The Atlantics had joined the NA in 1872, the second year of its existence as baseball’s first organized professional league, but had done little to revive memories of the venerated amateur champions of the 1860s. Their best performance thus far was a 22-33 mark in 1874. They didn’t come close to that in 1875.

Managing the Atlantic club was Charlie Pabor, who, at age 28, was one of the more experienced men on the team. Pabor had been a star southpaw pitcher in the 1860s with the Unions of Morrisania, and had played in the NA since its inception in 1871. With the exception of one four-inning pitching stint, his 42 appearances with the ’75 Atlantics were all in left field.

Pabor’s team was a youthful one: Seven of the May 26 participants were 25 or younger. Four were holdovers from the 1874 team. The oldest regular was 34-year-old first baseman Fred Crane, a member of the Atlantics in their glory years from 1862 to 1869.

Making his eighth consecutive pitching start for Brooklyn was Jim Clinton. Born in New York City on August 10, 1850, James Lawrence Clinton made his first known appearance on the baseball scene with the Mutuals in August 1869, and spent the next few years playing whenever and wherever possible, with amateur, pro, and semipro clubs in New York and Brooklyn. Always popular with teammates and fans, and respected as a gentlemanly and honest player, Clinton from the beginning demonstrated a willingness and ability to play any position on the diamond, though early on he toiled mostly in the infield and, in later years, mostly in the outfield. His first known pitching start came in May 1870 with the amateur Orientals of New York. Later that year he joined the Eckfords, another Brooklyn club, whose best years were far behind them. He was an Eckford regular, mostly as an infielder, when the team entered the professional arena with the National Association in 1872. He appeared in two games with the NA Atlantics in 1874, but spent the rest of that season with the amateur Reliances of Brooklyn.

Carrying an 0-7 record into the May 26 tilt, Clinton nonetheless had drawn praise for his pitching efforts, as a sampling of press reports shows:

“Clinton … had speed and tolerable command of the ball. …”1

“Clinton pitching – very swiftly, too. … Clinton’s pace bothered the Athletics so much that they appealed as to its legality and it was tested, and the delivery being found to be below the hip the umpire very properly ruled it as legal.”2

“Clinton, as pitcher, appears to cause a little uneasiness to those who are compelled to bat his delivery.”3

“[T]he Hartfords had to meet a new pitcher in the person of Clinton, and there is no questioning the fact that his delivery bothered them.”4

Coincidentally, the Atlantics’ May 26 opponent was the New Haven club that they had defeated a month earlier. At the helm of the Elm City nine was player-manager Charlie Gould, whose baseball career, like that of Pabor, dated well back into the 1860s, when he manned first base for the famed Cincinnati Red Stockings.

As for Clinton’s opposing hurler, Harry Luff, the rookie would normally have been stationed at third base, but when regular pitcher Tricky Nichols suffered a broken finger in New Haven’s May 21 game against the Athletics, Luff was pressed into duty. In all, he made seven starts while Nichols’ digit healed, before returning to the hot corner. Late in the season, during the team’s exhibition tour of Canada, Luff and second baseman Billy Geer were charged with the theft of several valuables from an Ontario hotel, though the case was later dropped for lack of evidence. Like many baseball hangers-on of the era, Luff wound down his patchy career in 1884 with the Union Association, playing briefly for the Philadelphia and Kansas City entries of that short-lived league. During and after his baseball years, it seemed Luff was rarely far from legal jeopardy, dabbling variously through the years in theft, domestic abuse, drunken disorderly conduct, and armed assault.

While Billy Geer’s baseball career lasted only six partial and mediocre seasons, his post-playing days proved a grand, decades-long crime spree, during which he lived off forged checks and stayed one step ahead of the law by crisscrossing the country under a dozen or so aliases. When the law finally caught up, Geer received well-deserved prison sentences coast-to-coast, including in Minnesota (1892), Virginia (1898), Utah (c.1900), Iowa (1904), Illinois (1907), and Missouri (1923).

Clouds and rain of the previous day gave way to a clear sky and a temperature around 80 degrees on the 26th, but the reported attendance for this Wednesday afternoon match at Brooklyn’s Union Grounds was a mere 100. The Atlantics opened the scoring with a run in the bottom of the first, then added three in the second. while the Elm Citys were unable to score until the top of the fifth. Brooklyn padded its lead to 12-1 by adding three runs in the sixth and five more in the seventh. New Haven’s three-run burst in the eighth was too little too late, the Atlantics scoring twice in the bottom of that inning to make the final tally 14-4.

Clinton did a good job of keeping the ball in the infield. Catcher Jake Knodell was credited with eight putouts in the game; first baseman Fred Crane, seven; and Clinton himself, two. There were but four fly putouts by the Brooklyn outfielders. On the Elm City side, teenage rookie (and New Haven native) Jim Keenan, who would build a solid career as a catcher lasting into the 1890s, subbed for Luff at third and committed eight errors there. Errors played a major role in the game, with 20 perpetrated by New Haven and 10 by Brooklyn. All four Elm City runs were unearned, as were all but three Atlantic runs. The New York Clipper declared the contest “very uninteresting after the first five innings.”5 The New York Herald called it “A Muffing Game” and noted the “inexcusable errors” by both nines.6 The Brooklyn Times Union dryly summarized, “the game was not over brilliantly played,” but also said that Clinton pitched well.7 At 3 hours 10 minutes, it was the longest game of the Atlantics’ season.

Three days later the Brooklynites were beaten for a sixth time in the season by Hartford’s Hall of Fame curveballer Candy Cummings, with Clinton giving up five runs in the first before being relieved by Cassidy and moving to right field.

The Atlantics failed to win another game and finished the season at 2-42. Released in August, Clinton was quickly picked up by the semipro Eagle Club of Louisville. He pitched consistently for the Eagles into early October, notching several wins. Beginning the 1876 season with a semipro club in Memphis, he was signed by the Louisville Grays of the newly formed National League in August. He pitched several games for Memphis and Louisville against amateur and semipro teams, but made his only NL start in Louisville’s season finale, taking an 11-2 complete-game loss to Cummings and the Hartfords on October 5.

Clinton spent the next five years making the rounds of the International Association and the

Eastern Association, as well as other pro and semipro leagues of “minor” status, playing with at

least a dozen different clubs in that time span. His next appearance on a major-league roster

was with NL Worcester in 1882, after which he enjoyed some productive seasons as an outfielder with Baltimore and Cincinnati of the American Association, up through 1886. Although he still occasionally pitched – and won – games in the minors, he never again hurled in the majors, making the May 26, 1875, victory the solitary win of his big-league career.8

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

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

Nemec, David. Major League Baseball Profiles: 1871-1900, Volumes 1 & 2 (Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, 2011).

Wright, Marshall D. The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2000).

Notes

1 New York Clipper, May 22, 1875: 61.

2 New York World, May 12, 1875: 8.

3 New York Herald, May 14, 1875: 5.

4 New York Clipper, May 22, 1875: 58.

5 New York Clipper, June 5, 1875: 77.

6 New York Herald, May 27, 1875: 7.

7 Brooklyn Times Union, May 27, 1875: 3.

8 Harry Luff achieved his own pitching highlight a few days after the loss to the Atlantics, garnering a 9-2 triumph over Washington on May 31 for the first and only win of his career. New Haven’s season record of 7-40 landed them eighth place in the NA.

During its dominant season, Chicago had relied on the arms of Larry Corcoran and Fred Goldsmith, with the duo combining for 84 of the team’s 86 starts and 64 of its 67 wins. At this juncture, Corcoran had started the prior three games, with the September 29 outing using both pitchers and a catcher to complete an embarrassing 19-10 shellacking at the hands of the Buffalo Bisons. The Chicago Tribune account of the game was pointed and unforgiving:

“They (Buffalo) struck the Chicagos in a particularly crippled condition, with both pitchers suffering from lame arms, and two possible catchers occupying seats in the grand stand. Moreover, (Chicago catcher King) Kelly’s hands were very sore, and neither Corcoran nor Goldsmith dared to put on a curve or speed. The result was that their pitching was the softest kind of ‘pie’: there are a hundred amateurs in Chicago who could have pitched a better game.”1

Apparently, the White Stockings’ management was listening.

By 1880, future Hall of Famer Albert Spalding had left his playing days behind. After retiring, Spalding had become secretary of the White Stockings while also leading a sporting-goods business founded with his brother Walter in 1876. His position as secretary afforded him some influence with Chicago manager Adrian Constantine “Cap” Anson, and among Spalding’s employees was the 24-year-old Guth, a noted amateur baseball player, at that point toiling for the Chicago Lake Views.2

Buffalo, in seventh place entering the day, had little to gain with either a win or loss, so it started George Edward “Stump” Weidman, who was saddled with a 0-8 record while toiling in his first season in the National League. Stump was the backup pitcher to future Hall of Famer James Francis “Pud” Galvin, who had posted 20 victories among his 54 starts for the season. With a season total 24 wins, the Bisons were mired in seventh place, and the outcome would have no bearing on their finish.

The game was hosted at White Stocking Park, otherwise known as Lake Front Park. Located near the corner of Michigan Avenue and Randolph Street by the tracks of the Illinois Central Railroad, it was the second iteration of Lake Front Park. The original opened in 1871 but perished in the Great Chicago Fire on October 8 of that year.

After completing the season at the Union Grounds and subsequently using the 23rd Street Park from 1872 to 1879, the White Stockings returned to the new Lake Front Park in 1878 and occupied the space until 1884, when it was determined that the land was actually owned by the federal government and the City of Chicago had no authority to lease the property, “it being the intention to dedicate the said public grounds irrevocably to the use of the public,” as it was “public grounds forever to remain vacant of buildings.”3 

Spalding, by this point president of the club, was later forced to vacate the park in 1885, a space that became part of Chicago’s Grant Park (renamed in 1901) which hosted a significant amount of the estimated five million people who attended the Chicago Cubs’ 2016 World Series celebration.

Before that happened, Charlie Guth seized his own moment in history.

It is unknown whether Guth was right-handed or left-handed, as a play-by-play account of the game does not exist, and limited press coverage outlined events of the day.

The host White Stockings chose to bat first. Chicago’s top three in the batting order – Abner Dalrymple, George Gore, and Kelly – were 9-for-15 in the game, and they were credited with igniting a three-run first that staked Guth to an early lead.

As noted in the Chicago Tribune’s account of the game: “Chicago’s runs were the product of magnificent batting by Dalrymple, Gore, and Kelly, aided by hits at the right time by Anson, (Tom) Burns and (Larry) Corcoran.”4

Buffalo tallied a run in the bottom of the inning. With two outs, left fielder Jack Rowe registered his only hit of the game, and came around to score an unearned run on successive errors by Burns, Gore, and Kelly. The run was Guth’s only blemish for most of the game.

The Chicago Tribune: “(Guth) provided to be an entire success for seven innings, during which time the Buffalos earned first base but once. He has all the elements of a first-class pitcher, unless it be experience, coolness, and nerve, which only come with time. His variations of curve and speed are extremely puzzling.”5

Chicago added seven more runs through the middle innings to take a 10-1 lead. The Chicago Daily Telegraph noted that “the Chicagos piled up nine runs off Weidman, seven of them earned. They added another to the score in the eighth when Galvin was pitching.”6

It was the bottom of the eighth before Guth showed any vulnerability.

“If he had maintained his pace throughout the game, he would have proved a phenomenal success, but he weakened visibly in the eighth inning, and then became wild and unsteady,” the Tribune reported.7

Bill Crowley led off the bottom of the eighth inning for Buffalo with a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. A single by Hardy Richardson scored Crowley, and Richardson took third when Dalrymple let the ball get by him. Rowe hit a hard smash to second baseman Joe Quest, and Richardson was called out on Quest’s throw to the plate. Standing at first base, Rowe scored on three successive wild pitches by Guth. A final run in the inning came on Galvin’s single after hits by Joe Hornung and Mike Moynahan. The score was 10-4 entering the final inning.

Chicago went scoreless in the ninth, leaving an obviously fatigued Guth to close out the victory.

He struggled, as the Chicago Tribune noted: “In the ninth a double by Stearns, a three-baser by Richardson, and singles by Crowley, Hornung and Moynahan, together with a fumble by Quest, gave four runs, one being earned, and it looked for a time as though the game was going to be won before the side could be got out, but Corcoran made a high jump on Force’s bounder, and threw him out at first.”8

Likewise, the Chicago Daily Telegraph noted, “The Buffalo made seven of their runs in the last two innings, when they batted Guth’s weakened delivery all over the field.”9

Despite faltering late, the 24-year-old Guth earned the win in his only professional baseball appearance. His employment with Spalding qualified him to take a similar position with Wright & Ditson in Boston, and he relocated in late 1882 or early 1883, but died shortly thereafter at age 27 from asthenia, described as a general weakness or loss of strength.

The 10-8 victory was number 67 for Chicago, as they captured the first of three consecutive National League titles, this one by a margin of 15 games.

Chicago and Buffalo played two exhibition games in the following days, testing a new square bat, as well as a new baseball design. But with no World Series until 1903, those games had no bearing on the White Stockings’ championship.

Some additional noteworthy facts about the contest:

• Lake Front Park (sometimes referred to as Lakefront Park) had the shortest outfield fences in the majors, ever.10 Left field stood 186 feet from home plate and right field was a mere 196 feet. Despite the short distances and the pitching of the amateur Guth for Chicago and inept starter Weidman for the Bisons, there were no home runs recorded in the contest.

• In addition to Spalding, the game featured three additional future Hall of Famers in Cap Anson (1939) and King Kelly (1945) for Chicago and Pud Galvin (1965) for Buffalo. Charles Gardner “Old Hoss” Radbourn, listed as an outfielder and second baseman on the Buffalo roster, played in six games for Buffalo early in the season, but the Bisons released him in May. He became a pitcher in 1881, winning 59 or 60 games in 1884 (accounts differ) and was ultimately part of the 1939 Hall of Fame class with Anson.

• George H. “Foghorn” Bradley was the umpire of record. He previously pitched for Boston for a portion of the inaugural National League season in 1876 but his playing career was of limited duration, much like Guth’s. Despite winning nine games in 21 starts, he was deemed expendable by the Red Stockings and never returned to the major leagues as a pitcher. He did enjoy a solid career as an umpire, later referred to as “one of the best umpires in the country” and noted for his “powerful and penetrating voice.”11

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

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

Notes

1 “Tremendous Batting Performance of the Buffalo Team Yesterday,” Chicago Tribune, September 30, 1880: 8.

2 “The Game Is Up,” Chicago Daily Telegraph, October 1, 1880: 1.

3 “The Lake Front,” Chicago Tribune, May 27, 1884: 8.

4 “The Chicagos Finish the League Season with a Victory Over Buffalo,” Chicago Tribune, October 1, 1880: 8.

5 “The Chicagos Finish the League Season with a Victory Over Buffalo.”

6 “The Game Is Up.”

7 “The Chicagos Finish the League Season with a Victory Over Buffalo.”

8 “The Chicagos Finish the League Season with a Victory Over Buffalo.”

9 “The Game Is Up.”

10 “White Stocking Park,”, https://www.seamheads.com/ballparks/ballpark.php?parkID=CHI03, accessed October 11, 2022.

11 “Base Ball Notes,” Philadelphia Times, May 23, 1886: 11.

William J. Madigan, nicknamed “Pony” for his youth and diminutive size, arrived in the major leagues as a 17-year-old phenomenon from the playing fields of Washington’s amateur leagues, a hopeful midseason pickup for the otherwise hopeless first-year Washington Nationals of the National League.

In 1885, playing for a “crack amateur team” known as the English Hills, Madigan, all of 16 years old at the start of the season, won 19 of his club’s 22 games.1 The following year, playing for the Merchants, D.C.’s leading amateur nine, the now 17-year-old Madigan struck out 19 batters in one game and 23 in another.2 Despite such success against amateur batsmen, Madigan seemed an unlikely prospect as a major-league hurler: In addition to his youth, he stood just 5-feet-5 and weighed but 118 pounds.3

The Nationals, however, were floundering. Despite the presence of two-time NL batting champion and first-ever Triple Crown winner Paul Hines and a rookie catcher named Connie Mack, the team had managed to win only nine of its first 47 decisions, and was buried in last place, 28½ games behind the league-leading Detroit Wolverines. With little to lose, the bereft Nationals signed the homegrown Madigan to pitch.

The right-hander made his first start for Washington on July 10 against Boston at the Nationals’ home field, Swampoodle Grounds. Although the Beaneaters took the game, 6-1, their captain, John Morrill, was impressed enough with Madigan’s pitching to remark that the Nationals would have had no trouble winning the game “had they been able to bat at all.”4 “His slow ball,” Morrill said of the youngster, “is different from any now pitched in the league, and all the teams will have difficulty batting it, at least until they get used to it.”5

The Washington Post reported that Madigan, “who made his first appearance yesterday, impressed … as a plucky one in the box and, as he expressed himself after the game, ‘I expected to be hit, but they could not scare me.’”6

Pluck wasn’t enough as Madigan lost his second game as a starter and another in nine innings of relief in the first of a three-game homestand against the Philadelphia Quakers on July 16. Replacing a sore-handed Bob Barr with three runs across and none out in the first, Madigan held the Quakers in check while the Nationals tied the score, only to lose, 9-8. Philadelphia found it easier going the next day, winning 8-1.

For the third and final game of the homestand, on July 19, Nationals manager Mike Scanlon pitched Madigan with two days’ rest. Washington, loser of its last 11 games and 26 of its last 29, was at the bottom of the league standings with a record of 9 wins and 44 losses. The fourth-place Quakers, by contrast, had won six in a row and 13 of their last 15, for an overall record of 34-20. To take on Madigan and the Nationals, Quakers manager Harry Wright chose hard-throwing 19-year-old rookie left-hander Ledell Titcomb (0-3).

The Nationals took the lead on hustle in the second inning when third baseman Hines and shortstop Davy Force singled and second sacker Jimmy Knowles walked to load the bases, and successive sacrifice hits by catcher Barney Gilligan, center fielder Ed Crane (safe on an error by Titcomb), and Madigan pushed two runs across the plate.

Washington tallied an additional run in the third, but the Quakers put up single runs in the third, fourth, and sixth innings to tie the game, 3-3.

Hines opened the eighth inning for Washington with a single. A base hit by Knowles and a sacrifice by Force put runners on second and third, and Gilligan walked to load the bases. Crane followed with a single to left field, scoring Hines and Knowles. Madigan hit a groundball between second and short for a single, his first major-league hit, scoring Gilligan. When left fielder George Wood fumbled recovering the ball, Crane scooted home for the fourth and final run of the inning.

Pitching now with a 7-3 lead, Madigan retired Wood and right fielder Ed Daily before Hines’s fumble of center fielder Jim Fogarty’s grounder and subsequent wild throw to first put Fogarty on base. Shortstop Arthur Irwin tripled over the head of Crane in center field, scoring Fogarty, then scored himself when Hines booted a grounder off the bat of third baseman Joe Mulvey. Mulvey was put out trying for second, ending the inning.

Both teams were retired scoreless in the ninth to clinch the 7-5 victory for Washington. One day after his 18th birthday, the Nationals’ Pony had his first major-league victory and driven in the game-winning run, and “the enthusiasm of the fifteen hundred people who saw the home club break a monotonous series of defeats was unbounded.”7

An account in Washington’s Evening Star said, “Young Madigan pitched very effectively for the Nationals and kept his head well.”8 In game accounts, the Nationals were praised for providing good support. Singled out were Hines, whose playing at third (he made three errors, all leading to runs) was “wretched”9 but who “amply made up for it with good batting,”10 and shortstop Davy Force, whose play in the field was “very fine, and he accepted all of the chances offered, some of them being difficult stops of apparently safe hits.”11 Madigan (1-3) scattered nine hits in nine innings, walked one, and struck out one. Titcomb (0-4), whose pitching was described as “wild,”12 allowed 10 hits while walking four and striking out four. He also contributed four errors in the field.

After pitching well in his next start, a 3-2 defeat in Boston, Madigan dropped his next 10 decisions. In two more July starts, he was tagged for 22 hits in an 18-1 rout by the Giants and contributed five walks and a wild pitch to an 11-run, third-inning outburst in a 13-1 loss to the Wolverines. A potential win on August 7 slipped away when Madigan allowed the St. Louis Maroons to tie the game on two runs in the ninth inning and win 6-5 in the 10th. Subsequent losses by scores such as 9-1, 8-1, and 8-0 made it clear that young Madigan had little left to offer even the lowly Nationals. His final start of the season, on September 4 at Washington, resulted in a 20-hit, 13-6 loss to Chicago.

In a syndicated review of NL pitchers that originated in the New York World, Madigan’s work in the box was noted as “yet very ungraceful and boyish, but practice is lending finish to his delivery. He will no doubt make a name for himself in the near future.”13

There was no future in the major leagues for Madigan. With a won-lost record of 1-13 in 14 games and an ERA of 4.87, Madigan was released in mid-September. Before the season ended, Madigan, “late of the Nationals,” was once again pitching for the amateur Merchant club.14 He pitched with mixed success for Binghamton of the International League in 1887 and Kalamazoo of the Tri-State League in 1888 before returning to the amateur ranks. Despite his youth, Madigan never made it back to the major leagues.

The Washington Nationals finished the 1886 season deep in the cellar with a dismal record of 28 wins and 92 losses, 60 games behind the pennant-winning Chicago White Stockings.

Sources

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

Notes

1 “Baseball Matters,” San Francisco Examiner, September 5, 1886: 1.

2 “Several Fairy Tales,” The Sporting News, July 19, 1886: 1

3 “Base Ball,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 28, 1886: 2.

4 “Another Defeat for the Nationals – Sunday Games,” Evening Star (Washington DC), July 12, 1886: 1.

5 “Another Defeat for the Nationals – Sunday Games.”

6 David Nemec, Major League Baseball Profiles, 1871-1900, Volume 1: The Ballplayers Who Built the Game (Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, 2011), 118.

7 “Washington and Philadelphia,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 20, 1886: 3.

8 “The Ball Players: Victory Perches at Last Upon the Banner of the Nationals,” Evening Star: July 20, 1886: 1.

9 “Washington and Philadelphia,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 20, 1886: 3.

10 “Washington and Philadelphia.”

11 “Washington and Philadelphia.”

12 “Notable Event at the Nation’s Capital – Scanlon’s Men Win,” Detroit Free Press, July 20, 1886: 8.

13 “Baseball Matters,” San Francisco Examiner, September 5, 1886: 1.

14 “Base Ball Notes,” News (Frederick, Maryland), September 22, 1886: 3.

Louisville’s 19th and 20th consecutive losses came in the first two contests of the Baltimore series, on June 13 and 15. Adding to the Colonels’ woes, on June 14 six of their players staged a strike. It was the first such labor action in major-league history.1 The immediate reason for this protest was $25 fines imposed by “Manager” (president/owner) Mordecai Davidson on two players for poor performances in the game on June 13. Second baseman Dan Shannon (who became the third of the Colonels’ four managers that season) was penalized for errors afield, while catcher Paul Cook incurred Davidson’s wrath for clueless baserunning.

Joining the strike were outfielder Pete Browning, pitcher Red Ehret, first baseman Guy Hecker, and third baseman Harry Raymond. Hecker identified their other main reason for striking: They hadn’t been paid their salaries in more than a month.2

Late on Sunday, June 16, an offday, Davidson reported the strike’s termination. All six players assured him they would try their hardest in Monday’s doubleheader. Davidson said no action would be taken against strikers until the team returned home on June 20.3

On June 17 a small front-page ad in the Baltimore Sun touted a single admission of 25 cents to see both games. The ad also noted that Orioles newcomer George Goetz was expected to pitch in a regular-season game for the first time. The scheduled starting times were 2:00 and 4:15 P.M.4 The temperature reached 88 degrees, while winds peaked at 10 MPH.5

As billed, Goetz made his debut in the earlier game. Louisville’s pitcher was 24-year-old lefty Toad Ramsey, who had won 75 games for the club in 1886 and 1887, against 54 losses. In order, Hecker, Raymond, and Browning batted third through fifth for the Colonels.6

Baltimore starters included shortstop Mike Griffin, who scored the most runs in the American Association that season, 152 in 137 games; first baseman Tommy Tucker, who led the Association in batting average that year at .372; and left fielder Joe Hornung, who had led the National League in runs scored in 1883, with 107 in 98 games.7

The Sun reported the day’s attendance at 2,600, including American Association President Wheeler Wyckoff.8 Louisville players were expected to file a protest with him that day, in response to the fines imposed upon Shannon and Cook, plus one on Raymond.9 The Baltimore American reported that before Wyckoff left for home that evening, “he had another talk with the Louisville players,” which implied at least one other such conversation recently.10

The home-team Orioles chose to bat first and were scoreless in the opening inning. Louisville captain and player-manager Chicken Wolf was the first batter Goetz faced. The count reached three balls and two strikes, and Wolf, normally an outfielder but playing second base on this day, was retired on a grounder to Goetz. Next up was center fielder Farmer Weaver, also known as Buck.11 After a second full count, he likewise grounded back to the pitcher. Goetz completed his first inning unscathed.12

The Colonels scored the day’s first run, an unearned one, in the second frame. Two Baltimore newspapers, the Herald and American, described the game’s scoring in detail but differed on how the Colonels scored that first run. The Herald said Browning was safe at first base after an error and that Stratton’s triple drove him home. The American said Browning reached third base after errors by Griffin and Goetz, and was driven in on a fly to right field by brand-new shortstop Bill Gleason. Regardless, Louisville had a 1-0 lead.

The two dailies were closer to alignment on how Baltimore took the lead in the third inning. They concurred that Baltimore’s seventh- and eighth-place hitters, right fielder Joe Sommer and catcher Bart Cantz, reached with singles. The Herald reported that the keys to the subsequent scoring were errors by Raymond and opposing catcher Farmer Vaughn plus a walk to Griffin. The American elaborated by stating that Sommer scored before Goetz went to bat, on a wild throw by Vaughn that allowed Cantz to advance to second base. Cantz then moved to third on a wild pitch. According to the American, Griffin, rather than drawing a walk, hit a ball to Wolf at second base. Cantz was stuck in a rundown, but “on Raymond’s error both were safe,” according to the American’s account. “Both came in on Raymond’s wild throw to Hecker” for a 3-1 Baltimore lead.13

The Colonels scored once in the bottom of the third and tied the game with one more in the fifth. The third-inning run resulted from a triple by Wolf and a double by Hecker, who scored the tying run in the fifth by singling and coming home on Raymond’s double.

The tie held until Louisville put up three runs in the bottom of the eighth. The Herald reported that hits by Gleason, Stratton, and Ramsey were combined with an error by third baseman Billy Shindle. The American again provided greater detail. Shindle’s error set the stage for Louisville’s productivity that inning, and Raymond was presumably the beneficiary, based on box-score logs of which Colonels scored runs in the game. That would’ve meant Browning followed with an out. Then came Gleason’s and Stratton’s singles, and it’s possible the latter drove in Raymond. If not, Vaughn’s sacrifice in the eighth spot certainly drove in a runner from third because the bases would have been loaded. Ramsey’s single at the bottom of the order drove in the third run of the inning, if not two of the three.14

Was Louisville suddenly about to end its horrible losing streak? In the ninth, second baseman Reddy Mack drew a walk and Hornung singled. Fulmer’s force out retired Mack, but Sommer’s double scored both runners, and he came home on Wolf’s error to tie the game at 6-6.

The Colonels didn’t score in the bottom of the ninth, and one extra inning was required. Shindle drew a walk, and on the next play Gleason made an error (presumably allowing Tucker to reach). Four runs scored when the next three batters hit safely, with a double by Fulmer sandwiched between singles by Hornung and Sommers.15

Bert Cunningham relieved Goetz for the bottom of the 10th. When fans noticed the switch, “a shout of protest went up from the open stand,” the Sun reported. Dissenters presumably wanted Goetz to pitch a complete game. The Sun countered:

The protest was based on sentiment, not on judgment. The management acted wisely. There has   been two [sic] much sentiment in running the club in the past. From this time out it should be run       on business principles.16

The game ended with a final score of 10-6. Newspapers reported that the game lasted from a flat 2 hours to 2 hours and 15 minutes.17 Goetz was credited with the win, in what turned out to be his only major-league game.

There was just one umpire on duty that day, John Gaffney, who was nicknamed “The King of Umpires.” As a sign of the weather conditions that afternoon, the American noted that Gaffney “had so much running around to do that his clothing was completely saturated with perspiration.” He decided a change of attire was necessary. “In the second game he appeared in a uniform of white pants, red stockings and his elastic jumper,” the American reported. “The crowd laughed at the comical rig, but Gaff took the guying good-naturedly.”18

Cook and Ehret were the Louisville battery in the second game, which left Shannon as the only striker not to play that day. One Baltimore daily noted that Shannon had been excused but didn’t say why. Only the batteries changed in the lineups for the second game.

In the second game Baltimore’s Frank Foreman, who pitched 11 seasons from 1884 to 1902 in four different major leagues,19 held Louisville to one hit in a 10-0 Orioles win. The Colonels had lost 22 in a row.

Despite blowing a late lead in the first game and getting clobbered in the second, Davidson didn’t fine any of his players. The teams played a fifth game the next day, one that had been scheduled for Louisville weeks earlier but had been postponed. Baltimore won again, 17-7.20

The Colonels’ streak reached 26 on June 22, and finally ended the following day with a victory over the St. Louis Browns. As of 2023 the streak remained the all-time major-league record.21

The Orioles concluded 1889 with a record of 70-65-4, in fifth place in the eight-team American Association. The Colonels became the first major-league team ever to lose 100 games in a season, finishing last at 27-111, 66½ games out of first place and 28½ games from seventh place. (Miraculously, in 1890 Louisville won the American Association pennant easily!22)

Author’s Note

The author’s research for this article relied on game coverage from three Baltimore newspapers and the Louisville Courier-Journal.23 As noted above, the articles differed in many game details For example, all of the newspapers agreed on the innings in which runs were scored in the first game of the doubleheader, but two Baltimore papers that described the scoring in detail, the Herald and the American, disagreed considerably about the early innings.

Also, three of these papers credited Baltimore with four earned runs and Louisville with just two, while the Sun reported Baltimore with a fifth earned run and the visitors with four instead of a pair. The Sun also differed by excluding a double by Orioles center fielder Chris Fulmer from its list of extra-base hits (though it did mention that hit in its narrative above the box score).

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Thomas Merrick and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Trading Card Database.

Sources

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

Notes

1 Bob Bailey, “Chicken Wolf,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, accessed September 26, 2023, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/chicken-wolf/.

2 Club leadership used three local semipro players on June 14, but heavy rain before the fourth inning resulted in the game’s cancellation. The three strikebreakers – Charles Fisher, Mike Gaul(e), and John Traffley – again formed the Colonels’ outfield on June 15, and each played in the only major-league game of his life. “In a New Role,” Louisville Courier-Journal, June 15, 1889: 6.

3 Hecker, Cook, and teammate Scott Stratton had sought advice about the situation from Orioles manager Billy Barnie who persuaded them to back down. “Gossip of the Diamond,” Baltimore American, June 17, 1889: 5.

4 See the first-column ad in the Baltimore Sun, June 17, 1889: 1.

5 “Weather Observations,” Baltimore Morning Herald, June 18, 1889: 1. “Weather Observations,” Baltimore American, June 18, 1889: 5.

6 Browning, a .341 hitter over 13 major-league seasons, had hit for the cycle in the 14th game of the losing streak, a 9-7, 11-inning loss to the Philadelphia Athletics on June 7.

7 “Gossip of the Diamond,” See also the box scores on that same page.

8 “Two Games in a Day,” Baltimore Sun, June 18, 1889: 6. “Base-Ball Notes,” Baltimore Sun, June 18, 1889: 6. The paper made it clear that Wyckoff stayed for both games.

9 Like the Sun, both papers spelled Association President Wyckoff’s surname as Wikoff. The Courier-Journal’s report on the fines named only Cook and Shannon on the receiving end, so the American might have been incorrect to also mention Raymond in that context. “In a New Role”; “Gossip of the Diamond.”

10 “Gossip of the Diamond.”

11 As of 2023, Baseball-Reference.com identifies one other major leaguer and seven minor leaguers named Buck Weaver, though six of the latter were actually named Buck at birth, reportedly.

12 “Gossip of the Diamond.” See also the box score on that same page.

13 “Two More Games Won,” Baltimore Morning Herald, June 18, 1889: 1; “Hard on Old Kentuck,” Baltimore American, June 18, 1889: 5. Speaking of Hecker, he was the only American Association player ever to homer three times in a single game – all inside the park. “Three Home Runs in a Game,” Baseball-Almanac.com, accessed September 26, 2023, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/3-Home-Runs-In-A-Game.shtml.

14 “Two More Games Won”; “Hard on Old Kentuck.”

15 “Two More Games Won”; “Hard on Old Kentuck.”

16 “Base-Ball Notes,” Baltimore Sun, June 18, 1889: 6. The Sun said, “Cunningham took Goetz’s place in the ninth inning” but Goetz was the winning pitcher and thus remained the pitcher of record through the top of the extra inning.

17 “Two More Games Won”; “Hard on Old Kentuck.”

18 “Gossip of the Diamond.” This compilation also mentioned the ump in a different context: “Reddy Mack yesterday was cautioned by Umpire Gaffney about talking to runners while at the bat. Mack, no doubt, forgets himself.” It might be interesting to know more about the basis for his objection. For insights about Gaffney, see Larry R. Gerlach, “Umpire Honor Rolls,” at http://research.sabr.org/journals/umpire-honor-rolls.

19 “Two Games in a Day,” Baltimore Sun, June 18, 1889: 6.

20 “Base-Ball Notes,” Baltimore Sun, June 18, 1889: 6. “Gossip of the Diamond,” Baltimore American, June 17, 1889: 5. “When Will It End?” Louisville Courier-Journal, June 19, 1889: 6. On the latter page, see also “Notes” one column to the left, where the team was repeatedly referred to as “the Davidsons” and received some sympathy. After Baltimore handed Louisville its 23rd straight loss, one sportswriter said it broke the team’s own record set in 1886, when it “wound up the season by losing twenty-one successive games.” According to Baseball-Reference.com, however, the team ended the 1886 season with a record of 2-21-1 in its final 24 games, with 13 of those losses being consecutive. See J.A., “Louisville Laconics,” Sporting Life, June 26, 1889: 1.

21 Sarah Langs, “Longest Losing Streaks in MLB History,” MLB.com, August 25, 2021, https://www.mlb.com/news/longest-losing-streaks-in-mlb-history. She noted that Louisville’s status was “pending the inclusion of Negro Leagues stats.” The year before the National League formed, the Brooklyn Atlantics of the 1875 National Association lost 31 games in a row, but MLB doesn’t consider that league to be “major.” In 2022 a minor-league team broke Brooklyn’s record among all pro teams by starting its season 0-35; see Ryan Glasspiegel, “The Downs and Ups of the Empire State Greys, the Worst team in Baseball,” New York Post, August 3, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/08/03/the-downs-and-ups-of-the-worst-team-in-baseball/.

22 Chase Cunningham, “Our Baseball Heritage,” Louisville Voice-Tribune, July 14, 2014, accessible (at least via cache) at https://voice-tribune.com/_/news/cover-story/our-baseball-heritage/. “Yesterday’s Games,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 27, 1889: 3. The club was incorrectly shown with just 99 losses in “The Club Standing,” Louisville Courier-Journal, September 27, 1889: 5.

23 “Almost Won It,” Louisville Courier-Journal, June 18, 1889: 2; “Two More Games Won”; “Hard on Old Kentuck”; “Two Games in a Day.”

The Colonels, in addition to playing terrible baseball, were riven by dissension, much of it caused by the club’s mercurial and penurious owner, Mordecai Davidson. With the club undercapitalized and plagued by low ticket sales, by midseason he was more than a month behind in meeting payrolls despite trimming the team’s roster to 11. Davidson then instituted a system of harsh fines for errors or deficiencies, leading in June to what may have been the first baseball strike, a two-game boycott by Raymond and five other Louisville players.1

By the time of the 27-year-old Raymond’s start, the Colonels’ roster had been further depleted by injuries. Louisville was desperate for pitching. Three members of the starting rotation – John Ewing, Red Ehret, and Guy Hecker – were unavailable. The Louisville Courier-Journal described the situation:

With Ewing and Ehret suffering from sore arms and Hecker still away, the prospects looked blue in the morning. Harry Raymond agreed to go in the box and do his best. He had pitched occasionally in the California League several years ago and was at that time quite effective but had had no practice of the kind since. He is, however, every inch a ball player, and with the club in the crippled condition it was today, he was willing to take any chance to lead the players on to victory.2

In the minors, Raymond did have some experience as a pitcher, but it was quite limited. He threw five innings of relief in two games for the Fort Leavenworth Soldiers and had a complete-game victory in his only start for the Kansas City Cowboys, both in 1887.

Raymond faced off against 24-year-old Al Mays, who was enjoying the best season, and only winning season, of his career. He finished 1889 with 10 wins and 7 losses. Mays started his major-league career with Louisville in 1885, compiling a 6-11 record. He then spent two losing seasons with the New York Metropolitans and a 9-9 season with Brooklyn before joining Columbus for the 1889 season. His success in 1889, however, was abruptly followed by the end of his major-league career; he pitched one final game for the Colonels in 1890, giving up 13 runs (eight earned) in a nine-inning loss. Over his career, Mays averaged fewer than three walks per game, and this was true of his July 27 start against the Colonels, in which he was called by the umpire for only two walks.

Raymond was not the only Colonel playing out of his regular position. Phil Tomney, the shortstop, was the only infielder in his normal position.

In the game, Columbus scored a run in the first inning on an error by Wolf, who was filling in for Raymond at third base. Louisville responded with two runs in the bottom of the first inning.3 With two outs, Farmer Weaver was hit by a pitch. Farmer Vaughn singled, and Pete Browning drove in both with a line drive to deep left field. Browning was thrown out trying for second.

In the top of the second, Columbus scored a run on singles to tie the score. It was the last run the Solons would score. Louisville scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to break the tie. Ehret and Paul Cook singled and Tomney bunted to load the bases. Second baseman Fred Carl’s line drive scored two runs, and Wolf’s single drove in the third. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Vaughn led off with a home run over the left-field fence. Browning followed with a double. Raymond singled, apparently driving in Browning. Umpire Jack Holland, however, ruled that Browning had run outside the basepath and that Browning was out and his run did not count. Holland’s ruling, together with his calling 11 bases on balls on Raymond, prompted the Louisville Courier-Journal to observe that “the visitors were roasted by the umpire at every occasion, but even this could not rob them of today’s game.”4 Over the game, in addition to the walks, Raymond gave up eight hits (all singles) and threw two wild pitches. Thus, out of 19 baserunners, only two scored.

Much of the reason for Columbus’s failure to score was timely pitching and fielding by Louisville. The Courier-Journal noted: “Three times during the game, Columbus had three men on with none out when Raymond settled down and with perfect support retired the side without scoring.”5

The Courier-Journal praised Louisville’s fielding, calling the performance “the most brilliant fielding the club has done this season.”6 The newspaper singled out Carl, a recent acquisition, for special praise for his defense, calling him a “genuine phenom.” The paper added, “[T]o him the honors of the field work … especially belong,” noting that he was part of four inning-ending double plays.7

The calls by Holland led to Raymond’s lofty 11-walk total. The Courier-Journal criticized the umpire: “It is true that he was wild, sending eleven men to bases on balls, but at critical times his judgment was good and his delivery hard to get outside the diamond. Umpire Holland was also very severe in calling balls on him.”8

The St. Louis Post Dispatch’s account of Holland’s work was less charitable. It opined, “The rotten umpiring of Holland which was aimed against Louisville disgusted even a Columbus audience. His decisions on Raymond’s pitching was [sic] simply outrageous, and he must have been trying to kill him. He had Raymond send eleven men to bases on balls, when in reality it should have been half that many.”9

Nonetheless, despite the umpire’s calls, the 19 Solons baserunners and Raymond’s lack of pitching experience, Raymond and the Colonels won the game, providing a brief respite during a bleak season. The Courier-Journal summed up the game as follows: “The game, in short, was first class all around.” Regarding Raymond’s performance, the Courier-Journal added: “Raymond has always said that he could pitch winning ball for Louisville, and he proved that yesterday. Raymond is a good pitcher, but he is a better third baseman.”10

Despite Raymond’s remarkable performance, the Colonels returned to their losing ways for the remainder of their last place 27-111 season (although they staged an amazing turnaround the following year by leading the league). The Solons fared a bit better than the Colonels in 1889, finishing sixth with a 60-78-2 record.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Baseball-Reference.com.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, Newspapers.com, Statscrew.com, and Peter Morris, A Game of Inches (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2010).

Notes

1 Later in the season, the American Association Board of Directors nullified most of the fines against Raymond and the others, and Davidson surrendered the team to a syndicate of local businessmen.

2 “Won the Game. At last Louisville Earns a Victory From a Base Ball Club,” Louisville Courier-Journal, July 28, 1889: 4.

3 “Won the Game.”

4 “Won the Game.”

5 “Won the Game.”

6 “Won the Game.”

7 “Won the Game.”

8 “Won the Game.”

9 “Louisville, 6; Columbus, 2,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 28, 1889: 6.

10 “Won the Game.”

Neither team going into this late-season National League matchup in Pittsburgh on September 7, 1899, possessed much incentive, particularly the visiting Louisville Colonels, who stood 28 games behind the eventual champion Brooklyn Superbas. The Kentucky squad, despite fielding future Hall of Famers Honus Wagner, Fred Clarke, and Rube Waddell, ended up in the bottom half of the standings.

The Pirates, 22 games out of first, came to the meeting with a 61-59 record and were led by left-handed pitching great Jesse Tannehill, who that year posted a 24-14 record along with a 2.82 ERA. Tannehill’s career numbers (197 wins, 117 losses, and a 2.80 ERA, plus a .255 batting average) have fueled debates over his Hall of Fame status.

Tannehill got the start that afternoon while the Colonels countered with a right-hander whose actual name was not revealed until the game ended. As a Louisville Courier-Journal scribe reported:

A mysterious twirler won for Louisville to-day. On the score card he passed as Peck, but [owner] Harry Pulliam was authority for the statement that the name is an assumed one and is worn to disguise one much better known in baseball business circles. Pulliam asserted that he was bound to protect the new twirler’s secret, and as Manager Fred Clarke was also uncommunicative, the mystery remains unsolved.1

The stranger was verified later in the box score as Clay Fauver, a 27-year-old law student at Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Why the Colonels asked Fauver to jump on a train to Pittsburgh is not clear. Was Clarke’s pitching staff depleted? Did the short distance between Cleveland and Pittsburgh serve a role? Had someone recommended that Louisville look at what this pitcher might offer now and later? The fact is that Fauver was not asked to stay with the club after the game. He perhaps understood that this would be a one-and-done experience, as his quick return to Cleveland and his law studies the next day testify.

It was a rocky beginning for Fauver, whom the Pittsburg Post described as “nervous at the start.”2 Three batters into the home half of the first, the Pirates had a 1-0 lead. Ginger Beaumont led off with a walk, and singles by Jimmy Williams and Jack McCarthy brought him home. Pittsburgh added two third-inning runs on singles by player-manager Patsy Donovan, Bones Ely, and Pop Schriver. When Tannehill singled, moved up on Williams’s single, and scored on McCarthy’s sacrifice in the fourth, the Pirates had a 4-0 lead.

At that point, Fauver found his range, shutting out the Pirates the rest of the way, with just two runners getting as far as third base. “[J]ust as soon as the new man [Fauver] got over his first case of stage fright he pitched good ball, and kept the hits well scattered,” the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette reported.3

Louisville began to rally against Tannehill in the fifth, as William Hoy singled and later scored on Tommy Leach’s groundout. Aided by errors by Donovan in right and Beaumont in center, the Colonels cut the deficit to 4-3 with two runs in the sixth.

Tannehill took a one-run lead to the eighth, but singles by Louisville’s Claude Ritchey, Charles Zimmer, and Clarke and errors by Pittsburgh first baseman George Fox and catcher Schriver led to three Colonels runs and a 6-4 advantage. Singles by Walt Woods, Mike Kelley, and Billy Clingman in the ninth brought in Louisville’s final run of the day.

Clarke and Zimmer led the Colonels’ onslaught with four hits each. The most unexpected and memorable takeaway, however, was Clay Fauver’s performance: 9 innings, 0 earned runs, a win, and – as result of this being his only major-league appearance – a career winning percentage of 1.000 and a 0.00 ERA. The Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette heaped praise on Fauver’s performance, describing him as “a well-built young fellow, and he is going to make a reputation in the big league, because he knows something about the art of twirling. He has lots of speed, a good change of pace, and, better than all, a good head.”4

A doubleheader was originally scheduled, but a train wreck on the Pirates’ return route from a four-game series with the Chicago Orphans allowed only one to be played. The three-hour delay home and the absence of lunch may have contributed to the poor performance. The Post-Gazette reporter, however, was not in any mood to offer excuses:

It was probably just as well that Patsy Donovan and his Pirates did encounter a wreck on the Lake Shore road which delayed their arrival for a couple of hours, and therefore prevented a double header with the Louisville team. The Pirates had barely time to play one game, and goodness knows that one was enough for the 1,500 spectators. A second dose of the same kind of play would probably have driven the entire crowd to drink.5

Clay Fauver was an unlikely candidate to pitch his teammates to victory. At Oberlin College in Ohio (before law school), Fauver found popularity on campus as a fine baseball and football player and even more notoriety as an outstanding student, both academically and outside the classroom. He was the manager of the yearbook, assistant editor of the student newspaper, and a member of the debate team. To become a lawyer after graduating in 1897 was his only goal.

Joining a major-league team was never in Fauver’s plans, especially when he enrolled at Western Reserve University’s law school. The fact is that before the Louisville-Pittsburgh game, Fauver did not wear a professional baseball jersey.6

Because of his success against the Pirates, Fauver apparently felt emboldened to give the game another shot in 1900, in this instance, as a member of the American League’s Cleveland Lake Shores, a minor-league franchise. (In 1901 the AL was declared a major league by President Ban Johnson.) As was the case with his abbreviated stay with the Louisville Colonels, Fauver had to work around his Western Reserve demands. He appeared in only 10 home games for the Lake Shores, winning four games and losing six (no ERA statistic exists) while accumulating seven hits for a .206 batting average in 34 plate appearances.

Fauver put aside professional baseball for good after the 1900 season, the same year he earned his law degree. But he did find time to coach the Western Reserve baseball team to a 5-6 record in 1902 while teaching law at the university and practicing law with two Cleveland firms.

Fauver’s brief tenure in the majors took place during one of the period’s most controversial front-office machinations. A month before his sole major-league appearance, August 12, 1899, the grandstand at the home of the Colonels, Eclipse Park, burned down.

Barney Dreyfuss, owner of both the Pirates and the Colonels, with the help of Harry Pulliam, manufactured a trade that ended with the Pirates getting 12 players from Louisville. In exchange, the Colonels received $25,000. Three of the players who went to Pittsburgh in the trade were future Hall of Famers – Rube Waddell, Fred Clarke, and Honus Wagner. The lopsided deal helped Pittsburgh win four pennants and a World Series (1909) in the next 16 years.

On the other hand, Louisville’s major-league legacy abruptly ended. The Colonels were one of four NL clubs contracted from 12 to 8 teams after the 1899 season.7

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Russ Walsh and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Thanks to Mike Risley and Wendell Jones from the Pee Wee Reese SABR Chapter in Louisville for locating the Courier-Journal recap and box score on the September 7, 1899, game between the Louisville Colonels and the Pittsburgh Pirates, and to Allie Petonic from the Forbes Field SABR Chapter in Pittsburgh for the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette.

Notes

1 “New Pitcher Was on Deck,” Louisville Courier-Journal, September 8, 1899: 8.

2 “Lively Colonels Beat the Tired Pirates,” Pittsburg Post, September 8, 1899: 8.

3 “Too Tired to Play,” Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, September 8, 1899: 6.

4 “Too Tired to Play.”

5 “Too Tired to Play.”

6 “C.K. Fauver Stricken in Georgia,” Oberlin News-Tribune, March 5, 1942, https//dcollections.oberlin.edu/digital/collection/newstribune/id/872, accessed March 13, 2021.

7 The Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Spiders, and Washington Senators were also folded during the 1899-1900 offseason, reducing the National League to eight clubs. Jamie Talbot, “The National League Winter Meetings of 1899-1900,” in Base Ball’s 19th Century Winter Meetings, 1857-1900 (Phoenix: SABR, 2018), 486-492.

Boston had won five pennants in the decade – three straight from 1891 through 1893 and one each in 1897 and 1898. Boston’s fans were accustomed to championships, not to being 11 games out of first with just 17 games remaining.

Boston’s 1899 lineup included multiple future Hall of Famers having decent if unspectacular seasons. On the surface, there was no logical reason for the team’s lackluster performance. Their regular catcher, Marty Bergen, however, was having a troubling season, and in July briefly abandoned the team. Many Boston players blamed him for their woes. “In their eyes it was as much his fault that the championship had been lost or, at least, as good as lost,” Sporting Life reported.1

Heading into the final week of September, Bergen left the team again and Boston’s chances of catching first-place Brooklyn seemed remote at best.

It was onto this scene that William Joseph “Bill” Ging, a 5-foot-10 newcomer from Elmira, New York, entered. Ging, a 27-year-old right-handed pitcher whom the Boston Globe described as a “side wheeler,”2 had two successful Connecticut State League seasons under his wing, and was eager for his major-league debut with the Beaneaters, scheduled for Monday, September 25 at the Polo Grounds in New York.

That week, New York City was agog over the coming weekend’s giant welcome-home celebration for Admiral George Dewey, the hero of the Spanish-American War’s Battle of Manila Bay. The city planned to make the celebration the largest in its history, including a parade of ships on Friday the 29th and a huge parade on land on Saturday the 30th. Colorful patriotic decorations covered the city.3 The Boston club observed the decorations as they headed to the Polo Grounds for their afternoon game, and second baseman Bobby Lowe was “a very busy man all the morning, taking snapshots of the Dewey decorations.”4

Amid the pageantry, the Polo Grounds was the sport’s biggest stage, and while the New York team Ging was scheduled to face that day was not yet the Giants team that would be the toast of baseball within a few seasons, they had their share of stars eager to feast on a raw rookie pitcher. George Davis, for example, led the Giants in hitting with a .337 batting average and was widely recognized as one of the game’s top stars. “Many ball players regard him as the best shortstop in the business,” wrote The Sporting News.5

Boston manager Frank Selee called on rookie Billy Sullivan to be Ging’s catcher. Nineteen-year-old catcher John George Eby, also on trial with Boston, sat on the bench in uniform as he and Ging watched New York starter Ed Doheny hold Boston scoreless in the top of the first, stranding Chick Stahl at second.

Ging strode to the mound and prepared to face the New York hitters before a lively crowd of 2,000. “A few jokes were cracked about his name when he went into the box,” Sporting Life reported of Ging, “but he clearly showed there was nothing in a name by the work he did.”6

Although the temperature was a warm 75 degrees, a blustery wind blew in from center as Ging struggled with leadoff hitter George Van Haltren, walking him to open the game. It was a shaky start, but Giants third baseman Tom O’Brien followed with a sharp grounder to third baseman Jimmy Collins, who turned it into a 5-4-3 double play. One imagines Collins tongue-in-cheek telling Ging to “keep up the good work, kid” as the infielders tossed the ball around the horn. Finding his rhythm, Ging retired Davis for the third out. His first major-league inning was in the books.

Both starters got out of frequent jams with the help of clutch fielding. In the second, Ging retired Jack Doyle and Kid Gleason before walking Jack Warner and giving up an infield single to Tom Fleming. Up stepped Ging’s former New London teammate Pete Woodruff, and he grounded the ball to third, where Collins again made a great stop, forcing Fleming at second and giving Ging another shutout inning.

Boston took a 1-0 lead in the third when Fred Tenney hit a triple over the head of left fielder Van Haltren and scored on a single by Charlie Kuhns. Meanwhile, Ging remained “as cool and collected as a veteran, and mixed his balls up in a commendable style,” Sporting Life reported. “The hardest hitters of the New Yorks could not do anything with him.”7

Ging held the 1-0 lead with his “assortment of shoots,”8 until the sixth when, with two outs, Gleason hit a sharp single and took third on an infield single by Warner. With Tom Fleming at bat, Warner broke for second. Catcher Sullivan’s throw into the stiff wind failed to catch Warner, and allowed Gleason to score the tying run. It was a veteran trick and a rookie mistake. Ging then struck Fleming out to end the inning tied 1-1.

Ging helped himself in the top of the seventh, successfully sacrificing runners to second and third, setting up Tenney for an RBI single to left and a 2-1 lead. He then retired the Giants in order in the bottom of the inning.

Darkness approached as the Giants faced Ging in the eighth down 2-1. George Davis led off the inning and was called safe at first on a close infield play. Boston protested and the “fans howled”9 as Jack Doyle reached first on another infield single, moving Davis to second and setting the table for the 32-year-old Kid Gleason. Gleason “was, without doubt, the gamest and most spirited ball player I ever saw,” recalled John McGraw. “He could lick his weight in wildcats and would prove it at the drop of a hat.”10

A switch-hitter batting from the left side, Gleason started the at-bat by twice attempting to advance the runners, but failed to bunt Ging’s pitches in fair territory. With two strikes, the fierce veteran prepared to swing away. Davis, the team’s leading basestealer, led off second and looked forward to scoring the tying run.

Ging delivered the pitch, and Gleason “smashed the ball plumb on the trademark,” wrote the Boston Globe, ripping it “on a straight line” to the outfield.11 It seemed to the New Yorkers that at least one run would score on the hit, possibly two. “Gleason whacked the ball to right field apparently out of Stahl’s reach,” reported the New York Sun.12

The crowd rose expectantly, Ging watched helplessly, and the runners raced around the bases. Seemingly out of nowhere, right fielder Stahl got a jump on the ball, made a grand run, reached far forward, and caught the ball with his gloved hand at full speed. “Chick shot out that right duke and balanced the ball like a prize juggler,” wrote the Boston Globe.13 The “remarkable one-hand catch by Stahl saved the game for Boston,” said Sporting Life.14

Ging was not out of the woods, however, as Davis and Doyle raced back to their bases before Stahl’s throw could double either of them up. This was just the first out. Ging secured the second out when Warner hit a grounder to shortstop that forced Doyle at second. Now he faced runners on the corners with two outs.

One imagines that the Boston infielders immediately reminded catcher Sullivan what happened in the sixth inning when New York scored after drawing a throw to second in the stiff wind. This time, when Warner broke for second, Sullivan held the ball. Ging then finished the job by coaxing a groundball to second from Fleming, shutting down the Giants for the final time and earning a 2-1 victory. His major-league trial was wildly successful. Sporting Life noted, “Few newcomers ever made a better debut than Pitcher Ging.”15

Ging’s victory helped spark Boston to a late-season winning streak; the team won 12 of its final 17 games to jump one game ahead of Philadelphia and finish in second place, eight games behind Brooklyn.

In a normal season, Ging’s masterful trial performance would have placed him in perfect position to earn a major-league roster spot in 1900. Unfortunately, it was far from a normal season, since following the 1899 campaign, the National League contracted from 12 teams to eight, significantly limiting the number of roster spots. Ging returned to the minors and pitched for several more professional seasons, but never again in the major leagues.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Baseball-Reference.com.

Sources

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

Portions excerpted from:

Brewster, William H. That Lively Railroad Town: Waverly, New York and the Making of Modern Baseball, 1899-1901 (Eugene, Oregon: Luminare Press, 2020).

Notes

1 “Brooklyn Budget,” Sporting Life, October 21, 1899: 9.

2 “Troubles of a Manager,” Boston Globe, September 25, 1899: 2.

3 “Details for Dewey Fete,” New York Times, September 10, 1899: 4.

4 “Echoes of the Game,” Boston Globe, September 26, 1899: 5.

5 National Baseball Hall of Fame Almanac, 2014 Edition: 128.

6 “Hub Happenings,” Sporting Life, October 7, 1899: 4.

7 “Hub Happenings.”

8 “Good Game This!” Boston Globe, September 26, 1899: 2.

9 “Good Game This!”

10 Dan Lindner, “Kid Gleason,” SABR BioProject.

11 “Good Game This!”

12 “Boston 2: New York 1,” New York Sun, September 26, 1899: 8.

13 “Good Game This!”

14 “Games Played Monday Sept. 25,” Sporting Life, September 30, 1899: 3.

15 “Hub Happenings.”

Washington, meanwhile, had been reasonably consistent all season. In May, the Senators had fallen to seventh place, but reversed course by gaining on .500 and planting themselves in the fifth-place position that Baltimore surrendered when their roster was decimated. As the summer wore on, Washington slowly slid to sixth place, where they stayed the rest of the way. The season was nearly over when the Senators faced off with Baltimore in a pair of doubleheaders on September 20 and 22.

Near the end of the losing streak, Wilbert Robinson received a new good-luck charm from O.P. Chase, who lived in Robinson’s hometown, Bolton, Massachusetts. Chase sent Wilbert a beagle hound puppy named May. The puppy arrived in Washington before the first game of the September 20 doubleheader with the Senators.1 With Robinson’s new mascot (and potential hunting companion), Baltimore won the first game, 6-5.

Ike Butler made the start for Baltimore in the second game. When the Orioles were reassembling a roster following McGraw’s exit and theft, some teams loaned players to Baltimore, and some players were purchased from minor-league teams around the country.2 An opportunist most of his life, Ike Butler saw a chance to play for a major-league team and sent a telegram to manager Robinson offering his services.3 Robinson, in desperate need of pitching, looked into Butler, saw his record (11-12 on a Shreveport team that was already 18 games under .500), and agreed to purchase his rights. Butler got a nice raise, too. Shreveport paid the right-hander $125 per month. Robinson offered Butler $400 each month to pitch for Baltimore.

Ike Butler’s record stood at 0-8 when he took the hill against the Senators for game two. Baltimore went down in order in the first. Washington’s Jack Doyle singled; a Jimmy Williams error put Doyle on third. Ed Delahanty drove in the first run of the game with a fly ball to center. Baltimore scored two runs in the second inning off Washington starter Bill Carrick. Harry Howell, the spitball pitcher now playing shortstop, singled and moved to second on Tom Jones’s sacrifice. A groundout and a walk put runners on first and third. Rookie Jimmy Mathison bluffed a steal of second and drew a throw from the Senators catcher, Lew Drill, which gave Howell an opening to steal home. Aleck Smith singled to score Mathison, giving the Orioles the lead. Baltimore added two more runs in the third inning behind a double by leadoff hitter Herm McFarland and consecutive singles by Williams, Howell, and Jones. Trailing 4-1, Washington chipped into the Baltimore lead in the bottom of the third when singles by Ed Delahanty, Bill Keister, and Watty Lee scored a run.4

Washington turned good fortune and timely hitting into a 5-4 lead in the fourth. Butler walked catcher Drill; earlier in the season the Senators loaned Drill to Baltimore for a couple of games. Bill Carrick next clumsily reached out with his bat and flipped the ball into right field for an unexpected double. Jack Doyle also doubled, scoring both runners. Jimmy Ryan’s single put runners on the corners and Bill Keister’s single scored Doyle to give Washington the lead.

Neither Washington nor Baltimore scored in the fifth, but the Orioles opened the sixth with a Harry Arndt double. Aleck Smith’s single tied the score, 5-5. Baltimore took back the lead in the eighth. Harry Howell homered over a short fence in left field to start the scoring. Harry Arndt next reached on a walk and later scored on a grounder by Butler, helping his own cause. Baltimore added two insurance runs in the ninth when Kip Selbach tripled and Jimmy Williams hit a towering homer into a pond beyond the right-field wall. Baltimore took a 9-5 lead into the bottom of the ninth.

Butler pitched four straight scoreless innings – and the pitcher was up in the ninth. Carrick hit the ball to short, but Howell’s poor throw allowed Carrick to reach. Jack Doyle singled to right, his fourth hit of the day, sending Carrick scurrying to third. Ryan’s fly ball scored Carrick, bringing up Ed Delahanty. Big Ed drove the ball to deep right field, but Arndt got a good jump on it, making a fine catch to end the game.

Neither Butler nor Carrick pitched well. Carrick allowed 17 hits; Butler 16. Butler also walked four batters, and three teammates made errors that contributed to two Washington runs. Still – Baltimore won. For Ike Butler, he finally got his first – and as it turns out, his only – major-league victory. The doubleheader sweep moved Baltimore temporarily out of last place, just percentage points ahead of Detroit. The Orioles won the first game of the September 22 doubleheader, giving them a three-game winning streak, but lost the second game. And then the good times were over. Baltimore lost the last six games to Philadelphia and Boston.

Ike Butler lost two of those final decisions to finish with a 1-10 record for the season – and for his career. When the Baltimore franchise moved to New York for 1903, Butler’s services were not retained. Butler jumped to the new Pacific Coast League, where he would find success for the next decade. While he won just one major-league game, he won nearly 200 minor-league games, most of them on the West Coast.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1190209202.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1902/B09202WS11902.htm

Notes

1 “Beagle Pup for ‘Robbie,’” Baltimore Sun, September 21, 1902: 6.

2 Retrosheet.org lists all the Oriole players who were acquired by the Giants or Reds in connection with John McGraw’s revolt. The Giants acquired McGraw to manage their team. With Baltimore, McGraw played in only a third of the team’s games but led the team in on-base percentage when he played. They got Roger Bresnahan, who played center field, third base, and backup catcher. Bresnahan was on his way to the Hall of Fame. They added Dan McGann, a first baseman who batted .316 for Baltimore and .300 for the Giants. Joe McGinnity won between 26 and 28 games in the three seasons prior to 1902. A 13-game winner for Baltimore, he joined the Giants and split 16 decisions. The Iron Man would pair with Christy Mathewson and they won more than 30 games apiece in each of the next two seasons. McGraw thought Jack Cronin would be a solid starter for the Giants. He went 5-6 in New York with a 2.45 ERA, but his career didn’t really move forward with the Giants after he moved back to the National League. The Reds picked up Joe Kelley and Cy Seymour. Seymour was a converted pitcher who joined the Reds and hit .340 as the new center fielder. Kelley had played mostly center field for Baltimore, but became a utility player in Cincinnati – playing most every day at one of five positions. He batted over .300 for both teams in 1902.

3 “Orioles Fly Today,” Baltimore Sun, July 30, 1902: 6.

4 The entirety of the game summary comes from the following newspapers: “Senators Drop Two Games to the Weakened Orioles,” Washington Times, September 21, 1902: 10; “Baltimore Took Two Games from the Senators,” Washington Evening Star, September 22, 1902: 9; “Not Tail-Enders Now,” Baltimore Sun, September 21, 1902: 6.

Up to the seventh inning the game was “one of the cleanest games that have been played on the South Side”; the two teams were in a defensive struggle with neither side generating much offense as they managed only four hits each and were deadlocked in a 0-0 game.4

All that changed in the seventh inning when Cleveland’s hitters began “slapping” Chicago pitcher Patsy Flaherty’s “insolent benders,” scoring four runs and driving him from the game.5 The onslaught was led by future Hall of Fame right fielder Elmer Flick and left fielder Billy Lush, who each drove in two runs in the inning. Fellow future Hall of Famer Napoleon Lajoie got things started off for Cleveland with a single. First baseman Charlie Hickman reached safely on a bunt when both Flaherty and Chicago third baseman Lee Tannehill slipped and fell while trying to field the ball. A wild pitch from Flaherty moved the runners along, and both were driven in by Lush’s hit. Terry Turner got aboard next with a single. Flaherty looked to get out of the inning with only minimal damage done when he got the next two batters out, but then Flick crushed a double, driving in two more runs. Flaherty retired the next batter having given up four runs, and would see his day come to an end.

After the disastrous inning Chicago manager Nixey Callahan pinch-hit for Flaherty with Frank Huelsman, who fared no better, popping up in his only at-bat. Callahan then called on Chicago native Tom Dougherty to replace Flaherty on the mound. The Cleveland Plain Dealer referred to Dougherty as a “trial horse”; it was his first appearance in a major-league game.6 It would also turn out to be his only major-league appearance. Dougherty’s talent was highly thought of, and it was believed he would develop into a solid, reliable pitcher, but a few weeks after his appearance, he was sent to Kenosha for a month before being sold to the Milwaukee Brewers of the minor-league American Association. He never played in the major leagues again but made the most of his one and only appearance.

Dougherty started the eighth inning and faced the heart of Cleveland’s lineup. With his fastball working, he retired Cleveland’s number-three, -four, and -five hitters, including Lajoie. Chicago clawed back one run in the bottom of the eighth when center fielder Fielder Jones scored on a double by Hall of Fame shortstop George Davis.

Dougherty again shut down Cleveland one-two-three in the top of the ninth. Chicago started the bottom half of the inning with Tannehill reaching safely after laying down a bunt that became stuck in the mud, then advancing to second on a throwing error. Catcher Billy Sullivan’s sacrifice moved Tannehill to third, bringing up Dougherty for his only plate appearance in a major-league game. Dougherty appeared to stall out the comeback with a weak fly out for the second out, threatening to end Chicago’s hopes for a last-at-bat rally. Cleveland pitcher Otto Hess helped keep the rally alive by hitting the next batter, Ducky Holmes, in the chest and walking Jones to load the bases. Up next came Callahan, who tied the game when he “caught a curve on the nose” and delivered a three-run double into left-center, just out of the reach of left fielder Lush.7 He scored the winning run and completed the comeback when the next batter, Danny Green, brought him home on a line shot to right field. Hess, who pitched a complete game, picked up the loss, while striking out four and walking three. The next day the headline in the Chicago Tribune blared, “Sox Pull Game Out of the Fire.”8

Dougherty, in his only appearance in a major-league game, earned the win while working two perfect innings in which he retired all six batters he faced – Bill Bradley, Lajoie, and Hickman in the eighth, and Lush, Turner, Harry Bemis in the ninth. He gave up neither hits, walks, nor runs. While his career batting average was .000, he handled two chances in the field, with a putout and assist to his credit, for a career fielding percentage of 1.000.

While it was Dougherty’s last taste of the major leagues, five of his teammates from this game, Davis, Jiggs Donahue, Jones, Sullivan, and Tannehill, would go on to help Chicago win its first-ever World Series title in 1906 as part of the Hitless Wonders, when they and their league-worst .230 batting average defeated their crosstown rival Chicago Cubs.

For Chicago and Cleveland, Chicago’s win proved to be all that separated the two teams at the end of the season, as Chicago finished in third place, a game and a half ahead of fourth-place Cleveland.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA190404240.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1904/B04240CHA1904.htm

Notes

1 “Chicago Won in the Ninth,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 25, 1904: 6.        

2 “Sox Pull Game out of Fire.” Chicago Tribune, April 25, 1904: 8.

3 “Sox Pull Game out of Fire.”

4 “Sox Beat Blues in Fierce Rally.” Chicago Inter Ocean, April 25, 1904: 6.

5 “Sox Pull Game out of Fire.”

6 “Chicago Won in the Ninth.”

7 “Chicago Won in the Ninth.”

8 “Sox Pull Game out of Fire.”

“You cannot refuse; ’tis the Stars and Stripes!” exclaimed Rube as he unwrapped a tattered American flag. “Pay homage to it, patriot! Keep it in remembrance of the team that won the cellar championship of the year 1904.”1 Donovan tipped his cap, accepted the flag, and – as the crowd cheered – took it to the Senators’ bench. It was the first game of a doubleheader, the final day of American League’s first 154-game season.

Last-place Washington had earned Waddell’s ragged flag. The Senators began the warm fall afternoon with a 37-112 record, 23½ games behind the seventh-place Detroit Tigers. Early in the year the franchise had become a ward of the league. Once the season was underway, its fledging ownership group sold the team’s few desirable high-salaried players. Donovan diligently worked with what he had but, beyond pitcher Casey Patten, first baseman Jake Stahl, and rookie shortstop Joe Cassidy, he didn’t have much.2

The visiting Athletics had stayed in a spirited five-team pennant race through most of the summer despite losing their promising outfielder Danny Hoffman (badly beaned on July 1) and struggling when left-handers Waddell and Eddie Plank weren’t in the box. Philadelphia eventually faded and, soon after beginning a season-concluding 27-game road trip in mid-September, fell completely out of the race. As they took the field on October 10, they were in fifth place, 12½ games off the pace.3

Still, there was enough of interest to attract a relatively large Monday crowd. The Senators had split Friday’s and Saturday’s doubleheaders with the Athletics. Second baseman George “Rabbit” Nill, purchased that summer from the Western League, promised a young middle-infield duo with Cassidy. Hoffman was back leading off for Philadelphia. And there was Waddell, the league’s reigning clown prince.

Most of all, there was the scoreboard, which was said to have perhaps attracted “fully one-half” of the fans to the park.4 A pennant was being decided at New York’s Hilltop Park. The Highlanders stood 1½ games behind the visiting Boston Americans, and needed to win both games of their season-ending doubleheader. Beginning with the 1905 World Series, newspapers in large cities began to erect large scoreboards outside their buildings and employed megaphone men to add additional detail and color.5 But no interleague championship loomed in 1904, and Washington fans lacked any significant public means beyond their park’s scoreboard to follow the New York action in real time.

Washington’s fans mostly pulled for Boston. A June trade that brought star left fielder Patsy Dougherty to New York from Boston, in exchange for utility player Bob Unglaub, was unpopular, as it was believed to be a scheme of AL President Ban Johnson to strengthen the Gotham franchise. Weeks later, in a move suspected to have been made to offset the Dougherty deal, one of Washington’s few stars, Kip Selbach, was sent to Boston in exchange for unproven John O’Neill.6

The New York doubleheader was just underway when Tom Hughes threw the first pitch of the Washington twin bill to Hoffman.7 Hughes, a 20-game winner with the World Series champion Americans in 1903, pitched unimpressively for the Highlanders to begin the 1904 campaign. Dealt to the Senators in July, he went 3-11 leading up to his final start of the season.

His counterpart, Fred Applegate, was purchased by Connie Mack that summer from Toronto and had joined the team in late September. In his subsequent first two major-league starts, both losses, the 25-year-old Applegate had offered little evidence that he could conquer the wildness that had so far plagued his pitching career.

Both pitchers avoided any troubles through the early innings. But in the top of the fourth, hits by Topsy Hartsel, Lave Cross, Socks Seybold, Pete Noonan, and Applegate, a hit batter, and two throwing errors by second baseman Nill pushed five Athletics runs across. On the bench, Waddell’s grin must have been apparent as he readied his gift for the next frame.

In the seventh, singles by Hoffman and Lou Bruce, another Nill error, a walk, and a sacrifice resulted in another two runs. Philadelphia led, 7-0. Yet the Senators, who had so far peppered Applegate’s crossfire delivery for six hits, began to cause damage. In the bottom of the seventh, a triple by Hughes brought home Cassidy and Donovan, Stahl’s single scored Hughes. In the eighth, Cassidy tripled and scored on a groundout.

Finally in the ninth, after O’Neill got an infield hit and Hunter Hill reached base on Hoffman’s fly-ball error, Stahl’s left-field drive brought both home and cut the score to 7-6. But Stahl was tagged out between second and third, and Applegate struck out Frank Huelsman and Nill to earn his first major-league victory.

It also proved to be his last. Applegate ignored the 1905 Athletics contract Mack sent him during the offseason, choosing instead to leverage offers from Toronto against those from an outlaw Williamsport, Pennsylvania, team.

As this lesser drama played out in the nation’s capital, its fans followed the battle in New York via the left-field scoreboard. The Highlanders scored two in the fifth, the Americans tied the match with a pair of runs in the seventh. The crowd saw a youth updating Boston’s top of the ninth with a “1.” Minutes later, a “0” for New York’s bottom of the ninth. Boston had clinched the pennant. Wild cheers erupted and bleacherites amused themselves by inciting “a couple of fake rows,” then leaving the “police hunting for the alleged trouble.”8

The Senators and Athletics had agreed to cap the second game at five innings. It lasted 50 minutes. Victimized by errors, Waddell suffered a 4-3 defeat. As their fans streamed to the exits, anxious to read the details of Boston’s pennant-clinching victory in the evening papers, the Senators could at least cap their woeful season with a faint last laugh.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information including the box score.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1190410101.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1904/B10101WS11904.htm

Photo credit: Baseball-Reference.com.

Notes

1 “Season Closes with a Victory,” Washington Times, October 11, 1904: 8.

2 For Washington’s 1904 season, see Chuck Kimberly, The Days of Rube. Matty, Honus and Ty: Scenes from the Early Deadball Era, 1904-1907 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2019), 92-95.

3 For Philadelphia’s 1904 season, see Norman Macht, Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007), 325-335.

4 “Senators Closed the Season with a Victory,” Washington Evening Star, October 11, 1904: 9.

5 On this evolution, see Phil Williams, “Megaphones in the Deadball Era,” The Inside Game: The Official Newsletter of SABR’s Deadball Era Committee, June 2018, tinyurl.com/2p9ftvh9.

6 For a Washington perspective on these sentiments, see John F. Luitich, “Traded to Boston,” The Sporting News, July 9, 1904: 3.

7 The advertised starting times were 1:30 in New York, 2:00 in Washington. [See the New York Sun, October 10, 1904: 6, and the Washington Post, October 10, 1904: 4.] With a considerably larger crowd at the former, perhaps its start was delayed. The Washington opener lasted 90 minutes, the New York opener 125 minutes. Its final score was therefore likely posted in American League Park soon after the first game there had finished.

8 “Closed with Victory,” Washington Post, October 11, 1904: 8.