September 30, 1907: Ty Cobb and Bill Donovan lead Tigers to pivotal 17-inning tie with Athletics

Hughie Jennings, the Detroit Tigers’ first-year manager in 1907, had won five pennants as an infielder with the Baltimore Orioles and Brooklyn Superbas. He was not one to be easily impressed.

Jennings was asked for his thoughts the day after his upstart Tigers had rallied from a 7-1 deficit to earn a thrilling 17-inning tie against the Philadelphia Athletics, giving them a stranglehold on the American League flag. “For 17 years I have seen the greatest struggles the game has ever known,” he replied. “But I have never seen the equal of yesterday’s contest.”1

It was extraordinary for a tie game to have such a dramatic effect on a pennant race. The Tigers and Athletics, along with the defending World Series champion Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Naps, had been in a tight four-way battle for much of the summer. On Friday, September 27, the Athletics and Tigers opened a three-game series in Philadelphia in a virtual tie for first place.2 The Athletics’ winning percentage was higher by a razor-thin margin of .6058 to .6056.3

Detroit took the series opener, 5-4, to extend its winning streak to five games. Tigers starter Wild Bill Donovan surrendered 13 hits and 4 walks, but he got the big outs when he needed them, stranding 12 baserunners.4 The win raised Donovan’s record to 24-4 and moved Detroit into first place with a .608 winning percentage, seven percentage points ahead of Philadelphia.

Saturday’s game was postponed by rain. With Pennsylvania’s Blue Law preventing baseball from being played on Sundays, a doubleheader was scheduled for Monday at 2 P.M.5

Both the Tigers and Athletics still had seven games to play after the twin bill, but none were head-to-head matchups. Since Detroit had a significantly easier schedule remaining,6 all the surging Tigers had to do was break even in the doubleheader to put themselves in the driver’s seat.

Detroit was a confident bunch, especially since Philadelphia’s starting rotation was in shambles as the season wound down. Both Charles Bender and Jack Coombs were out with injuries7 and Rube Waddell’s behavior had become even more erratic than usual. According to one report, Waddell’s teammates were refusing to play with him on the mound and manager Connie Mack was unlikely to use the mercurial hurler for the remainder of the season.8

Mack tapped 23-year-old spitballer Jimmy Dygert to start the first game of the doubleheader. Although Dygert had an 18-8 record, he had struggled against the Tigers in 1907, yielding a whopping 20 runs in 26⅓ innings pitched.9 Eddie Plank, who had lost to Donovan in the series opener, was expected to pitch the second game for Philadelphia.10

Donovan got the start in the first contest despite having thrown a complete game on Friday, and according to the Detroit Free Press, he was slated to pitch both ends of the twin bill.11 The veteran workhorse was used to pitching on short rest: So far in 1907 Donovan had compiled a perfect 6-0 record when taking to the mound on less than three days’ rest.12

The Philadelphia fans, hoping to see the Athletics win their second pennant in three seasons, were in a frenzy. By one estimate, the team could have sold 50,000 tickets if Columbia Park had sufficient capacity.13 Although the ballpark seated just 13,600, a large overflow crowd spilled out into a roped-off area on the outfield grass.14 (Any ball hit into the outfield throng would be a ground-rule double.)

The gates were locked 30 minutes before game time with thousands more fans clamoring to get in. An unknown – yet significant − number of fans entered the ballpark by storming the gates or climbing over the outfield fence, swelling the attendance well beyond the official figure of 24,127.15

The “cranks” (fans) outside the ballpark nabbed every potential vantage point. They scaled trolley and telegraph poles.16 People living in nearby buildings charged from 25 cents to $1 to watch the game from a window or crowded rooftop.17

Philadelphia quickly grabbed the lead in the bottom of the first. With runners on the corners and one out, Donovan induced cleanup hitter Harry Davis into hitting a groundball that had the makings of an inning-ending double play. But when shortstop Charley O’Leary booted it, everyone was safe, and the Athletics had the game’s first run. They added two more on an infield single by Danny Murphy, a lineout by Jimmy Collins, and Rube Oldring’s ground-rule double into the crowd in left field.18

Detroit got one of those runs back in the second inning on a single, a sacrifice, and two throwing errors by Dygert. After Donovan drew a walk to load the bases with one out, Mack gave Dygert the quick hook and − to the surprise of many – Waddell took over the pitching duties.

The 6-foot-1 southpaw was leading the league in strikeouts for the sixth consecutive season. Waddell ended the threat by striking out Davy Jones and Germany Schaefer, setting “the stands in an uproar.”19

Philadelphia tacked on two runs in the third and two more in the fifth to extend its lead to 7-1. Donovan was hit hard in both innings, especially by Davis, who hit a ground-rule RBI double into the crowd and slammed a solo shot for his league-leading eighth round-tripper of the season.

Waddell continued to dominate the Tigers, striking out six of the first eight batters he faced.

Waddell returned to the mound to start the seventh having held Detroit scoreless for 4⅔ innings on only three singles. And then Philadelphia’s defense deserted him. Detroit got back into the game by scoring four runs in the seventh on one hit and one walk, aided by a dropped fly ball by Oldring and a fumble of an easy grounder by rookie shortstop Simon Nicholls.20

Both teams scored a single run in their next at-bat and Philadelphia took an 8-6 lead into the ninth. The Athletics were three outs away from reclaiming first place.

Detroit center fielder Sam Crawford opened the ninth with a single, bringing Ty Cobb to the plate. The 20-year-old Cobb was enjoying a breakout season, and he entered the game with a league-leading .338 batting average.

Cobb stunned the crowd by pounding a Waddell offering over the right-field fence and onto 29th Street for a game-tying two-run homer.21 The towering drive – his fourth home run of the season – was roughly 50 feet off the ground when it cleared the fence.22 In an interview more than half a century later, Cobb admitted that he still didn’t know how he did it.23 “I just took a swipe at it,” he said.24

Mack, sensing the urgency of the situation, pulled Waddell immediately after Cobb’s homer and brought in Plank, his scheduled starter in the second game. Plank quickly retired the side.

Donovan settled into a groove and recorded his second consecutive one-two-three inning in the bottom of the ninth, sending the game into extra innings.

In the 11th, Cobb started a two-out rally with a double into the crowd in right field. The next batter, Claude Rossman, singled to center field, and Cobb raced home with the go-ahead run.

Detroit couldn’t hold the lead in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Nicholls lofted a catchable fly ball to left field, but Jones appeared to lose sight of the ball and it went into the crowd for a ground-rule double.25 The misplay snapped Donovan’s streak of 12 consecutive outs and seemed to unnerve him. After wild-pitching Nicholls to third, he issued a walk to Socks Seybold. Davis tied the game, 9-9, with a long fly ball that drove in Nicholls.26

The game went to the 12th. The Tigers loaded the bases with two outs in the inning, only to have Plank wiggle out of the jam.

Philadelphia had a golden opportunity to win it in the 13th when Topsy Hartsel led off with yet another ground-rule double into the crowd. But the next batter, Nicholls, missed his bunt attempt and catcher Fred Payne picked Hartsel off second base for a crucial out.27

Controversy erupted in the bottom of the 14th when Davis led off with a long fly ball to left-center field.28 “I was about to catch a fly ball,” recounted Crawford after the game, “when a policeman who was holding the crowd back jumped out in front of me, and, of course, I dropped the ball.”29

The Tigers claimed interference on the play and a heated argument broke out. Eventually home-plate umpire Silk O’Loughlin bravely ruled Davis out because of the interference, angering the Athletics and their fans. Skirmishes broke out among the players and disgruntled fans streamed onto the field. “By vigorous use of their clubs the police finally drove back the infuriated spectators,” wrote the New York Evening World.30

The two main combatants in the mêlée, Detroit first baseman Rossman and Philadelphia’s backup shortstop Monte Cross, were ejected for fighting.31 Rossman was briefly arrested before Jennings persuaded the police captain to release him.32

After a lengthy delay, order was finally restored and play resumed.

The fans became even more frustrated when the next batter, Murphy, hit a single that would have won the game if Davis had not been called out for interference.33 Donovan retired the next two batters and the marathon game continued.

Both teams put a runner in scoring position in the 15th; Plank and Donovan escaped the inning unscathed.34

By the time the 17th inning began, darkness was falling and it was obvious that it would be the final frame.

Cobb hit a two-out single in the top of the 17th, stole second, and went to third on the wild throw from catcher Doc Powers.35 But Cobb was stranded on the basepaths.

Rookie Eddie Collins, pinch-hitting for Oldring, led off the bottom of the 17th with an infield single.36 Powers laid down a sacrifice, moving the potential winning run into scoring position with only one out. (By this point it was so dark that the players could barely see the baseball.)

Donovan refused to break. He dug deep and retired the final two batters on “neat running catches” by center fielder Red Downs.37 The game was called because of darkness, and − as was the custom of the day – the doubleheader was not rescheduled.

Thousands of fans created a chaotic scene outside the ballpark after the game, and the Tigers needed police protection to return safely to their hotel.38

A relieved Detroit team left town with a firm grip on the pennant.

After sweeping a four-game series from the lowly Washington Senators, the Tigers clinched the flag by winning their 10th consecutive game in a 10-2 blowout of the St. Louis Browns on October 5.39 It was the first major-league crown for the city of Detroit since the Wolverines claimed the National League pennant in 1887.40

Cobb finished the season with a .350 batting average, earning him the first of a record 12 batting titles. Despite being the seventh youngest player in the AL,41 the Georgia Peach led the league in many other statistical categories, including RBIs (119), stolen bases (53), slugging percentage (.468), OPS (.848), and outfield assists (30).

The Tigers went on to win three consecutive pennants from 1907 to 1909, although they lost the World Series in each of those seasons. Detroit had to wait until 1935 for its first (modern) World Series championship, seven years after Cobb retired.

In 1958 the 71-year-old Cobb was asked to select the biggest thrill of his baseball career. Without hesitation, he named the 17-inning game against Philadelphia in 1907 and “the little part I had in it,” as he so modestly put it. “Ending in a tie, strange to say, was the influencing factor in winning the pennant for us.”42

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Ray Danner and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball. Unless otherwise noted, all play-by-play information for this game was taken from the article “Tigers-Athletics Draw in Long Game with Riot,” by Bozeman Bulger on page 1 of the September 30, 1907, edition of the New York Evening World.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHA/PHA190709300.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1907/B09300PHA1907.htm

Photo credit

Photo of Ty Cobb courtesy the Chicago History Museum.

Notes

1 M.W. Bingay, “Tigers Tempered for World Series,” Detroit News, October 1, 1907: 1.

2 Detroit (86-56) was a half-game game ahead of Philadelphia (83-54), although at the time winning percentages were used to determine the pennant winner.

3 The White Sox and Naps lurked on the outskirts of the race. Chicago had an 84-60 (.583) mark, while Cleveland’s record stood at 82-61 (.573).

4 Donovan lived a charmed life in 1907. He finished the season with a 25-4 record and a league-leading .862 winning percentage. But his 2.19 ERA was only 18 percent better than league average after adjusting for park effects. Based on Donovan’s 1907 season, Bill James referred to him as “the luckiest pitcher of all time.” According to James, Donovan’s expected record was only 16-13. Bill James and Rob Neyer, The Neyer / James Guide to Pitchers (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), 473.

5 Pennsylvania was the last state to permit Sunday baseball. The first legal game played on Sunday was in 1934. Charlie Bevis, “Never on Sunday in Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania Legacies 7 (2007): 26-27. Jack Zerby, “April 29, 1934: Sunday Professional Baseball Comes to Pittsburgh,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/april-29-1934-sunday-professional-baseball-comes-to-pittsburgh/, accessed May 21, 2023.

6 Detroit and Philadelphia each had a four-game series against the last-place Washington Senators. The Tigers’ other three games were against the sixth-place St. Louis Browns (64-81). The Athletics had three games against the tough Cleveland Naps.

7 Bender was removed from his previous appearance on September 14 because of a sore arm. Two weeks later he could barely raise his throwing hand to shoulder level. Neither Bender nor Coombs pitched again in 1907. “Athletics Minus Rube and Bender,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 30, 1907: 15; “Athletics Are in Serious Trouble,” Atlanta Journal, September 19, 1907: 14; “Today’s Games May Determine Base Ball Race,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 30, 1907: 1.

8 “Athletics Minus Rube and Bender.”

9 As of May 2023, neither Baseball Reference nor Retrosheet indicated how many of those runs were earned.

10 Joe S. Jackson, “Two Games on Sodden Field Are Probable,” Detroit Free Press, September 30, 1907: 1.

11 According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Ed Killian or Ed Siever would pitch the second game for Detroit. Both southpaws were sufficiently rested. Jackson, “Two Games on Sodden Field Are Probable”; “Today’s Games May Determine Base Ball Race.”

12 Donovan was 2-0 in 1907 when pitching on zero days of rest. He pitched a complete-game victory over the New York Highlanders on July 10, one day after pitching an inning of relief against the Boston Red Sox. He also picked up victories on back-to-back days against Cleveland. Donovan pitched a 10-inning complete game in the first game of a September 12 doubleheader and the next day he tossed a six-inning shutout in the second game of a twin bill.

13 “Columbia Park Was the First Home of the Athletics,” Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society, https://www.philadelphiaathletics.org/columbia-park-was-the-first-home-of-the-athletics/, accessed May 8, 2023.

14 John Thorn, “Ty Cobb Remembers,” Our Game, January 2, 2013, https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/ty-cobb-remembers-2858957f7968, accessed May 4, 2023.

15 Joe S. Jackson, “Mad, Record Crowd Sees Tiges Pull a Hopeless Game into a 17-Inning Tie,” Detroit Free Press, October 1, 1907: 1.

16 “Athletics and Detroit in Seventeen-Inning Tie,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 1, 1907: 1.

17 “Detroit Tigers Play a Great Seventeen Inning Tie Game with the Athletics,” Washington Post, October 1, 1907: 9; “Athletics and Detroit in Seventeen-Inning Tie.”

18 Davis, Collins, and Oldring were each credited with one RBI in the inning.

19 Bozeman Bulger, “Tigers-Athletics Draw in Long Game with Riot,” New York Evening World, September 30, 1907: 1.

20 Nicholls had played in two games for Detroit in 1903 and 12 games for Philadelphia in 1906. He didn’t lose his rookie status until 1907.

21 “Detroit-Athletics Battle 17 Innings,” Washington Herald, October 1, 1907: 1.

22 “Notes of the Game,” Washington Herald, October 1, 1907: 9.

23 Although Columbia Park was a home-run haven for left-handed hitters, this was Cobb’s only home run in 121 career plate appearances in the ballpark. According to the Seamheads Ballpark Database, the outfield dimensions at Columbia Park were 280 feet down the right-field line and 323 feet in right-center field.

24 “Ty Cobb Interviewed by Leo Cloutier in 1958 in Manchester NH,” YouTube.com, https://youtu.be/Vm1lY8UeMN4?t=165, accessed May 5, 2023.

25 According to the New York Evening World, the left fielder Jones lost the ball in the sun, although right field was considered the sun field. Home plate was located in the southwest corner of Columbia Park. The Detroit Free Press simply reported that Jones “lost the ball,” although it did not suggest a reason why. Ron Selter, “Columbia Park II: Philadelphia American League, 1901–08,” The National Pastime, 2013, https://sabr.org/journal/article/columbia-park-ii-philadelphia-american-league-1901-08/, accessed May 5, 2023.

26 The RBI was Davis’s fourth of the game. He knocked in a single run in the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 11th innings.

27 Payne entered the game as a pinch-hitter for catcher Boss Schmidt in the sixth inning. Jackson, “Mad, Record Crowd Sees Tiges Pull a Hopeless Game into a 17-Inning Tie.”

28 The exact location of Davis’s fly ball is unclear. The Detroit Free Press reported the location as left-center field, while the Philadelphia Inquirer said it was to left field. The Washington Herald said the fly ball was to center field. “Athletics Foozle It in the Seventh,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 1, 1907: 10.

29 The New York Evening World and the Detroit News reported that the police officer bumped into Crawford just before he dropped the ball. According to the Detroit Free Press, a spectator knocked the ball out of Davis’s mitt. The Philadelphia Inquirer claimed there was no interference and Crawford simply “muffed it.” “Jennings Is Confident,” Washington Post, October 1, 1907: 9; “Athletics Foozle It in the Seventh.”

30 Bozeman Bulger, “Tigers-Athletics Draw in Long Game with Riot,” New York Evening World, September 30, 1907: 1.

31 Rossman was replaced at first base by pitcher Ed Killian. Another pitcher, George Mullin, pinch-hit for Killian in the top of the 15th. (He flied out.) Mullin finished his 14-season major-league career with a .262 batting average. Monte Cross did not play in this game; he was coaching.

32 Bingay, “Tigers Tempered for World Series.”

33 “Athletics Foozle It in the Seventh.”

34 Detroit had runners on first and second with one out in the top of the 15th. Philadelphia had runners on first and second with two out in the bottom of the 15th.

35 Powers replaced Ossee Schrecongost as Philadelphia’s catcher when the game went into extra innings.

36 Jackson, “Mad, Record Crowd Sees Tiges Pull a Hopeless Game into a 17-Inning Tie.”

37 The rookie Downs entered the game in the bottom of the 15th when Crawford shifted to first base. Jackson, “Mad, Record Crowd Sees Tiges Pull a Hopeless Game into a 17-Inning Tie.”

38 “Notes of the Game.”

39 Cobb knocked in the game-winning run in the clincher with a triple in the fourth inning. He added his fifth homer of the season later in the contest. Associated Press, “Detroit Carries Off Pennant in Big American League Race,” Pittsburgh Post, October 6, 1907: 15.

40 The Wolverines went on to defeat the St. Louis Browns, champions of the American Association, in the 1887 World Series. The Detroit Wolverines also won the International League pennant in 1889.

41 The age of a player was determined at the beginning of the 1907 season. Bill Bailey, Tris Speaker, Walter Johnson, Kid Butler, Eddie Collins, and Clyde Milan were the only AL players younger than Cobb.

42 “Ty Cobb Interviewed by Leo Cloutier in 1958 in Manchester NH.”