September 23, 1914: Branch Rickey benches entire Browns team in fit of pique over errors

St. Louis Browns manager Branch Rickey was mad. Not only that, but as the sportswriters covering the game noted, he was “dismayed” and “disgusted,” which resulted in him throwing “a conniption fit.”1

Seething after seeing his team commit five errors in the top of the fifth inning, including two by shortstop Doc Lavan, Rickey took the unusual step of benching his entire starting nine before the Browns returned to the field for the sixth inning against the New York Yankees on September 23, 1914. The errors had allowed New York to break open a close game with four unearned runs. In all, the Browns committed eight errors2 to give the Yankees an easy 9-2 win.

After the desultory Browns finished dead last in the American League with a 57-92-2 record in 1913, Rickey, who had been hired with 12 games left in the season, had St. Louis moving in the right direction in 1914. Going into their September 23 game with the Yankees, the 63-76-6 Browns already had won six more games than in all of 1913.

With 15 games left in the season, St. Louis was in seventh place, 27 games behind the first-place Philadelphia Athletics but just 1½ games behind the sixth-place Chicago White Sox. They entered the final game of a three-game series with New York a half-game ahead of the eighth-place Yankees, who had been managed by 23-year-old shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh ever since Frank Chance had resigned from the position on September 12.

The Wednesday afternoon game matched the Browns’ best pitcher, left-hander Carl Weilman, against New York righty Marty McHale. Despite losing four consecutive decisions, the 24-year-old Weilman had a 14-11 record and a 2.21 ERA. McHale, 27, began the day at 6-13 with a 3.15 ERA.

New York took a 1-0 lead in the second. Peckinpaugh singled, stole second, and scored on catcher Les Nunamaker’s single. Two innings later, Peckinpaugh drove in center fielder Birdie Cree by hitting into a forceout.

The Browns answered in their half of the fourth. A walk and two singles loaded the bases with none out. Lavan’s single brought home a St. Louis run, but McHale stiffened, retiring the next three batters to preserve his one-run lead.

With the Yankees leading, 2-1, going into the top of the fifth, Browns center fielder Burt Shotton committed the first error of the inning by dropping Luke Boone’s pop fly. Boone reached second on the play and took third when Weilman threw wild in a pick-off attempt.

McHale struck out for the inning’s first out, and Frank Truesdale3 hit a fly ball to right fielder Gus Williams. The ball popped out of Williams’ glove and comically hit him on the nose.4 Boone scored, and Truesdale made it to third.

Left fielder Tillie Walker hauled in Roy Hartzell’s fly ball without incident for the second out. But Doc Cook’s single scored Truesdale, and Cree followed with another single. Lavan made a throwing error, and Cook scored. Lavan then made another throwing error on Charlie Mullen’s grounder, the Browns’ fifth error of the inning, and Cree came home. When the dust settled, the score stood at 6-1.

Rickey allowed three regulars to bat in the bottom of the fifth, but with two out,5 reserve Dick Kauffman batted for Williams. When Kauffman struck out to end the inning, Rickey sent Kauffman to first base and eight other new players to the field. The St. Louis crowd applauded Rickey for the move.6 The changes made trouble for home plate umpire Billy Evans, who, per the St. Louis Star, “was forced to turn to the press box to inquire whose turn it was at bat” when the Browns came to bat in the subsequent innings.7

George Baumgardner, inserted in relief of Weilman, pitched a clean sixth inning. Baumgardner was pinch-hit for in the bottom of the sixth by rookie William Rumler, who became the 19th Brown to see action in the game. Rumler doubled home rookie Ed Miller, Del Pratt’s replacement at second base,8 to make it a 6-2 game.

Walt Leverenz took over the Browns’ pitching duties for the rest of the game. In the eighth, the Yankees capitalized on two errors by Miller to score three more runs.9 Peckinpaugh drove in Cree with a sacrifice fly, and McHale singled home Mullen and Nunamaker. Later in the inning, left fielder Bob Clemens – appearing in his second of seven big-league games – was charged with St. Louis’ eighth error of the day.

In the bottom of the ninth, Rickey sent rookie John Leary to hit for Leverenz. Leary became the 21st Brown to play in the game. He hit a leadoff single, and Clemens followed with a single, but McHale retired the next three batters to close out the 9-2 win, his seventh of the season.

Incredibly, none of the 21 Browns made their first appearances in the major leagues that day. Six days earlier, Rickey had used 20 players in a blowout loss to the Washington Nationals.10 Down 8-2 in the fourth, Rickey had replaced five of his regulars with reserves. Making their debuts that day were center fielder Timon Bowden, third baseman Ed Hemingway, pitcher Allen Sothoron, pinch-hitter Dutch Schirick, and Kauffman.11 All but Sothoron and Schirick played in the September 23 game.

The eight errors in the game were not a Browns franchise record. Twice before the club had committed nine errors. On May 4, 1901, the then-Milwaukee Brewers were charged with nine errors in an 11-3 loss to the White Sox. Then, earlier in the 1914 season on June 14, the Browns committed nine errors in a 5-4 win over the hapless Cleveland Naps.12 Not surprisingly, the Browns’ 317 errors in 1914 led the AL, and they were last in the league with a .952 fielding percentage. Even the lowly Naps, who lost 102 games, finished ahead of St. Louis in both categories.

Rickey’s unusual move may have spurred his team on for what was left of the season. St. Louis went 8-6 the rest of the way, passing the Yankees and White Sox to finish fifth in the AL. They were 28½ games behind the Athletics, but the season was a marked improvement for the Browns. They hadn’t finished that high since 1908, when they ended the season in fourth place.

But Rickey lasted just one more season with the Browns as their manager. In 1915 St. Louis fell to seventh place. A change in ownership ended his managerial days with the Browns.13 In 1919 Rickey was hired to manage the St. Louis Cardinals. He lasted until 38 games into the 1925 season, when he was fired.

He stayed on as general manager of the Cardinals, where he excelled. Rickey’s overall managerial record was 597-664, a .473 winning percentage. It was clear that Rickey belonged in the front office, where he made his mark in baseball and American society.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Harrison Golden and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Photo credit: Branch Rickey, Trading Card Database.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLA/SLA191409230.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1914/B09230SLA1914.htm

Notes

1 J. B. Sheridan, “Protesting Brown Atrocities, Rickey Uses His Recruits,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 24, 1914: 6; W. J. O’Connor, “Rickey Benches Entire Team of Brown Regulars,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 24, 1914: 19.

2 The St. Louis Globe-Democrat’s box score recorded 11 errors in the game. The St. Louis Star game story said there were eight errors while the New York Times wrote that 12 errors had been committed by the Browns. Retrosheet reconstruction of the play-by-play found eight errors. Sheridan; “John M Quinn’s Browns’ Notes,” St. Louis Star, September 24, 1914: 10; “Yankees Pass the Browns in Race,” New York Times, September 24, 1914: 9.

3 Truesdale was playing for regular Fritz Maisel, who was hobbled with an ingrown toenail. He missed two games in all. “Yankees Work Hard for Peck,” New York Evening Journal, September 22, 1914: 12.

4 Sheridan.

5 Regular third baseman Jimmy Austin singled to begin the inning.

6 “Yankees Beat Two Nines as Branch Rickey Raves,” New York Tribune, September 24, 1914: 10.

7 “John M Quinn’s Browns’ Notes.”

8 Pratt played in 158 of the Browns’ 159 games in 1914.

9 Miller’s primary position was first base. In his career, he played 1,032 games at first and 307 at second base.

10 Roster limits for both the American and National leagues had been 25 players since 1910 but due to the Federal League raids, there were no limits to rosters in 1914. “Scout Irwin After Some Reserve Men,” New York Sun, April 25, 1914: 14.

11 The September 17 game against the Nationals was not only the lone game that Schirick played in the major leagues, it was his lone game in professional baseball. The Cornell University grad and future New York Supreme Court judge walked in his only plate appearance. He did not appear in the field.

12 As of 2026, the Milwaukee Brewers/St. Louis Browns/Baltimore Orioles single-game errors record stands at 10, set on Opening Day 1925 when just three Browns players committed a total of 10 errors.

13 Andy McCue, “Branch Rickey,” SABR BioProject, accessed on March 25, 2026.