September 24
1903 The Cleveland Naps take it to the Nationals in D.C., 12-2. Bill Bradley of Cleveland hits for the cycle and accumulates 12 total bases.
1908 Red hot Cleveland is cooled off by Walter Johnson. The Naps 10 game win streak falls by the wayside in Johnson’s 3-hit, 2-1, victory at Cleveland.
1920 At the Polo Grounds, Babe Ruth decks his 50th home run in the 1st inning off Jose Acosta. Nevertheless that is the only damage done, as the Senators are victorious, 3-1. In the nightcap, the Babe adds number 51 in a 4-for-4 game of the Yanks 2-1 win.
1921 The big story is not Walter Johnson‘s, 5-1, victory over Detroit. It is Tiger’s player/manager Ty Cobb and umpire Billy Evans’ fist fight under the stands at Griffith following the game. Cobb, enraged by Evan’s umpiring, challenges the arbiter to a fight during the game. Evans declines, but mentions he will gladly take the Peach up on his offer after the game. With both teams and some fans surrounding the two combatants, Cobb and Evans duke it out, with a few of Cobb’s teammates cheering on Evans. Cobb eventually gets the best of Evans. When Ban Johnson fails to discipline Cobb, Commissioner Landis steps in and slaps Cobb with a 10 game, non-playing, suspension. As for Evans, he receives no disciplinary action and returns to umpire tomorrow heavily bruised and bandaged.
1925 The Senators clinch their second consecutive American League crown by copping a pair from the week to get ready for the World Series against the National League champion Pirates.
1932 Double X, Jimmie Foxx, blasts his 2nd grand slam in 3 days, but Washington scores in the top of 10th to win, 8-7. It is the A’s slugger 57th homer of the year.
1950 Camilo Pascual‘s older brother, Carlos, debuts with his only major league win, defeating visiting Philadelphia, 3-1.
1954 September 22 birthday man, Tom Wright, singles in the go ahead run in the 11th to give the Nats the win over Boston, 1-0. Chuck Stobbs surrenders 7 hits, 3 to Ted Williams, in 11 innings. Washington completes the Fenway sweep by beating old nemesis Mel Parnell, 6-4, in game two.
1957 A ground out to second base in the top of the 1st by Ted Williams ends the Splendid Splinter’s streak of reaching base 16 straight times. Senators starter Hal Griggs, who ended Williams’ skein, is victimized by Williams’ 38th home run in the 4th, as Boston trims Washington, 2-1.
1961 Fans of the expansion Nats have had very few highlights during the dismal second half of an once promising season. Dick Donovan provides one today. Donovan pitches a gem, a 1-hitter in the Twin Cites, to defeat the Twins, 4-1. Joe Altobelli is the lone Twin to get to Donovan when he homers in the 7th with none on.
Senators Birthdays
Richard Le Roy Nen B Sep. 24, 1939 Still Living
Dick Nen was originally signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1961. He’d make it to the big club for 7 games at the end of the 1963 season. He’d only have 1 hit in 8 AB, but that 1 hit was a home run.
Nen wouldn’t appear in the majors in 1964, and would be traded during the off season. Nen was the “player to be named later” in the trade that sent Frank Howard, Ken McMullen, Phil Ortega and Pete Richert to Washington in exchange for John Kennedy, Claude Osteen and an even $100,000.
Nen would be on the Senators roster as a first baseman from 1965 through 1967. His best season at the plate would be ’65, when he’d hit .260 with 7 doubles, 1 triple and 6 home runs. His average would drop about 50 points the next season. In 1967, he’d have his most active season, playing in 110 games but still hitting just .218.
Sold to the Chicago Cubs at the start of the 1968 season, Nen would only appear in 81 games and see his BA drop to .181. Purchased back by the Senators at the end of the 1968 season, Nen wouldn’t see any major league playing time in 1969 but would a final appearance with the Senators for 5 games in 1970.
Clyde Frederick Vollmer B Sep. 24, 1921 D Oct. 2, 2006
Clyde Vollmer is another player who the Senators would deal away and then pick up again later in his career. An outfielder, Vollmer began his career in the Cincinnati Reds organization in 1939. He’d make it to the Reds for 12 games in 1942 but would hit just .093 and wouldn’t be back until 1946.
Vollmer would play in 9 games in 1946, 78 in 1947 and 7 games in 1948 before being traded to the Washington Senators for Carden Gillenwater. Vollmer would play in just 1 game for the Senators in 1948, but would go 2 for 5 at the plate. Finally getting a chance to play regularly in 1949, Vollmer would hit .253 in 129 games with the Senators.
After 6 games in 1950, Vollmer would be traded to the Boston Red Sox for Tommy O’Brien and Merl Combs. Vollmer would be with the Red Sox for the remainder of the 1950 season and all of 1952 & 1953.
Once again, after a single game with the Red Sox at the start of the 1953 season, Vollmer would be purchased by the Senators where he’d play in 118 games in 1953, hitting .260 and would end his career in 1954, being released in mid-September after appearing in 62 games with the Senators.
