Cliff Brady

Week 1 Recap


The Seattle Indians finished up the first week of the season on Sunday, April 13, 1924. In spite of outscoring the Los Angeles Angels 42-34, they left for Salt Lake City and its Bees on Monday, April 14th with a 2-5 record. Of course, the only reason they had that scoring advantage was a remarkable 20-1 win to finish up their first double header of the season. When they got to SLC it was raining, and it stayed that way for both Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Seattle club had spring training in Southern California, starting at Lake Elsinore (it's along the 15, if you hate taking the 5 from LA to Sandy Eggo, you've passed it) and finishing up the spring in Los Angeles. The season started on Tuesday, April 8, with a 5-1 loss. They lost on Wednesday 6-5 and then on Thursday the 10th by a score of 8-3. The Indians were able to get into the win column finally on Friday, April 11th with a 9-5 win. Saturday saw the Indians again lose, this time 5-3. Finally on Sunday, it seemed as if the Angels tired of scoring at least five runs a game. The Angels took the opening contest 4-1, but Seattle came back with an offensive explosion in the closing game of the series, the 20-1 mentioned above.

The top of the lineup was pretty consistent:
1- Billy Lane, CF, started all 7 games going 7 for 25 with 4 runs
2- Cliff Brady, 2B, started all 7 games going 7 for 28 with 4 runs
3- Captain Sam Crane, SS, started 5 games, missing #s 2 and 3 with an injury, 7 for 22, 1 run
3- Jimmy Welsh, 3B, pinch hit twice going 1-2, started twice finishing the week 2 of 10, 1 run
4- Brick Eldred, RF, started all 7 games, going 8 for 23, scoring 5 runs
5- Elmer Bowman, 1B, started all 7 games, going 8 for 27 with 6 runs
6- Ray Rohwer, LF, hit 7th in the 6th game, went 7 for 26 with 7 runs
Frank Emmer hit 7th in the first 3 games, starting at 3B in the opener and SS in #s 2 and 3, went 2 for 10 with run. Henry 'Ted' Baldwin missed the first three games with an injury sustained finishing up spring training in Los Angeles. He came back for game 4, batting 7th, but hit 6th in game 6, going back to the 7 hole for game 7. He hit 7 for 18 and scored 4 runs.
Earl Baldwin, catcher, hit 8th for five games, and Frank Tobin, the backup catcher, did the same in games 4 and 7. Earl was 4 for 17 with 2 runs and Tobin went 5 for 8 with 5 runs.
The bottom of the lineup saw the pitchers go 3 for 29, with Bill Plummer collecting 1 hit and Suds Sutherland 3 for 7 with 2 runs.

Regarding the pitching, 39-year old MLB veteran Vean Gregg started what would be a very good season for himself (playing himself back into the majors with 1924 World Series winners the Washington Senators) by going 0-2, losing on opening day on Tuesday, and then in the front side of the double-header on Sunday. Suds Sutherland, a 30 year old pitcher and Coast League veteran who'd got one shot at the MLB in 1921 but caught the ire of Ty Cobb in spite of going 6-2 that year, lost game 2, but was the winner in game 7. Wheezer Dell, MLB veteran at the age of 38, picked up the loss in game 3. 22 year old Bill Plummer picked up one of his few career wins in game 4. Another MLB veteran, Jim Bagby, picked up a loss in game 5. Frank Osborn, who came to camp as a reserve outfielder along with George Bogart, pitched in relief 4 times that first week. Percy Jones, Carl Williams, George Steuland, and Victor Pigg also some time in relief. George Bogart would have the shortest career. The former standout at UC Davis, and 27-year old PCL rookie, would get one pinch running appearance in the ninth inning of the third game of the year and was released following the next game on Friday. The reason given by Wade Killefer was, that at the age of 27, Bogart did not appear to have much room to develop.

Games 6 and 7, April 13, 1924


Some of the great things about reading the sports pages, or anything, of the past are the language and terms used to describe events. This medium has a different message, so to speak. The syntax is formed by the 19th Century newspapers more so than what we read today. Games 6 and 7 of the 1924 season were played in Los Angeles between the Indians and Angels on Sunday, April 13. Typically, PCL teams of the time played a double header every Sunday to end a series, traveled on a Monday, and started a new series on Tuesday. Often, if games were rained out, which we’ll see as we get into the second week of a season, a team could end up playing two or three double headers in a row to close out the often-times 7-game series played in the PCL. If you examine the box score, you’ll see both games of this double header lasted 1 hour 55 minutes. Depending on the time between games, the whole affair was about 5 hours at the most, giving fans something to do between lunch and dinner. When I take my kids to Safeco Field, we’ll get downtown at around a quarter to five, gates open at 5:10, we'll watch BP, get some hot dogs, hope for an autograph, the game starts at 7:10, typically last 2:30 to 2:45, we'll go back to the car, and we’re out of there by 10 pm. I'd rather start with lunch myself. (NOTE: on August 9, 2011, the Rays beat the Royals 4-0 in a game lasting 1:53, the first game of 2011 to be under 2 hours.)
I’ve transcribed the description of the second game. I did it to show several features of the writing. The prosody is not quite as flowery as sports page poems of the time, but take note of how the story is put together. Note the performance in both games of Cedric Durst. He would hit .342 in the PCL that year, and do better the next year with St. Paul in the American Association. Offensively, these would be his best performances in a 25-year playing career, more as a manager, in professional baseball. However, I’m sure the highlight of that career was probably being the weak-hitting reserve outfielder on the 1927 Yankees along with maybe the greatest backup outfielder in history, Ben Paschal, as well as starters Bob Meusel, Earle Combs and Babe Ruth. A hard lineup to break into. Also, note the starter in the second contest, Suds Sutherland. Follow the link if you think Lou Piniella was hard on rookie pitchers.

Furious Hitting In Second Tussle Gives Tribe 20 to 1 Win
Suds Sutherland Tames Seraphs but Vean Gregg Is Beaten Again – Seattle Scores Ten Runs in Ninth – Brady Provides Thriller.
By A STAFF CORRESPONDENT.
LOS ANGELES, Cal. Monday, April 14.- Red Killefer and his Seattle ball club left Los Angeles with only two victories in seven games played but they wound up the final game with a barrage of base hits that the 16,000 fans who attended the game will never forget.
            Los Angeles took the first game of the doubleheader by a score of 4 to 1, but the second battle went to the Indians, 20 to 1.
            Ground rules were necessary because of the largest crowd that has attended a local game since the Angeles and Vernon Tigers settled the pennant on the last day of the 1919 season. Seattle’s heavy sluggers sent the ball into the crowd time after time. The limit for a hit into the crowd was for two bases. It was announced that 43,000 fans had witnessed the Seattle and Los Angeles clubs in action this week and Wade Killefer took a large sized check out of this city.
            The final inning of the second game witnessed the Indians making ten runs and eight hits off Arnold Crandall, rookie southpaw and a brother of the veteran Ote Crandall. Ote won two ball games from Seattle during the past week and the Indian batters obtained revenge from the young brother.
            Here is the record inning. Tobin grounded to the pitcher. Sutherland doubled and took third when McAuley fumbled Lane’s grounder. Lane stole second. Brady hit a grounder to Jacobs, who tried to tag the elusive Lane but missed him, Sutherland scoring. Crane singled to right, putting Lane over. Eldred walked and Bowman followed with a slashing double into the crowd in left field, counting Brady and Crane. Rohwer tripled to right, Eldred and Bowman scoring. Ted Baldwin doubled to left and Rohwer came in. Tobin’s single scored Baldwin. Brady’s two-base hit to left scored Tobin and Lane. Crane ended the inning with an easy grounder to Jacobs.
            Sutherland, who pitched the second game, had no trouble in stopping the Angels. He allowed six hits and only one run. Frank Tobin, who worked with Sutherland, also caught the other winning game for Seattle. Oren O’Neal, young right handed pitcher who started for the Angels, was hit hard by the Indians and given poor support by his teammates. Johnny Walters, who succeeded him in the sixth inning, was wild and he was replaced by Arnold Crandall in the eighth inning.