bases on balls, and a moment later catcher Johnny Gooch lined a homer into the right-field stands. It just did clear the wall.
The Giants filled the bases in the eighth, but Kremer made Freddie Lindstrom pop up for the third out.
The rest of the action was crowded into the ninth. Barnes, who was at work on May 13, had the job of holding the Pirates scoreless, and couldn't find his stuff in time. Kiki Cuyler singled, Wright doubled and Johnny Moore two-bagger brought both home before a man was out.
Irish Meusel, of no assistance in his previous attempts, bounced a homer off the upper left-field boxes to start the ninth, but that was all that happened.
With half-way good relief pitching, the boys might have been playing yet, but one supposes that John McGraw had nobody but the recently recovered Barnes to use.
George Kelly dented himself somewhere when he crashed into the boxes trying for a foul fly the other day. Bill Terry played yesterday to give George a rest.
Paul Waner's catch of Eddie Farrell's drive to right in the fifth saved a sure three-base hit. Eddie cracked that one full on the nose.
With Ring at bat and Hank Gowdy (referred to here by his nickname "Snyder") on first in the third inning, this pair of speed merchants worked a perfect sacrifice. Pancho made the trip to second in 1:11 3-5, a new track record.
Last game of the Pirate series here today. Emil Yde against Greenfield, most likely.
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