From the desk: THE NEW YORK AGE
As reported in the Saturday, August 30, 1924, edition of the New York Age, veteran baseball player Bill Pettus at the too-young age of forty, passed away (on August 22) of tuberculosis at the Sea View Hospital on Staten Island, New York. He was laid to rest two days later at Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Maspeth, Long Island.
After a brief stint as a boxer in California, Bill Pettus in 1909 begins his baseball career as a catcher for the Kansas City Giants. The following season, he joins the Chicago Giants. That's where he meets a 24-year old Joe Williams, another newcomer to the team who played the previous season with the San Antonio Black Bronchos. The two become battery mates and best friends. In 1912, Pettus and Williams joined the New York Lincoln Giants, where they remain teammates for the better part of the next eight seasons.
"...for a long time, Pettus was the only man to catch for Williams." - The New York Age.
Bill Pettus would also play for the Brooklyn Royal Giants and New York Lincoln Stars until rejoining Joe Williams and the Lincoln Giants in 1916 and through the 1920 season. He retired from play after the 1923 season, but not before organizing the Richmond Giants in 1921 and in 1922 the Harrisburgh Giants.
Led by former teammate and manager Judy Gans, the entire New York Lincoln Giant team attends funeral services. Also present are representatives of the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Hilldale Club, and Harrisburgh Giants.
Shortly after services, on Sunday, August 24, 1924, the New York Lincoln Giants and Hilldale stage a doubleheader at Catholic Protectory Oval, Bronx.
GAME ONE finds the Lincoln Giants out of sorts. Starting for Hilldale, Nip Winters holds the Giants to five runs on five hits but issued seven walks. Otherwise, Winters holds New York scoreless over the final six innings and strikes out five (catcher putouts) for the win. Lincoln Giant's first baseman Roberts Hudspeth wields two doubles; right fielder Bennie Wilson, shortstop Gerard Williams, and catcher Rich Gee account for the remaining balance of New York hits. Meanwhile, Hilldale punishes the offerings of Giants' left-hander, Judy Gans, to the tune of 14 runs on 21 hits, with five going for extra bases. Nip Winters helps his own cause with three hits, including a home run. Hilldale right fielder Otto Briggs
also wields three hits, including a triple. Third baseman Judy Johnson goes 3 for 6 with a double and a team-leading three runs scored. Judy Gans' only claim to success was keeping Biz Mackey
hitless in six trips to the plate, but the same cannot be said about the rest of Hilldale's nine.
GAME TWO is a much more tightly contested affair. After pitching the final two innings of game one, Judy Gans starts the first four innings of the second match. Already trailing 3-0 after three, Gans yields a home run to second baseman Frank Warfield in the visitor's fourth. Southpaw Dave Brown then holds Hilldale scoreless over the final five innings. The Lincoln Giants rally for three runs in the home fourth, knocking Hilldale starter Red Ryan out of the box. New York then pushes across the tying run in the fifth. The score remains unchanged through the eighth. Dave Brown retires Hilldale in the top half of the ninth. Frank Warfield's misplay in the home ninth sets the stage for George Scales' game-winning base hit. Scales leads the Lincoln Giants with four hits, and center fielder Harry Kenyon goes 2 for 3 with a double and two runs scored. Dave Brown earns the win in relief.
