June 7, 1924
Mama popped a humdinger on me at breakfast: we were going to the New Jersey shoreline tomorrow with Aunt Maria and her two bratty kids. It was okay because the Phillies weren't playing Sunday for church reasons, but I'd be danged if I was going to spend the whole day taking the train back and forth to the ocean with that annoying duo Mikey and Enzo. I begged and pleaded and begged some more to let Benny come along and she finally gave in, though she made it clear she didn't want us running off to the boardwalk and sticking them with the boys.Anyway, Cincy was in town and they smoked us pretty good out west after we beat them in the first game, so like I figured there was a pretty big crowd at Baker by the time we got there, everyone looking for revenge. I suppose when you lose as much as we do there should be big revenge turnouts all the time, but weekend games always draw more. Also Eppa Rixey was pitching, and the last time we faced him we stayed in a coma for two hours.
This time it was different right off the bat. Mokan singled in a 1st inning run, and after the Reds scored a cheap one in the 3rd on a force play, Mokan did it again with a 2-out single to drive in Sand and put us back in front. Holke knocked one in with a deep fly in the 7th and Sand was gunned down at home plate on a Cy WIlliams single, but things looked good, and Jimmy Ring was on his way to a glorious 2-8 record.
No sooner had I thought that, though, then Ring gave up three Red singles to make it 3-2 and get us nervous. It was raging hot again, and Benny yanked off his shirt and twirled it in the air as the game went to the 9th inning with Huck Betts now pitching to try and save it. Curt Walker led with a single but Ike Cavaney bounced into a Sand-started double play! Someone complained to a cop right then about Benny's bare top, and they made him put the shirt back on but he even didn't care because we were just an out away.
Which is when Rube Bressler, the toughest out in their lineup so far, cracked a ball over Cy's head and it bounced around out by the deepest fence, and by the time the ball got back in Rube was standing on third. Okay, okay, just one more to go, just one more.
Except none other than Edd Roush, probably the most famous Red player ever, was walking up. "Tell me what he does," said Benny, pulling the top half of his shirt over his face. I said I would, but when Roush slammed the second Betts pitch on a deep line to right, the words stuck in my throat. Benny didn't need them, because he heard the cheering turn into quiet all around us. The Mighty Roush had hit it out. Pedro Dibut snuffed us easy in the last of the 9th and we'd lost our 30th game of the year in real nightmare fashion. Benny just sat on our bleacher bench while everyone else left, and it took two trash-pickers poking him with their pickers to get him to finally move.
A day at the shoreline sure seemed like a good idea about then.
Good night, reader-people!
—Vinny
CIN 001 000 012 - 4 14 1
PHL 101 000 100 - 3 10 0
Other National League games today:
PIRATES 2-7-1, at ROBINS 1-5-1
Big old yawn, is what I say. Johnny Morrison, the luckiest 6-1 pitcher around, squirms out of every pickle while the Bucs make the most out of their big hits. Carey starts the game with a triple and ends up scoring, and after Brooklyn ties the game finally in the 7th, Moore starts the 8th with a triple and scores on a boot by Andy High. Don't look now (well, you can if you want to), but the Robins are a half game from dropping into 6th place.
CUBS 7-13-1, at GIANTS 5-11-0
Another disgusting Giants loss, and it couldn't happen to a crummier bunch of guys. Today Art Nehf has a 5-0 lead going to the 6th and can't hold it. Friberg ties the game 5-5 with a homer in the 7th, and three singles and a bunt off Jonnard in the 9th win it. Public Polo Grounds enemy number one is George Kelly again. The lug walks his first time up, then whiffs three times and pops out the rest of the game. He has certainly been the Boob Ruth of the National League.
CARDINALS 10-16-0, at BRAVES 3-13-3
Two doubles and a homer by Ray Blades figure big in the daily decimation of the Braves. At this rate Boston will finish the season with a record of 37-117.
| NATIONAL LEAGUE through Saturday, June 7 | ||||
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 32 | 16 | .667 | — |
| Cincinnati Reds | 32 | 20 | .615 | 2 |
| New York Giants | 28 | 21 | .571 | 4.5 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 29 | 24 | .547 | 5.5 |
| Brooklyn Robins | 23 | 25 | .479 | 9 |
| Chicago Cubs | 24 | 27 | .471 | 9.5 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 21 | 30 | .412 | 12.5 |
| Boston Braves | 12 | 38 | .240 | 21 |
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