Evening star., 1937-11-07
Auld Lang Syne'' Is Recalled
As Capital Honors Johnson
At Gala 5Otll Birthday Fete

mond, not so much smaller than
regulation infield, was laid out, and
in the pitchers box famous right
arm pointed in the direction of the
plate, was 6-foot figure of johnson
To the right was the main ballroom,
where the dinner was held.
Wash B. Williams. prominent local
outset and introduced johnson. as if
he needed an introduction. The radio
program. broadcast over a coast-to-
coast network by the Mutual Broad
casting Co., followed. Then Joseph
Tumulty, silver-tongued Washington
speaker, took over the job of master of
ceremonies. 1t fell to Tumulty's lot to
introduce a veritable army of sports
celebrities from all over the Eastern
sector of the country.
The dinner itself was laid out in
baseball fashion. johnson pitched
his first game for Washington on
August 2, 1907. He faced Detroit
that day and lost, to 2. A crowd
of only 1870 saw that game, but one
of the skits burlesqued the fans who
today claim to have watched Walter
pitch his first game" A piece of
newsreel, showing 100000 people
gathered for a speech by Hitler was
employed to depict the people who
now say they saw Walter in his
opener.
Dinner in Seven Innings"
THE dinner consisted of seven
courses and each course repre-
sented an inning of Johnson's first
game. Before the dinner Arch Nc
Donald, local radio commentator,
announced the batteries" over the
public address system. For Detroit
it was "Siever and Schmidt" and
for Washington it was johnson and
Hayden" At the end of the seventh
inning in 1907, with Detroit leading
by 2 to 0, johnson was lifted from
the game and replaced at bat by
Pinch hitter Cliff Blankenship, a
catcher, who had travelled to Weiser,
Idaho, TO sign the strikeout king. Tom
Hughes finished the game for Wash
ington. At the end of the seventh
course last night the 400-odd guests
arose and drank champagne toast
to johnson.
johnson, born in Humboldt, stepped
into the majors from the Weiser semi
pro team. Blankenship, sent by Pongo
Joe Cantillon to check on the farm
boy pitching wizard, signed Walter
on a piece of meat-wrapping paper
in 1907. johnson refused to report
unless he was guaranteed round
trip ticket back to Weiser.
The callow 19-year-old lad never
had chance to leave the majors once
he made his appearance. He spent
more than a fifth of century with
Washington, and when he bowed out
he possessed more pitching records
than any hurler in history.
Walter won 414 games and lost 275
for a club that for Is years of the
time he was, with it was q second
division outfit and well down the list.
Fifteen out of the 81 years he pitched
for the Nationals he won over half
the games he worked. His team, on
the other hand, lost well over half Of
the games played during Is years.
All Burden on johnson.
THE most remarkable feature of
= Johnson's record is the fact that
he was forced to extend himself in IS
per cent of the games he pitched in
order to gain the decision. Fewer
runs were made for him than were
made for any other hurler in the
game. In the first Is years Johnson
was with Washington he was given
an average Of three runs game to
work on.
During his career in major league
baseball Walter was the hero or goat
in so games that ended by 10 scores.
He won 40 and lost 20 Of these tight
score hGtths. In his career johnson