On June 24, , Geraghty survived one of the greatest tragedies in baseball history, when the bus carrying his minor league team, the Spokane Indians of the Class B Western International League, crashed while attempting to avert an oncoming car on a rain-slicked mountain pass.
Despite his head injury, Geraghty was named the immediate replacement for Mel Cole-the team's catcher and player-manager who perished in the crash-as the Indians' first post-accident skipper.