Bill Bagwell
Galveston Sand Crabs
1924
No, it wasn’t our 21st century Jeff Bagwell. Even our mighty, beleaguered and often old-playing Jeff wasn’t ancient enough to have played a heroic role in a game that graced the coastal green of Galveston’s Gulfview Park back on September 3, 1924. It was late in the season of the Galveston Sand Crabs. They were playing their last year as members of the Texas League and it was one of those games that the baseball gods sometimes anoint as a special time for goats and heroes to stand out above all others.
Bill Bagwell (BL/TL) played right field for the Galveston Sand Crabs in 1924, but he had done fairly well in short duty with the Boston Braves and he would do so again for the 125 Philadelphia A’s. He would hit .364 over nine seasons as a minor leaguer during select years that fell between 1920 and 1930.
Tuesday, September 3, 1924 just happened to be one of those golden memory days.
Pitchers Leo Moon of the Sand Crabs and Eddie Matteson of the Beaumont Exporters had been battling each other all day, and they were dragging a 6-6 tie into the bottom of the ninth, with Bagwell due up first for the crustaceans. It was hero vs. goat label assignment time. Bill Bagwell lifted a lusty fly ball to right field that just kept on going over the fence for what we now so readily call a “walk off” homer with none on and none out in the bottom of the ninth for a 7-6 Galveston home town win.
Hero: Bagwell. Goat: Matteson.
The Crabs were heading for a listless 7th place finish in the 1924 Texas League season, but the Bagwell home run apparently lifted a few Galvestonian spirits for the day, at least. The Galveston Daily News used the exact headline we used here in the column title as their game report headline: “BAGWELL CLOUTS HOME RUN FOR 7-6 WIN”.
As an amusing surprise, the game was handled that day by a couple of surprise/emergency umpires. When the two league-assigned officials did not show up, “Eddie Burns, the purveyor of cold drinks and hot peanuts, agreed to hand out decisions of the sacks while (Ice Man) Gates, whose regular occupation is selling ice, called the balls and strikes.” The pair drew high praise for the superior quality of their work.
We can almost hear their calls today as they echo to us from the halls of history: “Peanuts! Ice and Water! Balls and Strikes.”
Have a great week everybody. Here’s the box score and game data, as it also appeared in the September 4, 1924 edition of the Galveston Evening News:
| BEAUMONT | POS | AB | R | H | PO | A | E |
| Rabbitt | CF | 5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Stansberry | SS | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| Ostergard | RF | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Kearns | 1B | 3 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| Taylor | LF | 5 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Burns | C | 5 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Lothes | 2B | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Behrens | 3B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| Matteson | P | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| TOTALS | 40 | 6 | 14 | 24 * | 15 | 4 | |
| GALVESTON | POS | AB | R | H | PO | A | E |
| Hurt | 2B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Brown | 3B | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Whiteman | LF | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Bagwell | RF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| Burkett | SS | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Perussina | CF | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 1 |
| Mueller | 1B | 4 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Schroyer | C | 4 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Moon | P | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| TOTALS | 38 | 7 | 15 | 27 | 8 | 3 | |
| Game Time: | 1 H 45 M |
- NONE OUT WHEN WINNING RUN SCORED.
LINE SCORE for Beaumont @ Galveston, September 3, 1924:
| TEAMS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ~ | Total |
| Beaumont | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ~ | 6 |
| Galveston | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ~ | 7 |
GAME SUMMARY:
2BH: BURKETT; 3BH: STANSBURY; HR: LOTHES, BAGWELL; SB: RABBITT; SH: HURT, LOTHES; SO BY MOON: 4; SO BY MATTESON: 2; BB OFF MOON: 4; BB OFF MATTESON: 1; LOB: BEAUMONT 12, GALVESTON 9; WP: MOON; WIN TO: MOON; LOSS TO: MATTESON; TIME OF GAME: 1 HOUR, 45 MINUTES; UMPIRES: GATES AND BURNS; ATTENDANCE: UNREPORTED.
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