This chapter is not about a single game. Instead, it is about three games, the first post-season interleague series intended to create a baseball “Championship of America” or a “World’s Championship.” Although nearly all baseball fans rattle off 1903 as the first World Series, this 19th-century match-up is recognized among baseball historians as the real first “World Series.”

There was no model for post-season interleague championship play before 1884. No such series had even been possible until 1883 when the National League, the American Association, and a minor league (the Northwestern League) reached a peace settlement that became known as the Tripartite Agreement or National Agreement.

The 1884 season started with unprecedented excitement for fans (then called cranks) and great anxiety for team owners. The cranks had much to be excited about with more teams and players to follow after the addition of a new upstart league, the Union Association, and the expansion of the American Association. Meanwhile, owners fretted over players jumping their contracts to join the new league and over greater competition for attendance from it.

The established circuits moved through their schedules pretending the UA didn’t exist. In the NL, the Providence Grays were highly regarded. The Grays had won the pennant in 1879, finished second in ’80, ’81, and ’82, and third in ’83. In the AA, the Metropolitans of New York showed hope when they landed in second a few weeks into the season.

The Grays were managed by Frank Bancroft, in his first season with Providence and his fifth as a major-league manager. The Mets were led by Jim “Truthful Jeems” Mutrie, who had organized and managed the team as a Manhattan-based independent club in 1880 with financial backing from John B. Day, and placed the team in the AA in 1883. Mutrie continued as manager through this 1884 championship season.

Both teams believed that “good pitching beats good hitting.” The Grays had Charlie Sweeney and Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn, while the Mets relied on Tim Keefe and Jack Lynch. In July, while the Grays were battling for the NL lead, Radbourn was suspended for indifferent play.1 A week later, Sweeney, an incurable alcoholic, was released.2 Radbourn returned and was nearly untouchable, winning 35 of his next 40 games, giving him a record 59 wins, the all-time major-league season high. Keefe and Lynch finished with 37 wins each.

Although the Mets didn’t wrap up their pennant until the last week of the season, Mutrie began an early campaign to play Providence, the likely National League winners. Mutrie and Bancroft were old associates. Mutrie had played shortstop on Bancroft’s New Bedford team in 1878 and the two had managed or played contemporaneously from 1876 through ’79.

There were, however, issues to be worked out: number of games, rules, where to play, and finances. As challenges started in the form of wagers, with the winning team’s players taking all, the National League was not enthusiastic and was relieved when the managers worked out a split of the proceeds. Although Mutrie offered a five-game series of two games in each team’s city and a fifth game, if necessary, in a neutral location, Bancroft did not want to risk the travel expenses. Because Manhattan’s population was 1.2 million, Bancroft proposed a threegame series at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, then located at 110th Street and Fifth Avenue.3

It was decided that the American Association’s rules would be used. Bancroft had sought an exception permitting use of the NL pitching rule—which allowed the ball to be thrown overhand. That would have been an advantage to Radbourn. Instead the AA rule, which prohibited the pitcher from raising his arm above the belt, was used.4

The games were scheduled to take place on Thursday through Saturday, October 23–25. Two victories would crown the champion. Radbourn was to pitch all three games, which was no surprise, given that he pitched nearly every game after Sweeney jumped the team. This was not good news for the Mets and their cranks. Nor was it good news that the injured Jack Lynch was unable to pitch, requiring that Keefe might have to pitch all the games.

Bad news or not, a championship series in the nation’s largest and wealthiest city had everyone convinced that these would be the greatest games ever played. On Wednesday the 22nd a huge throng began assembling in the afternoon for a torch-lit parade. It was 76 degrees. Just as the evening parade got underway, rain began and the temperature fell. The rain and wind increased, and the cranks dispersed.

The next day was horrible. The rain stopped, but the temperature never got above 51 and a whipping wind made it feel colder. Only 2,500 cranks turned out, one-tenth of the expected crowd. Keefe was decidedly off his game, and Radbourn surprised no one, winning 6–0.

That outcome put the onus on Keefe to attempt to prevent a Providence championship in Game Two (although all three games were scheduled to be played, regardless of the outcome of the first two). With temperatures in the 40s and because of the Mets’ poor play the day before, the turnout was only about 1,000. Keefe was sore from the previous day and although he made it closer, holding the Grays to three runs, Radbourn allowed the Mets only one, in a game shortened to seven innings by darkness. The Grays were now the “World’s Champions.”

Game Three was punishing. The game was nearly canceled as the Grays balked at playing a meaningless game before 500 freezing cranks. Much to their credit, they gave in to the Mets, who reminded them how often the New York National League team (also owned by Day) had to play before small crowds in Providence.5 The Mets’ Buck Becannon pitched only his second game of 1884, a 12–2 loss in a contest called after six innings because of the cold.

Providence was able to celebrate only briefly— the following season was its last as a major-league city. More importantly, post-season interleague championship play had been introduced at the major-league level. Although there would never be as short a series, the World Series tradition had begun. It would continue, with only a few lapsed seasons, right up until today.

1884 Providence Grays. Top row: Hoss Radbourn, Frank Bancroft, Barney Gilligan. Second row: Cliff Carroll, Jack Farrell, Sandy Nava. Third row: Paul Radford, Jerry Denny, Ed Conley. Bottom row: Joe Start, Arthur Irwin, Paul Hines. (Click image to enlarge.)

Notes

1 Edward Achorn, Fifty-nine in ’84: Barehanded Baseball & The Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had (New York: Smithsonian Books, Harper Collins, 2010), p. 191-192.

2 Achorn, 202.

3 Larry G. Bowman, Before the World Series: Pride, Profits and Baseball’s First Championship (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2003), p. 47.

4 Achorn, p. 202.

5 Bowman, p. 52.

After spending much of the season in second place, Chicago took the NL lead for good in late August during a 14-game winning streak, kicked off by Clarkson’s one-hit shutout of the first-place Detroit Wolverines.1 Clarkson’s 36th win of the year, in the championship (regular) season finale, clinched the pennant and set up a rematch with the American Association champion St. Louis Browns in baseball’s third-ever postseason series between league champions – variously called the “world’s championship series,” “world series,” or “world’s series” in newspaper coverage.2

Officially, the previous year’s “world series” between the White Stockings and Browns had been a draw,3 but in reality, it was a train wreck brought on by poor planning.4 Pregame festivities delayed Game One so long it was halted by darkness after eight innings, deadlocked. Controversial calls by umpires – either uncertain or unscrupulous – triggered a Browns forfeit in Game Two and a near-riot in Game Four.5 Game Five in Pittsburgh drew little interest from fans (only 500 attended), and Game Six in Cincinnati drew little interest from its participants. (The teams committed 17 errors combined.)

The Series’ Game Seven finale6 was assumed to be a makeup for the earlier forfeit, until Chicago said it wasn’t – after losing it.7 The contest was so filled with errors, misplays, and lousy pitching that the Cincinnati Enquirer called it “one of the poorest games ever played [here].”8

Anson had planned to start Clarkson in Game Seven, but the 53-game winner was still asleep in his hotel room when the team left for the ballpark. He managed to get to the field just five minutes late, but when he got there, Anson told him, “You need not take off your coat, as you are not going to play.”9 A tired McCormick started in his place, with disastrous results.10

Neither side wanted the same in their 1886 rematch. Once it became clear that the two teams would repeat, Browns owner Chris Von der Ahe challenged White Stockings President Al Spalding to “a series of contests to be known as the world’s championship series,” and suggested “it would be better from a financial standpoint to play the entire series on the two home grounds.”11 The magnates agreed to a six-game series played in Chicago and then St. Louis, with a deciding seventh game, if needed, at a neutral site. They also agreed to randomly select each game’s umpire from a board of agreed-upon NL and AA arbiters, play by the rules of the home team’s league, and award all gate receipts to the team that won the Series.12

The rules now set, the Series was to open on Monday, October 18, in Chicago.

On the eve of the opening game, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported heavy betting at poolrooms in St. Louis, Chicago, and “other cities having a membership in either the League or American Association.” “Both teams are as evenly matched as any two clubs that ever faced each other on the diamond,” 13 the newspaper added, a sentiment matched by the odds-makers, as “all the wagers were made on an even-money-basis.”14 

Shooting pool himself that day, Anson told one reporter, “We’re going to beat the Browns in these games just as sure as I’m going to make a point on this [shot]” – which he did. He assured his listener that “We will play the St. Louis Club on a square basis, and if we beat ’em, we beat ’em; if we don’t, we don’t, and that’s all there’s to it.”15

The Browns left St. Louis that night “full of confidence and beer,”16 after their four-game sweep of the NL Maroons in the St. Louis postseason city series.17 They arrived in Chicago the next morning accompanied by several hundred fans in Pullman cars “with banners floating and trumpets sounding.”18 They also brought with them the glass-enclosed, solid silver Wiman Trophy, emblematic of their American Association championship.19

A crowd estimated at 3,000 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and 5,000 by the Chicago Tribune was entering West Side Park as the teams warmed up in a chill wind beneath a clearing sky.20 A decorative “Champions, 1886” was written in large lettering in front of each team’s bench, both foul lines, and behind the pitcher’s box. The home team entered behind a brass band, along with their mascot, young Willie Hahn, “dressed in the costume of the club.”21 Anson won the pregame toss and elected to have his White Stockings take the field first. The Association’s Jack McQuaid  umpired.22 

As expected, Clarkson strode to the pitching box, Chicago’s most reliable starter over the last three weeks of the season.23 Leading off for the Browns was their captain, Arlie Latham, despised by many Chicagoans for his incessant taunting of opposing players.24 He called for a high ball and after mostly bunting foul what the Chicago Inter-Ocean estimated at 20 pitches and the New York Times nine, struck out “amidst the most vociferous applause.”25

Pitching for the Browns was right-hander Dave Foutz, a two-way player who split time between the pitching box, first base, and the outfield. He’d quietly won a league-leading 41 games, with a league-low 2.11 ERA, and had been the winning pitcher in Game Seven of the 1885 World Series.

Foutz’s impressive résumé meant little to the White Stockings, who scored twice in their half of the first inning. Leadoff batter George Gore took a six-ball walk, then was forced at second on a grounder by Kelly. “Tricky Mike” stole second and came home on a triple by Anson over the right fielder’s head. An opposite-field single down the right-field line by cleanup hitter Fred Pfeffer plated Anson, giving Chicago a two-run lead.

Pfeffer was thrown out at second, though when is unclear. The Chicago Tribune wrote that he was gunned down trying to stretch his run-scoring single into a double, while the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said he made the out trying to swipe second base, two batters later.

A pair of Browns reached base in the second on a muffed third strike and a walk to fleet-footed Curt Welch, but a double play in between prevented a rally from developing. Over the next three innings, Clarkson retired the visitors in order, using his arsenal of overhand fastballs, side-arm drop curves, and changeups.26

Cross-gripping Yank Robinson collected the first hit for St. Louis leading off the sixth.27 Latham singled with two out, but Clarkson retired Bob Caruthers to end the threat.28 A standout two-way player, Caruthers, nicknamed Parisian Bob, won 30 games that year, and had the greatest offensive season for any nineteenth-century major-league pitcher. He hit .334 with 26 stolen bases, but even more impressively, led the American Association in on-base percentage (.448) and OPS (.974), with an eye-popping OPS+ of 201 (statistics compiled retroactively).

Despite having more traffic on the bases than Clarkson, Foutz also threw goose eggs in the middle innings. The Browns’ defense cracked in the sixth, gifting Anson’s lads a run on a passed ball and a Latham error after Pfeffer had singled leading off. Chicago led, 3-0.

Captain Charlie Comiskey collected the Browns’ second hit of the game in the seventh and advanced on an error by Gore but went no farther. Clarkson worked around a one-out triple to Robinson in the eighth, striking out light-hitting Doc Bushong and getting Latham to pop out to Anson at first base.

Chicago doubled its lead in the eighth. After Anson singled leading off, shortstop Bill Gleason fumbled a bunt from Pfeffer, putting runners on first and second.29 Big Ned Williamson, who’d set a new major-league single-season home-run record two years earlier,30 followed with a triple to center field, bringing both runners home. Second baseman Robinson threw wild trying to get Williamson at third, allowing him to score on the play as well.

In the top of the ninth, St. Louis tried in vain to avoid a whitewash. Caruthers reached on an error and Comiskey singled for his second hit of the day, but Clarkson squelched the comeback by fanning Welch. Clarkson had the first World Series win of his career, erasing a bit of the sting from how his previous postseason had ended.

The Chicago Daily News called the game “an overwhelming defeat for the Browns.”31 The Boston Globe said, “The Chicagos played in good form and fielded splendidly.”32 In the Chicago Inter-Ocean’s game story the next day, headlined “Coated with Calcimine,” the win was marked with a sonnet that mocked Browns fans and players alike, most notably Latham.33

The Browns were sanguine about the loss. Catcher Bushong offered that “the Chicagos never played a better game of ball in their lives.” “It was Clarkson who won the game.” “There was no batting him. He wouldn’t let us hit him, and he wouldn’t let us get more than a foot from the bases.”34 A cigar-smoking Robinson vowed to “get even some day.”35

“Der Prowns”36 would soon get even, and eventually win the Series, but on this chilly day in the Windy City, it was John Clarkson who basked in glory.

Acknowledgments 

This article was fact-checked by Stew Thornley and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and Statscrew.com for pertinent information. He also relied on previews of the 1886 World Series and summaries of this game published in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Inter-Ocean, Chicago Daily News, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Sporting News.

Notes

1 “The Sluggers Blanked,” Chicago Tribune, August 24, 1886: 2.

2 For example, the Chicago Tribune and The Sporting News referred to the “championship of the world series” in several stories describing the impending matches; The Sporting News used the shorter “World’s Series” as the title of its final series preview, published the morning of Game One, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch applied the term “world series” in its summary of Game One. “A Challenge from the Browns,” Chicago Tribune, September 25, 1886: 10; “Spalding Is Willing,” The Sporting News, October 4, 1886: 1; “The Dates Selected,” The Sporting News, October 11, 1886: 1; Calumet, “The World’s Series,” The Sporting News, October 18, 1886: 1; “‘Doc’s’ Dictum,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 19, 1886: 7.

3 Major League Baseball recognizes each of the postseason championships between the National League and American Association champions, from 1884 through 1890, as World Series. The 1885 postseason championship series was the first to be explicitly identified in the press as a “world’s series.” World Series Summary, MLB World Series.com website, http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/postseason/mlb_ws.jsp?feature=index, accessed November 15, 2022; “Base Ball,” Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, October 20, 1885: 3.

4 See Paul E. Doutrich, “Champions, Tantrums and Bad Umps: The 1885 ‘World Series,’” Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2017, https://sabr.org/journal/article/champions-tantrums-and-bad-umps-the-1885-world-series/.

5 Bad calls in Game Four aggravated future evangelist Billy Sunday so profoundly that he “leaped off the Chicago bench with fist clenched and charged toward the umpire.” Doutrich, “Champions, Tantrums and Bad Umps: The 1885 ‘World Series.’”

6 The tour was initially planned as a set of 16 exhibition games in eight cities, with two contests each in St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Louisville, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Brooklyn, and New York. Browns owner Chris Von der Ahe and White Stockings President Al Spalding ultimately agreed to a less ambitious tour that dropped Brooklyn, New York, and Baltimore and added Pittsburgh. The Series was cut back to seven games after the Game Six debacle. “The Browns and the Chicagos,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 26, 1885: 3; “Diamond Dust,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 1, 1885: 8.

7 David Nemec, The Beer and Whisky League (New York: Lyons & Burford, 1994), 104.

8 “World Beaters,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 25, 1885: 10.

9 “World Beaters.”

10 The Beer and Whisky League.

11 Von der Ahe’s challenge to Spalding was published in full in the Chicago Tribune and summarized in several other newspapers. “A Challenge from the Browns,” Chicago Tribune, September 25, 1886: 10.

12 Spalding and Von der Ahe separately elected to distribute half of the gate receipts to their ballplayers should they win the Series. “For the World’s Pennant,” Boston Globe, September 28, 1886: 1; Calumet, “The World’s Series,” The Sporting News, October 18, 1886: 1; “Anson’s Pets,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 18, 1886: 1.

13 “The Browns-Chicagos Series,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, October 17, 1886: 11.

14 “Even Money,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 18, 1886: 7.

15 Anson interestingly prefaced this remark by pointing out that his men were sober; a nod to Spalding’s ongoing battle to keep the White Stocking players from drinking to excess. The findings of a detective hired to follow players (including Anson) resulted in seven of them (but not Anson) being fined in July for drinking and keeping late hours. “Even Money,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 18, 1886: 7; Wendy Knickerbocker, “Billy Sunday,” SABR biography, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/billy-sunday/.

16 “The Champions to Play,” Chicago Tribune, October 18, 1886: 2.

17 The Beer and Whisky League, 118; “Sporting,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 19, 1885: 6.

18 The St. Louis Globe-Democrat described one Pullman car as “tastefully decorated, long canvas streamers on each side of the outer panels bearing the legend, ‘St. Louis Browns – Champions 1886-87.’” “The Champions to Play”; “Sporting,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 18, 1886: 6.

19 The 26-inch-tall trophy “in the form of a batter at the plate” was put on display in the window of Spalding’s store on Chicago’s Madison Street “where it dazzles the eyes of the windy people who happen to pass by that way.” The trophy was created by New York Metropolitans owner Erastus Wiman as a goodwill gesture following his legal battle with the other Association club owners shortly after purchasing the franchise. The 1886 Browns were the first team to receive the trophy and the only Association champion to publicly display it. Bill Lamb, Erastus Wiman SABR biography, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/erastus-wiman/; “’Doc’s’ Dictum,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 19, 1886: 7.

20 Newspapers reporting on the game varied in their description of how unpleasant the weather was. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said fans’ “teeth were chattering with cold and their lips blue from the strong wind directly in their faces the game through.” “‘Doc’s’ Dictum.”

21 A resident of the neighborhood adjoining West Side Park, the youngster first began serving as the team mascot the previous season. At first no taller than the length of a bat, he was variously reported to be 5 to 9 years old. The Cincinnati Enquirer was so amused with reports of his age that they referred to him as Chicago’s “one-hundred-and-twenty-nine-year-old mascotte.” “Big Base Ball,” Decatur (Illinois) Daily Republican, October 1, 1885: 2; “Around Town,” Deadwood (South Dakota) Pioneer Times, October 11, 1885: 3; “Base-Ball Notes,” Cincinnati Enquirer, February 21, 1886: 10; “Chicago Against Detroit,” Freeport (Illinois) Journal, June 21, 1886: 1; John Thorn, “Some Superstitions of the Year 1886,” October 20, 2015, Our Game website, https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/some-superstitions-of-the-year-1886-9af42bafcf71, accessed October 17, 2022; “Anson’s Pets.”

22 McQuaid’s name was invariably spelled McQuade in contemporary accounts of the game. The magnates also agreed to implement in Game Two a novel umpiring scheme proposed by Spalding’s brother, J.W. Spalding. The co-founder of A.G. Spalding and Bros., Inc. proposed “elevating the position of the umpire” by having him serve solely to referee the decisions of two other umpires, one selected by each team. One of the team-selected umpires would call balls and strikes and plays at the plate, with the other making calls at the other bases. The referee would hear challenges to umpire calls from an “aggrieved party” and make a final ruling. “The Browns-Chicagos Series”; “Brokers’s Book Tells Spalding Story,” Golfdom, April 1964: 64, https://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/golfd/article/1946apr64.pdf, accessed October 16, 2022.

23 Between September 18 and the season finale on October 9, Clarkson had a 5-2-1 record versus 2-3 for Flynn and 1-4 for McCormick.

24 For example, on the morning of Game One, Latham was referred to by the Chicago Tribune as “the monkey that covers third base for the Browns.” Two years later Latham’s habit earned him the nickname “The Freshest Man on Earth,” from a popular song of the same name. “The Champions to Play,” Chicago Tribune, October 18, 1886: 2; “Straight Hits,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, August 8, 1888: 7.

25 “Coated with Calcimine,” Chicago Inter-Ocean, October 19, 1886: 3; “The Browns Whitewashed,” New York Times, October 19, 1886: 9; “Anson’s Pets.”

26 Mike Bojanowski, “The Top 100 Cubs of All Time – #20 John Clarkson,” January 30, 2007, SB Nation website, https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2007/1/30/91847/7000, accessed October 16, 2022.

27 Chris Rainey, Yank Robinson SABR bio, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Yank-Robinson/.

28 Caruthers had been injured several days earlier, in the first game of the St. Louis city series, causing considerable concern among Browns fans that he might not recover in time to play in this game. “Sporting,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 18, 1886; The Beer and Whisky League, 118.

29 The Sporting News identified second baseman Robinson as making the error on Pfeffer’s bunt, but all other detailed game summaries attribute the error to the Browns shortstop, Gleason. “The Great Games,” The Sporting News, October 25, 1886: 2.

30 Williamson was listed at 221 pounds a month before the start of the season. His record of 27 home runs hit in 1884 stood for 35 years, until Babe Ruth hit 29 for the 1919 Boston Red Sox. “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, March 31, 1886: 3.

31 “A Victory for the Chicagos,” Chicago Daily News, October 19, 1886: 1.

32 “A Big Game at Chicago,” Boston Globe, October 19, 1886: 5.

33 “Coated with Calcimine.” The sonnet was as follows:

St. Louis came down like a wolf on the fold,
And their pockets were filled up with greenbacks and gold.
They told us great tales, amid smiles and frowns;
They bet all their greenbacks, and swore by their Browns;
But a basket of goose-eggs they got for their share,
For Williamson, Kelly and Anson were there.
Three-baggers, two-baggers, and Latham, take care;
For the Browns may play ball in a country town well,
But the Kings of the League you’ll find, Latham, are – well.

34 Bushong also revealingly said about Clarkson that “he won it by pitching in a way that he seldom does.” This implies that Clarkson had modified his pitching motion and/or pitch selection/velocity/location. No other newspaper account of the game mentions Clarkson pitching any differently than in the past, suggesting that what he did was so subtle that only a ballplayer (and maybe only an experienced catcher) would have noticed. “‘Doc’s’ Dictum.”

35 “‘Doc’s’ Dictum.”

36 “Der Prowns” was how Von der Ahe commonly referred to his team in his thick German accent. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat was so certain that the Browns would triumph in the Series that they printed a line under the masthead counting down the number of days until they “beat the Chicagos.” See, for example, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 19, 1886: 6.

One game was played in Chicago and three in St. Louis (one a rancorous forfeit win for the visitors). The teams then headed to Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and points east. The traveling games were not a pecuniary success (only around 500 fans showed up for the Pittsburgh game), and before the seventh game was played in Cincinnati, on October 24, 1885, the two teams announced an abrupt end to the series. Each team had won two completed games, one had ended in a tie, and there had been that five-inning forfeit.

A wire-service report said the teams mutually agreed to throw out the forfeit and make one final contest decisive. The Browns won easily, 13–4, and were headlined (in Sporting Life, at least) as “The World Champions.”1 Spalding, however, quickly disavowed the Cincinnati agreement, the prize money was divided evenly by the teams,2 and the series has ever after been listed as a tie.

In late September 1886, with the pennant races winding down and both teams headed for repeat pennants, Von der Ahe issued a formal challenge to Spalding and his club to a “World Championship series.” Spalding quickly accepted and added the proviso that the winning club would “receive the total gross gate receipts, including the grandstand receipts.”3 Von der Ahe agreed to this, and a seven-game “Winner Take All” series was arranged, starting with three games in Chicago, followed by three in St. Louis. If a seventh game was necessary to decide the outcome, it was to be held in a neutral city.

The White Stockings won at home on Monday and Wednesday, the Browns taking the Tuesday game. When the series shifted to St. Louis, the home team won on Thursday and Friday, positioning the Browns to win the series with a victory in Game Six.

The skies were cloudy, but the game time had been moved up to avoid the early-autumn darkness, and a full house of rabid rooters was on hand at Sportsman’s Park. The starting pitchers were John Clarkson for Chicago, pitching his fourth game in six days, and Bob Caruthers for St. Louis, pitching for the third time in five days.

The game started out well enough for Chicago, as Clarkson held St. Louis hitless through the first six innings, while teammate Fred Pfeffer scored three runs. In the second inning Pfeffer started with a single, stole second, moved up on a passed ball, and scored on a two-out hit by Tommy Burns. In the fourth inning Pfeffer blasted a home run into the right-field seats. And in the sixth he raced all the way to third on a groundball that went through the second baseman’s legs and then rolled past the right fielder, then scored on a long fly out by Ed Williamson.

Tip O’Neill got the Browns’ first hit, a rousing triple in the seventh inning, but spoiled it by overrunning third base and getting tagged out. But in the eighth, St. Louis finally broke through. Captain Charlie Comiskey opened with a clean hit and Curt Welch followed with a bunt that third baseman Burns threw wildly past first. Comiskey sprinted all the way home while Welch made second as the crowd erupted. The next two hitters flied out, but Welch took third on a short passed ball and Doc Bushong walked. Vociferous Arlie Latham was the next batter, and as Bushong edged off first Latham yelled, “Stay there, Doc, and I’ll bring you both in.” With two strikes against him, Latham whaled away at a low pitch from the tiring Clarkson, sending it soaring to deep left. Outfielder Abner Dalrymple started in on the ball, then watched it sail over his head for a triple, tying the score, 3–3.

Dalrymple had a chance to redeem himself when he batted in the ninth with Burns on third and two out, but he struck out. O’Neill nearly won the game in the St. Louis ninth, but a leaping catch by Jimmy Ryan robbed him of a potential home run. Chicago was retired in order in its tenth.

Welch led off the bottom of the tenth and was hit by a pitch. But Anson protested that he had made no effort to avoid the pitch, and the umpire made him bat again. On the next pitch Welch lined a single to center. A fumble by shortstop Williamson put two men on. Yank Robinson calmly bunted the men to second and third, bringing up Bushong. On the second ball pitched, catcher King Kelly signaled for a low ball outside. But Clarkson’s pitch sailed in high and inside, bouncing to the backstop. Welch ran home with the championship-winning run as Sportsman’s Park turned into a madhouse.

Fans poured out of the stands and carried several of the Browns players off on their shoulders. Many then waited nearly an hour for their heroes to emerge from the clubhouse so they could cheer them again. The Chicago Daily News extra edition headlined its story simply, “ST. LOUIS CRAZY.”4

Although the winning run has come down in history with the label “Curt Welch’s $15,000 Slide,” there is no contemporary evidence that he actually slid. In fact, the Missouri Republican said he “trotted home,”5 and the Globe-Democrat said that “Kelly made no effort to get (the ball), and … in a dazed manner stood and watched Welch come in.”6 As for the money, the Chicago News put the winnings at “exactly $13,781.95.”7 These discrepancies notwithstanding, the 1886 St. Louis Browns were world champions, the only American Association team with an undisputed claim to that title.

Von der Ahe gave half the winnings to the 12 players, around $575 per man. At the betting parlors, it was estimated that more than $100,000 changed hands on the results.8

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

The setting was the 10th game of a 15-game World Championship Series between Thompson’s National League champion Detroits (widely known as the Wolverines) and Chris Von der Ahe’s American Association champion St. Louis Browns. The Browns were reigning world champions, having beaten the Chicago White Stockings in a dramatic postseason series in 1886. They had compiled a .704 winning percentage against Association teams in 1887. But the Wolverines were also formidable, even without their other star slugger, Dan Brouthers, who was injured. Detroit’s .637 winning percentage had been good for a 3½-game advantage over second-place Philadelphia.

Detroit held a commanding seven games to two lead in the scheduled 15-game World Championship Series and needed just one more victory as the teams prepared for the 10th game on Thursday, October 20, in Washington. But a steady rain postponed the game, and created a dilemma. Since the next game in the series was already on the schedule for the following day in Baltimore, the teams agreed to play two games on Friday, the first in Washington at 10:30 a.m. and a second 40 miles away in Baltimore that afternoon.

Umpire John Gaffney called the game to start at 10:30. Despite the early start, between 3,000 and 4,000 spectators were in attendance.

The first batter was Hardy Richardson, second baseman of the Detroits, and he put the fourth pitch from Bob Caruthers over the left-field fence for a home run. It was a great start for Detroit, but even so, at the end of the first inning the score stood 2–2.

That remained the situation as Detroit came to bat in the top of the third inning. Richardson singled to left, and Charlie Ganzel followed with a line single to right. Jack Rowe then dropped one between first baseman Charlie Comiskey and right fielder Dave Foutz that loaded the bases with no one out. The Wolverines appeared poised to take command of the game that would bring the team the world championship, even more so since the next batter was Sam Thompson. Big Sam had 203 hits and 166 runs batted in during the 1877 season. Except for the rule put in place that season counting walks as hits (in fact, Total Baseball, eighth edition listed Thompson with 235 hits), Thompson’s .372 batting average would have been good for the league leadership in that category as well. So remarkable were Thompson’s accomplishments that in 1974 he would be voted into the Hall of Fame. Detroit fans in Washington that day could not have hoped for a better hitter to come to the plate in that spot.

Thompson picked out a Caruthers pitch and hit a crisp line drive. But the ball flew right to Browns shortstop Bill Gleason, who caught it to retire Thompson and fired to third baseman Arlie Latham. He touched third base for the second out, retiring Richardson, who was headed down the third-base line toward home plate with what he presumed would be the go-ahead run. Latham then threw to second baseman Yank Robinson, who touched that base before Ganzel could return to it. In a matter of a couple of seconds, a rally that could have led to a world championship turned into a 6-5-4 triple play, the first in World Series history.

It was the last rally for Detroit that morning. The Wolverines scored single runs in the fifth and ninth innings, but lost 11–4. Curt Welch led the Browns with a three-run home run, while Latham, Gleason, Comiskey, and Foutz each contributed three hits, one of Latham’s also being a home run. The series stood at seven games to three.

Immediately after the game, the players of both teams boarded a train to Baltimore to play the afternoon game. Detroit won 13–3 and clinched the city’s first world championship. It was a title delayed by a few hours thanks in part to the first triple play in post-season history, one that came off the bat of a future Hall of Famer.

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.

For the next fortnight, however, such cares would be shelved, so that all concerned could focus their attention on the championship contests. The match featured two of late-19th century baseball’s most formidable nines. The Giants (84-47) had finally succeeded in supplanting arch-rival Chicago atop the National League standings and featured a lineup that boasted no fewer than six future Hall of Famers: Buck Ewing, John Montgomery Ward, Tim Keefe, Roger Connor, Jim O’Rourke, and Mickey Welch. The Browns (92-43), meanwhile, were the class of their circuit, having just cruised to a fourth consecutive American Association title. On the field, team fortunes were guided by captain-first baseman Charlie Comiskey, who had league batting champ Tip O’Neill, rising outfield star Tommy McCarthy, Arlie Latham, Silver King, and other AA worthies at his disposal. The play of the Browns, however, was often overshadowed by the antics of club owner Chris von der Ahe, the flamboyant saloonkeeper who bankrolled the franchise and often drove Comiskey to distraction. It was von der Ahe, for example, who agreed to the best of ten-game championship arrangement and the disadvantageous format that placed the first six games in the East, four at the Polo Grounds, and one each in Philadelphia and Brooklyn, before the match relocated to St. Louis.

Rain fell steadily on the morning of October 16, putting the opener in jeopardy. But by noon, skies had cleared and liberal application of sawdust made the Polo Grounds playable. Unhappily, the morning weather and an erroneous wire service report that the game had been postponed affected the gate. Only about 4,800 made their way through the turnstiles. That assemblage included local politicians, various baseball executives, and a sizable contingent of players, led by the redoubtable King Kelly. Late arrival of the umpiring crew of John Kelly (NL) and John Gaffney (AA) pushed first pitch back to after 3:00 p.m. When it finally commenced, the game pitted the cream of each league’s pitching ranks against one another. The Giants’ Tim Keefe had punctuated a 35-12 season with a 19-game consecutive win streak, a major league record for within a season (tied by Rube Marquard in 1912) that stands to this day. Keefe, originally an underhand righty, had excellent stuff, thrown from a variety of pitching-arm angles. He relied on deception, and his out pitch was the game’s first great changeup. For the regular season, Keefe led the NL in wins, winning percentage (.745), ERA (1.74), strikeouts (335), and shutouts (8). His opposite number had been equally dominant. The less-celebrated Silver King (born Charles Koenig) had gone 45-20 for the Browns and led the AA in wins, ERA (1.63), innings pitched (584), and shutouts (6). The onus to perform well lay heavy on King, as Nat Hudson (25-10), the Browns number-two pitcher, had skipped the post-season to return home to Chicago.

Neither Keefe nor King disappointed in Game 1, each holding the opposition to a mere three hits (although present-day baseball references credit the Giants with only two safeties, rather than the three hits published in contemporaneous newspaper box scores). The Giants broke the scoring seal in the bottom of the second. Roger Connor singled to center leading off. Called upon to sacrifice, John Montgomery Ward dropped a bunt toward third and beat the throw to first. Both runners then advanced a base on a King wild pitch. Connor tagged up and scored on Mike Slattery’s fly to center, but Ward was thrown out trying to reach third by Browns center-fielder Harry Lyons, effectively ending any further threat.

St. Louis promptly responded in the top of the third. With one out, Arlie Latham walked. He stole second while Yank Robinson was striking out and continued to third on a poor throw by Giants catcher Buck Ewing. Tip O’Neill then knotted the score at 1-1 with a two-out single.

The Giants tallied the decisive run in their half of the frame, scoring without the benefit of a base hit. With two out, Mike Tiernan walked. On the next pitch, he set out for second. The throw of Browns catcher Jack Boyle sailed into center field, where the ball also eluded Lyons. Tiernan came all the way around to score, making the score 2-1 in Giants’ favor. And there it would stay, as neither team mustered another scoring threat.

Keefe’s victory over King in Game One was a harbinger of results to come. Keefe defeated the Browns ace in Game Three and Game Five, as well, on his way to posting a 4-0 playoff record. By the end of Game Eight, the championship had been decided in New York’s favor, six wins to two. St. Louis won the final two meaningless and sparsely-attended playoff contests to complete the series. By October 27, the New York Giants had won their first baseball world championship, providing a fitting sendoff for the original Polo Grounds in the process. Before the ensuing season began, the ballpark was razed.

There were some hills to the west of the Upper Manhattan park, causing an early sunset there, which would prove to be a factor in the series.1 While the two clubs had faced each other in exhibition games previously, this was the first time they had met in a championship game. After Brooklyn joined the National League the following year, they would play each other more than 2,000 times in the regular season,2 including two tie-breaking playoffs. New York and Brooklyn, eight years away from merging, had long been rivals, and the teams would develop the fiercest rivalry in baseball history. This is where it began.

The teams arranged for one umpire from each league to work the series, but National Leaguer Tom Lynch didn’t show up as expected, apparently deciding that the pay offered was not enough. Brooklyn native Bob Ferguson was on hand, so he was chosen to work with fellow American Association umpire John Gaffney. Ferguson started the game calling balls and strikes with Gaffney on the bases. They alternated each half inning.3

A crowd of 8,445 showed up on October 18 for the opening game of the series.4 New York was viewed as the favorite.5 That’s because the Giants represented the older league, which was generally seen as superior to the American Association, although the St. Louis AA club had won the 1886 World’s Series, and at least broke even in the 1885 one. New York had Tim Keefe, winner of four games in the 1888 World’s Series, in the box. He was opposed by Will Terry, at 25 years old already in his seventh year with Brooklyn. The Giants’ captain, Buck Ewing elected to hit first, but his team was retired in order in the first.6 It was a different story in the bottom of the inning, though. Brooklyn captain Darby O’Brien led off with a single up the middle, and before they were retired, the Bridegrooms had pounded out six hits good for five runs. There was some suspicion that Brooklyn was on to Keefe’s signs. Rather than being fooled by his changeup, they jumped all over it.7

The Giants came back with two runs in the top of the second as right fielder “Oyster” Tommy Burns let a hit go by him for three bases. They could have had more, but Johnny Ward was thrown out stealing third for the first out. Brooklyn got one back in the bottom of the inning on Hub Collins’s home run, for a 6–2 lead. It was Collins’s second of four runs scored in the game, part of his still-standing record of 13 for the series. But the Giants fought back. After both Ewing and Ward were thrown out trying to steal third in the fourth, Danny Richardson hit a long line drive to center that Pop Corkhill got his hands on but then dropped as he tumbled head over heels. Richardson circled the bases for a two-run homer before Brooklyn could retrieve the ball. Corkhill had to come out of the game with an injured neck; Joe Visner, usually a catcher, replaced him.

Ward’s single to center drove in his brother-in-law Keefe in the top of the fifth to make it Brooklyn 6, New York 5.8 An error by Darby O’Brien and five hits capped by Jim O’Rourke’s triple resulted in five runs for New York in the seventh and a four-run lead. But after being shut down for four innings, the Bridegrooms came back with two runs in the bottom of the inning, Dave Foutz’s double being the big hit. Terry held the Giants scoreless in the eighth as darkness started to settle over the Polo Grounds. The Bridegrooms came to bat knowing it would be their last chance. After Terry grounded out, Joe Visner doubled. Germany Smith made the second out, Darby O’Brien hit one that Danny Richardson couldn’t handle, and doubles by Collins and Burns gave Brooklyn the lead. The Giants appeared to be having a hard time seeing the ball. Dave Foutz drove in another run with a hit, then quickly let himself be put out between second and third to end the inning with Brooklyn ahead 12–10. The umpires called the game for darkness at one minute before sunset, and the Bridegrooms took a one-game lead in the series.9

Box score compiled by the author from accounts in the cited newspapers, as well as the New York World and the New York Tribune.

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.

• Related link: Click here to read about Game Nine in the 1889 World’s Series from Inventing Baseball.

Notes

The 1889 regular season was one of the most exciting in baseball history. Two teams in the National League, New York and Boston, and two in the American Association, Brooklyn and St. Louis, came down to pennant-deciding games on the last day.1 New York’s victory, following the Giants 1888 World Series triumph over the American Association champion St. Louis Browns, gave the Giants a chance to be the first team to win consecutive World Series titles since the two league champions began meeting after the 1884 season.

Adding to the intrigue was the impending rebellion of nearly all key players from both leagues, and the prospect that a third major league, the Players League, would be formed.

Owners of the two teams agreed on a best-of-11 series, the games to alternate between the home parks of the two teams.2 The first was to be played at the “New” Polo Grounds (opened during the 1889 season) at 155th Street and the Harlem River in Manhattan, and the second at Washington Park between Third and Fifth Streets and Fourth and Fifth Avenues in Brooklyn.3

Play commenced on Friday, October 18, with a 12–10 Brooklyn victory at the New Polo Grounds. New York cranks, players, and management were frustrated by what they felt was biased umpiring by Brooklyn native Bob Ferguson.4

Game Two in Washington Park drew a huge throng of 16,100 with all seating claimed two hours before the start. Thousands more stood in a great roped-off, horseshoe-shaped portion of the deep outfield and foul territory, and additional hundreds sat atop the outfield fence. The Giants were victorious, 6–2. The series was now tied at one game apiece.5

Without Sunday baseball allowed in either city, there was no game on October 20. On Monday 3,000 fans made their way to the upper reaches of Manhattan only to find that the game was canceled because of heavy rain that morning. This left many of the Giants’ followers chagrined as the club had failed to alert downtown stations that the game was called off.6

Although the weather for Tuesday, October 22, was perfect and the Series was tied, the New Polo Grounds saw fewer than half the 8,000 who had watched Game One. Many had been frustrated by the previous day’s trip made in vain. Perhaps it was better that more New York cranks didn’t see the game, which Brooklyn won 8–7. Once they got a slight lead, the Bridegrooms resorted to blatant stalling tactics. At 5:07 p.m. (six minutes before official sundown), with the game in the ninth inning and two New York runners on base, umpire John Gaffney called the game because of darkness. Giants management was furious. Manager James Mutrie referred to his opponents as “schoolboys.” Brooklyn led the series 2–1.7

Game Four was played back in Washington Park on Wednesday, October 23, in weather that turned very chilly. To make matters less comfortable for the Giants, the Bridegrooms continued their stalling tactics. Coupled with an on-field wrangle that followed a close play, the game was called for darkness after only six innings with Brooklyn ahead, 10–7. The Bridegrooms now led three games to one.8

On Thursday, October 24, before the fifth game, scheduled at Washington Park, Giants owner John B. Day met with Brooklyn owner Charles Byrne and umpires Gaffney and Tom Lynch. Day threatened to withdraw from the Series unless the umpires acted impartially and Brooklyn stopped its stalling tactics. The result was a New York landslide, 11–3, against Brooklyn ace Bob Caruthers. The Series now stood at three wins for Brooklyn and two for New York.9

For Game Six the teams returned to the New Polo Grounds, where the Giants tied the series at three games apiece, prevailing 2–1 in 11 innings on the heroics of shortstop John Montgomery Ward.10 On Saturday, October 26, New York beat the Bridegrooms 11–7 and took the Series lead, four games to three. On Monday, October 28, the Giants secured their fifth Series victory in a 16–7 blowout in Washington Park.

The ninth and final game was played Tuesday in Manhattan and was won by the Giants, 3–2. New York pitcher Hank O’Day allowed the Bridegrooms only four hits, two of which came in the first inning. In the bottom of the ninth, Brooklyn raised a last-ditch threat when Germany Smith reached first on an error, but he was erased when Doc Bushong lined out and Smith was caught off first for a double play. The last batter, Darby O’Brien, managed a base on balls, but O’Brien was caught stealing to end the Series.11 The Giants were again the world champions.

When the Giants had won their second consecutive National League pennant less than a month earlier, there was much celebration, particularly upon their triumphant return to New York from Cleveland. Now, there was nothing beyond a brief post-game high exhibited by the team as various VIPs entered the clubhouse to congratulate them.

Throughout the 1889 World’s Series daily newspaper reports of the game frequently appeared sideby- side with the latest reports about the formation of the Players League, which would soon spirit away nearly all National League and American Association regular players, including the biggest stars. Once the clubhouse door at the New Polo Grounds had been secured that evening, the celebration ended and war began.12

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

National League and American Association representatives found a solution when they met in Indianapolis in December 1891 and agreed to consolidate the two leagues. The new organization combined the eight National League teams with four American Association franchises to create what Sporting Life editor Francis Richter called the “big league.” In order to accommodate more teams, league directors decided to expand the standard 140-game season to 154 games, and they established a split-season format. Hoping that a different team would win each split-season, the directors tentatively planned a postseason “world championship series.”

The Indianapolis agreement also needed to reconcile significant differences between the two organizations. The new league established a standard 50-cent admission, but allowed the former American Association teams to charge their traditional “two bits” – 25 cents. Likewise, former AA ballparks could sell alcohol (the Association had acquired the nickname Beer and Whiskey League) forbidden at teetotaling National League grounds, and could schedule games on Sunday, violating the long tradition of blue laws in National League cities.1

The 1892 season began on April 12 with more than 40,000 fans turning out. The Boston Beaneaters quickly moved into first place, with the Brooklyn Bridegrooms and the Cleveland Spiders competing for second. When the first half ended on July 13, Boston (52-22) led second-place Brooklyn (51-26) by 2½ games. Sporting Life attributed Boston’s success to pitching, baserunning, and teamwork. The report described Cleveland (40-33), which finished fifth, as “one of the best-balanced teams in the League, being equally strong in batting, fielding and base-running, well-handled and aggressive.”2

When the second half of the season began, on July 15, Boston started slowly while Cleveland, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati dominated. Cleveland broke away from the pack at the end of the month, remaining solidly in first for the remainder of the season. Although Boston (50-26) made a late-season run, the Spiders (53-23) finished the second half on October 15 with a three-game lead.3 The dual champions enabled a best-of-nine “world’s championship series” to begin, with the teams playing three games each in Cleveland, Boston, and, if necessary, New York.4

Both teams engaged in a bit of trash-talking. When Boston manager Frank Selee complained that late-October weather would lead to postponed games and reduce attendance, Cleveland’s player-manager, Patsy Tebeau, suggested that “the Beaneaters fear the humiliation of possible defeat.”5 Tebeau termed the cold weather a “dodge … simply an excuse to avoid playing Cleveland.”6 Selee responded that “the Boston players are willing to go for broke on their ability to beat the club that has been ‘easy’ for [us] all year.”7

Bettors made the Spiders the early favorite based on their pitching staff. Cy Young had gone 36-12 with a 1.93 earned-run average, while rookie George “Nig” Cuppy had a 28-13 record with a 2.51 ERA. Meanwhile, fans attributed Boston’s second-half decline to the poor performance of aging superstar Mike “King” Kelly. Described as “one of the biggest failures of the base ball season,” Kelly batted only .189, well below his career .308 average.8

The series began in Cleveland on Monday, October 17, as more than 6,000 fans watched the two teams play to a 0-0 tie. Sporting Life described the game succinctly: “It was altogether a pitchers’ battle and not a run had been scored, when, after the eleventh inning, the game was called owing to darkness.”9

Batteries: Young (CLE) vs. Stivetts (BOS)

Boston, choosing to bat first, edged Cleveland, 4-3, in the second game, on October 18. The Beaneaters’ center fielder, Hugh Duffy, led Boston to victory with a double and two triples, while the Spiders sent “the ball time and again into some fielder’s waiting hands.”10

Batteries: Staley (BOS) vs. Clarkson (CLE)

Boston won Game Three, 3-2, in an excellent contest whose “agony was not over until the last man was out.”11

Batteries: Young (CLE) vs. Stivetts (BOS)

The series moved to Boston’s South End Grounds, where the Beaneaters won Game Four, 4-0, on Friday, October 21.

Batteries: Cuppy (CLE) vs. Nichols (BOS)

The Spiders started strong in Game Five on Saturday, October 22, scoring six runs in the top of the second inning. But Boston came back to win, 12-7.12

Batteries: Clarkson (CLE) vs. Stivetts (BOS)

Both league rules and state laws required the two teams to take Sunday off before playing Game Six on Monday, October 24. A Cleveland victory would have moved the series to New York for the next game, but Boston won, 8-3.

Batteries: Young (CLE) vs. Kid Nichols (BOS)

Sporting Life provided an apt description for the series: “The Clevelands put up a stiff game and fought every inch, but they [played] against a team that has proved their superiors in all the points of the national game.”13 Cranks also ignored manager Selee’s fear of bad weather as more than 32,000 attended the series’ six games.

League directors nonetheless decided to abolish the split-season format and cut the season back to 132 games for 1893. The “big league” itself continued through the 1899 season, when the league dropped four teams. A true World Series would not return until 1903 with the advent of the American League.14

This essay was originally published in Bill Felber, ed., Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (Phoenix: SABR, 2013).

Notes

1 “The Revolution,” Sporting Life, December 19, 1891: 1.

2 “The Record,” Sporting Life, July 16, 1892: 3.

3 “The Season’s End,” Sporting Life, October 22, 1892: 4.

4 “The Big League,” Sporting Life, September 24, 1892: 2.

5 “Tebeau Talks,” Sporting Life, October 8, 1892: 11.

6 Ibid.

7 “20/3,” Sporting Life, October 15, 1892: 3.

8 “Editorial Views, News, Comment,” Sporting Life, October 22, 1892: 2. Both Baseball-reference.com and Retrosheet give King Kelly’s BA as .307, not .308

9 “The World’s Championship Series,” Sporting Life, October 22, 1892: 4.

10 “Boston Wins the Second Game,” Sporting Life, October 22, 1892: 4.

11 “Boston Wins Again,” Sporting Life, October 22, 1892: 4.

12 “The World’s Series,” Sporting Life, October 29, 1892: 3.

13 Ibid.

14 “The Big League,” Sporting Life, October 8, 1892: 2.

Oh, where is Cleveland’s pennant pole?
In the town of the oyster stew.
And where is the blooming Temple Cup?
I’m afraid they’ll get that too.”1

The Baltimore Orioles (90-39) of 1896 had finished first for the third straight year, previously having topped the National League in 1894 and 1895. But after losing the Temple Cup the last two seasons to the second-place teams, New York and Cleveland, they were poised for a much-needed victory in the competition for the Cup.

The Baltimore Orioles of the late nineteenth century were the dominating force in the National League. Baltimore was led by Ned Hanlon , a “short, stout manager who sat on the Orioles bench in a three-button Victorian suit.”2 Foxy Ned, as he was sometimes known, had just won the third of his five championships in a Hall of Fame career. The ’96 Orioles were also led by five other future Hall of Famers: John McGraw at third, Hughie Jennings at short, Willie Keeler in right, Joe Kelley in left, and Wilbert Robinson behind the plate. It is no wonder that Hanlon and his boys are credited with perfecting the hit-and-run, bunting, the sacrifice, and the Baltimore chop, what came to be known as “inside baseball.”3

The 1896 Cleveland Spiders (80-48), led by player-manager Oliver “Patsy” Tebeau , had finished second behind the overpowering Orioles. They had also finished second to Orioles in 1895, but had triumphed over Baltimore in the Cup series, and were not looking to relinquish what had “soothed the ruffled spirits of Tebeau when he thought of the pennant.”4 The Spiders were stacked with talented players, among them Cy Young , Nig Cuppy , Chief Zimmer , and Jesse Burkett . Although in the shadow of the Orioles, as was the rest of the professional baseball at that time, the Clevelanders were no slouches.

Game Three of the Temple Cup took place on October 5, 1896, before a less-than-impressive crowd of 2,000. The interest in the Temple Cup had begun to lessen at this point and the turnout at Baltimore’s Union Park was disappointing. Union Park was “fancier than most, a double-decked, 8,000 seat wooded stadium with a beer garden, picnic grounds and ladies grandstand.”5

In the box for the Orioles was Bill Hoffer , who was coming off of a splendid season with a 25-7 record and a 3.38 ERA. Although he was pitching on just two days’ rest – he had started in Game One of the series on Friday – and “had trouble in the earlier innings making his balls ‘break’ just right,”6 he persisted and at “the proper moment, Hoffer became invincible.”7

Pitching for the Spiders was Nig Cuppy, who had finished the season with a 25-14 record and a 3.12 ERA. He was the number-two starter for the Spiders behind Cy Young but was every bit as capable as the famous Cy.

The Orioles were the first to strike, in the bottom of the second. Cuppy had retired McGraw, Keeler, and Jennings in order in the first. Leading off the second for Baltimore was Joe Kelley, who topped the National League with 87 stolen bases in 1896.8 He singled and was forced out at second on a groundball by Jack Doyle , the Orioles’ first baseman. Doyle then stole second and was driven in by center fielder Steve Brodie . Brodie was the Cal Ripken of his day. He holds the nineteenth-century record for consecutive games played (727).9 Cuppy then retired Baltimore catcher Robinson to put a stop to the blossoming rally.

Cleveland tied it in the top of the third. The Spiders had been hitting Hoffer well – “he was hit safely nine times in the first five innings” – but had nothing to show for it thus far. But three singles in the top of the third were enough to bring home a “tally.”10

The Orioles jumped ahead in the bottom of the third. Hoffer helped his own cause by driving a triple past the scrambling Cleveland outfielders. Then he capitalized on a fly ball and “a poor throw by Burkett, which allowed Hoffer to score.”11 But Baltimore didn’t hold the lead for long. In the top of the fifth inning, the Spiders took advantage of the only walk of the game and drove home another run on two singles.

Baltimore retook the lead in the bottom of the sixth. The pugnacious John McGraw manufactured a one-man rally. He led off the inning with a single off Cuppy, stole second, and went to third on a throwing error by catcher Zimmer. McGraw finally let someone else on the Orioles help with a fly ball. McGraw scored and Baltimore wouldn’t lose the lead again.

Cleveland pitcher Cuppy “pitched a brilliant game up to the eighth inning, when the champions fell on him for three singles and a double.”12 Catcher Wilbert Robinson, who hit .312 over seven seasons with the Orioles,13 started the rally with a double. McGraw’s single drove in Robinson. Then McGraw stole second and was driven in on a single by Keeler, who in turn was then driven in by Kelley’s single. The three runs seemed to seal the Spiders’ fate. They left nine men on base in the game.

After two hours, Game Three of the Temple Cup was concluded. The Orioles won 6-2. The series traveled to Cleveland, but the Spiders were too far out of the race to come back. The Orioles won the fourth game at League Park and took the Cup home with them, along with $200 per player. The Temple Cup was played once more, in 1897, and the Orioles were victors again, but after that the Temple Cup series was scuttled for lack of interest by both fans and players.

Sources

Besides the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, the SABR Biography Project, and the following:

Eckhouse, Morris. Legends of the Tribe: An Illustrated History of the Cleveland Indians (Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company, 2000).

Thorn, John. “A Pictorial Chronology of Baseball in the 19th Century, Part 19: 1895-1896,” ourgame.mlblogs.com, September 10, 2019. https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/a-pictorial-chronology-of-baseball-in-the-19th-century-part-19-1895-1896-8fa5370298cf.

Notes

But it was far from certain that the Series would occur in the first place. It was on-again, off-again during much of September, with the agreement between Dreyfuss and Boston owner Henry Killilea signed only on September 16.2 Even then, there was uncertainty. There were a few injuries, of course. More significantly, while Pittsburgh’s players were under contract through October 15, Boston’s contracts expired on September 30.3 As late as September 24 – four days before the end of the regular season – it was not at all clear whether there would be a World Series. “Big Games Will Not Be Played,” headlined the Chicago Tribune.4 The subhead read: “Series Is Called Off.” Negotiations continued and the Boston players came to an agreement. On the morning of September 26, the Boston Globe ran a front-page headline: “Boston Team Will Play.”

The two starting pitchers in the first-ever World Series game were Deacon Phillippe for the Pirates (25-9, with a 2.43 earned-run average) and Cy Young for Boston (28-9, 2.08). Phillippe was 31 years old; Young was 36, and his 28 wins led the American League.5 The Pirates had played to a record of 91-49, finishing 6½ games ahead of the New York Giants for their third consecutive NL pennant, while Boston’s “Americans” finished 91-47, 14½ games ahead of the second-place Philadelphia Athletics.6

Each was an ace for his respective team. Sam Leever’s 25-7, with a league-leading 2.06 ERA, had a better record for the Pirates and he’d won each of his final 10 decisions, but a hunting accident had sidelined him since September 18.7 Phillippe had won eight of his last nine. Besides Young, Boston had two other 20-game winners in Bill Dinneen and Tom Hughes.

The Pirates jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first. Young retired the first two batters, but then a combination of three hits, three stolen bases, and three errors gave them the four runs. A ground-rule triple started things off. The game attracted an overflow crowd and, as was customary for the day, hundreds of standees were packed into the outfield.8 It was agreed that a ball hit into the crowd would be a three-base hit.9 Third baseman Tommy Leach hit one to deep right field and was awarded a triple. Shortstop Honus Wagner followed with a single past Boston captain Jimmy Collins at third base and into left field, producing the first run of the game.

Wagner stole second, then moved up another 90 feet when first baseman Kitty Bransfield hit a ball that Boston second baseman Hobe Ferris fumbled. Wasting no time upping the pressure, Bransfield stole second. Catcher Lou Criger threw the ball over shortstop Freddy Parent’s head and into center field; Wagner scored and Bransfield continued to third.10 After drawing a walk, Pittsburgh second baseman Claude Ritchey executed the Pirates’ third steal of the inning. Right fielder Jimmy Sebring drove them both in with a single to left field. It was 4-0 before Young ended the top of the first with a pair of strikeouts, though on the first one Pittsburgh catcher Ed Phelps reached first base when Criger let the third-strike pitch get away from him.

Phillippe struck out the first two Boston batters he faced, and all three in the second inning. Center fielder Chick Stahl’s single in the bottom of the first produced the only baserunner for Boston until right fielder Buck Freeman singled in the fourth.

The Pirates had added two more runs in the meantime. In the third, Bransfield tripled, the ball getting by Freeman in right. Sebring singled him home. They took a 6-0 lead thanks to yet another error, misplayed by Ferris when Pirates center fielder Ginger Beaumont hit one his way. Team captain and left fielder Fred Clarke singled to left and Leach singled to center, driving in Beaumont.

Neither team scored in the fifth or sixth.

In the top of the seventh, Sebring hit the ball to center field for an inside-the-park home run.

It was only in the bottom of the seventh that Boston finally got on the scoreboard. Back-to-back triples by Freeman to right field and Parent to left produced the first run. Parent tagged and scored on a fly ball to left field by first baseman Candy LaChance.

Leach tripled again in the top of the eighth but was caught stealing home.

Boston added a third and final run in the bottom of the ninth. Buck Freeman reached on an error by Wagner. He ran to third on a single by Parent. And LaChance hit another fly ball to left field, allowing Freeman to score. The final was 7-3. The game took one hour and 55 minutes.

“The Bostons lack the snap and vim displayed by the three-time National League champions,” wrote the Pittsburg Post, adding that Phillippe was “the whole cheese.”11 Phillippe had struck out 10 Boston batters and walked no one. He gave up just six hits. Cy Young gave up 12 hits and walked three, but the four errors behind him hurt badly, too. “Nothing but a case of the rattles and the splendid pitching of Deacon Phillippe can be held out by Collins’ team as an excuse for their defeat,” proclaimed the Washington Times.12

That said, there was some criticism that Young had been out of shape for the game. Noting that he was “off edge,” and perhaps out of shape, the Boston Globe said he “fell considerably short of his best work, lacking speed, his winning ingredient.”13

Had the game been entirely on the up-and-up? Gambling was rife at the time. Historians Glenn Stout and Richard A. Johnson later wrote, “After recording the first two outs in the top of the first inning, the “Boston Americans, the pride of the American League, played the absolute worst baseball of their three-year existence, handing the game to Pittsburgh in a manner that seemed suspicious then and seems even more so now. The very first game of the very first ‘world’s series’ was, in all likelihood, thrown by Boston.”14 This wasn’t just speculation years later. The very next day’s Boston Post reported that “many around town last asked last evening if Boston lost on purpose.”15 The same paper had a large story headlined, “$50,000 Wagered on Game,” and reported in some detail the odds, and the number and size of bets placed.16

That Phillippe struck out 10 in the game caused some suspicion on that score alone; he averaged 3.8 strikeouts per nine innings over the course of the 1903 campaign. Never once from 1901 through 1911 did he strike out as many as 10 in any regular-season game. But he was on a roll. He also won Game Three and Game Four of the 1903 Series, both of them nine-inning wins as well.

Veteran Boston Globe sportswriter Tim Murnane didn’t seem to harbor any dark thoughts: “After the game one club looked just as good as the other, the difference was in the pitcher’s box.”17

There was a sizable and lively contingent of rooters from Pittsburgh at the grounds for Game One.

In the end, the Boston Americans won the first World Series, five games to three. This was just the first game, in the first World Series game ever played.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and a number of other sources, including the following:

Nowlin, Bill, and Jim Prime. The Red Sox World Series Encyclopedia (Burlington, Massachusetts: Rounder Books, 2008).

baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS190310010.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1903/B10010BOS1903.htm

Notes

1 The Pennsylvania city was spelled with an “h” at the end, other than for a period of about 20 years (1891-1911). Other than this one first acknowledgement of it often being spelled “Pittsburg” at the time of the 1903 World Series, we will spell it Pittsburgh throughout. For a bit of background on the spelling, see James Van Trump, “The Controversial Spelling of ‘Pittsburgh,’ or Why the ‘H’?” Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, December 21, 2000, at phlf.org/2000/12/21/the-controversial-spelling-of-pittsburgh-or-why-the-h/.

2 The agreement is described and reproduced in, among other places, Bob Ryan, When Boston Won the World Series (Philadelphia: Running Press, 2003), 59-61.

3 Roger L. Abrams, The First World Series and the Baseball Fanatics of 1903 (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003), 51-54.

4 “Big Games Will Not Be Played,” Chicago Tribune, September 24, 1903: 8.

5 It was the third year in a row that Young had led the league in wins. He’d led both leagues in 1901 (33 wins) and 1902 (32). His seven shutouts led both leagues in 1903.

6 The Boston team, which in 1908 began to play as the Boston Red Sox, had no official team name. For more on the team’s name, see Bill Nowlin, “The Boston Pilgrims Never Existed,” The National Pastime, #23, 2003, and “About the Boston Pilgrims,” The National Pastime, #26, 2006.

7 He had gone trapshooting “and the rifle recoiled into his shoulder.” Louis P. Masur, Autumn Glory (New York: Hill & Wang, 2003), 51. Holding him back one more day seemed advisable.

8 Described by the Boston Herald as “the greatest outpouring of baseball lovers the city has ever known,” considerable space was devoted to description of how packed the grounds were, with spectators even sitting atop the left-field fence. Ropes were stretched across the outfield from left to right, to hold back the fans who were accommodated on the field itself. “The Pittsburgs Victorious in Opening Game of Series,” Boston Herald, October 2, 1903: 1, 8.

9 It was an interesting feature of the game that there were five triples and not one double.

10 Criger’s throw to center field was one that two Boston area authors questioned in a 100th anniversary book on the 1903 Series; they also cited Criger not cutting down Wagner, running on a “badly-bruised leg,” and the error made by Ferris. They did note that Wagner had stolen 46 bases during the regular season and quoted Jimmy Collins as acknowledging, “I guess a few of the boys were rather nervous. Criger doesn’t often throw to centerfield.” Andy Dabilis and Nick Tsiotos, The 1903 World Series (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2004), 67-73.

11 John H. Gruber, “Pirates Wallop the Beaneaters,” Pittsburg Post, October 2, 1903: 12. The headline writer may have simply been using the generic “Beaneaters” to refer to Bostonians and not Boston’s National League baseball team, which was commonly referred to by that name from 1883 through 1906.

12 “First Game of Series Won by the Pirates,” Washington Times, October 2, 1903: 8.

13 “Pittsburg a Winner in the First Clash,” Boston Globe, October 2, 1903: 1. It noted that “he looked several pounds too heavy.” See “Echoes of the Game,” Boston Globe, October 2, 1903: 8. Another article said Young was “a bit fat.” T.H. Murnane, “Boston Beaten by a Score of 7 to 3,” Boston Globe, October 2, 1903: 1, 8.

14 Glenn Stout and Richard A. Johnson, Red Sox Century (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000), 38.

15 “We Lose First Game,” Boston Post, October 2, 1903: 8.

16 Roger Abrams suggested some reasons to question Stout and Johnson’s inference, among them that “the Pittsburgh ‘sports’ seemed unwilling to place bets until they saw the clubs play each other.” He added, “Frankly, it seems contrary to character for Cy Young to be involved in such disreputable activity.” Abrams, 93.

17 T.H. Murnane.