2.22.2010

ALL KINDS OF CAPITOL FUN

October 2, 1924

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Ain't that jazzy? I gave myself a location so I can start sounding more like a big time baseball writer, seeing I'm going to be friending around with a bunch of them here the next few days and who knows, maybe Butterworth will let me write about one of the games.

Actually, I've already been here a few days, waiting for Game One of the Series tomorrow, and it's been nothing but dinners and parties. The first bash was the one on the train Tuesday night as the players and us rolled in from Boston. Thousands of Washington fans were waiting at the station, and bands were playing and ladies were so randy they were trying to grab Ossie Bluege. Cal and me the other reporters had to get off at the opposite end of the platform and race up to see all this action, and I almost got my teeth knocked in by the tweed elbow of someone's sport coat for my troubles. I heard later that Charles Dawes the Vice-President showed up, Coolidge saving himself up for Griffith Stadium no doubt, but I never saw the guy.

The next day was sunny and cool and the city looked beautiful and I couldn't believe I lived in Philadelphia and never even got down here. After going to a bunch of different Senators parades with Cal I broke off and visited the Smithsonian Institution Museum, and the brand new Lincoln Memorial, and then walked up every one of the 897 steps and fifty floors of the Washington Monument. They had an elevator but it took almost fifteen minutes to get to the top and I figured I needed the exercise, even though it nearly killed me.

They had all the press people booked at the fancy Hamilton Crowne Plaza Hotel, and there were parties in every ballroom every night. I didn't have the best clothes for them, but Cal rented me a sharp waistcoat and bow tie and passed me off as his "understudy" whatever that means. Stuck in a room with a bunch of men smoking cigars and blabbering about baseball wasn't exactly my glass of fizzer so I broke off again and snuck into a bigger room that had a jazz combo playing and some local dressed-up ladies dancing with eager men. Bucky Harris and Roger Peckinpaugh were there with their wives and it was then that I started to miss Rachel and wished I'd talked Cal into bringing her along somehow. I'm sure she had the perfect flapper outfit somewhere and could dance these women right out the glass window.

Cal had all kinds of statistical reports to look at, and when I was sitting up in my bed later, across from where Cal was snoring in his, I found the final list of run differences for all the teams this year. Earned runs instead of total ones were used for the runs allowed, so that's why the totals are higher than you'd think. Everyone made their usual ton of errors.

Washington +225
New York +123
Chicago +114
Detroit +109
Cleveland +108
Boston +63
St. Louis +41
Philadelphia –13

Pittsburgh +293
New York +266
Cincinnati +236
Brooklyn +233
Chicago +157
St. Louis +87
Philadelphia –121
Boston –301

Nice year for the Braves, huh? The Indians were much better than I expected, which I figure was due to their awful 11-34 record in 1-run games.

Finally, before I pass out for the night, here's the lineups for the first game. I can't wait!

PITTSBURGH
Carey CF
Grimm 1B
Moore RF
Cuyler LF
Smith C
Traynor 3B
Wright SS
Maranville 2B
Kremer P

WASHINGTON
Ruel C
Leibold CF
Judge 1B
Goslin LF
Rice RF
Bluege 3B
Harris 2B
Peckinpaugh SS
Johnson P

—Vinny

EDITOR'S NOTE: The 1924 World Series between Pittsburgh and Washington will be "tweet-casted" live right here beginning TONIGHT at 10 p.m. Eastern time, 7 Pacific and continuing at that time through the week, with full accounts to appear on this site the following morning.

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