[Big Six]

Boston Globe, May 27, 1925

RED SOX WIN AGAIN; EXTEND LEAD TO THREE GAMES
Gehrig's Eleventh Homer Is The Difference

PHILADELPHIA--What a difference a year can make!

The Red Sox rooters who, last year, were ready to throw Bill Carrigan into Boston Harbor like a chest of tea are now ready to nominate him for mayor. The Red Sox' 7-4 victory over the Athletics, combined with a loss by the St. Louis Browns, give the Bostons a three-game lead in the American League standings.

In 1924, this ball club looked like it had suddenly become a remnant of what it once was, with a roster full of former stars who could no longer lead a team to a pennant like they did in their glory years. Once it became clear that the Red Sox would not be in the pennant fight, Carrigan decided to work some of the team's most promising young players into the lineup. The results were often not pretty, as men like Kiki Cuyler and Judy Johnson struggled to keep their batting averages north of .200.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of all was Lou Gehrig, who failed to hold on to the starting job at first base, after a promising 1923 campaign. In over eighty at-bats, Lou batted .207 and failed to hit a home run. The fact that in the meantime, the man for whom the Red Sox obtained Gehrig was hitting an unworldly 71 homers for the Yankees did nothing to make Gehrig's struggles more understandable.

To be fair, the Sox also picked up a fine catcher in Ray Schalk and a solid pitcher in Neal Brady, but Gehrig was the man who would have to succeed in the major leagues to keep this trade from becoming the most lopsided exchange in major league annals.

Today, Lou Gehrig played first base for the Red Sox, and hit fourth in the batting order, as he has all season long. In the fifth inning, with Pat O'Farrell on first base and one out, Gehrig got a pitch he liked from Athletics pitcher George Harper and drilled it on a line over the right field wall. Gehrig's blast broke a 4-4 tie, and pitchers Art Nehf and Red Ruffing held on to preserve the lead.

Perhaps more significantly, the home run was Lou's eleventh of the season. This places him in a tie for the major league lead in this category: with Babe Ruth. The two runs Gehrig drove across the plate gave him thirty-nine RBI. No man in the American League has more; Ruth has 38, as does Gehrig's Boston teammate Frank Frisch.

These two young standouts, along with two veterans whose performances fell short of their usual standards, have sparked the rejuvenation of Boston's once-feared attack. Shortstop Ray Chapman leads the American League with an even .400 batting average, after a .244 mark in 1924. And, while Pat O'Farrell made the All-Star team and batted over .300 last year, he still did not produce like the O'Farrell of old during large parts of the campaign. This spring, the thirty-seven year old O'Farrell has sipped from a Fountain of Youth, batting .340, and leading the major leagues with 48 runs scored, seven triples, and 28 stolen bases...