August 19, 1893: Unsafe passage for Beaneaters on long road trip

The 1893 season for the Boston Beaneaters began in a mediocre manner, but after 20 games the team’s wins consistently outnumbered its losses. By the time of the summer solstice, the team was battling for the lead in the National League.

A road trip begun in late June achieved only mixed results through most of the following month, yet the Beaneaters managed to return home on July 20 a mere 1½ games behind first-place Philadelphia. And that was the point when Boston became nearly unbeatable. Between July 20 and August 18, the Beaneaters overtook Philadelphia in the standings, winning 24 out of 27 games, a torrid pace that the Phillies couldn’t match. In fact, by August 18, Philadelphia no longer even held second place, having been overtaken by their cross-state rivals from Pittsburg.

The Pirates had a fantastic beginning to their season, but like Boston, a road trip started in June didn’t go the way they wanted. Unlike Boston, a return home didn’t signal an instant turnaround. The Smoky City club lost a total of 18 games both at home and on the road during the month. After a 22-16 walloping at the hands of Brooklyn on June 30, the team in July regained its winning ways of April and May, claiming victory in 33 out of its next 43 games. The Pirates’ offense led the way, accruing double-digit run totals in almost half of those 43 games.

A matchup between Pittsburg and Boston originally set for Friday, August 18, was called off because of inclement weather.1 So the two hottest clubs in the league were scheduled to play a doubleheader on Saturday, August 19, at the South End Grounds. Pittsburg was still 7½ games behind Boston, but with more than a month remaining in the season, a couple of victories against the leaders would go a long way toward closing that gap

The pitching matchup for the opener was Hank Gastright for Boston vs. Red Ehret for Pittsburg. Gastright was a former member of the Pittsburg staff, but had been cast off near the end of their disastrous June stretch; his poor showing in an 18-5 loss to Philadelphia led to his release.2 Ehret was a reliable workhorse who ranked high on the list of hurlers with fewest walks per game in 1892, but he also led the league in hit batsmen that year, sharing the distinction with Phill Knell and teammate Mark Baldwin.

In 1890 Ehret’s Louisville club outpaced Gastright and his Columbus teammates to win the American Association pennant, thereby making that season’s (thanks to the Players’ League) talent-diluted World’s Series.3 Louisville was matched against the National League’s Brooklyn squad, and Ehret contributed by pitching two victories in the inconclusive series. As a member of the Association runner-up Solons, Gastright had notched 30 victories. Both men knew what it was to be an integral member of a successful team.

In the opening game’s first inning, neither team scored. When the Pirates came up in the top of the second, their offensive prowess started to show. Gastright got out of the inning only after facing the entire Pittsburg batting order. The visitors piled up five runs, and held a commanding lead.

That notion, however, changed quickly. In the bottom half of the inning, the first batter, Billy Nash, walked. Immediately, Boston players must have sensed something about a weakness in Ehret’s state of mind, because it was reported that the next batter up, Tommy Tucker, “had a juicy lemon and began coaching.”4 Essentially, the team started using verbal warfare to psych out the opposing pitcher.

Tucker made it to first base by way of a single, while the next batter, Cliff Carroll, patiently earned a walk. Charlie Ganzel was hit by an errant pitch and, based on numeric evidence, this would suggest a run was forced in. However, no mention of scoring would happen in the Boston Globe’s recap until the next batter, pitcher Gastright, also walked.5

The loss of control and gain of dismay led Ehret to hit another batter, Herman Long, in the elbow, which sent home yet another run for the Beaneaters. With three runs in and the bases loaded, Pittsburg manager Al Buckenburger removed Ehret from the game, calling on William “Adonis” Terry to pitch relief. Terry had been a promising youngster who had twirled two no-hitters for Brooklyn’s AA entry in the 1880s,6 and he became a serviceable veteran. He was a bright spot during Pittsburg’s unremarkable 1892 season with an 18-7 record. Terry’s unusual moniker, “Adonis,” likely had to do with his looks.7

The first batter Terry faced, Boston second sacker Bobby Lowe, was hit with a pitch, bringing in the fourth Boston run.

Hugh Duffy came to the plate next, and Terry walked him, too, an event that tied the game. Tommy McCarthy’s at-bat provided a rare occurrence of actual bat-related contact for the inning when he flied out to left field. The reprieve for anyone updating the scoreboard was short-lived, however, as Nash came up a second time and swatted a single, scoring two more runs. Tucker’s second at-bat of the inning resulted in another hit by pitch, which loaded the bases again. Carroll hit safely, too, knocking a single that drove in the eighth and ninth runs of the inning. Pittsburg’s inning of inept pitching finally ended when Ganzel popped out.

Even after the deluge of Boston runs, the game was not decided. Both clubs scored a run in the third inning, followed by a fourth when, thanks in part to Gastright’s throwing error, Pittsburg scored three more times. With his team holding on to a narrow 10-9 lead, Boston manager Frank Selee pulled Gastright in favor of Kid Nichols. Pittsburg tied the score in the sixth inning when outfielder Mike Smith traveled around the bases via a single, steal, wild pitch, and Louis Bierbauer’s single.

Boston was not yet done producing runs, either. In the sixth inning, some small ball along with a missed catch by Patsy Donovan helped the home club claim another run. Two more were tacked on in the eighth, and after a scoreless ninth, Boston’s victory was complete, by a 13-10 score. Nichols had little time to enjoy his successful relief appearance; he was scheduled to start the second game of the twin bill. In seven innings of work, he allowed 13 hits and five runs in a tied game that was called due to darkness.

Reaction after the off-target Saturday opener was embittered on the Pittsburg side. Both Ehret and Terry claimed umpire Tom Lynch’s calls were highly suspect during the disastrous second inning, that he had missed calling strikes on pitches that should have sent a couple of the Boston batters back to the bench.8 Their thoughts echoed prior commentary alleging Lynch’s favoritism toward Boston,9 though the duo remained mum in regard to their control issues and the four batters they hit in the second inning. Coincidentally, a sobering reminder of what errant pitching had the potential to do occurred the next day at a ballpark in the Chicago area, when an amateur player, Peter Hyland, died after being struck on the back of the head while at bat.10

The Pittsburg Dispatch quoted Buckenberger on the doubleheader in its Monday edition. Like his pitchers, the manager voiced a negative opinion on Lynch’s umpiring. But he minced no words about the poor performance of his own starter, saying that Ehret “failed completely,” continuing, “If (Ehret) had pitched only half as good as he can pitch, we would have won the first game.”11

The season was far from over, but Boston’s win (and the tie) on the 18th placed the Beaneaters a substantial nine games ahead in the standings. That gap eventually increased to 13. Only after a successful September for Pittsburg (19-4) in conjunction with a woeful late-month road trip by Boston (a journey that did include at least one victory in Pittsburg, where Kid Nichols and company had to flee the ballpark to avoid a stoning12) did the race return to a single-digit difference. But five games back was as close as Pittsburg could get, and Boston held on to win its third pennant in a row.

Sources

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

Notes

1 “In Good Position,” Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph, August 19, 1893: 2.

2 “Killen and Gastright,” Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph, June 29, 1893.

3 sabr.org/gamesproj/game/april-19-1890-debut-players-league.

4 “Wild Pitching,” Boston Globe, August 20, 1893: 7.

5 Ibid.

6 nonohitters.com/2016/02/24/adonis-terry-threw-2-brooklyn-no-nos-died-101-years-ago-today/.

7 Terry’s biography is at sabr.org/bioproj/person/e519508d.

8 “The Boston Struggle,” Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph, August 21, 1893: 2.

9 “Base Ball Gossip,” Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph, July 6, 1893.

10 Robert M. Gorman and David Weeks, Death at the Ballpark: More Than 2,000 Game-Related Fatalities of Players, Other Personnel and Spectators in Amateur and Professional Baseball, 1862-2014 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2015), 16.

11 “Buck Explains It,” Pittsburg Dispatch, August 22, 1893.

12 Norman L. Macht, Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007), 100.