October 24, 1911: ‘What’s the matter with Baker? He’s all right’ as A’s take Game 4

The Philadelphia Athletics were on Cloud Nine as they pulled out a come-from-behind victory in 11 innings over the New York Giants in Game Three of the 1911 World Series and led the Series two games to one. As they took the field on October 24, they had been soaring for an entire week, thanks to lousy weather in Philadelphia. Their soaring was figurative, of course, compared with those who were really in the clouds. Orville Wright was at Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina, that day, breaking a world’s record by maintaining his aeroplane in the air for 9 minutes and 45 seconds.1 A’s fans, however, were fascinated more with the soaring home runs off the bat of Frank Baker, who inherited the name for which he would forever be known: Home Run Baker. He was the league leader with 11 home runs in 1911, but this Series cemented his fame for all time.

It all began as a feud between Baker and the Giants’ Fred Snodgrass. Baker earlier in the season had an incident with Detroit’s Ty Cobb in which the Georgia Peach slid hard into third and spiked Baker on the arm. Giants manager John McGraw thought Baker looked weak, so he encouraged his team to play a rougher brand of ball. Snodgrass went hard into Baker in Game One of the Series, gashing his arm. Baker won Game Two with a decisive home run, and then, as the Giants held a 1-0 lead in the ninth inning of Game Three, he smashed another home run to force a tie. The game went into extra innings and Snodgrass again slid spikes up at Baker, trying to take third on a passed ball. The A’s prevailed and Baker said, “Yes, Snodgrass spiked me intentionally. He acted like a swell-headed busher. You can use those very words, too.”2

The Philadelphia Inquirer dubbed Snodgrass the “Spiking Kid,” and the crowd voiced their disapproval at his arrival at Shibe Park. For his part, Baker was treated like royalty, as banners were flown on the houses outside the ballpark, and the name Home Run Baker would stick forever after. The crowd anxiously awaited every Baker at-bat, waiting for him to launch another round-tripper. “The fans shouted his name continuously and his vicious drives invariably brought the fans to their feet in a stampede of enthusiasm,” the Philadelphia Inquirer noted.3

The crowd of 24,355 was also shivering on that chilly October day which “caused fans and fanettes to turn out in wraps and blankets that made the crowd assume the appearance of football cohorts,” wrote the Inquirer.4 While the grandstand and bleachers were mostly filled, there were plenty of open seats in the outfield. One group of filled seats was in the first row of the upper pavilion which belonged to a group dubbed the “50 Tourists,” guests of the Inquirer. They made their presence felt. “Armed with megaphones, cow bells, tom-toms and other earsplitting devices” they made a “bedlam of noise” and created their own impromptu song to their hero:

What’s the matter with Baker? He’s all right!
What’s the matter with Baker? He’s all right!
He slammed the ball right over the fence;
He only did it in self-defense!
What’s the matter with Baker? He’s all right!5

Two Hall of Fame managers, McGraw and Connie Mack, sent two of the greatest pitchers of all time to the mound. McGraw went with his ace, Christy Mathewson, who at 26-13 had the National League’s best ERA at 1.99. Chief Bender was 17-5 with a 2.16 ERA for the Athletics. The two legends had faced each other six years earlier in Game Five of the 1905 World Series, when Matty outdueled Chief, 2-0, for his third shutout of the Series. This year, Mathewson had squeaked out a win over Bender in Game One, a 2-1 classic, despite Bender’s 11 strikeouts. The Christian Gentleman (another of Mathewson’s sobriquets) was brought back for Game Three and went the distance for McGraw in an 11-inning loss as the defense around him faltered. That was a week ago, as a stretch of bad weather postponed the series for five consecutive days. “With a week’s rest Mathewson went into the game brimful of confidence,” wrote the New York Times.6

The Giants jumped on the board quickly. Leadoff batter Josh Devore beat out a hit back to the mound that glanced off Bender’s meat hand. Larry Doyle launched a triple as center fielder Rube Oldring slipped in the mud and the ball rolled to the fence. Devore scored. Snodgrass, hearing “yells of derision,” lofted a fly ball to left that scored Doyle and gave the Giants a 2-0 first-inning lead.7

Mathewson allowed a hit in the bottom of the first but struck out the side, so no damage was done. In the second he allowed Danny Murphy a leadoff double. Murphy was caught napping at second and Mathewson picked him off, but his throw was wild and Murphy took third. Mack must have accepted the fact that his A’s would not have many chances like this against Mathewson, so he tried some trickery; with Jack Barry at the plate, Mack put the squeeze play in motion. But Barry missed the bunt and Murphy was a dead duck at home. Barry then reached on a bunt down the third-base line that Mathewson and Buck Herzog hoped would roll foul. Ira Thomas popped up to end the inning, filled with a flurry of activity, but the A’s had nothing to show for it.

The game remained 2-0 into the bottom of the fourth. Home Run Baker led off with a double to left-center. Murphy followed with another double to left-center, and Baker scored. Murphy scored on a double into the right-field corner by Davis that “singed the ozone” in the words of the Inquirer.8 Mathewson was perplexed and there was a conference at the mound with the entire infield as action began in the New York bullpen. “Matty was plainly nettled.”9 Davis scored on a sacrifice fly by Thomas. The A’s scored three in the inning and now led, 3-2.

In the top of the fifth, the Giants’ Chief Meyers doubled but was thrown out when he tried to advance on a wild pitch, “on an eye lash decision at the sack,” wrote the Inquirer.10 In the bottom of the inning after two were out, Eddie Collins singled and scored “like a scared rabbit” on Baker’s double to deep center. The A’s led, 4-2.11

The Giants’ Larry Doyle had egg on his face in the top of the sixth after he walked. After Snodgrass struck out, Red Murray hit a high pop foul toward third. Doyle was running with the pitch and became the victim of the A’s trickery. Barry at shortstop went through the motions of fielding a groundball and Collins covered second, playing along. Doyle fell for the bluff despite McGraw and others yelling at him from the dugout. Oblivious to where the ball really was, Doyle arrived at second, only to see it land in Baker’s glove, and he was easily doubled off first. Ridiculing his reputation as a smart player, the Inquirer wisecracked that the “superior illumination of the belfry of which we have heard so much was not in evidence, unless it was furnished by Barry and Collins.”12 Fans mockingly cheered Doyle “who walked into the trap as if blindfolded.” Doyle’s teammates smirked, and an anxious McGraw was seen biting his finger.13

Bender would allow the Giants only three hits and no runs from the sixth inning on. He faced trouble in the eighth. Devore singled and Snodgrass reached on an error, but with two outs Murray popped up to the catcher to leave two on base. Matty was pinch-hit for in the eighth, so eight-year veteran Hooks Wiltse came in to pitch a scoreless eighth. Fred Merkle, who had been struck out three times by Bender, led off the Giants ninth with a double. He made it to third on a groundout, but Art Fletcher popped out and Myers grounded out. The Athletics won, 4-2, and now had a commanding three-games-to-one advantage in the series.

Bender scattered seven hits, giving up two in an inning only in the first, while striking out four. Mathewson was certainly not his legendary self that day, allowing 10 hits, described as “juicy swats” by the Inquirer, with six of them being doubles: two each by Murphy and Baker.”14 The two Hall of Fame pitchers and Wiltse threw a total of 202 pitches in the game: Mathewson 84, Bender 106, and Wiltse 12.15

Baker, Bender, and the A’s were indeed “all right,” and on their way back to New York for Game Five.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com.

NOTES

1 “Wright Maintains New Soarer Nine Minutes in the Air,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 25, 1911: 1.

2 C. Starr Mathews, “‘I’ll Cut You Down,’” Baltimore Sun, October 19, 1911: 10.

3 “Athletics’ Bats Win Against Pitching of Mathewson,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 25, 1911: 10.

4 “Athletics’ Bats Win Against Pitching of Mathewson”: 11.

5 “Famous Fifty Elect Matty to Down and Outers,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 25, 1911: 10.

6 “Three Straight for Athletics,” New York Times, October 25, 1911: 1.

7 “Three Straight for Athletics”: 10.

8 “Athletics’ Bats”: 10.

9 “Three Straight for Athletics”: 2.

10 “Play by Play Briefly Told of Macks’ Great Victory,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 25, 1911: 10.

11 “Three Straight for Athletics”: 10.

12 “Athletics’ Bats Win Against Pitching of Mathewson”: 10.

13 “Three Straight for Athletics”: 10.

14 “Athletics’ Bats Win Against Pitching of Mathewson”: 10.

15 “Record of the Pitchers,” New York Times, October 25, 1911: 3.