Decisions, Decisions: The Cost of Racism

In 1933, the Pittsburgh Pirates were fine. That were pretty good that season, finishing in second place with a record of 87-67, five games behind the Giants for the pennant. It had been six years since they’d played in the World Series, and eight years since they’d won it, but they remained decent in most of the seasons since then. Their only losing record in that time had been in 1931, and even then they were still a respectable 75-79. Like I said, they were fine.

The Washington Nationals/Senators thought they were in pretty good shape that season, too. They won the American League pennant with three future Hall of Famers in their lineup, Joe Cronin, Heinie Manush, and Goose Goslin, the fourth year in a row they’d won over 90 games. If asked, owner Clark Griffith probably would have said his club was in pretty good shape.

But things turned south for each franchise pretty quickly after that. Despite having five Hall of Famers in their lineup and finishing in the top half of the league in both run scored and runs allowed, Pittsburgh had a losing record in 1934. They rebounded they next year but still finished fifth, and had an aging lineup. Pie Traynor was 36. Paul Waner was 32, and his younger brother Lloyd was 29 and only had one more season in him in which he would play in 140 or more games. They had a lot of holes to fill in the lineup in the coming years, and an aging pitching staff as well.

Washington was in even worse shape. They crashed after winning the pennant in 1933, falling all the way to a 7th place finish and 66-86 record. Goslin was traded away, Manush was 32, and most of the pitching staff stunk. Other than rookie Cecil Travis there were no bright prospects in their future, and Griffith was so convinced that Cronin’s best days were behind him that he traded him to the Red Sox mostly for cash despite the fact that Cronin was married to his niece and managed the team. Winning seasons were going to be pretty scarce in the coming years.

For both teams, it didn’t have to be this way.