The 1929 Philadelphia Athletics are undoubtedly one of the greatest teams in baseball history. They ran away with the pennant, outpacing the three-time defending champion Yankees by an astounding 18 games. Their final tally was 104-46. The pitching staff boast­ed three hurlers who won 18 or more games: George Earnshaw (24-8) and southpaws Lefty Grove (20-6) and Rube Walberg (18-11).

With such a huge lead, A's manager Connie Mack could have arranged his starting staff any way he wanted in the last week of the season to set up his rotation against Chicago. Newspaper reports the day before the Series started expected Earnshaw to face Cubs' ace Charlie Root in the opening game at Wrigley Field. Grove was assumed to be Mack's Game 2 starter.

But the next day, when the Athletics arrived in Chicago, the reports changed. Root was still the choice for the Cubs. But now, "mystery shrouded the Philadelphia choice. Only one man knew and he would not tell. Connie Mack remained firm in a previous announce­ment that the nominee and the world would know about the same time - when he says just before game time to one of his stars, 'you're it.'" Speculation centered on three names: Earnshaw, Jack Quinn, "a veteran of veterans somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 years of age (he was 45), ... and Bob Grove ..."

Imagine everyone's surprise when Howard Ehmke began warming up before Game One. Plagued by a sore arm all season, the 35-year-old righthander had appeared in only 11 games during the season, starting eight. He had won seven and lost only two with a 3.29 ERA. The best years of his 16-year major league career had been with the Red Sox in 1923-24 when he went 20-17 and 19-17 for teams that finished in 8th (last) and 7th place.

The low point for Ehmke came in August when Mack put him on waivers, but none of the 15 major league teams expressed an interest. Connie then called the hurler to his office to inform him of his release. But after talking with Howard, Mack decided to give him another chance. He told him to work on getting his arm back in shape.

"Do you think you could pitch in a World Series?" asked Mack.

"There's one good game left in this arm."

The Old Man also gave the pitcher a special assignment. With the Cubs leading the Na­tional League by double digits, Mack told Ehmke to stay behind during the Athletics' last Western road trip of the season and scout the Cubs when they played a three-game series against the Phillies. When the A's returned home, Howard gave his manager valuable in­formation on the strengths and weaknesses of Chicago's powerful lineup.

Mack later explained his choice of Ehmke this way: "I knew that the Cubs feared Earn­shaw, Grove and Walberg. I knew that if they beat one of my three aces in the first game, they would get mighty confident, and that impetus might carry them through. The Cubs had some splendid hitters—Hornsby, Hack Wilson, Cuyler, Stephenson, Hart­nett, Grimm. I decided that a surprise right at the outset might break their spirit. Too, it turned out to be a cool day for the first game, and Howard was a good cool weather pitcher."

Ehmke certainly repaid Mack for his confidence in him. Before 50,000 fans – the largest attendance ever at a baseball game outside of New York City, the veteran sidearmer out­dueled Root 3-1, allowing eight hits in nine innings and striking out 13 Cubs against only one walk. Ehmke mesmorized a lineup that averaged .303 during the season by throwing a variety of slow, underhand curves with an occasional fastball and change of pace mixed in.

Root matched Ehmke goose egg for goose egg until the top of the 7th when 1B Jimmie Foxx clouted a long home run that landed several rows up in the center-field bleachers. Guy Bush replaced Root in the top of the 8th and gave up two unearned runs in the 9th. In the bottom of the inning, a throwing error and a single plated the Cubs' first run. But Mack left Ehmke in. With pinch-hitter Chick Tolson at the plate with two on and two out, Ehmke called C Mickey Cochrane to the mound and told him to call for a fastball. He would shake him off while releasing the ball at the same time. As the pitcher let go of the ball, Cochrane yelled, "Hit it," and Tolson swung and missed to end the game.

In Mack's syndicated column that appeared in newspapers the next day, the 66-year-old manager explained: "I never gave anybody any inkling that I would use Howard Ehmke as my opening pitcher against a great crowd in the enemy's country. All along I felt sure that Ehmke would deliver for me. The games he won in the American League season were not many but they were important and helped us. When I talked to Ehmke Tuesday morning I asked him if he was fit and ready. He replied: 'Mr. Mack, I will win the game for you. Don't worry. ... I always had great confidence in Ehmke as a money pitcher and he certainly came across for me." A major factor in Connie's decision was that the Cubs had a predom­inantly righthanded lineup, and Grove and Wahlberg were lefties.

Having stolen one using a second-line pitcher, Mack now threw Earnshaw in Game 2, a 9-3 victory in which Grove pitched the last 4 1/3 innings. After a day off for travel to Phila­delphia, Earnshaw pitched a complete Game 3 but lost 3-1. But the A's won the next two, 10-8 and 3-2, to take the Series.

Asked later why he started Ehmke in Game 1, Mack replied: "I knew that the Cubs feared Earnshaw, Grove and Walberg. I knew that if they beat one of my three aces in the first game, they would get mighty confident, and that impetus might carry them through. The Cubs had some splendid hitters—Hornsby, Hack Wilson, Cuyler, Stephen­son, Hartnett, Grimm. I decided that a surprise right at the outset might break their spirit. Too, it turned out to be a cool day for the first game and Howard was a good cool weather pitcher. When Ehmke beat them, it shocked them, and we won, four games to one."