May 19, 1917: Gavy Cravath’s throw cuts down Larry Doyle, saves Phillies, and goes into the record books

In March 1939, sportswriter James C. Isaminger looked back at a 44-year career covering major-league baseball. When asked to name his greatest baseball thrill, there were thousands of regular-season games and dozens of World Series to consider.

Yet he didn’t hesitate: “It was in a game between the Cubs and the Phils, in the old Phillies park, about 20 years ago …”1

Philadelphia’s straw hat season of 1917 had blossomed—the visiting Cubs bought some that morning—and the bleachers presented a sea of them.2 The sun emerged from the clouds; temperatures climbed into the 80s.3 As the second game in the four-game series approached on May 19, a large Saturday crowd filled most of Philadelphia Ball Park’s 18,000 seats.4

The surprising Cubs had arrived in Philadelphia riding a 10-game winning streak and leading the National League with a 22-9 record. Preseason analysts had sized them up as second-division stuff.5 New manager Fred Mitchell was their sixth leader in six seasons. But five weeks into the campaign Jim Vaughn had emerged as an elite lefty and rehabilitated righty Phil Douglas was pitching to promise.6 Second baseman Larry Doyle and first baseman Fred Merkle (both former New York Giants), along with center fielder Cy Williams and left fielder Les Mann, formed an effective L-R-L-R middle of the batting order.

The Phillies were a veteran squad, forged over two tough pennant races over the last two seasons. They occupied third place, four games back.7 Manager Pat Moran typically selected Pete Alexander to pitch series openers. When the four-game set began on Friday, the league’s best pitcher, on his way to a 30-win season, snapped Chicago’s streak, 3-1.

Saturday’s game quickly disappointed the fans. With one out in the top of the first, Phillies starter Joe Oeschger botched Max Flack’s easy grounder. Doyle earned a pass. Merkle singled to drive in Flack, Doyle stopping at second. Williams grounded out to advance the runners. Mann’s single to right scored his two teammates, but he was caught in a rundown trying for second. In the bottom of the inning, Philadelphia shortstop Dave Bancroft’s long drive bounced into the left-field bleachers for a home run.8

One out later, right fielder Gavy Cravath, batting cleanup, came to the plate. He was off to a torrid start, his 1.052 OPS easily outdistancing anyone else in the majors.9 His favorite target—the Phillies’ already-infamous 32-foot-high right-field wall—stood only 272 feet away from home plate. With his trusty black bat, he almost cleared it; but after the ball rattled off a painter’s swing near the scoreboard, he settled for a triple.10 Chicago starter Vaughn struck out George Whitted, and the first inning concluded with the Cubs leading, 3-1.

The pitchers asserted themselves over the next two innings, but the lineups traded runs in the fourth. After walking Williams with one out, Oeschger’s failure to charge Mann’s high-bouncing grounder allowed him to reach. Art Wilson’s single scored Williams, before the Phillies turned a double play on Charlie Deal’s grounder to Bancroft. In Philadelphia’s half, after Fred Luderus walked with two out, singles by Bert Niehoff and Bill Killefer plated him. Bobby Byrne, pinch-hitting for Oeschger, flied out to end the inning.

In the fifth, Erskine Mayer took over from Oeschger and set down the Cubs in order; Vaughn likewise quieted Philadelphia.

In the sixth, Mayer escaped a two-out, bases-loaded jam when catcher Killefer snared Deal’s foul popup, but Vaughn wasn’t as fortunate. With one out, Whitted smashed a single to Williams. Luderus, Moran’s principal left-handed bat, pulled a pitch to right that eluded both Merkle and Flack. Whitted flew around the bases and scored, but Luderus was run down trying for third base. Chicago remained in front, 4-3.

Philadelphia tied the score in the eighth. With two outs, Luderus reached on an infield single too hot for third baseman Deal. Moran sent rookie Patsy McGaffigan in to run for the lumbering first baseman. Niehoff walked. Killefer singled to left, McGaffigan scored.

Jimmy Lavender, acquired from the Cubs by Moran in the offseason, replaced Mayer in the ninth and pitched a one-two-three frame. In the bottom of the inning, Vaughn nicely turned Paskert’s grounder into an out. Deal snared Bancroft’s liner with a dazzling leap, then threw out third baseman Milt Stock to send the game to extra innings.

An entertaining afternoon was about to become unforgettable.

Flack began the 10th inning by grounding out to Lavender. Doyle drew a walk. Bancroft threw Merkle’s potential double-play ball past second baseman Niehoff. With Doyle at second and Merkle at first, Mitchell used rookie pitcher Dutch Ruether to pinch-hit for the strikeout-prone Williams. Lavender issued another walk. With one out, the bases were full. Les Mann, next up, grounded down the third-base line. Doyle came home; Mann beat Stock’s throw to first. Home-plate umpire Cy Rigler, however, ruled the ball foul.

Back in the box, Mann lined Lavender’s next pitch to right-center field. The 36-year-old Cravath was never fast and, by 1917, his legs increasingly hobbled him. Even with less ground to patrol in Philadelphia’s compact right field, his range was below average. Yet his baseball smarts remained undimmed. Cravath was as gifted gauging balls off the wall as he was lifting homers over it. His throwing arm, while not particularly strong, was praised for its accuracy.11

Cravath cut across the grass. With a quick hop the ball landed in his glove. Still moving, he transferred the ball to his right hand, processed the play in front of him, and rifled a throw to home. Doyle had held at third, thinking the ball might be caught, yet once in motion he couldn’t outrun the ball’s flight. Killefer recorded the force out with one foot on the plate.

The crowd shook off its collective disbelief and erupted with applause. Another thrilling defensive play followed seconds later. Stock, charging to play Wilson’s grounder to third, unleashed a wild, off-balance throw to first base. Whitted, who had replaced Luderus there an inning before, toed the bag, stretched out completely to make a one-handed catch, and ended the Chicago threat.12

Vaughn dealt easily with the Phillies in the bottom of the 10th, and Lavender had no difficulties with the Cubs in the top of the 11th. As the next frame began, the Phillies’ bench jeered Vaughn for soiling balls, and Rigler repeatedly threw him clean ones. One proved to Killefer’s liking and his bad-hop grounder bounced off shortstop Rollie Zeider’s beak for a single. Lavender, after two failed attempts, laid down a bunt. Vaughn fielded it, threw to second, but Zeider dropped the ball. Paskert first tried to advance the runners by bunting, then amplified the crowd’s anticipation by fouling off multiple pitches, before lining a clean hit to the left-center wall. Killefer came home with the concluding score.

The next day, debate surrounded Doyle’s baserunning.13 The Chicago Tribune’s James Crusinberry thought he had started for home “not hurriedly, but in a jogging manner, never thinking that a play would be made on him.”14 The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin observed Mitchell, in the third-base coaching box, reading the ball’s flight and “frantically trying to get Doyle to move up the line.”15 Thus, if the relatively shallow ball fell, he would safely score. Or, if it was caught, he could safely scamper back and Chicago would still have an out to play with. Isaminger, defending Doyle as “one of the fastest and shrewdest pathmen in the game,” argued that “under no code of reasoning could it be said that he was guilty of … a ‘boner.’”16

There was no debate around Cravath’s throw. Referencing the press box consensus, Isaminger observed that “nobody ever heard before of a runner being unable to score from third to home on a ball that went to the outfield and fell uncaught.”17 A week later, he queried several senior baseball writers on its seeming uniqueness, yet apparently received no examples of similar plays.18

As of 2026, historical major-league play-by-play data was incomplete.19 Still, Cravath’s play was the first recorded instance of a runner at third being thrown out at home—whether by a force out or a tag—by a right fielder on a fair ball. There were two known instances of left fielders or center fielders accomplishing the feat before Cravath: Cubs center fielder Fred Snodgrass in a June 4, 1911, game against the visiting Giants20 and Phillies left fielder Sherry Magee in the second game of an October 4, 1911, doubleheader versus the visiting Boston Braves.21

As of 2026, National and American League outfielders were known to have made the play some 30 times since Cravath.22 During the 21st Century’s early decades, they often occur in bases-loaded, walk-off situations when an outfielder moves in to play as a fifth infielder.23

But on May 9, 2009, as Arizona Diamondbacks hosted the Washington Nationals, an outfield assist similar to Cravath’s was recorded.24 In the bottom of the seventh, trailing 1-0, Arizona loaded the bases with one out. Josh Whitesell’s liner dropped in front of charging right fielder Austin Kearns. Like Doyle generations before, the runner at third, Felipe López, stayed close to the bag. Kearns fielded the ball to his left, rotated his body around to unleash an off-balance throw. López ran hard. With his foot still on the plate, catcher Jesús Flores fully extended to the right to catch the ball, a second before López landed with a head-first slide.25

Acknowledgements

The article was fact-checked by Harrison Golden and copy-edited by Keith Thursby. The author thanks the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Newspapers and Microfilm Center for their assistance in obtaining sources.

Photo credit: Gavy Cravath, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author reviewed game coverage in the Chicago Examiner, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, Philadelphia Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia North American, Philadelphia Press, Philadelphia Public Ledger, and Philadelphia Record newspapers.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI191705190.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1917/B05190PHI1917.htm

Notes

1 Stoney McLinn, “Jimmy Isaminger, Scribe for 44 Years, Started Writing of Game at Ban Johnson’s Prompting,” The Sporting News, March 23, 1939: 9. In this interview, Isaminger’s memory was a bit off, as he recalled Pete Alexander being the Phillies pitcher that day.

2 Philadelphia’s straw hat season traditionally began with the University of Pennsylvania’s home opener. In 1917 this occurred on May 12, with the Quakers topping Swarthmore, 4-1. On details of the Cubs’ straw hat shopping, and their predominance in the bleachers, see “Notes,” Chicago Tribune, May 20, 1917: Section 2, 1.

3 Weather per “Yesterday’s Local Weather Report,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 20, 1917: 2.

4 The Phillies’ North Philadelphia park was built in 1887 and substantially rebuilt after an 1894 fire. Until the 1920s it was known as the “Philadelphia Ball Park” or the “National League Park.” Only in 1923 did newspapers and fans begin to refer to it as the “Baker Bowl” in reference to the team’s owner, William F. Baker. For more on the park, see Seamus Kearney’s BioProject entry, https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/baker-bowl-philadelphia/.

5 For the picks, for each league, by hometown newspapers, see “New York and Chicago Baseball Favorites,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 10, 1917: 14.

6 Both the Reds and Dodgers had tired of Douglas’s fondness for alcohol early in his career, and Cubs’ manager Joe Tinker unloaded the pitcher to the minor leagues after he found liquor on his breath during Chicago’s 1916 spring training. Mitchell gave Douglas a fresh opportunity in 1917. For more on Douglas’s colorful career, see Mike Lynch’s BioProject entry, “Phil Douglas,” https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/phil-douglas/, accessed June 2026.

7 For both teams, early-season success proved illusory. The Cubs fell into the second division by early July and finished the season with a 74-80 mark.

8 After the 1930 season, the National League ruled that such balls would be universal ground-rule doubles.

9 For MLB OPS leaders going into this game, see “League Leaders on May 18, 1917,” Retrosheet.org, https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1917/DL05181917.htm, accessed June 23, 2026.

10 For mention of Cravath’s black bat, see “Phillies Get Out of Rut,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, July 5, 1913: 11; “Cravath’s Hefty Drive Wins for Phils in Tenth,” Philadelphia Record, April 10, 1918: 10.

11 For praise of Cravath’s right-field play, see James C. Isaminger, “Tips from the Sporting Ticker,” Philadelphia North American, April 16, 1916: News Section, 6. Cravath led NL right fielders for three consecutive seasons (1913 through 1915) in assists, for the next three he placed third in this category.

12 In the Deadball Era, gloves (and convention) made one-handed catches at first base far more notable than they are today.

13 As the next day was a Sunday, when Philadelphia’s evening newspapers did not publish, their sportswriters joined the discussion on Monday.

14 James Crusinberry, “Unusual Play Beats Bruins at Philly, 5-4,” Chicago Tribune, May 20, 1917: Section 2, 1.

15 “Chicago Cubs Do Not Appear to be Real Flag Contenders,” Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, May 21, 1917: 11.

16 James C. Isaminger, “Miraculous Throw Saves Phillies, Who Win in 11th, 5-4,” Philadelphia North American, May 20, 1917: Section 8: 1.

17 Isaminger, “Miraculous Throw Saves Phillies, Who Win in 11th, 5-4.”

18 James C. Isaminger, “Tips from the Sporting Ticker,” Philadelphia North American, May 27, 1917: Section 8, 6.

19 Baseball-Reference.com issued the following disclaimer in June 2026: “Regular-season data [for the American and National Leagues] is complete back to 1969, nearly complete back to 1950, and mostly complete back to 1910.” For the Negro Leagues (1920-1948) such data was rarer than the other major leagues in the segregated era and not yet incorporated into B-R’s batting event data. For the leading Black independent clubs prior to 1920, that one day may receive major-league designation, rarer still.

20 Notably, both the Chicago Inter Ocean and the Chicago Tribune credit left fielder Josh Devore with making the play, not Snodgrass. See Fred J. Hewitt, “Leaderless Giants Toss One More Session Over to Chance’s Cubs, 6 to 5,” Chicago Inter Ocean, June 5, 1911: 4; I. E. Sanborn, “Cubs Fight Hard; Win in the Ninth,” Chicago Tribune, June 5, 1911: 14. Also: Sanborn referred to the fair ball leading to the play at the plate as “a neat Texas Leaguer in short left.”

21 This game’s play-by-play account may be found in “Boston Captures Both Games of Double-Header with Phillies; Drives Stack from Hill in Second,” Philadelphia Evening Telegraph, October 4, 1911: 1, 12. See also James C. Isaminger, “Double Defeat for Phils; From Tailend Boston, Too,” Philadelphia North American, October 5, 1911: 12. Notably, Isaminger doesn’t mention this play in the piece. It occurred in the top of the seventh in a meaningless second doubleheader game, to be called at darkness (and possibly to also allow Boston to catch an early train) at the end of the inning. It’s possible that indifferent play characterized the game, rendering it forgettable to Isaminger six years later.

22 Outs recorded by outfielders on fair balls at the plate, on runners from third, account for a fraction of more inclusive listings available through Baseball-Reference’s Stathead “Batting Event Finder” tool. For left fielders, see “All: 91 Outs Hit to Left Fielder in 1910-2026 – with 3rd Occupied, Ground Ball,” Stathead.com, https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/tiny/FJ2GW, accessed June 23, 2026. For center fielders: “All: 115 Outs Hit to Center Fielder in 1910-2026 – with 3rd Occupied, Ground Ball,” Stathead.com, https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/tiny/aWSnb, accessed June 23, 2026. For right fielders: “All: 144 Outs Hit to Right Fielder in 1910-2026 – Ground Ball, with 3rd Occupied,” Stathead.com, https://www.sports-reference.com/stathead/tiny/CkJLK, accessed June 23, 2026.

23 The “fifth infielder” strategy dates back to, at a minimum, Branch Rickey’s experimentations with the Brooklyn Dodgers in their 1950 spring training. For more information, see Peter Morris, A Game of Inches: The Story Behind the Innovations that Shaped Baseball (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2010), 239.

24 “WAS AT AZ – May 09, 2009,” YouTube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPfgTDJIB_U, accessed June 15, 2026. The play begins at the 2:15:00 mark and, with valuable replays, lasts 90 seconds.

25 Washington went on to win the game, 2-1.