The above events beg the question which of these two ancient four-baggers – hit on the same afternoon and in the same top of the first inning – was struck first. Analysis of the situation is complicated by time-zone peculiarities. According to the Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia-Baltimore game would be “called at 4 o’clock.”1 The game in Cincinnati was advertised to start “at 3:30 o’clock P.M.”2 Because Cincinnati was then situated in the Central Standard Time Zone,3 this ostensibly placed the Blues-Reds game a half-hour behind the contest in Eastern Standard Time Zone Baltimore. At the time, however, Cincinnati, like various other cities removed from the East Coast, did not accept the time regimes that had been imposed for the convenience of the railroads in November 1883. In 1887 Cincinnati remained on its own city time – which was 22 minutes faster than CST.4 That put the scheduled start of the game in Cincinnati only eight minutes behind the time set for the game in Baltimore.

Whether Opening Day festivities or other circumstance delayed the throwing of first pitch in Baltimore or Cincinnati is unknown. So are the number of minutes that may have elapsed before Griffin and Tebeau connected. Still, the probabilities favor Griffin being first, if only slightly. In any case, the narrative herein focuses upon the home run hit by the originally recognized record-holder, Mike Griffin.

Undaunted by “cold and disagreeable” weather,5 a crowd of 4,000 passed through the turnstiles at Oriole Park, aka American Association Park, to see their heroes open the 1887 season against the Philadelphia Athletics. When the home side took the field for pregame warm-ups “outfitted in white shirts and light blue breeches with maroon trimmings … [the team] looked good to Orioles fans.”6 Even more pleasing to the Baltimore faithful was the way that the Orioles lit into Philadelphia starter Ed Seward, a 19-year-old right-hander who had made only one previous major-league appearance – six innings pitched for the National League Providence Grays in 1885.

Exercising their home-field option, the Orioles elected to bat first and promptly put a four-spot on the scoresheet in the top of the first inning against young Seward. Re-creation of game action is hampered by the perfunctory news coverage that the contest received at the time it was played. Still, it seems safe to say that Baltimore had already scored at least one run (and perhaps two) when rookie outfielder Mike Griffin made his first major-league appearance. Slotted sixth in the Orioles lineup by manager Billy Barnie, the 5-foot-7, 160-pound lefty batter did not appear overly menacing, but there was pop in his bat. The newcomer immediately put that power on display, driving a Seward serving “over the fence in the first inning for a home run.”7 Although no great note was then made of the Griffin blast, it was thereafter recognized as the first time a ballplayer had initiated his major-league career by hitting a homer in his very first at-bat.

With Baltimore having an immediate four-run lead, the game’s outcome was not much in doubt. The Athletics faced the unlikely task of making up the deficit against the formidable Matt Kilroy, fresh off a season wherein he had recorded an astonishing 513 strikeouts, still the all-time major-league record.8 The Orioles left-hander held the A’s scoreless until Baltimore tacked on two more runs in the fourth. Philadelphia then scratched out a run. The score had reached 8-1 by the bottom of the eighth inning. Exactly how the Orioles scored those runs appears lost to history, but the hitting exploits of the club’s debutant center fielder are not. Mike Griffin was the hitting star of the game, “making a home run and two doubles, one of the latter being a hit over the left field fence.”9

Meanwhile, the Athletics “were puzzled considerably over Kilroy’s curves and they were unable to get on to his peculiar style,” lamented the Philadelphia Times.10 Only six Philadelphia batsmen reached Kilroy for base hits (not counting the six bases on balls that were counted as hits for batting average purposes under an ill-conceived 1887 season-only statistical dictum). Aided by excellent defense – teammates committed only one fielding error behind him – the Baltimore ace was dominant throughout, never being in serious trouble. A run-scoring double by Ed Flanagan in the eighth plated the A’s second tally before an unearned run registered via a ninth-inning passed ball charged to Orioles backstop Chris Fulmer finalized the scoring at Baltimore 8, Philadelphia 3.

As his maiden season progressed, Griffin demonstrated that his debut-game hitting outburst had not been a fluke. At season end his offensive numbers included a .301 batting average, 48 extra-base hits, and 94 RBIs. Kilroy, meanwhile, became the circuit’s dominant pitcher, winning an AA-leading 46 games for the third-place (77-58-6, .570) Orioles. On the other side, fledgling Philly starter Seward blossomed into a rotation mainstay, splitting 50 decisions evenly for the fifth-place (64-69-4, .481) Athletics.

From there, Griffin went on to a solid 12-year career that ended in 1898. And for more than a century, he was recognized as the first player to begin his major-league tenure with a home run in his maiden at-bat. But now research has uncovered that Cincinnati Reds rookie George Tebeau did exactly the same thing. In a game played against the Cleveland Blues some 500 miles to the west of Baltimore, Tebeau homered in his very first major-league at-bat – on the same day (April 16, 1887) and in the same frame (top of the first inning) as Griffin. The coincidence is obviously remarkable.

Sources

No inning-by-inning account of the Baltimore-Philadelphia game was uncovered. The narrative above has been drawn from wire-service game summaries published nationwide and after-the-fact game commentary published in the Philadelphia Times, April 17, 1887, and Baltimore Sun, April 18, 1887. Reference sources consulted include Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.

Photo credit: Mike Griffin, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 “Base-Ball … Baltimore Grounds,” Baltimore Sun, April 16, 1887: 1 (advertisement).

2 “Cincinnati Base Ball Grounds,” Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, April 16, 1887: 12 (advertisement).

3 Cincinnati did not shift to the Eastern Standard Time Zone until 1927.

4 Per essays recently published online. See e.g., “How Daylight Saving Time Arrived in Cincinnati,” https://www.tumblr.com/handeaux/140685032432/how-daylight-saving-time-arrived-in-cincinnati.

5 The description of game condition weather published in “Baltimore 8, Athletics 3,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 17, 1887: 18.

6 Preston Orem, Baseball (1882-1891) from the Game Accounts (Altadena, California: Self-published, 1966-1967), 287, accessed via the SABR Research Collection online.

7 As recounted in wire-service game accounts published in the Kansas City Times, New Orleans Times-Democrat, and elsewhere, April 17, 1887.

8 Making the Kilroy record even more remarkable was the fact that a strikeout then consisted of only called and swinging strikes, not foul balls. Balls batted foul were not counted as strikes until the early 1900s.

9 Per “Baltimore vs. Athletics,” New York Clipper, April 23, 1887: 89. The import of this passage is less than clear but perhaps suggests that one of the Griffin two-baggers landed over a short-porch outfield fence that was designated grounds-rule-double territory.

10 “The Ball Season,” Philadelphia Times, April 17, 1887: 2. The “peculiar style” was likely the balk-move Kilroy pitching delivery that other clubs frequently complained about, to no avail.

Trying to ascertain to whom the distinction of being first rightly belongs is hampered by the long passage of time and the unavailability of detailed inning-by-inning accounts of the two games in question. Particularly unhelpful is perfunctory reportage of the Orioles-Athletics match.2 It reduces reconstruction of first-inning game action and estimation of how long it took sixth-in-the-lineup-batter Griffin to reach the plate largely to guesswork. The same problems, but to a lesser degree, attend analysis of the home run hit by seventh-placed Reds batter Tebeau.

Another complication attends time-zone peculiarities. The Cleveland-Cincinnati game was advertised to start “at 3:30 P.M.”3 Because Cincinnati was then in the Central Time Zone,4 this ostensibly placed the game’s start time 30 minutes behind that of the Orioles-Athletics contest, scheduled to begin in Baltimore at 4:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time.5 But like various other cities removed from the East Coast, Cincinnati did not accept the time regimes that had been imposed for the convenience of the railroads some four years earlier. In 1887 Cincinnati remained on its own city time, which was 22 minutes faster than CST.6 This effectively moved the scheduled start time of the Blues-Reds game to within eight minutes of that set for the game in Baltimore.7 Whether either contest started precisely on time is unknown, as are the number of minutes that elapsed before Griffin and Tebeau connected. Still, the probabilities seem to favor Griffin, if only by a slight margin. Now, on to the Tebeau homer.

Dank and chilly weather discomfited the 2,700 fans in attendance at the Cincinnati Base Ball Grounds (later League Park I) for the Reds’ April 16 season opener against the Cleveland Blues, a newly admitted member of the American Association. The starting pitcher for Cincinnati was an obvious choice: staff ace Tony Mullane. Matinee-idol handsome and prodigiously gifted athletically – a natural right-handed thrower, the “Apollo of the Box” occasionally served one up from the port side, apparently for his own amusement – Mullane had notched his fourth 30-plus-victory season in 1886. And his return to Cincinnati for the current season represented a departure from the norm for the well-traveled twirler, marking the first time that Mullane had ever started a new baseball campaign with the same team that he had finished the previous one with. In fact, Tony’s penchant for contract-breaking and club-jumping provided an interesting sidebar to the Cincinnati-Cleveland game, as it had served to usher his opposite number, Blues starter George Pechiney, into a major-league uniform.

Mullane spent the 1884 season with the American Association Toledo Blue Stockings, but had an agreement to return to the St. Louis Browns (his 1883 ballclub) for the ensuing campaign. His disregard of that obligation and his signing with the Cincinnati Reds instead prompted Browns club boss Chris Von der Ahe to institute disciplinary proceedings. The result was a season-long suspension that idled Mullane for the entire 1885 campaign. Mullane’s unavailability, in turn, necessitated Cincinnati auditioning hurling prospects throughout the season. When his chance came, George Pechiney, a Cincinnati factory worker who threw semipro ball on weekends, performed well, posting a 7-4 record and earning a spot in the Reds’ next-season plans. So in some sense, Pechiney owed his place on a major-league roster to the waywardness of Tony Mullane.

Restored to eligibility, Mullane (33-27 in 56 starts) and Pechiney (15-21 in 40 starts) formed the bulwark of the 1886 Cincinnati Reds pitching corps. During the offseason, however, Cincinnati consigned Pechiney and batterymate Pop Snyder to the Association’s fledgling Cleveland club. The 1887 season opener therefore matched the Blues pitcher against his inadvertent baseball benefactor.

Electing to bat first, the Reds wasted no time in mounting an attack against their erstwhile teammate. Shoddy Cleveland defense contributed to the Cincinnati cause. But Pechiney himself was the primary source of his own misfortune. As subsequently observed by The Sporting News, the Blues hurler “complained of a sore arm and was unable to get the ball over the plate. When he did, it was lined out by the Red Stockings.”8

Cleveland left fielder Fred Mann set the game’s tone by muffing leadoff batter Bid McPhee’s fly ball. Third baseman Ed McKean then chipped in an error on a Frank Fennelly grounder. Pechiney walked the next two Cincinnati batters, forcing in the first run. A sacrifice and three passed balls by Blues catcher Charlie Reipschlager thereafter kept Reds baserunners moving around the sacks. With two outs finally recorded, debutante center fielder George Tebeau stepped to the plate. A solidly built 5-foot-9 175-pounder resplendent in an immaculate ivory-colored uniform with crimson trim, Tebeau just looked like a ballplayer.9 And in his first major-league at-bat, he hit like one as well. A righty batter, Tebeau drilled a Pechiney offering on a line to deep left-center and then circled the bases for an inside-the-park home run that upped the first-inning Cincinnati advantage to 5-0.10

In the ensuing frames, the Reds continued to pummel Pechiney. The good-hitting Mullane helped the cause with a home run in the second. A walk to McPhee and a triple by Pop Corkhill plated another Cincinnati run that inning. A three-run homer by Fennelly in the sixth put the contest far beyond Cleveland reach. Meanwhile, Mullane eased through the Blues batting order, plagued more by his own lack of control (eight walks and a wild pitch) than by opposition hitters – apart from Cleveland second baseman Cub Stricker, who touched the Reds twirler for a late-game dinger. Echoing a hometown newspaper assessment, “the game was not brilliant.”11 But the 16-6 triumph nonetheless got the Cincinnati Reds’ season off to a successful start.

Never much more than a journeyman during his six-season major-league career, George Tebeau went on to become a force as a baseball executive, founding the premier minor-league American Association in 1902 and managing/owning any number of prominent non-major-league ballclubs through World War I. He died in February 1923 at age 61, a respected if not particularly loved figure in the game. Neither at the time of his death nor for decades thereafter, however, was Tebeau consider a major-league record-setter. Rather, the claim was staked for him by late-twentieth-century baseball detectives who discovered that when Mike Griffin hit a home run in his first major-league at-bat on April 16, 1887, George Tebeau had done exactly the same.

Sources

Reference sources consulted include Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet, and Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff, eds., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, Inc., 3d ed., 2007). The sources for the narrative detail provided are specified in the endnotes.

Notes

1 David Nemec, The Beer and Whisky League: The Illustrated History of the American Association – Baseball’s Renegade Major League (New York: Lyons & Burford, 1994), 129.

2 The writer is informed that first-inning detail was published in the Baltimore American but was unable to access same.

3 “Cincinnati Base Ball Park,” Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, April 16, 1887: 12 (advertisement).

4 Cincinnati was not shifted into the Eastern Time Zone until 1927.

5 “Base Ball … Baltimore Grounds,” Baltimore Sun, April 16, 1887 (advertisement).

6 According to essays recently published online. See e.g., “How Daylight Saving Time Arrived in Cincinnati,” https://www.tumblr.com/handeaux/140685032432/how-daylight-saving-time-arrived-in-cincinnati.

7 Baltimore has been in the Eastern Standard Time Zone since the original formulation of time zones in November 1883.

8 The Sporting News, April 23, 1887: 7.

9 Years later, veteran observer John B. Foster recalled George Tebeau as “almost perfectly built … standing erect as a West Pointer, proportioned like an Apollo. He was an athlete long to be remembered … and appeared on a ball field as if he had walked out of a tableau.” Foster, “Giving the Tebeaus Their Place in the Game’s Annals,” The Sporting News, February 15, 1923: 7.

10 Per the game account published in “Base Ball: Hated Cincinnati Slaughters Pitcher Pechiney,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 17, 1887: 6. A slightly different game account appeared in Sporting Life, April 27, 1887: 4.

11 “Baseball,” Cincinnati Evening Post, April 16, 1887: 4.

With some 1,267 fans in attendance at Pittsburgh’s Recreation Park,3 Gumbert started the opener of a doubleheader against the Cleveland Spiders. He proved to be the star of a much-needed Alleghenys triumph, 9-2. The newcomer handcuffed the Cleveland bats, throwing a complete-game three-hitter. Billy also provided the game’s offensive highlight. In his first official at-bat, Gumbert hit a two-run homer, becoming the first player in National League history to begin his major-league batting career with a home run.4

Homestanding Pittsburgh elected to bat first but was held scoreless in the initial frame by Cleveland rookie right-hander Jack Wadsworth. Betraying no outward signs of jitters, Gumbert returned the compliment, setting down the Spiders in the bottom of the first. In the second, the Pittsburgh offense erupted for five runs. Third baseman Fred Roat ignited the outburst with a double to left, and skipper Hecker drove him in with a single, taking second on the throw home. Hecker soon advanced to third on a wild pitch. He remained there when Wadsworth walked Allegheny outfielder John Kelty and thereafter scored the second Allegheny run on shortstop Sam Crane’s base hit. That brought pitcher Gumbert to the plate with runners on first and second. A successful sacrifice bunt promptly moved the runners up a base. A single by right fielder Doggie Miller then got both runners home, with Miller taking second on a futile throw to the plate. He eventually came around, scoring Pittsburgh’s fifth run on another Wadsworth wild pitch.

In the bottom of the third, Cleveland got on the scoreboard. Gumbert hit his opposite number with a pitch, after which consecutive sacrifices placed Wadsworth on third. Cleveland’s first hit of the game, a double by Peek-a-Boo Veach, brought Wadsworth in. The Alleghenys immediately recouped their five-run lead with a tally in the fourth. Crane doubled, Gumbert again sacrificed, and a single by center fielder Billy Sunday made the score 6-1. In the last of the fourth, a double by Cleveland catcher Chief Zimmer, a sacrifice, and a miscue by shortstop Crane gifted the Spiders an unearned run. It would be their last of the contest.

In the top of the sixth, a single by Kelty brought Gumbert to the plate with one out. Having sacrificed his initial two times at the plate, he remained without an official big-league at-bat. And once again, he came to bat in a sacrifice situation. But manager Hecker decided to let Billy hit away. The righty-swinging Gumbert responded with a long drive to left-center that the swift-footed pitcher5 converted into an inside-the-park home run. The blast, while surely welcomed by Pittsburgh, was hardly a total surprise. Gumbert was a solid-hitting former position player who had socked a homer and a triple off then-Pittsburgh ace Pud Galvin in an exhibition game two years earlier.6 Still, Gumbert’s four-bagger was a record-setter, the first home run ever hit by a National League player in his first major-league at-bat.

From there Gumbert coasted home, allowing only a single by Zimmer over the final four innings. In his route-going 9-2 victory, he held the Spiders to a mere three hits, striking out two while walking a like number. Unhappily for Pittsburgh, the result did not repeat itself in the nightcap of the twin bill. Fellow recruit George Ziegler lasted only six innings in a 7-1 beating of the Alleghenys.7 The contest was pitcher Ziegler’s only appearance as a major leaguer, as he was released shortly thereafter. But Cleveland was anxious to retain first-game hurler Gumbert, from whom more good work could be expected.

Nineteenth-century baseball scholar David Nemec has speculated that “Billy Gumbert may have been more talented than his younger brother Ad,” a 123-game major-league winner.8 But while close as brothers, the two had very different ambitions. At least during his early years, Ad Gumbert was willing to sublimate advancement in the various local government posts that he held in order to play baseball.9 Billy was not so inclined. He landed a promising position in the bookkeeping department of a Pittsburgh steel products manufacturer and was loath to travel far from the home office. Fortunately for Pittsburgh, Gumbert’s employer was a baseball fan and willing to make the pitcher available – but on a home-game-only basis. For the remainder of the season, Billy went to the office every morning and would head for the ballpark in the early afternoon if he received a “come over and pitch” telephone call from the Alleghenys.10

Because attendance at Recreation Park was so meager – an April contest against Cleveland attracted only six paying patrons (out of 17 spectators in attendance, total), the all-time major-league single-game turnstiles nadir11 – the Alleghenys switched many scheduled home dates to away games.12 As a result, Billy was used only 10 times that summer. He finished the season with a substandard 4-6 record, but his .400 winning percentage was easily the highest of any Allegheny pitcher with double-figure game appearances.

Despite his potential, only a handful of major-league games lay in Billy Gumbert’s future. He preferred to devote his working life to business pursuits. But for the remainder of his years – and Gumbert lived to be 80 – he would always recall fondly the afternoon of June 19, 1890 at Recreation Park.

Sources

No play-by-play for the subject-matter game was discovered. The sources for the narrative above are specified in the endnotes.

Notes

1 Ad Gumbert had posted a 16-13 record for the NL Chicago White Stockings in 1889 and was then on his way to a 23-win campaign with the Boston Reds of the upstart Players League.

2 As reported in “General Sporting Notes,” Pittsburg Press, June 18, 1890: 3. The account identifies our protagonist as Will Gumpert, the first name most commonly used by the Pittsburgh sports press.

3 Per National League game-attendance figures published in the Pittsburg Dispatch, June 20, 1890: 7. Thereafter, Sporting Life’s local correspondent insisted that had the club properly advertised that popular Billy Gumbert was going to pitch, the game “would have attracted 200 more people.” See “Pittsburg Pencillings,” Sporting Life, July 5, 1890: 3.

4 The narrative above has been crafted from game accounts published in the Pittsburg Dispatch, Pittsburg Press, and Pittsburgh Daily Post, June 20, 1890.

5 Gumpert had stolen 52 bases in his lone minor-league season and later played halfback on a semipro football team.

6 The Gumbert extra-base hits came in June 1888 when Billy was the everyday shortstop for the Zanesville (Ohio) Kickapoos of the Tri-State League.

7 Various next-day newspaper game accounts misspelled the hurler’s name as Zeigler.

8 See “Billy Gumbert,” in David Nemec, ed., Major League Baseball Profiles, 1871-1900, Vol. 2 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press: 2011), 317.

9 Ad Gumbert went on to a long career in local government. At the time of his death in April 1925, Ad was serving his third term as an Allegheny County commissioner.

10 According to Harry Keck, “Keck Says: Recalling the Three Gumberts, a Great Pitching Family,” Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, March 1, 1942: 26. The third Gumbert pitcher was oldest brother Charley, a fine amateur hurler. The Gumbert brothers were first cousins, twice removed, of Harry “Gunboat” Gumbert, a capable National League pitcher from 1935 to 1950.

11 Per the Recreation Park entry in Philip J. Lowry, Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of Major League and Negro League Ballparks (New York: Walker & Company, 2006), 184.

12 Only 40 of the 138 games the Pittsburgh Alleghenys played in 1890 were contested at Recreation Park.

Perhaps even more striking were two new additions to Philadelphia Ball Park, considered then by Henry Chadwick to be “beyond question the finest in the world.”2 (A generation later, with its reputation faded, the park became known as the Baker Bowl.) Painted in red along the base of the wall-mounted seats running from the bleachers to the grandstand were identical 150-foot-long signs: “Profanity, obscenity or insult to player, patron or umpire forbidden under penalty of ejection.”3 The edict came from Philadelphia’s majority owner, Colonel John I. Rogers. Dissatisfied that recent measures to check foul language on the playing field (the “Brush Resolutions,” named after their chief architect, Cincinnati owner John T. Brush) did not extend to the bleachers and grandstand, Rogers took matters into his own hands.4

Local sportswriters quickly found controversy in the signs. Horace Fogel, in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, wrote that “only the profane and obscene can find any ground for objection to the sign prohibiting ‘profanity and obscenity.’”5 The Philadelphia Inquirer, in an editorial likely written by sporting editor Frank Hough, protested “against the intimation conveyed in the signs that the men and women who attend the games at Philadelphia Park were given to profanity and obscenity.” The signs were, Hough continued, “gratuitously insulting and superfluous” as any foul-mouthed fans could (and should) be removed independently of them.6 The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin sided with Hough and printed numerous fan letters finding the Colonel’s message offensive. But another Bulletin reader called the press box’s attention “to the hoodlums that generally occupy the bleachers in left field, and next to the grand stand. … It is unpleasant to sit near them and listen to their ‘roasting’ of the players, and swearing generally. You, in the upper stand, cannot hear their rowdy talk.”7

Meanwhile, the Giants sought to build upon a third-place finish the previous season. A veteran, pugnacious squad, their hopes largely rested with pitchers Jouett Meekin and Amos Rusie. In the series opener on Wednesday, Philadelphia hammered Meekin for 16 hits, coasting to an 8-5 victory.

On Thursday, New York manager Scrappy Bill Joyce again penciled himself in at first base. Two ex-Phillies, equally combative, graced the lineup card: Mike Grady behind the plate and Kid Gleason at second. Philadelphia also knew the Giants starting pitcher, Cy Seymour. In his three career starts against the Phillies, all in the previous season’s second half, he had won each.8 Yet the hard-throwing left-hander could struggle to find the strike zone; Seymour led the league in both strikeouts and walks in 1897.

After Seymour set down the Phillies, Giants leadoff man George Van Haltren began the bottom of the first by beating out a grounder to short. Mike Tiernan singled through the box. Joyce homered over the right-field bleachers onto Broad Street, before Duggleby escaped further damage.9 Sam Thompson opened the next frame by singling, a balk was called on Seymour for one of his pickoff moves, then he walked Cross and Abbaticchio to load the bases. Catcher Ed McFarland struck out. The crowd gave Duggleby an encouraging hand as he strode to the plate. The rookie drove Seymour’s second offering over the same contentious right-field sign and wall Joyce had cleared.10 As the ball bounced off a cobblestone, the collective shock cleared. Duggleby circled the bases as 2,617 fans cheered, and Philadelphia led, 4-3.

From this point, both pitchers settled down. During spring training, a correspondent described Duggleby’s pitching: “No two balls in six or eight delivered were anywhere near alike. They came fast or slow and from all points of the compass. A remarkable part of his work is the control he seems to have.”11 Behind him, Nap Lajoie fielded 11 chances cleanly at second. Left fielder Ed Delahanty, playing the right-handed Grady as a dead pull hitter, robbed the Giants backstop of an extra-base hit along the foul line in the second. Both Grady and McFarland earned praise for their catching; the former ended Philadelphia’s third-inning hopes by catching Cross’s popup in front of the grandstand, then rifling a throw to third baseman Fred Hartman to nail Lajoie trying to advance on the play. New York right fielder Walt Wilmot saved a likely run with a terrific catch of Abbaticchio’s shallow liner in the sixth.

The press reported no violations of Rogers’ edict from the smallish crowd. With some measure of affection, fans hooted Grady when he struck out in the fifth. They heaped scorn upon Gleason who, trying to shoo away a small pigeon near his infield post in the sixth, killed the bird by throwing his glove at it.12

Philadelphia and New York exchanged runs in the sixth: Duggleby drove in McFarland with a single, George Davis sent Van Haltren home with a fly out. With the Phillies leading 5-4, Seymour melted down in the top of the eighth. Two hit batsman, two singles, a walk, and an error resulted in three runs, and the bases remained full when Lajoie came to bat. After Lajoie reportedly kidded the pitcher about his wildness, the pitcher drilled the young star in the ribs, forcing in another run.13 Joyce hooked Seymour, and the two delighted the crowd by exchanging heated words for a full minute. Reliever Charlie Gettig retired the Phillies, but not before another error and single resulted in four more runs.

Duggleby survived an eventful bottom of the ninth. With one out and the bases loaded, Van Haltren hit to the pitcher, who threw to McFarland to cut down Wilmot at the plate. McFarland then shot the ball to Delahanty at first to retire Van Haltren. The game finished as a 13-4 blowout.

Dating back to 1896, this was the 10th consecutive time Philadelphia had defeated New York in April. But as the Philadelphia Press observed, the previous two seasons’ impressive starts proved to only be “an opium smoker’s dream” once the Phillies stumbled on their first extended road trip. Yet as fans exited the park, they couldn’t help but wonder if Duggleby’s impressive major-league debut hinted at better fortunes.

Colonel Rogers’ signs remained in place until the team was sold after the 1902 season.

Acknowledgments

The author thanks the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Newspapers and Microfilm Center for their assistance in obtaining sources.

Notes

1 Per Baseball-Reference’s 1898 National League team statistics.

2 Henry Chadwick, “Chadwick’s Estimate,” Sporting Life, April 23, 1898: 3.

3 “The Man Behind the Plate,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 18, 1898: 4; “Those Red Signs,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 26, 1898: 4. For a (partial) view of one sign (with later rewording) see Philadelphia North American, September 5, 1901: 15.

4 “Rogers’ Resolve,” Sporting Life, March 19, 1898: 9. Additionally, Rogers informed park officials of specific behaviors (gambling, throwing seat cushions, etc.) to be stamped out and had each of his players sign an abstinence clause. See “Rowdies Are Warned,” The Sporting News, April 16, 1898: 2.

5 “Decorum vs. Rowdyism,” Philadelphia Public Ledger, April 16, 1898: 20.

6 “Deportment on a Base Ball Field,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 21, 1898: 4. While Hough was not indicated as the piece’s author, he initialed many similar pieces in the surrounding days.

7 “Despite Those Red Signs,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, April 23, 1898: 8.

8 August 6, August 17, and September 30, 1897.

9 The author has relied upon game accounts appearing in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia North American, Philadelphia Press, Philadelphia Public Ledger, Philadelphia Record, and Philadelphia Times. The only play-by-play account, however, seems to come from the New York Evening Telegram.

10 It is not known from which side Duggleby batted from. But turn-of-the-century sportswriters often noted left-handed hitters as such, and as a significant majority (approximately five in six) of right-handed pitchers also batted right-handed during Duggleby’s career, he likely batted from the right side.

11 “Lajoie Will Report Today,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 18, 1898: 4.

12 “Base Ball,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, April 22, 1898: 8. The Bulletin suggested “something was evidently wrong with that pigeon that Gleason knocked out.”

13 Lajoie’s kidding and Seymour’s purposeful hitting of him were mentioned in “Philadelphia Takes Another Game from New York,” Philadelphia Public Ledger, April 22, 1898: 16.

Fans began cheering when the two teams paraded out from the clubhouse and onto the field. The team members formed two lines in center field – the Superbas on one side, wearing white uniforms, and the Beaneaters on the other, wearing gray. At 2:00 P.M. the two lines of players marched solemnly to the grandstand. Using a long rope that ran through home plate and the pitcher’s box, they unfurled a large new American flag under the roof of the grandstand while the Twenty-Third Regiment Band played “The Star Spangled Banner.”3

The night before the game, National League President Harry Pulliam announced that Boston had signed outfielders Johnny Bates and Gene Good “by acceptance of terms (conditional).”4 Good was from Roxbury, Massachusetts (just south of downtown Boston), while Bates was from Steubenville, Ohio. Bates was described in the Brooklyn Times Union as “a newcomer in the big league with a big bat, which he knows how to wield.”5 Both rookies started in the season opener, with Good leading off and playing center field and Bates batting fifth and playing in left. Pulliam also announced that Brooklyn had signed Elmer Stricklett, but the pitcher was left off the home team’s Opening Day roster.

Taking on the Opening Day mound duties for Brooklyn was second-year right-hander Harry McIntire. He started 35 games in 1905 and completed 29, pitching over 300 innings. He allowed 340 hits and 127 earned runs, and hit 20 batters (all league-leading stats). He also gave up 101 bases on balls, finishing the season with a record of 8-25 and a 3.70 earned-run average.6 According to his SABR biography, “Such was the futility of Brooklyn baseball that 25 losses still earned McIntire the 1906 home opening start.”7

For Boston, Irv “Young Cy” Young got the start. He was a second-year hurler, too, throwing left-handed. He also led the National League in three categories in 1905: most innings pitched (378), games started (42), and complete games (41). He allowed 337 hits and 122 earned runs, almost as many as McIntire in both categories. But Young finished the ’05 season with a 20-21 record and a 2.90 ERA.8

The Beaneaters batted first. Veteran umpire Bob Emslie called, “Play Ball!” and Good settled into the batter’s box.9 The first pitch was a ball, and the 1906 campaign was underway. Good fouled the next one away, then three more pitches from McIntire were all off the plate and Good began the season with a walk. Player-manager Fred Tenney, in his 13th season with Boston and second as skipper, sent a grounder to second baseman John Hummel, who threw to shortstop Phil Lewis for the force out on Good. Tenney was then erased trying to steal second, and McIntyre struck out Cozy Dolan to end the inning.

Young was equally effective pitching to the Superbas, serving up “a rare assortment of curves and slants.”10 With two outs, Harry Lumley drove a pitch down the third-base line for a double. He tried to stretch the hit into a triple and was tagged out by third baseman Dave Brain before he reached third base.

In the top of the second, Boston’s new arrival Johnny Bates accounted for the first run of the game. Batting with one out, he swung at “a high, fast one”11 and sailed it over the right-field fence.12 With that mighty swing, he homered in his very first major-league at-bat. He also became the first player in the twentieth century to accomplish the feat.

After that, the game turned out to be a classic pitchers’ duel. McIntire blanked the visitors during the next six innings. Young matched him, allowing just the one hit in the first to Lumley. Only four Brooklyn batters reached during the game, and only one of them made it safely past second. In the third inning, Young hit Billy Maloney with a pitch. Maloney stole second and advanced to third on a wild throw from Boston catcher Tom Needham. Of the other two baserunners, Doc Gessler reached on an error by Boston second baseman Allie Strobel and Jack McCarthy reached on a fielding miscue by Young.13 After eight innings of play, the score remained 1-0 in favor of the visitors.

In the top of the ninth, Boston added an insurance run. Brain worked a base on balls, then Bates singled to left, advancing Brain to second. Al Bridwell bunted a pitch that McIntire fielded. But the pitcher threw it away, allowing Brain to gallop home.

The Beaneaters prevailed, 2-0, and Bates’s debut solo shot in the second was praised in all of the newspapers (both in Brooklyn and in Boston). In fact, the Boston Globe stated that “the first time [Bates] ever faced a league pitcher he nearly tore the trademark off the ball.”14

McIntire, for his part, pitched well enough to win. His error in the ninth resulted in a second run, but Bates’s home run was the only real damage of the game. The Brooklyn newspapers seemed to think that as the game progressed, perhaps Bates’s long ball was just lucky. McIntire struck out 10 Boston batters. Every player on the Boston side except Good and Brain fell victim to a strikeout. In particular, Young struck out three times. McIntyre had limited the Beaneaters to just six hits and two walks, and with his homer and single, Bates had two of the hits.15

Brooklyn manager Donovan was optimistic about his club, saying after the game, “I am perfectly satisfied that [our] team is a good one. We were up against the hardest pitching any club will face at any time.” He added, “Our team will be winning our share of the games in time.”16 The New York Times told its readers that “Young’s pitching was undoubtedly the principal cause of the Brooklyn defeat.”17

The Brooklyn club’s president, Charlie Ebbets, echoed his manager’s words: “I am sure that the team is a big improvement over that of last year, so much so that I am willing to put myself on record to the effect that we will land much higher than a great many predict.”18

According to MLB.com,19 Bates became the third major leaguer to hit a home run in his first official at-bat. His accomplishment followed those of Boston Beaneaters second baseman Joe Harrington (September 10, 1895) and Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Bill Duggleby (April 21, 1898 – which was a grand slam). After Bates, fans had to wait another 15 seasons before the next major leaguer (St. Louis Browns second baseman Luke Stuart) accomplished the rare feat of homering in his first at-bat.20

After starting in left field in his first game, Bates played 140 more games in his inaugural season, almost all (133) as Boston’s center fielder. He set a career high in home runs (6) in his rookie season.21 His second round-tripper of the season did not come until June 8, his 47th career game. He played nine seasons in the majors, for five different teams, with a total of 25 home runs and a career .278 batting average.

In his sophomore season (1907), Bates accomplished another rare feat. On April 26, 1907, playing for the Boston Doves,22 Bates hit for the cycle, and did so against the Brooklyn Superbas. Only three other major-league players have since accomplished hitting a home run in his first major-league at-bat and then hitting for the cycle later in his career. Bates was the first.23

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BRO/BRO190604120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1906/B04120BRO1906.htm

Photo credit: Johnny Bates, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 The Boston Red Stockings squad was one of the original eight teams when the National League formed in 1876. (The other seven teams were the Chicago White Stockings, the Hartford Dark Blues, the St. Louis Brown Stockings, the Louisville Grays, the New York Mutuals, the Philadelphia Athletics, and the Cincinnati Reds.) For more information on the original Beaneaters, see Bob LeMoine and Bill Nowlin, eds., The Glorious Beaneaters of the 1890s (Phoenix: SABR, 2019). The New York Times reported a crowd of 10,000, while all other accounts listed 12,000. See “Boston Beats Brooklyn,” New York Times, April 13, 1906: 9.

2 Brooklyn also had three tie games, giving the team a 1905 record of 48-104-3 (.316).

3 “Brooklyn Begins Badly,” New York Tribune, April 13, 1906: 10.

4 “Bates and Good on List,” Boston Globe, April 13, 1906: 5.

5 “Brooklyn team gives proof it’s improved,” Brooklyn Times Union, April 13, 1906: 7.

6 Only one Brooklyn pitcher won more than nine games in 1905, Doc Scanlon, with 14.

7 John Struth, “Harry McIntire,” SABR Biography Project.

8 Second-best in wins on the 1905 Boston club was Chick Fraser (14). Four Beaneaters pitchers lost at least 20 games.

9 Good had been signed as a free agent on April 11, the day before Opening Day, but he played only one season (1906) in the majors, and his season consisted of just 34 games. He batted .151 with 18 hits (all singles) in 119 at-bats. Therefore, his slugging percentage equaled his batting average.

10 “Superbas Make a Favorable Impression, Although Shut Out in the Opening Game,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 13, 1906: 14.

11 “In Time of Defeat,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 13, 1906: 14.

12 The fence was approximately 295 feet down the right-field line and 298 feet to right-center from home plate. See Philip J. Lowry, ed., Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of All Major League and Negro League Ballparks, Fifth Edition (Phoenix: SABR, 2019), 55.

13 The newspaper accounts tell us who made the errors, but provide no details as to the innings in which they were made.

14 “Pirates, Giants and Colts Begin Season With Victories,” Boston Globe, April 13, 1906: 1.

15 The actual number of hits varies with the newspaper accounts. The Brooklyn Times Union and the New York Times give Boston credit for five hits, while the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the New York Tribune, the Boston Globe, and the Fall River (Massachusetts) Evening Herald each reported six hits by the visitors. Both Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet list six hits by Boston. The extra hit in question was by Bridwell, presumably his ninth-inning bunt that McIntire fielded.

16 “Superbas Make a Favorable Impression, Although Shut Out in the Opening Game.”  

17 “Boston Beats Brooklyn.”  

18 “Superbas Make a Favorable Impression, Although Shut Out in the Opening Game.” Ebbets might have been prophetic. Brooklyn won 66 games in 1906 (against 86 losses and a tie). The Superbas finished in fifth place in 1905, 50 games behind the pennant-winning Chicago Cubs. Meanwhile, the Beaneaters landed in last place, losing 102 games. (This marked the third straight season that the Beaneaters had lost at least 98 games.)

19 Ed Eagle, “Players with home run in first at-bat,” MLB.com, accessed February 2024. Through the end of the 2023 season, 136 players have hit a home run in their first at-bat. The first player to hit a home run in his very first major-league at-bat was Joe Harrington, an infielder for the Beaneaters. He homered on September 10, 1895, in a game against the St. Louis Browns. It was a solo home run in the bottom of the second inning. He also singled twice in the game.

20 Luke Stuart, playing for the St. Louis Browns, hit a home run in his first at-bat on August 8, 1921, the fourth batter in major-league history to do so. Stuart only played in parts of three games in the majors. He appeared as a late-inning (eighth inning) replacement in his debut game on July 28, 1921, but he did not bat. On August 8, 1921, he also entered late in the game (seventh inning), and this time, he batted in the top of the ninth and homered off future Hall of Famer Walter Johnson. That undoubtedly earned him a start on August 9, but he was replaced by Marty McManus in the fifth frame after going 0-for-2. Stuart finished his major-league experience as a “one-hit wonder,” with one hit (the solo home run) in three career at-bats.

21 Bates tied his career best by slugging six home runs in 1913, while playing for the Cincinnati Reds.

22 In 1883 Boston changed its nickname from the Red Stockings to the Beaneaters, and in 1907 changed it once more to the Doves. In 1912 the team became known as the Boston Braves.

23 After Bates, the only other players to accomplish both rare events were Earl Averill (first homer on April 16, 1929; cycle on August 17, 1933), Bill White (first homer on May 7, 1956; cycle on August 14, 1960), and Eddie Rosario (first homer on May 6, 2015; cycle on September 19, 2021).

Johnson had had an off-season in 1920, when “a combination of bad cold, a sore arm, and pulled leg muscles limited him an 8-10 mark in 21 appearances.” A season later, the Big Train entered this game at 9-10 with an earned-run average of 3.84.

The Browns scored first. In the top of the second inning, Ken Williams singled to right to lead off. Baby Doll Jacobson followed with a single, as he “put it in the same territory,”3 sending Williams to third. Hank Severeid lifted a fly ball to left fielder Bing Miller, and it was deep enough to bring Williams home. The Senators answered in their half, duplicating the Browns’ effort. Miller and Bucky Harris led off with back-to-back singles (both to left field), and Howie Shanks sacrificed them up a base. An out later, Frank O’Rourke stroked the third single to left, plating both runners and giving Johnson a lead he would not relinquish. The Washington hurler helped his own cause by doubling to center, and O’Rourke’s run made it 3-1.

In the bottom of the third, the Senators started again by getting the first two batters aboard. Clyde Milan singled to right and Sam Rice beat out a bunt fielded by the pitcher Bayne. Washington continued with its small-ball approach. Miller attempted a sacrifice bunt but popped out. Harris then bunted successfully, advancing the two baserunners. Shanks rolled a grounder to shortstop Wally Gerber, who fumbled the ball, allowing Milan to score (Rice stayed at third). With Val Picinich at the plate, Washington skipper George McBride called for a double steal. Browns catcher Severeid made a poor throw to second, and Rice raced home safely. After the run scored, Shanks was caught in a rundown for the third out.

St. Louis tried a comeback in the fifth. With two outs and Jack Tobin on first, Frank Ellerbe launched a triple to the scoreboard in right. Harris took the relay from Milan and fired to Shanks at third in an attempt to get Ellerbe, but the ball sailed over the third baseman’s head, and Ellerbe ran home, cutting the score to 5-3 in favor of the Senators.

Washington then scored in each of the next four innings, with one run in the fifth, two in the sixth, and one in the seventh. Browns reliever Ray Kolp had replaced Bayne in the fourth and was tagged for three runs before giving way to Bugs Bennett in the seventh. While Bennett took his warm-up tosses, the rookie Stuart came on as a defensive replacement, taking over at second for fellow rookie Marty McManus.4 He fielded one ball, a line out by Johnson to end the inning.

The Senators came to bat in the bottom of the eighth leading by 9-3. After the first five hitters reached, Bill Burwell took over for Bennett. Washington sent 10 batters to the plate, scoring six times before an out was recorded. They added a seventh tally on a sacrifice fly. and at the end of eight innings, the score was 16-3.

In the top of the ninth, with the game virtually out of reach, Browns manager Lee Fohl let 19-year-old Stuart swing the bat. Gerber had singled to left to lead off the inning, and Stuart settled into the batter’s box for his first official plate appearance. He stroked a Johnson offering for a “vicious liner which carried to the limits in left field for the circuit,”5 with Gerber scoring ahead of him.

St. Louis starter Bayne took the loss, “for the reason that he happened to be the starting pitcher, but he looked no worse than any of the three who followed him.”6 As far as the Senators were concerned, they enjoyed batting practice against four Browns hurlers. According to the Washington Evening Star, “None of the Nationals failed to help his batting average at the expense of the visiting flingers.”7 Every player on the Washington nine had at least one hit. Johnson helped his own cause with two hits and two runs batted in. Center fielder Rice was 4-for-5 for the Senators, with two runs scored and two driven in. With two doubles, he was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle. Johnson pitched a complete game, scattering 10 hits (eight of them singles), while walking only two and striking out five Browns batters. He evened his record at 10-10.

In the field, the Browns committed four errors. Senators shortstop O’Rourke made his 50th error of the season, one of three Washington miscues.8

In looking for something positive, the Evening Star reported, “Soundly trounced though they were, the Browns maintained their first-division berth.”9 Their record fell to 49-54, keeping them in fourth place in the American League. Washington improved to 59-50, still in third place. By the end of the season, though, St. Louis would climb into third position, a half-game ahead of the fourth-place Senators.

Although he made history with his first hit as a homer, Luke Stuart finished his big-league stint with only three career at-bats. His first major league game was July 28, 1921 against the Giants at the Polo Grounds. He entered the contest as a defensive replacement for Jimmy Austin at second base but did not get a plate appearance. In his “career,” he sported a batting average of .333, a slugging percentage of 1.333, two runs scored, and two runs batted in. He also played on August 9, starting at second for St. Louis, and the game was his last in the majors. After two at-bats without a hit and one run scored, he was replaced by McManus. That game lasted 19 innings, with McManus going 3-for-7.

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted baseball-reference.com and retrosheet.org. Play-by-play information was taken from the St. Louis Star and Times.

baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1192108080.shtml.

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1921/B08080WS11921.htm.

Notes

1 “Walter Johnson Tans Fohlmen in Second of Series,” St. Louis Star and Times, August 8, 1921: 13. The attendance figure is not provided by either Retrosheet or Baseball-Reference.com.

2 Charlie Bevis, “Luke Stuart,” SABR biography found online at https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/1bdc8ea1. Accessed February 2018.

3 St. Louis Star and Times.

4 McManus made his major-league debut in 1920, but he played in only one game that season. In 1921, the rookie played in 121 games, mostly as the starting second baseman for the Browns.

5 Denman Thompson, “Nationals Go on Rampage With Their Bats: Major League Races Are Strikingly Similar,” Washington Evening Star, August 9, 1921: 18.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 O’Rourke led the American League with 55 errors in 1921, and he missed five weeks of the season, beginning two days after this game.

9 Thompson.

After a challenging 1928 season, Cleveland was anticipating the arrival of a new campaign. The Indians had finished seventh in the American League in ’28 with a 62-92 record, 39 games behind the New York Yankees. Cleveland struggled throughout the late 1920s; except for a second-place finish in 1926, the team last finished above .500 in 1923. Though the 1928 Indians’ .285 team batting average was third in the AL, their 674 runs, .382 slugging percentage, and .719 on-base plus slugging (OPS) were third-worst in the eight-team AL. Although the offense was sputtering, Cleveland featured brothers shortstop Joe Sewell and catcher Luke Sewell, who tied for 12th in AL MVP voting the previous season. Their pitching struggled even more; their team’s 4.47 earned-run average was the AL’s worst, though they had the nucleus for an improved staff in Willis Hudlin and Joe Shaute.

As the 1929 season approached, Cleveland fans were excited about the arrival of two rookie outfielders with differing styles: Averill and Dick Porter. More fans were eager to see Porter play than Averill. One newspaper account reported, “Averill goes about his work quietly and efficiently, sticking pretty close to the accepted rules of style. Porter is equally efficient, but there is a swagger about him that acts as an irresistible magnet to the eye.”2

Detroit was also looking forward to turning the page. The 1928 Tigers finished just ahead of Cleveland, sixth in the AL with a 68-86 record and 33 games behind New York. The Tigers’ roster included future Hall of Famers second baseman Charlie Gehringer and outfielder Harry Heilmann, with veteran third baseman Marty McManus and outfielder Harry Rice hoping to improve Detroit’s fortunes. George Uhle, one of Cleveland’s better pitchers the preceding season, had arrived in Detroit during the offseason to join Ownie Carroll and Earl Whitehill on the pitching staff.

Shaute received the Opening Day starting assignment from manager Roger Peckinpaugh. The veteran left-hander from Pennsylvania was entering his seventh full season pitching for Cleveland. He was 13-17 with a 4.04 ERA over 253⅔ innings in 1928, when he led Indians’ pitchers with 31 games started and 81 strikeouts. Primarily known for his fastball,3 Shaute was praised for developing a more efficient delivery and adding more speed to his fastball during spring training.4

Whitehill was tabbed by Detroit manager Bucky Harris. Whitehill, another veteran left-handed workhorse, had logged over 195 innings in each of the past five seasons for the Tigers. In 1928 he went 11-16 with a 4.31 ERA over 196⅓ innings. Whitehill pitched well against Cleveland; in five appearances, he went 2-2 with a 2.08 ERA with three complete games. Whitehill threw a devastating curve and a fastball.5

A below-average crowd of about 16,000, attributable to cold weather and threatening clouds, witnessed Opening Day in Cleveland.6 The Tigers immediately pounced. Rice singled into center on Shaute’s first pitch. Gehringer walked. Heilmann’s fly ball advanced both baserunners. Rookie Dale Alexander, making his big-league debut, grounded out to third base, scoring Rice. Bob Fothergill lined out, and Detroit led 1-0.

Indians shortstop Jackie Tavener popped out to start Cleveland’s half. Carl Lind struck out. Averill walked to the plate for his first major-league plate appearance amid mild applause. Facing a 0-and-2 count against a veteran southpaw, the left-handed Averill blasted a long fly ball over the right-field fence for his first big-league home run. Averill’s blast “cleared the screen and landed among the frame shacks on the opposite side of the street.”7 Joe Sewell flied out, and the teams were tied 1-1 after one inning.

Cleveland nearly added to its lead in the next inning. Porter, in his first big-league plate appearance, walked. Lew Fonseca reached second on an infield error. Charlie Jamieson bunted both runners up a base. With one out and both runners in scoring position, Luke Sewell lined out to leaping third baseman McManus, who quickly turned and threw to second, doubling off Fonseca and ending the threat.8

Whitehill started Detroit’s third inning with a walk. Rice hit into a fielder’s choice. Gehringer launched a two-run clout over the right-field wall, giving Detroit a 3-1 lead. Heilmann lined out and Alexander popped out, breaking the first bat of the season.9 The Indians threatened in the fourth inning. With two outs, Porter walked again, and Fonseca singled to advance him to third base. With runners on the corners, Jamieson singled into the left-field gap, scoring Porter and cutting Detroit’s lead to 3-2.

Both pitchers settled down in the middle innings. Although the Tigers had a runner on board in each of the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings, they couldn’t pad their lead. Averill showcased his defensive abilities in the sixth by robbing McManus with a sliding catch of his line drive.10 Meanwhile, Whitehill kept the Indians hitless during the same stretch, with a lone runner reaching first on an error.

Rice led off the Detroit eighth with a right-field double and took to third base on Gehringer’s groundout. Hudlin relieved Shaute. Heilmann flied out to deep right field, scoring Rice to give the Tigers a 4-2 lead. The Indians quickly responded; in the bottom half, pinch-hitter Johnny Hodapp singled. Ray Gardner ran for him. Lind singled. Averill sacrificed Gardner to third base and Lind to second base. Joe Sewell grounded out to short, scoring Gardner and reducing Detroit’s lead to a lone run. Porter flied out with the tying run on third base.

Fothergill started the Tigers’ ninth inning by singling to right field. With one out, Nolen Richardson walked as Detroit threatened yet again. But Merv Shea hit into an inning-ended double play.

Whitehill returned to the mound with a one-run lead and three outs remaining. He immediately encountered trouble. Fonseca doubled into right field. Jamieson beat out a bunt down the third-base line, and Fonseca reached third. With runners on the corners, Luke Sewell singled to center, plating Fonseca with the tying run. With no outs and the winning run at third, Hudlin flied out to short left field and Gardner flied out to short center field. Lind was intentionally walked to pressure Averill as the potential hero in his major-league debut. Averill flied out to deep center field, and the game headed into extra innings tied 4-4.

In the 10th inning, Whitehall started Detroit’s half with a walk, but Rice hit into a double play. Gehringer doubled. Heilmann grounded out to end the Tigers’ threat. In the bottom half with two outs, Fonseca singled, then was caught stealing second on a rifle throw by Shea.

Another Detroit leadoff hitter reached base when Alexander singled in the 11th. He reached second on Fothergill’s sacrifice and third on McManus’s groundout. Pinch-hitter Pinky Hargrave was intentionally walked. Pinch-hitter John Stone flied out, and the Tigers missed another opportunity.

Jamieson started Cleveland’s half with a popout. Luke Sewell singled. Hudlin flied out. Gardner walked, moving Sewell into scoring position. Lind doubled to deep left field, plating Sewell with the winning run for a dramatic Opening Day victory.

Hudlin earned the win by pitching 3⅔ scoreless innings. Whitehill absorbed the loss but pitched a complete game. Averill went 1-for-4 with a homer and sacrifice in his major-league debut. Lew Fonseca banged out three hits for Cleveland while Detroit’s Rice scored three times and Gehringer plated two runs. The Indians’ defense played a critical role, turning four double plays, including in the ninth and 10th innings.

The Indians drastically improved their fortunes in the 1929 campaign, finishing third with an 81-71 record, 24 games behind the pennant-winning Philadelphia Athletics and six games behind the Yankees. Their hitting improved; the team’s .293 batting average and .767 OPS were fourth-best in the league, though they still struggled to turn successful plate appearances into runs, ending with the AL’s third-lowest runs scored (717). Cleveland’s pitching staff fared better too, compiling an AL second-best 4.05 team ERA.

The Tigers also improved over their previous season, though only by two games. Detroit finished with a 70-84 record, 36 games behind Philadelphia. The Tigers scored an AL-best 926 runs and batted an AL-leading .299, but their pitching staff finished with an AL-worst 4.96 ERA, with 646 walks issued and 1,641 hits allowed.

Averill finished his rookie season establishing a club record 18 home runs while finishing second on the team with a .332 batting average, 43 doubles, 13 triples, and 96 runs batted in. Averill quickly became a centerpiece for Cleveland’s offense, where he played through 1939, earning six All-Star selections and induction into the Hall of Fame in 1975.

Sources

Besides the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and the following:

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

baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE192904160.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1929/B04160CLE1929.htm

Notes

1 2020 Cleveland Indians Media Guide (Cleveland: Cleveland Indians Baseball Club), 326.

2 Gordon Cobbledick, “Cubs’ Manager Sees Porter as Great Drawing Card,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 19, 1929: 26.

3 Bill James and Rob Neyer, The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers: An Historical Compendium of Pitching, Pitchers, and Pitches (New York: Fireside Books, 2004), 382.

4 “Cleveland Looking to Scotch Defense,” The Sporting News, April 4, 1929: 1.

5 James and Neyer, 423.

6 Gordon Cobbledick, “Indians Win in Eleventh, 5-4,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 17, 1929: 1.

7 Cobbledick, “Indians Win in Eleventh, 5-4.”

8 Cobbledick, “Indians Win in Eleventh, 5-4.”

9 Gordon Cobbledick, “Indians Snatch Victory from Tigers in Eleventh, 5-4,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 17, 1929: 24.

10 Cobbledick, “Indians Snatch Victory from Tigers in Eleventh, 5-4.”

Back in 1935, Boston Red Sox GM Eddie Collins had seen talent in the young lefty and signed him to a contract, with the team agreeing to pay half his tuition during his final three years at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.1

The day after his graduation, LeFebvre suited up in Boston. The day after that, he came to bat.

At the plate, LeFebvre saw all of one pitch. He homered, hitting the ball over Fenway Park’s left-field wall.

A week later, the Red Sox were in Chicago and manager Joe Cronin suggested that LeFebvre      might be better off pitching for Boston’s Double-A2 affiliate in Minneapolis, getting regular work rather than sitting on the bullpen bench. So LeFebvre left the big-league team and joined the Minneapolis Millers.

Before LeFebvre’s debut game on Friday, June 10, the Red Sox were in second place in the American League, 3½ games behind the Cleveland Indians and tied with the New York Yankees for second place. They had just beaten the visiting Cleveland Indians in back-to-back day games on Wednesday, 7-6, and Thursday, 8-0 on a shutout thrown by Lefty Grove.3 

The starting pitchers on June 10, in a game that drew around 12.000,4 were two right-handers, rookie Charlie Wagner for the Red Sox and Monty Stratton for the White Sox. Stratton had been 15-5 for the White Sox the year before, and he was 3-2 (2.15) up to this point in the 1938 season.5

June 10 was just the third start of Wagner’s big-league career.6 It did not go well. He got through the first inning fine, walking one but retiring the other three batters, and he was staked to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when center fielder Doc Cramer led off with a first-pitch double to left-center and was singled home by left fielder Joe Vosmik, also swinging at the first pitch. Stratton got outs from the next three, and then dramatically turned the game in his favor when he came up to bat in the top of the second.

With a single to center, a base on balls, and a single on a sacrifice bunt back to Wagner, the White Sox loaded the bases with nobody out. Catcher Luke Sewell popped up to second base, but Stratton stepped into the batter’s box and hit a grand slam over the left-field wall.7 Wagner stayed in the game and struck out Boze Berger. But when Marv Owen doubled off him, manager Joe Cronin (who also played shortstop) called for a reliever.

Right-hander Jim Bagby took over. He walked the first batter, then gave up an RBI double to center fielder Mike Kreevich but was fortunate to see the second runner thrown out at home on a relay from left field. It was 5-1, White Sox.

Chicago added two more runs in the third, with Stratton contributing a single as the third of four consecutive hits that drove Bagby from the game. Lefty Lee Rogers relieved him.

In the fourth, Kreevich hit a solo home run off Rogers.

In the fifth, Stratton came to bat again with one out and a runner on third. Rogers balked and the score became 9-1. Stratton grounded out and there was no further damage. He then got the Red Sox out one, two, three.

Cronin made a number of moves to start the sixth. He summoned LeFebvre to pitch (as what the Chicago Tribune called a “surrender pitcher”8) and also replaced his catcher, third baseman, and center fielder, shuffling things around to give a bit of a rest to the regulars and an opportunity to a few bench players.

LeFebvre was not greeted kindly. Right fielder Hank Steinbacher singled. Kreevich was hit by a pitch. Rip Radcliff singled, driving in Steinbacher. LeFebvre then recorded his first out, but it was Gee Walker’s fly ball to center field that allowed Kreevich to tag and score. It was 11-1, White Sox. Second baseman Jackie Hayes hit into a 6-4-3 double play that closed out the inning. 

LeFebvre didn’t allow a man on base in the seventh, but he gave up two more runs in the top of the eighth on a double by Owen and a homer to left-center by Kreevich, his second of the game. At this point, Chicago led 13-1.

New catcher Johnny Peacock was first to bat for Boston in the bottom of the eighth. He hit a fly ball hauled in by the shortstop. LeFebvre was up next. “Joe Cronin said, ‘Go up and hit, kid! Go up and hit!’” In one word, LeFebvre said what happened next: “Bang-o!” 

He homered over the left-field wall. The ball struck something – perhaps one of the loudspeakers – and bounced back onto the field.9 It was a home run, struck on the first pitch thrown to LeFebvre in a big-league ballgame.

He later described the homer in more detail: “[T]he first ball Monty Stratton threw to me, I hit it over the left-field fence. I was a left-hand hitter; I swung a little late. … They used to announce the lineups and so forth. Loudspeakers. And it hit in the loudspeaker, which was an automatic home run. But I don’t know that. And the ball came back on the field. Mike Kreevich is playing center field, and he’s taking his time. When I hit the ball, I figured I’d hit the wall and I’d make a double anyway. When I got to second base – he knew it was a home run, but I didn’t – and I said to myself, ‘Christ, he’s not hustling,’ and I went sliding into third base. Bill McGowan was the umpire and he hollered, ‘Come on, kid. Come on in, you hit a home run.’ I didn’t even know it was a home run.” 

LeFebvre’s solo home run made it 13-2. The next two batters grounded out to the first baseman and popped up foul, also to the first baseman.

Hayes homered off LeFebvre to lead off the top of the ninth. After a fly-ball out, Stratton singled (his third hit of the game), followed by two more White Sox singles that loaded the bases. Chicago got its 15th run on a productive groundout to second base.

Stratton set down Ben Chapman, Jimmie Foxx, and Joe Cronin in order to close out the 15-2 victory. The White Sox outhit Boston, 20 to 5, for 37 total bases. They hit four homers and five doubles. Foxx had homered in four consecutive prior games, but was held hitless in this one.

Stratton got the win. Wagner was charged with the loss. LeFebvre gave up six runs, but the game was already lost.

Still, LeFebvre had a home-run memory from the game that he would never forget. He ended up finishing out the season with Minneapolis. In 1939 he was 1-1 in five games for the Red Sox. In the 1943 and 1944 seasons combined, he was 4-4 for Washington, the only other stretch he spent in the majors.

After playing ball, LeFebvre went into teaching physical education and coaching sports. He worked for 25 years in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, while also doing some scouting for the Red Sox. When interviewed at age 90, he summed things up: “I wasn’t a great pitcher, you know. I was just an average guy.” Reminded of his .276 batting average in 87 at-bats (with just the one home run), he said, “That’s right. I should have played first base.”

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. The author interviewed Bill LeFebvre on June 19, 1997, and January 29, 2006. All quotations from LeFebvre that are not otherwise attributed come from these interviews. 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS193806100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1938/B06100BOS1938.htm

Photo credit: Bill LeFebvre, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Jack Barry was the baseball coach for the Holy Cross Crusaders and had granted LeFebvre a half-scholarship. Scout Hugh Duffy saw him pitch in the Cape Cod League and brought him, with a number of other players, to Fenway Park for a tryout. Red Sox GM Collins signed him to a contract, with the team also picking up the tab for most of his freshman year’s tuition, and half for the next three years. Many details that inform this game account come from LeFebvre’s SABR biography: Bill Nowlin, “Bill LeFebvre,” SABR.org.  

2 Double A in the 1930s was the equivalent of today’s Triple A.

3 Grove shut out Chicago despite walking four and giving up nine base hits. All games at Fenway were day games in the1930s; its first night game was not played until June 13, 1947.  

4 It was Ladies Day, with paid admission around 7,000 and another 5,000 “Fanettes” (as the Boston Globe dubbed them) at the game. Gerry Moore, “Sox Stumble, but Occasionally Save Face with a Laugh,” Boston Globe, June 11, 1938: 6. Moore also passed on a story from LeFebvre about another memorable at-bat from the preceding summer in which he both hit into a triple play and broke his right collarbone in a collision at first base.

5 Stratton’s pitching career was developing nicely; he was 15-9 in 1938, but in November he accidentally shot himself in the right thigh while rabbit hunting and never regained his form as a pitcher.

6 Wagner had beaten the St. Louis Browns, 6-3, on June 1. He had also relieved in five games, coming into the June 10 game with an ERA of 6.35.

7 The Chicago Daily News reported Stratton laughing afterward, saying. “I made up my mind to swing when I went up there, and he threw where I was swinging.” John P. Carmichael, “Showers Force Postponement of Sox Contest,” Chicago Daily News, June 11, 1938: 25. 

8 Edward Burns, “White Sox Get 20 Hits; Crush Boston, 15 to 2,” Chicago Tribune, June 11, 1938: 17.

9 The Boston Globe reported that the ball actually struck the screen and bounced back onto the field of play. James C. O’Leary, “White Sox Bombard Yawkey Youngsters,” Boston Globe, June 11, 1938: 5. 

Immediately after the injury-riddled May 30 contest that forced All-Star pitcher Bucky Walters to finish the day manning center field, Reds general manager Warren Giles hurriedly contacted the Syracuse Chiefs, his club’s Double-A (top-level) minor-league affiliate, “begging for the best help available.”2 That help came in the form of Clyde Vollmer, a “streamlined” 20-year-old outfield prospect.3 The 6-foot-1, 185-pound youngster was not completely unfamiliar to Cincinnati fans; Vollmer hailed from the Queen City, where he starred on the sandlots for years. Upon graduating from Cincinnati’s Western Hills High School, he departed the Midwest to begin his career in Organized Baseball. Vollmer tore up Class-D ball in 1939 and 1940 but began to falter offensively upon advancing into the higher levels. Despite slashing only .214/.264/.325 and being benched by the Chiefs at the time of his call-up in 1942, he nonetheless was recognized in the media as having pop in his bat and “all the natural qualifications for becoming a real major leaguer.”4

The youngster had “always dreamed of the day when he would wear the uniform of his childhood idols, the Reds.”5 After being summoned to “The Show,” Vollmer immediately hopped on an overnight train from Syracuse to his hometown to live his dream. He made it to Crosley Field midway through the opener of the afternoon doubleheader against the Pirates. He signed his contract and suited up in time to be available for game two action. Vollmer’s arrival was a welcome sight for shorthanded Reds manager Bill McKechnie, who noted that his squad was “practically out of outfielders.”6 To his point, the Cincinnati skipper was forced to assign backup catcher Dick West to left field in the first game of the twin bill.

Wasting no time, McKechnie penciled Vollmer into the starting left-field position for the second game. The 21-22 Reds, victorious in the first game, were World Series champions only two seasons before, but had slipped toward more middling status since that time. The slumping Pirates entered the game having lost 13 of their last 15. The 16,721 fans at the ballpark at Findlay Street and Western Avenue faced unseasonably warm temperatures in the 90s at game time.

Cincinnati starter Ray Starr faced trouble in the early going. After Pittsburgh rookie Johnny Barrett bounced out to begin the game, Jimmy Wasdell singled. Wasdell went to second on Starr’s throwing error that allowed Bob Elliott to reach base on a fielder’s choice. Maurice Van Robays walked, loading the bases with one out. However, consecutive fly outs by Vince DiMaggio and Frankie Gustine allowed Starr to escape with no damage.

The Pirates’ offense threatened anew in the top of the second. A base hit by Alf Anderson followed by a free pass to Al Lopez put two on with no outs. Once again, Starr was able to pitch his way out of danger, aided greatly by a double-play ball off the bat of Max Butcher, Pittsburgh’s starting pitcher. Although he was unable to help his own cause offensively, Butcher had cruised through the first two innings without allowing a Red to reach base.

After Starr made quick work of the Pirates in the top of the third, Vollmer led things off for the Reds in the bottom of the frame. He “appeared very cool when he took his place at the plate” despite its being his first major-league plate appearance.7 The “tall, rangy” rookie lashed at Butcher’s first offering, sending the “pellet hurtling on a straight line over the left field barrier” for a home run.8 “It’s not often that a youngster of less than 21 years can bring 17,000 persons to their feet cheering the way he did with the first swing he ever took against big-league pitching,” sportswriter Tom Swope wrote.9 One of those cheering spectators was Vollmer’s father, a local railroad worker, who had hurriedly departed work upon the news of his son’s arrival into town and made it to the ballpark just in time to experience the thrilling moment.10

Cincinnati picked up two additional runs in the inning on a walk to Starr followed by back-to-back doubles by Eddie Joost and Lonny Frey. And “that was the ball game”; neither team was able to muster much offense or any real scoring threats from that point on.11 Although Vollmer went hitless in his other two at-bats, he was “hot stuff in the field with a couple of nice catches.”12

The Reds posted a .500 record for the fourth time during the campaign with the 3-0 victory. The loss for the “fast-fading” Pirates was their ninth in a row.13 “The Pirates are guilty of violating [US President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s declaration for baseball to continue during the ongoing World War II],” Pittsburgh sportswriter Lester Biederman quipped. “That isn’t baseball they’ve been playing recently! It simply can’t be.”14

Starr had gone the distance for Cincinnati to collect his impressive third shutout of the month and improve his record to 6-2 en route to his first and only All-Star berth. Aided by player shortages during the war years, the “rubber-armed” 36-year-old was finally given the opportunity to pitch regularly in the big leagues that season after over a decade and a half of toiling primarily in the minors.15 The journeyman Butcher was nearly as good in his complete-game loss for Pittsburgh outside of his tempestuous third inning.

However, the game’s real star was the local hero Vollmer, who became the fifth player in history to homer on the first pitch of his first major-league at-bat.16 And at age 20 years and 249 days, he remained (heading into the 2024 season) the youngest ever to do so. (Starlin Castro of the Chicago Cubs, at 20 years and 44 days in 2010, is the youngest to homer in his first at-bat overall.) It was disclosed a couple of weeks after the game that sage counsel heeded by Vollmer may have played a key role in the historic event. Just before striding to the plate for the first time in his debut, the green rookie queried his manager about the take sign. “Young man, never mind the take sign,” McKechnie advised. “Just swing at the first pitch.”17

Following his “story-book bow,” things quickly turned sour for Vollmer.18 Over the next nine contests he collected only two hits in 34 at-bats. This earned Vollmer a demotion to the Birmingham Barons of the Class-A1 Southern Association where he spent most of the rest of the campaign. He did return to the Reds in September after roster expansion but played sparingly.

Shortly after the end of the 1942 season, Vollmer joined the US Army, where he served for three years during wartime. He returned to the game in 1946 and spent the next nine seasons in the major leagues, bouncing between the Reds, Boston Red Sox, and Washington Nationals. Characterized during his rookie campaign as a “big boy with power,” Vollmer did reach double figures in round-trippers four times between 1949 and 1953 but never achieved stardom.19 He ended his time in the big leagues with 69 home runs, none of which were as notable as his first.

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com (https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN194205312.shtml) for box scores, play-by-play information, and other data, as well as Retrosheet.org (https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1942/B05312CIN1942.htm).

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also accessed GenealogyBank.com, NewspaperArchive.com, Newspapers.com, Paper of Record, Stathead.com, Weather Underground, and Clyde Vollmer’s SABR biography (https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/clyde-vollmer/).

Photo credit: Clyde Vollmer, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Tom Swope, “Injury Raid on Reds Brings Up New Hero,” The Sporting News, June 4, 1942: 5.

2 Russ Needham, “A Dream Comes True/Values Change Quickly,” Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, June 4, 1942: 4-B.

3 “Phils to Open Here Tuesday; Vollmer Hits Over Left Wall,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 1, 1942: 14.

4 Si Burick, “Si-ings,” Dayton Daily News, June 3, 1942: 18; Tom Swope, “Vollmer a Distance Hitter; Starr Leads National League Hurlers in Shutouts Won,” Cincinnati Post, June 2, 1942: 9.

5 Rodger Nelson, “Gossip on Sports,” Bowling Green (Ohio) Daily Sentinel-Tribune, June 9, 1942: 3.

6 “Reds Continue Seeking Picket,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Union, June 13, 1942: 12.

7 “Reds Sweep Pirate Bargain by 8 to 2 and 3 to 0,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 1, 1942: 12.

8 “Reds Sweep Pirate Bargain by 8 to 2 and 3 to 0.”

9 Swope, “Vollmer a Distance Hitter; Starr Leads National League Hurlers in Shutouts Won.”

10 Tom Swope, “Vollmer Makes Story-Book Bow,” Cincinnati Post, June 1, 1942: 7.

11 “Reds Sweep Pirate Bargain by 8 to 2 and 3 to 0.”

12 Swope, “Vollmer Makes Story-Book Bow.”

13 Lou Smith, “Crippled Redlegs Beat Buccaneers Twice,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 1, 1942: 14.

14 Lester Biederman, “Fast-Descending Pirates Threaten Philly Stronghold,” Pittsburgh Press, June 1, 1942: 23.

15 “Reds Sweep Pirate Bargain by 8 to 2 and 3 to 0.”

16 David Adler, “Players Who Homered on First Career Pitch,” MLB.com, April 4, 2021, https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-rare-feats-home-run-on-1st-career-pitch-c265964496, accessed June 20, 2024; Ed Eagle, “Players With Home Run in First At-Bat,” MLB.com, September 1, 2023, https://www.mlb.com/news/home-run-in-first-at-bat-c265623820, accessed June 20, 2024.

17 “Reds Continue Seeking Picket.”

18 Swope, “Vollmer Makes Story-Book Bow.”

19 “Reds Continue Seeking Picket.”

There were few ways to escape the apprehension as war casualties continued to increase overseas, while at home, food was becoming scarce, and gas was about to be rationed.

One way to escape, if only for a few hours, was baseball. In New York City, those looking for such a diversion could head to the Polo Grounds to watch the 76-61 New York Giants, led by future Hall of Fame player-manager Mel Ott, take on the 64-77 Chicago Cubs, led by manager Jimmie Wilson. Fans who could not make the trek to the game could listen to Red Barber on WHN radio. In Chicago, the Cubs’ faithful could listen to Pat Flanagan on WJJD, Jack Brickhouse on WGN, or Hal Totten on WCFL.2

Whether in person or over the airwaves, baseball fans would experience the debut of Chicago Cubs catcher Paul Gillespie. Gillespie joined four other Cubs in the starting lineup who had debuted during the 1942 season (Hi Bithorn, Chico Hernández, Cy Block, Marv Rickert). Willard Marshall was the only rookie in the Giants’ lineup that afternoon.

By early afternoon, the weather was clear and the temperature had climbed to 80 degrees.3 Enjoying the warm sunshine, 3,719 ladies day fans prepared to watch what they hoped would be another Giants victory.4

Bithorn (8-12, 3.94), the first Puerto Rican player in the major leagues, was “honored in pre-game ceremonies at home plate.”5 He then took the mound for the Cubs while the Giants countered with right-hander Harry Feldman (6-1, 3.15).

Despite each team getting two hits in the first inning, the game remained scoreless. Future Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx led off the second inning for the Cubs by striking out. Next up, Gillespie, hitting left-handed, came to bat for the first time in his major-league career and gave the Cubs the lead with a home run drive into the right-field lower deck.

Throughout the game, Bithorn was constantly in trouble, giving up two or more baserunners in every inning except the fourth. In the bottom of the third inning, Bithorn relinquished the lead Gillespie gave the Cubs when Dick Bartell doubled and scored on a Johnny Mize groundball fielder’s choice to tie the game, 1-1.

The score remained tied through the fifth inning as Feldman held the Cubs to just one hit after the Gillespie home run. In the top of the sixth, Gillespie gave the Cubs the lead again with a hard-hit single to deep right field, scoring Lou Novikoff, who had singled and gone to second on a walk to Foxx. In the seventh, Lennie Merullo added to Chicago’s lead with a single to center field, scoring Lou Stringer, who had walked and taken second on Bithorn’s sacrifice.

After giving up eight hits and six walks through the first seven innings, Bithorn started the bottom of the eighth leading 3-1. Four singles later (by Gus Mancuso, Babe Barna, Bartell, and Mickey Witek, who hit a two-run single), the Giants had tied the score.

With Feldman out of the game, the ninth inning began with Ace Adams on the mound for a National League-record 57th time. (The prior mark of 56 games in one season was shared by Christy Mathewson and Hugh Mulcahy.)6 Adams worked through the ninth inning without any trouble.

But trouble awaited Bithorn. So far none of the six Giants he walked had gone on to score. His good fortune changed in the ninth. Mize opened the inning with a walk. After two groundouts and two intentional walks, power hitter Hank Leiber came to the plate. With the bases loaded, Leiber took three wide pitches and a called strike, then fouled off two pitches. With a 3-and-2 count, Leiber “wrinkled his nose at the last pitch to win the game in a walk on Ump Dunn’s ‘ball four!’”7 Mize scored, giving Adams his seventh win of the season and Bithorn his 13th loss.

While the Giants recorded 12 hits and 10 walks in the game and the Cubs tallied seven hits and five walks, only seven runs were scored between the two teams. New York fans went home happy with the Giants’ 4-3 win. But according to New York Daily News columnist Hy Turkin, “Silent stuff was the order of the day at the Polo Grounds. The Ladies’ Day assemblage of 3,719 kept mum except when the Dodger-Card innings were posted.”8 Adams would finish the 1942 season with a new National League record of 61 game appearances. He established the major-league record in 1943 with 70 appearances. (In 1974, Mike Marshall, Brooklyn Dodgers, set the current record at 106 games.)9

On September 13, Gillespie played in his second major-league game and followed his first at-bat home run with another one, a two-run homer in Boston off the Braves’ Tom Earley in a game the Cubs lost 11-6.

After the season, Gillespie was due to report to the Coast Guard.10

World War II eventually took a toll on both teams’ rosters. Four Cubs from the September 11 lineup (Gillespie, Marv Rickert, Cy Block, and Lou Stringer) reported to the military prior to the 1943 season. Bithorn reported before the 1944 season. The Giants also had four players from the September 11 game report to military service (Johnny Mize, Babe Young, Hal Schumacher, and Willard Marshall) prior to the 1943 season. Dick Bartell and Mickey Witek reported before the 1944 season. The Giants also lost Hank Leiber via a deferment for essential occupations. Leiber left to raise chickens in Arizona.11 He did not return to baseball.

As for Gillespie, in an ironic twist, he not only hit a home run in his first major-league at-bat, but he also hit a home run in his last major-league regular-season at-bat.12

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NY1/NY1194209110.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1942/B09110NY11942.htm

Photo credit: Paul Gillespie, courtesy of Chicago Cubs Archives.

Notes

1 “F.D.R. Plans U.S. Mileage, Gas Curbs,” New York Daily News, September 11, 1942: 1.

2 “Voices of Summer: The Cubs on Radio,” https://chicagosportsmemories.blogspot.com › 2011 › 02 › voices-of-summer-cubs-on-radio.html, February 4, 2011.

3 “The Journal’s Journal,” Ithaca (New York) Journal, September 11, 1942: 4.

4 Baseball Reference and the Chicago Tribune stated the attendance was 1,704 while the New York Daily News said it was 3,719. See also Hy Turkin, “Giants Win in Ninth, 4-3,” New York Daily News, September 12, 1942: 25.

5 Turkin.

6 “Cubs Lose, 4-3; Bithorn Walks in Winning Run,” Chicago Tribune, September 12, 1942: 19.

7 Turkin.

8 Turkin.

9 https://www.baseball-almanac.com/pitching/pigamp3.shtml.

10 Turkin.

11 Bob Mayer, “The New York Giants in Wartime,” in Marc Z Aaron and Bill Nowlin, eds., Who’s on First? Replacement Players in World War II (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2015).

12 His sixth and final major-league home run was hit on September 29, 1945, during a 5-0 Cubs win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field.