June 21, 1916: Rube Foster throws first Red Sox no-hitter at Fenway Park

The first Boston Red Sox no-hitter at Fenway Park was by right-hander George “Rube” Foster in 1916, the fifth season of play at the ballpark.1

A member of the Red Sox ever since his major-league debut in 1913, Foster – also known as “Goose Egg” – had thrown five shutouts in 1914 and five more in 1915.2 He had been 19-8 in 1915, tied for the team lead in both wins and losses with Ernie Shore, and both of them with excellent earned-run averages (2.11 for Foster and 1.64 for Shore).3

Rube Foster was arguably the star of the 1915 World Series, pitching two complete-game wins for the Boston Red Sox in a five-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies while going 4-for-8 at the plate. His ninth-inning single won Game Two.

Foster, who turned 28 in January 1916, was having a bit of a difficult year in ’16. After one early win, he lost five of his next six decisions. His ERA climbed to 4.11. He worked a couple of games in relief, but through June 16 he was 3-5 with a 4.62 ERA for manager (and catcher) Bill Carrigan.4

Through June 20, the reigning World Series champion Red Sox were playing mediocre baseball – their record was 27-27 and they were in sixth place in the American League. They were 6-9 so far in June, including a 4-1 loss to the New York Yankees on June 20. New York was 29-23 and in fourth place, only 1½ games behind the first-place Cleveland Indians.

The matchup this Wednesday “gloomy afternoon” drew only 4,523 to the ballpark.5 Bob Shawkey pitched for Bill Donovan’s New York team. The Yankees had purchased Shawkey from the Philadelphia Athletics in June 1915. He became something of a workhorse in 1916, appearing in 53 games and starting 27 of them. He’d lost three of his last four decisions but had a 6-4 record with a 2.27 ERA coming into the June 21 game.

In the top of the first inning, the Yankees made solid contact against Foster, but all three batters flied out.

The first three Red Sox batters against Shawkey combined to score a run. Right fielder Harry Hooper led off with a single to left-center. Second baseman Hal Janvrin sacrificed Hooper to second. Left fielder Duffy Lewis singled over second base and into center to score Hooper for a 1-0 lead.

After Foster struck out second-inning leadoff batter Wally Pipp, Home Run Baker hit the ball to deep right-center, a ball the Boston Herald said would have been a home run at the Yankees’ ballpark “and many another park,” but it was reeled in by a “sensational” catch by Hooper.6 Lee Magee flied out, too. 

Shawkey gave up a single in the bottom of the second, but no more.

In the third, New York’s Joe Gedeon and Les Nunamaker popped up foul, Gedeon to catcher Carrigan, and Nunamaker, whose .296 average topped all Yankees regulars in 1916, to first baseman Dick Hoblitzell. Shawkey struck out to end the inning.

Hooper doubled to left-center to lead off the Red Sox third, but catcher Nunamaker fired to shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh and picked Hooper off second.

The Yankees who batted in the first inning were up in the fourth – Frank Gilhooley, Hugh High, and Peckinpaugh. The first two flied out to center and Peckinpaugh fouled out to the catcher. Foster was perfect through 12 hitters, and there had not been a groundball hit by a Yankees batter.7

Foster again retired all three batters in the fifth, making it 15 in a row. Baker surprised everyone by attempting to bunt for a single with one out. “Only the fastest sort of scampering by Foster and a perfectly bullet-like peg” to first base got Baker out, reported the Boston Herald. Magee then scorched one back to Foster, who knocked it down and recovered it in time to throw him out.8

Gedeon flied to left leading off the sixth, but Nunamaker walked to end Foster’s perfect game. Shawkey’s sacrifice, fielded by Foster, put the tying run in scoring position, albeit with two outs. Gilhooley grounded out, second to first.

Shawkey set down Boston in order in the fourth and fifth, but the Red Sox added an insurance run in the sixth. With one out, Janvrin tripled to right-center, Gilhooley overrunning the ball. Lewis flied to shallow right field; Gilhooley “was off balance” and Janvrin tagged and scored on the sacrifice fly.9 It was 2-0, and Lewis had driven in both runs.

High’s walk to begin the top of the seventh gave the Yankees another baserunner. High tried to steal second, but Carrigan’s throw to Janvrin caught him. Foster got Peckinpaugh to fly out to Hooper in right field and Pipp to pop up to Larry Gardner at third base. Shawkey got three fly-ball outs in the bottom of the inning – from Tillie Walker, Gardner, and Everett Scott.

By this time, fans were aware there was a possible no-hitter in progress. “There were cheers every inning as he walked in, but there were moments when the fans sat silent, fearing that some Manhattan slugger would puncture Foster’s hopes,” observed the Boston Globe.10

Foster faced Baker leading off the Yankees eighth; Baker popped up to third base. Magee walked, just the third baserunner of the game for New York – all on walks. Gedeon popped up foul to third. Walker ran down Nunamaker’s fly to center.

In the bottom of the eighth, two-out singles by Hooper and Janvrin gave the Red Sox a chance to expand their lead, but Lewis flied out to center.11

Foster took his no-hitter into the ninth. Yankee pitcher Ray Caldwell hit for Shawkey. Though a right-handed pitcher, Caldwell batted from the left side. In his 12-season major-league career, he played 53 games at first base or the outfield and batted .260 in 150 at-bats as a pinch-hitter. He’d hit four home runs in 1915. He was batting .205 so far in the 1916 season, with nine hits.12

A season earlier, in September 1915, Caldwell had sparked a comeback win at Fenway Park with two late-game hits off Babe Ruth and Carl Mays.13 The New York Times wrote that when Caldwell was announced, there were “sighs” among the crowd because “a lot has been read about Slim’s ninth-inning drives, and all realized that he has been there with the goods in the pinches.”14 

On a full count, however, Caldwell struck out. Gilhooley hit one over first base, which Hoblitzell snared and threw to Foster, covering, just in time. High was the last man up; he flied to Lewis in left.

Foster had his no-hitter. There had been only five groundballs hit off him, and he was involved in fielding four of the five.

“Little George Foster, the farmer boy from Oklahoma” had thrown the first no-hitter for a Red Sox pitcher at Fenway Park.15 The next day’s Boston Globe added, “Little George looked mighty big yesterday.”16 He was 5-feet-7 and listed at 170 pounds.

Team owner J.J. Lannin wore “a wreath of smiles that extended from ear to ear” and presented Foster with $100 after the game.17 

It was the Red Sox’ first no-hitter at Fenway Park – but the second by a home-team pitcher. When the Boston Braves were driving toward the National League pennant in 1914, they moved several games to Fenway Park to accommodate increased fan interest.18 On September 9 of that season, George Davis of the Braves no-hit the Philadelphia Phillies in the second game of a doubleheader.19

Foster’s gem, the sixth no-hitter in Red Sox franchise history, was a turning point in Boston’s 1916 season. A day later, Ruth blanked the Yankees, 1-0, on a three-hitter. Shore made it three shutouts in a row with a six-hit, 1-0 win over the Athletics on June 23. The ensuing five-game winning streak began a surge of 63 wins in 101 games that netted the pennant by two games over the Chicago White Sox.

Along the way, Boston notched another no-hitter when Dutch Leonard no-hit the St. Louis Browns, 4-0, on August 30 at Fenway Park.20 The Red Sox allowed the fewest runs of any AL team in 1916 (480) and recorded the most shutouts (24).

Foster finished 1916 with a record of 14-7 (3.06), winning his last nine decisions. The Red Sox won the World Series again, but Foster worked only three innings, all scoreless, in the Series itself. They were in Game Three, after he took over from Mays in the one game the Red Sox lost to the Brooklyn Robins.

Foster announced his retirement after the World Series but came back in 1917. He suffered a sore arm and missed most of the season’s first half. He was 8-7 (2.53 ERA) and declared his retirement again. The Red Sox traded his contract to the Cincinnati Reds in 1918, but he refused to report. Though involved with baseball in one way or another throughout most of the 1920s, Foster did not return to the majors.

Acknowledgments

This article was vetted by John Fredland, Kurt Blumenau, and Gary Belleville; fact-checked by Victoria Monte; and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Rube Foster, Trading Card Database.

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/BOS/BOS191606210.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1916/B06210BOS1916.htm

Notes

1 Foster is not to be confused with Andrew Bishop “Rube” Foster, who founded the Negro National League in 1920 and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981.

2 The Boston Journal dubbed him such. See, for instance, R.E. McMillin, “Foster Holds Yanks Hitless,” Boston Journal, June 22, 1916: 8.

3 These were different times – the entire Red Sox team ERA was 2.39. Other pitchers on the pennant-winning staff included Smoky Joe Wood (15-5, 1.49), Dutch Leonard (15-7, 2.36), and 20-year-old Babe Ruth (18-8, 2.44). 

4 This game was Carrigan’s first back in the lineup since May 26. The Boston Herald wrote, “Manager Bill Carrigan caught Foster, the first time Boss Bill has handled his delivery for many a day. Much of the credit of the pitcher’s great work goes to the manager, whose knowledge of batter’s weaknesses is unexcelled.”  “Yanks  Blanked Without Hit By George Foster,” Boston Herald, June 22, 1916: 6.

5 McMillin said it was a dark day. Attendance was more or less average for a weekday Fenway Park game in 1916.

6 “Yanks Blanked Without a Hit by George Foster,” Boston Herald, June 22, 1916: 6.

7 The only out recorded by someone other than an outfielder or Carrigan was the foul ball that Hoblitzell caught off Nunamaker.

8 “Yanks Blanked Without a Hit by George Foster.”

9 McMillin.

10 Edward F. Martin, “Foster Holds Yankees Hitless and Runless,” Boston Globe, June 22, 1916: 7.

11 Shawkey ended the 1916 season 24-14 with an ERA of 2.21. He was retroactively credited with eight saves – enough to lead the major leagues. He pitched 21 complete games.

12 As a pitcher in 1916, Caldwell was 2-7. He finished the season with an ERA of 2.99, a record of 5-12, and a batting average of .204. In 1919, as a member of the Indians, he survived a lightning strike on the mound in a game against the Athletics.

13 In the first game of a doubleheader on September 6, Caldwell pitched a complete-game 5-2 win over the Red Sox. With the Yankees trailing 2-0 in the eighth, he singled in a run against Ruth. Later in the inning, he scored New York’s go-ahead run. In the ninth, Caldwell’s double off Carl Mays drove in an insurance run.

14 “No Hits, No Runs, Yankees’ Portion,” New York Times, June 22, 1916: 12.  

15 “No Hits, No Runs, Yankees’ Portion.”   

16 Martin, “Foster Holds Yankees Hitless and Runless.”

17 McMillin, “Foster Holds Yanks Hitless.”

18 The “Miracle Braves” were in last place from May 8 through July 18 but ultimately won the pennant and 1914 World Series. The games were at Fenway Park because of its significantly larger capacity, thanks to the cooperation of the Boston Red Sox as the Braves awaited construction of their new ballpark, Braves Field. For more on the 1914 season, see Bill Nowlin, ed., The Miracle Braves of 1914: Boston’s Original Worst-to-First World Series Champions (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2014), a collaborative work of 39 SABR members. The Braves had finished in last place for four seasons in a row, 1909 through 1912, edging up to fifth place in 1913.

19 As it happened, Braves pitcher Salida Tom Hughes threw a no–hitter in Boston – at Braves Field – just five days earlier than Foster’s gem, 2-0 over the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 16. Salida Tom (named after his hometown in Colorado) was not the same pitcher as Long Tom Hughes, a 20-game winner for the Boston Americans in 1903.

20 The earlier no-hitters were May 5, 1904 (Cy Young); August 17, 1904 (Jesse Tannehill); September 27, 1905 (Bill Dinneen); June 30, 1908 (Young); and July 29, 1911 (Smoky Joe Wood).