On September 20, 1912, Brooklyn team president Charles Ebbets gave up hope that his new stadium could open before that season’s end. Construction had gotten a boost from the experience of his new co-owners, Steve and Ed McKeever. Yet too much work remained undone. The field was game-ready, but the stands were far from complete. Thus, they decided to aim for an opening in the spring of 1913.1

That same day, Ebbets raised his stake in the Newark Indians of the International League to a controlling interest.2 At some point before 1912 ended, Brooklyn scheduled a game against Newark for April 5, 1913. It was to be the first professional match at Ebbets Field.3

Meanwhile, another big New York baseball story had broken on December 12. The Chicago Cubs released future Hall of Famer Frank Chance, freeing him to negotiate with the Yankees to become their new manager.4 “The Peerless Leader” signed a three-year deal on January 8, 1913.5

Soon thereafter, Ebbets canceled the Newark game and one against Yale University slated for April 7. Instead, he booked two games against the Yankees, knowing their debut in the city under Chance, then one of the sport’s biggest names, would be a big attraction.6

Tickets went on sale on March 3, as manager Bill Dahlen‘s Superbas (the team’s dominant name in 1913) made their way to training camp in Augusta, Georgia.7 Advance sales were indeed brisk. By mid-March, Ebbets’ worries about the stadium’s readiness had eased enough to enable a much-needed vacation to New Orleans. Steve McKeever oversaw a field inspection on March 17.8 A crowd estimated at no less than 20,000 turned out just for that event, and before the end of March, all the reserved seats and boxes for the first Yankees game had been sold.9 Ebbets announced that to provide unobstructed views, no emergency portable seats would be put on the ground.10

Ebbets had good box office instincts. “The amount of interest in Frank Chance and his team must have surprised even [Yankees] President Frank Farrell and Chance himself … a tremendous outpouring of rabid Manhattan cranks … began wildly dashing for tickets a couple of days before the game and could not get enough to satisfy them.”11

The morning of April 5 was gloomy – but gave way to “rattling fine baseball weather.” Even before noon, fans were already en route to the game. Some 50 city policemen – on foot, horseback, and bicycle – were controlling the crowd, but a 100-strong reinforcement was summoned.12 The stadium’s focal point, its marble rotunda, was occupied by numerous floral arrangements which got in the crowd’s way.13

By 2:00, all 25,000 seats were filled. Ebbets halted ticket sales – two scalpers were arrested – and a reported 10,000 more people were turned away. Thousands took up viewpoints on hills overlooking the stadium; one entrepreneur had put up a temporary grandstand on “McKeever’s Bluff” and collected 50 cents a head.14 Ebbets intimated that he would soon block those vistas.15

Shannon’s 23rd Regiment Band entertained the crowd. Ebbets’ youngest daughter, Genevieve, threw out the first ball. Ed McKeever’s wife, Jennie, had the honor of raising the American flag in center field, accompanied by her husband and Ebbets. However, a groundskeeper had to fetch Old Glory from the office first.16

Finally, at around 3:30, it was time to play ball. The Superbas’ starting pitcher – their ace, Nap Rucker – faced Bert Daniels.

The Yankees lineup provided a notable subplot. In Chicago, Chance had developed one of the finest team defenses ever with himself at first base.17 He was in decline as a player, though, and had appeared just twice in 1912. Also, the Yankees’ starting first baseman for the past eight seasons, Hal Chase, was another marquee name then. Chase’s brilliant fielding at first base is still the best ever in the view of many, such as baseball historian Bill James.18 Chance declared, shortly after the report that he’d come to New York, that he was through as a first baseman and that he’d manage from the bench, not the field. Yet apparently fans were already speculating that Chase would shift to second base, even though he threw left-handed.19 Indeed, Chase had played there in the past, including brief stints in 1911 and 1912.

But Chance soon changed his mind, stating that he expected to play, alternating with Chase.20 In February, he reiterated that he’d take the field again.21 Thus, Chase worked out at second during spring training in Bermuda, although an ankle injury hampered him. Chance considered holding Chase out of the game at Ebbets Field to avoid aggravating the injury.22

Chance too was ailing, with a bad back.23 Yet on April 5, both Chase (batting fifth and playing second) and the skipper (batting sixth and manning first) were in the lineup. As it developed, Chase wasn’t tested in the field, handling just one chance, a pop-up.24 However, Chance removed “Prince Hal” for a pinch-runner at a key ninth-inning juncture.

Brooklyn won that afternoon, 3-2. Rucker threw five scoreless innings, benefiting from first baseman Jake Daubert‘s leaping grab of a fifth-inning liner by catcher Ed Sweeney that looked like a potential triple. For the Yankees, Ray Caldwell went six, allowing two runs.

In the bottom of the fifth, Brooklyn scored the game’s first run on Casey Stengel‘s inside-the-park homer. Yankees center fielder Harry Wolter accidentally kicked the ball further toward the wall, allowing Stengel to come all the way around.25 Wolter was not charged with an error, though, and Stengel got credit for a four-bagger.

In the sixth inning, the Superbas made it 2-0 on another inside-the-park homer to deep center field. Contrary to Ebbets Field’s reputation as a “bandbox” for much of its existence, when it opened, the distance to straightaway center was an enormous 507 feet.26

The batter, Daubert, described his battle with Caldwell. “I watched Caldwell’s style, and when I went to bat the first time, I held the stick way out on the end for a free swing against his low speedy shoot. But Ray is a student of the game as well as myself, and he put it high and inside. I could not have hit it with a board. The next time up I ‘choked’ the bat for a close one, and he crossed me again with his low, fast ones on the outside. The third time up was when [cleanup hitter Zack] Wheat and I tried the hit and run. I again figured he would put it over on the inside, and choked my bat, but he pitched out, and Sweeney caught Wheat trying for second. That got my goat and I changed my tactics. I choked the bat again as if I were expecting that insider, but when Caldwell started his windup, I let the bat slip and guessed him exactly right, for the ball was low and on the outside, just the right place to be caught flush on the nose for the wallop that got me a home run.”27

The Yankees tied it in the ninth against Frank Allen, who’d replaced Rucker. Chase led off with a walk and Chance followed with a single. On Sweeney’s sacrifice, Allen threw wildly. Ezra Midkiff, running for Chase, and Chance both scored.

Yet the Superbas fans went home happy that afternoon. Leading off was Wheat, whose supposed Native American descent was a feature of game stories.28 He swung for the fences but topped a little grounder toward third. The unintended “swinging bunt” became a scratch single.29 Sweeney’s wild throw sent Wheat to second, though no error was charged. After Daubert sacrificed, Carlisle “Red” Smith‘s sharp single brought in the winning run. Ray Fisher took the loss.

As the fans filed out, there was commotion – few if any knew how to exit. The aisles were jammed; private security and firemen had to direct the throngs.30 Crowd control was a serious issue in Ebbets Field’s early days.31

POSTSCRIPT #1
Superbas-Yankees rematch on April 7

A cold front held attendance down to just 1,000 or so. Though New York won, 8-4, the cold likely contributed to both Yankees starter Jack Warhop‘s sore arm and Frank Chance’s leg injury while running the bases. Chance was out until April 22; he played just 12 games all season. Hal Chase got many fielding opportunities at second and looked good.32 Yet after five regular-season games, the experiment with Chase at the keystone was over – and Chance traded the divisive star on June 1.

The frigid Monday also caused fatal illness for Gerhard Tidden, baseball editor of the New York World. Tidden (a.k.a. “George” or “Roger”) wasn’t in good health but insisted on covering the game.33 It prefigured the death from pneumonia of Ed McKeever, contracted at Charles Ebbets’ funeral in April 1925.34

POSTSCRIPT #2
Annual tradition

This started a long-running series of Yankees preseason visits to Ebbets Field, continuing in 1914 and carrying through 1957, the Dodgers’ last year in Brooklyn.35

SOURCES

For the box score of the game, see “Ebbets Field Is Formally Dedicated with a Pleasing Victory,” Sporting Life, April 12, 1913: 5.

Many aspects of this game – especially the new stadium’s description, the crowds, and the preliminary festivities – are covered at greater length in previous book-length histories of Ebbets Field:

Joseph McCauley, Ebbets Field: Brooklyn’s Baseball Shrine (Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2004)

Bob McGee, The Greatest Ballpark Ever (Piscataway, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2005).

John G. Zinn and Paul G. Zinn, editors, Ebbets Field: Essays and Memories of Brooklyn’s Historic Ballpark, 1913-1960 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2013)

NOTES

1 “Brooklyn Club’s New Park,” New York Times, September 21, 1912: 9.

2 Thomas S. Rice, “Ebbets and McKeever Get Newark Club Stock,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 21, 1912: 18.

3 “Building of Ebbets Field,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 29, 1912: 53.

4 “Yankees Get Chance, [Joe] Tinker to Lead Reds,” New York Times, December 12, 1912: 14.

5 “Frank Chance Manager of New York Yankees,” St. Petersburg (Florida) Independent, January 9, 1913: 6.

6 “Giants to Play 25 Games in South,” New York Times, January 15, 1913: 14. Yale game was mentioned in “Dodges Predictions,” New York Times, January 1, 1913: 19.

7 Abe Yager, “Brooklyn Bits,” Sporting Life, March 8, 1913: 7. The “Dodgers” label jockeyed with “Superbas” in the press (along with a tertiary label, “Infants”). When Wilbert Robinson became manager in 1914, “Robins” came to the fore, but it was not unanimous – both Dodgers and Superbas were still visible in press coverage. Only in 1932 did the team become known for good as the Dodgers.

8 Abe Yager, “Brooklyn Budget,” Sporting Life, March 22, 1913: 8.

9 Abe Yager, “Brooklyn Bits,” Sporting Life, March 29, 1913: 6.

10 “No Seats on Ebbets Opening,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 13, 1813: 22.

11 “Brooklyns Show Great Finishing Powers By Beating Yankees in the Ninth,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 6, 1913: 58.

12 Superbas Win, 3-2, in Opening Game at Ebbets Field,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 6, 1913: 1, 5.

13 “Entire World Centers on Brooklyn Tomorrow,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 8, 1913: 20.

14 “Superbas Win, 3-2, in Opening Game at Ebbets Field.”

15 Abe Yager, “Beatific Brooklyn,” Sporting Life, April 12, 1913: 5.

16 “Superbas Win, 3-2, in Opening Game at Ebbets Field.”

17 Chris Jaffe, Evaluating Baseball’s Managers, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company (2010): 83.

18 Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Abstract, New York: Free Press (2001): 467.

19 “To Manage from Bench,” Louisville Courier-Journal, December 12, 1912: 9.

20 “Chance to Play First Base,” New York Times, January 15, 1913: 14.

21 “Frank Chance Here; To Play First Base,” New York Times, February 11, 1913: 14.

22 Harry Dix Cole, “New York News,” Sporting Life, April 5, 1913: 6.

23 Harry Dix Cole, “New York News,” Sporting Life, March 29, 1913: 5.

24 Harry Dix Cole, “New York News,” Sporting Life, April 12, 1913: 6.

25 “Superbas Win, 3-2, in Opening Game at Ebbets Field.”

26 Ronald M. Selter, “Ebbets Field by the Numbers,” Ebbets Field: Essays and Memories of Brooklyn’s Historic Ballpark: 127.

27 Thomas S. Rice, “Daubert Would Give $500 To See Brooklyn Do Well,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 7, 1013: 20.

28 See Rory Costello, “Zack Wheat: Native American?” SABR BioProject (https://SABR.org/bioproj/topic/zack-wheat-native-american/).

29 “Brooklyns Show Great Finishing Powers By Beating Yankees in the Ninth.”

30 “Superbas Win, 3-2, in Opening Game at Ebbets Field.”

31 “Fans, in Near Riot, Mob Ebbets Field,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 27, 1913: 1.

32 “Yankees Win Costly Game in Brooklyn – Manager Chance, Warhop, and Derrick Injured Playing in Cold Atmosphere,” New York Times, April 8, 1913: 11.

33 “George Tidden Dead after Long Illness,” Pittsburgh Press, July 3, 1913. In a 1937 retrospective, Thomas Rice of the Brooklyn Eagle wrote that Saturday, April 5, was the cold day – contradicting the stories that were written at the time.

34 “Dodgers Owners: The Timeline,” Los Angeles Times, October 11, 2003.

35 Research on newspapers.com shows such games taking place during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s as well, though whether the sequence of years was unbroken remains open to question.

The iconic main entry of Ebbets Field was located at the intersection of Sullivan Place and Cedar Street (later renamed McKeever Place). (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)

Brooklyn got a day’s head start on the rest of the majors in the 1913 season. Opening Day for the other 14 big-league teams came on April 10 that year, but the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper campaigned successfully for the spotlight to shine on the borough’s brand-new ballpark: Ebbets Field. As Eagle sportswriter Thomas S. Rice later recalled, “The opening was a civic as well as a sporting event and we of the Eagle wanted all the baseball owners, managers, players, past stars, public officials and as many other persons of note as could be rounded up to be there with no responsibility for attending openers elsewhere.”1

As that story was developing, Rice also covered it for The Sporting News. The early-opening plan originated with his boss, Eagle sporting editor Abe Yager. Yager had originally hoped for Brooklyn to play against the archrival New York Giants, but he withdrew that idea because it would have taken the shine off the Giants’ opener at the Polo Grounds on April 10. He then proposed that Brooklyn play the Philadelphia Phillies in a home-and-home series.2

For unclear reasons, National League President Thomas Lynch scoffed at the idea. However, Giants President Harry Hempstead was “for it with both feet.”3 Soon thereafter, Jim Gaffney – owner of the Boston Braves, who were to play the Giants – announced that he was on board, as did Barney Dreyfuss of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Charles Murphy of the Chicago Cubs.4 When the National League held its meeting in February, the change passed unanimously, despite Lynch’s ongoing effort to block it.5

As the new season got under way, a sign of the times was visible at Ebbets Field. The Sporting News wrote, “[A]utomobilists are to get more attention. At the new park that Charles H. Ebbets has built in Brooklyn a system of numbered checks is to be used similar to that operated by theaters. Fans attending in automobiles are to be assigned a waiting room, from where their cars will be called after the game.”6 This was a striking development in the borough whose trolleys gave the team its enduring name, the Dodgers.

It’s worth noting that there was no consistent naming convention at that time. The “Dodgers” label jockeyed with “Superbas” in the press (along with a tertiary label, “Infants”). When Wilbert Robinson became manager in 1914, “Robins” came to the fore, but it was not unanimous – both Dodgers and Superbas were still visible in press coverage. Only in 1932 did the team become known for good as the Dodgers. For the purposes of this article, Superbas (the dominant name in 1913) is in effect.

Actually, the first games between big-league teams at the new ballpark were a pair of exhibition matches against the New York Yankees on April 5 and 7. The weather had been springlike on Saturday the 5th, but on Monday the temperature turned wintry.7 On Wednesday, Opening Day, it was still cold, with a raw wind.8 “Polar blasts whistled through the huge new stands at Ebbets Field and chilled the enthusiasm of the comparatively small crowd.”9 Perhaps also because it was a weekday, only 12,000 or so were in attendance against the Phillies, whereas the first Yankees game drew an overflow crowd. It’s not known how many of the luminaries the Eagle had hoped to attract turned up.

Sporting Life made a sly allusion: “But for the generosity of C. Hospitable Ebbets in furnishing the fluid that warms and cheers, the boys in the press box, both local and visiting, would have been frostbitten.” Yet despite the conditions, both teams paraded across the field, headed by a band. Brooklyn Borough President Alfred E. Steers threw out the first ball.10 There were also testimonials to Brooklyn’s manager, Bill Dahlen, and first baseman Jake Daubert. Both were presented with floral horseshoes, and Daubert also received a gilded bat.11

The game started at 1:30. Nap Rucker, who’d also started the first exhibition game against the Yankees, threw the first pitch. Just 93 minutes later, it was over.12 The only run was scored in the top of the first, and it was unearned. The Phillies might have had more, because leadoff man Dode Paskert singled but was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a double.13 Otto Knabe then doubled. Hans Lobert came to the plate, and rookie right fielder Benny Meyer lost his foul fly in the sun. Center fielder Casey Stengel overcame that misplay by making a sensational catch of Lobert’s long drive, but Meyer promptly made his second error of the inning, dropping Sherry Magee‘s fly and allowing Knabe to score.14 Philadelphia might have scored again when Cozy Dolan singled, but Stengel threw out Magee at the plate.15

The sun in right field was indeed strong. Magee, Meyer’s opposite number in right field, made sure that he was wearing smoked glasses. Thus equipped, he handled his two chances cleanly. Meyer had a special pair of glasses made, which reportedly had a prescription in addition to being tinted.16

Phillies pitcher Tom Seaton got the first of his 27 victories that season, which led the National League. He went all the way and gave up just six hits, all singles. He walked only one while striking out six. The only Superba to get more than one hit was catcher Otto Miller. Seaton was helped by the glove work of shortstop Mickey Doolin, who made a number of good plays on hard-hit balls. The most notable came in the fifth inning, when he grabbed a drive by Brooklyn’s cleanup hitter, Zack Wheat. Daubert followed with a single, and according to Sporting Life, a run would have scored. Doolin also turned back a Brooklyn threat in the eighth when he fielded a hard smash by Leo Callahan, pinch-hitting for Rucker. There were two Superbas on base, and the tying run would apparently have scored.17 By another account of the game, Callahan hit into a force play and Doolin’s stop denied Stengel a hit.18

Phillies catcher Red Dooin also stood out on defense. He threw out three Dodgers attempting to steal second.19

Rucker worked eight innings for Brooklyn, allowing eight hits and also walking just one. As Sporting Life’s account put it, “No one can say that Seaton outpitched Rucker. Nap was hit oftener, but he was there with the tightening-up stuff when danger threatened.”20 Pat Ragan came on in the ninth.

“I remember the game well,” said Otto Miller nearly 47 years later.21 That quote came in much more somber circumstances. On February 23, 1960, Miller joined Roy Campanella, Carl Erskine, Ralph Branca, Tommy Holmes, and 200 fans to bid their old home adieu as the demolition of Ebbets Field started. Lee Allen, historian of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, was also on hand. Allen was presented the key, mounted on red velvet, that Charles Ebbets had used to open the doors to his ballpark on April 9, 1913. Walter O’Malley used the same key to close the doors after the Dodgers’ finale on September 24, 1957.22

Miller, who by then was aged 70, was a Brooklyn resident – his home was less than two miles from Ebbets Field.23 He’d played his entire 13-year big-league career with the same team and added 11 more seasons as a coach for the Robins and Dodgers. The old catcher had tears in his eyes that day when he said to a companion, “A lot of guys are afraid to cry. Not me. I’m not ashamed.”24

NOTES

1 Thomas S. Rice, “Rice Recalls Special Opening of Ebbets Field April 9, 1913,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 25, 1937.

2 Thomas S. Rice, “Blunder by Lynch,” The Sporting News, January 9, 1913: 1.

3 Rice, “Blunder by Lynch.”

4 Thomas S. Rice, “Votes for Ebbets,” The Sporting News, January 16, 1913: 3.

5 “Many Moguls but Few Items in Gotham Baseball Meets,” The Sporting News, February 20, 1913: 2.

6 “Holding the Automobile Fans,” The Sporting News, April 10, 1913: 4.

7 In his 1937 retrospective, Thomas Rice conflated the two games into one and wrote that Saturday, April 5, was the cold day – contradicting the stories that were written at the time.

8 “The Special Opening,” Sporting Life, April 19, 1913: 8.

9 Thomas S. Rice, “In the Band Wagon,” The Sporting News, April 17, 1913: 2.

10 “The Special Opening.”

11 “Brooklyn Budget,” Sporting Life, April 19, 1913: 7.

12 “The Special Opening.”

13 “Brooklyn Budget.”

14 “The Special Opening.”

15 “Recruit Loses First Game for Brooklyn,” Richmond (Indiana) Item, April 10, 1913.

16 “Brooklyn Budget.”

17 “Brooklyn Budget.”

18 “Phillies Win Opening Game,” Montreal Gazette, April 10, 1913.

19 “Brooklyn Budget”; Seamus Kearney and Dick Rosen, The Philadelphia Phillies (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Press, 2011).

20 “Brooklyn Budget.”

21 “Ebbets Field Has Quiet, Dignified Wake,” St. Cloud (Minnesota) Times, February 24, 1960.

22 Dana Mozley, “Wreck-Ball Caps Ebbets Rites,” New York Daily News, February 24, 1960.

23 “The Dodgers’ Otto Miller Dies in Fall,” New York Daily News, March 30, 1962.

24 “Miller Cried When Wreckers Took Over Old Ebbets Field,” The Sporting News, April 11, 1962: 52.

Proximate geographies, shared histories, and personal relations drive great sporting rivalries. The race for the 1916 National League crown had all three of these essential elements. The neighboring boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan make up part of New York City. Wilbert Robinson and John McGraw spent years together on the Baltimore Orioles and New York Giants. And Brooklyn spent more than a decade chasing New York in the race for senior circuit supremacy.

The Giants had a made a record-breaking charge with a 26-game winning streak to draw close to the Robins in the 1916 campaign, but with just three days to go in the season, New York had been eliminated, while Brooklyn needed just one win and two losses by Philadelphia, which had won the pennant in 1915, to clinch its first postseason berth since 1890.

Lefty Sherry Smith started for the Robins and was hit hard at the start. Speedy George Burns had a leadoff squib to Smith and reached second when the hurler threw the ball wildly to first. Buck Herzog bunted to Smith, who mishandled the ball. Smith had two errors all season before the start of this game and doubled that total after just two batters. “The Brooklyn pitcher seemed to be doing all he could to keep the pennant away from Flatbush,” commented the New York Times.1

With runners on the corners, Dave Robertson singled in Burns to put New York up 1-0. Herzog advanced to third, and Robertson went to second on the throw from Zack Wheat in left. Heinie Zimmerman hit the third ball of the inning to Smith, and more madness ensued. On Smith’s toss to Jake Daubert at first to retire Zimmerman, Herzog sought to score only to retreat “to third, where he found Robertson. The latter started … to second, and Herzog [left] third to distract attention from Robertson. This proceeding did not put the Superbas in a very favorable light, but … Herzog was finally trapped between third and home and was out, Robertson taking third.”2

The DP went 1-3-6-8-2; the fact that Brooklyn center fielder Hi Myers earned an assist gives a good idea of the epic nature of this odd rundown, which seemed to unnerve Smith rather than the Giants as Art Fletcher hit just his third home run of the year to put New York up 3-0.

Southpaw Rube Benton, on a five-game winning streak, started for New York. He shut down the Robins in the first but gave up a run in the second on Mike Mowrey‘s double and Ivy Olson‘s single. Smith immediately gave the run back in the top of the third. With one out, Herzog singled, went to third on Robertson’s single, and scored on the play thanks to a throwing error by Myers.

Brooklyn rallied with four in the bottom of third to take its first lead. Jimmy Johnston had an infield single and went to second on Daubert’s single. After a force out at second left Myers at first, Johnston scored when Wheat had an RBI single to Benton. George Cutshaw drove in Myers with a single to cut the New York lead to 4-3. The hit knocked Benton out in favor of righty Pol Perritt, who had won his last four decisions. Perritt brought no relief for the Giants as Mowrey singled Wheat home to tie the game. Olson hit a chopper to third; Zimmerman threw him out, but Cutshaw scored to put the Robins up 5-4.

Jeff Pfeffer took over for Smith to start the fourth. Usually a starter, Pfeffer had not pitched more than three innings in relief for Brooklyn in 1916, but special players do special things in special games like a potential pennant-clincher. Pfeffer held New York in the fourth, but the Giants tied the game in the fifth. Bad baserunning prevented a bigger inning for New York. Perritt and Burns both singled, but Pol committed a cardinal sin by making the first out at third base on a throw from Johnston in right. Burns took second on the throw. After Pfeffer struck out Herzog, Robertson had his third hit of the day to plate Burns and even the score, 5-5. The Giants ran into another out when Robertson was caught stealing.

The opportunistic Robins regained the lead for good in the bottom of the frame. With two outs, Perritt plunked Mowrey and then threw a wild pitch that chased him all the way to third. Olson’s clutch single gave Brooklyn a 6-5 edge.

In 1916 Pfeffer represented something of a two-way threat as he excelled at pitching and batted .279. He singled in the fourth but did not score. In the sixth, he doubled. Robinson played the percentages and batted for Johnston with left-handed-hitting Casey Stengel, who like Robinson and McGraw would play a key role in the storied history of Gotham big-league ball. Stengel doubled to right; Pfeffer, unsure of whether Robertson would catch the blow, initially held up at second and only got to the third on the two-bagger. On this play, Pfeffer overestimated Robertson’s range; on the next, Pfeffer underestimated Robertson’s arm. Daubert flied to right, and Robertson threw out Pfeffer at the plate to complete a twin killing. Stengel advanced to third on the play and scored on a single by Myers to put the Robins up 7-5.

Brooklyn never sleeps. Cutshaw led off the seventh with a single and stole second with Perritt pitching from a full windup.3 Mowrey knocked him in and Perritt out of the game with a single that put Brooklyn up 8-5. George Smith came on to pitch for New York.

The Robins added a final run in the eighth. Stengel walked, advanced to third on Smith’s pickoff error, and scored on Daubert’s squeeze bunt. The Giants got a meaningless run in the ninth to make the score 9-6. With two outs, Burns flied to Wheat. After making the catch, Wheat “tossed the ball among his friends in the bleachers and took it on the run for the clubhouse. He had to hustle to keep ahead of a thousand or more fans, whose ambition it was to carry him across the field.”4

Soon after this game ended, Boston completed a doubleheader sweep of Philadelphia to bring a joyous Brooklyn to rhythmic heights: “The town is madly happy from the bridge to Coney Island,” the Brooklyn Eagle exulted. “Aged folks are feeling snappy; young ones greet you with a smile. Brooklyn maids are gaily beaming as they raise a Dodger cheer. Brooklyn youths are wildly screaming loud enough to bust your ear.”5

Did New York players lay down for their beloved Uncle Robbie, who had coached many of them under McGraw’s tutelage? McGraw certainly thought so and ditched his team temporarily in the fourth inning and then for good in the fifth. McGraw later griped that his team’s “baseball disgusted me, and I left the bench. I do not like indifferent playing of this kind after the hard work we have had this season. I refused to be connected with it.”6

Unsurprisingly, Robinson saw the situation differently: “It’s ridiculous even to suggest that the Giants were not trying to beat us this afternoon. It looked to me like they were trying pretty hard when they scored three runs in the first inning. At that time I felt like quitting the bench myself.”7

Regardless of the motivations behind the men who played this game, Brooklyn had cause to celebrate a quartet of surprising heroes. Cutshaw, Mowrey, and Olson hit fifth, sixth, and seventh for a reason – they all played key infield positions but had below-average batting records. On this day, the unheralded trio went 7-for-11 with four runs scored and six RBIs. The best player on the Robins all season, Pfeffer, probably expected to watch as he had just two days of rest after a 10-inning performance against Philadelphia. But Pfeffer, although on the bench at the start of the game, not only pitched, but twirled six sterling relief innings to win his 25th of the year and to put Brooklyn into the World Series thanks to a controversial win over its crosstown rivals.

NOTES

1 “Superbas Capture National Pennant,” New York Times, October 4, 1916: 12.

2 Thomas S. Rice, “Pennant at Last, After Sixteen Long Years!” Brooklyn Eagle, October 4, 1916: 21. Play-by-play accounts of this game come from this article except where otherwise noted.

3 “McGraw Casts Unwarranted Slur Upon His Ball Team,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 4, 1916: 21.

4 “Victorious Superbas Celebrate Victory,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 4, 1916: 22.

5 W.R. Hoefer, “The Man of the Hour,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 4, 1916: 21.

6 “McGraw, ‘Disgusted,’ Says Team Disobeyed His Orders – Leaves Field in Fifth Inning,” New York Times, October 4, 1916: 12.

7 “Ridiculous! Says Robinson,” Boston Globe, October 4, 1916: 1.

Hall of Famer Zack Wheat played for Brooklyn for 18 years (1909-1926) and more than a century later still held Dodgers career records for most hits (2,804), total bases (4,003), doubles (464), and triples (171). (Photo: Library of Congress)

After one-run wins against the Brooklyn Robins in Games One and Two of the 1916 World Series, the Boston Red Sox held a 2-0 lead going into Game Three at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. Playing at Braves Field in Boston, whose capacity was almost twice that of Fenway Park, the Red Sox had hung on for a 6-5 win in Game One in front of 36,117 fans.1 Boston took a 6-1 lead into the ninth thanks to five extra-base hits and four Brooklyn errors, but the Robins finally solved Boston starter Ernie Shore in the top of the ninth and scored four runs before Carl Mays got the final out to preserve the win.2

Game Two featured an epic pitchers’ duel between Red Sox southpaw Babe Ruth and Robins lefty Sherry Smith, both of whom threw more than 13 innings in a 2-1 Boston win. The crowd of 47,373 watched Ruth allow a run in the first inning when center fielder Hi Myers circled the bases for an inside-the-park home run and Brooklyn was up 1-0 after only three batters. That was all the Robins would muster off Ruth, who allowed only five more hits over his final 13⅓ innings before the Red Sox plated the winning run in the bottom of the 14th for a hard-fought 2-1 victory.3

Brooklyn’s Game Three hopes rested on the shoulders of Colby Jack Coombs, former Philadelphia Athletics star hurler who went 59-21 with a 2.39 ERA for the A’s in 1910-1911, and then went 4-0 with a 2.49 ERA in five fall classic starts to help Philadelphia cop back-to-back championships.4 He won another 21 games in 1912, but almost died of typhoid fever in 1913 and had to miss almost all of the 1914 season while he recovered. Philadelphia released Coombs in 1915 and he signed with Brooklyn, for whom he came back with a 15-10 season followed by a 13-8 mark in 1916 with a 2.66 ERA in 159 innings.

Red Sox manager Bill Carrigan countered in Game Three with right-handed submariner Carl Mays, who had gone 18-13 with a 2.39 ERA in 44 games. Mays faced two batters in the top of the ninth in Game One and earned a save, but Game Three would mark his first postseason start.5 According to the Boston Post, Mays was “the very man whom the experts selected as the most baffling problem that the Brooklyn batters would be called upon to solve.”6 Some felt lefty Dutch Leonard should have gotten the start, but Carrigan preferred to save his second-best hurler from pitching in a “cold raw atmosphere” with a “chilling wind.”7

Harry Hooper almost homered to lead off the game, but a stiff wind blew his drive to right field foul just before it cleared the wall, and he flied out to left on the next pitch. After Hal Janvrin grounded out, Chick Shorten singled to center and Dick Hoblitzell singled to right, but right fielder Casey Stengel threw Shorten out at third to end the inning.

Mays hit Myers to begin the bottom of the first, Jake Daubert laid down a bunt that Mays misplayed into a hit, Stengel sacrificed the runners to second and third, and Mays intentionally walked Zack Wheat to load the bases. George Cutshaw grounded to first and Hoblitzell fired to catcher Pinch Thomas to force Myers at home, and then Mays struck out Mike Mowrey to end the threat. In the Red Sox second, Coombs set down Duffy Lewis, Larry Gardner, and Everett Scott, the latter driving a ball that Wheat hauled in after a long run; Mays had an equally easy inning, getting Ivy Olson to ground to Scott, fanning Otto Miller on three pitches, and coaxing another grounder to Scott by Coombs.

Coombs allowed a two-out single to Hooper in the top of the third, but Miller threw Hooper out trying to steal second. Brooklyn took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the frame when Daubert singled to right, Stengel poled a hit to left, and Cutshaw’s single to right plated Daubert. The Red Sox continued to be aggressive in the fourth. Shorten followed Janvrin’s fly to Stengel with a hit to left and tried to steal second, but Miller gunned him down and Coombs got Hoblitzell on a fly to Myers to end the inning.

The Robins doubled their lead in the bottom of the fourth and went up 2-0. Olson dropped a bunt toward third to lead off the inning. Gardner fielded the ball cleanly, but threw wildly to first and Olson advanced to second on the error. Miller sacrificed Olson to third and Coombs helped himself out with a run-scoring hit to right. Myers bunted Coombs to second before Daubert grounded out to Scott to send the game to the fifth.

Coombs continued his mastery over Red Sox batters in the fifth and set down Lewis on a liner to left, Gardner on a popup to third, and Scott on a grounder to the mound. The Robins added two more runs in the bottom of the frame on free passes to Wheat and Mowrey, the latter of which had Carrigan argue with umpire Hank O’Day to no avail, and a long two-run triple by Olson that just missed going out of the park. Mays retired Miller on a grounder to Scott, but that marked the end of his day. “The story of Mays’ transgressions is a rather gloomy one to Boston fans,” wrote the Boston Post’s Paul Shannon. “In contrast with yesterday’s game this contest was a big disappointment.”8

Boston finally broke through with two runs in the top of the sixth to cut Brooklyn’s lead in half. Hitting for Mays, Olaf Henriksen drew a one-out walk. Hooper followed with a tremendous drive to right-center field that went for a triple and Shorten singled Hooper home with the second run to make the score 4-2. Carrigan turned to 14-game winner Rube Foster to start the sixth and the right-hander found himself amid controversy almost immediately. He retired Coombs and Myers on a lineout and pop fly, respectively, but Daubert lashed a drive down the left-field line that rolled to the fence 400 feet from home plate.

He rounded the bases and headed for home. Lewis recovered the ball and fired to Scott, who threw to Thomas just in time for Thomas to apply the tag, but O’Day called Daubert safe. Thomas immediately called attention to his blocking of the plate and Daubert’s positioning that showed he could not have touched the plate, and O’Day reversed course and called Daubert out. The crowd erupted in boos as the Robins surrounded O’Day in protest, but the arbiter held his ground and the score remained 4-2.

That lost run loomed large when Gardner belted a Coombs offering over the right-field wall with one out in the seventh to bring Boston to within one at 4-3. Coombs signaled to manager Wilbert Robinson that he was through for the day and Brooklyn’s skipper called on ace hurler Jeff Pfeffer, who had won 25 games and pitched to a 1.92 ERA during the regular season, and pitched one inning of relief in Game One.

Pfeffer was brilliant and retired all eight batters he faced, striking out three to earn a save in Brooklyn’s 4-3 win. Foster wasn’t as dominant but equally effective with three innings of scoreless work, albeit in a loss that pulled the Robins to within one game of tying the series at two games apiece.

“The bright colors of the Boston Red Sox champions were lowered by National League men from Brooklyn this afternoon,” waxed T.H. Murnane after the game, “and the fans of Ebbetsville are a happy lot tonight, for they hardly hoped to see their team win even one game from the skillful men from Boston.”9

SOURCES

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

NOTES

1 Braves Field had a listed capacity of 45,000 while Fenway Park’s was 24,000.

2 Shore might have gotten out of the ninth unscathed when he coaxed a one-out bases-loaded grounder out of Mike Mowrey that Red Sox second baseman Hal Janvrin turned into a two-run error instead of getting at least one out and possibly a double play.

3 Sherry Smith allowed the winning run with one out in the bottom of the 14th and finished the contest with 13⅓ innings pitched.

4 Coombs was excellent in Game Five of the 1911 World Series, allowing only one run through 8⅔ innings, and could have had his fifth career postseason win had he been able to retire either Josh Devore or Doc Crandall with Art Fletcher at third. But Devore doubled in Fletcher, who had doubled and moved to third on a groundout, and Crandall drove in Devore with a single to tie the game at 3-3 before catcher Chief Meyers threw out Devore trying to steal. The Giants completed their comeback in the bottom of the 10th inning with a walk-off sacrifice fly off Eddie Plank, who took the loss.

5 Mays went 6-5 with a 2.60 ERA in 38 games in his 1915 rookie campaign, and paced the American League with 27 games finished and 7 saves (retroactively calculated), but didn’t appear for Boston in the 1915 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

6 Paul H. Shannon, “Brooklyn Wins Third, Mays Easy for Robins,” Boston Post, October 11, 1916: 13.

7 Shannon, “Brooklyn Wins Third.”

8 Shannon, “Brooklyn Wins Third.”

9 T.H. Murnane, “Brooklyn Won Third Game, 4-3,” Boston Globe, October 11, 1916: 6.

With a Game Three win under their belts, the Brooklyn Robins were “bubbling over with enthusiasm” and insisted a second straight victory would give them so much “pep” going into Game Five that the Red Sox wouldn’t recognize them.1 Boston manager Bill Carrigan’s hunch to start left-hander Dutch Leonard under better conditions came to fruition when the weather turned warmer for Game Four. The slightly higher temperature brought more fans to Ebbets Field and higher tension when Boston’s Royal Rooters disrupted ticket lines and almost caused a riot.2

When they learned the Rooters had purchased tickets in advance and would be entering the park to parade across the field, some fans rushed the gate, and mounted police were called on to keep the peace.3

Carrigan and Brooklyn skipper Wilbert Robinson tried to outbluff each other by warming up multiple pitchers prior to the game. When Leonard was passed over for Carl Mays in Game Three, the Robins thought the Red Sox southpaw wasn’t “right” and might not appear in the series. Carrigan played that up by having Game One starter Ernie Shore warm up next to Leonard. Robinson took it a step further and had Larry Cheney, Jeff Pfeffer, and Rube Marquard get loose before the game.

When Marquard took the mound, he “received a mighty cheer that increased in volume as he disposed of three men in order. … ”4 Marquard fielded Harry Hooper’s grounder and threw him out at first, then struck out Hal Janvrin and Tillie Walker in the top of the first inning. Robins hitters jumped on Leonard immediately and scored two runs in the bottom of the first to go up 2-0. Leadoff man Jimmy Johnston hammered Leonard’s first pitch to the center field fence for a triple and Hi Myers singled to right to give Brooklyn a 1-0 lead.

Fred Merkle walked and Zack Wheat grounded to third for what should have been a double play had Janvrin not been slow getting to second base, resulting in a late throw to first that Wheat just beat.5 Boston forced Merkle at second, but Myers advanced to third, and Wheat went to second when Leonard threw a wild pitch with George Cutshaw at the plate. Cutshaw grounded to Janvrin, who made his second blunder of the inning when he failed to field the grounder and Myers scored on the error.

Wheat and Cutshaw attempted a double steal with Mike Mowrey at the plate, but the Red Sox got a break when Wheat started for home, then had second thoughts and retreated to third. Janvrin took Carrigan’s throw at second and fired to third to cut down Wheat for the second out of the inning. Leonard fanned Mowrey to end the frame. After an easy first, Marquard ran into trouble in the bottom of the second. He walked Dick Hoblitzell on six pitches to begin the inning, then fell behind Duffy Lewis before surrendering a double to the right-field fence that put Red Sox on second and third with Larry Gardner coming up.

Gardner worked the count to 3-and-2 and fouled a couple off before slamming a drive to center field, the longest hit in the series to that point, and raced around the bases for a three-run inside-the-park homer that gave Boston a 3-2 lead. According to Grantland Rice, Brooklyn’s chance to win the Series all but died when Gardner crossed the plate. “That one blow, delivered deep into the barren lands of center field,” Rice wrote, “broke Marquard’s heart, shattered Brooklyn’s wavering defense and practically closed out the series.”6

It also broke Robins fans’ confidence in Marquard and when Everett Scott lined to left and reached second when Wheat muffed his fly ball for a two-base error, calls for Marquard’s removal from the game grew louder. Carrigan sacrificed Scott to third, but Marquard fanned Leonard and got Hooper to ground to first to end the inning.

Leonard faced four batters in the bottom of the second and walked Chief Meyers, but he couldn’t get past second; Marquard allowed an infield single to Walker in the top of the third, but he was caught stealing with two outs and the game went to the bottom of third. Leonard continued his rebound from his poor first inning and set down Myers, Merkle, and Wheat on a fly out to center, a popup to short, and a fly out to left, respectively.

“The game had now settled down to real business,” wrote T.H. Murnane. “Leonard was on his feet, working with his magic spell curves, and the home team commenced to realize that the Fresno pet was all that he had been advertised.”7 In the top of the fourth, Boston began adding insurance runs. Lewis started the inning with a hard liner to left that “singed Mowrey’s hand” before landing safely for a hit, and went to second when Gardner sacrificed.8 Scott grounded to third and Lewis had to hold his ground, but Carrigan rapped a single that scored Lewis and gave the Red Sox a 4-2 lead.

Leonard walked, but ran Boston out of the inning when he tried to go to second on a pitch to Hooper that got away from Meyers, noticed that Carrigan was firmly planted on the base, tried to go back to first, then reversed course when Meyers fired the ball to Merkle at first. Carrigan had no choice but to try for third, but Leonard was an easy out when Merkle tossed to Cutshaw at second.

Brooklyn started the bottom of the fourth with a minor rally when Cutshaw led off with a double and Mowrey walked. Ivy Olson tried to move the runners up with a bunt, but popped out to Hoblitzell. Meyers battled through nine pitches, fouling off three straight, before popping up to Scott for the second out. Pfeffer, hitting for Marquard, took two balls before Leonard struck him out with his next three offerings, “the last of which broke two feet in front of the plate.”9

Rather than send Pfeffer to the mound in the fifth inning, Robinson called on spitballer Larry Cheney, an 18-game winner who led the National League in fewest hits and most strikeouts per nine innings and tied Pfeffer for sixth in ERA at 1.92.10 Cheney got off to a rough start and walked Hooper on five pitches. Janvrin attempted a bunt but fouled it off, took three balls, then swung at the next two and struck out. But Hooper stole second and the Red Sox had a runner in scoring position.

After Walker popped out to Olson, Hoblitzell hit a shot past Mowrey for a double and the Red Sox increased their lead to 5-2. Cheney struck out Lewis to end the inning but, essentially, the game was over. Brooklyn made one last attempt to plate another run when Merkle and Wheat poled singles with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, but Cutshaw flied to left to end the threat. That was Brooklyn’s last hit.

The Red Sox tacked on another run in the seventh when Janvrin came around to score on a wild play that included a hit by Hoblitzell and a throwing error by Cheney. Hooper led off with a single but Janvrin forced him at second when he grounded to third on an attempted bunt. Janvrin went to second when Olson robbed Walker of a hit and threw him out. Hoblitzell topped a grounder to Cheney’s right and, though he had no chance to throw out Hoblitzell, the desperate hurler threw to Merkle anyway, but the ball hit the runner in the back and rolled far enough away for Janvrin to score.11

Nap Rucker replaced Cheney in the top of the eighth and threw two scoreless innings, allowing only a single to Hooper in the ninth. From the fifth inning on, Leonard set down 11 straight Brooklyn batters before walking Olson with one out in the ninth inning, then retired Meyers and pinch-hitter Gus Getz to close out Boston’s 6-2 win.

SOURCES

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

Photo credit: Larry Gardner, Boston Public Library.

NOTES

1 “Can Dodgers Tie Up Series? Fans Flock Again to Game,” Brooklyn Standard Union, October 11, 1916: 1.

2 “Can Dodgers Tie Up Series?”

3 “Can Dodgers Tie Up Series?”

4 T.H. Murnane, “Larry Gardner’s Mighty Circuit Drive Puts Robins All but Out of the Running,” Boston Globe, October 12, 1916: 1, 6.

5 Murnane.

6 Grantland Rice, “Only Question Now Is When,” Boston Globe, October 12, 1916: 6.

7 Murnane.

8 “Detailed Account of Game by Innings,” New York Times, October 12, 1916: 12.

9 “Detailed Account.”

10 There was method to Robinson’s madness when he sent Pfeffer to hit for Marquard but didn’t have him pitch. Pfeffer was Brooklyn’s best hitter off the bench and Robinson was saving his ace to start Game Five.

11 “Detailed Account.”

On a sultry Wednesday afternoon at Ebbets Field, the Robins and Pirates played for 4 hours and 15 minutes in the first game of a doubleheader.1 A “paltry 1,500 ‘bushers’ were on hand to appreciate” the longest game in the 41-year history of the National League.2 A Brooklyn newspaper account noted that “forty-seven safeties, one hundred fifty-nine ‘at bats,’ one hundred and thirty-one putouts, sixty-nine assists and thirty-eight left on bases were employed in the conduct of this diversion.”3

The 1916 National League champion Robins were managed by Wilbert Robinson.4 Expectations ran high, but disintegrated as the season progressed. On August 22 the Robins were 53-58, in sixth place, 18 games behind the first-place New York Giants. Rube Marquard was a valuable pitcher with a 12-8 record. Left fielder Jim Hickman was considered the faster runner in baseball, a former college sprinter who held “many minor records to his credit.”5 The starting pitcher was 25-year-old rookie curveballer Leon Cadore. Due to injuries, the team was short of infielders who were “as scarce as kind-hearted U-Boat captains.”6

The last-place Pirates were an abysmal 36-76, 35½ games behind the Giants. The team was on its third manager of the year, Hugo Bezdek.7 The football coach in Bedzek “instilled into the motley crew he has gathered … never-say-die-spirit.”8 Fresh from setting the Pirates record for ERA in 1916, southpaw control artist Wilbur Cooper took the mound.9 Unheralded rookie Jake Pitler manned second.10

Cooper had previously dominated the Robins, but seemed to feel the effect of his 14-inning “grind with the Quakers” in his last start.11 The Robins “found Cooper easy and the Pirates defense [sic] shaky” over the first three innings as they jumped to a 5-1 lead.12 In the first, the Robins scored on a single to center by Ivy Olson, a sacrifice by Jake Daubert, and Casey Stengel‘s RBI single into left.

Cooper’s struggles continued in the second. Hickman singled to center and advanced on Frank O’Rourke‘s sacrifice. Shortstop Chuck Ward booted Otto Miller‘s grounder. Cadore singled to center, scoring Hickman as Miller was thrown out at third by Max Carey. Cadore took second on the throw and scored on Olson’s double over third base.

The Pirates answered with a run in the third when Carson Bigbee singled to center and Cadore “winged Carey.”13 Bigbee went to third on Tony Boeckel‘s fly to Stengel in right and scored on Ward’s infield out. The Robins responded with two runs in the bottom of the third. Hi Myers reached base with a scratch hit. Stengel singled to center. They advanced by Jimmy Johnston’s sacrifice.14 Hickman’s “timely thump” drove the runners home to make it 5-1.15

In the sixth inning, curveballer Elmer Jacobs relieved Cooper, who in his five innings pitched gave up 11 hits and “five sounds.”16 Jacobs pitched 16⅔ innings, facing 66 batters and giving up 17 hits with three walks and one strikeout. A fluke play cost him the game.

Cadore appeared sharp, “settled beyond the slightest doubt.”17 But Bezdek’s Pirates fought back to tie the game as Cadore’s precision abandoned him. The Pirates scored four runs as the “Buccaneers pounced on the booty exposed by Cadore’s carelessness.”18 In the sixth with one out, Pitler and Bill Wagner singled to center and right respectively. After Cooper fouled out, Charlie Jackson walked to load the bases. Bigbee’s “slow grounder took a funny hop[,]” bouncing over Johnston’s head at second for a single.19 Pitler and Wagner scored on the play.

The Pirates added tying runs in the seventh. Boeckel started the rally with a Texas Leaguer over second base. He was forced at second by Ward. After Ray Miller struck out, Ward went to second on a muffed pickoff play. Pitler doubled, scoring Ward, and Wagner drove in Pitler with a single to left. The score was 5-5. For the next 13 innings, no one scored.

Relieving Cadore, spitballer Larry Cheney20 “joined the embroglio” in the eighth, pitching 13 innings with no runs on nine hits, one walk, and seven strikeouts.21 Each team was “kept from scoring by clever pitching and spectacular fielding of both nines.”22 In the 13th, with Bigbee on first, Honus Wagner made one of his last appearances, pinch-hitting for Boeckel. Cheney grabbed his bunt and tossed to Myers at second, forcing Bigbee.23 Hickman squandered an opportunity to end the game in the 14th. With the bases loaded and one out, he hit a soft grounder to pitcher Jacobs, who turned a 1-2-3 double play.

In the 17th Hickman beat out a hit to third and reached second on third baseman Boeckel’s errant toss to first. With one out, Hickman advanced on Miller’s groundout to short. With Cheney at the plate, Hickman attempted to steal home. Umpire Bill Klem ruled that Hickman had been tagged out on the foot by catcher Bill Wagner.24 Hickman “vociferously maintained” that he missed the bag and got up to touch the plate.25 The Robins dugout let Klem hear their disapproval. Klem called time, approached the Robins bench and “banished every soul except your Uncle Wilbert Robinson and the bat boy” to the “outer darkness under the stand.”26

In the 20th, Cheney singled through the box with one out.27 On Olson’s grounder to second baseman Ward, Cheney “had victory in mind and made a head-first slide for the bag” to break up the double play.28 While turning the double play, Ward collided with Cheney’s head as “he came plunging into second and stretched out cold. Larry was brought around, but was so badly shaken up that he had to retire.”29 Marquard came in relief and yielded “a hit and a pass in his two innings administration.”30

In the top of the 22nd, Marquard struck out Jacobs and Lee King. Bigbee singled but Carey fouled out to Miller to end the frame. When Jacobs came up, the sparse crowd “were quick to realize the exceptional merit of Jacobs’ slabwork. … [H]e received a tribute which he always will remember.”31

In the bottom of the inning with one out, Hickman received one of the three walks issued by Jacobs and went to second on O’Rourke’s single to left. Otto Miller hit a hard grounder to Adam DeBus at third who tossed to Pitler, forcing the sliding O’Rourke. Without hesitation, “at the crash of the blow, Hickman dug in his spikes into the ground and was at third before O’Rourke was expunged.”32 Hickman turned the corner around third, stopping “just a fraction of a second to look over his shoulder at the play at second base,” and kept going.33 Pitler “calmly held the ball in his hand.”34 Pitler saw Hickman rounding third, froze as he “evidently thought that Hickman would not attempt to make home and deliberated whether to throw to first.”35 The hesitation allowed Hickman to slide safely home, beating Pitler’s wild throw to catcher Walter Schmidt. The Robins’ win resulted from “five seconds of hesitancy by Pitler.”36 Pitler’s lapse “lost the battle, and Jacobs deserves reams of praise.”37 Hickman forced the issue by “the exceptional celerity with which he went from second to third.”38

As Hickman scored, “a tall, bronzed Bronzed Brooklynite who was warming up in right field, tossed his cap in the air and let his roar mingle with the exulting paeans of the fans.”39 Jack Coombs was relieved, as the game was “getting all too close for comfort to his own world’s long distance record game of twenty-four innings.”40

The team played “twenty-two innings of heartbreaking baseball” as the National League record “for long-distance games was shattered to smithereens.”41 Jacobs was tagged with his 16th loss against four wins. Marquard earned his 13th win of the season. The game broke the record of the July 17, 1914, Pirates-Giants 21-inning marathon.42

Umpire Klem ordered the second game to start to at 5:56 P.M. Twilight burgeoned as two scoreless innings were completed. Klem surveyed the skies and “stentatorianly announced that Flatbush had a surfeit of the national pastime for one afternoon.”43 Klem called the game, “evidently conscience-stricken with the realization that the teams had already put in a day’s work.”44 It was considered his first decision that was met with approval.

Marquard added to his list of records as winning pitcher in the longest National League game ever played to date.45 The two teams had played 35 innings before the game was decided, breaking the previous record of 26 innings.46 The Pirates established the major-league record for consecutive innings played in a given period with 59 in four games, breaking the mark of 43.47

The game was the first for 8-year-old Irving Piken. The memories diminished with the passage of time. In 2017, at the age of 108, he noted, “ … I don’t recall too much about the proceedings.”48

SOURCES

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

Photo credit: Larry Cheney, Trading Card Database.

NOTES

1 The series started on Monday with a Pirates 10-inning 1-0 win followed by a 13-inning 3-3 tie called on account of darkness, resulting in the doubleheader being scheduled.

2 Charles A. Taylor, “Robins Set Extra Frame Record in Real National League Thriller,” New York Tribune, August 23, 1917: 13.

3 “Record Dodger-Pirate Struggle Replete with Unusual Features,” Brooklyn Daily Times, August 23, 1917: 6; The game featured 160 putouts, 70 assists, and 40 left on base.

4 From 1914 to 1931, one of Brooklyn’s nicknames was Robins, after the team’s longtime manager Wilbert Robinson. They were also called the Superbas and the Dodgers.

5 Rice, “Superbas Winners in 22 Innings and Break League Record,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 23, 1917: 14. [The Eagle identified the writer only as “Rice.” It was likely longtime Eagle sportswriter Thomas S. Rice.]

6 “Record Dodger-Pirate Struggle Replete with Unusual Features.”

7 Bezdek is the only person in history who coached both a professional football and a baseball team. He coached the NFL’s Cleveland Rams in 1937-1938. During his baseball career he also worked as a college football coach. He was 105-46-13 at Arkansas, Oregon, and Penn State. In 1918 he coached the Mare Island Marines to victory in the 1918 Rose Bowl, then known as the Tournament East-West Football Game. He managed the Pirates through 1919, compiling a 166-187 record.

8 Taylor, “Robins Set Extra Frame Record.”

9 Cooper holds the franchise single-season record for ERA (1.87 in 1916) and the all-time records for victories (202) and complete games (263).

10 Pitler played in 111 games, mostly at second base, for the Pirates in 1917 and 1918. His career batting average was .232; of his 89 hits, only 13 were for extra bases, and none were home runs. After playing two games in 1918, he was sent down to Jersey City. On his way to New Jersey, he took a side trip to play in an “outlaw” baseball league in Pennsylvania. As a result, he incurred a nine-year ban from playing for a major-league farm team. Pitler later became a minor-league manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers and was a Dodgers coach from 1947 to 1957.

11 Charles J. Doyle, “Dodgers Beat Pirates 6-5,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 23, 1917: 8.

12 George Underwood, “Superbas Triumph in Twenty-Second,” Sun (New York), August 23, 1917: 11.

13 Underwood; in 11 at-bats, Bigbee accounted for six of the Pirates’ 19 hits.

14 The Robins had seven sacrifice hits in the game.

15 Underwood.

16 Doyle, “Dodgers Beat Pirates 6-5.”

17 Taylor.

18 “Record Dodger-Pirate Struggle Replete with Unusual Features.”

19 Ed F. Balinger, “Pirates Lose 22-Inning Game to Dodgers,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, August 23, 1917: 8.

20 Over a three-year span, 1912-1914, Cheney was one of the National League’s most durable and effective pitchers, racking up more than 300 innings each season.

21 “Record Dodger-Pirate Struggle Replete With Unusual Features.”

22 Taylor.

23 At 43, Honus Wagner was in his last season, a part-time player.

24 Balinger.

25 “Klem Went on a Rampage When Hickman Stole Home,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 23, 1917: 14.

26 “Klem Went on a Rampage.”

27 In the 18th inning, Cheney struck out. He was the only Robin to strike out in the game.

28 Doyle, “Dodgers Beat Pirates 6-5.”

29 Underwood, “Superbas Triumph in Twenty-Second.”

30 Underwood.

31 Doyle.

32 “Dodger’ Victory Sets New League Record,” Brooklyn Standard Union, August 23, 1917: 10.

33 “Robins Make New Long-Game Record,” New York Times, August 23, 1917: 15.

34 “Jimmy Hickman’s Steal Home Wins Record Game for Game for Robins,” New York Evening World, August 23, 1917: 12.

35 “Robins Make New Long-Game Record.”

36 “Dodger’ Victory Sets New League Record.”

37 Taylor.

38 “Rice.”

39 Underwood.

40 Underwood. The longest game at the time was the September 1, 1906, 24-inning contest in which the Philadelphia Athletics defeated the Boston Americans, 4-1. Coombs was the winning pitcher.

41 “Robins Make New Long-Game Record.” The Robins played in the longest game in major-league baseball on May 1, 1920. Cadore was the starting pitcher against the Boston Braves. Cadore and Braves starter Joe Oeschger each pitched the entire game before it was called for darkness tied at 1-1 after 26 innings.

42 Larry Doyle hit a two-run home run in the 21st inning to give the Giants a 3-1 win. Marquard pitched a complete-game victory.

43 “Record Dodger-Pirate Struggle Replete with Unusual Features.”

44 “Robins Make New Long-Game Record.”

45 Winning pitcher Marquard held the record for the most consecutive games won in a season, tied with Tim Keefe at 19; and the most consecutive wins from the start of the season.

46 The Robins and Pirates played three extra-inning games in a row for a total of 45 innings.

47 “Feature Facts of Record Game,” New York Tribune, August 23, 1917: 13. Pitler set a record for putouts in extra-inning games by a second baseman (15). Bigbee set a record with 11 at-bats in a game.

48 Rachel Marcus, “Oldest Living Dodgers Fan, 108, Always Excited To See Jackie Robinson,” ESPN.com, April 15, 2017. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/19136234/oldest-living-dodgers-fan-going-strong-favorite-player-jackie-robinson, accessed December 10, 2019; Jennifer Karmarkar, “111-year-old Laguna Woods resident was the oldest man in U.S.,” Orange County Register (Anaheim, California), March 10, 2020. https://www.ocregister.com/2020/03/10/oldest-man-111-dies-in-laguna-woods/, accessed May 4, 2020. At 111, Irving Piken was believed to be the oldest man in the United States, according to the Gerontology Research Group. He died on February 23, 2020.

Exterior view of Ebbets Field’s iconic brick and arches, circa 1918. Outfield bleachers were constructed in 1926. (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)

Dan Griner‘s last major-league win was his best one: he came within one out of pitching a no-hitter.

The son of a Confederate soldier, Griner joined the St. Louis Cardinals in August 1912, his first professional season, making the jump from the Class D Appalachian League. In his first full season in the majors, 1913, he led major-league pitchers in losses and runs allowed. After he also posted losing records in 1914 and 1915 – and got into fistfights with three teammates in 1914, sending one to the hospital – the Cardinals let him go early in the 1916 season. But after he spent two seasons with St. Paul of the American Association, he got another shot at the big leagues in 1918 with the Brooklyn Robins, who were hard up for pitching after losing two starters to the military and World War I during the offseason.1

However, the Robins didn’t seem so hard up for pitching as to actually use Griner. He worked only seven innings in the team’s first 15 games, all in relief and all in losses. His light workload may have been in part because of an ankle injury he suffered in spring training.2 Then on May 6, Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson gave Griner the ball to face the Philadelphia Phillies at Ebbets Field. He was still so little known in Brooklyn that the New York Times story about the game referred to him as “Dave” Griner.3

“It is not knocking to say that Griner had not made any sort of a favorable impression up to yesterday,” said the account of the game in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, “and the 1,200 or so fans present groaned aloud when he was announced.”4

The Phillies had started the season with seven wins in their first nine games, including a three-game sweep of Brooklyn in Philadelphia in which they scored 19 runs, before their bats went cold. They entered the May 6 game with a five-game losing streak and had been shut out in four of them, and their bats stayed cold against Griner, as he retired the side in order in each of the first four innings, striking out three.

Meanwhile the Robins put up two runs in the first inning against Philadelphia’s Joe Oeschger. Ivy Olson led off with a Texas League single behind second base, and Ollie O’Mara followed with a similar hit to the same spot, putting runners on first and second. Jake Daubert laid down a bunt, but Phillies first baseman Fred Luderus dropped Oeschger’s throw. “The bobble so upset Luderus that he clutched the ball while Olson ran home,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.5 O’Mara went to third on the play and scored when cleanup hitter Hy Myers singled to right. Daubert was thrown out by Gavvy Cravath while trying to advance to third. Myers took second on the throw and advanced to third when Jimmy Johnston grounded out to short. Jim Hickman followed with a walk and stole second, but Oeschger got out of the inning by retiring Ray Schmandt on a groundball to third.

The Phillies finally put a man on base with one out in the fifth inning, when Luderus reached on an error by second baseman Schmandt, who fumbled a groundball. Irish Meusel walked, bringing Harry Pearce to the plate.

At that point Brooklyn catcher Mack Wheat (the younger brother of his Hall of Fame teammate Zack Wheat) made the defensive play of the game. “Pearce raised a foul which dropped a few feet from the screen,” Al C. Palma wrote in the Brooklyn Citizen. “Wheat misjudged the ball and overran it. As it came down he reached for it. The ball hit his glove and he toppled over. Just as the sphere was hopping out, Mack made another lunge and hugged it tight.”6

The runners advanced to second and third after the catch – Wheat nearly threw out Luderus trying to take third, but third baseman O’Mara mishandled the throw – and Griner walked Bert Adams intentionally to load the bases for the pitcher Oeschger, who was retired on a foul pop to Daubert at first to end the inning.

Philadelphia went down in order in the sixth and seventh. Pearce led off the eighth with an easy fly ball to right that Hickman lost in the sun and dropped for an error, Pearce taking second. Possum Whitted, batting for Adams, hit a line drive to Daubert, who caught it and then doubled off Pearce. Oeschger struck out, and Griner took a no-hitter into the ninth. The score was still 2-0, as the Robins had managed just two hits, both singles, after the first inning. Brooklyn did miss out on a scoring opportunity in the bottom of the eighth when, with one out, Olson singled, stole second, and moved to third on a passed ball. But O’Mara popped out and Daubert flied out to end the inning.

Mike Fitzgerald, leading off the ninth, was retired on a fly ball to left. Dave Bancroft then worked the count to 3-and-2. “There was no question but that the next ball delivered by Griner was over the plate,” Palma wrote. “However, [umpire Bill] Klem called it a ball and the assumption is that he thought it too low.”7

Milt Stock followed with a groundball to short. Olson threw to Schmandt to get the second out of the inning, but when Bancroft went into second base standing up, Schmandt was unable to make the relay to first. While some accounts opined that Bancroft prevented a game-ending double play, Palma was not convinced the Robins would have gotten the out at first because the groundball was a slow one. In any event, if strike three had been called on Bancroft, the game would have been over.

But it was not, and Cravath, the Phillies’ slugging cleanup hitter (he had already led the National League in home runs four times and would do so twice more), went to the plate as the tying run. He “swung wildly at the first ball pitched to him and the sphere sped on a line over second base,” according to the New York Tribune’s Charles A. Taylor, with Stock taking third on the single.8

Griner had lost his no-hitter, but he still had a game to win, with the tying run on base. The next batter, Luderus, swung at the first pitch and hit a groundball to O’Mara at third, who threw to Schmandt at second, retiring pinch-runner Patsy McGaffigan to end the game and give Griner his seventh major-league shutout. There would not be a no-hitter at Ebbets Field until Dazzy Vance threw one against the Phillies in 1925.

Griner’s pitching in the game was described in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle: “His principal assets were a slow ball and a fast drop. He had both working to perfection, and the heady change of pace he put over was the principal cause of the Phillies’ collapse. Daniel mixed in other assorted shoots here and there, but the teaser and the quick drop were the tricks that stood the Phils on their heads.”9

The one-hitter was the second Griner pitched in the major leagues. He lost the first one. On July 30, 1914, pitching for the Cardinals, Griner allowed a leadoff single to Les Mann in the third inning; Mann came around to score on a sacrifice, a groundout and an error. The game was tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the ninth, when Braves pitcher Lefty Tyler reached on an error to lead off the inning, moved to second on a sacrifice, took third on a groundout, and scored when Cardinals third baseman Zinn Beck fumbled Rabbit Maranville‘s grounder.10

Griner went on to start five more games for Brooklyn in May 1918, losing them all. In June, facing the prospect of being drafted by the military, he left the team to work at a munitions plant and pitched for the plant’s team in a shipyard league. He returned to Organized Baseball in 1919, pitched for St. Paul’s American Association champions in 1919 and 1920, and kicked around the minors as a pitcher and sometime manager through 1924.

Griner finished his major-league career with a record of 28-55 – but he was just one out away from a place in the history books.

SOURCES

Gregory H. Wolf’s biography of Griner in the SABR Baseball Biography Project is the definitive source for biographical information on Griner. Game accounts were accessed via Newspapers.com.

NOTES

1 Gregory H. Wolf, “Dan Griner,” Society for American Baseball Research Baseball Biography Project, https://SABR.org/bioproj/person/f05dd83a.

2 “Robby Looks for Dodgers to Finish in the First Division,” Brooklyn Daily Times, May 7, 1918: 8.

3 “Phillies at Mercy of Griner’s Shoots,” New York Times, May 7, 1918: 10.

4 Rice, “Superbas Off on Long Tour After Cleaning Up Phillies,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 7, 1918: 20. (Rice was the sportswriter’s byline.)

5 “Cravath Spoiled Dan Griner’s Dream,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 7, 1918: 12.

6 Al C. Palma, “One Uncontrolled Pitch Beat Griner Out of No-Hit Game,” Brooklyn Citizen, May 7, 1918: 5.

7 Al C. Palma, “One Uncontrolled Pitch Beat Griner Out of No-Hit Game.”

8 Charles A. Taylor, “Cactus Sticks Dan Griner for Lone Hit in Shut-Out,” New York Tribune, May 7, 1918: 12. Several newspaper accounts of the game indicated that, under the apparent baseball etiquette of the time, Cravath should not have tried to get a hit with two out in the ninth inning of a no-hitter. “Gavvy Cravath, a player with a record that is spotless, with a reputation as a sportsman and a gentleman, brought shame upon himself by violating the first rule of baseball ethics. He made a base hit when he should not have done so.” Hugh S. Fullerton, “Different Complexion on American League Race,” New York Evening World, May 7, 1918: 13. “When a twirler has gone the route without having a hit charged against him and the last man comes to bat he does not exert himself in trying to spoil the proudest record a pitcher may hope to have in baseball.” “Cravath Robs Griner of a No-Hit Game,” Brooklyn Daily Standard Union, May 7, 1918: 10. In that same newspaper: “Bancroft asked Cravath when he walked back to the bench with his chin resting on his chest, ‘Why did you do it?’ [Cravath] replied, ‘I swung wildly. The ball hit the bat. It’s too bad to spoil that kid’s no-hit game.’” “Notes of the Game,” Brooklyn Daily Standard Union, May 7, 1918: 10.

9 Rice, “Superbas Off on Long Tour After Cleaning Up Phillies.”

10 Glen L. Wallar, “Griner, Beaten, Gives One Hit,” St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat, July 31, 1914: 10.

Jeff Pfeffer was a rugged right-hander who anchored Uncle Robby’s pitching staff at the end of the Deadball Era. In parts of nine seasons (1913-1921) with Brooklyn, he went 113-80, including 25 wins in 1916 and 23 in 1914. (Photo: Library of Congress)

Brooklyn’s Jeff Pfeffer (not to be confused with his brother, Big Jeff Pfeffer1) was the National League’s hottest pitcher to start the 1919 season. He won each of his first seven starts, pitching a complete game in each (one of them going 11 innings), with an ERA of 1.38. His winning streak came to an end on May 28, when he pitched another complete game – this time going 13 innings – but was defeated by the Cardinals, 7-5.

Four days later he went the distance again. This time the distance was quite a bit farther.

Pfeffer faced the Philadelphia Phillies at Ebbets Field on June 1, 1919.2 His mound opponent was former Columbia University star George Smith, who had been Pfeffer’s Brooklyn teammate the year before. Smith was traded to the Giants after the 1918 season and then dealt to the Phillies two weeks before this game.

Both pitchers got off to rocky starts. The Phillies used consecutive singles by Cy Williams, Irish Meusel, Fred Luderus, and Gavvy Cravath in the top of the first to score two runs, then the Robins tied the game in the bottom of the inning. After Ivy Olson and Tommy Griffith singled, Zack Wheat drove Olson in with a single to right, and when right fielder Cravath let the hit go through him, Griffith came around to score.

Brooklyn took a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning when Wheat doubled, moved to third on a sacrifice by Hy Myers, and scored on Ed Konetchy‘s single. Pfeffer held onto the lead until the sixth, when the Phils tied it on a two-out walk to Luderus followed by singles by Cravath and Doug Baird.

Williams put the Phillies on top in the seventh inning with a two-out, two-run homer over the right-field wall, scoring Bert Adams, who had singled.3 The Phils made it 7-3 in the eighth inning. Baird reached on a two-out infield single and went to third on a single by Harry Pearce. With Adams at the plate, the Phillies attempted a double steal. Catcher Ernie Krueger‘s throw went through to shortstop Olson, who then threw back to home to try to retire Baird. Olson’s throw was high, Baird scored, and when the ball went into the grandstand, umpire William “Lord” Byron allowed Pearce to score as well.4

But Smith couldn’t hold onto the lead, and the Robins batted around in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game. Olson led off with a single to right and went to second when Cravath fumbled it for his second error of the game. Lee Magee beat out an infield hit, Olson going to third, and Griffith walked to load the bases.5 Wheat followed with a single off second baseman Possum Whitted‘s shoe to score Olson, and Myers brought Magee and Griffith home with a single. Konetchy advanced the runners to second and third with a sacrifice, then Clarence Mitchell, making his first appearance of the season pinch-hitting for third baseman Lew Malone, walked to load the bases. Wheat scored the tying run when Krueger hit a groundball to short, Mitchell being forced out at second. With the go-ahead run on third, Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson allowed Pfeffer to bat for himself, and he struck out to end the inning.6

Both teams were scoreless in the ninth and 10th innings, with Milt Watson coming in to pitch for the Phillies in the ninth after Smith was removed for a pinch-hitter in the top of the inning. Then Philadelphia scored in the 11th, with the help of two Brooklyn errors. Adams doubled, went to third when Wheat muffed Watson’s fly ball to left, and scored when second baseman Magee fumbled Meusel’s grounder. Watson also tried to score on the play, but right fielder Griffith scooped up the loose ball and made a perfect throw to the plate to retire him.7 The Robins kept the game going when Magee tripled in the bottom of the inning and Griffith brought him home with a sacrifice fly.

The game was scoreless through the next four innings, but the Robins missed an opportunity to win the game in the 14th. Griffith led off with a walk and went to third on Wheat’s single to right.8 Myers hit a groundball that went off the hand of third baseman Baird; shortstop Pearce picked it up and threw to first to retire Myers, with Griffith holding at third. “Tommy could easily have scored the winning run then and there,” in the view of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.9 Konetchy was intentionally walked to load the bases. Ray Schmandt then hit a tapper that catcher Adams grabbed with his foot on home plate to force out Griffith, then threw to first to retire Schmandt, who had made no attempt to run, thinking it was a foul ball. The Robins protested, but to no avail, and the inning was over.10

In the top of the 16th, with Pfeffer still on the mound, Whitted singled, advanced to second on Williams’s sacrifice, and scored on Luderus’s two-out base hit. Brooklyn wasn’t done yet, though. In the bottom of the inning, Griffith and Wheat singled. Myers bunted, and Watson’s throw to third was too late to retire Griffith, leaving the bases loaded with none out. Konetchy hit a groundball back to the box; Watson threw home to retire Griffith, but Adams’s throw to first attempting to retire Konetchy was off target and Wheat scored the tying run on the error.11 The Robins still had the winning run in scoring position, but Schmandt was retired on a short fly ball to left and Pfeffer popped out to third. (Pfeffer didn’t hit a ball out of the infield in eight trips to the plate in the game.12)

In the top of the 18th, Williams – batting for the ninth time – singled to right with one out, went to second on Meusel’s groundout to Pfeffer, and scored when Luderus doubled to right-center, his fourth hit of the day. The Robins had already come from behind to tie the game four times, but this time they had no answer; Watson retired the side in order in the bottom of the inning, striking out Myers and Konetchy for the final outs – the only batters Watson fanned in his 10 innings of work – and the Phillies came away with a 10-9 victory.

Pfeffer faced 77 batters in his 18 innings of work, allowing 23 hits. It wasn’t his longest outing in the major leagues; on June 17, 1915, he pitched 18⅔ innings at Chicago before the Cubs won in the bottom of the 19th.13

This wasn’t the longest game the Robins and Phillies played against each other in 1919. On April 30 in Philadelphia, the teams played a 9-9 tie that was called on account of darkness after 20 innings. Both starting pitchers went all the way in that game, Burleigh Grimes for the Robins and Joe Oeschger for the Phils, facing 84 and 82 batters, respectively.14 Two weeks later, the Phillies traded Oeschger to get George Smith.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, SABR.org, and The Sporting News archive via Paper of Record.

NOTES

1 Jeff Pfeffer’s given name was Edward; Big Jeff’s given name was Francis. One researcher says both got their nicknames from their supposed physical resemblance to heavyweight boxing champion Jim Jeffries. John Bennett, “Jeff Pfeffer,” Society for American Baseball Research Baseball Biography Project. https://SABR.org/bioproj/person/25b464c2. But another researcher found no evidence that the nickname was connected to Jeffries. Bill Lamb, “Big Jeff Pfeffer,” Society for American Baseball Research Baseball Biography Project. https://SABR.org/bioproj/person/fa863125. Lamb found that Francis Pfeffer was usually referred to in newspapers as “Frank” – the name he called himself – and was seldom referred to as “Big Jeff.” Different newspaper accounts of the June 1, 1919, game refer to Edward Pfeffer as Ed, Jeff, and Big Jeff.

2 This game would be a rare one-game series, making up a game that was rained out on May 7. Brooklyn had a rare Sunday offday originally scheduled for June 1. Their next series was to be against Boston, where Sunday games weren’t allowed until 1929.

3 Home runs were still relatively rare in 1919; only 22 were hit in 70 games at Ebbets Field. Williams finished the year with nine homers, third-most in the National League.

4 “Robins Wage Futile Fight Against Philadelphia Through Eighteen Innings,” New York Times, June 2, 1919: 18.

5 Mitchell was normally a pitcher – he won 125 games in the major leagues – but he was frequently used as a pinch-hitter and had a .252 career batting average. He also started 61 games at first base and 12 in the outfield in his major-league career.

6 In fairness, Pfeffer was a decent hitter for a pitcher, finishing his major-league career with a .206 batting average. He even started a game in right field and batted seventh when the Robins had a number of injured players in 1917. Even though Pfeffer had already given up seven runs, Robinson was in no hurry to take him out of the game, as the Robins had six games scheduled in Boston over the next three days and their pitching staff would be stretched thin. Brooklyn played consecutive doubleheaders at Boston on June 2, 3, and 4 to make up three games that were postponed by weather on April 24, 25, and 26. George B. Underwood, “Luderus’ Double Downs Dodgers in 18th Inning,” New York Sun, June 2, 1919: 17. The Sun and Philadelphia Inquirer referred to Brooklyn’s team as the Dodgers; the Brooklyn Daily Eagle called them the Superbas. Other sources called them the Robins, the nickname commonly used during Wilbert Robinson’s managerial tenure.

7 “Robins Not Getting the Utmost from Their Consecutive Hitting,” Brooklyn Daily Times, June 2, 1919: 8.

8 Al C. Palma, “Playing Long Games Becoming a Habit with the Robins,” Brooklyn Citizen, June 2, 1919: 5.

9 “Hitting ‘Em Out,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 2, 1919: 2.

10 “Phillies Down Dodgers in Grand 18-Inning Battle, Score 10 to 9,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 2, 1919: 14.

11 “A Long, Sad Story, Mates; Just 18 Innings of It,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 2, 1919: 18.

12 Al C. Palma, “Playing Long Games Becoming a Habit with the Robins.”

13 That was the game in which the Cubs’ George Washington “Zip” Zabel set the major-league record that still stands, pitching 18⅓ innings in relief after starting pitcher Bert Humphries was injured in the first inning.

14 Oeschger is best remembered for another game he pitched against Brooklyn, when he was with the Boston Braves, going all the way in a 26-inning 1-1 tie on May 1, 1920. He faced 90 batters in that game, six fewer that Brooklyn’s Leon Cadore, who also went the distance.

The 1920 best-of-nine World Series opened on October 5 at Ebbets Field, where temporary bleachers were erected on the outfield. In a tight pitching duel featuring just five hits by both teams, Cleveland’s Stan Coveleski emerged victorious, 3-1, over the Brooklyn Dodgers. (Photo: Library of Congress)

The Cleveland Indians were making their initial appearance in the World Series in 1920. Tris Speaker‘s club finally broke through to finish atop the American League after finishing a close second to Boston in 1918, and then to Chicago in 1919. Their opponents, the Brooklyn Robins, were making their second trip to the fall classic, and were hoping for a better outcome than their last appearance. In that World Series, in 1916, they were disposed of in five games by the Boston Red Sox. (Three of the five games were decided by a single run.)

While the Indians were in the midst of a tight pennant race with New York and Chicago, the news broke out of the Windy City that seven current members of the White Sox had allegedly conspired to lose the 1919 World Series to Cincinnati. (An eighth player allegedly involved, Chick Gandil, had retired after the 1919 season). The players were subsequently suspended for the final series of the season. Without many of their key personnel, the White Sox lost two of three to the St. Louis Browns. The Yankees could not close a three-game gap to catch Cleveland.

The Robins were in a pennant race themselves with their archrival New York Giants. On September 25 Brooklyn held a four-game advantage over John McGraw‘s crew. Both teams were headed for a five-game series at Ebbets Field. Brooklyn took three of the five, icing their second NL pennant.

A gray and breezy day at Ebbets Field was the site for Game One of the World Series. The Indians wore black armbands in remembrance of Ray Chapman, who was killed when he was beaned by Yankees pitcher Carl Mays on August 16. The starting pitcher for the visiting Indians was Stan Coveleski, who posted a 24-14 record during the regular season. Toeing the rubber for Brooklyn was Rube Marquard. The tall left-hander was 10-7 during the season, but had not pitched since September 26, when he bested the Giants. The Robins’ manager, Wilbert Robinson, felt that Marquard, a Cleveland native, would be the ideal hurler to neutralize player-manager Tris Speaker and the other left-handed batters in the Indians’ lineup. Of course, Spoke stacked his lineup with right-handed batters to counter the strategy.

The series was a best five-of-nine format, with the games going 3-4-2 between the two cities. The series was supposed to start at Cleveland’s Dunn Field (renamed League Park in 1928). However, Indians owner James Dunn wanted to add more seating with temporary stands in center field and in right field in front of the bleachers. Construction was taking a bit longer than anticipated, so the first three games were transferred to Brooklyn.

The breezy conditions that made it a bit chilly for the fans was not uncommon. Ebbets Field was located in a sort of pocket that took in all the cold drafty weather of Flatbush. The Game One crowd was 23,573, a couple of thousand under capacity. In Cleveland, fans gathered on East 6th Street between Rockwell and Superior Avenues to get as close as they could to the action. An electric scoreboard relayed the action by telegraph to let the throng know what was going on 465 miles to the east.

Cleveland scored first against Marquard. First baseman George Burns hit a high pop just past the infield between first and second base. Ed Konetchy, the Robins’ first baseman, and Pete Kilduff, the second baseman, gave chase. However, the wind blew the ball toward short left field, where it fell out of Konetchy’s reach. Burns, hustling all the way, motored toward second base. Konetchy corralled the baseball and threw to second in hopes of cutting down the baserunner. But Brooklyn shortstop Ivy Olson was not covering the bag. Konetchy’s heave rolled across the diamond to the field boxes in back of third base. Burns dashed home with the first tally of the game.

After Larry Gardner grounded out, Smoky Joe Wood walked. Joe Sewell singled Wood to third. Steve O’Neill ripped a double to left field, scoring Wood and sending Sewell to third. The next batter was Coveleski, who hit a grounder toward first base. Konetchy fielded the ball cleanly, stepped on first base and fired home to catcher Ernie Krueger, who tagged Sewell to complete the unorthodox twin killing and keep the score at 2-0, Cleveland.

The Cleveland defense was at the forefront in the Robins’ half of the second inning. Speaker snared a drive by Zack Wheat a long run and Wood backed up to the wall to haul in a long drive off the bat of Hi Myers. Still, Coveleski was masterful with his curve, keeping the Robins off balance and off the scoreboard. Cleveland added a third run in the top of the fourth on another RBI double by O’Neill.

The Indians weren’t the only team making plays in the field. In the fifth inning Speaker sent a line drive to right field that looked certain to be a round-tripper. But rightfielder Tommy Griffith leapt at the wall and snared the baseball with his left (gloved) hand to preserve the 3-0 deficit.

Brooklyn scored its lone tally in the seventh inning when Wheat led off with a double to right-center field, went to third on a groundout by Myers, and scored when Konetchy grounded out to first. The home team looked as if it might have something brewing in the eighth inning when Krueger led off with a smash toward left-center, but Speaker made a shoestring catch for the first out. Clarence Mitchell, pinch-hitting for reliever Al Mamaux, sent a single to the right-field foul line. Krueger would have certainly scored, showing the value of Speaker’s running catch. Coveleski retired the next two batters.

Game One went to the Indians, 3-1. Coveleski went the distance, scattering five hits and striking out three. Marquard, who pitched six innings, gave up all three Indians runs and all five of their hits, striking out four. Marquard did not start another game, pitching in relief in Game Four.

The Indians’ skipper was all smiles after the victory. “The result of the game goes to show that I was not boasting when I contended that Cleveland would display just as good pitching as Brooklyn,” Speaker said. “They would have us believe that Brooklyn has the real pitching market cornered. It is my belief that the pitching in the American League is every bit as good as that in the National and that our batting average of .302 was deservedly earned.

“Coveleski pitched excellent ball today. With the wind blowing as hard as it was, he worked under a handicap, but he delivered in the pinches, and that is what counts. He never was nervous. It was just a ballgame with him. He pitched a typical Coveleski game.”1

Zack Wheat penned a column for the Cleveland Plain Dealer that gave Cleveland fans a view from the opposition. “Of course a post mortem on the game reveals that we made one mistake in judgment,” wrote the Brooklyn captain.” This is when O’Neill came up the second time. This was in the fourth inning with Wood already on second base. We should have passed O’Neill and nailed the pitcher. Instead O’Neill was allowed to get a two-base hit and brought Wood home. Gardner and Sewell were already out and of course we were reasonably sure to strike out Coveleski. That is the only flaw I can pick in our game. The rest was pure luck.”2

SOURCES

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

NOTES

1 “Speaker Praises Indians Pitching,” New York Times, October 6, 1920: 10.

2 Zack Wheat, “Indians Had All Luck, Says Wheat,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 6, 1920: 17.

Fans in Brooklyn lined up outside Ebbets Field for tickets to the World Series on Monday, October 4, 1920. For $1 or $2 they could get a ticket to see their hometown heroes the Dodgers, Brooklyns, Superbas, or Robins play in the World Series against the Cleveland Indians. It didn’t matter which nickname a fan chose for the team because, more important, these devoted followers “pay the bills, do the shouting, bait the umpire and keep the National Pastime on its feet,” wrote the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Keeping the game on its feet was maybe the most important contribution the fans made at that time. Baseball had been rocked by scandal and the World Series of 1919 would be forever remembered for gamblers and crooked play, which left a stain on the game. How would fans react, since a grand jury was currently exploring this Black Sox scandal? In Brooklyn, the line of fans waiting for tickets was never less than 500 during the day. Some fans made an entire day out of it anyway, “hanging about in the neighborhood, patronizing transient hot doggeries and this and that to while away the time.”1 They were ready.

A 20-5 September helped propel Wilbert Robinson’s Brooklyn club to the National League pennant. Pitching was the main reason the team was in the World Series. Brooklyn’s pitching staff had the best ERA (2.62) and the most strikeouts (553) in the NL. Burleigh Grimes led the way with a 2.22 ERA and a 23-11 record. But their hitting wasn’t bad, either, led by Zack Wheat, Hi Myers, and Ed Konetchy, all .300 hitters.

While fans in Brooklyn stood in line during the day, the Cleveland Indians hopped the train that night heading east. “We can hit them all,” one player optimistically remarked about the Brooklyn pitching.2 The Indians had survived a tight pennant race all season, and their 20-6 mark in September helped them outlast the emerging Yankee dynasty and the scarred White Sox franchise. Six Cleveland starters batted over .300, giving the team a .303 average. Three starting pitchers won a total of 75 games: Jim Bagby (31 wins), Stan Coveleski (24), and Ray Caldwell (20).

Game One at Ebbets Field drew 23,573 fans who were disappointed when their home team couldn’t muster any offense against Coveleski. Brooklyn starter Rube Marquard was knocked for three runs in a 3-1 loss. Game Two was Grimes vs. Bagby before a smaller crowd of 22,559. A highly experienced crew of umpires handled the Series: Tommy Connolly, Hank O’Day, Bill Dinneen, and Bill Klem.

After a scoreless top of the first, Brooklyn put a run on the board in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Jimmy Johnston bounced a grounder to deep shortstop. Joe Sewell stopped it on the grass but his throw was low and hit the bag, bouncing straight up in the air. Johnston was safe. Johnston stole second and, after a groundout, scored on a hit by Wheat, who stretched it into a double with some fine sliding around Sewell. “Sewell’s lack of experience was responsible for his failure to make the out,” wrote Thomas S. Rice in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.3 “Little Joe did not shine with any undue amount of brilliance today,” remarked Henry P. Edwards in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.4

Many at Ebbets Field were probably thinking the same thing: Ray Chapman would never have let that happen. Chapman, the Indians’ young shortstop, had been hit in the head by a pitch from the Yankees’ Carl Mays on August 16. The blow to the left side of his skull resulted in emergency surgery, but Chapman died the next day. The Indians were playing the Series in his memory.

Grimes put a man on base in each inning from the second through the fourth. In the second, it was Larry Gardner, who pulled a double down the left-field line. Gardner was caught in no man’s land on Doc Johnston‘s bouncer to the mound and was tagged out. In the third, after two were out on comebackers to the box, Charlie Jamieson singled to center. In the fourth, player-manager Tris Speaker drew a walk. Both Jamieson and Speaker were left on base.

In the bottom of the third, Grimes helped his own cause by hitting a single to center. Ivy Olson laid down a bunt and on Bagby’s wild throw to second, both runners were safe. Grimes was spiked by Sewell on the play as he leapt over Sewell and went headfirst into the bag. Grimes spent a few minutes trying to walk it off while Al Mamaux warmed up the bullpen. He stayed in the game but limped noticeably throughout. Johnston tried to bunt them over but popped up. Tommy Griffith doubled to right to send in Grimes and make the score 2-0. Wheat was intentionally walked to load the bases. The Indians played the infield in. Myers grounded to Gardner, who threw to the plate. Catcher Steve O’Neill got the force play at home but his throw to first hit Myers in the back. Seeing this, Griffith took off for home, but quick-thinking first baseman Doc Johnston (brother of Jimmy) threw him out at the plate. Cleveland avoided further damage and Brooklyn held a 2-0 lead.

Grimes had a one-two-three inning in the fifth and “Grimes’ spitball appeared to have the Indians badly puzzled,” wrote the Plain Dealer.5 Brooklyn added its final tally in the bottom of the inning. With Ivy Olson on second, Griffith grounded over the middle. Sewell was in front of it, but the ball caromed off his knee for a single and Olson trotted home to give Brooklyn a 3-0 lead. Sewell was again mentioned for his less-than-stellar fielding. In the sixth, Grimes worked around a Speaker double and held the Indians scoreless again.

In the seventh, Gardner smashed a liner through the box which was knocked down by Pete Kilduff, but he had no play on Gardner. Johnston’s grounder forced Gardner at second. Sewell’s drive sent Griffith to the wall in right field to haul it in. O’Neill singled, and the tying run came to the plate. Jack Graney, 6-for-13 as a pinch-hitter during the regular season, came up to hit for Bagby but struck out on three pitches.

George Uhle pitched for Cleveland and retired the side in order in the seventh. Grimes showed some fatigue in the eighth, issuing back-to-back walks to Jamieson and pinch-hitter George Burns. Speaker’s grounder moved the runners up. Elmer Smith, fifth in the AL with 12 home runs (a far cry from Babe Ruth’s league-leading 54), popped out to the catcher. Gardner drew a walk, Grimes’ third of the inning. The faithful at Ebbets Field breathed a sigh of relief when Johnston grounded into a force play. Grimes and Brooklyn had survived the threat.

Pinch-hitter Les Nunamaker singled in the ninth inning with two out but Jamieson flied out to Wheat to end the game. Despite seven hits and four walks, Grimes made the pitches when he had to and held on for the complete-game shutout. The Indians had their chances with 10 men left on base. “The Brooklyn pitcher’s control was none too good at times,” wrote Edwards, “but in the pinches he could make the ball behave perfectly and with flawless support he was able to swing the whitewash brush with effect.”6 Grimes threw 130 pitches in all, 25 in that precarious eighth inning when 14 of them were wide.7

SOURCES

Besides the sources cited in the Notes, the author relied on the following:

Baseball-Reference.com

Retrosheet.org

Rice, Thomas S. “The Game in Detail,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 6, 1920: 1.

NOTES

1 “Crowd at Ebbets Field to Purchase Tickets for Series,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 4, 1920: 1.

2 “Tribe, Confident, Leaves for Fray,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 5, 1920: 17.

3 Thomas S. Rice, “Superbas Play Better in World Series Than in League,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 7, 1920: 22.

4 Henry P. Edwards, “Robins’ Star Pitcher Holds Indians When They Get Dangerous,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 7, 1920: 20.

5 “Details of Cleveland’s Whitewash,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 7, 1920: 20.

6 Edwards, “Robins’ Star Pitcher Holds Indians When They Get Dangerous.”

7 “Day’s Pitching is Analyzed,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 7, 1920: 20.