Atlanta Braves Franchise best catchers: Hank Gowdy
By Fred Owens
A championship for Hank Gowdy
The Miracle Braves won the NL championship and the World Series with Gowdy behind the plate. He caught a league-leading 128 regular-season games, batted .243/.337/.347/.684 with three homers, and 46 RBI and stole 14 bases, but saved his best work for the World Series.
Game one of the Series saw Gowdy went three-for-three with a walk, and an RBI, off Chief Bender. He went 0-2 in game two, but the Athletics walked him twice, a tactic they should have used in game three.
In 38 games during the 1914 season, Athletics starter Bullet Joe Bush allowed just two home runs, but Gowdy had his number. He doubled to tie the game in the bottom of the second and walked in the fourth. After the Athletics took a two-run lead in the top of the tenth, Gowdy led off the home half with a big fly into the centerfield seats at Fenway Park*.
* – yes: that’s right. The Braves rented Fenway as their own Braves Field was under construction.
The Braves tied it again in the tenth, and it was still tied when Gowdy led off the bottom of the 13th with a ground-rule double off Bush. After a walk to Larry Gilbert, Herbie Moran doubled Gowdy home with the game-winning run.
The Athletics kept Gowdy at bay in game four, but it was too late. He finished the World series 6-16 with three RBI, three doubles a homer and five walks, and if the award had existed, he’d have won World Series MVP.
". . . new nickname of “Hammering Hank” appeared in the press the following season . . .(and) Gowdy became the majors’ first “Hammering Hank” . . . a tradition carried on by Hank Greenberg from 1930-47, and Henry Aaron from 1954-76."