The day started well for the Athletics. Playing on their home field, the Jefferson Street Grounds, in front of a crowd estimated at between 1,000 and 1,500 fans, they got off to a fast start.1 After holding the Red Stockings scoreless in the first, the home team batted around and scored five times in the bottom half of the inning. Only once before during the 1874 season had Boston been down by five or more runs after the first inning and that game had not ended well for them. On May 23 the Brooklyn Atlantics led the Red Stockings 7-0 after an inning and went on to hand the Bostons their first loss of the season.

The Red Stockings and Athletics were very familiar with each other. In addition to having already played each other eight times during the 1874 season (the Red Stockings had won six of the eight games), they had also spent the last two weeks of July, all of August, and the first week of September together in England and Ireland, where they played 14 exhibition games — and even some cricket. The tour was the brainchild of Harry Wright, the Boston manager. Born in England, Wright hoped to generate interest in baseball among his former countrymen. Reluctantly, the Philadelphia stockholders agreed to send the Athletics along as the opposition team. Wright’s crew won eight of the 14 games.2

It was on this trip that Red Stockings pitcher Al Spalding and the Athletics star Cap Anson began a 30-year friendship. The two were fierce competitors who valued discipline and dedication both on the field and off. Over the next three decades Spalding would become the president and eventually owner of the Chicago White Stockings. While team president, he promoted Anson to the position of manager. It was a relationship that helped to establish the White Stockings as the best team in professional baseball during the 1880s.

On September 10, the day after they returned from England, the two teams resumed league play in Philadelphia. Boston beat the Athletics, 5-4. Two days later, in Boston, Philadelphia got even with a 6-5 win. Despite their journey, the Red Stockings remained comfortably atop the National Association standings, a position they had held since the first week of the season. Meanwhile, the Athletics had fallen into third place, a half-game behind the New York Mutuals.

The October 20 game was the fifth and final game in a visit by the Bostons to Philadelphia. On October 15 they had beaten the Philadelphia Whites, 6-4. On the 16th Boston played the Athletics and won, 5-1. They returned to the Jefferson Street Grounds, which the two Philadelphia teams shared, to play the Whites on the 17th, and won 5-2. After taking the Sunday off, the Red Stockings played the Whites again on Monday the 19th, this time losing, 5-2.

Despite the discouraging early deficit in the October 20 game, the Red Stockings immediately began chipping away at Philadelphia’s lead. In the second inning the first two Boston hitters, catcher Deacon White and right fielder Cal McVey, each reached base. Both scored, as did first baseman Jim O’Rourke, to pull the Red Stockings within two. An inning later Athletics right fielder Tim Murnane added a run to the Philadelphia lead but it would not be enough to counter Boston.

In the fifth inning Boston second baseman Ross Barnes, pitcher Al Spalding, and third baseman Harry Schafer tied the score. Barnes, who contributed a single, double, and triple to his team’s attack, and Spalding were two of the Red Stockings’ “Big Four.” The other half of the Big Four was McVey and White. These four players constituted the heart of the Boston batting order and were among the most productive foursomes in the National Association. Each finished the 1874 season hitting over .300.3 Two years later all four, along with Cap Anson, the Athletics’ best player, would join the Chicago White Stockings for the National League’s inaugural season.  

Once the Red Stockings tied the score in the sixth, Philadelphia fell apart. Though the Bostons “did not play with their usual care in the field” and depended “more on their batting and the ‘muffism’ of the antagonists,” they kept piling on the runs.4 Boston went on to score four more runs in the sixth, two in the seventh, and two more in the ninth. Several crucial misplays in the outfield, two errors by second baseman Joe Battin, and four by first baseman Al “Count” Gedney contributed to the Red Stockings’ success. In all, the Athletics committed 12 errors. Philadelphia’s sloppy performance in the game was described as one that “can be eclipsed by many amateur organizations.”5 The Boston Journal confirmed the assessment, reporting that each team had scored only one earned run.6 Meanwhile, pitcher Spalding and his mates limited the home team to only one more tally. For Spalding, it was his 46th win of the season, one in which he posted a 52-16 record. He threw 65 complete games.

Though “the game was a very uninteresting one in many respects,” when coupled with a loss by the New York Mutuals, it brought to the Red Stockings their third consecutive National Association championship.7 Because of the vagaries of the day, there was no official “clinching” of the pennant or scoreboard-watching as we know them today. Nevertheless, the Red Stockings were champions again.

Notes

1 Philadelphia Inquirer, October 21, 1874; “Sporting News,” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 21, 1874: 7; Retrosheet lists the attendance at 500.

2 https://19cbaseball.com/tours-1874-world-base-ball-tour.html.

3 Retrosheet.org.

4 “Sporting News,” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 21, 1874: 7.

5 Ibid.

6 “Out-door Sports,” Boston Journal, October 21, 1874: 4.

7 Philadelphia Inquirer, October 21, 1874.

Chicago’s White Stockings fairly owned the League in the 1880s: five pennants and only one finish out of the top three. Led by future Hall of Famers Cap Anson and King Kelly, they fielded a lineup that was a veritable all-star team unto itself. Pitching duties were shared by Fred Goldsmith, a steady 20-game winner, and Larry Corcoran, who topped 30 victories four times between 1880 and 1884.

Boston could not boast the stable of stars that Chicago did, but the Beaneaters were not without stalwart veterans and promising youngsters. Jack Burdock and Ezra Sutton held down infield positions as they had since playing on Boston’s 1878 pennant winners, and first baseman-manager John Morrill had done service with the team since the inaugural 1876 season; all three were batting over .300. Twenty-two-year-old pitcher Charlie Buffinton was on his way to a 25-win season … but he was not the ace of the staff.

James Evans Whitney had broken in with Boston in 1881, making an immediate splash by leading the National League in both games won (31) and games lost (33) for a team that struggled to end up at 38–45. Possessor of a nickname alternately attributed to the shape of his head1 and to the way he walked,2 Grasshopper Jim lasted 10 seasons in the majors, piling up 191 wins along the way. The 6-foot-2, 170-pound workhorse would clock 514 innings and 54 complete games in 1883, and set an NL record for strikeouts with 345. His greatest strength was his control of the strike zone: ’83 was the first of three consecutive years he topped all pitchers in strikeout-to-walk ratio.

An audience of close to 3,500 packed Boston’s South End Grounds on Monday, September 10, for the series opener. “The interest manifested in the critical situation of the struggle for the league championship was well shown by the large attendance at the base ball grounds,” the Boston Daily Advertiser reported.3 Morrill’s club, despite committing an embarassing seven errors, evaded disaster thanks to its big right-hander. As the Advertiser concluded: “Whitney was the obstacle that (Chicago) could not surmount, and the bats would whistle around that sphere in every exasperating way but the right way.”4 Whitney’s line for the 4–2 complete game win: nine strikeouts, three hits, one walk, no earned runs. Goldsmith took the loss.

Now a half-game back of the visitors, Boston sent Whitney to the box again Tuesday, this time to face Corcoran. Cap’s men cobbled together a two-run sixth but failed to hold the lead. Boston scored the tying and winning runs in its final at-bat, and Whitney closed with a one-two-three ninth. The nearly 4,000 spectators went home happy; their Beaneaters were now in possession of first place.

On Wednesday the 12th, Whitney patrolled center field, as he usually did when he wasn’t pitching, and it was Buffinton’s turn to corral Anson’s troops. About 2,900 fans stuck around despite a persistent drizzle, and they were rewarded with an 11–2 Boston rout. Goldsmith suffered his second defeat of the series.

Thus the stage was set for the finale on Thursday the 13th. Even with a victory, the White Stockings could not reclaim first place, but they could claw back to within a half-game of the lead and send a message to the Bostonians that they were not entirely down and out, despite a poor three days’ showing. The smallest crowd of the four-game set, a handful under 2,000, was attributable to unfavorable conditions. “The weather was rainy and the ground soft,” noted the Chicago Daily Tribune.5

For the White Stockings, Abner Dalrymple’s leadoff drive to left in the first was misplayed by left fielder Joe Hornung, landing Abner on second base. Up next came George Gore, who pushed the runner to third with a single, whence he was brought home by Kelly’s fly ball. They threatened again two innings later, but with men on second and third with no outs, Hornung and center fielder Paul Radford made fine plays to hold them at bay. Hornung came through again in the fifth, running down a “terrific drive”6 over his head off Corcoran’s bat with a man on.

Boston got all the runs Whitney needed in the third. Catcher Mike Hines, who went 3-for-4 in the game, opened with a double. Radford and Hornung reached via infield errors. With Hines already home, Sutton stepped in next and laced a two-run single. Thus ended the day’s scoring. Corcoran was no easy touch; more Bostons made first on errors (seven) than on hits (six). He allowed but one earned run.

The problem for the Windy City men was that Whitney was even better. The four base hits he allowed were scattered and thus largely harmless. His strike-zone mastery was in evidence, as he struck out four while surrendering just a single base on balls. With Chicago mounting a last-gasp challenge in the ninth, fueled by a Buffinton muff and a questionable safe call by the umpire,7 Whitney fanned Fred Pfeffer to end the affair and notch his 32nd victory.

Hurling three complete games, Whitney had yielded a modest 13 hits, which in turn produced but two earned runs. Only two batters were able to milk him for walks, while 19 went down on strikes. Anson, Kelly, Gore, Pfeffer, and Ed Williamson together mustered a scant three safeties. After the series ended the Beaneaters won nine of their final ten to win the title, but the true turning point came in that series against Chicago, when Grasshopper Jim Whitney held sway over the 19th-century version of Murderers’ Row.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

Notes

On September 28 Philadelphia held a 1½-game lead over St. Louis. With the pennant in the balance, manager Lew Simmons sent the well-rested fan favorite Jumping Jack Jones to the pitcher’s box.1 The right-handed Jones was a late-season pickup by the Athletics, who needed to fortify their arm-weary pitching. He entered the game with a combined record of 10-7 and a mark of 4-2 with the Athletics.2 Jones was opposed by ace Eclipse right-hander Guy Hecker (28-22).

Louisville captain Joe Gerhardt lost the toss and the Athletics elected to bat last. Philadelphia’s Jones was working on five days’ rest and the paltry crowd of 500 at Eclipse Park hoped he might perform his famous leap. The Louisville Courier-Journal noted that he “caused the spectators much amusement by his antics in the box.”3 Pete Browning led off the affair with a weak fly to left fielder Jud Birchall. Jack Gleason singled to left but was doubled up when Hecker sliced a ball to Mike Moynahan at shortstop. The Athletics were also retired quickly; Birchall flied out to Leech Maskrey in the outfield, Harry Stovey struck out, and Lon Knight was retired by Gerhardt.

The contest remained scoreless until the fourth inning, when the Athletics took the lead. Jones retired Eclipse hitters Jack Gleason, Hecker, and Sleeper Sullivan in order. Knight led off for the Athletics in the bottom of the frame and hit a weak groundball to first base. Next, Moynahan singled to left field, then stole second. With Jack O’Brien at bat, Hecker uncorked a wild pitch and Moynahan scrambled home for the game’s first run. Hecker then walked O’Brien (seven balls were required for a walk in 1883). To make matters worse, O’Brien stole second and scored on Fred Corey’s single. Joe Gerhardt and Gleason were then retired to end the frame with the Athletics leading 2-0.

Not content to surrender the game without a fight, the Eclipse rallied to tie the game in the fifth inning. Jumbo Lathamreached base on an error and stole second. He scored on a double by Maskrey. Chicken Wolf was then fielded out by third baseman Fred Corey. Next, Tom McLaughlin fouled out to O’Brien. With two outs and one on, Gerhardt was safe at first on an error by Stovey at first base, and Maskrey scored to tie the game, 2-2.

In the Athletics’ sixth with one out, Moynahan and O’Brien reached base safely. Moynahan scored on a wild throw. Fred Corey then singled to left field. Both O’Brien and Corey scored on Bob Blakiston’s single to center field. Blakiston was caught off second base for the second out. Hecker walked Cub Stricker with two outs but got out of the inning when Jones hit into a fielder’s choice, with McLaughlin recording the third out at second base. At the end of six innings, with Hecker laboring to find the strike zone, the Athletics held a 5-2 lead.

The Eclipse took the lead in the top of the seventh inning as Jumping Jack began to falter. The Philadelphia Press noted that intense excitement abounded at Eclipse Park. Jones walked Latham to open the frame and he went to second on a single by Maskrey. Both runners scored on a double to right by Wolf. Knight fielded the ball in the outfield and the relay throw from Cub Stricker sailed over O’Brien’s head, allowing Wolf to score. Unsettled, Jones walked McLaughlin for the second base on balls of the inning. Gerhardt flied out to Knight and Browning flied to Birchall. With two out and McLaughlin on first, Jones surrendered a single to Gleason. McLaughlin scored when Hecker helped his own cause with a single. Sullivan grounded out to first to end the inning with the Eclipse in the lead, 6-5.

The thousands of fans outside the Philadelphia Press offices fell silent each time the game was deadlocked. Now, with the Athletics down by a run in the late innings, the throng were distraught.4 The Athletics were again on the brink of losing another opportunity to clinch the pennant as they had in the previous two games. Finally, the A’s tied the game in the bottom of the eighth inning. Moynahan hit a ball to third and reached second base on an errant throw by Gleason. He advanced to third on O’Brien’s fly out to Maskrey and scored on a hit by Corey that tied the game, 6-6.

Jones and Hecker made quick work of their opposition in the ninth inning and the contest moved into extra innings. In the bottom of the 10th, Hecker walked the hobbling Stovey5, who limped to second when Hecker uncorked a wild pitch. Knight then ripped a ball to center, advancing Stovey to third. Moynahan strode to the plate with Philadelphia’s season and pennant on the line. “Hecker held the ball, stared at the plate, took a run, and fired. Moynahan swung and connected. At the crack of the bat, left fielder Pete Browning and center fielder Leech Maskrey dashed for the ball as it shot between them.” Stovey easily staggered home and plated his league-leading 110th run scored.6

The Athletics won, 7-6, and clinched the pennant. The Philadelphia Press updated the scoreboard outside its office at 6:30 P.M. to show the victorious tally. “The anxious crowd caught sight of it in a second, and when it was seen that the Athletics had won the game, such a shout as rent the heavens has seldom been heard before, round following round of cheers.”7 At the Athletic team headquarters a similar scene took place. A silk banner with the words “CHAMPION ATHLETIC” in large gold letters was hung across the street. Preparations for a victory parade were being made by the club brass as soon as the team returned home from Louisville three days later.

Philadelphia was electrified by the victory. “Upon receipt of the news of this victory in Philadelphia immense crowds blocked the streets in the vicinity of the bulletin boards displayed by the daily papers, and the excitement was similar to that with which the news of some great battle was greeted during war-time,” a contemporary report said.8 A reception committee of prominent city politicians was assembled and left Philadelphia to meet the champion Athletics in Harrisburg, where speeches were made on behalf of the club. The train stopped again in Lancaster, where excited fans cheered the wrong passenger car but stampeded to the players’ car when they realized the mistake. Two bold individuals boarded the car searching for Jack Jones. The train finally pulled into Philadelphia’s Broad Street Station at 7:45 P.M. and the team was met by a crush of people numbering in the thousands. “Fully ten thousand men and boys, several hundred horses and one mule … took part in the parade,” the Philadelphia Times reported.9 Admirers cheered until they were hoarse and the throng outside the station swarmed the city blocks surrounding the station. “So dense was the crowd that the officers for ten or fifteen minutes could not force an opening for the carriages in which the players embarked at the station door.”10

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the notes, the author consulted baseball-reference.com and retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 The term “manager” did not mean the same thing in the nineteenth century that it does today. Lon Knight was the Athletic captain, which roughly equated to a present-day field manager. Simmons entered into the club’s ownership group with Charlie Mason and Billy Sharsig late in 1881 and was made the business manager. The Philadelphia Times reported on September 28 issue that Mason told Knight to pitch Jones in the series’ first game but that the decision was overruled and Bobby Mathews instead pitched the first game.

2 Jones was 6-5 with a 3.50 ERA for the National League’s Detroit Wolverines before joining the Athletics.

3 “The Champions,” Courier-Journal, September 29, 1883: 8.

4 Edward Achorn, The Summer of Beer and Whiskey (New York: Public Affairs, 2013), 226.

5 Stovey sprained his ankle badly when he slipped on the turf chasing a foul ball in a game against St. Louis on September 21. Achorn, The Summer of Beer and Whiskey (New York: Public Affairs, 2013), 210.

6 Achorn, 227.

7 “At the Athletics’ Home,” Philadelphia Press, September 29, 1883: 1.

8 “Base-Ball Champions,” Harper’s Weekly, Vol. XXVIL, No. 1399 (1883): 654.

9 “The Base Ball Parade,” Philadelphia Times, October 2, 1883: 1.

10 “The Base Ball Parade.”

That turnaround was assisted by a seismic shift in the baseball landscape during the winter of 1889–90 that included the formation of a third major league. Unlike the existing National League and American Association, Players League teams were partly owned by the players themselves. Most of the best players in baseball at the time jumped to the new league. Those jumpers included 27 from Association teams, among them Louisville star Pete Browning, who signed with the Players League Cleveland Infants.

The Association’s instability ran even deeper. Two entire teams—including the champions from Brooklyn—switched over to the National League. Their players were among 27 Association regulars from 1889 who played in the National League during 1890. A third club folded and a fourth dropped down to the minors. Four new franchises were added to the American Association to take their place.

To make matters worse, on March 27, 1890 a cyclone tore through Louisville, killing over 100 people. On the night of the disaster, Louisville’s baseball team was enjoying a show at a local theatre, just a short distance from where the cyclone touched down. The next day, members of the ballclub assisted the town’s citizens in pulling the living as well as the dead from the rubble of the collapsed buildings.

In the aftermath of the disaster, pitcher Red Ehret remarked to a reporter, “We want to strike the other fellows [in the league] as hard as the cyclone struck the town.”

Shortly after the tragedy, the press started referring to the ballclub as the Cyclones and the name stuck. The team, under the ownership of Barney Dreyfuss, played outstanding baseball all year. As fall approached, the only formality remaining was when would Louisville officially wrap up the American Association championship?

The Cyclones took the field at Eclipse Park in Louisville on Monday October 6 against the third place Columbus Solons. If the Louisville nine could defeat Columbus and if Toledo knocked off second place St. Louis, the Cyclones would become the first major-league baseball team to go from last place to first in just one year.

Louisville’s manager Jack Chapman gave the starting assignment to his best pitcher, Scott Stratton. The 21-year-old hurler had a great year in 1890, posting a 34–14 record with a league-leading 2.36 earned run average.

From the start, things went Louisville’s way. Second baseman Tim Shinnick robbed speedy Columbus lead-off hitter Jim McTamany of a sure base hit on a great stop and throw. In the Louisville half of the first, Columbus pitcher Hank Gastright who went 30–14 that season, walked Harry Taylor. A rookie who batted .306 with 45 stolen bases that season, Taylor advanced on a well-placed sacrifice bunt by Harry Raymond, then scored on Farmer Weaver’s line single to center. “Taylor started like a quarter horse for home,” the Louisville Courier- Journal wrote.

Weaver advanced to second on the play, and one batter later took third on a fly to right by Jimmy Wolf, on his way to leading the league with a .363 batting average. Charlie Hamburg drilled a ball that got by leftfielder Spud Johnson, allowing Weaver to score the second and final run of the game.

Stratton retired the Solons on three pitches in the top of the second, inducing a foul fly, pop up, and ground out. Columbus started a two-out rally in the third inning with consecutive hits by Gastright and McTamany, but Stratton retired King Crooks on a ground out to the first baseman to end the threat.

Stratton wound up with a six hitter and didn’t allow a Columbus runner to reach third base, although the Solons might have broken the ice in the sixth but for a baserunning gaffe. Crooks, who had been jawing back and forth with the Louisville crowd for most of the day, reached base on a bunt. He advanced to second on a fielder’s choice, but in his eagerness to argue a close “out” call at first on the play the runner strayed from the bag and was tagged out by Shinnick. “The King, who moments ago was in his glory, walked back to the bench as meek as a lamb to his seat on the bench, the crowd yelling wildly at his discomfiture,” the Courier-Journal reported.

The pennant was finally clinched when Louisville left fielder Charlie Hamburg tracked down a long fly ball off the bat of Jack Doyle for the final out. Gastright pitched a good game in the tough 2–0 loss, allowing five hits and tossing shut-out ball for the last eight innings.

Louisville second baseman Shinnick had a phenomenal day, accepting 12 chances flawlessly, some quite difficult, while the rest of the infield played errorless ball. In the outfield, Weaver, Wolf and Hamburg each made outstanding plays to help preserve the win.

Louisville finished with an 88–44 record in 1890, an astonishing 64-game improvement in the standings. The Cyclones went on to play the National League champion Brooklyn Bridegrooms in an early version of the World Series. Each team notched three victories in addition to playing to a 7–7 tie in the third game, but rain, cold weather, and dwindling attendance led to the cancellation of the series. The anticlimactic end to the 1890 campaign did nothing to diminish the Cyclones’ remarkable accomplishment of being the first major- league ballclub to go from worst to first in just one season.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

The Colts had held the league lead for most of the season, never more than 4½ games behind when they weren’t in first place. The team was led by Cap Anson, who had been the player-manager of the franchise since 1879, with five National League pennants to his credit.1

The Beaneaters went on a 16-game winning streak that started on September 16 when they were 6½ games out of first place behind the Colts. (During the streak there was a tie game on September 17.) Boston took sole possession of first place on September 30. Then on October 1 the Beaneaters, 1½ games ahead of second-place Chicago, defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-1. With only two games left in the season, the win clinched their first pennant since 1883.

Philadelphia, managed by Harry Wright, was 17½ games behind Boston when the teams faced off on October 1. The Phillies boasted an outfield of Sam Thompson, Ed Delahanty, and Billy Hamilton, all future Hall of Famers. Twenty-four-year-old Kid Gleason was their best pitcher. (He would become a full-time infielder later in his career.) However, left-hander Duke Esper drew the starting pitcher assignment against the Beaneaters.

Boston’s manager was Frank Selee, who was in his second season at the helm. He gave the ball to 29-year-old veteran John Clarkson, a control specialist who was the staff’s ace.

The Boston Globe reported that the contest was played before 1,000 fans at the Philadelphia Baseball Grounds. It was the first of a three-game series to end the season.

Neither team was able to push across runs in the first three innings. One of the highlights of the game was Boston’s five double plays, with shortstop Herman Long involved in all of them. Two of the twin killings occurred in the first and second innings.

In the top of the fourth inning, Boston broke the scoreless tie with four runs. Billy Nash led off with a single and scored on Tommy Tucker’s triple. Joe Quinn grounded out to shortstop Bob Allen, who was able to hold Tucker at third base.

Charlie Bennett drew a walk and Clarkson reached first base on a third strike muffed by catcher Jack Clements. Long hit a sharp grounder to Allen, who misplayed the ball, and Tucker scored the second run. Harry Stovey’s single to right field scored Clarkson and Long. Charlie Ganzel ended the inning with an out to Allen.

In the bottom of the fourth, Philadelphia mustered its only run of the game when Delahanty reached base on first baseman Tucker’s error on a throw by Long. After stealing second base, Delahanty scored on Al Myers’ hit.

Long aided the Beaneaters’ defensive efforts with his third double play in the fifth inning.

Boston scored two more runs in the top of the sixth, facilitated by two Phillies errors. With Bobby Lowe and Stovey on base, Ganzel delivered a two-run single.

Long participated in two more double plays in the sixth and seventh innings. The game was called at the end of the seventh due to darkness with a final score of 6-1.

For just a seven-inning affair, the game was sloppily played, as Boston issued six walks and committed three errors, while the Phillies accounted for six walks and four errors. Boston’s five double plays and the Phillies’ errors were key factors in the final score.

Clarkson went the distance for Boston, giving up six hits in recording his 33rd win of the season. He went on to record a career 328-178 won-lost record, which earned him a bronze plaque in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Esper yielded only six hits but was plagued by his teammates’ four errors in the two innings Boston scored its runs. His record for the season ended at 20-15.

The Beaneaters’ victory clinched their first of three consecutive pennants. They captured five league championships during the decade under Selee.

The second-place Chicago club suffered a huge disappointment as the season concluded. They had played superbly from July through September, losing only nine games each month, while winning 17 in July and 16 in both August and September. The Colts were in first place from July 21 through September 29. However, their season came down to their final four games, all of which they lost. They wound up 3½ games back of Boston.

Chicago had bitter feelings toward Boston about how the Beaneaters won the pennant. Chicago’s ownership contended that the Eastern clubs in the league colluded with Boston to allow the Beaneaters to win the pennant.2 They believed there was jealousy of the Chicago team and a conspiracy by former players of the ill-fated Players’ League in 1890 to undermine Anson’s drive for the pennant.3

Chicago President Jim Hart and Anson were so convinced of collusion that they sent a telegram to National League President Nicholas Young requesting proof that there was consent by two-thirds of the teams in the league for Boston to play doubleheaders with Pittsburgh on September 19, Brooklyn on September 23, and New York on September 29 and 30. (Boston won all eight of those games.) Chicago asserted that Boston scheduled the doubleheaders toward the end of the season to make up for previously postponed games, thereby providing opportunities to collect additional wins. Chicago hadn’t taken the same approach; at the end of the season, Boston had indeed played three more games than Chicago. Chicago believed Boston independently arranged the makeup games with its opponents. Chicago’s ownership wanted those extra games voided if the required leaguewide consent wasn’t obtained. However, Young said he had no authority to declare any game voided and the teams’ presidents would have the final say. The Cleveland club later reported that it had given consent for the doubleheaders in question and believed the other clubs would reply similarly.4

Chicago further claimed that the New York team had manipulated its pitching assignments, holding back its best pitchers, in games with Boston. It was said that Cleveland was inspired by promise of a reward from Boston should the Beaneaters defeat Chicago in their final series.5

In the end the league took no action against Boston or other teams, and nothing ever came of Chicago’s assertions. However, reactions in several newspapers across the country indicated a belief that the New York club had truly been a culprit in the situation, and thus baseball’s integrity had been damaged.6

Anson maintained for the rest of his life that he was unfairly targeted by former players of the Players’ League who obstructed his chances of winning the National League championship in 1891.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the following:

Baseball-Reference.com.

“Still They Win: Boston Getting a Firmer Hold on Pennant,” Boston Globe, October 2, 1891: 5.  (All game play-by-play details and box-score information were obtained from this source.)

Notes

1 The Chicago franchise was named the White Stockings from 1876 to 1889. Beginning in 1890 they became the Colts and eventually the Cubs in 1902.

2 “Bowed Down With Sorrow: The Chicago Team Sorely Aggrieved at the Loss of the Pennant,” Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1891: 6.

3 When National League players jumped to the rival Players’ League formed in 1890, Anson was one of their vocal critics. His role in squashing the new league angered many of his former players, and this carried over into the 1891 season.

4 “Another Pennant: It Is Assured to the Boston Leaguers,” Boston Daily Advertiser, October 2, 1891.

5 “Plot Against Chicago,” Chicago Tribune, October 1, 1891: 6.

6 “The Soiled Pennant,” Chicago Tribune, October 4, 1891: 13.

Because the Spiders departed from baseball history in such an ignominious way in 1899, with their 20-134 record still being the worst in major-league annals, it is easy to forget that they were once a very good team.

In 1892 Cleveland had narrowly lost to Boston in a playoff between the split-season champions. While a team with Cupid at second, Virtue at first, and Patsy at third – not to mention Chief Zimmer at catcher who was not an Indian from Cleveland or anywhere – deserves to be good, any team with Denton True Young was going to be competitive.

Cy as he was called, was not quite as good in 1893 as he had been in 1892, winning only 34 games (which was still nearly half the team’s wins). Having pitched the day before and with Cleveland headed for a third-place finish, Cy was not on the mound this day. Instead, Cleveland debuted a rookie who just arrived from the Buffalo Bisons of the Eastern League.

Chauncey Burr Fisher was from Anderson, Indiana. His nickname was Whoa Bill. His brother Thomas Chalmers Fisher, eight years younger, made his major-league debut in 1904 as a member of the Boston Beaneaters.1 Chauncey Fisher was only 21, and already had pitched 416 innings that year for the combination of the lower-level Easton Dutchmen of the Pennsylvania State League and Buffalo. So he wasn’t exactly a fresh arm.

Facing off with Fisher was 25-year-old Jack Stivetts. He was no slacker either, having pitched over 400 innings in each of the previous three seasons, though he was comparatively rested for this game since he hurled only 300 innings in 1893. Stivetts had been the Beaneaters’ co-ace until the younger Kid Nichols moved ahead of him as the team’s top pitcher in 1893.

Archrival Cleveland would rather have had Boston clinch its third championship in a row somewhere other than League Park, so the Spiders were determined to put up a fight. During the game the proceedings from Brooklyn’s defeat of Pittsburgh were posted so, as one reporter noted, “The champions figured that if they won they would have the pennant in their fingers, so they went after it, and how they did go.”2

The Boston Globe’s game article proclaimed: “Pennant Comes to Boston, Cleveland Put Up Grand Ball But the Bostons ‘Got There.’” In other words, two pretty tired pitchers engaged in a hard-fought gritty game of “scientific baseball.”3

The New York Clipper’s summary of Boston’s triumph at the week’s end stated and restated the same point. Boston was not an “aggregate of stars” but a “well-balanced body of team workers.” The Beaneaters didn’t work to “advance their own records” and their manager, Frank Selee, was “clever and shrewd.” Even more bluntly, the Clipper wrote that “ball players are not as a rule gifted with over much brain power” so Selee basically had to outsmart the opponents.4

Timothy Murnane had been a decent ballplayer but earned even greater fame for his 30 years as a sportswriter for the Globe.5 In both his year-end summary and the game summary, Murnane used the term “scientific ball,” stating that “the exhibition of fine scientific work, both in the field and at the bat of the Boston players, has been a revelation to the baseball patrons, not only in Boston, but in each of the 11 other cities in the League.”6 Murnane included detailed statistics highlighting that Boston did not have the league leaders in the traditional hitting categories. The team utilized bunts, stealing bases, good fielding, solid pitching, and timely hitting to win games. His 1893 analysis was almost like a SABR conference presentation in 2017.

The September 20 game was not untypical of the season. Neither team could get a run across the plate for the first five innings. In inning six the relative floodgates opened as ballplayers were jamming the bases.

Boston scored three runs in the top of the sixth. Billy Nash, the team captain, was one of the Beaneaters’ sluggers. He finished eighth in the NL with 10 home runs in 1893. In this game, Nash was Boston’s primary slugger, hitting two doubles to go with the team’s flood of singles. But Nash also understood so-called “scientific” baseball. He led off the sixth inning by drawing a walk. Then he stole second, and Boston was on its way.

Next up was Tommy Tucker, a mini-celebrity because of his name. For example, the Boston Post reporter couldn’t resist, when noting that Fisher was debuting in this game, writing that “Cleveland wanted to try him on Boston because they thought if he could stand Tommy Tucker crying for his supper, he could stand anything.”7 Tucker earned his supper, beating out a bunt.

Then Chief Zimmer allowed a passed ball, which sent Nash to third and Tucker to second.

Charlie Ganzel grounded out to Cupid Childs at second, holding the runners. Pitcher Stivetts, batting seventh instead of ninth in the order, hit the ball to shortstop Ed McKean, who “fired the ball home to catch Nash.”8 Zimmer, who was not having a good inning, dropped the ball. 1-0, Stivetts to first base. The next Boston batter, Cliff Carroll, bunted, scoring Tommy Tucker. 2-0, Stivetts to second. Charlie Bennett stuck out but then shortstop Herman Long singled, scoring Stivetts. Suddenly it was 3-0 on a single, two bunts, a passed ball, an error by the catcher, and a stolen base.

Cleveland slugged its way right back into the game. The first batter made an out, but the next singled and went to second on a poor throw by Boston second baseman Bobby Lowe. A single scored Cleveland’s first run. Spider Ed McKean doubled, moving the runner to third. Then Virtue came to the plate. Jack, as he was known, knocked both runners home with a double. 3-3. Third baseman-manager Patsy Tebeau followed, doubling in Virtue. Chief Zimmer partly redeemed himself with a hit to tally Tebeau. The teams headed to the seventh inning with Cleveland leading, 5-3.

But the rookie pitcher Fisher was obviously worn down. Nash hit a two-bagger. Tucker knocked him home with a single; then Ganzel doubled in Tucker. Carroll singled and Ganzel scored to regain the lead for the Beaneaters at 6-5. And they weren’t done. A fly ball to left field by Bennett was dropped by Jesse Burkett, scoring Carroll. Then Long’s single sent Bennett crossing the plate, which made it 8-5. Cleveland scored in bottom of the seventh to come within two runs but would score no more.

John McGraw, Wee Willie Keeler, and the famed Baltimore Orioles made so-called “scientific baseball” famous over the next few years. It was a combination of small ball as practiced by the Beaneaters, but also aggressive cheating. Boston was not above cheating either.

In the top of the eighth inning, Billy Nash doubled again. A bunt by Tommy Tucker moved him to third, but then Nash tried to score. Tucker threw his arms around pitcher Fisher as he covered first base on the bunt play, which prevented Fisher from throwing the ball to the catcher at home plate. It was the final run of the game.

As an interesting side note to the game, the Boston Globe reporter opened his game summary by stating that “on the merits of the game Cleveland ought to have won.” He noted the Spiders’ costly errors on Zimmer and Burkett but then added “[along] with some of the kind of umpiring that Hurst has done this summer.”9

“Hurst” was Timothy Carroll Hurst, the game’s umpire. Hurst was a bit pugnacious, for example hitting Kid Elberfeld in the jaw with his mask during a dispute and spitting on Eddie Collins, but generally he was just verbally combative.10 While the Globe reporter was sarcastic about Hurst’s umpiring skills, he concluded his game coverage by stating that Boston would have won the game anyway.

While John McGraw would have bragged about Tucker’s grabbing the first baseman, not explaining the cheating away, this third consecutive championship by the Beaneaters was indeed classic scientific baseball before Baltimore made scientific baseball famous.

Notes

1 “Chauncey Burr Fisher” Sports Legends, Madison County (Indiana) Historical Society website, mchs09.wordpress.com/sport-legends/

2 “Not This Time – Bostons Tangle Spiders in Their Own Web – The Errors Were Costly” Boston Post, September 21, 1893: 3.

3 “Pennant Comes to Boston; Cleveland Put Up Grand Ball but the Bostons ‘Got There,’” Boston Globe, September 21, 1893: 10.

4 New York Clipper, September 30, 1893: 485.

5 Charlie Bevis, “Timothy Murnane,” SABR Biography Project, sabr.org/bioproj/person/b2017f67.

6 T.H. Murnane, “Three-Time Winners, Graphic Story of How Boston’s Baseball Stars Climbed from the Ninth Place in the Great National Race to the Championship Pennant,” Boston Globe, September 24, 1893: 28; “It Is Ours – Proud Emblem to Wave Here Next Year – Boston Wins Base-Ball Pennant – Spiders Bite the Dust at Cleveland,” Boston Globe, September 21, 1893: 10.

7 “It Is Ours.”

8 “Not This Time.”

9 “Pennant Comes to Boston.”

10 Rick Huhn, “Tim Hurst’s Last Call,” in Morris Levin, ed., The National Pastime: From Swampoodle to South Philly (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2013.)

As the skies darkened over the nation’s capital, the spirit of the brave sportsmen from Boston brightened. The scoreboard-watching Beaneaters breathed easier when the young man serving as scoreboard operator removed the 12-by-16-inch placard noting the innings.

The temporary gap caused players to pause. Beaneaters players elbowed each other and stared. Then an “F” appeared. The game over. Stunned, many in the dugout wondered, could this be? The second game of the Baltimore-New York Giants doubleheader had gone final, the game cut short by darkness and Baltimore on the losing end of the abbreviated six-inning contest, 6-2.

A sense of relief filled the air. All the Boston team needed was to maintain the lead in their game. A victory against the Senators would clinch a Boston pennant for the second straight year. The ultimate prize dangled well within reach. Although they led through three innings, the Beaneaters’ margin was tenuously narrow – just two runs.

As the season barreled toward conclusion, there was a collective recollection of the prior year’s late-September series between the two dynasties. The 1897 games, filled with anger and fistfights, perhaps haunted team captain Hugh Duffy. The Beaneaters controlled their destiny. Without a postseason tournament, the team that finished first in the regular season was crowned champion.

The game in Washington had been close to that point. The Nationals elected to bat first and leadoff batter Jake Gettman, the center fielder, singled to left-center. He ran all the way to third base on a wild pitch, and scored on Kip Selbach’s fly ball to Duffy in left field. It was 1-0, Washington.

Boston came back with two runs in the first, and another one in the bottom of the second. The score stood 3-1 after the first three innings.

A collective burst of energy emerged, as the close game was broken apart in the top of the fourth. The visitors’ relentless lineup, which featured three future Hall of Famers – third baseman and league-leading home-run hitter Jimmy Collins, and outfielders Duffy and Billy Hamilton – took over the game. Boston pounded nine runners across home plate in the frame. Ted “Parson” Lewis, an afterthought to a rotation that included Hall of Famers Charles Augustus “Kid” Nichols and Vic “The Delaware Peach” Willis, kept the Nationals from scoring until the top of the seventh, but Boston added one run in the seventh and another in the eighth.

The game did not end without a late show of life. In the ninth inning, playing in notably dark conditions, Washington’s Jud Smith and Duke Farrell got things started with base hits. Both were plated by a screaming line drive that cleared the head of a frantically racing Hamilton. Gettman made the last out. A hard hit sent the ball to shortstop Herman Long, who knocked it down and made the routine toss to first baseman Fred Tenney. Many fans in Washington were happy the season ended. The 55-101 Senators had performed like an imitation of a baseball club.1

The steady pitching of Lewis held the Senators to five runs on seven hits; in the process he captured his 26th win of the season. Lewis increased his league-leading winning percentage to .765, an exclamation point to the finest season of his professional career. In the end the Beaneaters dominated in every phase of the game, soundly thumping the Senators, 14- 5.

Boston’s formidable lineup victimized Kirtley Baker with a 20-hit assault including four doubles and two triples.2 Each starter collected at least two hits except weak-hitting backup catcher George Yeager, who went hitless. Tenney led the way with four hits, including a triple.3 Sliding Billy Hamilton and Collins followed with three hits apiece. Hamilton swiped a base and led Boston with three runs scored.

It was the next-to-last home game of the season in Washington, and ladies’ day, but, fed up with the home team’s incompetence, fans shouted obscenities and other caustic remarks from the stands. One fan quipped, “Say, dose fellas wouldn’t never be run in for playing base ball.”4 The fans had plenty to jeer about. Although the home team scorer charged the inept Senators with seven miscues, fans doubted the accuracy. The legitimacy of five or six other balls marked as hits raised questions and eyebrows. Indeed, both box scores from the Boston Journal’s W.S. Barnes Jr.’s and the Boston Globe’s Tim Murnane showed 11 errors for Washington.5 All in all, the Evening Star of Washington called it “about as sorry a spectacle as could be imagined.”6

The Times of Washington dubbed it “an atrocious burlesque,” writing, “The local boys could not have hit a watermelon with a base [sic] fiddle; so far as fielding was concerned, they could not have stopped a rolling pumpkin with a dog catcher’s net. … Among the infielders it appeared to be a contest as to which one could outshine the others in rank mishaps.”7 The Times box score showed 10 errors for Washington. There was no disagreement over the final score.

Although the Beaneaters hit Baker’s offerings all over the field, team malaise did contribute to the one-sidedness of the affair. During the ignominious fourth inning, the Beaneaters did manage to pound out seven hits, but thanks to the abysmal performances of Frank Gatins, Doc Casey, and Jud Smith, five other hitters got on base through fielding lapses. The trio played as though they desired a very short afternoon. The sole error for Boston was captain Duffy’s miscue on a catchable soft fly.

The game took two hours.

When the final out was recorded the curtain closed on a very disappointing campaign for Washington. For the Beaneaters, smiles finally emerged. The team had endured another season-long bitter battle with Baltimore. Unlike the nasty final stretch of 1897, this year the team was more entangled with each other throughout the heat of the race. Duffy and other players repeated their motto, “All is forgiven.” Winning does cover plenty of sins.

And win the Beaneaters did — winning 18 of 21 as the season closed. Handshakes, hugs, and admiration abounded. There were, however, “no antics and no shouts of triumph. It was more a spirit of contentment that pervaded the Boston camp.” One player, who was unnamed, averred, “Now we would be happy, if a good-sized check came our way.”8

Duffy commented, “I think Boston had the greatest team ever organized.”9 The pitching trio, led by Nichols, Willis, and Lewis combined for 82 wins. For Nichols, with 31, it was his third straight year earning 30 or more victories.

The 152 games Boston played in 1898 were 17 games more than in 1897.

The dean of Boston sportswriters, Tim Murnane, commented, “No ball team ever played more earnestly than Boston did this season, and the victory is one more argument for clean, honest baseball. It is a victory that should make New England proud of [Frank] Selee and his men.”10

Notes

1 Though the team name was formally the Nationals, newspapers in both Washington and Boston called them the Senators.

2 Some accounts have 19 total hits.

3 Some accounts have two hits.

4 “Boston Is Secure,” Washington Evening Star, October 12, 1898: 7.

5 W.S. Barnes Jr., “Champions,” Boston Journal, October 12, 1898: 7.

6  “Boston Is Secure.”

7 “A Baseball Burlesque,” Times (Washington DC), October 12, 1898: 9.

8 Barnes.

9 T.H. Murnane, “Boston Again Champion,” Boston Globe, October 12, 1898: 9.

10 Ibid.

That Friday in New York, “Happy Jack” Chesbro continued one of the greatest pitching seasons in history by recording his 41st victory in a 3-2 decision. The New Yorkers were now in the driver’s seat as a split of the remaining games would be enough for the pennant. When the schedule was released in the spring, all five contests were scheduled for American League Park. But earlier that summer, New York owner Frank Farrell rented out his grounds to the Columbia football team for their October 8 game against Williams.2 Thus, instead of playing four more games at home, Clark Griffith’s men traveled to Boston for the first of the two doubleheaders in the series.

The Huntington Avenue Grounds were packed with hordes of rabid Bostonians and the New Yorkers wilted under the pressure. In the opener, Griffith started Chesbro again. There was a rumor Griff told his ace to stay home and rest for Monday’s contests but that the right-hander met the team at the station and demanded to pitch.3 Regardless of how it occurred, the move backfired when “Happy Jack” fell apart in the fourth inning and gave up six runs. Cy Young outdueled Jack Powell 1-0 in the second game and the race was flipped on its head. Now all Boston needed was either a win or a tie to repeat.

The teams traveled back to New York for the Monday doubleheader and Griffith had no choice but to go once more with his best. Chesbro took the mound in a rematch against his Saturday opponent “Big Bill” Dinneen. The large crowd was strongly in favor of the home team but a two hundred-strong contingent of Boston’s noted Royal Rooters more then held their own with the help of Dockstader’s Famous Minstrel Band.4

The game was scoreless in the bottom of the third when Chesbro came to bat for the first time. As he stood in, the contest was stopped so a delegation of fans could present him with an elegant fur coat and hat in appreciation of his work that season.5 The gift must have inspired the pitcher for he drove Dinneen’s offering deep into right field for a triple. The crowd roared and the lead run stood on third with only one out and the top of the order up.

Patsy Dougherty began the season with the Champions but was shipped to New York in a controversial July trade. The local Boston fans were enraged by a deal which exchanged a star player for a spare part named Bob Unglaub.6 Dougherty had become a thorn in the side of his former club, perhaps motivated by negative press from the paper that also owned the team. General Taylor’s Globe labeled the left fielder “moody and insubordinate” and he must have taken special pleasure in starring in Friday’s win.7 Now he had the chance to rub it in a little more to the General and his son John I Taylor, but perhaps he was overanxious and Dinneen fanned him on three pitches.8 When Wee    Willie Keeler also struck out the noise abated and the game remained scoreless.

New York finally broke through in the last of the fifth. Two men were out when catcher Red Kleinow singled to right. Chesbro was next and helped his cause with a smash the Boston pitcher was able to knock down but could not field cleanly.9 Up came Dougherty who brought the crowd to its feet with a two-strike hit that scored Kleinow and moved Chesbro to second. The roar continued as “Big Bill” walked Keeler to load the bases and then compounded Boston’s woes by passing Kid Elberfeld to force in a run. Jimmy Williams stood in with a chance to break the game open, but the second baseman’s luck had deserted him this day. For the third time he grounded back to the box and Dinneen’s easy throw retired the side.

Chesbro had only given up a pair of hits and led 2-0 when Boston came to bat in the top of the seventh, but then chance and the New York defense conspired to betray him. Candy LaChance led off and hit a ball over the mound that was too slow for Williams to play10 and then Hobe Ferris singled to right. After Lou Criger sacrificed, Dinneen hit a routine grounder to second base and LaChance broke for the plate. Williams’s nightmare continued as he fielded the ball in plenty of time to make the play but his low throw hit the dirt and bounded away allowing Ferris to score as well. Instead of a rally-killing out, the game was tied and the clamor of the Royal Rooters now echoed around the park.

Chesbro bore down, perhaps angered by the turn fate had handed him or by his own tardiness in covering the plate.11 He induced Kip Selbach to ground to second and then stranded Dinneen at third when Freddy Parent flew to right. The next inning was almost as rocky as the Champions strung together three hits and only a fine relay from center fielder John Anderson to Elberfield and then Kleinow cut Chick Stahl down at the plate. New York’s bats continued to slumber and the game moved into the final frame tied at two.

Criger was first up and he hit yet another slow roller that the New York infield could not convert into an out. Dinneen sacrificed and Selbach’s grounder moved the winning run 90 feet away with two out. Parent stood in and Chesbro got a pair of strikes over before rearing back and throwing his “money pitch,” the spit ball.12

What happened next would become as haunting to New Yorkers of a certain age as the ball going through Bill Buckner’s legs would be to their future New England counterparts. Chesbro’s pitch sailed and, in an awful bit of anticlimax, cleared Kleinow’s lunge and hit the front of the grandstand on the fly.13 Criger trotted home as the park fell silent save for the celebration of the Royal Rooters and their hired band. A stunned Griffith dropped to the ground in anguish in front of the New York bench.14 Chesbro gave up a hit to Parent before retiring Stahl. The alternately haunting and annoying strains of Tessie could be heard as the New Yorkers prepared to send up the bottom of their order. Chesbro himself was distraught, sitting despondently on the bench and waiting for the end.15

But it had been a long season for Dinneen and entering his 335th inning of the year he seemed justifiably tired. Charlie Ganzel led off and fanned but then Conroy walked on a close pitch.16 Kleinow popped out to Ferris and  Deacon McGuire batted for Chesbro. The ancient catcher had played his first major league game some twenty years earlier and used his experience to coax another base on balls off of Dinneen. Dougherty then came to the plate with the season on the line.

Dougherty worked the count to 2-2 and then Dinneen reared back and threw the last meaningful pitch of 1904. It was a good one and Dougherty took a cut and missed it and then the Boston players were slapping each other on the back in congratulations of their repeat pennant. The second game went quickly as New York triumphed 1-0 to leave the final margin at 1 1/2 games. Despite playing in the first “modern” World Series the previous year, Boston would be idle as the NL champion Giants refused to meet them.

The 1904 season would be the high water mark of Griffith’s and Collins’s squads. Both teams would fall from those heights and only return to the limelight with different players in different ballparks. But even years later after autumn glory was common at Yankee Stadium, people would still discuss “Happy Jack” Chesbro’s wild pitch17 that decided the first great pennant race in American League history.

Author’s note

The game is significant to the author because it is the climactic contest of the first ever Red Sox-Yankees pennant race (even if both teams were years away from those nicknames) and is often forgotten today. It also figured prominently in several baseball books that the author read as a child which kindled his interest in the history of the game.

Notes

Repeating as champion was not easy for the Tigers. Detroit limped to a 3-9 record in April, and was just 22-23 on June 9, before claiming the victory in 10 of its next 12 games to finally establish itself as a winning team. On July 15 the Tigers reached the league’s summit, taking a one-game lead over the St. Louis Browns, and held the top spot until they fell behind the Cleveland Naps on September 21. Detroit regained the lead by one percentage point on September 27.

When Detroit began its final three-game series of the season in Chicago, it was clinging to first, and either the White Sox or Naps had the chance to pass Detroit in the standings and take home the flag. Detroit (89-61) held a 1½-game lead over Cleveland (88-63), and led 1906 champion Chicago (86-63) by 2½ games. While the Tigers and White Sox were meeting head-to-head, the Naps visited St. Louis for three games with the fourth-place Browns.

Chicago beat Detroit 3-1 on October 4, while Cleveland and St. Louis tied, 3-3. Because of the tie, the Naps and Browns scheduled a doubleheader for October 5, to be followed by their third and final meeting on the 6th.

On October 5 Chicago defeated Detroit 6-1 as Ed Walsh struck out nine, allowed just four hits, and raised his record to 40-15. The Naps and Browns split their doubleheader, eliminating Cleveland from pennant contention and setting up a winner-take-all match between the Tigers and White Sox for the AL flag on October 6, the season’s final day.

Donovan had been a huge contributor to Detroit’s 1907 pennant, compiling a 25-4 record, including wins in his final eight decisions. Although he was not as dominant in 1908, he was still the logical choice for this important game. In his most recent start, three days earlier, he shut out the Browns. Detroit’s other likely starters, Ed Killian, Ed Summers, and George Mullin, had all pitched more recently and less effectively.

Opposing Donovan was Doc White (18-12). Chicago manager Fielder Jones had waited nearly until the last minute before settling on White as his starter. He considered Frank Smith (16-17), or even Walsh, although the big right-hander had pitched six times in the last nine days, and would have been starting for the second day in a row.

White had a hot hand, having won his last seven decisions. Not since August 20 had he left the diamond in defeat. He also could boast of a 5-3 season record against Detroit, including a 3-1 victory two days earlier, when he pitched a complete game and held Detroit to five hits. Smith was better rested, but he and Jones were feuding,1 so the manager tapped White despite his short rest.

Chicago’s baseball faithful came out in great numbers. As many as 25,000 fans were squeezed into South Side Park, well above its listed capacity of 14,000.2 It was the largest weekday attendance ever at the ballpark, and it forced owner Charles Comiskey to close gates early to prevent the surging crowd from making play impossible. American League President Ban Johnson warned the umpires to keep the foul lines clear at all times to keep the crowd from encroaching into playing territory.3 As it was, spectators filled the stands and stood in the outfield and foul territory, requiring special ground rules.4 Customers in one section instituted a ground rule of their own, outlawing hats, and peppering men and women alike with paper missiles until they removed the offending derby or millinery.5

Cheers rolled like thunder when White whizzed his first two pitches past the Tigers’ Matty McIntyre. But his next two pitches missed the plate, and then McIntyre singled sharply. Donie Bush fanned after failing to sacrifice, but Sam Crawford doubled into the crowd in right field, forcing McIntyre to stop at third. Ty Cobb tripled to left-center field, sending both runners home and chasing White from the mound. Patsy Dougherty touched the ball before it rolled into the overflow area, so Cobb was not held to a double.

Walsh, who had pitched so brilliantly the previous day – and on so many other days – came in to put things right; but he could not. Claude Rossman hit an easy bouncer to first baseman Frank Isbell, who fumbled it, allowing Rossman to reach first, and Cobb to score the third Detroit run. Walsh tried to pick Rossman off first, but his throw went into the crowd, advancing Rossman to second. Germany Schaefer singled to center, scoring Rossman, and Schaefer continued to second base on the throw home. Another error, this one by third baseman Lee Tannehill, put two runners aboard with one out, but Red Downs popped up a bunt to Walsh, and Donovan fouled out to the catcher, ending Chicago’s nightmare. Detroit led 4-0.

The Tigers took advantage of another error in the second inning to stretch the lead. With two outs and Crawford on second base, Cobb’s infield single sent Crawford to third. Walsh threw to catch Cobb off base, but when Isbell muffed the throw, Crawford sprinted home with the Tigers’ fifth run.

While Donovan’s teammates piled up runs, he was breezing through the White Sox lineup. He issued a walk with two outs in the second inning, and surrendered his first hit in the fifth when Billy Sullivan singled, but neither runner advanced beyond first.

Chicago finally gave signs of life in the sixth inning. Smith, who had replaced Walsh an inning earlier, hit a slashing single to left, and when Ed Hahn walked, Smith trotted to second. Jones took two strikes, but – under pressure from 25,000 swarming, screaming fans, who were described by reporter I.E. Sanborn as “bedlam gone bughouse”6 – Donovan suddenly lost sight of home plate, missing with three straight pitches. If Donovan walked Jones, it would fill the bases with nobody out, and the White Sox just might turn things around.

But there was no glorious Chicago comeback. Instead, odd behavior halted play, and deflated the rally. Jake Atz, coaching at third base, “went out of his head completely.”7 Spurred on by the roaring crowd, “he raced up and down the line like a maniac,” yelling at Donovan.8 Umpire Jack Sheridan warned Atz to stop his antics, but Atz either could not hear Sheridan through the din, or ignored him. Sheridan stopped the action, walked toward Atz, and told him to return to Chicago’s bench. Atz refused, and argued frantically until he was banished from the game.

The delay allowed Donovan to compose himself.9 When play resumed, he fired a questionable third strike past Jones. Isbell also fanned, and when Dougherty lined out to center fielder Crawford, Chicago’s one opportunity to make a game of it was gone.

In the seventh inning patrons witnessed one of those plays that delight Cobb’s boosters but infuriate his detractors. Cobb was on first after beating out a bunt. Rossman grounded out to shortstop on a ball that third baseman Tannehill also went after, leaving third base temporarily unattended. Cobb ran right over second and dashed for third. Tannehill retreated to the bag to take Isbell’s throw, and “Cobb deliberately slid into and under Tannehill, giving him a terrific tumble.”10 Cobb was safe at third, but Tannehill held on to the ball, preventing Cobb from continuing to home plate.

Smith was the most effective White Sox pitcher. He held the Tigers scoreless from the fifth inning through the eighth – keeping Chicago’s flickering hopes burning – before he surrendered two runs in the ninth. Crawford’s single – his fourth hit – scored McIntyre, and Rossman’s high bounder to Smith brought home Bush, making it 7-0.

Jones walked to start Chicago’s ninth, but a fly ball, a pop foul to the catcher, and another fly ball ended the contest. Donovan was masterful. He yielded just two hits and three walks, while securing nine strikeouts. Only once did a Chicago baserunner occupy second base.

The victory triggered a celebration in Detroit that at times got out of hand. The fire department extinguished numerous bonfires; a window was broken at the J.L. Hudson Store; and “after 10 o’clock fights were of frequent occurrence.”11

The Tigers faced Chicago’s other team, the Cubs, in a rematch of the 1907 World Series. Donovan pitched game two in Chicago, and game five in Detroit, but lost both times. The Cubs triumphed four games to one.

Sources

www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA190810060.shtml

www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1908/B10060CHA1908.htm

Jackson, Joe S. “Wild Bill Donovan Pitches Tigers to Their Second Flag,” Detroit Free Press, October 7, 1908: 1.

Notes

1 Sam Bernstein, “Frank Smith,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/frank-smith-3/.

2 Philip J. Lowry, “Green Cathedrals, The Ultimate Celebration of Major League and Negro League Ballparks,” (New York: Walker and Company, 2006).

3 Joe S. Jackson, “Told About the Tigers,” Detroit Free Press, October 7, 1908: 11.

4 A batter hitting a ball into the outfield crowd, either in the air or on the ground, was held to a double, unless the ball had been touched by a fielder, and baserunners could advance only two bases. Runners could advance one base on an overthrow into the crowd along the foul lines.

5“Notes of the White Sox,” Chicago Tribune, October 7, 1908: 12.

6 I.E. Sanborn, “Tigers Win Flag by Crushing Sox,” Chicago Tribune, October 7, 1908: 12.

7 Sanborn.

8 Sanborn.

9 Sanborn.

10 “Notes of the White Sox.”

11 “Mad Crowds Fill Streets, Shouting Praises of Tigers,” Detroit Free Press, October 7, 1908: 1.

In the National League, things were more complicated, thanks to a September 23 contest between the New York Giants and Chicago Cubs that would later be called “the most controversial game ever played.”3 It featured a baserunning blunder by Giants rookie Fred Merkle, who failed to touch second base, turning what should have been the game-winning hit by Al Bridwell into a force out. It was getting dark and numerous fans were on the field, so umpire Hank O’Day declared it a tie. NL President Harry Pulliam upheld that decision, infuriating both teams.4

The Giants’ season wasn’t over, but despite winning 11 of their last 16 games, they ended up tied with the Cubs. For the first time in National League history,5 a one-game playoff was necessary. It was scheduled for the Polo Grounds on October 8 at 3 P.M.

Although the gates weren’t supposed to open till 11 A.M., huge throngs of fans began gathering at the Polo Grounds as early at 8 in hopes of getting tickets.6 Some tried to push their way inside the ballpark, but extra police were on duty and prevented them from entering. When the gates opened, the ballpark filled up quickly. By gametime, a venue that normally fit about 16,000 fans had as many as 40,000 crammed inside, taking up every inch of standing and sitting room.7

The Cubs traveled from Chicago to New York in style, on a luxury train called the Twentieth Century Limited. The trip took nearly 18 hours,8 but reporters noted that, rather than being tired, the players were “in the best frame of mind,”9 determined to capture their third straight pennant. The Giants were confident too; manager John J. McGraw told reporters his team was ready, saying, “Yes, we are going to play, and we are going to beat them too.” Referring to the disputed game, he added that even though his team still felt cheated, “We will force them to call us champions tomorrow night.”10     

Cubs manager Frank Chance planned to start 30-year-old lefty Jack Pfiester; he had a record of only 12-10 in 1908, but four of his wins had come against the Giants, including two complete-game wins in a four-day period in August, one of which was a dominating 5-1 performance.11 McGraw wouldn’t respond when reporters asked who would pitch, but the common wisdom was that he would choose Christy Mathewson.12 Matty was a fan favorite, “the greatest one man factor in the success of the Giants this year,” winning 37 games and leading the NL in strikeouts, ERA, and innings pitched.13          

Before the game started, emotions were running high. Chance had an altercation with Giants pitcher Joe McGinnity about how much time the Cubs would get for batting practice. Chance was taking some extra swings, and McGinnity tried to push him aside. The two scuffled; other players had to separate them, and the Giants finally took their turn in the batting cage.14     

Mathewson did start for the Giants, and he easily retired the Cubs in the first inning, striking out two. But Pfiester had a more difficult time in the bottom of the inning, struggling with his control. He hit Fred Tenney, then walked Buck Herzog.

Roger Bresnahan struck out, but Cubs catcher Johnny Kling – possibly hoping to trap one of the Giants off base – briefly dropped the ball.15 Even though he was already out, Bresnahan headed for first, then paused; Herzog, who began running to second, also hesitated.16 Kling quickly threw the ball to Chance, who ran Herzog down and tagged him out, completing the double play.

Thanks to the Giants’ poor baserunning, Pfiester had a chance to escape unscathed, but Mike Donlin hit a double to right, driving in Tenney, and the Giants led, 1-0. When Cy Seymour walked, putting two men on base, Chance had seen enough and replaced Pfiester with staff ace Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, who struck out Art Devlin, ending the inning.17       

In the second inning, Chance led off with a single, but Mathewson picked him off. Chance thought he was safe and he threw his cap on the ground in anger.18 He argued with the umpire, as did his teammate, Artie “Solly” Hofman, who was coaching at first.19 But the play stood; Hofman was ejected, and Chance went back to the dugout, still upset. Meanwhile, Mathewson easily retired the side, striking out two more Cubs.

In the bottom of the second, Brown too was in command, retiring the Giants in order, aided by what the New York American called a “great stop” by Joe Tinker on Mathewson’s hard-hit ball to short, and an equally impressive scoop of the low throw by Chance.20

Mathewson had cruised through two innings but everything changed in the third. It started with a triple from Tinker. W.J. McBeth, a Giants beat writer, stated that center fielder Seymour misjudged it and should have caught it.21 Cubs beat writers were kinder, saying Seymour “made a great try” but couldn’t catch up with it.22 Kling then singled to center, bringing Tinker home, tying the game, 1-1.

Brown’s sacrifice moved Kling to second. Jimmy Scheckard flied out to center, but Mathewson walked Johnny Evers. With two men on base and two outs, right fielder Frank Schulte came up to bat. Long known as a clutch hitter, Schulte doubled to left. Kling scored, and Evers went to third. The Cubs had taken the lead, but the scoring wasn’t finished. Chance doubled to right, and both Evers and Schulte came home. Suddenly, the Cubs led 4-1, as Giants fans fell into a stunned silence. It was the only bad inning Mathewson had in the seven innings he pitched, but the damage had been done.

For most of the game, the Giants could do nothing with Brown’s pitching, which was augmented by stellar fielding: in the fifth, Cubs third baseman Harry Steinfeldt ranged far to his left to spear a sharp grounder from Mathewson and throw him out, which veteran Boston Globe sportswriter Tim Murnane called “the best play of the game.”23

The Giants finally mounted a threat in the seventh. Devlin started it with a long single to left, and Harry “Moose” McCormick came through with a single to right, “just outside of Evers’ reach,”24 sending Devlin to second. When Bridwell walked, loading the bases, it looked as if Brown had “lost his bearings,”25 and the noise from cheering fans was deafening.

McGraw sent “Laughing Larry” Doyle in to pinch-hit for Mathewson, but he was an easy out, on a foul popup to Kling. Tenney then flied to deep right, and Devlin scored. It was now 4-2, and the fans were on their feet, but their hopes for a big inning were crushed when Brown allowed no further scoring. The inning ended with Herzog hitting a grounder to short; Tinker juggled it but recovered in time to throw him out.26

George “Hooks” Wiltse replaced Mathewson in the eighth and allowed no further runs, but the big story was Brown’s outstanding work: He held the Giants in check for 8 1/3 innings, pitching “dependable and steady” ball.27 Manager McGraw could only watch in frustration from the first-base coaching lines as the Giants went quietly in the ninth, and the championship slipped from his grasp.

As McGraw left the field, one New York writer observed, “[He] started for the clubhouse, pursued by the ghost of a wasted season.”28 Christy Mathewson remained at his locker, long after many of his teammates had gone home. He seemed to blame himself for the loss, and reporters noticed his “eyes showed traces of tears.”29

While Giants fans were disappointed, few blamed Mathewson. Sportswriters noted that the Giants “could not hit at critical times.”30 As one New York writer acknowledged, “The Chicago Cubs outplayed us yesterday, and won by clean hitting and clean playing.”31

Some fans used the loss as an excuse for rowdy behavior, running onto the field to lash out at three Cubs players who were heading for the clubhouse.32 In one especially egregious act, a fan threw a punch that struck Frank Chance in the neck and throat area, staggering him.33 He was rushed by car to his hotel, where a physician examined him, telling him he would feel better in a day or two. Despite being in pain, Chance said he’d be ready to play in the World Series.34

And in Chicago, where cheering fans took to the streets in celebration,35 it was a great day to be a Cubs supporter: The Cubs had won their third consecutive pennant, and now the chance for a second consecutive World Series championship lay ahead.36

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to John Fredland and Gary Belleville for their helpful suggestions. This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Mordecai Brown, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted various historical newspaper databases, including Newspapers.com and OldNews.com, as well as Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NY1/NY1190810080.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1908/B10080NY11908.htm

Notes

1 “Sensational Season in Baseball World,” Winnipeg Tribune, December 19, 1908: 41. The reporter noted that the popularity of baseball in the United States had spread to Canada, and teams were now competing in nearly every province.  

2 “Author: ’08 Season Had Plenty of Excitement: Newsmaker/ David W. Anderson,” South Bend (Indiana) Tribune, October 17, 1999: B8. Anderson, in an interview about his book More Than Merkle, said it was among the most exciting seasons ever played: “The American and National league pennants were decided on the last day of the season, with the visitors winning on hostile ground. During the season, none of the contenders could build a big lead. In the American League, Detroit, Cleveland and, until the last two weeks of the season, St. Louis contended, with Detroit winning by a half game over Cleveland. In the National, Chicago, New York and Pittsburgh vied for the flag, with the Cubs beating the Giants on the last day to win the pennant and then go on to win the franchise’s last world championship.” (The Cubs finally won another World Series in 2016.)

3 Cait Murphy, Crazy ’08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History (New York: HarperCollins/Smithsonian Books, 2007), 421.

4 “Harry Pulliam Victim of Giants’ and Cubs’ Wrath Because of ‘Tie’ Decision,” Passaic (New Jersey) Daily News, September 25, 1908: 3.

5 “Decided It a Tie Game,” Sedalia (Missouri) Democrat-Sentinel, October 7, 1908: 4.

6 G.A. Falzer, “Pfeister Opposes ‘Matty,’” Newark Evening Star, October 8, 1908: 1.

7 “The Cubs Win the Pennant,” New York Times, October 9, 1908: 1.

8 “May Cut Lake Shore Flyer Time,” Chicago Daily News, October 8, 1908: 2.

9 “New York Fans Rush to See Pennant Fight,” Chicago Daily News, October 8, 1908: 1-2.

10 “Gotham Confident Giants Will Win Decisive Battle,” Chicago Inter Ocean, October 8, 1908: 4.

11 “Giants Lose First Game,” Springfield (Illinois) State Register, August 28, 1908: 3.

12 “Pennant Battle Now Raging,” Huntington (Indiana) Daily News-Democrat, October 8, 1908: 5.

13 “The Men on the Firing Line,” Stockton (California) Daily Evening Record, October 8, 1908: 3.

14 “Fist Fight for Practice Place,” Portland (Oregon) Daily Journal, October 8, 1908: 1.

15 W.J. McBeth, “Detailed Play-by-Play Story of Game That Beat Giants for Flag,” New York American, October 9, 1908: 11.

16 “Chicago Cubs Again Take Off National League Pennant,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 9, 1908: 6.

17 “Chicago Victory Due to Superior Playing,” Fall River (Massachusetts) Globe, October 9, 1908: 9.

18 William F. Kirk, “Giants Lose Pennant to Cubs, Fighting to Last,” New York American, October 9, 1908: 11-12.

19 “Cubs Take Pennant by Beating Giants, 4-2, in Great Game,” Chicago Inter Ocean, October 9, 1908: 1-2.

20 W.J. McBeth, “Detailed Play-by-Play Story of Game That Beat Giants for Flag.”

21 McBeth, 11.

22 T.H. Murnane, “Chicago Defeats New York for the National League Championship,” Boston Globe, October 9, 1908: 1, 4.

23 Murnane, “Chicago Defeats New York.”

24 “Cubs Take Pennant,” Chicago Inter Ocean.

25 Kirk, “Giants Lose Pennant to Cubs.”

26 Murnane, “Chicago Defeats New York.”

27 “Game Viewed by New York Eyes,” Chicago Tribune, October 9, 1908: 3.

28 Kirk, “Giants Lose Pennant to Cubs.”

29 “Great Matty Took Defeat Harder Than Teammates,” New York American, October 9, 1908: 12.

30 “How the Cubs Won the Pennant,” Detroit News, October 9, 1908: 20.

31 Kirk, “Giants Lose Pennant to Cubs.”

32 “New York Mob Attacks Three Chicago Players,” Indianapolis News, October 9, 1908: 18.

33 “Assaulted by Cowardly Fans,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 9, 1908: 4.

34  “Riot Follows Upon Heels of Great Contest,” Chattanooga Star, October 9, 1908: 7.

35  “Chicago Wild With Delight,” Springfield (Illinois) State Register, October 9, 1908: 3.

36 The Cubs went on to beat the Tigers in the World Series, four games to one.