As you know, the Cubs have made a habit out of exciting walk-off wins this year. They’ve had 12 in all, which is tied for second-best in franchise history. The team record of 14 was set in 1930, a year where the team came agonizingly short of a second straight NL pennant. The 2015 Cubs, a club you likely remember well, had 13 walk-off wins, as did the 1932 Cubs. (Incidentally, the MLB record for walk-off wins in a season is 17, set by the Pirates in 1959 and tied by them in 1977.)
This is the story
of a walk-off win by those pennant-winning 1932 Cubs. I figure with an off day today and a late-night game tomorrow in Seattle, we could delve deep into franchise history for this story.
Let’s set the stage. The 1932 Cubs had been in first place most of June, then fell out of the top spot early in July and held second place until three straight walk-off wins over the Braves put them back in first place right around this time of year, Aug. 16.
They lost to the Braves Aug. 19, but still led by two games, in a tight race with the Dodgers.
This is the story of the game the next afternoon at Wrigley Field. The Cubs trailed the Phillies 5-2 going to the bottom of the ninth. The first two Cubs that inning were routine outs. Then Johnny Moore singled and Marv Gudat walked, bringing Gabby Hartnett to the plate as the potential tying run.
Here’s how Hartnett’s at-bat was described by Edward Burns of the Tribune:
Hartnett, who had fanned in his three previous trips to the plate, took his stance. Gabby slammed a hard grounder to Friberg. The ball caromed off Barney’s shins and bounced into center field. While G. Davis was rushing in to effect a recovery, Moore scored, Gudat reached third and Hartnett stopped at first. Jurges forthwith was put on to run for Hartnett.
They don’t write ‘em like that anymore, that’s for sure.
The next batter was Mark Koenig, who the Cubs had acquired from the then-independent Triple-A Mission Reds of the Pacific Coast League just two weeks earlier. Koenig, a star with the Yankees in the late 1920s, had fallen off a bit in production and had been sent by the Detroit Tigers to Mission for cash considerations before the 1932 season began.
Koenig had gone 4-for-7 in his first four games as a Cub, starting only one of them, and had been 1-for-3 in this game before he came to bat in the bottom of the ninth, representing the winning run.
Here’s Burns’ description from the Tribune of what Koenig did on the very first pitch:
It was as pretty a line drive homer as anybody ever saw at Wrigley Field. If any Cub player had touched Mark as he rounded the bases he would have been called out. But there was no physical demonstration as he passed third in front of the Cub dugout. But the minute he hit home plate he was embraced by half a dozen Cubs. Then the ushers had to drive back several hundred fans, each of whom apparently wanted to carry Koenig to the clubhouse.
It was a different time.
This was the first win of what became a 14-game Cubs winning streak, which is the second-longest in franchise history, behind only the 21-game streak in 1935. The 14-game streak helped the Cubs solidify their hold on first place; when it was over they had a 7.5-game lead and would eventually win the NL pennant by four games.
Koenig never was really accepted as a Cub, according to his SABR biography:
“I never fit in with the Cubs players. They only voted me a half-share of the World Series. I had six tickets for the games and they were all behind posts. Guy Bush must have had one hundred tickets. I knew damned well we couldn’t beat them.”
But for one day, Koenig was a Cubs hero. His three-run walk-off homer that gave the Cubs a 6-5 win over the Phillies in front of about 16,000 at Wrigley Field happened 94 years ago today, Saturday, Aug. 20, 1932.
