1925 in Baseball - Events

Events

• April 14
  • On opening day, there is a slugfest in St. Louis as the Browns and visiting Cleveland Indians put up a combined 35 runs. Cleveland puts up twelve in the eighth, and wins 21-14.
  • Hall of Famer Lefty Grove is the opening day starter for the Philadelphia Athletics. He lasts 3.2 innings, and gives up five runs (four earned) in his major league debut. Fellow Hall of Famer Mickey Cochrane also makes his major league debut, and is one-for-two as the A's defeat the Boston Red Sox, 9-8 in ten innings.

• May 1 - Jimmie Foxx hits a double in his first major league at-bat. His Athletics lose 9-4 to the Washington Senators.

• May 5 - Everett Scott's record streak of 1‚307 consecutive games played comes to an end as he is replaced by rookie Pee-Wee Wanninger at shortstop in the 6–2 loss to the Philadelphia Athletics. His mark will be broken by Lou Gehrig on August 17, 1933.

• May 7 - Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Glenn Wright turns the fifth unassisted triple play in Major League history in the ninth inning of a 10-9 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

• May 17 - The Cleveland Indians' Tris Speaker gets his 3,000th hit, off Tom Zachary, in a 2-1 loss to the Washington Senators.

• June 1 - Lou Gehrig pinch hits for Pee-Wee Wanninger, beginning a 2,130 consecutive game streak.

• June 2 - After losing five in a row, New York Yankees manager Miller Huggins "shakes up" the slumping lineup by replacing first baseman Wally Pipp in the starting lineup with Lou Gehrig, and second baseman Aaron Ward with utility infielder Howie Shanks. The strategy works as Gehrig goes three-for-five with a run scored, and Shanks goes one-for-four with a run scored in the Yankees' 8-5 victory over the Washington Senators. Pipp only logs seventeen more plate appearances for the rest of the season, and is sold to the Cincinnati Reds for $7,500 following the season.

• June 6 - Eddie Collins of the Chicago White Sox records his 3000th career hit.

• July 23 - Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig hits the first of his major league record 23 grand slams to beat Firpo Marberry and the Senators, 11–7.

• August 6 - Three American League teams put up ten runs, as the Chicago White Sox defeat the Boston Red Sox 10-0, the New York Yankees defeat the Detroit Tigers 10-4 and the Washington Senators defeat the St. Louis Browns 10-3.

• August 25 - Boston Red Sox catcher Al Stokes finishes an unusual double play, tagging Detroit Tigers base runners Johnny Bassler and Fred Haney as they both simultaneously slide into home plate.

• August 27 - The St. Louis Browns' Bullet Joe Bush one hits the Washington Senators to complete a three game sweep of the first place team.

• August 30 - After being swept by the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman's Park, the Washington Senators come back and sweep the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park. They sweep the second place Philadelphia Athletics on September 1 & 2 to build a 5.5 game lead, and coast the remainder of the way to their second consecutive American League championship.

• September 13 - Dazzy Vance pitches a no-hitter for the Brooklyn Robins in a 10-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.

• September 27 - 1925 National League Most Valuable Player Rogers Hornsby goes three-for-three to raise his batting average to .403. The Cardinals, however, lose 7-6 to the Boston Braves. With the Cards 19 games back of first place, Hornsby sits out the remaining four games on his team's schedule to secure a .400 average for the third time in his career.

• October 2
  • Leo Durocher makes his major league debut in the Yankees' 10-0 loss to the Philadelphia Athletics.
  • Replacing Rogers Hornsby at second base in the St. Louis Cardinals' line-up, Specs Toporcer is the hitting star of the Cardinals' 4-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs with a home run, double and two runs scored. Toporcer goes eight-for-eighteen filling in for Hornsby in the final four games on the Cardinals' schedule.

• October 4 - Ty Cobb pitches a 1-2-3 ninth inning in the Detroit Tigers' 11-6 victory over the St. Louis Browns.

• October 7 - Walter Johnson's pitching leads the Washington Senators to a 4-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates in game one of the 1925 World Series. Senators shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh commits the first of a record eight errors in the series.

• October 8 - Kiki Cuyler's two-run home run in the eighth inning carriers the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 3-2 victory in the second game of the World Series.

• October 10 - The Washington Senators come from behind to take game three of the World Series.

• October 11 - Walter Johnson wins his second game of the 1925 World Series, holding the Pirates to six hits, and no runs.

• October 12 - The Pirates take game five of the World Series, 6-3. Clyde Barnhart is the hitting star of the game, going two-for-four with two RBIs and a run scored.

• October 13 - Eddie Moore leads the fifth inning off with a home run to break a 2-2 tie as the Pirates even the World Series at three games apiece.

• October 15 - Walter Johnson again took the mound for Game seven, and carried a 6–4 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning, but errors by 1925 American League Most Valuable Player Roger Peckinpaugh in the seventh and eighth innings lead to four unearned runs, and the Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Washington Senators, 9-7. The Pirates become the first team in a best-of-seven Series to overcome a 3–1 Series deficit to win the World Championship.

• October 21 - Marv Goodwin, a former pitcher for the Washington Senators and St. Louis Cardinals who joined the Cincinnati Reds at the end of the season, is killed in a plane he was piloting. Goodwin was one of the original spitballers whose method for getting batters out was grandfathered when that pitch was deemed illegal. At age 34, Goodwin becomes the first active Major League player to die from injuries sustained in an airplane crash.