July 2, 1908: Hartford’s Pete Wilson and Harry Noyes shine in victory over New Haven

After Hartford finished fifth in the eight-team Connecticut State League in 1907, the club hired Tommy Dowd to manage the 1908 team. Dowd, whose 10-year big-league playing career ended in 1901, appeared to have the difficult task of finding replacements for two stars: captain and third baseman Harry Noyes, and pitcher Pete Wilson, who had achieved a 25-14 record in 1907.

Wilson, regarded as the Connecticut State League’s best left-hander, was selected in the Rule 5 draft by Connie Mack for the Philadelphia Athletics.1 Noyes, considered the best third baseman in the league, went to the Boston Doves of the National League.2 But both clubs drafted more players than they needed. To Dowd’s great relief, Wilson and Noyes were deemed surplus and returned to Hartford in the spring of 1908.

Wilson, 23, was unquestionably the ace of the Hartford pitching staff. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, and as a teenager, he had worked with his father in the brass industry at Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Noyes, 29, was a fireman’s son and lifelong resident of New Haven, Connecticut. A clever tinkerer, he had earned US patents for the corkscrew bottle openers he invented.3 He had nine years of experience in the minor leagues and had served as Hartford’s captain since 1906. A quiet leader, he “did not bullyrag the umps enough to suit some of the feverish fans,” noted the Hartford Courant, “but that style of captaining is getting out of date. The best captains of the present day talk the least.”4

The 1908 Hartford team was nicknamed the “Runaways.”5 On Thursday, July 2, 1908, Wilson and Noyes shined in a road game against the New Haven White Wings.6 Before the game, the Runaways had a 32-23 record and stood in second place, one game behind the Springfield Ponies. The White Wings, at 30-24, were third.7

Wilson had already defeated the White Wings twice in 1908, with a three-hitter on May 2 and a five-hitter on June 17.8But the outcome on July 2 was hardly a foregone conclusion. Bill Carrick, a 34-year-old right-hander, pitched for the White Wings, and slugger George “Candy” LaChance, 38, played first base. Though past their prime, these former major leaguers demonstrated their prowess in their New Haven debuts on June 29. That day, Carrick went the distance and LaChance clouted two singles and a double in a 9-1 rout of Waterbury.9

The July 2 game was played at the Savin Rock grounds in West Haven, a community bordering New Haven. Savin Rock was the site of a popular amusement park and beachside resort, and baseball had been played there since 1893.10

In 1908 many ladies favored wide-brimmed “Merry Widow” hats, which were considered the height of fashion but were view-obstructing at ballgames. The Hartford Courant suggested that at the ballpark, a limit should be imposed on the size of “feminine headgear.”11 The Waterbury Democrat reported a movement to ban these hats from Yale baseball games.12 Female fans were welcome at the ballpark, but their big hats were not.

The game  started at 3:45 PM.13 It was a cloudy day with the temperature in the low 80s. The only umpire was Harry J. McCloud of Philadelphia.14 The attendance was reported to be more than 2,000.

The first three innings were scoreless, and it was New Haven third baseman George “Kid” Sherwood who shined. He turned a clever double play in the second inning and made a dandy catch of a foul popup in the third. But in the fourth inning, things went awry for the home team.

Captain Noyes singled with two outs. With Hogan Yancey at the plate, Noyes took off for second on a hit-and-run play. As second baseman Hack Simmons went to cover the bag, Yancey slapped the ball through the hole on the right side of the infield. The ball was fielded by the New Haven captain and right fielder, Eddie Havel. The New Haven Journal-Courier explained what happened next:

Havel “at first intended to get Noyes at third and seeing that it was impossible hesitated while Yancey who had turned first started for second, and suddenly changed his mind and darted back towards first. Havel had all the time in the world and the easiest chance ever to get him and retire the side but threw wild to [first baseman] LaChance and Noyes came in.”15

Yancey, who had reached third on Havel’s errant throw, came home when shortstop Oscar Westerberg misplayed a grounder. Hartford led 2-0, and in a Deadball Era pitchers’ duel, that was a substantial lead.

Wilson, meanwhile, stymied the New Haven offense. He had a no-hitter going through seven innings and was backed by solid defense. Noyes’ work at third base was especially brilliant. “Two of Harry’s stops were wonders,” reported the Hartford Courant. “Again and again he was compelled to doff his headgear, by the applause.”16 Did New Haven fans cheer for a Hartford player? It was customary at this time to applaud the fine work of an opposing player, but more than that, Noyes was one of their own, born and raised in New Haven.

Hartford added a run in the top of the eighth inning. Charlie Fallon got aboard when his grounder “bounded high and hit Westerberg in the head.”17 Carrick’s pickoff throw was muffed by LaChance and Fallon scampered to second. Noyes’ single – his third of the game – brought Fallon home.

Leading off in the bottom of the eighth, Elmer Zacher ended Wilson’s no-hit bid with a double down the third-base line. Sherwood drew a walk, and both runners advanced one base on a groundout. But Wilson quelled the threat by striking out the next two batters.

In the ninth, Wilson retired the White Wings in order, and the final score was Hartford 3, New Haven 0. This was his second one-hit shutout of the season; his first was on May 16 against Waterbury.18

As of 2026, the major-league record for most assists by a third baseman in a nine-inning game was 11.19 In this contest, Noyes had nine or 10 assists (sources disagree), two putouts and no errors. The New Haven Journal-Courier conceded, “We simply had to doff our hats to the visiting third baseman and allow that if anyone on the opposing team had to send us down to defeat, we could think of no one who had our best wishes more than himself.”20

Epilogue

The Connecticut State League season ended on September 12, 1908, with Hartford in second place, one-half game behind Springfield, and New Haven in third.21 Noyes’ season average was .238, above the league average of .227. He was second in the league in doubles with 30 and led the league’s third basemen in fielding percentage at .919.22 Despite his success in the minors, he never played in the majors.

Wilson compiled a 21-12 record for Hartford in 1908. He was drafted by the New York Highlanders of the American League,23 and in his major-league debut on September 15, 1908, he threw a shutout in Boston to outduel another rookie pitcher, Eddie Cicotte. But Wilson’s major-league career was brief. He and Noyes were again teammates at Hartford in 1911 and 1912, and his final season of professional baseball was 1914, with the Eastern Association’s New Britain Sinks.

Noyes continued to invent. In 1916 he received a US patent for a pitching machine, and one of his machines was deployed as an attraction at Savin Rock.24 In the 1920 US census, he listed his occupation as toy manufacturer. He invented a toy airship that “goes up into the air as if shot out of a gun with a zip, bing, and floats about in the air with a cord attached to it.”25 He sold them for 10 cents each (about $3.50 in 2026 dollars). And in 1920 he earned a US patent for a child’s rocking chair that traveled forward when rocked.26

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Carl Riechers and copy-edited by Keith Thursby.

Sources

Game coverage in the July 3, 1908, issues of the Hartford Courant and New Haven Journal-Courier.

Ancestry.com and Baseball Reference, accessed May 2026.

Image: top, Savin Rock baseball grounds; bottom, left to right, woman with Merry Widow hat, Pete Wilson, and Harry Noyes.

Notes

1 “Mack’s New Pitcher,” Pittsburgh Press, September 9, 1907: 12.

2 “Captain Noyes Signs,” Hartford Courant, March 2, 1907: 8; “Noyes Drafted by Boston,” Hartford Courant, October 29, 1907: 14.

3 H.W. Noyes, “Cork Extractor,” US Patent 793,318, issued June 27, 1905; H.W. Noyes, “Cork Extractor,” US Patent 824,807, issued July 3, 1906; H.W. Noyes, “Pocket Cork Extractor,” US Patent 898,387, issued September 8, 1908.

4 “Noyes Drafted by Boston.”

5 “Runaways Have Commanding Lead,” Hartford Courant, May 18, 1908: 10.

6 “Crank’s Corner,” Meriden (Connecticut) Journal, May 2, 1908: 8. The 1908 New Haven team got its nickname “White Wings” through a contest held by the New Haven Register.

7 “Connecticut League Standings,” New Haven Journal-Courier, July 2, 1908: 6.

8 “Saturday Games,” Hartford Courant, May 4, 1908: 10; “Wilson Finds Horseshoe, Wins,” Hartford Courant, June 18, 1908: 10.

9 “New Men Are Stars,” New Haven Journal-Courier, June 30, 1908: 11.

10 Dominic Konareski, Gloves, Engines & Glory: The Complete History of Savin Rock’s Golden Age of Sports (self-published, 2026), 18.

11 “Merry Widow Hats at the Ball Park,” Hartford Courant, April 8, 1908: 10.

12 “Object to Big Hats,” Waterbury (Connecticut) Democrat, May 23, 1908: 11.

13 “Great Game To-day,” New Haven Journal-Courier, July 2, 1908: 6.

14 “Season’s Umps, How They All Look,” Hartford Courant, April 9, 1908: 10.

15 “Wilson, That’s All,” New Haven Journal-Courier, July 3, 1908: 9.

16 “Hartford Shuts Out New Haven,” Hartford Courant, July 3, 1908: 12.

17 “Hartford Shuts Out New Haven.”

18 “Saturday Games,” Waterbury Democrat, May 18, 1908: 9.

19 “Assist Records for Third Basemen,” Baseball-Almanac.com, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/rb_3bas.shtml, accessed May 30, 2026.

20 “Wilson, That’s All.”

21 “Conn League Results,” Boston Globe, September 13, 1908: 12.

22 “The Averages,” Waterbury Democrat, October 22, 1908: 9.

23 “New York Drafts Hartford Players,” Hartford Courant, September 2, 1908: 11.

24 “Harry Noyes’ Invention,” New Britain (Connecticut) Herald, July 21, 1915: 8; J.A. MacLeod and H.W. Noyes, “Ball Throwing Machine,” US Patent 1,182,024, issued May 9, 1916.

25 “Harry Noyes Invents a Toy Airship, a Great Seller,” Hartford Courant, October 19, 1912: 17.

26 H.W. Noyes, “Traveling Rocker,” US Patent 1,331,664, issued February 24, 1920.