The following season they repeated as American League champions but ultimately lost the 1925 World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates. After Walter Johnson's retirement in 1927, he was hired as manager of the Senators. After enduring a few losing seasons, the team returned to contention in 1930. In 1933, Senators owner Griffith returned to the formula that worked for him nine years prior: 26-year-old shortstop Joe Cronin became player-manager. The Senators posted a 99–53 record and cruised to the pennant seven games ahead of the New York Yankees, but in the 1933 World Series the Giants exacted their revenge winning in five games. Following the loss, the Senators sank all the way to seventh place in 1934 and attendance began to fall. Despite the return of Harris as manager from 1935 to 1942 and again from 1950 to 1954, Washington was mostly a losing ball club for the next 25 years contending for the pennant only during World War II. Washington came to be known as "first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League", with their hard luck being crucial to the plot of the musical and film "Damn Yankees". Cecil Travis, Buddy Myer (1935 A.L. batting champion), Roy Sievers, Mickey Vernon (batting champion in 1946 and 1953), and Eddie Yost were notable Senators players whose careers were spent in obscurity due to the team's lack of success. In 1954, the Senators signed future Hall of Fame member Harmon Killebrew. By 1959 he was the Senators’ regular third baseman and led the league with 42 home runs earning him a starting spot on the American League All-Star team.