When Platooning Was A Mistake

John McGraw's Mistake

When Platooning Was A Mistake

How much do you know about the 1924 World Series?

You probably already know that the New York Giants battled the Washington Senators to a draw. The World Series went 7 games; the final was played in Griffith Stadium. Washington won in 12 innings, thanks in large part to a funny hop on a ground ball that scored the winning run.

But there’s part of this story that often goes overlooked.

Up to the 7th game, the star player of the series for the New York Giants had been Bill Terry. Terry was a terror, hitting a whopping .429 with a .529 on base percentage and a .786 slugging percentage going into the final game.

Now, there’s part of this story that you probably don’t know. Terry’s heroics had all come against right handed pitching.

Bill’s World Series game log looks a little bit unusual for a regular starter who was playing well:

Walter Johnson, a right handed thrower, started game 1 for Washington. Firpo Marberry, another righty, started game 3. Johnson started game 5.

Left handed throwers started the other games for Washington: Tom Zachary handled games 2 and 6, and George Mogridge started game 4. Interestingly, John McGraw decided to use Terry as a pinch hitter against Mogridge in the 5th inning of game 4; the result was a weak groundout.

As you’ve probably guessed, Terry didn’t exactly hit well against lefties in the regular season:

I’m not convinced that McGraw knew all of these numbers, by the way. I think he knew that Terry had a hard time against lefties, likely from observations in practice and other settings.

Senators player-manager Bucky Harris had a hunch, and did something odd in game 7.

He started Curly Ogden, a right handed pitcher.

Then, after Ogden had faced only 2 batters, he made an abrupt change:

He brought in Mogridge.

Now, the truth is that Harris planned it like this. He wanted to trap McGraw, to try to force him into making a move.

And McGraw finally did. After Terry went 0 for 2 in his first 2 at bats, McGraw took him out.

As soon as he took Terry out, Harris replaced Mogridge with right handed pitcher Firpo Marberry, in a fantastic chess move.

Here’s how The Evening Star in Washington D.C. described it:

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So What?

So what?

Most replayers don’t play post season games with the exact same lineups. Many of us don’t even use the same rosters for the post season.

But, you see, this actually does matter. There was a precedent for this move in the regular season.

On September 24, 1924, the Senators were in Chicago to face the White Sox. Washington was looking to win its 90th game of the season, and to inch a little bit closer to clinching.

The Senators put — you guessed it — Curly Ogden on the mound.

Ogden was injured. I’m not sure that this was widely known. I know this because of his excellent SABR biography:

The biographer is correct: Ogden didn’t pitch well at all on September 7. However, the writer somehow missed what happened on the 24th.

Ogden — a right handed starter — pitched to only 1 batter that day, and then promptly gave the mound up to left handed starter Tom Zachary:

Was he injured? Was he listed as the starting pitcher by mistake?

No.

This comes from the newspaper report of that game:

Harris successfully trapped the White Sox into starting Maurice Archdeacon and Harry Hooper. Both men had a single plate appearance and were then removed from the game, giving the Senators a clear advantage.

Now, this sort of thing does matter if you’re completing a replay. You need to know that Ogden couldn’t actually start that game in late September. If you play the game by hand, you’ve got to figure out what you’re going to do. Do you start Ogden and leave him in there? Do you pull the ruse? Do you start Zachary instead? If so, shouldn’t you change the White Sox lineup?

What do you think?