When the National Association was founded on March 17, 1871, it was ruled that each club would play five games with the other eight and the winner of three games will have won that “championship series.” This was a term designed to separate league contests from the many exhibition games that each club played along the way. The “whip pennant” would be awarded to the team winning the most series against the other league teams, not the most games won (the rule until 1883) or the top winning percentage (ever since). The term “whip pennant” was synonymous with the term for a flag on the masthead of a ship. Over the years, it has evolved into the term pennant.

Of the clubs that entered the new league, three battled for the pennant from the outset: Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Harry Wright’s Boston Red Stockings took their name as well as several key players — including his brother George Wright, the game’s greatest star — from his famous Cincinnati nine, undefeated in 1869 yet disbanded only a year later. Chicago had built its White Stockings club on the Cincinnati model, luring talented players from other clubs with rich offers. The White Stockings are the direct ancestor of today’s Chicago Cubs.

Chicago’s White Stockings built a new ballpark at Randolph and Michigan on the lakefront. On April 29, 1871, the New York Clipper opined, “They will have accommodations on the grounds to seat 6,500 people, and standing room for plenty more. With the single exception of its being somewhat narrow, they will have one of the finest ball parks in the country.”1 Philadelphia’s venerable Athletic Base Ball Club was founded in 1860 as an amateur organization. It was an open secret that the club began paying its players after the Civil War. After the loss of third baseman Henry Schafer to the new Boston club, the Athletics signed native son Levi Meyerle, a tall, powerful hitter, to take his place.

One team that fell out of the pennant race could point to two enduring accomplishments. Troy’s Haymakers finished in the middle of the pack at 13-15 but provided professional baseball’s first Hispanic player in third baseman Esteban Bellán, as well as the first Jewish professional ballplayer, Lipman Pike, who batted .377 and tied for the league lead in home runs.

Chicago won its first 19 games, including seven league contests, before losing to New York’s Mutuals on June 5 before 10,000 spectators at Brooklyn’s Union Grounds. The Athletics’ impressive array of hitters kept them in the race. However, on August 30, the Athletics succumbed to the visiting White Stockings, 6-3‚ the club’s lowest run total since it started professional play. Chicago pitcher George “The Charmer” Zettlein held the Athletics to four hits.

On September 11, Chicago topped the standings with a 17-6 record, trailed closely by the Athletics (17-7) and Boston (15-9). Yet because neither games won and lost nor the resulting percentage decided the champion, the important fact at this point of the season was that Boston and Chicago had each won three series from other clubs and lost none, while Philadelphia had won three but lost one, to Boston.

As the season wore on, the Athletics were hobbled by injuries. Center fielder John “Count” Sensenderfer — any player who was a favorite of the ladies was invariably nicknamed thus — went out for the year with a knee injury. Second baseman Al Reach — who like Boston’s Al Spalding would go on to create a sporting-goods empire — sat out crucial contests in the final days. Pitcher Dick McBride missed three straight games in September.

Heading into the home stretch, Boston had only six games to play to complete all of its series and, by sweeping them, win the championship. But the Red Stockings lost a critical game at Chicago on September 29, giving the interclub series to Chicago. On October 7, Boston rebounded to defeat Troy to claim that series.

On October 8 at about 9:00 P.M., the great Chicago Fire began. As it raged on October 9, ultimately killing hundreds, and destroying four square miles of the city, the Athletics defeated Troy, 15-3. The White Stockings were still in the race, but the conflagration had cost them their ballpark, their equipment, their uniforms and, it appeared, their livelihoods.

The Chicago players decided not only to play their scheduled National Association games in the East, but also exhibitions that could be hastily arranged. Wearing borrowed uniforms of varying hues and styles, they won often enough; however, they were clobbered in a game at Troy on October 23 that might have secured the championship. At one point they trailed by 14-0. The final score was 19-12.2

The weather was bad for Chicago’s Eastern swing; most of the club’s exhibitions were canceled, and the deciding game with the Athletics, scheduled for Brooklyn’s Union Grounds, was postponed several times before finally taking place on October 30. An Athletics win would give them the pennant outright; a Chicago win would throw the race into a tie, with Boston re-entering the computation.

The game started at 3:10 P.M. Marty Swandell of the Brooklyn Atlantics umpired. Because of windy and damp conditions, only 600 fans occupied the grounds that had welcomed 10,000 in June when Chicago played the Mutuals. Chicago appeared in suits of various origins, ragtag in the extreme. Mike Brannock wore a complete Mutual uniform, except for the belt, which was that of the Eckfords. Center fielder Tom Foley was attired in a complete Eckford suit. Zettlein wore a huge shirt with a mammoth “A” on the bib, no doubt from the Brooklyn Atlantics. Shortstop Ed Duffy appeared in a uniform borrowed from the junior Fly Aways. Some Chicago players wore black hats, others were bareheaded.

“Certainly, a word of commendation should be given to ‘Pratt’ (not Tommy) who played right field for the Athletics. He used to play base ball years ago, and he handled the ash and ran after the balls with all the uncouth rusticity of a bygone age.” — New York World, October 31, 18713

The Athletics were shorthanded. Without the services of Reach, Sensenderfer, and reserve Tom Pratt, they fielded only eight men. First baseman Wes Fisler took Reach’s spot at second base and outfielder George Heubel came in to play first base. Veteran amateur Nate Berkenstock, a founding member of the Athletics who had not played in a game since 1867, was drafted into service. At the time, he was serving as Philadelphia’s team treasurer. Positioned in right field, and playing under the name of “Pratt,” the 39-year-old made a fine inning-ending running catch in the fourth inning to save two runs. Tremendous applause greeted his catch. He played errorless ball, making two other catches.

Philadelphia took the lead with a run in the second inning when Meyerle singled home Fisler. Errors by Duffy and Zettlein produced an unearned run for Philadelphia in the third inning. A defensive lapse in the seventh by Chicago’s first baseman, Bub McAtee, led to Philadelphia’s third run.4 In the eighth, Meyerle’s third hit of the game scored Fisler, who had singled and moved into scoring position on a hit by Heubel.5

Meyerle’s three hits gave him a season-ending batting average of .492, the high-water mark in professional baseball history. With one more hit he would have hit .500 for the season! He tied for the league lead in home runs (4). In 26 games, he drove in 40 runs while scoring 45. His .700 slugging percentage was not bested until 1920.

The hero of the game was McBride. Pitted against Zettlein, who allowed only two earned runs himself, McBride took a 4-0 shutout into the final frame.

Battling to avert a “Chicago” — a shutout synonymous with their city through a famous 9-0 blanking by the Mutuals on July 23, 1870 — Zettlein sent a hot grounder to Meyerle at third, which he kicked over to shortstop John Radcliff. Radcliff picked up the ball and made a try for the putout at first but threw wildly. Zettlein moved to second on the errant throw, advanced to third on a groundball by McAtee, and scored on a groundout by Jim Wood, playing as “Pinkham.” As the cheering for Chicago’s icebreaking run subsided, Fred Treacey flied out to Berkenstock to end the game. The applause at the end of the game was as much for the plucky fight of Chicago as it was for the championship secured by the Athletics.

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the Notes and Baseball-Reference.com, the following have been used in the completion of this story:

“Base Ball: White Stockings vs. Athletic,” Brooklyn Daily Times, October 31, 1871: 3.

“Our National Game: White Stockings vs. Forest Citys, of Cleveland,” Chicago Republican, May 9, 1871: 4.

Notes

1 “Base Ball: The Game in Chicago,” New York Clipper, April 29, 1871: 6.

2 “Base Ball: White Stockings vs. Haymakers,” Brooklyn Daily Times, October 24, 1871: 3.

3 “Athletics Victorious,” World (New York), October 31, 1871: 2.

4 “The Championship Won: The Philadelphia Boys Bearing Off the Pennant,” Sun (New York), October 31, 1871: 3.

5 “The Last Championship Match,” New York Clipper, November 4, 1871: 2.

On May 1, 1883, under hazy skies with a temperature of 59 degrees and a slight wind,1 the Philadelphia team in the National League dropped a 4-3 decision to the Providence Grays at Recreation Park. There is no evidence that there were any pregame festivities on that Tuesday afternoon to mark the occasion for the 1,200 fans attending the first game in the history of the Philadelphia Phillies franchise.2

Al Reach, a sporting goods magnate who had been a star player in the old National Association from 1871 to 1875, and John Rogers, a local attorney and politician, had been granted the National League franchise after the Worcester, Massachusetts, franchise quit the league on December 6, 1882.3

Recreation Park was situated between 24th and 25th Streets from Ridge Avenue to Columbia Avenue in North Philly, 2½ miles from City Hall and downtown Philadelphia. Its dimensions were extremely shallow when compared to today’s standards: 300 feet to left field, 331 feet to center, and 247 feet to right.4 Built in 1860, the ballpark was rebuilt during the winter of 1882-83 in anticipation of the new ballclub. This work increased capacity to as many as 6,500 fans, with wooden grandstands added along with a new playing surface.5

This would be the Phillies’ first home and would remain so for the first four seasons of their existence. The City of Philadelphia has placed historical markers at the club’s other former home sites of Baker Bowl (1887-1938), Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium (1938-70), and Veterans Stadium (1971-2003), but one will find none anywhere around this historic first home location.6

For the first seven seasons the team was referred to by the geographical designation of the Philadelphias or by the nickname Quakers, with Phillies also being used on occasion.7 The name Phillies became a formal part of the club’s identity in 1890 and remains the longest continuous one-city nickname in professional sports history.8

The Providence Grays, who visited Philly for that first 1883 game, were a strong ballclub. They finished 58-40 and in third place, managed by a former great player, Harry Wright, who had previously skippered the Boston Red Stockings to six pennants. Known to many as the father of professional baseball, Wright switched teams the following year and managed the Phillies for a decade from 1884 to 1893.9

The Phillies who stepped on to the field at Recreation Park on that first day played under manager and second baseman Bob Ferguson. Ferguson didn’t last the year, replaced after just 17 games and a 4-13 start. It got no better, with the club going 13-68 under third baseman-outfielder Blondie Purcell.10

The overall 17-81 final record left the Phillies at the bottom of what was then an eight-team National League. Not only were they 46 games out of first place; they were also a distant 23 behind the next-lowest club, the seventh-place Detroit Wolverines.11

The Providence starting lineup:

1. Paul Hines CF
2. Joe Start 1B
3. Jack Farrell 2B
4. Arthur Irwin SS
5. John Cassidy RF
6. Cliff Carroll LF
7. Charles Radbourn P
8. Jerry Denny 3B
9. Barney Gilligan C

The Grays’ big star was pitcher Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn, who won 48 games that year at age 28 in what was his third of 11 big-league seasons. He eventually landed a place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. In that 1883 season, Radbourn was the starting pitcher for 68 of the Grays’ 98 games. He is the first known athlete to give the middle finger in a photograph in 1886 while posing with his team, the Boston Beaneaters, for an Opening Day team photo at New York’s Polo Grounds.12

Hines finished his career with a lifetime .302 average over 20 seasons. Start was the first native of Rhode Island to play in the big leagues. Irwin became the first player to wear a glove, in 1883 after he injured two fingers. After he died, it was found that he had two families with two different wives in two different cities.13

The Philadelphia starting lineup:

1. Blondie Purcell LF
2. Bill McClellan SS
3. Jack Manning RF
4. Bob Ferguson 2B
5. Fred Lewis CF
6. Bill Harbridge 3B
7. John Coleman P
8. Frank Ringo C
9. Sid Farrar 1B

Ferguson’s nickname was “Death to Flying Things,” which he earned due to his ability to catch fly balls during the no-gloves era. In addition to being the team’s first manager, on that day Ferguson was also the first switch-hitter in the sport.14 Ringo was an alcoholic who would tragically take his own life six years later at age 28 with an intentional morphine overdose. He had previously caught Coleman, who was a Philadelphia native, when the two were batterymates with Peoria of the Northwestern League.15 Farrar hit just .253 over seven seasons with the Phillies. His daughter, Geraldine Farrar, born the year before his arrival in Philadelphia, became one of the most popular opera stars in the world.

Purcell started the bottom of the first with a single to left-center field for the first base hit in Phillies franchise history. The Philadelphia Inquirer article implies that McClennan hit a ball over the right-field fence for a double.16 It may have been a Recreation Park ground rule in those days since the fence was only 247 feet from home plate. Manning then grounded a ball to Farrell at second base, bringing home Purcell with the first run scored in Phillies history. Ferguson hit a ball back to Radbourn, with McClellan sliding home to beat the throw for a second run. Lewis then hit a ball to Irwin, who flipped the ball to Farrell, beginning a classic 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.17

There was no further scoring until the bottom of the seventh inning. Lewis made it to first base on an error by Grays second baseman Farrell. A hit by Harbridge moved Lewis to second. Coleman grounded out to Start at first base, and on the play Lewis was also put out at third to complete a double play. Ringo then hit a ball to left field, where Carroll misjudged it, allowing Harbridge to score. The Phillies had themselves a 3-0 lead. But as in so many games to follow for the team, the lead did not last.

The Grays scored all of their four runs in the top of the eighth inning. Radbourn led off with a walk, Denny singled, and Gilligan singled to load the bases. Hines then ripped a bases-clearing double to tie the game at 3-3. Start grounded out to Farrar at first, with Hines moving to third base. Farrell drove in Hines with the go-ahead run, putting Providence on top by 4-3. Irwin finished the inning by hitting the ball to Farrar at first. Only three of the runs were earned without any formal explanation by the official scorer.18 When Hines hit his double, a miscue must have happened to allow the third run to score when the bases were cleared. This was the first “crooked inning” ever recorded against the Phillies.19

Now trailing 4-3, the local squad attempted a comeback in the eighth inning. Purcell made it to first on a single but sustained a sprained ankle. He continued to play because the Grays would not allow the Phillies to use a courtesy runner. Beginning what evolved into a long-standing Philadelphia sports fan tradition, the attendees that day did not take kindly to the lack of accommodation by the Grays. They “vigorously hissed” the opposition.20 Start then made an error allowing McClellan to reach base and the hobbling Purcell to second. After Manning and Ferguson flied out to right and left field respectively, Grays catcher Gilligan allowed a passed ball. Purcell tried to advance but was called out at third base, though the Inquirer’s writer thought he was safe. The Philly fans hissed again at this call.21 Had Providence allowed the courtesy runner, that runner might have been safe, and the outcome might have been different. Providence won the game by the final 4-3 score. Despite yielding only six hits, Coleman suffered the first of what would become 48 losses on his record during that first Phillies season.

The loss on May 1, 1883, was the harbinger of things to come for the franchise. The team went just 56-154 over their first two seasons in the National League. During a long, horrific stretch beginning in 1918, the Phillies and their fans suffered through a disastrous period during which the team registered losing campaigns in 30 of 31 years, often finishing at the bottom of the league. As of the conclusion of the 2019 season, the Phillies had now lost exactly 11,000 games, more than any other team in baseball history.

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com.

Notes

1 “Weather,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 1, 1883.

2 “The Season Opened Everywhere,” New York Times, May 2, 1883.

3 Matt Veasey, “First Game in Philadelphia Phillies History Franchise History,” Phillies Bell (2020): philliesbell.com/2020/05/01/first-game-in-philadelphia-phillies-franchise-history/: Retrieved May 2, 2020.

4 Veasey.

5 Rich Westcott, “Philadelphia Phillies: A Vibrant History,” The National Pastime 43 (2013): sabr.org/research/philadelphia-phillies-vibrant-history, Retrieved April 28, 2020.

6 Veasey.

7 Westcott; Veasey.

8 Westcott; Veasey.

9 Veasey.

10 Veasey.

11 Veasey.

12 Erik Brady, “Middle Finger Often in the Middle of Sports Controversy,” USA Today, October 26, 2017. usatoday.com/story/sports/2017/10/26/middle-finger-often-middle-sports-controversy/804550001, Retrieved May 2, 2020.

13 Eric Frost, “Arthur Irwin,” SABR BioProject, sabr.org/bioproj/person/e5e7bfa4, Retrieved April 30, 2020.

14 Brian McKenna, “Bob Ferguson,” SABR BioProject, sabr.org/bioproj/person/df8e7d29, Retrieved April 30, 2020.

15 Veasey.

16 “Providence Wins,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 2, 1883.

17 “Providence Wins.”

18 “Providence Wins.”

19 Veasey.

20 “Providence Wins.”

21 “Providence Wins.”

Talented but high-strung and often a handful for the game’s establishment, Mullane had entered American Association ranks with a rush, winning 30 games for Louisville in 1882. The right-hander3 switched ballclubs annually thereafter but he remained highly productive, winning 30-plus games for St. Louis (1883) and Toledo (1884). Mullane’s reneging on an agreement to return to St. Louis for the 1885 season, however, antagonized the wrong man, powerful Browns club boss Chris Von der Ahe.4 Ultimately, the vindictive and strong-willed Von der Ahe saw to it that a one-year suspension and a $1,000 fine were imposed on Mullane for his transgression. So when Mullane took the ball against Louisville that April afternoon, he had not pitched a game in Organized Baseball for almost 18 months, and many wondered whether the handsome “Apollo of the Box” still had his stuff. Mullane soon settled that question, decisively.

After a scoreless first inning, Cincinnati broke the seal to take a 1-0 lead in the second via a walk, a single by Reds catcher Pop Snyder, and a run-scoring passed ball by Louisville backstop John Kerins. In the third, the hard-throwing Ramsey ensured that no further damage was done by his defense by striking out the side. But the Reds struck for two more runs in the fourth, with Ramsey again victimized by shoddy Louisville defensive work. A double by Frank Fennelly, a groundball error by Colonels third baseman Joe Werrick, singles by Pop Corkhill and Snyder, and another Kerins passed ball extended the Reds’ lead to 3-0.

Cincinnati broke the game open in the fifth when Ramsey was further injured by his defense. With two on and two out, a muffed fly ball by Colonels center fielder Pete Browning plated both Reds baserunners. A double by Corkhill then stretched the Cincinnati advantage to 6-0. In the bottom of the frame, Mullane returned the favor, his own throwing error prolonging Louisville at-bats long enough for Ramsey to smash a two-run double and bring the home side a bit closer, now down 6-2.

After the clubs traded goose eggs for two innings, Cincinnati clinched the game with a three-run eighth-inning rally that featured three more Louisville fielding miscues and a two-run double by the Reds’ Long John Reilly. From there, Mullane cruised to the finish line, setting the Colonels down in order over the last two innings to close out a 9-2 Cincinnati victory.

Although Tom Ramsey had been touched for 13 base hits, he had acquitted himself decently, striking out seven Reds batsmen and allowing only two earned runs. Eight Louisville fielding errors and three passed balls by Kerins had been his undoing. Still, the Colonels’ defensive ineptitude had not really spelled the difference in the game’s outcome. The deciding factor had been the pitching of Tony Mullane. Showing little effect from his long pitching layoff, the Reds ace had been superb — aside from his fielding. Had it not been for Mullane’s own fifth-inning throwing error, Louisville would have been blanked. Spacing four hits and three walks, Tony had been in control the entire way, striking out four and holding Louisville totally at bay but for the error-prolonged fifth inning.

Mullane’s triumphant return to the box was a precursor of things to come, as he would go on to a 33-win season in 1886 and register his fifth consecutive 30-plus-victory season the following year. Before his 13-season major-league career was over, Mullane would compile 284 wins, and today he is considered by many nineteenth-century baseball aficionados to be Cooperstown-worthy. Mullane’s attaining that honor seems unlikely, but his Hall of Fame case is an arguable one.5 In any event, on April 20, 1886, Tony Mullane put to rest any misgivings about the effects that his year-long suspension might have upon his pitching talents, returning to the game in triumph.

Sources

The above is primarily based on next-day game accounts published in the Cincinnati Enquirer and Louisville Courier-Journal, April 21, 1886. The writer is indebted to Nineteenth Century Research Committee colleague Alan Cohen for providing him with this reportage.

There are differences in the next-day game box scores published in the Courier-Journal and the Enquirer. Because their differing stats cannot both be correct, discrepancies have been resolved in favor of the Courier-Journal because its box score is supported by a detailed and credible inning-by-inning account of game action. The box score of the Cincinnati Enquirer is accompanied by a hyperbolic special dispatch of unknown etiology that does not provide specific game details or otherwise impress the writer as factually reliable.

Notes

1 The description of Ramsey’s out-pitch in “Another Exploded Phenom,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 21, 1886: 2.

2 Three days earlier, Mullane had returned to the game in the Cincinnati outfield.

3 Because the athletically gifted Mullane threw the odd major-league game left-handed, modern baseball references often list him as pitching ambidextrously. For more on Tony Mullane, see his BioProject profile by Ray Birch.

4 With the financially failing Toledo club headed for dissolution, Mullane had signed a contract for the 1885 season with the American Association Cincinnati Reds. But this violated a previous agreement that Mullane had entered to pitch for St. Louis in 1885.

5 In 2015 Tony Mullane was the Nineteenth Century Research Committee’s selection as Overlooked Legend worthy of Hall of Fame consideration.

The mound matchup appeared compelling with two star pitchers at the height of their prowess. Both regularly won at least 20 games. For the home team, Jack Stivetts took the hill. In his rookie season, he led the American Association with a 2.25 ERA. From 1890 through 1893, Stivetts won 27, 33, 35, and 20 games for the Association’s Browns and the Beaneaters. Those impressive stats, however, seemed somewhat small when compared with those of his mound opponent, Amos Rusie, the Hoosier Thunderbolt. For New York from 1890 through 1893, Rusie won 29, 33, 32, and 33 games, or 12 more than Stivetts did over the same span. But the old hoodoo appeared to afflict Rusie when he pitched against the club from the Hub. Noted the Boston Globe, “He has won just one game from Boston since he has been with New York. Luck is dead against the big pitcher against the Beaneaters.”1

And on this particular day, the Beaneaters had an unusual home-field advantage that might have inspired them. A bit more than two months earlier, the South End Grounds was destroyed in a fire “started by a cigar or cigarette dropped among old peanut shells”2 during a Baltimore-Boston game, when Boston’s Tommy Tucker and Baltimore’s John McGraw … got into a savage fight … after Tucker slid hard into third base and McGraw kicked him in the face. … The conflagration in its initial stages could easily have been stomped out, but it was ignored by the crowd – who were caught up in the fracas on the field and its aftermath – until the end of the inning.”3

The faithful Boston fans eagerly returned to their old stamping grounds, renovated after the fire, “and a large crowd turned out to greet them,” noted the New York Times. “The heat was so intense that the cozy little grand stand, with a seating capacity of only 900, was totally inadequate to accommodate those who wished to witness the game from a sheltered position.”4

Even against a pitcher as imposing as Rusie, the bats of the Beaneaters soon proved as hot as the weather. The Hoosier Thunderbolt looked sharp early, wrote the estimable baseball scribe Tim Murnane: “It is doubtful whether Amos Rusie ever had greater speed, and the way he shot the ball through space … in the first inning made it seem impossible for any man to meet the ball with anything like accuracy.”5

Boston’s half of the second inning made this notion seem preposterous. Tucker singled. Jimmy Bannon singled. Billy Nash hit a three-run homer to put the Beaneaters up 3-0. Backup catcher Jack Ryan singled and scored on a triple by Stivetts that gave him a 4-0 lead. A multitalented player who appeared at every position other than catcher over the course of his 11-year career, Stivetts would slash his way to a .328/.369/.533 season in 1894 and smack seven triples.

Bobby Lowe plated his pitcher with a groundball to New York’s Shorty Fuller, who made a throwing error that made the score 5-0 and placed Lowe on second. At 5-feet-6, Fuller today seems less exceptional for his lack of height than for the frequency of his miscues. (He made 73 in 1894, a substantial total but far short of the career-high 92 he made in 1892, his first season in New York.) Herman Long doubled Lowe home to put Boston up 6-0. Hugh Duffy, who would hit .440 in 1894, singled. Long and Duffy both scored, too, the latter on errors on the same play by Rusie overthrowing second and George Van Haltren doing the same with his return heave to George Davis at third base. The Beaneaters had tallied eight runs in the inning thanks to a bounty of Boston hits and a trio of errors by the Giants.

A bad day for New York got worse in the fourth inning when the Giants had runners on first and second and what looked like a single became instead a rare 7-4-5 double play. Tommy McCarthy in left field charged a liner and whipped it to Lowe for a force out at second base. Lowe relayed the ball to Nash at third who tagged out the runner from second. Murnane marveled, “It would be impossible to make a more daring and yet brilliant play on a ball field.”6

Duffy, who in addition to his amazing batting average would lead the National League in 1894 with a career-high 18 homers, smashed a round-tripper in the fourth to put Boston up 9-0. Known as the Heavenly Twins, McCarthy and Duffy put on a celestial performance both at the plate and in the field.

Heaven could wait in the seventh when Duffy appeared to throw out New York player-manager John Montgomery Ward at third base. Nash’s error attempting to apply the tag let the ball get away and enabled Ward to score an unearned run. Even though the move paid off, manager Ward should have chastised player Ward for his overly aggressive baserunning given the large deficit his team faced.

The Beaneaters got that run back plus two more in the seventh to make the final score 12-1. The rally consisted of McCarthy’s triple, doubles by Tucker and Bannon, and, atoning immediately for his error, an RBI single by Nash.

In spite of the rout, both pitchers hurled complete games (amazingly, only five pitchers appeared for the Giants in 1894, when Rusie finished second in the NL with 444 innings pitched). While the more renowned Rusie got rocked, Stivetts superbly pitched a seven-hitter, a feat especially impressive in the offensively charged 1894 season, when the National League as a whole had a .309 batting average, and its teams averaged 7.4 runs per game. “Jack Stivetts,” the Globe commented, “pitched a game … that would win every time.”7

Beating New York always makes Boston fans feel grateful; doing so during the first game back at a beloved ballfield made an easy victory even more gratifying than usual.

Notes

1 “Echoes of the Game,” Boston Globe, July 21, 1894: 2.

2 Harold Kaese, The Boston Braves, 1871-1953 (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004), 67. 

3 David Nemec, “Tommy Tucker,” sabr.org/bioproj/person/c54e887d (accessed August 8, 2017).

4 “Giants Badly Beaten,” New York Times, July 21, 1894.

5 T.H. Murnane, “Bat Like Fiends,” Boston Globe, July 21, 1894: 2. The descriptions of the plays in this game derive from Murnane’s detailed account.

6 Murnane. The Times described the play thusly: “McCarthy worked his trap-ball trick when New York had a good chance to score in the fourth inning, and retired the side.”

7 “Baseball Notes,” Boston Globe, July 21, 1894: 2.

Rusie was baseball’s biggest star in the 1890s. He captured the nation’s attention with his blazing — indeed legendary — heater, the hardest-thrown ball the sport had ever seen to that point. As a 19-year-old in 1890, he whiffed 341, the first of three straight seasons he struck out at least 300 batters. Coupled with his wildness — he walked at least 200 batters in five straight seasons — the 6-foot-1, 200-pound right-hander made batters literally fear for their lives. He was one of the reasons the distance the from the mound to the plate was extended from 55 feet to 60 feet 6 inches beginning in 1893. Rusie won 30 or more games in four consecutive seasons (1891-1894), and owned a 198-152 career mark in his first seven seasons while playing for primarily average teams.

While at the top of his game in 1895, Rusie was involved in a contentious battle with Giants owner Andrew Freedman, who docked his star pitcher’s salary for alleged rules and playing violations. Rusie protested the fines and threatened to sit out the following season. Not only did the brash hurler make good on his promise, he contacted former ballplayer and attorney John Montgomery Ward to represent him in a legal battle to be freed from his Giants contract. As Charles F. Faber wrote in his biography of Rusie for the SABR BioProject, Freedman paid the hurler $5,000 to drop the suit and re-signed him for the 1897 campaign.4 The entire episode, quipped the Tribune, was an “unnecessary wrangle.”5

Rusie’s season debut created a scene of pandemonium at the Polo Grounds on a Tuesday afternoon despite temperatures in the mid-40s and a “cold bleak wind, which blew a shivering gale,” reported the Evening Star.6 Estimates about the attendance for the 4 P.M. start time ranged from 10,000, according to the Sun,7 to 15,000 from influential Gotham City sportswriter O.P. Caylor.8 The exact number will probably never be known, as “crowds were standing three deep around the ropes surrounding the outfield,” reported the Times.9

To a thunderous ovation, the 26-year-old Rusie set up to face the Washington Senators in the Giants’ fifth game of the season.10 In fairy-tale fashion, the Hoosier Thunderbolt fanned the leadoff hitter, Charlie Abbey, on four pitches and breezed through the first inning, yielding just one baserunner, Kip Selbach, whom he nicked with a pitch.11

The Giants came out swinging against 22-year-old right-hander and offseason medical student Doc McJames, who had posted a 12-20 slate in his first full season a year earlier. Singles by four of the first five batters (George Van Haltren, Mike Tiernan, George Davis, and Kid Gleason) produced a 2-0 Giants lead. The sound of wood on the ball must have excited player-manager Bill Joyce, whose club was winless in its first four games (three losses and a tie) and had been outscored 32-15.

As if the New York crowd was not excited enough, Rusie provided even more fodder to cheer in the second. He fanned the side, setting down John O’Brien, Ed Cartwright, and Tom Brown in order.

The Giants continued to whack McJames, whom the Sun described as “somewhat erratic,” despite his “very fast delivery.”12 A double by Parke Wilson, singles by Rusie and Davis, and a walk produced two more runs in the second. Caylor noted that “Washington put out all three men at the plate” in an action-packed frame.13

Rusie’s appearance seemed to inspire his squad, coming off a seventh-place (64-67) finish in the 12-team National League. “Every man appeared to have some infusion of spirit shot under his epidermis,” mused Caylor,14 while the Sun noted that “players hustled with decidedly more ginger.”15

The Senators mounted a comeback in the third. Charlie Reilly’s single, the first hit off Rusie, McJames’s double, and Rusie’s only two walks of the game resulted in two runs, cutting the Giants’ lead to 4-2. Third baseman George Davis’s muff, one of his two and the team’s five errors, also contributed to the scoring. The Giants’ “fielding was far below the standard,” opined the Sun.16 Only one of the three Senators runs in the game was earned. The Senators tallied their third and final run in the sixth on singles by Brown and Reilly with help from second baseman Gleason’s error.

The Giants were in control throughout the game. They responded to the Senators’ first tallies of the game by tacking on a run in the fifth to make it 5-2. Tiernan doubled and eventually scored on McJames’s error in the inning, which also experienced a wild scene that elicited catcalls and howls from the crowd. With bases loaded, General Stafford hit a grounder on which Jake Beckley collided with shortstop Gene DeMontreville at second base. According to the Sun, umpire Tom Lynch declared Stafford out, claiming that Beckley intentionally prohibited DeMontreville from completing a double play.17 [There are some discrepancies with box scores of this game; some show the Giants scoring one run in the fifth; others show two runs; however, the Sun’s box score and Caylor’s report seem most reliable].

The Giants continued their offensive onslaught in the seventh, scoring two more runs on singles by Bill Joyce, Davis, and Beckley, aided by two passed balls. Lynch’s hard day continued, too. He ruled Davis out at the plate. The Evening Star contended that Davis “wasn’t touched” and furthermore submitted that Lynch was not in position to see that play because “he was inside the diamond and had to guess at it.”18

Rusie himself was at the center of the Giants’ last run. A robust hitter for a pitcher, Rusie entered the season batting .249 in his career. In the eighth, his third hit of the game, coupled with Tiernan’s third safety and DeMontreville’s throwing error, one of the Senators’ four miscues, produced the final score, 8-3. Seven of the Giants’ eight runs were unearned.

Rusie tossed a scoreless ninth to complete the game in 2 hours and 25 minutes. Met with booming applause and standing ovations throughout the game, Rusie was stormed by well-wishers after the game. Some exuberant fans tried to carry him off the field, and only by intervention from his teammates and police was it possible for him to make it to the dressing room. Other fans feted him again once he left the park.

Rusie made a grand return to baseball in 1897. He finished the season with 28 victories, the second-most in the big leagues behind Kid Nichols, leading the Giants (83-48) to a third-place finish. The year away from the sport affected his strikeout totals, though. He finished in fourth place with 135, behind co-leaders McJames and teammate Cy Seymour (156).

Sources

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

Notes

1 “Rice Brings Victory,” New York Sun, April 28, 1897: 10.

2 “Amos Rusie Wins a Game,” New York Times, April 28, 1897: 10.

3 “New York Wins Its First Game,” New York Tribune, April 28, 1897: 11.

4 Charles F. Faber, “Amos Rusie,” SABR BioProject. sabr.org/bioproj/person/b7d42c08.

5 “New York Wins Its First Game.”

6 Temperature from “The Weather,” New York Sun, April 28, 1897: 8; quotation from “Rusie Was in Form,” Evening Star, (Washington), April 28, 1897: 6.

7 “Rice Brings Victory.”

8 O.P. Caylor, reprinted from New York Herald as “Rusie Was in Form,” Evening Star (Washington), April 28, 1897: 6.

9 “Amos Rusie Wins a Game.”

10 Play-by-play information for this essay is culled from available newspapers. Neither Baseball-Reference.com nor Retrosheet.org has detailed information on this game.

11 “Amos Rusie Wins a Game.”

12 “Rusie King of Giants,” Washington Post, April 28, 1897: 8.

13 Caylor noted a double by Wilson; other sources credited him with a single.

14 Caylor.

15 “Rice Brings Victory.”

16 “Rice Brings Victory.”

17 “Rice Brings Victory,” New York Sun.

18 Caylor.

The Polo Grounds was an odd name for an odd series of stadiums in different parts of New York. The final Polo Grounds opened on June 28, 1911, less than three months after the previous one was destroyed by fire.

The first Polo Grounds was aptly named, as it was a polo field, extending from Sixth Avenue to Fifth Avenue and wedged between 110th and 112th Streets just north of Central Park. Professional baseball first arrived in 1880, and two major-league teams — New York (later to take the name Giants) of the National League and the Metropolitan of the American Association — in 1883 used the Polo Grounds, which had separate diamonds and grandstands at opposite ends of the site.

In 1889 the city cut a street through the Polo Grounds, evicting the New York Giants. (The Metropolitan no longer existed.) The Giants found a new place to play on the southern portion of Coogan’s Hollow, beneath the 155th Street viaduct, squeezed in between a bluff and a river. To help keep continuity with their fans, the Giants carried the name uptown, christening another Polo Grounds (first known as the New Polo Grounds). The name could have just as easily been lost to history, but it lived and carried to another pair of stadiums.

A new ballpark opened on the northern lot of Coogan’s Hollow, adjacent to Polo Grounds, in 1890. It was first used by the New York team in the Players League and was known that season as Brotherhood Park. With the demise of the Players’ League after one season, the Giants of the National League moved in, taking along the name Polo Grounds again, in 1891.

This version of the Polo Grounds was a wooden structure with a bathtub shape, mostly open in the outfield, which created space for people to watch the game from horse-drawn carriages. It was the site of one of the most famous plays in history — Merkle’s Boner — in 1908 when the Giants had the winning run in a game nullified by Fred Merkle, who had been on first when Al Bridwell hit an apparent game-ending single, abandoned the basepaths before reaching second.

The Giants played the first two games of the 1911 season on the Polo Grounds, but an overnight fire after the second game destroyed the grandstand, forcing the Giants to move into nearby Hilltop Park with the New York Highlanders (also known as the Yankees) of the American League as they figured out what to do for a new ballpark.

Giants owner John T. Brush wanted to rebuild the Polo Grounds on the same spot but with more durable building materials. Author Noel Hynd provides a touching story of Brush, who used a wheelchair because of locomotor ataxia, coming back to the site with his wife, Elsie, and saying, “I want to build a concrete stand. The finest thing that can be constructed. It will mean economy for a time. Are you willing to stand by me?”1 She was.

Brush needed more than just Elsie’s support, he needed a long-term lease. Even before the fire, Brush had wanted to erect a permanent stand to replace the wooden amphitheater but was reluctant to do so because of the short lease he then had. He soon worked out a 25-year lease with the property owners and charged ahead with plans for a grand edifice and the erection of a grandstand with reinforced concrete, marble, and structural steel.2

Brush planned to drop the Polo Grounds name and tout his contribution to the new structure by calling it Brush Stadium. Fans and news reporters had other ideas, though, and the name Polo Grounds persevered. As Lawrence S. Ritter said of the rebuilt structure in his book Lost Ballparks, “Polo Grounds it had been and Polo Grounds it would remain.”3

With more than 2,000 piles driven 25 to 40 feet in the ground to ensure a solid foundation, a lower tier equipped with chairs was in place for the Giants upon their return from a long road trip in late June.4 “Everything in connection with the building is fireproof,” wrote John Foster in Baseball Magazine. “A fire could be built in the center of the stand and have no effect upon the walls, flooring, or foundation.”5

Construction was ongoing, but more than enough seats were available when the Giants hosted the Boston Braves (known informally as the Rustlers at the time)6 in the first game of the final version of the Polo Grounds on Wednesday, June 28, 1911. The New York Times reported that the grandstand had 16,000 available seats with 10,000 more available in the outfield bleachers that had survived the fire.7

Far less than a sellout showed up, with attendance estimates provided by New York newspapers listing figures from 6,000 to 15,000.8 All accounts agreed that it was a hot day, which may have kept the crowd down. The bleachers, as always, were uncovered, and the unfinished ballpark left fans in the grandstand without a second deck to provide shade. The Giants installed a temporary canvas on top of the permanent seating area, but this provided relief only to those in the top rows. Owner John T. Brush also sweated, but he did it from a vantage point in his automobile from right field.

The main attraction may have been less about the new ballpark and more about the return of colorful, cocky New York favorite Turkey Mike Donlin, who had left baseball after the 1908 season to pursue acting with his wife, Mabel Hite. Donlin came back to the Giants in June 1911 and played three games on the road. Before the first game in New York, he made an ostentatious entrance amid flower bearers in center field.

The pitching matchup featured a pair of Mattys, Al Mattern for last-place Boston and Christy Mathewson for first-place New York. Through five innings, the Mattys dominated, each giving up five hits without a walk. Boston bunched its hits a bit more, but Mathewson worked out of the innings, helped by a few breaks and his fielders. Bill Sweeney led off the game with a single but was thrown out stealing by Jack “Chief” Meyers. With two out, Buck Herzog doubled and was stranded when Doc Miller grounded out.

With one out in the fourth, Herzog and Miller singled, although the latter’s was costly, as his grounder hit Herzog and put him out. Meyers then threw Miller out stealing. A single to start the fifth by Scotty Ingerton led nowhere as Mathewson retired Harry Steinfeldt, Johnny Kling, and Al Kaiser. Mattern started the sixth with a single and got to third after a sacrifice and groundout, but Herzog flied out.

The Giants broke the scoreless duel in the sixth when, with one out, Larry Doyle homered, the first home run in the final iteration of the Polo Grounds. Most of the news accounts say that Doyle hit the ball into the new grandstand in right field, but The Sun (New York) has it as an inside-the-park home run: “Doyle gave the ball a prodigious whack and dropped it in the extreme right wing of the stadium. While it was bouncing around on the concrete, he jogged around the bases.”9

Boston threatened in the seventh. Ingerton bunted down the third-base line. Art Devlin let the ball roll, hoping it would go foul, but it struck the base for a single. Steinfeldt bounced one through the right side. Ingerton hesitated rounding second and then went for third, only to be nailed by a strong throw from right fielder Red Murray. Kling hit a long drive to center, but Snodgrass corralled it with a running one-handed catch.

Mattern tired in the bottom of the inning, giving up a one-out single to Bridwell and walking Devlin. He compounded his problems with an errant pickoff throw to second, allowing the runners to advance. Mattern intentionally walked Meyers to bring up Mathewson, who produced a fly to left deep enough to score Bridwell. Josh Devore, who had a hit and had struck out twice, was next up, but John McGraw sent up Fred Merkle instead. Merkle had been scratched from the starting lineup after being struck in the groin in an early practice the Giants held that morning. Hitting for Devore, he drew a walk to load the bases. A wild pitch brought in Devlin with the Giants’ third run, with Meyers going to third. New York tried a double steal, pinch-runner Beals Becker taking off from first to lure a throw as Meyers broke from third. However, the return throw to the plate was in time to get Meyers and end the inning.

Mathewson retired six of the final seven Boston batters, Fred Tenney getting a leadoff single in the ninth, and New York had a 3-0 win in its first game back beneath Coogan’s Bluff. Despite his grand return, Mike Donlin did not play in the game.

Construction continued on the Polo Grounds over the next three months, interrupted only when the Giants were playing, and the work was complete by the 1911 World Series, which the Giants played in, losing to the Philadelphia Athletics, four games to two.

The completed Polo Grounds had a double-decked grandstand in a J-shape, the stands reaching approximately 40 feet into fair territory in right field but stopping short of the foul line in left field. The upper deck was faced with a decorative frieze containing a series of allegorical treatments in bas relief, while the façade of the roof was adorned with the coats of arms of all National League teams.

The ornamentation went away with a 1920s expansion that extended the grandstand, curving both sides toward one another in the deepest reaches of the outfield. Rather than meeting in center field, however, the stands stopped. Bleachers filled the gap on each side with a large building containing the locker room and team office dividing the two bleachers. The building was set back from the field, creating a notch in the playing area.

With the distance to extreme center field listed as anywhere from 475 to 505 feet — as the distances down each foul line were well short of 300 feet — the final version of the Polo Grounds, which closed in 1963, had achieved the distinction of the “oddest of the odd.”

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Retrosheet.org and the following newspaper articles:

Bulger, Bozeman. “Pennant-Hunting Giants to Hold House-Warming at Polo Grounds,” New York Evening World, June 28, 1911: 13.

“Giants Again at Home,” New York Tribune, June 29, 1911: 8.

“Giants Welcomed Home by 15,000,” New York Evening World, June 28, 1911: 2.

“Only One Matty When It’s Over,” Boston Globe, June 29, 1911: 8.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NY1/NY1191106280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1911/B06280NY11911.htm

Notes

1 Noel Hynd, The Giants of the Polo Grounds (New York: Doubleday, 1988): 163.

2 “Giants Get Lease on Polo Grounds,” New York Times, April 23, 1911: C5.

3 Lawrence S. Ritter, Lost Ballparks (New York: Viking Studio Books, 1992), 161.

4 John T. Brush, “The Evolution of the Baseball Grandstand: A New Era in the Development of the National Game,” Baseball Magazine, April 1912: 2. “The Stadium for the New York Baseball Club,” Engineering Record, July 29, 1911, Vol. 64, No. 5: 126-127.

5 John Foster, “The Magnificent New Polo Grounds: The Greatest Ball Park in the World,” Baseball Magazine, October 1911: 6.

6 Ed Coen, “Setting the Record Straight on Major League Team Nicknames,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, Vol. 48, No. 2, 2019: 69-70, writes that the team had no accepted nickname in 1911. In the coverage of this game, most of the newspapers, including the Boston Globe, referred to Boston as the Rustlers although the New York Tribune used Terriers as the nickname.

7 “Giants Reopen Polo Grounds and Win,” New York Times, June 28, 1911: 9.

8 The Times had the attendance at 6,000. The New-York Tribune had 10,000; the Evening World had 15,000.

9 “Celebrated with a Shutout,” The Sun (New York), June 29, 1911: 5.

Added to the day’s headline mix was the ongoing New England telephone and telegraph operators strike. That inconvenient chaos was colliding with the traditional Patriots Day (state holiday officially legislated in 1894) celebrations, sandwiched between between solemn Good Friday and Lent-ending Easter.1 Baseball did not take a back-row chair, as there were more than 50 college and high-school games on tap. Dozens of schools vied for attention with various other amateur athletic events including the 22nd Boston Marathon, by then basking in its own national fame.

Baseball normally enjoyed a lofty perch in this carnival of leisure, but in preseason 1919 the moguls were very concerned that fans might still be depressed about the war, the flu carnage, and the shortened 1918 season. They didn’t know how much turnstile enthusiasm to expect. Newly appointed National League President John A. Heydler was there to witness the event at the invitation of George Washington Grant, who had bought the Braves in January.

The NL’s first pitch of 1919 mirrored those tossed in 1897 and 1901, the only opening pitch thrown that day. Baseball’s other combatants, as well as these two teams, would not convene for four more days. Conflicting Boston season openers were in vogue in 1902-03 when the two rival leagues battled over the signing (and stealing) of players. The NL Beaneaters played two games with Brooklyn in 1902 while the upstart American League Bostons hosted Baltimore in a solo tilt. An awkward duel occurred in 1903 when both Boston squads played twin bills with their respective Philadelphia foes. This happened on April 20 because the 19th was a Sunday — no pro ball was allowed.2 A reasonable compromise apparently ended the one-day economic pettiness in 1904 and beyond as the Beaneaters traveled to Brooklyn and the Americans had the city’s cranks all to themselves. After that, the NL Doves/Rustlers/Braves drew the odd years for a lucrative Patriots Day gate and the Americans/Red Sox got the even years.

By 1919 the Braves’ fortunes had fallen from their “Miracle” of 1914 and good times of 1915-16, while the Brooklyn Superbas/Robins/Dodgers’ success had also dropped since their 1916 pennant.3 Meanwhile a mile-plus down Commonwealth Avenue, the Red Sox had captured the 1918 pennant and World Series from the Cubs in the war-curtailed season. Now the Red Sox were also hogging some of April’s sports columns as slugging phenom Babe Ruth hit four straight home runs on Good Friday in an exhibition against Jack Dunn’s International League Orioles in Ruth’s Baltimore hometown. Ruth clouted two more on Saturday, setting Easter’s sports pages ablaze nationwide.

Cavernous Braves Field hosted this combined Patriots Day, Opening Day throng for the first time in 1919. In 1915 the Braves celebrated Patriots Day at Fenway Park by whipping Brooklyn 7-2, 6-4. NL Boston beat Philadelphia 7-3, 4-2 in 1917, but it was not Opening Day; that had come on April 12. Brooklyn was on Boston’s opening menu several times (1890, 1894, and 1919 on Patriots Day), having an overall 4-10 record by day’s end.4

Saturday morning dawned chilly but clear in the Hub. Brooklyn had not faced the Braves since July 2, 1918, and both second-division teams were eager to show improvement. Lt. Leon Cadore, back from rugged Army duty in France, pitched the 10:30 morning game for the visiting Dodgers. He was 2-1 lifetime at Braves Field, really pitching only one season, 1917, recording a 13-13 mark. Cadore’s future baseball fame came a year and two weeks later when he and Joe Oeschger endured a record 26-inning, 1-1 tie in Braves Field. New York native and Miracle Braves ace Dick Rudolph was the host hurler. He dipped to 9-10 in 1918, but was 4-2 at Braves Field in his career against the Superbas. Careerwise, Rudolph was 103-79, Cadore 14-15 as 1919 began.

Six-year Boston manager George Stallings was missing some crucial offense. Baseball’s first World War I enlistee, Hank Gowdy (.279), could not report for action until May 24 (Hank Gowdy Day) and Native American Olympic star Jim Thorpe (.327) would not be traded from New York to the Braves for another month. Walter “Rabbit” Maranville (.267) was only a week back himself from his Navy duties and had practiced just once. He played for his USS Pennsylvania team and while he was in Cuba in March, but was not yet big league-tuned. Through a New York Giants deal, via Cincinnati, newcomer Walter Holke provided some needed punch (.292) along with journeyman Charlie “Buck” Herzog (.280). Reports had the Braves returning from their Georgia training camp in very good condition.5 On the visiting bench, Brooklyn’s five-year field boss Wilbert “Uncle Robbie” Robinson had his veteran roster ready. Zack Wheat’s lethal bat (.297; .335 NL title in 1918) was set, as was his pasture sidekick, Henry “Hi” Myers (.307, NL top 73 RBIs in 1919, 14 triples).6 Ivan “Ivy” Olson (.278, 164 hits in 1919) embarked on his best season. Missing was newly acquired first baseman Ed Konetchy (.298), a Boston contract holdout. His being dealt to Brooklyn was announced in that morning’s papers.

A crisp 50 degrees greeted 4,000 to 8,000 fans (depending on your news source). Respected umpires Bill Klem and Bob Emslie were the Opening Day arbiters. In the first inning, Wheat, newly appointed Superbas captain, wasted no time getting into his dangerous groove. After Lew Malone (Army) singled, Zack stroked a triple knocking home baseball’s first run of the year. Olson singled in the next frame and was brought home by Ernie Krueger’s (Army) safety. Cadore sailed along until the seventh when three Braves singles and Maranville’s sacrifice fly plated the equalizers. With the score still 2-2 in the 10th, Rudolph’s defense went AWOL and Brooklyn executed excellent small-ball strategy. Cadore reached on Maranville’s error and a sacrifice attempt was botched by catcher Art Wilson’s bad throw. Malone’s sacrifice put runners at second and third and newcomer (dealt from Cincinnati) Tommy Griffith singled in both mates. Two batters later, bat-whiz Myers squeezed him home perfectly for a 5-2 lead. Myers’ fine running catch of Joe Riggert’s liner ended the game. Each team made 10 hits but Boston committed five errors and left eight on base.7

Despite his first-game miscues, Maranville was presented with a large floral display from friends of the Morning Glory Club of Charlestown (or his admiring shipmates, depending on which paper you read). Big Jeff Pfeffer (then 79-53) was Brooklyn’s afternoon pitching choice while Stallings dropped his original pick, Art Nehf (44-32), and gave the ball to Don Carlos Pat Ragan (76-102). Like Cadore, Pfeffer had one victory in 1918 as he had enlisted in the Navy.8 The estimated afternoon mob of 20,000 was no big deal to Pfeffer because he had seen 42,600 fans packed into Red Sox-borrowed Braves Field for the Game Five finale of the 1916 World Series, which he lost to Ernie Shore, 4-1. Big game, big stadium, big gate.

Meanwhile Ragan was tossing some of his last pitches of an eight-year career. Things looked bright when he fanned the first two Brooklyn batters and gave up one hit through four innings. However, with two outs in the fifth, Maranville opened the gates again with a bobble on Ollie O’Mara’s bouncer. Krueger followed with the second Brooklyn hit and Pfeffer drove a solid smash to center fielder Riggert, who ran a long way, made a nice grab, but then dropped the sphere, allowing both runners to score (unearned). In Brooklyn’s sixth, Griffith singled, Holke mishandled Wheat’s grounder and the versatile Myers advanced both runners. Olson drove Griffith home with a single off Ragan’s shin (unearned).

Down 3-0, Boston’s Tom Miller (2-for-8 career) pinch-hit for the unlucky Ragan in the seventh and singled. Maranville walked and Charlie Herzog’s safety tallied Miller. Pfeffer came close to blowing his own game in the eighth when he walked Riggert, hit Holke, plunked Joe Kelly, and, after a force out at home, walked rookie pinch-hitter Jack Scott, scoring Holke. Big Jeff then snuffed out the self-inflicted, no-hit rally. After 105 minutes of lackluster play, Braves fans headed home for dinner, their team having lost 3-2. Pfeffer allowed nine hits, while his Superbas got eight. Most of the Robins’ holiday runs were gift-wrapped by nine Boston errors, plus the Braves stranded 20.9

Sources

Information for this essay was compiled mostly through Retrosheet game and player logs, and next-day newspaper accounts of all of the games mentioned from the Boston Globe, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn Daily Times, Brooklyn Citizen, and Brooklyn Standard Union. The A.J. Reach and A.G. Spalding Baseball Guides for 1918 and 1919 were also consulted.

Notes

1 Starting in 1890 the Patriots Day gate was coveted by the “Gay Nineties” Beaneaters and both the Americans and Nationals in the first 1900s decades. Teams that played that day then exited town for warmer venues, returning in milder May. Patriots Day was an intentionally legislated excuse to cast off winter’s chilly misery and commemorate the historic 1775 impromptu skirmishes for colonial independence out at Lexington Green (“Shot heard ’round the world”) and Concord Bridge, 8 and 12 miles to Boston’s northwest. Colonial garb and musket firing were crowd-pleasing staples. Hub clubs could open their season, their home season or just celebrate the holiday on that big gate occasion.

2 According to the April 20, 1903, Boston Globe, crazed crowds totaling 27,600 supported the Americans’ split decision while the Nationals saw 6,500 patrons in the stands for their combined split. The AL’s Huntington Avenue Grounds home plate was about 800 feet from the NL’s venerable South End Grounds revered dish, separated only by myriad railroad tracks and brick walls. It was estimated that 200,000 witnessed parts of the Marathon.

3 Just as the Boston team changed names (Beaneaters, Doves, Rustlers, and Braves) in this era, the Brooklyn squads were called the Robins, Superbas, and Dodgers, depending on which paper you read and when. In 1919 Brooklyn’s four major papers used all three names; the Eagle preferred “Superbas.”

4 In a sidebar story, the Brooklyn Standard Union went so far as to remind fans in the “City of Churches” that their boys played such an April 19 game in Boston when it was welcomed from the American Association into the NL in 1890. Beaten 15-9 at Boston’s magnificent South End Grounds, it was an inauspicious start for the Bridegrooms, who eventually won the NL pennant. The paper’s historians declined to note that on that same day, only 2.5 miles east, the rebel Players’ League Boston Reds defeated the Brooklyn Wonders, 3-2, at the Congress Street Grounds, the “opening game” for each. They finished one-two in that League’s solo season.

5 The Braves’ Columbus, Georgia, training site was 105 miles south of Atlanta along the Chattahoochee River, adjacent to Fort Benning. Braves players were happy that the last two exhibition games were rained out, giving them more time to relax on the train to Boston. On board they encountered at least a dozen war-weary soldiers, most missing limbs. In awe of that sacrifice, the sympathetic ballplayers cheerfully treated the heroes to upgraded food, drink, and cigars along the homebound route.

6 Myers was the player who smacked a first-inning solo inside-the-park home run off Babe Ruth in Game Two of the 1916 World Series. Boston won 2-1 in 14 innings at Braves Field.

7 Biased Boston and skeptical Brooklyn news outlets differed in crowd size estimates. The Boston Globe boasted 10,000 and 20,000 for the two games, several thousand at each game invited veterans. Brooklyn’s four papers varied from 4,000 to 8,000 for the morning contest, and while the Brooklyn Daily Eagle would accept only 12,000 for the afternoon match, the others leaned toward 15,000 to 20,000. In between games the temperature rose to near 60 and Finland native Carl W. Linder of Quincy, a 30-year-old worker at the nearby Fore River shipyard, won the Marathon in 150 minutes. Two other runners of Finnish descent from the field of 47, William Wick (Quincy) and Otto J. Laakso (Brooklyn) were next to cross the line. The Gaffney Street entrance to Braves Field became mobbed by Marathon watchers now wanting some baseball action. The 3:15 start was postponed to 3:45; few fans seemed to mind the delay.

8 Brooklyn’s Opening Day starters Cadore and Pfeffer were among the 103 NLers who served their country during the war. Cadore volunteered for the Army and went to Officer Candidate School in late 1917. He got a furlough in early June 1918 and pitched on June 5 and 8 at Ebbets Field. He shut out St. Louis 2-0 on four hits (Wheat had two RBIs) and then two-hit Pittsburgh over eight innings in a 1-1 tie before being pinch-hit for. (Myers’ RBI in ninth tied it.) The Dodgers won 2-1 in 12 innings (Myers run). Lt. Cadore gained fame in France by commanding a company in the “colored” 369th Infantry Regiment, “the Harlem Hellfighters,” which captured 1,000 German soldiers the day before the Armistice. Pfeffer volunteered for the Navy and trained at the Great Lakes facility, 27 miles north of Chicago. On a weekend pass, he pitched at Cubs Park (Weeghman Field) on July 19, two-hitting the Cubs, 2-0, behind RBIs by Wheat and Myers (Olson both runs). In all Brooklyn had 18 roster players who were drafted or volunteered and Boston had 14.

9 Brooklyn got off to a nice 9-1 start in 1919, behind 4-0 Pfeffer. Boston headed the opposite way, losing its first nine games. In the end Brooklyn was 69-71 and Boston 57-83, both remaining in the second division. The next time the two teams played on Patriots Day at Braves Field was 1929 (doubleheader host sweep, 6-5, 5-1). The teams had opened the season the day before with a 13-12 slugfest win by Boston, which featured solid swatting by George Sisler and Floyd “Babe” Herman.

While most players looked forward to the new campaign free of war and disease worries, poor error-prone infielder Oliver O’Mara’s (.231) four-year, 411-game Brooklyn career abruptly ended with this 1919 season-opening doubleheader. Malone was moved to third base (.204) and then Chuck Ward (.233) tried his skills there. O’Mara (.202) got into Game Four of the 1916 World Series at Braves Field facing Hubert “Dutch” Leonard as a pinch-hitter. He struck out, Brooklyn lost 6-2.

— Ezra Pound, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920)

Friday, May 9, 1919. The Armistice ending the Great War was nearing its six-month anniversary. The Spanish influenza pandemic hadn’t loosened its death grip. The Reds and Cubs had returned to Chicago from their series in Cincinnati. And Grover Cleveland Alexander, back from his stint in France with the 89th Division and 342nd Field Artillery, was ready to take the mound for the first time since April 26, 1918.

Alexander was one of another “myriad” of men — those who survived the war but never recovered from it. He had spent seven weeks at the front. “[R]elentless bombardment left him deaf in his left ear. Pulling the lanyard to fire the howitzers caused muscle damage in his right arm. He caught some shrapnel in his outer right ear, an injury thought not serious at the time but which may have been the progenitor of cancer [necessitating its amputation] almost thirty years later. He was shell-shocked.”1 Even worse, he was facing the onset of alcoholism and epilepsy.

Facing Alexander was Ray Fisher, described by The Sporting News in its May 15 issue in an encapsulation of the game as “an American League discard.”2 Having been drafted into the Army in 1918, he had spent the war at Fort Slocum near New Rochelle, New York.3

As games go, the Reds’ 1-0 victory in front of 5,000 spectators at Weeghman Field (now known and loved as Wrigley Field) showed little out of the ordinary — just a wild double play in the Cubs’ fifth that was scored catcher to pitcher to second to catcher. Slightly unusual perhaps was that three of the Cubs’ four hits were doubles (two by Charlie Hollocher, the other by Charlie Deal). That the doubles led off the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings and produced no runs may be fodder for Retrosheet. Otherwise, the game consisted of two pitchers exchanging zeroes until one of them broke.

Indeed, the only number that might jump off the box score is Alexander’s surrendering of five walks. According to Retrosheet, he walked eight batters in a game once, six in a game five times (all early in his career, from 1911 to 1913), and five in a game 20 other times.4

Alexander was in trouble for much of the game; five hits and five walks over eight innings will do that. (Had the Pirates’ longtime announcer Bob Prince been on the scene, he would have said, “Alexander’s been running through the raindrops all day.”) Only in the first and fifth innings did he retire the Reds in order. Trouble began in the second when Wally Rehg and Sherry Magee singled. Alexander retired Jake Daubert and Larry Kopf but walked Bill Rariden to load the bases. Fisher struck out, leaving three on. In the fourth, Alexander walked Daubert and Rariden but escaped by forcing Fisher to ground out. He survived walking Magee in the sixth. One of the many clichés of baseball is that “Walks come back to haunt you,” and that’s what happened in the eighth. Alexander walked Heinie Groh. Rehg sacrificed Groh to second, and Magee doubled him home for the game’s only run.

On the other hand, Fisher’s performance (four hits, two walks, no strikeouts) was reasonably typical for him.5 He shut things down when he had to, surviving threats in the fourth (a leadoff double by Hollocher followed by a walk to left fielder Turner Barber before retiring the next three batters); fifth (a leadoff double by Charlie Deal, a fly out by Bill Killefer, a single by Alexander, and right fielder Max Flack flying into the odd double play); and sixth (another leadoff double by Hollocher, Barber’s sacrifice getting him to third, the opportunity ended by center fielder Dode Paskert hitting into a double play going pitcher to first to home). Fisher breezed through the final three innings, walking Paskert with two out in the ninth.

Sometimes an apparently ordinary, routine game becomes more significant in light of its aftermath, and the game featuring Alexander’s return is one of them. At the end of play on May 9, not quite 10 percent of the way through the 140-game season, the Reds were 10-3, a half-game behind the Brooklyn Robins (9-1-1). The Cubs, defending National League champs, stood at 7-5 in fourth place. The Robins faded to 69-71, good only for fifth place at the end of the season. The Reds finished atop the NL at 96-44 and went on to defeat the Chicago White Sox in the most controversial World Series ever. The Cubs’ 75-65 slate brought them in third, well out of contention.

For Alexander, the 1919 season was an up-and-down affair. Pitching seven times in May (five starts), he lost all four of his decisions and finished the month with an ERA of 4.24. Starting five games through June 17 (two shutouts and four complete games) and winning four, he appeared to be back in his groove. But he didn’t pitch again until July 15, apparently because of arm trouble. According to the late SABR historian Jack Kavanagh, “Cubs trainer Fred Hart massaged Pete’s arm and back daily. He soaked in hot tubs and stood under icy showers. The diagnosis was that he was muscle bound, having pitched too soon.”6 Intriguing diagnosis aside, he went 5-3 in August, put together a modest four-game winning streak, and dropped his ERA to a season-low 1.69. Alexander lost three in a row to start September but finished the month strong with four straight wins, the last two being shutouts. It all added up to a 16-11 mark, far off his accustomed prewar 30-win seasons but softened by getting his control back (121 strikeouts against 38 walks in 235 innings pitched), a league-leading nine shutouts, and a league-leading 1.72 ERA, the lowest ERA by a Cubs pitcher since the team started play in Wrigley Field in 1916.

Though early in the season, Fisher boasted a 4-0 record with a barely visible ERA of 1.00. He struggled a bit through the rest of May and all of June, then didn’t pitch from June 29 until July 14, mopping up in an 8-1 loss in Philadelphia. He pitched again on July 31, shutting out the Boston Braves, 5-0, starting a seven-game winning streak that led to a 14-5 finish with a 2.17 ERA. He pitched well in Game Three of the World Series but lost to Dickey Kerr, 3-0.

For Alexander and Fisher, the future couldn’t have been more different. No longer a great pitcher but still a very good one, Alexander pitched through the 1920s with three 20-win seasons (with 1920 proving reminiscent of his old brilliance) and the legendary bases-loaded strikeout of Tony Lazzeri in Game Seven of the 1926 World Series. Fisher pitched in 1920. In 1921, in a series of machinations and miscommunications involving Reds manager Pat Moran, Reds owner August Herrmann, National League President John Heydler, and Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Fisher landed on the Ineligible List and then baseball’s Permanent Ineligible List.7

Life after baseball for Alexander — except for induction into the Hall of Fame in 1939 — was a hell comprised of alcoholism, epilepsy, divorce, and demeaning work until his death on November 4, 1950. Life couldn’t have worked out better for Fisher. He became head baseball coach at the University of Michigan, serving from 1921 to 1958; under his tutelage the Wolverines went 661-292, took 14 Big Ten titles, and won the national championship in 1953. During the summers he returned to his native Vermont and occasionally pitched and managed semipro ball. He lived to be 95, dying on November 3, 1982.

A trio of footnotes, as it were, emerged from the game. It was Wally Rehg’s next-to-last game; the next day he drove in the last two runs of his career in a 4-3 loss to the Cubs’ Jim Vaughn. Sherry Magee’s near-Hall-of-Fame career was winding down just a year after he’d led the NL in RBIs. His game-winning hit was his fourth double of the young season and two-thirds of his total for 1919. Missing was Cincinnati star center fielder Edd Roush, who had injured his shoulder on May 5 trying to make a diving catch in a 7-6 loss to the Cubs; he returned to action on May 14.

Friday, May 9, 1919, was undoubtedly a big day in the lives of some people in Weeghman Field. The game changed little, not even the NL standings because all the other scheduled games were rained out. The Armistice was still holding. The Spanish flu was still claiming victims. But Grover Cleveland Alexander was back.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Bill Nowlin, Alan Cohen, Michael Huber, Carl Riechers, and Len Levin for their encouragement, editing, fact-checking, and suggestions. They made this story better.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, BioProject biographies of some of the participants, and a manuscript of a forthcoming book by Jim Leeke with the working title Shadows and Ghosts: Grover Cleveland Alexander and Baseball’s Artillerymen during the Great War, to be published by University of Nebraska Press in late 2020 proved useful.

Notes

1 Jan Finkel, “Pete Alexander,” SABR BioProject. sabr.org/bioproj/person/79e6a2a7.

2 “National League. Game of Friday, May 9,” The Sporting News, May 15, 1919: 6.

3 Chip Hart, “Ray Fisher,” SABR BioProject. sabr.org/bioproj/person/2ab8da34.

4 Alexander’s reputation for pinpoint control is borne out by his 951 walks in 5,190 innings pitched, making this game an aberration and possible evidence of some rustiness.

5 In 174⅓ innings pitched in 1919, he struck out 41 batters and issued 38 walks.

6 Jack Kavanagh, Ol’ Pete: The Grover Cleveland Alexander Story (South Bend, Indiana: Diamond Communications, Inc., 1996), 73.

7 Chip Hart provides the details in “Ray Fisher.” The central issues appear to be (a) whether Fisher had or had not received permission from the Reds to interview for a coaching position at the University of Michigan, and (b) whether Fisher remained under contract to the Reds or had been released when he interviewed and entered negotiations for the position.

However, all was not well in Chicago: On September 29. 1920, fans awakened to the following headline in the Chicago Tribune: “Two Sox Confess; Eight Indicted: Inquiry Goes On.”1

Eight White Sox were indicted by a Chicago grand jury: Eddie Cicotte, Joe Jackson, Fred McMullin, Oscar “Happy” Felsch, Charles “Swede” Risberg, Claude “Lefty” Williams, George “Buck” Weaver, and Arnold “Chick” Gandil. The Tribune informed readers that “Chicago’s owner Charles Comiskey suspended seven of the eight indefinitely, as the eighth, Chick Gandil, was already under suspension for failing to report last spring.”2

The October indictments were dismissed by the prosecution on March 22, 1921, for strategic and technical reasons, and the players and gamblers were indicted again on March 26. Baseball’s first commissioner, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, had been elected to the position on November 12, 1920. Landis decided to place the seven indicted players on the ineligible list pending the disposition of the case.3

• Learn more: Click here to view SABR’s Eight Myths Out project on common misconceptions about the Black Sox Scandal

For the start of the 1921 season, the suspended players were replaced by others. At first base it was Earl Sheely (in place of Shano Collins, who had replaced Gandil in 1920). Replacing Risberg at short was Ernie Johnson. Eddie Mulligan replaced Weaver at third base, and Bibb Falk and Harry Hooper replaced Jackson and Felsch in the outfield. Replacing Cicotte and Williams on the pitching staff were Roy Wilkinson and Dominic Mulrenan.

This was the first White Sox game in Chicago after the eight players had been suspended.

Chicago opened the 1921 season on the road at Navin Field in Detroit by splitting a two-game series against the Tigers and then traveled to St. Louis, where they lost twice to the Browns. The game on April 21 was the first in front of the hometown fans at Comiskey Park, who numbered at around 25,000 for the game.4

The pitching matchup featured Howard Ehmke for Detroit and southpaw Dickey Kerr for Chicago. Ehmke had been in the major leagues since 1915, except for 1918 when he was in the military service. Kerr was in just his third season in the major leagues and was coming off a 21-9 season in 1920. He had won two games in the 1919 World Series despite some of his teammates conspiring to fix the Series. 

Kerr had an easy first inning, getting the first three Tigers batters in order, Ralph Young on a groundout, Donie Bush on a pop fly to first, and Ty Cobb on a fly ball to center field.

Ehmke gave up a leadoff double to Hooper, who was sacrificed to third base by Ernie Johnson. A single by Eddie Collins scored Hooper and Chicago took a 1-0 lead.

In the top of the second inning, Bobby Veach hit a leadoff single and went to third base on a double by Harry Heilmann. There was no advance of the runners on Bob Jones’s groundout to second base, but Detroit first baseman Lu Blue singled to score Heilmann and Veach, giving the Tigers a 2-1 lead.

Ehmke walked the bases full with two outs in the bottom of the second, but got Eddie Collins to ground out to end the threat.

In the top of the third inning, Bush singled with one out and stole second base. He scored on a triple by Cobb that made the score 3-1, Detroit.

Chicago tied Detroit in the bottom of the fourth inning, beginning with a leadoff single by Ray Schalk, who was sacrificed to second by Kerr. Hooper’s single put Schalk on third base. Schalk scored on a sacrifice fly by Ernie Johnson. Hooper stayed at first. After stealing second base with Eddie Collins at the plate, Collins hit a single to left field that scored Hooper and tied the game, 3-3.

Kerr got Detroit out in order in the fifth and sixth innings.

Chicago added three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Schalk walked with one out and went to second when Ehmke walked Kerr. Hooper’s double scored Schalk and sent Kerr to third. Kerr and Hooper scored on a single by Johnson. The inning ended with Chicago holding a 6-3 lead.

Doc Ayers replaced Ehmke in the bottom of the seventh inning and issued a one-out walk to Amos Strunk. Eddie Mulligan reached on an error by Bush at shortstop. Schalk’s groundout advanced Strunk to third and Mulligan to second, and Kerr’s double scored both runners to give Chicago an 8-3 lead.

At this point, the Chicago Tribune’s I.E. Sanborn wrote, “The combat was terminated by a combination hail and thunderstorm with two men out in the top of the eighth inning.”5

Standouts for Chicago in the game, Sanborn wrote, were “Wee Richard Kerr, Harry Hooper and Eddie Collins, the Diminutive south paw baffled the Cobbites completely in all except two of the seven rounds permitted by the weatherman.”6 Hooper, the former Boston Red Sox star, “made himself solid with more than 25,000 fans by the way he whaled the pill and covered the territory in the shadow of the right field bleachers.”7 Hooper had two doubles, a single, and a walk and scored three runs. Sanborn added: “Collins scored Hooper twice with timely hits.”8

Neither the Tigers nor the White Sox had a particularly good 1921 season. Detroit finished with a record of 71-82, in sixth place in the American League, 27 games behind the pennant-winning New York Yankees. Chicago finished 62-92, in seventh place, 36½ games behind New York.

Even though the White Sox players were cleared in court of the second indictments on August 2, 1921, Landis ignored the jury’s not-guilty verdict and the next morning he banned the eight White Sox players for life and irrevocably altered their lives.9

A statement from Landis said, “Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player that throws a ballgame; no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ballgame; no player that sits in a conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing games are planned and discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball.”10

Sources

In addition to the game story and box-score sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA192104210.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1921/B04210CHA1921.htm

Notes

1 “Two Sox Confess; Eight Indicted; Inquiry Goes On,” Chicago Tribune, September 29, 1920: 1. The subhead read, “‘We Threw World Series,’ Cicotte, Jackson Admit.”

2 Chicago Tribune.

3 Dan Busby, “Kenesaw Mountain Landis,” SABR Biography Project, sabr.org/node/33871. Accessed April 28, 2020.

4 I.E. Sanborn, “Sox Win, 8 to 3, 25,000 Gloating in Tigers Fall,” Chicago Tribune, April 22, 1921: 15.

5 Sanborn.

6 Sanborn.

7 Sanborn.

8 Sanborn.

9 Busby.

10 Busby.

“Gabby Street,” mused Walter Johnson in 1931, about his old batterymate, “for two years was the greatest receiver I ever saw. Golly, how I wish I had his equal in there catching for the Senators today. He’d be worth a million dollars to me. He’d mean a pennant.”2

There was no pennant when Gabby Street was with Johnson and the Senators between 1908 and 1910. In 1911 he was an integral part of Johnson’s pitching success, building on a mutual understanding of the game, describing how they “never wasted a pitch, never bothered with signals, that he just threw them where Gabby held the glove.”3 Kind words crediting a batterymate with a significant amount of his own success; their partnership did not contribute to a pennant, but Gabby Street was finally rewarded, albeit without Walter Johnson, with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1930 and 1931.

He paid his baseball dues. First with Cincinnati in 1904, a brief three-game stint on loan to the Boston Braves in 1905 then back to Cincinnati, four years (1908-1911) with Washington, where he was Walter Johnson’s batterymate, and ending with a season in New York. But he was hardly done with baseball. He played five years in the minors with Chattanooga and Nashville from 1913 to 1917. World War I diverted his attention in 1917-18 after he enlisted in the Army’s Chemical Warfare Service. After he returned, he caught for minor-league teams, advancing to manager in 1920 in the Virginia League. Through the 1928 season, he managed a number of minor-league teams.

In 1929 Street returned to major-league baseball as a coach for the St. Louis Cardinals, and was given one shot in one game as manager. In 1930 he was manager all the way. He was certainly successful as he managed the Cardinals to a pennant in 1930, and celebrated another pennant in 1931. In scanning Gabby Street’s statistics, there is a curious addition, noting that he played in one game in 1931, three innings, one at-bat and no hits. So why after so many years after having retired from his position behind the plate had Street again appeared in baseball records?

The Philadelphia Athletics earned their third American League pennant on September 15, 1931, commemorating the milestone with a decisive 14-3 win over the Cleveland Indians. The next day the Cardinals clinched the National League pennant when Cincinnati defeated the New York Giants and the Cardinals defeated the Phillies 6-3 for a clean sweep of a six-game series. Gabby started a rest cure for some of his veterans in the sixth inning of that game when he benched all but the pitcher, Bill Hallahan, and sent in substitutes to finish the game.4

With the second pennant in two years now won, the Cardinals celebrated the moment, not in the boisterous, noisy manner of the pennant win in 1926. Instead, St. Louis fans turned out with horns, noisemakers, and confetti. They walked, or rode around the city in cars, many of which were made to backfire, which added to the celebratory cacophony. The World Series was set to start in St. Louis on October 1.

As teams wound down the season, winners and losers spent time playing city series, old-timer’s games, and charity games to benefit victims of the Depression, and settling up their excuses for poor performances. The Cardinals also set about having some fun. Before the September 20 game with Brooklyn, the Cardinals put on a “field meet” in which players competed for nothing more than glory. It proved to also be potentially hazardous for players who were looking forward to World Series baseball.

The Cardinals won four of the five field events. Frank Frisch won the 75-yard dash with Denny Sothern of Brooklyn second. Ernie Orsatti came in third, but he redeemed himself by winning the challenge circling the bases. Cardinals catcher Gus Mancuso won the accurate-throwing contest, throwing from home plate to second base. The 75-yard dash among pitchers was won by Brooklyn’s Van Lingle Mungo. Cardinals third baseman Sparky Adams won the bunt challenge to first base, but in the base-circling event shortly afterward, he sprained his ankle rounding first base. In a show of solidarity with his team, Gabby Street was a contestant in the competition for accurate throwing to second base.

When the lineup was announced before the start of the game, the 18,000 St. Louis fans in attendance shouted their surprise and approval: starting pitcher, Syl Johnson; catcher, Gabby Street, a battery reminiscent of the old Johnson-Street battery of the Senators. Babe Herman, Brooklyn’s right fielder, apparently thought Street’s long retirement from behind the plate would affect his ability to stop a steal to second, and was surprised when the ball arrived at second before he did, that the “savage” still had power, vision, and judgment equal to the occasion.5 Babe Herman would reap his revenge in the third inning.

STREET SEEN

St. Louis, September 21, 1931. — “Today’s battery, Johnson and Street.” Diamond followers who thrilled to that cry years ago when Walter Johnson and Gabby Street of the Washington Senators formed the most famous battery in history, heard it once again here Sunday. Street, now piloting St. Louis’ championship Cardinals, returned to active play for the first time since 1928, when he played with Knoxville in the Southern League, and caught three innings against Brooklyn. His pitcher was Sylvester Johnson, completing the “Johnson and Street” battery. Street showed he still retained his throwing ability by tossing out Babe Herman, the only Robin who attempted to steal. He was at bat only once and flied out to Herman.6

The fans loved it. Ovations usually given to victorious pitchers went this day to Gabby Street as he stepped up to the plate in the third inning. After two foul balls and one ball had been marked against him, Street hit a long fly to Herman in deep right. Gabby then decided that he and Syl Johnson had had enough fun by the end of the third inning and sent in Allyn Stout and Mike Gonzalez in the fourth.

The time of game was a brisk 1:34.

Brooklyn defeated St. Louis, 6-1, but most of the Cardinals regulars had been given a rest. Sparky Adams was out for several days with that sprained ankle. St. Louis turned its attention to the World Series. Gabby Street celebrated his 49th birthday on September 30. There was no time to celebrate, as he was immersed in the job of figuring out the next day’s pitching possibilities. The fact he was 49 didn’t seem to mean much to Street, but he did “want just one more thing.” That he explained, was to lead his club to a world’s championship.7

The Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Athletics in seven games in the World Series.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted baseball-reference.com, retrosheet.org, The Sporting News, and Total Baseball, seventh edition, 2001.

Notes

1 “Peppery Work Won Him Job Catching for Cincy, Nats,” Chicago Daily Times,

September 16, 1931: 22.

2 Alan Gould, “Gabby Street, Ace of the Cards,” Register-Republic (Rockford, Illinois), September 21, 1931: 11.

3 Gould.

4 “Cards Cinch Pennant,” Illinois State Journal (Springfield), September 17, 1931.

5 “Gabby Street Still Able to Play in Game,” Register-Republic, September 21, 1931: 11.

6 United Press, “Street Seen,” Indianapolis Times, September 21, 1931: 10.

7 “Gabby Street 49 Today: Too Busy to Celebrate,” Register-Republic, September 30, 1931: 16.