May 1, 1909: Ralph Works makes favorable debut in snow-delayed Tigers victory

Even with veteran starting pitchers George Mullin, Ed Willett, Ed Summers, Ed Killian, and Bill Donovan poised to handle the majority of innings for the 1909 Detroit Tigers in their quest for a third straight American League pennant, 20-year-old Ralph Works came to the team’s first spring-training camp in San Antonio, Texas, determined to prove himself worthy of a roster spot.

His high-water mark in spring training came four days after his 21st birthday on March 20 with five shutout relief innings during an exhibition win against Walter Johnson and the Washington Nationals. That performance likely helped Works start the season on Detroit’s roster because it exemplified the “earnestness, grit, and willingness to learn” that led manager Hughie Jennings to entrust the Illinois native with a big-league spot.1

Two weeks into the regular season, Jennings called on Works to take the ball for the first time, tabbing him to start a game played in less than ideal weather conditions on Saturday, May 1 at Detroit’s Bennett Park. With game-time temperatures in the 30s,2 westerly winds at times gusting above 50 mph,3 and plenty of snowflakes flying, the rookie surrendered 11 hits to the St. Louis Browns, but his defense turned three double plays in a 5-2 victory that was twice halted by heavier snow squalls.

“Only the most pronounced case of baseballitis could stand against what one was forced to suffer,” Detroit Free Press reporter Joe S. Jackson wrote of the 2,193 spectators who saw the Tigers earn their fifth straight win.4 “The best evidence that Detroit has this disease in most aggravated form was the fact that nearly every fan stayed to the finish.”5

The Tigers, who had spent all but one day of the season atop of or tied for the lead in the AL,6 improved to 11-3 with their eighth of an eventual franchise-record 57 home victories.7 St. Louis dropped its sixth straight, falling to 4-9 on the way to a fifth losing season in seven years.8

Coming into the game, the Browns had announced that the eccentric 32-year-old future Hall of Famer Rube Waddell would start the final meeting of a scheduled three-game series already cut short by a postponement two days earlier.9

After arriving at the ballpark for the May 1 game, Browns manager Jimmy McAleer pleaded with the Tigers to call off the game, but the home team would not budge – perhaps because they already had three other postponements to make up.10 So McAleer replaced Waddell with Bill Bailey because he thought Waddell “might easily break his arm” pitching in the cold.11

And for the first time, the Tigers offense found some footing against the 21-year-old Bailey, who debuted only two years earlier but already had three complete-game victories in five appearances against the Tigers.12

First, the Browns’ hitters had to introduce Works to the major leagues.

St. Louis leadoff batter George Stone, the 1906 AL batting champion, sat out the day before due to illness, but in his return he reached on an error by rookie shortstop Donie Bush. Tom Jones followed with a single, and both runners moved up on Roy Hartzell’s sacrifice. Works intentionally walked Danny Hoffman, who came into the game as the AL’s third-leading hitter (.368), to set up a potential groundball double play – though Detroit’s defense completed the twin killing in a different way.

Al Schweitzer sent a routine fly ball to Sam Crawford in center field, and Crawford unleashed a “perfect” throw home to nail Stone for his first assist of the season, thwarting the first of several promising Browns rallies.13

Crawford parlayed the momentum of his defensive gem in the bottom of the inning, sending a long drive to right field that bounded past Schweitzer for a two-run, inside-the-park home run – Detroit’s first homer of the young season.

But the play may not have scored any runs had AL President Ban Johnson reinstated a Browns player before the game. Third baseman Hobe Ferris, who had started the first 12 games of the season, had not yet formally signed a contract for his second season with the Browns. Johnson had told Ferris and team executives that they had to submit a signed agreement before May 1 or Ferris would be suspended, but the parties did not agree to terms until that morning.

McAleer could not reach Johnson by telephone before the game’s 3 P.M. start time,14 so he started the versatile Hartzell, his primary right fielder, at third and inserted backup outfielder Schweitzer into right field while he waited.15 Jackson speculated in the Free Press that Hartzell, who returned to right field after Ferris entered the game in the second inning, likely would have cut off Crawford’s hit and held him to a single.16

Neither team mounted a serious scoring threat over the next five innings, and the game was delayed by snow squalls in the bottom of the fourth and after the sixth – which ultimately gave St. Louis players less than an hour to catch the 5:30 P.M. train back to Missouri at the end of a three-city road trip.17

Coming out of the second delay, the Browns cut their deficit in half but were left wanting more. Bobby Wallace singled but was forced out when Jimmy Williams hit a grounder. Lou Criger doubled to left, and St. Louis loaded the bases when Bailey popped up high on the infield. Works, second baseman Germany Schaefer, and third baseman George Moriarty all converged, but the wind-blown ball fell to the ground untouched.

Stone hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Bush, who fumbled the chance and spoiled an inning-ending double play as Williams crossed the plate to cut Detroit’s lead to 2-1. But Bush redeemed himself one play later, ranging to his left to spear Jones’s liner over second base and flipping the ball to Schaefer before Bailey could retreat to second base. With three double plays in the game, Detroit matched its franchise record with a combined seven double plays in back-to-back games.18

Just as they did in the first inning, the Tigers answered in the bottom of the seventh. Claude Rossman smacked a one-out double to right and Moriarty followed with a triple to center. Moriarty, a former New York Highlander in his first season with Detroit,19 took a “judicious” lead20 off third and swiped home to extend Detroit’s lead to 4-1.21

St. Louis pushed across another run in the eighth on Hoffman’s one-out triple and Ferris’s RBI single to right. In the bottom of the inning, Detroit’s Matty McIntyre, Bush, and Crawford hit consecutive singles for a 5-2 lead.

Later in the eighth, Ty Cobb reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second for the second game in a row.22 The slumping 22-year-old Cobb went hitless for the fourth time in six games and watched his batting average dip to .216 in one of the slowest starts to any season of his career.23

He quickly turned his season around, setting franchise records for hits (216), runs (115), and stolen bases (76),24 and winning the Triple Crown with a .377 average, 9 home runs, and 107 RBIs.25

Works, who had been “tugging at the chain” to get into a game, made a “favorable impression,” according to the Free Press.26 He pitched well in jams, getting the Browns to leave nine runners on base – the fourth time in the season that St. Louis had stranded at least that many runners27 – helping him overcome 11 hits allowed and three Detroit errors.

He did not pitch again until tossing one inning of relief against the Highlanders on June 7, and his next appearance was another complete-game victory over the Browns on June 26. He finished the season at 4-1 with a 1.97 ERA in 16 appearances (he completed all four of his starts) and pitched in Game Three of the World Series, which the Pittsburgh Pirates won in seven games.28

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Ralph Works, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent statistics and the box scores noted below. He also used information obtained from the Detroit Free Press, Detroit Evening News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET190905010.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1909/B05010DET1909.htm

Notes

1 Joe S. Jackson, “Soon Start North,” The Sporting News, April 1, 1909: 6.

2 Through 2024, the day’s high of 40 degrees is the lowest high temperature ever recorded in Detroit on May 1, and the average temperature of 35 degrees is also a record for the date. “Detroit May Records,” National Weather Service, accessed July 23, 2024, https://www.weather.gov/dtx/DTW_May_rec.

3 The highest wind gust recorded in Detroit on May 1, 1909, was 52 mph. “‘Call Me Early, Mother Dear,’ Then She Took Another Nap,” Detroit Free Press, May 2, 1909: 4.

4 Detroit’s pitchers allowed two or fewer runs in each of the five games. During a season-opening five-game winning streak, Tigers pitching allowed two or fewer runs in four of the games. The trend continued throughout the season, as Detroit allowed two or fewer runs 73 times in 1909 and won 62 of those games. That stood as a franchise record until the 1968 team allowed two or fewer runs 80 times, including 67 victories.

5 Joe S. Jackson, “Tigers Grab Freak Game,” Detroit Free Press, May 2, 1909: 17.

6 The Tigers fell half a game behind the New York Highlanders after losing on April 24. Otherwise, Detroit remained in or tied for first place throughout the rest of the season, save for nine days of the 10-day span from August 14-23. On August 19 the Tigers began a 14-game winning streak that helped them build up a five-game lead.

7 Detroit broke the AL record for home wins in 1909 by going 57-19 (.750), topping the win total of the 1902 Philadelphia Athletics, who went 56-17 at home (.767). The 1910 Athletics and 1927 New York Yankees wrapped up the same 57-19 mark. Philadelphia bettered the record by going 57-16 (.781) in 1929 and followed up with a 58-18 (.763) mark in 1930. The Yankees won an AL-record 65 home games in 1961 and also hold the AL home winning percentage mark of .805 after going 62-15 in 1932.

8 The Browns did not enjoy another winning season until they were 79-75 in 1916.

9 That postponement marked the fourth for Detroit in the first 15 dates of the season. The April 29 game was made up on June 25, and the Tigers won 4-1.

10 In addition to the first game against the Browns, Detroit also had to make up games from April 21 and 27. For the Browns, calling off the May 1 game would have marked the sixth cancellation of their season as weather wreaked havoc on the major leagues. In April there were 38 postponed games across the majors (22 in the AL and 16 in the National League).

11 “Detroit Again Defeats Browns in Midst of Snow Storm, 5 to 2,” St. Louis Globe Democrat, May 2, 1909: 1b.

12 Waddell had thrown eight shutouts against Tigers in the past, but in seven starts against Detroit in 1908, he had four losses and was chased from the mound after the first inning of another game.

13 “Detroit Again Defeats Browns in Midst of Snow Storm, 5 to 2.”

14 Jackson, “Tigers Grab Freak Game.”

15 In his first three seasons, Hartzell had played more than a dozen games at second base, shortstop, third base, and right field, and prior to this game, he had started all 12 games in right.

16 Jackson, “Tigers Grab Freak Game.”

17 The game had an announced time of 1 hour 50 minutes, which left the Browns about 40 minutes from the final pitch to their train departing.

18 Detroit turned four double plays the day before in a 4-2 victory over the Browns. In 1901 the Tigers twice turned a combined seven double plays – between the second game of a September 2 doubleheader (five) and a September 3 game (two) and on September 14 (four) and 15 (three).

19 The Tigers sought to shuffle their infield after losing the 1908 World Series, and that plan called for the unconditional release of captain Bill Coughlin, Detroit’s primary third baseman for the past 4½ seasons. Tigers President Frank Navin had unsuccessfully tried to purchase Moriarty from the Highlanders before the 1908 season but worked out an all-cash deal for him in January 1909. Coughlin became the player-manager for the Williamsport (Pennsylvania) Millionaires in the Class B Tri-State League, while Moriarty remained with the Tigers until 1915.

20 Jackson, “Tigers Grab Freak Game.”

21 Moriarty was known for aggressive baserunning. In the second inning he tried to extend a double to left into a triple, but George Stone threw him out at third.

22 There was much conjecture about the stolen base from reporters in many newspapers the next day. In March, a widely circulated report quoted Browns catcher Lou Criger as saying: “Why, they tell you that Ty Cobb is a great base runner. Maybe he is, but I never had any trouble with him. Why, he only got away with me twice in the two years that I have been playing against him. Most of his good base running I call bone headed work, and one of those two times he tried the delayed steal, that [is], starting when he thought I was going to return the ball to the pitcher. … [T]hen I had him by 20 feet, but the second baseman was away behind the bag and waited for him and Cobb slid away around and stuck his foot on the bag. Ty is fast and you must out-guess him.” Criger later suggested his quotes had been misinterpreted, but the rivalry still gained plenty of attention during the first head-to-head meetings between the two: “Of course, Ty Cobb and I have had a few arguments and aren’t the best of friends, I’ll admit. This isn’t trying to take away from Ty any of the credit that’s due him as a crack ball player, though.” Quotes taken from: “Lou Criger Is Bitter at Cobb,” Detroit Evening News, March 24, 1909: 2, and Paul H. Bruske, “Lou Criger Does Not Hate Tiges,” Detroit Evening News, April 7, 1909: 2.

23 Cobb had a lower batting average through May 1 in three other seasons: 1922 (.176), 1920 (.200), and 1918 (.211 in only four games). Cobb’s best average through May 1 came in 1924, when he was hitting .456.

24 Cobb broke his own 1907 records of 212 hits and 53 steals, and Jimmy Barrett’s 1901 record of 110 runs. (Teammate Donie Bush joined Cobb in the record book by also scoring 115 runs in 1909.) Led by Cobb’s efforts, Detroit’s baserunners matched the AL record with 280 steals in 1909. The 1901 Chicago White Stockings had also stolen 280 bases. In 1910 the New York Highlanders stole 288 bases, an AL mark that stood until the 1976 Oakland Athletics swiped 341 bases.

25 Cobb won his third consecutive batting title in a stretch of nine straight batting crowns.

26 Jackson, “Tigers Grab Freak Game.”

27 The other three occurrences all came against the Cleveland Naps. On April 24 the Browns left nine runners on base in a loss. But on April 22, they stranded 11 runners in a win, and on April 16, St. Louis left 10 men on base in another victory. The only other Detroit opponent in the young season that had stranded more runners was the Chicago White Sox, who left 10 runners on base in a victory over the Tigers on April 22.

28 Works pitched in parts of four seasons with the Tigers but struggled to get along with manager Hughie Jennings, who waived him late in 1912. The Cincinnati Reds picked up Works, but he did not fare well in 1913 with a 7.80 ERA in April in what ultimately became his final five major-league appearances. Works ended his career with a 24-24 record and a 3.79 ERA in 99 appearances.