Back in the day, baseball was a glorious sport. There were no steroids, symmetrical ball parks, humidors, juiced up baseballs, or outlandish salaries. Baseball was fun. It was the national sport and the best times of the year were Opening Day and the World Series.
This makes the find of a newsreel by the Library of Congress that much more wonderful. The footage shows the Washington Senators defeating the New York Giants in the 1924 World Series (Mike Mashon wrote about the preservation process of the film in a blog for the Library of Congress.)
The newsreel headline was “Senators win World Series – 40,000 frantic fans see American Leaguers take 12-inning deciding game 4 to 3.” Walter Johnson was the winning pitcher.
It is an appropriate find, given the Washington Nationals are scheduled to meet up in the first round of the 2014 National League playoffs with the San Francisco Giants.
Play ball!