1927 World Series
The first annual World Series has come and gone, and they will be
talking about this one for years to come in both Cuyahoga Falls and in
Boston . While it didn't have the theatrics and managerial machinations
of the CF/Washington Expos LCS, it had a drama of entirely different
kind.
Game One
Game one was a cloudy, windy day, but the temperature was a mild 61
degrees as Jessie Haines took the hill for the Collusion against Ted
Lyons. Both teams threatened in the first, but couldn't break through.
Boston wasted an Ira Flagstead double and an intentional walk to the
Babe, while a lead-off double by Harvey Hendrick was erased on a
beautiful pick-off play by Ted Lyons to Jackie Taverns. The Sox again
threatened in the third, with Tavener reaching on an error by Billy
Rogell and Willie Kamm beating out a ground ball to second. However,
after a sacrifice by catcher Hank DeBerry moved the runners to second
and third, Haines bore down and got Lyons and lead-off man Bucky Harris.
Boston finally drew blood in the third. One-out walks to George Harper
and Ruth (the latter intentional after a Wally Schang passed ball) set
up Jackie Tavener, who followed up on his LCS power surge by hitting a
pea into the gap in left-center, plating both Harper and Ruth.
Boston then exploded in the 4th. After DeBerry struck out to open the
inning, pitcher Ted Lyons lined a single just over the head of second
baseman Bill Regan. With the corners in, Bucky Harris snuck the ball
past Rogell for a double, sending Lyons to third. Collusion manager
Jay Patrick felt the game slipping away, so he brought is infield in.
Haines induced a slow grounder to first, and in the key play of the
game first baseman Harvey Hendrick let the ball roll under his glove,
plating Lyons and setting up runners at the corners for Harper and
Ruth. Harper smashed the ball into the hole between first and second.
Regan dove, but all he could do was keep the ball on the infield. Ruth
then drilled a double down the right field line, socring Flagstead. A
lu Blue single and a Tavener sac fly brought home the 4th and 5th runs
of the inning, and with a 7-0 lead the outcome of game one was settled.
Lyons kept the Collusion in check the rest of the way, and Boston
previled 8-3.
Game Two
Game 2 was all about Dutch Henry and Babe Ruth. Ruth homered to lead
off the second, and Dutch Henry made it stand up, giving up but 2 hits
and 3 walks and keeping the Collusion from even threatening. After
Ruth's blast, Lefty Grove matched Henry pitch-for-pitch, but it wasn't
enough, and Boston left Cuyahoga Falls with a 1-0 victory and 2-0 lead
in the series.
Game 3
Hal Carlson and Bump Hadley took the hill for game three, and Collusion
tried to show they weren't going down without a fight, jumping to a 2-0
lead on a 2-run double to right-center by Bill Regan in the 2nd.
Hadley settled down after that, however, and slowly the Sox fought
their way back. Flagstead singled home catcher Hank DeBerry in the
third, and Babe Ruth hit a towering home run down the rightfield line
in the 6th.
Both pitchers kept things scoreless into the 9th, when each manager
made a critical decision that would affect the outcome of the game and
ultimately of the series. Boston brought in ace closer Garland Braxton
to pitch the 9th, and despite giving up a double to Buddy Myer was able
to keep Collusion off the scoreboard. Patrick, however, wasn't ready
to entrust the game to his closer, Firpo Marberry, and stuck with
Carlson into the 9th. Willie Kamm opened the inning with a blooper to
center that Jimmy Welsh got a late break on and couldn't reach.
Bywaters then brought in veteran Dick Burrus to hit for Deberry. On a
1-0 pitch, Kamm broke for second and Burrus hit a line-drive to left-
center. The ball found the wall, Kamm found the plate, and Collusion
found itself staring a 3-0 defecit in the face.
Game 4
Going for the kill, Sox manager Andrew Bywaters sent out Ted Lyons on
three days' rest to face left-hander Jessie Petty. Both pitchers had
their best stuff, and neither team really threatened in the first 5
innings. In the bottom of the 6th Lyons led-off with a grounder that
snuck into right field, and Harris followed with grounder under the
glove of secondbaseman Bill Regan, for which Harris was generously
credited with a single. Lu Blue hit chopper to the right of the mound,
which Petty fielded and made a gutsy through to third, just nailing the
sliding Lyons . Petty then walked Harper, however, setting up a one-
out, bases-loaded situation for Babe Ruth. The crowd went wild,
sensing a sweep. Unnerved, Petty surrended a medium fly-ball to
center, scoring Harris but taking the life out of the rally. He then
struck out Flagstead to end the inning, and a faint pulse could still
be detected in the Collusion dugout.
Lyons got Fred Leach to flyout to open the 7th, but then the Collusion
finally came alive. Hendrick, dropped to 6th in the order, drilled a
single to center. Lyons , desperately trying to keep Hendrick close at
first, lost his concentration and grooved one down the heart of the
plate for Billy Rogell. The youngster jumped all over the pitch,
blasting it over Flagstead's head and off the wall on one hop. A
perfect throw and relay from Tavener were of no avail as Flagstead
scored standing up. visibly upset, Lyons then allowed Buddy Myer to
line a single to left that scored Rogell. He got out of the inning
without any further damage, but Petty slammed the door on Boston ,
retiring the last nine hitters to give Collusion its first victory of
the series.
Game 5
Game one starter Jessie Haines was given a chance to redeem himself by
Jay Patrick, but with a 24 mph wind blowing out to left, Bywaters
scratched lefty Dutch Henry and went with Elam Van Gilder. The move
looked like it would pay off. Bucky Harris led off the bottom of the
first with a blast off the Green Monster, and he eventually scored on
Lu Blue's sac fly. Van Gilder, though, kept Collusion scoreless
through 4, and the Sox fans again began anticipating a championship.
It all fell apart in the 5th, however. Myer and Regan opened the
inning with walks, and after a failed bunt Welsh beat out a hit to
shortstop. VanGilder walked in a run to catcher Johnny Schulte, and
Harry Heilmann finally came through for Collusion with a 2-run double
in the left-centerfield alley. Haines then shut the Red Sox down the
rest of the way, and the Collusion held on to a 3-1 victory. A chill
descended upon Fenway Park as the game ended, knowing that that Boston
would have to go back to Cuyahoga Falls with the risking of blowing a 3-
0 series lead.
Game 6
Moving back to Dunn Field the pitchers continued to dominate. Lefty
Grove and Dutch Henry were locked into a scoreless duel until the
bottom of the 6th, when after 14 straight scoreless innings Henry was
finally touched . Hendrick led off with a single for Collusion, and
seldom used thirdbaseman Fred Haney laid down a perfect sac. bunt to
move Hendrick into scoring position. For the second game in a row
Heilmann came up with a clutch hit, a line single to left. Ruth came
up throwing, but the Hendrick scored standing up.
Grove continued to dominate until the ninth. Having thrown 134
pitches, Patrick wanted to pull Lefty, but Grove talked him to letting
him face Ruth. The Babe did what the Babe does best, and the score was
deadlocked at one. Patrick stormed out to the mound and brought in
Firpo Marberry, who calmly retired the Sox in order.
Bywaters stuck with closer Garland Braxton for a second inning in the
9th. After retiring the hapless Wally Schang on a grounder to short,
Braxton induced a grounder to Freddie Leach, which just got under the
glove of a diving Lu Blue. Bill Regan followed with a solid single to
left, and Jimmy Welsh was thrown out on a surprise one-out bunt
attempt, which the official scorer generously credited as a sacrifice.
With 2-out and a lefty and then Marberry coming to the plate, it looked
as if Boston would be able to get out of it. However, a 3-2 pitch that
seemed to catch the outside corner was called a ball, and the bases
were loaded. Johnny Schulte hit for Firpo, and grounded a 3-2 pitch in
the hole toward short. Tavener had been cheating toward second base
for the left-hand hitting Schulte, and all he could do was watch the
ball dribble into leftfield and the Collusion dugout explode as Leach
danced home with the winning run.
Box Score
Game 7
The tension was palpable in the Red Sox clubhouse before the start of
game 7. Having blown a 3-0 lead, the copy of the Boston Globe with the
headline reading "The Choke Job in Cuyahoga" was sitting untouched on
the front desk, no player wanting to think the unthinkable. An
overflow crowd at Dunn Field waited with anticipation, posters with
unprintable slogans decorating the bleachers and upperdeck.
With Braxton tired, Bywaters decided to go with a tired Ted Lyons,
while a giddy Patrick confidently gave the ball to a rested Hal Carlson.
Yet it seemed that Collusion was the more nervous of the two teams to
start. Bucky Harris - who came in hitting a woeful .167 for the
series - opened the game with a line-drive single to right, which
Heilmann overran, allowing Harris to reach second. Carlson then plunked
Flagstead on the elbow, and George Harper - 3-22 coming into the game -
ripped a solid single to left, loading the bases for Ruth. Carlson,
though, after a brief visit by Schang and pitching coach Rube Marquard,
settled down, allowing a sacfly to Ruth, and then retired Blue and
Tavener without any further damage.
Collusion threatened in the first with a couple of singles but failed
to score, and then Boston threatened to break the game open in the
2nd. With one out, Deberry walked and Lyons hit one into the gap in
right-center. Welsh made a great play to cut the ball off, but Lyons
was still able to get into second with a double, setting Boston up with
2nd and 3rd with one out. Patrick again brought the infield in, and it
looked like disaster when Harris hit a rocket down the thirdbase line.
However, this time Rogell was able to make an incredible, acrobatic
catch. He then jogged to third to complete the double play, and the
crowd let out an audible sigh of relief.
Boston punched it's second run across in the third inning, with a 2-out
basesloaded single by Jackie Tavener scoring Ira Flagstead. However,
yet another great defensive play - this time a great read on the ball
by centerfielder Jimmy Welsh - kept George Harper at third, and Boston
had to settle for one run.
Welsh then helped the Collusion with the bat, hitting a long homerun
(Collusion's only of the series) to leftcenter, and Boston, which
should have already blown the game open, was left clinging to a one-run
lead after three.
In the top of the 6th Boston got another run, with Bucky Harris' sac
fly scoring Willie Kamm, but in the bottom half of the inning, as he
had done so often in the regular season, Lyons inexplicably fell
apart. After getting the first out of the inning, Lyons walked
Heilmann. Schang hit a grounder in the hole toward short, and Tavener
took a little too long to get rid of the ball, allowing Schang an
infield single. Freddie Leach hit a grounder toward third, and rather
than going around the horn, Kamm stepped toward on the bag and fired to
first. Leach barely beat the throw, and Collusion's inning was still
alive. Up stepped Harvey Hendrick, and he went the other way, catching
Kamm off guard as he snuck a ground ball down the thirdbase line. The
ball got into the corner, and the game was tied. Billy Rogell then
made his second big play of the game, nailing a triple into the right-
centerfield gap, and pandemonium began to grip the crowd. Regan
finished off the rally with a rbi single to left, and Cuyahoga Falls
began to celebrate.
Learning nothing from Games 3 and 5, Patrick left Carlson in to pitch
the 8th. Tavener led off with a single through the hole on the left
side, and Willie Kamm beat out a ground ball to the right of the mound.
Dick Burrus pinch-hit, and after a Wally Schang passed ball Burrus hit
a slow groundball to the shortstop. Myer's throw was not in time,
allowing Tavener to score and setting up runners at first and third
with nobody out. Patrick finally brought in Marberry. Cuyler pinch-
hit, and he hit into a double play, scoring Kamm but ending the
threat.
With the score tied at 5, Bywaters brought in an exhausted Braxton to
pitch the 8th inning, and he and Marberry were solid, with neither team
mounting a threat, sending the 7th game to a dramatic 10th inning.
Having hit for Marberry, Patrick brought Eddie Rommel in to pitch the
10th. The veteran knuckleballer got Tavener to ground to second, but
then he walked Willie Kamm. Buck Crouse hit what looked like an inning-
ending double play ball to Rogell at third, but that's when everything
began to collapse for Collusion. Rogell threw the ball into
rightfield, setting up runners at the corners. Bywaters called on
relief pitcher Les Sweetland to pinch-hit, and Patrick countered with
game 4 hero Jessie Petty. Wanting to keep the platoon edge, Bywaters
sent Les Bell in to bat, and Bell grounded a single under the glove of
Regan at second, scoring Kamm. Harris walked, and then Collusion
suffered another defensive lapse. Flagstead hit a looping liner to
left, which Leach got a great jump on. Then, inexplicably, he pulled
up short, playing it safe, giving up a base hit and allowing a run to
score. Collusion manager James Patrick went berzerk in the dugout,
almost earning an ejection. Visibly shaken by their manager's temper
tantrum, the Collusion collapse continued, and when the dust had
cleared 10 runs had scored, giving the Red Sox a commanding 15-5
victory and a World Series Championship.