The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-07
Johnson Tells Of Losing
 First Major League Game
Sam Crawford Knocked Home Run Off Great
 Hurler In Big League Debut

the throw-in, beating the peg by sev- eral feet. Ty showed me other evidences of his true greatness as a ball player that day.
 Cobb Cuts Off Run.
 In our half of the second inning when it looked as if Washington had chance to score, Altizer lifted q long fly to Cobb in right field. Mill, who was on third, did not reckon on Cobb's throw ing arm. He took chance and made a beeline for home, but he never got there. Ty made a perfect throw to Schmidt and caught Mill by at least foot, thus preventing us from scoring in that inning.
 Again in the fourth inning he showed some more flashes of his genius. He had reached first on an error. l was watching him like hawk. l had to. He was already the baserunning demon of the American league and every pitch CT in the league feared him. Well, l wasted couple of balls to see what he was thinking about. Another ball. this time right over the plate and one which Rossman swung at-and Ty Cobb like a flash was on his way to second. Talk about your speed! And before had finished off Rossman, he stole third. I guess he would have stolen home if I hadn't famed Downs on three fast OF $ before h had time to get started.
 Faced Sam Crawford.
 "As I have previously stated I didn't give much thought to the batting aver ages of the players that faced me. All 1 was concerned in was in giving my team the best I had and that was all they could expect of me. l faced Sam Crawford in the eighth inning with that same feeling. Sam did not look any more dangerous to me than the weakest hitter on the team. Out on the coast I had read quite little about sam, who was going at a pretty good clip at this time. He was the real Sultan of Swat, as they call my friend Babe Ruth these days. As a hard hitter he had few equals. As hitter when hits were needed he had no equal in the big league. He used one of the heaviest bats ever seen in baseball and when he hit the ball square in the face it was time to put out the opera glasses to see where the ball was headed for.
 "As I was saying, I faced Crawford in the eighth inning with lot of con- fidence in my ability to keep him from hitting me. This confidence was greater than ever at this moment for l had al ready disposed of Jones and Coughlin and there were two out. Crawford then came up. I don't remember how many balls I pitched, nor do l remem- Der how the count stood.
 Playing Deep
 As I looked around to see how the tielders were playing Sam, I noticed that they were playing him very deep. These players had already on several occasions been up against the great hit ter, and they evidently knew that what they were about. Little did I realize that great drama was very soon to be enacted before my very eyes. l fed Sam a fast one and than I remember that he made q wicked swing, and 1 also re member the crack of that bat to this very day. It started the ball on a line drive that was heading right towards the scoreboard. The whole Washington outfield was after that pill, while Craw- ford was tearing around those bases with the speed of a race horse, and he kept going, too, until he reached home. Crawford had made homerun the first homer a big leaguer had made off my delivery. This put the Tigers in the lead by one run, and as l started to- wards the bench after the third out, though of Weiser, Idaho, and the folks back home in California, who would surely read obtu this clout in the morn- ing papers.
 Respect Crawford
 Prom that day until the time he passed out of big league baseball l had wholesome respect for Sam Crawford and his mighty bat. Every pitcher has some one man who is probably harder for him to pitch to than any other. Ty Cobb, who is the greatest batter in the game, was always bad man for me to face. There is not a pitcher in the league who has not some fear of Ty Cobb. But at that, although the Georgia Peach is a dangerous man, he was not the worst for me to pitch to- In fact, Cobb's great teammate Sam Crawford, since the day he knocked that first homer off my delivery in Washington, often made me wish I were out fishing on the banks of the Snake river in Idaho, whenever he came up to the plate with his mighty stick. I would rather have faced any other man in the game than Sam. You couldn't fool him.
 "Crawford's terrific drive about set tied me for the day, for in our half of the eighth, Blankenship went in to pinch hit for me when it looked as Ii we had a chance to score. We failed, however. That game went against us s to 2.
 The box score tells the story: