October 3, 1916: Brooklyn clinches NL pennant as John McGraw throws himself out of the game

Proximate geographies, shared histories, and personal relations drive great sporting rivalries. The race for the 1916 National League crown had all three of these essential elements. The neighboring boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan make up part of New York City. Wilbert Robinson and John McGraw spent years together on the Baltimore Orioles and New York Giants. And Brooklyn spent more than a decade chasing New York in the race for senior circuit supremacy.

The Giants had a made a record-breaking charge with a 26-game winning streak to draw close to the Robins in the 1916 campaign, but with just three days to go in the season, New York had been eliminated, while Brooklyn needed just one win and two losses by Philadelphia, which had won the pennant in 1915, to clinch its first postseason berth since 1890.

Lefty Sherry Smith started for the Robins and was hit hard at the start. Speedy George Burns had a leadoff squib to Smith and reached second when the hurler threw the ball wildly to first. Buck Herzog bunted to Smith, who mishandled the ball. Smith had two errors all season before the start of this game and doubled that total after just two batters. “The Brooklyn pitcher seemed to be doing all he could to keep the pennant away from Flatbush,” commented the New York Times.1

With runners on the corners, Dave Robertson singled in Burns to put New York up 1-0. Herzog advanced to third, and Robertson went to second on the throw from Zack Wheat in left. Heinie Zimmerman hit the third ball of the inning to Smith, and more madness ensued. On Smith’s toss to Jake Daubert at first to retire Zimmerman, Herzog sought to score only to retreat “to third, where he found Robertson. The latter started … to second, and Herzog [left] third to distract attention from Robertson. This proceeding did not put the Superbas in a very favorable light, but … Herzog was finally trapped between third and home and was out, Robertson taking third.”2

The DP went 1-3-6-8-2; the fact that Brooklyn center fielder Hi Myers earned an assist gives a good idea of the epic nature of this odd rundown, which seemed to unnerve Smith rather than the Giants as Art Fletcher hit just his third home run of the year to put New York up 3-0.

Southpaw Rube Benton, on a five-game winning streak, started for New York. He shut down the Robins in the first but gave up a run in the second on Mike Mowrey‘s double and Ivy Olson‘s single. Smith immediately gave the run back in the top of the third. With one out, Herzog singled, went to third on Robertson’s single, and scored on the play thanks to a throwing error by Myers.

Brooklyn rallied with four in the bottom of third to take its first lead. Jimmy Johnston had an infield single and went to second on Daubert’s single. After a force out at second left Myers at first, Johnston scored when Wheat had an RBI single to Benton. George Cutshaw drove in Myers with a single to cut the New York lead to 4-3. The hit knocked Benton out in favor of righty Pol Perritt, who had won his last four decisions. Perritt brought no relief for the Giants as Mowrey singled Wheat home to tie the game. Olson hit a chopper to third; Zimmerman threw him out, but Cutshaw scored to put the Robins up 5-4.

Jeff Pfeffer took over for Smith to start the fourth. Usually a starter, Pfeffer had not pitched more than three innings in relief for Brooklyn in 1916, but special players do special things in special games like a potential pennant-clincher. Pfeffer held New York in the fourth, but the Giants tied the game in the fifth. Bad baserunning prevented a bigger inning for New York. Perritt and Burns both singled, but Pol committed a cardinal sin by making the first out at third base on a throw from Johnston in right. Burns took second on the throw. After Pfeffer struck out Herzog, Robertson had his third hit of the day to plate Burns and even the score, 5-5. The Giants ran into another out when Robertson was caught stealing.

The opportunistic Robins regained the lead for good in the bottom of the frame. With two outs, Perritt plunked Mowrey and then threw a wild pitch that chased him all the way to third. Olson’s clutch single gave Brooklyn a 6-5 edge.

In 1916 Pfeffer represented something of a two-way threat as he excelled at pitching and batted .279. He singled in the fourth but did not score. In the sixth, he doubled. Robinson played the percentages and batted for Johnston with left-handed-hitting Casey Stengel, who like Robinson and McGraw would play a key role in the storied history of Gotham big-league ball. Stengel doubled to right; Pfeffer, unsure of whether Robertson would catch the blow, initially held up at second and only got to the third on the two-bagger. On this play, Pfeffer overestimated Robertson’s range; on the next, Pfeffer underestimated Robertson’s arm. Daubert flied to right, and Robertson threw out Pfeffer at the plate to complete a twin killing. Stengel advanced to third on the play and scored on a single by Myers to put the Robins up 7-5.

Brooklyn never sleeps. Cutshaw led off the seventh with a single and stole second with Perritt pitching from a full windup.3 Mowrey knocked him in and Perritt out of the game with a single that put Brooklyn up 8-5. George Smith came on to pitch for New York.

The Robins added a final run in the eighth. Stengel walked, advanced to third on Smith’s pickoff error, and scored on Daubert’s squeeze bunt. The Giants got a meaningless run in the ninth to make the score 9-6. With two outs, Burns flied to Wheat. After making the catch, Wheat “tossed the ball among his friends in the bleachers and took it on the run for the clubhouse. He had to hustle to keep ahead of a thousand or more fans, whose ambition it was to carry him across the field.”4

Soon after this game ended, Boston completed a doubleheader sweep of Philadelphia to bring a joyous Brooklyn to rhythmic heights: “The town is madly happy from the bridge to Coney Island,” the Brooklyn Eagle exulted. “Aged folks are feeling snappy; young ones greet you with a smile. Brooklyn maids are gaily beaming as they raise a Dodger cheer. Brooklyn youths are wildly screaming loud enough to bust your ear.”5

Did New York players lay down for their beloved Uncle Robbie, who had coached many of them under McGraw’s tutelage? McGraw certainly thought so and ditched his team temporarily in the fourth inning and then for good in the fifth. McGraw later griped that his team’s “baseball disgusted me, and I left the bench. I do not like indifferent playing of this kind after the hard work we have had this season. I refused to be connected with it.”6

Unsurprisingly, Robinson saw the situation differently: “It’s ridiculous even to suggest that the Giants were not trying to beat us this afternoon. It looked to me like they were trying pretty hard when they scored three runs in the first inning. At that time I felt like quitting the bench myself.”7

Regardless of the motivations behind the men who played this game, Brooklyn had cause to celebrate a quartet of surprising heroes. Cutshaw, Mowrey, and Olson hit fifth, sixth, and seventh for a reason – they all played key infield positions but had below-average batting records. On this day, the unheralded trio went 7-for-11 with four runs scored and six RBIs. The best player on the Robins all season, Pfeffer, probably expected to watch as he had just two days of rest after a 10-inning performance against Philadelphia. But Pfeffer, although on the bench at the start of the game, not only pitched, but twirled six sterling relief innings to win his 25th of the year and to put Brooklyn into the World Series thanks to a controversial win over its crosstown rivals.

NOTES

1 “Superbas Capture National Pennant,” New York Times, October 4, 1916: 12.

2 Thomas S. Rice, “Pennant at Last, After Sixteen Long Years!” Brooklyn Eagle, October 4, 1916: 21. Play-by-play accounts of this game come from this article except where otherwise noted.

3 “McGraw Casts Unwarranted Slur Upon His Ball Team,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 4, 1916: 21.

4 “Victorious Superbas Celebrate Victory,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 4, 1916: 22.

5 W.R. Hoefer, “The Man of the Hour,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 4, 1916: 21.

6 “McGraw, ‘Disgusted,’ Says Team Disobeyed His Orders – Leaves Field in Fifth Inning,” New York Times, October 4, 1916: 12.

7 “Ridiculous! Says Robinson,” Boston Globe, October 4, 1916: 1.