A FINE BUNCH OF CLOUTS

July 26, 1924

Okay, enough of this already. The Phillies had lost six games in a row, and hadn't won since we beat the Cubs 5-3 nine days ago in Chicago. Heck, me and Benny had even been kidnapped by Al Capone's men and ridden to Indiana on a smuggler's boat since then.

Well, luck finally showed up today for us in the personing of Vic Keen. With his crummy 6-13 record, the Cubs hurler has loads of talent but never seems to catch a break. Ring is the same kind of black cat pitcher for us, but Johnny Couch was going instead so I knew we had a chance.

The players all have their own ways to fend off the spooks, though. Mokan always stops to grind his shoe into the foul line chalk when he runs out to left field. Holke starts wearing his underwear inside out whenever we lose three straight, and even Art Fletcher puts a dollar bill under his cap if we have a lead in the 9th. I personally don't believe in that stuff, and got no problem walking under a ladder on 13th Street on Halloween night, but I can see why baseball people do it, because sometimes there's almost fifteen seconds between pitches and they get a lot of time to think about things.

That blabbermouth catcher Hartnett got things going for the Cubs today with his 21st homer in the 2nd inning, but doubles from Wrightstone and Ford got the run right back. Then it was high time for Cy Time. After Heinie singled with one out in the 3rd, Williams crushed a Keen lob over the Lifebuoy sign in right and we had a 3-1 lead! We were all kind of expecting for Chicago to jump on us then, because like most teams, Baker Bowl is sort of an easy firing range, but a 1-run shot by Hack Miller was all Couch gave them for the next five innings.

It was another beautiful afternoon without too much humidness, so the players had more energy than usual. Especially Cy. In the 5th with one out, he knocked another ball out of the park, his 17th smash of the year. Couch nearly did the same thing but doubled instead to begin the 6th, and then Harper blasted a ball toward Delaware and it was 6-2! It was a good-sized Saturday crowd watching all this, and when they realized they might have an actual win to watch they got even louder.

Harper promised Cy he would hit a second homer, too, and off Guy Bush in the 7th he did exactly that, knocking the thing the other way into the left bleachers and making the place cuckoo! It was like we'd won the pennant. Of our sixteen hits, over half of them were for extra bases, and it was nice to get some decent pitching for a change. Sticking Couch in our pitching rotation and kicking out Glazner was the smartest thing Fletcher's done all year.

After the game I passed up going out for trouble with some of the players because Mama was baking manicotti, but I missed not having Benny around to stop off at Mort's with and get the other scores. I wonder, is he still out in St. Louis or Chicago fishing around for money for that colored game idea of his? Soon as I get a chance I'll have to write Roy a letter, because he's too poor to have a telephone.

Good night, reader-people!
—Vinny

CHI 010 100 001 - 3 8 0
PHI 012 012 21x - 8 16 0

Other National League games today:

at GIANTS 7-10-0, CARDINALS 6-12-1
Exciting stuff up at the Polo Grounds. Hornsby homers for a Cards lead, Irish Meusel homers to tie it. Cards get two runs in the 5th, Giants get two runs in the 5th to tie it again. Ray Blades socks a 3-run wallop in the 7th, Giants score FOUR times in the 8th before they make an out and beat the always tough Jesse Fowler.

PIRATES 5-7-0, at BRAVES 3-5-1
Bucs beat Boston for once, but it still ain't easy, as they come back from a Casey Stengel 2-run homer in the 1st only because Larry Benton walks eight guys.

REDS 4-11-2, at ROBINS 1-7-1
Dolf Luque goes the whole way to beat Doak, and Fournier has his second terrible game in a row with the bat. Brooklyn just can't seem to get anything going, so I better be back in touch with Rachel soon if I know what's good for me.

NATIONAL LEAGUE through Saturday, July 26
Pittsburgh Pirates	61	33	.649	—
Cincinnati Reds	58	40	.592	5
New York Giants	55	40	.579	6.5
Brooklyn Robins	55	43	.561	8
St. Louis Cardinals	50	46	.521	12
Chicago Cubs	44	52	.458	18
Philadelphia Phillies	37	61	.378	26
Boston Braves	26	71	.268	36.5