Squirrel hunter shines
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Retelling the 1920 Indians story
People remember things differently. Even when they share the same, dramatic experience they often point to different aspects as most significant and memorable.
For Guy Morton, the highlight of the 1920 Indians season probably came on July 31 against the Boston Red Sox. We can’t know that for certain because, as far as I can determine, he was never asked that question. But a complete game, one hitter will be a highlight of almost every pitching season.
“Never did Morton appear to have greater speed,” the Plain Dealer reported. “On many an occasion the Boston batsman swung as the ball hit O’Neill’s big mitt. He also had a curve ball breaking sharply and his control during the last eight innings was just as conspicuous by its presence as it was by its absence in the outset of the contest.”
That’s high praise for Morton, whose fastball was favorably compared to Walter Johnson’s when he came up in 1915 as a raw rookie. His early reputation included stories of testing his accuracy by throwing at and killing squirrels.
How raw was he? While in the minor leagues, a newspaper called him “a boy from the country, (who) knew little of the finer points of the game, but had a curve and speed that could not be fathomed.”
According to Chris Rainey in Morton’s SABR biography, manager Joe Birmingham said “He doesn’t know how to stand on the rubber even. He doesn’t know how to hold the ball.”
A variety of “mechanical” adjustments, particularly his leg kick, allowed Morton to gain enough control to establish a middling pro career. He also had to survive the flu in 1919 that killed an estimated 50 million people.
His first full season was his best, 1915. He won 16 games, pitched 240 innings and had a 2.14 ERA. He never topped those figures again in a career that lasted until 1924.
So, how good was he on this day in 1920?
It sent the PD to the history books.
“The crowd was sadly disappointed that Morton was not credited with a no hit game and thousands of the fans thronged the space about the plate below the press box and begged the scorers to change their verdict and charge Garner with an error,” Henry P. Edwards wrote. “This, of course, could not be done as the scorers have specific orders from President Johnson that no such changes be made in the scoring of hits.
“His ruling was issued as a result of a scandal that arose in St. Louis a few years ago when a batsman was credited with a hit until the ninth inning. Then, when it was seen that no other hits had been made, the scorer reversed his decision and gave the hitter a no-hit game.”
(It’s possible that Edwards himself was the scorer. Baseball Reference and Retrosheet both fail to mention the scorer’s name)
Even on this great day, his wildness cost him. Boston collected two walks and scored its only run in the first inning on a wild pitch. Indians 2, Red Sox 1.
Like many pitching gems, the lone hit was seen as an error in the revisionist history of the fans but Edwards could not to agree:
“McInnis was the first up in the second inning. He caught one of Morton’s fast ones squarely on his bat and, having taken a toe hold, hit the fierce bounder toward left field. It struck the ground a few feet in front of Gardner, Indians third sacker, and had that player absolutely handcuffed. Larry threw his hands as the ball came to him on a terrific bound but it shot through on its way to left field.
“From then on, not the semblance of a hit was made by Boston.”
This was Morton’s last win of the season. He went on to lose his next four starts. His ERA increased in eight of his next 11 appearances and he was not granted an appearance in the World Series. (The Indians had five complete games and only two relief appearances in the entire World Series).
But Morton sparkled on July 31, 1920, worthy of qualified praise:
“Guy Morton yesterday all but engraved his name in the hall of fame by pitching a no-hit game,” Edwards told Clevelanders. “Unfortunately for the Alabama squirrel hunter, it was not a no hit contest as Boston made one hit. True, it was not a clean hit, but it was a hit just the same and kept Morton from having his name recorded among those who have set their adversaries down without a safe blow.”
Playing it again
As so often happens with Strat-O-Matic, our replay this week bore great resemblance with the real thing.
This, also, was a 2–1 Indians victory. Morton allowed four hits, not just one and he walked four, not three. He did not get a complete-game victory because the game went 12 innings and Dave Niehaus got the win.
Both teams had multiple chances to win. The clearest came when Boston manager Jason Miller had a 1–13 chance for a run-scoring triple but failed.
And as noted at the start of this edition, different people find different mental landmarks in a season. In this make-believe version, we might have remembered how the winning RBI was produced the best-remembered player of the Indians 1920 season — Ray Chapman.
Previous blog posts:
The Spitter Starts Sliding Out of Baseball
It Happens Every Spring — in Cleveland Anyway
Cleveland Fans Party — Tribe Style
Throwing it around in the old days
Bagby Flashes but Soon will Fade
Dave Scott was a newspaper writer and editor for 40 years. He is a lifelong baseball fan and a member of the Society for American Baseball Research for decades, although SABR records might indicate I skipped my dues on occasion! DavidAScott@gmail.com I owe a great debt to the Cleveland Public Library for its excellent resources.
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The following have helped me tremendously with editing, error correction and technical advice:
David Bodemer
Ken Krsolovic
Joe Shaw
Vince Guerrieri
Thanks to all of you!
