» July 17, 1911: Boston Braves infielder Buck Herzog and OF Doc Miller fail to show up for a game and are suspended by the club. After a conference with the club president, they rejoin the team. John McGraw, anxious to retrieve former Giant Herzog to shore up a weak infield, will swap C Hank Gowdy and SS Al Bridwell to Boston for Herzog on the 21st.
» July 21, 1911: The Braves acquire SS Al Bridwell and C Hank Gowdy from the Giants for Buck Herzog. For Bridwell and Herzog, it is their 2nd tours of duty with their teams, while the young Gowdy will be the Boston catcher for the next ten years.
» September 12, 1911: In the nitecap of a game billed as a pitchers' duel, Boston's Cy Young and the Giants' Christy Mathewson face each other before 10,000, Boston's largest crowd of the year. Young gives up three homers and nine runs in less than three innings. After the Giants build a 9–0 lead, John McGraw lifts Mathewson, who pitched just two innings, preferring to save his ace for the pennant race against Chicago and Philadelphia. This is the only time the two pitchers ever face each other. Mathewson adds to New York's scoring in the 3rd by swiping home. The Giants coast, 11–2. In the field, Matty also helps when, with Doc Miller on 1B in the 2nd inning, a line drive to center by Hank Gowdy results in a DP (8-4-1-3). New York wins the 1st game, 9–3, and now lead the Cubs by two games.
» July 4, 1914:
The Dodgers drum the Braves, sweeping a doubleheader, 7–5 in 11 innings and 4–3 in the nitecap. The nitecap is especially hard fought: Lefty Tyler plunks Dodger SS Ollie O'Mara on the neck and when Jack Daubert crosses the plate with the winning run in the 9th, he collides with Braves C Hank Gowdy and is knocked unconscious. Boston (26–40) is 10 1/2 games in back of New York.
» August 15, 1914: At the Polo Grounds, 32,000 watch as Lefty Tyler and Christy Mathewson throw goose eggs for nine innings. In the 10th, Red Smith singles and Hank Gowdy triples him home. Matty then wild pitches home Gowdy for 2–0 lead. New York loads the bases in the 10th with no outs, but Tyler slams the door with no Giants scoring. The Braves trail by three 1/2.
» October 9, 1914: The Boston Braves go into the World Series as underdogs, despite their strong finish. Only one regular, LF Joe Connolly, hit .300. Their strengths are pitchers Dick Rudolph, George "Lefty" Tyler, and "Seattle Bill" James, 2B Johnny Evers, who wins Chalmers' final MVP automobile, and SS Rabbit Maranville, their cleanup hitter. The Philadelphia A's Eddie Collins, with a .344 BA, wins the Chalmers AL award with 63 of 64 possible points. The A's have seven pitchers with 10 or more wins, led by Chief Bender's 17–3. Bender's World Series magic is quickly dispelled as the Braves knock him out in the 6th. Rudolph coasts to a 5-hit 7–1 victory. Hank Gowdy has a single, double, and triple. He will hit a World Series record .545, and Evers, .438. Only Babe Ruth will top Gowdy with .625 in 1928. Bender makes his last World Series appearance, finishing with a record 59 strikeouts.
» October 12, 1914: Joe Bush, 17–10 for the A's, faces Lefty Tyler in game 3. Tied 2–2 in the 10th, Home Run Baker drives in his only two runs of the Series, but a home run by Hank Gowdy starts a game-tying rally. After Bill James comes on and sets the A's down for two innings, Gowdy doubles. Bush gives up a walk, then throws a sacrifice bunt past Baker at 3B allowing pinch runner Les Mann to score the winning run.
» June 1, 1917: Hank Gowdy is the first ML player to enlist when he signs up in the Ohio National Guard. He will play until he reports for duty July 15th.
» May 23, 1919:
It's Hank Gowdy Day in Boston, the catcher's first
game after returning from the Army. He hits the first
pitch he sees for a single.
» May 1, 1920:
In Boston, Brooklyn's Leon Cadore and the Braves'
Joe Oeschger duel 26 innings to a 1-1 tie in the longest game ever played in the ML. Oeschger shuts out the Dodgers for the last 21 innings, topping Art Nehf's 20 scoreless frames in a row on August 1, 1918. He gives up nine hits, and Cadore allows 12, in the 3-hour, 50-minute game. The Dodgers lose to the Phils at home
in 13 innings the next day, then return to Boston for a Monday game where they lose again in 19. For 58 innings work in 3 days, they are 0-2. An unusual
double play occurs in the 17th inning when the bases are loaded with one out. A grounder to P Oeschger results in a throw home, forcing the runner. C Hank Gowdy's throw to 1B Walter Holke is fumbled, and when the runner tries to score from 2B, the throw back to Gowdy nips the sliding Ed Konetchy.
» June 7, 1923:
John McGraw ships P Jesse Barnes and C Earl Smith to the Braves for P Mule Watson and C Hank Gowdy.
» October 10, 1924: President and Mrs. Coolidge and 31,665 others thrill to the 2nd 3-hour battle of the Series. Bucky Harris starts 23-year-old righthander Curly Ogden (9-8) against Virgil Barnes (16-10), then pulls him after he fans Fred Lindstrom and walks Frisch. In comes lefty George Mogridge (16-11), a move intended to keep lefty Bill Terry on the Giants bench. Bucky Harris lifts one into the temporary seats in LF for a 1–0 lead. In the 6th a single ties it at 1–1, and Harris brings in Firpo Marberry for his 4th appearance. A base hit and two costly errors give the Giants a 3–1 lead. In the 8th, pinch-hitter Nemo Liebold doubles and C Muddy Ruel singles. A walk loads the bases and up comes Harris, who hits a hard bounder to 3B that strikes a pebble and skips over Lindstrom's head and down the LF line as the tying runs score. Walter Johnson, pitching on one days rest, then comes in to hold New York. With one out in the last of the 12th, Giants reliever Jack Bentley gets Muddy Ruel to pop up near home plate, but veteran C Hank Gowdy steps on his discarded mask, which he cannot shake from his shoe, and the ball falls to the ground. Ruel then gets his 2nd hit, a double. Walter Johnson reaches 1B on SS Travis Jackson's error. Earl McNeely hits a grounder at Lindstrom, and improbably, the ball again takes a bounce over his head. Ruel tears home with Washington's first World Series championship.
» June 12, 1925:
Against the Pirates, the Giants make a triple play that goes from SS Travis Jackson to C Hank Gowdy to 3B Heinie Groh to RF Ross Youngs to 2B George Kelly to 1B Terry. In the first inning, with Max Carey on 3B and Johnny Rawlings on 2B, Kiki Cuyler taps a slow roller to SS that gets away from Jackson for a few seconds. Carey starts home and is caught, Jackson to Gowdy to 3B Groh. Rawlings, on his way to 3B, heads back to 2B and is run down. Cuyler tries for 2B and gets caught in a rundown.
» August 18, 1929:
Forty-year-old Braves catcher Hank Gowdy, who last appeared in the majors in 1925, goes 4-for-4 to lead the Braves to a 10–9 win over the Reds.
» October 6, 1929:
At Boston, the Giants close the season by beating the Braves, 9–4. In the 9th, the Braves put in two coaches, Johnny Evers at 2B and Hank Gowdy at catcher, Gowdy's 10th game of the year. Roy Parmelee is the winner with Red Lucas pitching the last four innings. Lucas leads the National League in complete games (28) and pinch hits: Lucas hits .293 in 140 at bats.
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