After selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920, the Red Sox spent the
next fifteen years in last place. Now, they were trying to turn it around.
In 1934, they acquired two star pitchers, Lefty Grove and Wes Ferrell. This
year, Grove and Ferrell were the best two pitchers in the league, and Boston
had its first winning season since 1919. Unfortunately, their hitting still
wasn't so good; the Sox later added Jimmie Foxx and Ted Williams to their lineup,
but by then Grove had gotten old and Ferrell had been traded, and the Sox
continued to spin their wheels.
This may have been Wes Ferrell's best season.
He doesn't get a lot of credit for being a great pitcher, but he was. Six times
Ferrell won 20+ games in a season; he won 193 games in his career, and lost
only 128. And he didn't pitch for great teams, spending most of his career
with ordinary teams in Cleveland and Boston. Ferrell had a career ERA of 4.04,
but pitched during an era of sky-high ERAs, and was usually well below the
league average. In addition to his skills as a pitcher, Ferrell was an outstanding
hitter; he hit .347 this year, .280 for his career.
When he joined the Red Sox, Ferrell was united
with his brother Rick, a catcher. The two made a good battery. Ironically,
Rick Ferrell is in the Hall Of Fame, though an excellent case can be made
that Wes was the better of the two brothers.
Ferrell led all pitchers in the MVP vote, but
I think that Grove was clearly better. After them, I would take two more
outstanding veterans, Mel Harder and Tommy Bridges. Ted Lyons of the White Sox
also had a fine year, and entered a new phase of his career. At age 35, Lyons
was coming off two ugly seasons; now, the Sox cut down on his workload,
using Lyons only once a week. Ted would thrive in his new, limited role,
and have some of his best seasons.
