Tuesday, May 17, 1927: Detroit
“Five O’Clock Lightning”
Yesterday we won another game with “Five O’Clock Lightning” — this time it struck down the Tigers in the late innings. It was “Schoolboy” Hoyt who came up with the phrase. All our games begin at 3:30 and it seems like all of our late-inning rallies happen right about five o’clock, give or take fifteen minutes.
In Philadelphia on May 1st, we scored three in the eighth against the Athletics to put that game out of reach, 7–3.
… in Washington a couple of days later, it was two runs in the seventh and then two more in the eighth that felled the Senators, 6–4.
… in Chicago, later that week, we scored six runs in the ninth to crush the White Sox.
… in St. Louis, three games after that, the Brownies were struck dead by three in the ninth.
We now feel like no matter the score, we’re never out of a game — it’s just a matter of time.
Against the White Sox a week ago, we loaded the bases in the ninth thanks to three Chicago errors — then Gehrig cleared them with a grand slam. In the locker room after the game, Gallico of the Daily News and I were talking about how the ChiSox had unravelled. That’s when Hoyt interrupted us and said, “Those bastards didn’t unravel. They were struck by Five O’Clock Lightning.”
Added Gallico, “Like their uniforms were made of tinfoil.”
- May 1, 1927: “3 Yank Homers Win As 70,000 Look On”. New York Times article and Box Score.
- May 3, 1927: “Younger Set Aids Yanks To Victory”. New York Times article and Box Score.
- May 7, 1927: “Pennock and Gehrig Raid White Sox, 8–0”. New York Times article and Box Score.
- May 10, 1927: “Lou’s Gehrig’s Drive Yanks’ Lifesaver”. New York Times article and Box Score.
“Bonesetter Reese”
What do Teddy Roosevelt, Gene Tunney, Ty Cobb and Benny Bengough all have in common?
They all made the pilgrimage to see “Bonesetter” Reese — a man without a medical degree, who inflicted great pain, but could save your career.
As Myles discovers, despite the Bonesetter’s excruciatingly painful methods, many baseball players made the pilgrimage to see him.
That is, if they didn’t attempt to cure their ailments by pulling out their own teeth — or worse.
