May 12, 1915: Rain does Pittsburgh Rebels a favor, holds off for Federal League team’s close win

Three-quarters of the Federal League schedule for Wednesday, May 12, 1915, was rained out, and the fans in Buffalo, New York, might have regretted that nature didn’t make it a clean sweep.1

A two-run fourth-inning home run by Pittsburgh Rebels cleanup hitter Ed Konetchy gave the Rebels a lead they never surrendered, and the Buffalo Blues wasted a leadoff triple in the ninth as Pittsburgh claimed a 3-2 victory over the home Blues. The game left the Rebels solidly in first place in the eight-team league, and the Blues planted in last.

Manager and center fielder Rebel Oakes’s Rebels entered the day with a five-game winning streak, an 8-2 record in their previous 10 games, and a 16-8 record overall, good for a 2½-game lead over the Chicago Whales and Newark Peppers. The May 12 game was the middle of a three-game set. Pittsburgh had taken the first game, 1-0, behind a six-hit shutout by Clint Rogge. Oakes led the FL with 23 RBIs, while Konetchy was tied for third place with 18.

Larry Schlafly’s Blues had posted a 2-8 record in their previous 10 games and occupied the FL basement at 8-17, 8½ games behind Pittsburgh. They didn’t know it on May 12, but the team’s 1915 season turned out to be a tale of two halves. Through the end of June, the Blues struggled to a 24-43 record, costing Schlafly his job early that month. From the start of July through the end of September, the team turned it around, going 50-35.

Kentucky-born right-hander Cy Barger, six days shy of his 30th birthday, started for the Rebels. It was his first starting assignment of the season; he had a 1-1 record and a 3.48 ERA in four relief appearances. Barger had started 26 of his 33 games pitched for the 1914 Pittsburgh team. In 1915 he made 21 of his 34 appearances from the bullpen, tying for the league lead in games finished with 19.2

Righty spitballer Gene Krapp, born about 75 miles east of Buffalo in Rochester, New York, started for the Blues.3 Krapp entered the day with a 2-4 record and a 3.82 ERA. In his previous start, in the second game of a doubleheader on May 6, he’d pitched a four-hit complete game to beat the Kansas City Packers, 4-1. Krapp entered the day as one of five FL pitchers tied for the league lead in losses – three from Buffalo, two from the Baltimore Terrapins.4 Krapp was also tied for second in the league in walks with 31.5 While pitching for the 1911 Cleveland Naps, he’d led the American League with 138 bases on balls, and he walked more than 100 hitters in each of his three full major-league seasons.6

Neither team scored in the first three innings, though each club wasted an opportunity. In the first, the Blues moved Jack Dalton to second base on a walk and a sacrifice, but Clyde Engle ended the mini-rally with a fly out.7 In the top of the third, Barger hit a one-out double, becoming the first Rebel in scoring position. Jim Kelly grounded back to Krapp, and the Rebels stumbled their way into two outs. Krapp threw to third to catch Barger in a lengthy rundown, and left fielder Solly Hofman – who made the tag on Barger at third – threw to first baseman Hal Chase covering second to catch Kelly trying to advance.8

Two swings of the bat put Pittsburgh ahead in the fourth. With one out, Ed Lennox singled to right field. Ed Holly, who played just 16 games with the Rebels that season, replaced Lennox on the basepaths and at third base.9 Konetchy followed by drilling the ball deep into the left-field bleachers for his second home run of the season, giving the Rebels a 2-0 lead. Konetchy ended the season with 10 round-trippers, the only Rebel to reach double figures in that category.

The Blues mustered another unsuccessful rally in the fifth, as two singles and a force play put runners at the corners with two outs. Tom Downey’s grounder to short resulted in an inning-ending force at second.

Pittsburgh tacked on another run in the seventh in dramatic fashion, following two flies to left field. Catcher Claude Berry doubled to center field and Barger’s second hit of the game, an infield single, moved him to third base. The Rebels’ catcher and pitcher then pulled off a double steal. According to the Buffalo Courier, Barger took off for second and drew a poor throw from Blair; Berry ran home and beat the throw there “by the width of a shoe lace.” The Rebels led 3-0.10 In the eighth, Hofman prevented the Rebels from adding another run by making a remarkable catch of Konetchy’s drive to the left-field fence.11

The Blues finally mounted a successful challenge in the bottom of the eighth. Hitting for Krapp, Joe Agler led off with a single that Konetchy fielded, then couldn’t connect with Barger for the out at first.12 Former Rebel Tex McDonald, hitting for Downey and making his 14th pinch-hitting appearance of the season, singled to move Agler to second.13 Dalton’s infield single to shortstop filled the bases with no out. Baldy Louden’s grounder to short resulted in a force at second, with Agler scoring; McDonald followed him across the plate when second baseman Lewis threw the ball away trying for the out at first.14 Engle’s strikeout and Chase’s grounder ended the inning with the Blues still one run short.

After Howard Ehmke – making just his fifth big-league pitching appearance at age 2115 – worked a one-two-three ninth for Buffalo, the Blues took their final turn at bat against Barger. It began auspiciously with a triple by Hofman. Hofman held at third on Fred Smith’s grounder to shortstop. He tried scoring on Walter Blair’s hard-hit grounder to third, but Holly made what the Pittsburgh Post called “a pretty stop and throw” to throw him out at home.16 Agler walked, moving Blair to second; Dan “Coke” Woodman, an infrequently used young pitcher, ran for Blair. Lefty-swinging Del Young hit for Ehmke and flied to left to strand the tying and winning runs on base.

Barger scattered eight hits in a complete-game win, while Krapp took the loss. Several game accounts noted that Krapp had uncharacteristically not issued a walk in his eight innings of work and would have won the game with one or two timely hits. “Time and again yesterday afternoon one good wallop would have spilled the beans for the Pittsburgh outfit, but the hit was lacking,” the Buffalo Commercial wrote.17 Woodman and Young, who had entered in the game’s final moments, were demoted to the minor leagues the next day.18 Neither appeared in the majors again.

The Pittsburgh Post credited Rebels shortstop Marty Berghammer for pulling off numerous difficult fielding plays, though Berghammer was charged with an error for dropping a pop hit by Chase behind third base.19

As for the Blues, manager Schlafly voiced confidence: “This can’t last all the time and we are going to get to winning pretty soon. I am satisfied I have one of the best teams in the country. My pitchers are in shape now and I am not worrying about the men getting their eye on the ball.”20 He was right – better times were ahead for the team – but a change of managers had to take place first. As it happened, the man who replaced Schlafly as the Blues’ skipper was also in the news on May 12, 1915. Harry Lord received his release as a player from the Chicago White Sox, freeing him to pursue other baseball opportunities.21

Acknowledgments and author’s note

This story was fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo and copy-edited by Len Levin. It is part of a project by the author to write stories on all eight American, National, and Federal League games played on May 12, 1915.

Photo credit: Ed Konetchy, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for general player, team, and season data and the box scores for this game.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BUF/BUF191505120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1915/B05120BUF1915.htm

Notes

1 The Federal League schedule on page 8 of the May 12, 1915, Baltimore Sun lists that day’s scheduled FL action as St. Louis at Baltimore, Kansas City at Newark, Chicago at Brooklyn, and Pittsburgh at Buffalo. The FL “Scores of Yesterday” column on page 11 of the May 13, 1915, Baltimore Evening Sun lists the Pittsburgh-Buffalo score and “other games postponed (rain).” In addition to these cancellations, a scheduled National League game that day between the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates in Philadelphia was rained out; it was made up as the first game of a July 12 doubleheader.

2 Barger also made nonpitching appearances in both seasons. In 1914 he appeared four times as a pinch-runner and once at second base; in 1915 he appeared twice as a pinch-runner. Buffalo’s Hugh Bedient also finished 19 games.

3 According to his SABR Biography Project biography, written by Chris Rainey, Krapp was born in Rochester but raised in Detroit.

4 The others were Bill Bailey and Jack Quinn of Baltimore and Hugh Bedient and Al Schulz of Buffalo.

5 Tom Seaton of the Brooklyn Tip-Tops also had 31.

6 In 1912 Krapp pitched in only nine major-league games for Cleveland. He walked 42 batters in 58 2/3 innings.

7 The Pittsburgh Post’s game story includes an inning-by-inning, play-by-play rundown of the game, and any game description not otherwise credited comes from this story and play-by-play recap. “Rebels Continue on Their Winning Way,” Pittsburgh Post, May 13, 1915: 11.

8 The out on Barger went from pitcher to third base to shortstop to second base to left field; the out on Kelly went from left field to first base.

9 Available news stories do not specifically mention any injury to Lennox. He next appeared in a game on May 16.

10 “Buf-Feds Fail to Hit at Right Time; Stogies Cop Again,” Buffalo Courier, May 13, 1915: 10. Berry stole seven bases in 100 games in 1915.

11 “Buf-Feds Fail to Hit at Right Time; Stogies Cop Again.” According to the Pittsburgh Post’s play-by-play breakdown, Hofman also made a sensational catch to rob Pittsburgh’s Hugh Bradley of a double in the seventh inning.

12 “Had Many Chances, but Couldn’t Win,” Buffalo Commercial, May 13, 1915: 7.

13 McDonald pinch-hit 25 times that season, the most of any player on the Blues.

14 Retrosheet lists the play that scored McDonald as an error by Rebels right fielder Hugh Bradley, which appears to be a mistake. The error by Lewis is specified in “Had Many Chances, but Couldn’t Win,” as well as in the Pittsburgh Post’s play-by-play breakdown and the Buffalo Courier’s game story.

15 Fourteen years later, at the other end of his career, Ehmke entered World Series legend when Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack tapped him, largely unexpectedly, to start Game One of the 1929 Series. The 35-year-old Ehmke, who had pitched just 11 regular-season games, pitched a complete-game 3-1 win over the Chicago Cubs, setting a Series record at the time with 13 strikeouts.

16 “Rebels Continue on Their Winning Way.”

17 “Had Many Chances, but Couldn’t Win.”

18 “Three Local Fed Players Released,” Buffalo Commercial, May 13, 1915: 9. A third member of the Blues, pitcher Bob Smith, was also demoted to Springfield (Massachusetts) of the Colonial League along with Woodman and Young.

19 “Rebels Continue on Their Winning Way.”

20 “Ford’s Spitter May Stop Rush of Oakes’ Clan,” Buffalo Evening News, May 13, 1915: 22.

21 “Harry Lord, White Sox Third Sacker, Released,” Buffalo Evening News, May 13, 1915: 22. Walter Blair managed the Blues for two games between Schlafly’s departure and Lord’s arrival.