OCTOBER 14, 1938
CHIEFS COMPLETE COMEBACK WITH WILD WIN
The fact that the Chicago Chiefs overcame a 3 games to one deficit to beat the Brooklyn Kings in the World Championship Series is not a total surprise, as both teams were very good and there was little to separate the two sides after a week and a half of outstanding October baseball. The Chiefs won Game Seven by an 11-10 score in a wild contest that went back and forth. However, the fact that with Rabbit Day and Tom Barrell opposing each other on the mound, the two clubs would combine for 21 runs after only scoring a total of 30 in the first six games combined was a huge shock and completely unexpected.
Neither Day, who had lost Games 1 and 4, nor Barrell, who was the winner in both of those games, were around to factor in the decision as Day's day was over after allowing 5 runs and 8 hits over 3 innings while Barrell did not fare much better, getting pulled in the 4th after surrendering 6 runs albeit on just 4 Chicago hits at the time. The fact that a pair of them were homers proved Barrell's undoing. It was Jack Beach, the former Detroit star who was booed out of Kings County in his brief stint with the Brooklyn side three years ago, who ended up being the winning pitcher although after allowing 5 runs (4 earned) of his own in just over 2 innings of work he certainly did not feel like celebrating at the time. The goat as it would turn out was Brooklyn's all-star reliever Del Lyons who let the game get away in the fifth inning when he gave up 4 Chicago runs and instead of putting out the Chicago fire he poured kerosene on it.
Many second guessed Brooklyn manager Powell Slocum's decision to go to Lyons so early in the game with the club trailing 6-5 at the time. Lyons set a FABL save record with 29 this season but had almost exclusively be used in the seventh inning or later. Slocum had plenty of options in his bullpen including fully rested starters Joe Shaffner, Bob Cummings and Mike Murphy as well as veteran Gary Harris who had exceled this season in middle inning situations just like the one Slocum's was dealing with at the time. It is of course easy for the 32,000 managers in the stands to question the decision after the fact and had Lyons done a bang up job we would instead be talking about the great move Slocum made to go to his star reliever so early. But that is the life of a manager and the much maligned Slocum knows it better than most. After the game he simply tipped his cap to the Chiefs and said he "would make the decision again today if I needed to. I felt Del was the right answer at the time and I still do. Sometimes things just don't go as planned..." he added as his voice trailed off.
Not going as planned certainly summed up Game Seven for both sides. With scores of 4-1 and 2-1, both in Brooklyn's favour, the first two times Day and Barrell met the expectation was for much the same this time around. The first inning and a half seemed to reaffirm that line of thinking as Day and Barrell combined to set down 9 straight including 3 strikeouts from the Brooklyn ace. That all changed in the bottom of the second inning when Al Wheeler led off with a solo homerun - his first of the Series- and the floodgates opened.
Brooklyn would score 3 times in the second and send 8 men to the plate including pitcher Tom Barrell who continued his outstanding series at the plate with his fourth hit in 5 at bats. Unfortunately Tom's troubles on the mound on this day precluded him from getting another chance to hit in the series.
Fans of the Kings know by now the club never does anything easy and that included squandering an early 3-0 lead as the Chiefs quickly tied the contest on a 3-run homer from Pete Layton in the top of the third. Walks proved the undoing of Tom Barrell as he missed with a pair of full count offerings and after retiring the next two batters left a 2-1 pitch over the plate and the veteran Layton, who soon would collect his 6th World Championship ring and second Series MVP award, made Barrell pay.
Day would run into more problems in the third as he allowed 2 more Brooklyn runs including another homer. This one was also a lead-off shot and came off the bat of Frank Vance, who had a terrific season for the Kings but struggled in the Series. Day would be removed for a pinch hitter in the top of the fourth and that might have been the move that gave Chicago the title as Len Jones, who replaced Day, hit a 2-run triple to put Chicago ahead 6-5 and end Tom Barrell's afternoon. Barrell, like Day, had allowed a lead-off homerun to Hank Barnett just a few batters earlier.
Jack Beach took the mound for the Chicago fourth as a cascade of jeers reigned down on him from Kings fans who all too well remember him as the goat of Brooklyn 1935 pennant loss to Cleveland. This Jack Beach was a 21 game winner for the Chiefs but he looked like his 1935 self on the Kings County bump, quickly allowing Brooklyn to retake the lead 7-6 after 3 hits in the fourth inning. However, the topsy-turvy game continued to surprise as Del Lyons had one of those blowups he does every so often and gave up 4 Chicago runs in the fifth to make the score 10-7 Chiefs. The big blow of the inning was a 2-run triple off the bat of Bob Martin.
Brooklyn looked poised for a big rally in response in the bottom of the fifth when Ab Thomas led off with a double. Thomas would move to third on sacrifice but then he tried to score on a Joe Perret sac fly that, as it turned out, was not quite deep enough to successfully challenge the arm of Bennie Griffith, who fired a bullet to catcher Tom Bird and nailed Thomas. It would be the second time the Kings had a player thrown out at home as Fred Barrell was caught to end the fourth inning.
No lead seemed safe the way this one was going but the Chiefs had to feel a little more comfortable after extending their lead to 4 with a run in the sixth inning on a Cliff Moss sacrifice fly. It proved to be essential as the Kings were right back at it in the bottom of the sixth, scoring 3 times to cut the Chiefs lead to 11-10.
Surprisingly the last three innings were scoreless although the Chiefs took a turn in having a runner gunned down at the plate when Jim Hampton was thrown out in the top of the ninth. Brooklyn's dying breath in the series came when pinch-hitter Stan Ware singled and moved to second on a 2-out walk to John Langille in the bottom of the ninth but Red Hampton, who did a very solid job over the final 3 innings for Chicago, retired Frank Vance on a lazy fly ball to seal the series victory.
CHIEFS/KINGS TIE GAME SEVEN RUNS RECORDThe improbable 11-10 score for the Chiefs win over the Brooklyn Kings only ties the FABL record for most runs scored in a 7th game. The mark of 21 was established just 4 years ago when the Cleveland Foresters blasted the New York Gothams 18-3 in their deciding contest. The Foresters, like the Chiefs, had trailed 3 games to one in the series before winning three straight to take the title. In all their have been 12 times the Series has needed the full seven games.
Only one other time has a team rebounded from a 3 games to one deficit to win the Series. That was in 1915 when it was the Montreal Saints who rallied to beat the Boston Minutemen with game seven being the famous Johnston & Johnson pitching duel in which the Saints Bob Johnston topped Boston's George Johnson 1-0.
Those three comebacks pale in comparison to the 1911 Toronto Wolves, who dropped the first 3 games of their Series with Detroit before winning four straight: Game four 3-1 in 11 innings, game five 3-2 in 10 innings before only needing nine to even the Series with a 4-3 win in the sixth game setting up a relatively easy 5-0 win to complete the improbable comeback.
The 1918 Series between Detroit and the Chicago Cougars also nearly had a comeback from 3-0 as the Dynamos won the first 3 games before the Cougars roared back to win 3 straight. Chicago's comeback would fall short as Detroit recovered to take game seven.
Here is the complete list of 7 game series
Code:
1938 Chiefs over Brooklyn
1934 Cleveland overcame 3-1 deficit to beat Gothams Game 7 score 18-3
1933 Keystones over Cougars
1930 Sailors over Gothams
1929 Detroit over Sailors
1921 Montreal over St Louis
1918 Detroit over Cougars Detroit led 3-0 but lost 3 straight before winning game 7
1915 Montreal overcame 3-1 deficit to beat Boston
1914 Baltimore over Washington
1911 Toronto over Detroit Toronto down 3-0 but won 4 straight, 3-1 in 11, 3-2 in 10, 4-3, 5-0
1908 Baltimore over Detroit
1896 Gothams over Cougars
RECORD SETTING SERIES FOR LAYTON
Pete Layton continued his impressive streak of 6 World Championship Series without a loss and is believed to be the only player ever to play on 6 WCS winners. There are a handful of players with 5 including his former New York Stars teammate Pete Scanlon and current Chicago Chiefs teammate Tom Taylor but it is believed no one else has won six of them. Last year much was made of the amazing accomplishment of Jim Kyle, winning 4 WCS titles with 4 separate CA teams and each win coming three years apart but Kyle was never more than a spare part and has only 5 plate appearances over the 4 series combined. Even Scanlon and Taylor were not instrumental in some of their 5 titles as Scanlon did not pitch in the post-season for his first two wins as a Detroit Dynamo while Taylor was reduced to a back-up this season after playing a major role in his previous titles which came with 4 different clubs: 2 with the Philadelphia Sailors and one each with the Chicago Cougars, New York Gothams and now the Chicago Chiefs.
At this point in his career Layton, despite being poised to celebrate his 39th birthday in two months, may still get another chance to add to his amazing WCS totals (and 2 Series MVP awards) but even if he doesn't Layton is now the all-time leader in World Championship Series hits and runs scored. His 9 hits in the just completed series with Brooklyn gives him 43 for his career and allowed him to break the record of 42 established by Powell Slocum, who had a front row seat to his successor's efforts while sitting in the Brooklyn dugout as the Kings manager. Layton's key 3-run homer in game seven off of Tom Barrell allowed him to tie Slocum and his sixth inning single off of Del Lyons that would lead to him scoring what proved to be the deciding run broke the mark.
Layton's 2 runs scored in the deciding game and 5 in the Series also allowed him to establish a mark in that category as well with his total of 25 career runs scored. The old record of 22 was shared by turn of the century Boston Minutemen star John Cook and Hall of Famer Max Morris. Layton is also tied with those two at 31 Series games played but they are one shy of the 32 games that Tom Taylor has played in. Layton is also second all-time with 22 RBI's, trailing only current Forester and former Eagle T.R. Goins, who has driven in 25 runs in his 23 career WCS games.
SERIES NOTES
- Chiefs outfielder Tom Taylor earned his fifth WCS title and sets a record for most career World Championship Series games played in. Taylor had just 1 plate appearance in the series and played in just 2 games but that gives him 32 for his career snapping the previous mark of 31 co-held by Hall of Famer Max Morris and John Cook, who was a member of the Minutemen title clubs in the first decade of this century. Pete Layton is now also at 31 career games.
- Taylor did not strike out in his lone at bat in this year's post-season but he has 17 for his career, tied with Elias Laatsch (1899-1911 Boston/Cougars) for the all-time lead.
- Al Wheeler redeemed himself for previous Series struggles this time around. Wheeler, who was 4-for-4 with a homer and 3 runs scored in game seven, hit .458 in the series. He had entered the series with a .179 batting average in 16 previous post-season games.
- Rabbit Day's game score in the 7th game was just 21 and his 3 innings of work marked his shortest start of the season. His worst game score was a 20 in a 12-0 loss to Boston in early July when he went 3 and a third.
- Tom Barrell's game score was not much better as the Kings starter had a 30. Barrell did fan 23 in the series which becomes a new single-series record, smashing the old mark of 19 set by Jimmy Redpath of Baltimore in 1907. With 41 post-season strikeouts in 7 career starts the 30 year old Barrell is now third all-time in that category and has 2 more than Day who ranks fourth. The leader is the legendary Hall of Famer Woody Trease with 65 while ex Detroit Dynamos star Jim Golden is second with 49.
- With 6 walks in the series Day is now the all-time leader in that category with a post-season record 27 free passes. Trease was the previous record holder with 25.
- Del Lyons also tied a series record by appearing in 4 games. 5 other pitchers have also done that with the most recent being Chuck Calvert and Bill Parker, both for the Gothams in 1930
- It likely comes as a surprise to most but John Langille of Brooklyn is now the all-time leader in WCS doubles. The 27 year old who has played in the last 3 Series with the Kings hit 4 doubles in this series and also last year. Add in the 2 doubles he notched against the Chiefs in 1936 and Langille's 10 snap the old record of 9 that was co-held by Ollie Clark (Gothams 1928-36) and Bill Craigen (Stars/Keystones 1899-1917). Pete Layton also joined the group at 9 with 3 doubles in this year's series.
The Week That Was
Current events from 10/14/1938
- Thousands of troops are massed on both sides of the Hungary-Czech border after talks broke off between the two nations over Budapest's demands for a piece of Czech territory.
- Hitler again warns the Czechs they must yield to Hungary's demands and must do so "very soon."
- One American and 3 British gunboats may be trapped in the Pearl River at Canton as the Chinese are preparing to throw an obstructive boom across the river in order to keep out Japanese warships.
- A US Army deserters, one of 4 people due to go on trial for helping a German spy ring, entered a surprise guilty plea. Guenther Rumrich was apprehended after trying to obtain 50 blank US passports for the purpose of using them to send German agents into Russia. He was also charged with selling military information to German spy heads. The other three were said to be plotting to kidnap an Army officer and infiltrate American arms plants of the du Pont and Bethlehem steel companies.
- With an eye to the brewing trouble in Europe FDR told the press the next Federal budget will not be finalized until a new study of the Nation's national defense needs is completed.
- That statement caused German and Austrian newspapers to launch a vigorous campaign criticizing the US and Britain for there plans to increase their military might, again claiming "Jewish influences" were attempting to steer both countries towards a conflict with Hitler.