April 14, 1910: Red Sox, Highlanders finish Opening Day in a 14-inning tie

Opening Day 1910 was quite a day for both of Boston’s major-league teams. The city’s National League team (known as the Doves at the time) was at home, the South End Grounds, against the New York Giants. After being held hitless by Red Ames through seven innings and trailing, 2-0, the Doves forced extra innings with runs in the eighth and ninth, They won in the 11th, when Dave Shean’s two-out grounder took a bad hop and hit third baseman Art Devlin in the chest, allowing Herbie Moran to score from third.1

The Red Sox opened at New York’s Hilltop Park, playing the Highlanders (already being called the Yankees by some).2 That game ran even longer – an Opening Day record, at that time, of 14 innings – and ended in a tie. The Boston Herald characterized the crowd of 25,000 as “the largest and noisiest crowd to attend a ball game at American League Park.”3 The New York Times rhapsodized about the weather, the crowd, and the pregame festivities.4

New York had finished fifth in the American League in 1909, 23½ games behind the Detroit Tigers. Boston had finished third, 9½ games behind.

The starting pitchers were 22-year-old left-hander Hippo Vaughn for the George Stallings-led Highlanders5 and, for new Red Sox manager Patsy Donovan, 25-year-old righty Eddie Cicotte.6 Team captains were Hal Chase for New York and Harry Lord for Boston.

The Red Sox scored the top of the first. Second baseman Amby McConnell reached first when his counterpart, Jimmy Austin, fielded a grounder but threw high to first baseman Chase. McConnell was forced out on third baseman Lord’s comebacker to Vaughn, but center fielder Tris Speaker, who had celebrated his 22nd birthday 10 days earlier, doubled to deep right and Lord scored.

The Red Sox added two more runs in the third inning. Cicotte led off with a walk, moved to second on McConnell’s sacrifice, and scored easily on Lord’s triple to center. When Speaker hit a grounder to Eddie Foster at shortstop, Lord dashed for the plate. Foster threw home, but his throw went over catcher Ed Sweeney’s reach and Lord scored, too. It was 3-0, Red Sox.

New York got its first run in the bottom of the third. Sweeney led off with a double to center field. One out later, center fielder Charlie Hemphill singled to center, Sweeney scoring.

Boston grabbed back a three-run advantage in the fourth. Cicotte reached first safely on a ball that glanced off pitcher Vaughn’s glove. The Red Sox pitcher then ran to third on Sweeney’s passed ball. With two outs, Cicotte scored on Lord’s single.

It remained a 4-1 game until the bottom of the sixth. Chase’s one-out hit to left field went into the crowd for a ground-rule double. Left fielder Clyde Engle singled to center, sending Chase home.

The Highlanders tied the game with two runs in the bottom of the eighth. Hemphill doubled, a ball that Tim Murnane of the Boston Globe felt could have been caught if Red Sox right fielder Harry Niles had just stayed in place. Niles had taken off the sunglasses (“smoked glasses”) he had been wearing for the first seven innings. He initially ran in, but had misjudged Hemphill’s hit and had to backtrack, the ball glancing off the top of his upraised glove.7

Right fielder Harry Wolter singled, and the Red Sox brought in Smoky Joe Wood to pitch. Wood’s first pitch went past catcher Bill Carrigan for a passed ball, with Hemphill scoring and Wolter going all the way to third.

Hal Chase drove a ball so deep to center that, though Tris Speaker caught it, “Wolter had 20 minutes to spare” in tagging and trotting home with the tying run.8 The crowd went wild. “Men of dignity cast indifference to the winds, and threw their hats high into the air,” the New York Times reported. “They felt just the way any one would feel if they heard that a rich uncle had left them a barrel of money.”9

Both sides had opportunities as the game rolled on through the ninth and in extra innings through the 14th, but neither Vaughn nor Wood allowed another run. Wood allowed only two hits in his seven innings of relief.

Vaughn set down Boston in the 10th on three pitches. Wood then took only five pitches to get through the bottom of the 10th.10

Red Sox shortstop Heinie Wagner singled in the 11th. New York second baseman Earle Gardner singled in the bottom of the 11th. Save for Niles drawing a walk in the Boston 14th, neither side got a man on base in the final three innings. The final batter for each side struck out to end their respective halves of the 14th inning.

Vaughn struck out seven in all; Red Sox pitchers also struck out seven (Cicotte one, Wood six). Each side had 11 base hits in all. The three errors in the game were all by New York.

After the 14th inning was completed, the game was called by umpire Tom Connolly on account of darkness. “It was so dark that a ball sent into the air could hardly be seen. Mr. and Mrs. Fan and all the little Fans and Fannies were there and said it was the greatest opening ever.”11 It had taken 2 hours and 45 minutes to play the 14 innings.

The clubs split the final two games of the series. On Friday, April 15 Boston beat New York, 3-2, though the Red Sox’ Charlie Smith allowed seven hits to the five allowed by Jack Quinn. New York evened it up with a 4-2 win on Saturday, with John Frill beating Frank Arellanes.

New York finished second in the 1910 standings, but 14½ games behind the Philadelphia Athletics. The Red Sox were fourth, 22½ games back.12

The teams had, however, made their mark in baseball’s record books with what was then the longest Opening Day game in major-league history. Thirteen years later, the Philadelphia Phillies and Brooklyn Robins matched the Highlanders and Red Sox by going 14 innings to open the 1923 season with a darkness-halted 5-5 tie.13

Fourteen innings was the Opening Day record until 1926, when the Washington Senators beat the Athletics 1-0 in 15 innings at Griffith Stadium for Walter Johnson’s 398th career win. The Tigers and Cleveland Indians also played 15 innings on Opening Day 1960 at Cleveland Stadium, and Al Kaline’s two-run single in the top of the 15th gave Detroit a 4-2 win.

As of 2024, the lengthiest Opening Day game was between Cleveland and the Toronto Blue Jays at Progressive Field in 2012. Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia (0-for-6 to that point in the game) hit a three-run homer in the top of the 16th inning for a 7-4 Toronto win.14

Acknowledgments

This article was vetted by John Fredland, fact-checked by Mark Richard, and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA191004140.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1910/B04140NYA1910.htm

Notes

1 The Doves went on to finish last in the eight-team NL with a record of 53-100-4, 50½ games behind the pennant-winning Chicago Cubs.

2 See, for instance, the headline of the New York Times game story: “25,000 See Yankees Play Red Sox to a Tie,” New York Times, April 15, 1910: 10.

3 “Red Sox and Yankees Go 14 Innings to a Tie,” Boston Herald, April 15, 1910: 6. Attendance was given as around 25,000. The Doves drew just under 9,000. The Hartford Courant reported that about 6,000 of the Hilltop Park fans were accommodated on the field. It also noted that President William Howard Taft had thrown out the ceremonial first pitch at the game in Washington, the first time a president had done so. “President Taft Tosses First Ball,” Hartford Courant, April 15, 1910: 14.

4 “25,000 See Yankees Play Red Sox to a Tie.”

5 Vaughn finished 1910, his first full season in the majors, with a record of 13-11 (1.83 ERA).

6 Cicotte was starting his third full year. He had been 14-5 in 1909. He finished 1910 with a record of 15-11 and a 2.74 ERA.

7 T.H. Murnane, “Opening Is to 144, 067,” Boston Globe, April 15, 1910: 1, 2.

8 “Red Sox and Yankees Go 14 Innings to a Tie.”

9 “25,000 See Yankees Play Red Sox to a Tie.”

10 Herman Nickerson, “Red Sox Play Dashing Game Before Record Crowd in New York,” Boston Journal, April 15, 1910: 10.

11 “25,000 See Yankees Play Red Sox to a Tie.”

12 Two years later, in the first game ever played at Fenway Park, the Red Sox beat the Yankees 7-6 in 11 innings. The winner was Charley Hall. The loser was Hippo Vaughn.

13 Charles Segar, “Robins Begin Setting Records Early: Robbie’s Athletics and Phillies Battle Fourteen Innings to Tie,” Brooklyn Citizen, April 18, 1923: 4.

14 “MLB Game Length Records,” Baseball-Almanac.com, accessed January 12, 2024, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_gmlg.shtml.