October 18, 1910: Jack Coombs, Eddie Collins lead Athletics over Cubs

After Philadelphia defeated the Chicago Cubs 4-1 in Game One of the 1910 World Series behind the three-hit pitching of Chief Bender and bat of Frank “Home Run” Baker, Athletics founder and manager Connie Mack gave the ball to staff ace Jack Coombs. After four pedestrian years in which the Iowa-born right-hander went 35-35 with a 2.45 ERA, Coombs came into his own in 1910, going 31-9 with a 1.30 ERA, tossed a league-best 13 shutouts, and didn’t allow a home run in 353 innings.1

Cubs skipper and first baseman Frank Chance turned to his own ace, Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, a versatile veteran righty who not only paced the Cubs in wins with 25, but tied Cincinnati Reds hurler Harry Gaspar for the National League lead in saves with seven.2 Brown also paced the circuit in complete games, shutouts, and WHIP, and with his 34th birthday only a day away, he thought there was no way he could lose.3

The Tuesday game drew 24,597 fans to Shibe Park a day after almost 27,000 watched the first tilt. One scribe was perplexed by the drop-off, considering it was a perfect day for baseball and that an Athletics victory in Game One all but ensured that more Philadelphians would show up for the second contest.4 But a failure by the city’s police force to uphold an order issued before the first game prohibiting fans from watching from rooftops across from the park emboldened more people to do just that for Game Two.5

Coombs was shaky in the first and walked leadoff man Jimmy Sheckard on four pitches. Frank Schulte forced Sheckard at second on a grounder to Eddie Collins, but Solly Hofman walked on six pitches, the last two of which nearly hit him, and Chance singled to third after almost being plunked himself. Heinie Zimmerman plated the first run on a fly ball to Amos Strunk, and Hofman and Chance advanced to third and second, respectively. Coombs continued to be wild and almost hit Harry Steinfeldt with his second pitch, but the Cubs third baseman helped the A’s hurler by whiffing at a ball over his head to end the threat.

Brown struck out Strunk to start the bottom half of the first and got an assist from catcher Johnny Kling, who scooped the third strike from the dirt and fired to Chance for the out. Bris Lord grounded to third for an easy out before Collins fisted a single over Zimmerman’s head, then stole second after a cat-and-mouse game in which Brown threw to first three times before throwing two waste pitches to Baker. Collins made it to second easily on Brown’s third delivery to Baker, but the third sacker grounded back to the mound to end the inning.

Coombs was much sharper in the second, but ran into some bad luck when first baseman Harry Davis dropped Baker’s throw after the third baseman snared a grounder by Joe Tinker to lead off the frame. The pitcher’s luck quickly turned, however, when Kling shot a line drive right to Collins, who threw to Davis to double up Tinker. Brown grounded to Collins for the third out.

Brown retired Davis on a fly ball to Hofman before walking Danny Murphy on four pitches. Tinker made a nice play on a grounder by Jack Barry, fielding the ball at second, stepping on the bag, and throwing to first to complete the double play and end the inning. The third started with a second free pass to Sheckard and a Schulte sacrifice bunt that would have been the first out had Davis not dropped Coombs’s throw and committed his second miscue in as many innings.

With runners at first and second, Hofman popped his bunt to Davis, who held on this time, and Coombs fanned Chance after catcher Ira Thomas saved a wild pitch by stopping a low curveball with his bare hand. Zimmerman lined the first pitch he saw to Lord in left field and the game went to the bottom of the third with the Cubs clinging to a 1-0 lead.

Philadelphia took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third, thanks in part to a comedy of errors by Steinfeldt and perfectly placed hits by Strunk and Collins. Thomas led off with a slow roller to third that Steinfeldt tried to barehand but missed for his first error. Coombs whiffed for the first out, then Strunk expertly bunted between the mound and first base, and though Brown was able to reach the ball he couldn’t hold on and all were safe. Lord grounded to Zimmerman, who threw to Tinker to force Strunk at second with Thomas advancing to third on the play.

Brown was careful with Collins and tossed him four straight curves, three of which were balls, before firing a fastball over for strike two. His next fast one caught too much of the plate and Collins served it between Steinfeldt and the third-base bag for a double. Thomas scored easily and Lord followed him home when Steinfeldt missed Sheckard’s throw from left. Baker grounded to Zimmerman and the inning was over.

Coombs and Brown traded goose eggs in the fourth, the only blemishes being Tinker’s hit off Coombs and hits by Barry and Thomas off Brown. Coombs almost did himself in when he made consecutive errors on bunts by Brown and Sheckard to lead off the fifth, bobbling Brown’s until he was safe and falling down while attempting to field Sheckard’s. A third bunt, this one by Schulte, went to Davis for an out, but the runners moved to second and third with Hofman and Chance due up.

Three more errant curves and an inside fastball loaded the bases for Chance, but Brown foolishly tried to tag up on a short fly ball to Murphy in right and Murphy’s perfect throw nailed the hurler at the plate to retire the side. The A’s manufactured their third run in the bottom of the fifth. Lord poled a one-out single before being erased by a fielder’s choice that put Collins on first.

Again, Brown tried to get the better of the American League’s stolen-base champ by throwing three wide ones to Baker, but Collins refused to budge until Brown’s fourth pitch when he swiped his second base of the game.6 Baker walked and Davis atoned for his errors with a run-scoring single before Murphy grounded out to end the inning.

Both teams threatened in the sixth but neither scored. The Cubs put a man on second to no avail; the A’s had runners at first and third with one out before Brown worked out of the jam with help from Strunk, who tried to bunt Thomas home and failed miserably. “It looked like a large joke to see Strunk trying to squeeze Thomas home from third,” opined the Chicago Tribune. “… Strunk bunted as if he never tried it before.”7

The game went to the seventh with Philadelphia still up 3-1 and that’s when they stepped on the throttle, but not before Chicago made things interesting. Sheckard followed a Brown strikeout with a shot into the right-field crowd for a double, and Hofman followed a fly out by Schulte with a walk. Chance singled to center and scored Sheckard to cut the lead to 3-2, but that was as close as the Cubs would get.

Collins started the bottom of the inning with a free pass and moved to third on Baker’s single to right. Davis doubled into the left-field crowd to score Collins, and Murphy did the same to plate Baker and Davis, prompting Chance to order Lew Richie to warm up. Barry sacrificed Murphy to third and the move paid off when Thomas followed with a run-scoring single to boost Philadelphia’s lead to 7-2.

Coombs grounded to first for the second out, but Strunk’s double scored Thomas, and Sheckard’s failure to hold on to Lord’s line drive to left plated Strunk. Lord was thrown out trying to steal second with Collins at the plate, but when the smoke cleared, the score stood at 9-2 in Philadelphia’s favor.

The Cubs continued to fight, loading the bases in the eighth and scoring a run in the ninth when Zimmerman knocked in Hofman with a two-bagger, but Coombs wrapped groundouts around a walk to Tinker to end the game and send the Athletics to Chicago with a two-game lead.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, and SABR.org.

NOTES

1 On the surface a 2.45 ERA is much more impressive than “pedestrian,” but Coombs’s career ERA+ prior to 1910 was only 5 percent better than league average.

2 The save rule wasn’t adopted until 1969 and saves were retroactively calculated by researchers for every season that came before. It’s because of them that we know Brown and Gaspar had seven each.

3 “Sidelights on the Second Battle,” Chicago Tribune, October 19, 1910: 21.

4 “Sidelights on the Second Battle.”

5 “Sidelights on the Second Battle.”

6 Collins led the American League with 81 stolen bases in 1910, finishing with 16 more than the 1909 leader, Ty Cobb.

7 “Sidelights on the Second Battle.”