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Boston Red Sox

Sunday Baseball Fails To Rescue the Boston Red Sox From the Cellar in 1929

Hard luck dogged the Boston Red Sox during the 1920s, and nothing they did, not even Sunday baseball, made things any better.

Babe Ruth, 1918

The decade began with the traitorous Harry Frazee selling Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, an event Red Sox fans still view with bitterness. ‘Leaping Mike’ Menosky replaced Ruth in left field, hitting nine home runs over the next four years. The Babe hit 189.

Before Frazee sold Ruth, the Red Sox dominated Major League baseball, winning five of 17 World Series. The Yankees had been irrelevant, but after acquiring the Bambino they won their first of 27 World Series in 1923. The Red Sox would dwell at or near the cellar until the late 1930s, and go 86 years without a World Series championship. (This, by the way, is nothing Red Sox fans don’t know already.)

Curse of the Bambino

To add insult to injury, the 1923 world champion Yankees had 11 former Red Sox players on the team. Frazee, after selling Ruth, sold off all the team’s good players.

Things went from bad to worse. In 1921 the Red Sox finished fifth and had the worst attendance in the American League. A sportswriter called for a fan boycott. In 1922 the team’s socks weren’t even red – they’d been changed to a dark stripe – and the Red Sox finished dead last in the league.

Boston Red Sox trainer Bits Bierhalter stokes up the hot stove in clubhouse at Fenway, 1928 or 1929. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

In the middle of the next season, Frazee sold off the entire team for $1 million to a group of Midwesterners headed by St. Louis Browns general manager Bob Quinn. The Sporting News, aware of the hatred for Frazee, suggested, ‘Hub May Make Date of Red Sox Sale New Holiday.’ Hardly. The Red Sox started off with a burst of optimism but only managed to finish in seventh place. They fell back into last in 1925.

On May 8, 1926, the left-field bleachers burned down. Quinn could barely meet payroll and couldn’t afford new seats. Attendance was so poor he didn’t need them anyway. Until the team changed hands and the stands were rebuilt, players could catch foul balls behind the third-base grandstand. That year, and the next, and the year after that.

Sunday Baseball

Unknown Detroit Tigers player slides into third base against unknown Boston Red Sox third baseman as ball pops loose in front of unknown umpire during a 1929 game at Fenway Park. The Red Sox probably lost. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

The 1929 Red Sox thought their luck may have changed when the city of Boston finally allowed professional baseball to be played on Sundays. Games couldn’t be played at Fenway Park, though, because it stood within 100 yards of a church they were finally allowed to play ball on Sundays. So the Red Sox played at Braves Field about a mile away.

Their first Sunday home game, on April 14, 1929, was an exhibition game in which the Braves shut out the Red Sox 4-0. Once again, they finished last.

In 1932, someone finally thought to ask the minister if he cared. The minister said no, because baseball games started after services were over.

The first Sunday game at Fenway Park was held on July 3, 1932. The Red Sox lost that one, too, to the Yankees, 13-2.

The Red Sox had an omen on Opening Day in 1930 that the next decade wouldn’t be any better. President Herbert Hoover threw out the first pitch – which bounced before it hit its target.

This story updated in 2022.

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James Michael Curley Steals the Red Sox Thunder

In 1933, the Depression held New England in a vice. Mills were dying, crime was soaring, Boston’s Mayor James Michael Curley was honing his ambitions and Tom Yawkey came into money.

Gov. James Michael Curley throws out the first picch at Fenway Park in 1935. (Boston Public LIbrary Leslie Jones Collection)

Yawkey inherited $7 million that year, when he turned 30, and he immediately went out and spent $1 million of his new funds on acquiring the Boston Red Sox. Then he spent much more to build it into a winner.

Meanwhile, Mayor Curley was refusing WPA funds that weren’t paid out to his hand-picked pals, and work was slow to pick up in the city.

Curley had had enough of state politicians monkeying with “his” money. So he decided to take his fight to the statehouse and run for governor. But he needed to make a suitable splash with his announcement.

Tom Yawkey

Candidate James Michael Curley

Yawkey would be his patsy. Yawkey planned a grand dinner at the Copley Plaza to celebrate his new team. When Curley asked why he wasn’t invited, Yawkey’s people said there would be no politics at the event, but he was welcome to buy a ticket like anybody else and sit on the banquet dining floor. But he would not sit at the head table. No politicians would.

But Yawkey was no match for the wily politician. When Curley showed up at the event, he strode to the head table and started shaking hands with Yawkey, Connie Mack and other baseball notables. Then Curley’s stooges that he had tucked into the audience jumped into action.

“Speech! Speech!” they shouted. What could Curley do? He had to cooperate. And so he stepped to the podium and in front of an army of press, he announced he would run for governor.

The story didn’t just steal the headlines from Yawkey and his Red Sox. The boys from the newspapers fell over themselves running from the room to reach the phones to get their stories into the earliest possible edition. The Red Sox were left to build their publicity machine another day.

This story last updated in 2022.

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Johnny Pesky, Boston’s Beloved Baseball Ambassador

Fenway Park’s famed Pesky Pole is less the legacy of a single home run in 1948 than a tribute to Johnny Pesky, the Boston Red Sox Beloved Baseball Ambassador. For decades he was as well known — and loved — in Boston as Faneuil Hall or Old Ironsides.

Johnny Pesky. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

Johnny Pesky was born John Michael Paveskovich on Sept. 27, 1919, the son of Croatian immigrants in Portland, Ore. His name was shortened during his baseball career to fit into the box score, and he changed it officially in 1947. “My mother was pretty mad,” he said.

He had a lifetime batting average of .307 and was often a league leader in on-base percentage, though he hit only 17 home runs in his career. Some of those were hit near the right-field foul pole, which today marks the shortest distance for a home run in Major League baseball.

The Pesky Pole

Red Sox pitcher Mel Parnell gave it the nickname, Pesky said, because he won a game for him in 1948 with a home run around the pole. For years it was unofficially known as the Pesky Pole until Pesky’s 87^th birthday in 2006, when the Red Sox officially dedicated it with a plaque.

The Pesky Pole in yellow

In 1940, he was offered a $2,500 bonus to sign with the St. Louis Cardinals, but chose the Boston Red Sox at $500 a year. He decided on Boston because his parents were so impressed with scout Ernie Johnson. They felt he’d look out for their middle son. (He also brought flowers for Mrs. Pesky and bourbon for Mr. Pesky.)

For most of the next six decades, Johnny Pesky was a fixture at Fenway Park as player, coach, manager, announcer, special assistant to the general manager and Beloved Baseball Ambassador.

He became the Red Sox star shortstop during the ‘40s and ‘50s, teaming up with second-baseman Bobby Doerr in one of the best double-play combinations of the era. The lifelong friendship among teammates Pesky, Doerr, Ted Williams and Dom DiMaggio was chronicled by David Halberstam in his book, The Teammates.

Johnny and Ruth Pesky

World War II

Pesky lost three prime playing years to World War II – and before that, three nights a week during the season to train for naval aviation training. Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey rewarded his service by giving him a $5,000 bonus — enough for his parents to buy a house.

From 1943-45 he served in the Navy. He met his wife, Ruth C. Hickey of Lynn, Mass., at Gordon Field Naval Air Base in Atlanta, where they were both stationed. Ruth was a Machinist Mate 1st Class whose job was to start airplane engines. They were happily married for 60 years.

He spent most of his life on Boston’s North Shore, in Lynn and Swampscott. A ubiquitous community booster, he hosted 400 people at the annual Johnny Pesky Friendship Dinner. With his contemporaries, he frequented local restaurants, such as the International House of Pancakes in Swampscott. There he presided as “chairman” of the “Breakfast Club.” He devoted countless hours to raising money for the Jimmy Fund and other charities. And he prided himself on never saying no to a kid who wanted an autograph, no matter how old the kid.

For years he appeared as a spokesman in the deliberately corny ‘Window Boys’ commercials for J.B. Sash & Door. (Watch one of his old commercials here.)

The St. Louis Cardinals

Johnny Pesky. Photo taken by flickr user pierrelascott, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution.

The low point of Johnny Pesky’s career came in the eighth inning of the last game of the 1946 World Series. Boston and St. Louis tied the score at 3-3. Enos Slaughter then made his mad dash from first to home to score the winning run. Pesky seemed to hold the ball on the relay before throwing home. St. Louis catcher Joe Garagiola later said Pesky couldn’t have thrown Slaughter out anyway.

He went home to Portland after the game and didn’t leave his house for five weeks. Finally he emerged. In a 1979 Boston Globe interview, he said, “If you’re a palooka, you’ve got to live with it.”

Sixty-eight years later, the Red Sox beat the Cardinals in four games. Johnny Pesky helped hoist the World Series banner the following spring. And in April 2012, Fenway Park celebrated its 100^th birthday. Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr were the center of attention, side by side in wheelchairs at second base.

Johnny Pesky died at 93 on Aug. 13, 2012 in Danvers, Mass.

This story last updated in 2022.

Images: Pesky Pole By User Francesco Crippa on Flickr – Originally posted to Flickr as "dsc_6431", CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4337393.

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How Rhode Island’s Lizzie Murphy Played Major League Baseball in 1922

Lizzie Murphy didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Even as a little kid, when the boys told her she was too small to play with their team in baseball, she persuaded them to let her carry the bats. So began the career of the first woman to play major league baseball.

Lizzie Murphy

Largely because she could borrow her father’s equipment – he was a semi-pro ball player – Lizzie soon got herself a spot playing first base with the local boys, and there was no stopping her after that.

Lizzie Murphy

Murphy, born in 1894 in Warren, R.I., was a pure athlete – skater, runner, and swimmer. She had athletic ability to burn. But it was baseball where she would make her mark.

Like many girls of her era, Murphy left school at age 12 to work in a woolen mill. But her talent wouldn’t stay buried. She caught on with local teams, the Warren Silk Hats and the Warren Baseball Club, and she was a big draw.

In those days, the teams would pass a hat through the crowd and collect up donations that the team would divide up among the players. After her first game, the story goes, the manager didn’t pay Lizzie Murphy a share.

For the next weekend, he spread the word far and wide that he was bringing his girl ballplayer to Newport. The unusual presence of a girl playing with the boys would be quite a draw.

Just before the game, though, Lizzie told him what professional athletes have always said: No pay, no play. Lizzie Murphy got her share, and a bonus for every game she appeared in.

By the 1920s, Lizzie had moved on to bigger events. She was a regular with Ed Carr’s All Stars of Boston, a barnstorming team that played as many as 100 games a year throughout New England and Canada. In between innings she would enter the stands to sell photographs of herself.

Lizzie Murphy, who wore her red hair wound up under her cap, had her name written large across the front and back of her jersey so the fans could spot her. She went by the name ‘Spike Murphy’ and billed herself as the ‘Queen of Baseball.’

Fenway Park

The high point of her career came in 1922, on August 14, when Lizzie’s team played an exhibition against the Boston Red Sox of the Major Leagues. The team put together the event at Fenway Park to raise money for the family of Tommy “Little Mac” McCarthy, a Hall-of-Famer who played in Boston in the 1880s and 1890s who had recently died.

Lizzie Murphy entered the game to cheers and boos, and performed well at first base – the first time a woman would play against a major league team. Ed Carr would say of her: “No ball is too hard for her to scoop out of the dirt, and when it comes to batting, she packs a mean wagon tongue.”

She never got to bat in that game. She wasn’t a bad hitter, though, averaging .300 throughout her career and once collecting a hit off Satchel Paige while playing in an exhibition with the Negro Leagues.

In 1935, Lizzie hung up her glove and settled back in Warren. In her later years, she was somewhat bitter about the game she once loved, saying she didn’t really know why she had ever done it

This story about Lizzie Murphy was updated in 2022.

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Pumpsie Green Finally Breaks the Red Sox Color Barrier

Pumpsie Green received a standing ovation from the fans at Fenway when he made his first home appearance as a Boston Red Sox. It was 12 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color line with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Red Sox were the last Major League Baseball team team to include African Americans on the roster.

Dick Gernert, Pumpsie Green and Gary Geiger. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

Pumpsie Green

He was born on October 27, 1933, as Elijah Jerry Green, Jr., in Boley, Okla., the oldest of five boys. His brother Cornell became an All-Pro safety for the Dallas Cowboys. Another brother, Credell, played a season for the Green Bay Packers.

Pumpsie played baseball growing up in Oakland, Calif., and signed a minor league contract with the Oakland Oaks during his last year of college. He played in the minors for more than six years until he was called up by the Red Sox.

Pumpsie Green broke into the majors on July 21, 1959, pinch running for the Red Sox in a 2-1 loss to the White Sox in Chicago. Green didn’t get a chance to play in front of the hometown crowd until August 9 in a game against Kansas City.

Celtics star Bill Russell greeted him when he arrived before the game, and Jackie Robinson called him in the dugout. Ted Williams made it a point to warm up with him every day.

The Red Sox didn’t have many black fans, but they did that day. Few seats were available, but the team’s management roped off a large section of center field for standing room only fans, all African American. They yelled and screamed and hollered for Pumpsie.

Pumpsie Green in 1961

A Good Day at the Ball Yard

During the top of the first inning, the Red Sox third baseman fielded a sharply hit ground ball, threw it to Green for the force at second. Green threw it to first for a double play. The crowd went wild.

Then when he led off in the bottom of the inning, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. The umpire said, “Good luck Pumpsie.” He felt lightheaded.

“I said, ‘Pumpsie, one thing you want to do is you want to hit the ball. You do not want to strike out and have to walk all the way back to the dugout after receiving a standing ovation.” When he hit a triple off the monster, “The crowd went crazy…They gave me another standing ovation. And I took a deep breath.”

And Not So Good

It wasn’t all cheers and accolades, not by a long shot. When he was in the minors, a fat fan in San Antonio used to ride him hard.

He sat right behind our dugout. I was the only black on the team. He talked about my whole family, and relatives, Africa, and everything. And I mean loud, so everybody in the park could hear him.

Truthfully speaking, he bothered the people around me and my teammates more than he bothered me, because I had heard all this stuff before. … The more he talked about me, the harder I hit the ball. He helped me raise my batting average 20 points.

When he reached the majors, he had to socialize with the African American players from other teams. His white teammates never asked him out for a beer. He learned to put the pioneering role out of his mind and ignore race issues. He ignored his tormenters. “I will not let you know that I know that you’re right there,” he said.

Pumpsie Green played four seasons for the Red Sox and one for the New York Mets before retiring. He and his wife moved back to California. He taught math and coached baseball at Berkeley High School for 20 years.

On April 17, 2009, Pumpsie Green threw out the first pitch in a ceremony honoring him 50 years after he broke into the Red Sox lineup.

He died July 17, 2019 at the age of 85.

This story was updated in 2022.

5 comments 1.7K views

Babe Ruth Ends His Career in Boston — On the Worst Team in Baseball History

In August 1934, 48,000 fans came to see 39-year-old Babe Ruth play for the Yankees at Fenway Park because they thought it would be his last appearance in Boston.

Babe Ruth and two players who were not Babe Ruth. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

Boston loved the Babe — possibly more than New York did.

At that last game at Fenway in 1934, the fans cheered everything he did. When he grounded out in his last at-bat, they gave him a thunderous ovation.

“Do you know that some of them cried when I left the field?” Ruth said afterwards. “And if you wanna know the truth, I cried too.”

Little did they know he would return the next spring as a Boston Brave.

Babe Ruth

Ruth began his baseball career in 1914 as a dominant left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox – until that long-lamented day five years later when he was traded to the New York Yankees. After 20 years in baseball, he had seven World Series ring and, a batting title. He had twice won 20 games as a pitcher and set every home run record in the book.

But after two decades, it was clear to all that the Babe’s skills were deteriorating. Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert made a secret deal with the Boston Braves’ owner, Emil Fuchs, to unload Babe Ruth.

The Babe desperately wanted to manage a team, so Fuchs offered him a contract that gave him two titles: “assistant manager” and “vice president.” But Fuchs had no intention of letting Ruth manage. The Braves were struggling, both financially and on the field, and Fuchs wanted Ruth to boost the gate receipts.

Worst team in baseball history. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

On Feb. 26, 1935, Yankee Babe Ruth was handed a piece of paper. It said,

You are hereby notified as follows: 1. That you are unconditionally released.

The Boston Braves

Babe Ruth got off to a great start as a Brave. He crushed a home run off Giants’ ace Carl Hubbell before an opening day crowd of 25,000 fans, including five of the six New England governors.

Ruth went seriously downhill after that. He still hit the ball occasionally, but he could barely get around the bases and his defense was so poor pitches threatened not to pitch if he was in the lineup. He gradually realized he would not manage the Braves.

Worse, the Braves that year were a terrible team — the worst in baseball history. They finished the season with a 38–115 record.

Babe Ruth, 1918

After a month, the Babe desperately wanted to retire.

“All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill,” he said.

The Braves were about to go on a long road trip, and opposing teams had plans to honor the Babe Ruth. He was persuaded to play until Memorial Day.

In a game against Pittsburgh on May 25, Babe Ruth hit three home runs, including his 714^th, driving the ball out of Forbes Field. It was the longest home run ever hit at Forbes Field. “I swing big, with everything I’ve got,” he said. “I hit big or I miss big.”

And, he added, “I like to live as big as I can.” On May 30, 1935, he played his last game against the Philadelphia Phillies. In his last at-bat during the first inning, he grounded out softly to the first basemen. Then in left field he misplayed a fly ball. Then he went back to the dugout for the last time.

The day after he retired, Emil Fuchs put the Braves up for sale.

He never got the manager’s job he coveted. In retirement, he fished, played golf and made personal appearances. He died of cancer on Aug. 16, 1948, 53 years old.

After his death, sportswriter Tommy Holmes said he gave up talking about him.

I realized that those who had never seen him didn’t believe me.

This story last updated in 2022.

2 comments 2.4K views

Newer Posts

Older Posts

Boston Red Sox

Sunday Baseball Fails To Rescue the Boston Red Sox From the Cellar in 1929

Curse of the Bambino

Sunday Baseball

James Michael Curley Steals the Red Sox Thunder

Candidate James Michael Curley

Johnny Pesky, Boston’s Beloved Baseball Ambassador

The Pesky Pole

World War II

The St. Louis Cardinals

How Rhode Island’s Lizzie Murphy Played Major League Baseball in 1922

Lizzie Murphy

Fenway Park

Pumpsie Green Finally Breaks the Red Sox Color Barrier

Pumpsie Green

A Good Day at the Ball Yard

And Not So Good

Babe Ruth Ends His Career in Boston — On the Worst Team in Baseball History

Babe Ruth

The Boston Braves

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