July 7, 1915: Gavy Cravath, Al Demaree help Phillies salvage Suffrage Day split with Giants

In the summer of 1915, momentum carried the women’s suffrage movement in the United States. Over the preceding five years, the number of Western states granting women full voting rights leapt from four to 11, while Illinois granted them the vote in presidential elections.1 The push for a constitutional amendment needed victories east of the Mississippi River. That fall, men in four populous Eastern states (Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania) would vote on the issue.

The movement, often driven by state and local parties, marketed its cause with innovative savviness. Ballparks provided an ideal setting to appeal to male voters. Ticket purchases might ease any discomfort team management had with being linked with a political movement. The initial major-league “Suffrage Day” occurred at the Polo Grounds on May 18, 1915, as the New York Giants hosted the Chicago Cubs. A reported 4,100 men and women purchased tickets from suffragists.2 On June 25, in Federal League action, Newark hosted the next Suffrage Day. In front of some 4,000 female fans, the Pepper downed the Kansas City Packers, 6-1.3

In Philadelphia, suffragists first considered a Suffrage Day for May 8, when the Athletics hosted the Washington Nationals.4 For reasons unclear, the event failed to proceed. Persistence brought success. The Phillies consented to hold a Suffrage Day on July 7, when a doubleheader with the visiting Giants concluded a four-game series. The change was, if not wisely engineered, at least fortuitous. Depleted by competition with the Federal League, pushing salaries beyond what manager-owner Connie Mack was willing and able to pay, the Athletics occupied previously unimaginable second-division depths in the American League.5 The Phillies, meanwhile, unexpectedly battled for the National League flag under first-year manager Pat Moran.

Reportedly earning half of the profits from advance sales, suffragists began selling tickets outside the Phillies’ grounds the week before.6 Organizer Estelle Russel canvassed the team during its July 2 practice; 9 of 12 supported women’s suffrage. Massachusetts resident Moran pledged his vote, and praised Margaret Foley, a Bostonian scheduled to speak at the event. Californian Gavy Cravath, the Phillies’ right fielder, said: “Let the women vote; that’s what I say. They ought to have had the ballot long ago, so what’s the use of wasting time about it.”7

The teams split the first two games on Monday and Tuesday. The next day, 16,000 fans filed into the compact Philadelphia Ball Park (later known as the Baker Bowl) for the afternoon’s two games. It was a historically tight NL race, with only nine games separating eight teams.8 Philadelphia occupied second place, two games behind Chicago; New York was eight games back in seventh. Local fans knew too well that when their too-often underachieving Phillies challenged at midseason in 1911 and 1913, John McGraw’s Giants had overtaken them for the pennant.

“Many of the women who attended the games came in gaily decorated automobiles,” an observer wrote. “Yellow and white flowers, pom-poms and streamers were [seen] in abundance.”9 Hannah J. Patterson, vice president of the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association, threw out the day’s first ball. The initial game, however, was a letdown. The Phillies knocked the aging Christy Mathewson for 12 hits, yet mental errors on the basepaths and in the field brought defeat, 5-4.

Nor were fans likely inspired much when, after a brief intermission, the park’s megaphonist announced the second game’s starting pitchers: Jeff Tesreau for New York and Al Demaree for Philadelphia. The Giants’ powerful spitballer was arguably, after the Phillies’ Pete Alexander, the league’s best pitcher.10 Demaree was a Giants discard, dealt to Philadelphia that offseason. In his first outing with the Phillies, on April 19, Demaree outpitched Tesreau, earning a 3-0 victory. He then lost his next seven decisions (six as a starter, another in a relief role). His opportunities were dwindling.

The game unfurled as a pitchers’ matchup of the first order. Tesreau walked Cravath to begin the bottom of the second, but left fielder Beals Becker grounded into a double play. Another Philadelphia leadoff batter reached in the third, as Fred Luderus singled, but another quick double play followed. Tesreau otherwise kept the Phillies at bay with hard stuff (moistened or not), facing 27 batters through nine innings.

“He has nothing but a little curve and confidence,” McGraw once said of Demaree.11 But despite scattering six hits and three walks, the pitcher bore down in the pinches and threw shutout ball over nine innings. His defense rose to the occasion. Becker snared a George Burns hit headed for the left-field bleachers in the third, pleasing fans even more by capsizing a policeman sitting on a crate against the wall. Backup catcher Ed Burns threw out three would-be basestealers in the first six innings. In the seventh, with two out, Larry Doyle on third base and Fred Merkle on first, New York attempted a delayed double steal. Merkle broke first. Burns bluffed a throw to second. Doyle took the bait and ran for the plate. Burns threw to third baseman Bobby Byrne, starting a successful rundown.

The scoreless game went into extra innings. In the top of the 10th, with a runner at first and one out, Jack Meyers sent a drive to left. Becker robbed New York of another home run, again toppling a cop for good measure. Tesreau grounded out to end the frame.

Byrne began the bottom of the 10th by singling up the middle. Dave Bancroft bunted, but as he started for first, the ball bounced up off his bat, and he was called out for interference. George Whitted smashed a double off the center-field wall, Byrne cautiously stopping at third base. “Cravath then sauntered to the plate,” the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin told its readers the next day. “Sauntered is the correct word. Cravath is the only old line hitter in baseball who doesn’t swing three clubs while he is waiting for his turn to hit. He doesn’t swing any bats – he carries one to the plate with him, and occasionally he breaks up a ball game with that one.”12 Cravath singled past second baseman Doyle, scoring Byrne, and winning the game.

Minutes later, Margaret Foley ascended to the roof of the visitors’ dugout. First, she presented Philadelphia second baseman Bert Niehoff with a $10 gold coin for hitting a home run in the first game. Foley then presented the suffragist cause, with a clarion voice heard throughout the grounds, to an assembled crowd of male fans. Noted the Philadelphia Press: “She cajoled them and spoke plainly to them and answered questions and scored a real success.”13

After July 7 the Phillies went 54-32 and prevailed in the tightly contested race to clinch the franchise’s first pennant. In early October, suffragists reminded area voters of good fortune Suffrage Day had delivered.14 Yet Philadelphia lost the World Series soon after, and male voters defeated female suffrage amendments in the four major Eastern states. Pennsylvania’s vote was the closest: 46.63 percent for, 53.37 percent against. In Philadelphia, the vote was particularly unfavorable: 38.67 percent for, 61.33 percent against.15

Five tumultuous years later, the same four states helped ratify the Nineteenth Amendment:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.16

Margaret Foley, right, and an unidentified woman stand outside and distribute copies of the Woman’s Journal and Suffrage News in November 1913. The woman on the left has a cloth satchel strapped across her body, labeled “VOTES.” The Woman’s Journal was the official organ of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. (Library of Congress)

Acknowledgments

The article was fact-checked by Thomas J. Brown Jr. and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author thanks the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Newspapers and Microfilm Center for its assistance in obtaining sources.

Photo credit, top: Gavy Cravath, circa 1915, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play. He also reviewed game coverage in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia North American, Philadelphia Press, Philadelphia Public Ledger, and Philadelphia Record newspapers. For overviews of the suffrage movement, he consulted Ellen Carol Dubois, Suffrage: Women’s Long Battle for the Vote (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020) and The American Experience three-part television series The Vote (Arlington, Virginia: PBS, 2020). For an academic study of the movement’s baseball promotions, he consulted Lindsay Parks Pieper, “‘Make a Home Run for Suffrage’: Promoting Women’s Emancipation Through Baseball,” in Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, Vol. 28 (September 26, 2020): 101-110, https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/wspaj/28/2/article-p101.xml. Accessed May 2025.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI191507072.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1915/B07072PHI1915.htm

Notes

1 Washington in 1910, California in 1911, Arizona, Kansas, and Oregon in 1912, Illinois (limited to presidential elections) in 1913, Montana and Nevada in 1914. Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho granted women voting rights in the 1890s.

2 Frederick G. Lieb, “Suffragettes See Giants Shut Out,” New York Press, May 19, 1915: 4.

3 “Suffragists’ Day at Peps’ Park Proves to Be a Big Success,” Newark Evening Star, June 26, 1915: 19.

4 “Suffragist Ball Team Suggested ‘For Victory,’” Philadelphia Public Ledger, May 6, 1915: 7.

5 Weeks after the Athletics were swept by the Boston Braves in the 1914 World Series, Mack released pitchers Charles Bender, Jack Coombs, and Eddie Plank. Next, in December, second baseman Eddie Collins was sold to the Chicago White Sox. Then, as the 1915 season neared, third baseman Frank Baker balked at rejoining the team. The Athletics never found their footing in the campaign, drew poorly, and finished solidly in last place with a 43-109 mark.

6 “‘Girl-With-Pink-Roses-on-Her-Hat’ Sells Tickets for Suffrage Ball Game,” Philadelphia Public Ledger, July 1, 1915: 7; “Suffragists Win Appeal to Fans,” Philadelphia Press, July 8, 1915: 12.

7 “Phillies Strong for Suffrage,” Philadelphia Press, July 3, 1915: 3.

8 In the 16-team era (1901-1960) only two pennant races were as tight on the July 7 date: nine games separating the eight teams in the 1943 AL race, and eight games between the NL clubs in 1958.

9 “Suffs Attend Ball Game,” Philadelphia Record, July 8, 1915: 2.

10 From 1912 through 1915, Alexander (151) and Tesreau (146) started more games than any other NL pitcher. Among NL pitchers with at least 50 starts in this span, only Brooklyn’s Jeff Pfeffer (with a 137 ERA+ mark from 70 starts) rivaled the ERA+ of Alexander (138) and Tesreau (131). (Per Sports Reference’s Stathead Baseball).

11 “Slow Ball Pitchers Gone,” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 23, 1917: 14.

12 “Phils Should Have Won Two Games Instead of Dividing,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, July 8, 1915: 12.

13 “Suffragists Win Appeal to Fans.”

14 “Phils Won Flag Since Suffrage Was Talisman,” Philadelphia Evening Ledger, October 4, 1915: 9. Major-league Suffrage Days were also held in Pittsburgh on September 16 (where the Giants trounced the Pirates, 8-4) and in Boston on August 10 (where the visiting St. Louis Browns and Red Sox split a doubleheader) later in the 1915 season. Additionally, “a delegation from the Massachusetts Women’s Suffrage Association” attended Game Three of the World Series in Boston on October 11.

15 “Pennsylvania Women’s Suffrage Amendment (1915),” Ballotpedia, https://ballotpedia.org/Pennsylvania_Women%27s_Suffrage_Amendment_(1915). Accessed May 2025. For an unofficial day-after breakdown of Philadelphia’s vote, suggestive that the wards that went strongest for the “machine” mayoral candidate (Thomas B. Smith) also broke sharpest against women’s suffrage, see “Complete Returns from City Wards Show Scope of GOP Victory,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 4, 1915: 10.

16 “The United States Constitution,” National Constitutional Center, https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/full-text. Accessed May 2025.