September 18, 1895: Boston’s Cozy Dolan shuts out the Orioles

From 1883 until 1906, the Boston entry in the National League was often known as the Beaneaters. They finished first in the league standings in 1883, 1891-1893, and 1897-1898. The team had such well-known players as Tommy McCarthy, Old Hoss Radbourn, John Clarkson, and Jimmy Collins, as well as their manager, Frank Selee, all of whom were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In this great era of baseball, many of the players played multiple positions. One of those players was Patrick Henry “Cozy” Dolan. Besides playing right field and first base, Dolan sometimes pitched.

On September 18, 1895, Dolan was on the mound as the Beaneaters prepared to play the Baltimore Orioles. Baltimore was led by Ned Hanlon and similarly boasted a plethora of future Hall of Famers like Wilbert Robinson, Hughie Jennings, John McGraw, Willie Keeler, Joe Kelly, and (briefly) Dan Brouthers as well as Hanlon.

The game was the fourth in a four-game series between Boston and the first-place Orioles, with Baltimore winning the first two games and Boston taking the third. Baltimore was leading the second-place Cleveland Spiders by 2½ games in the National League standings, while Boston was mired in seventh place, 15½ games behind the Orioles.

Dolan was opposed on the mound by the Orioles’ staff ace, Bill Hoffer, who finished the year with a record of 31 wins and six losses.

It had rained the morning of the game and the grounds were in sad shape. Managers Hanlon and Selee had met at around 1 P.M. and had almost agreed to call the game off. However Selee changed his mind and telephoned the Orioles, telling them to come and play.1 The morning rain put the field in poor condition and kept many fans away.2 The game should never have taken place, in the opinion of the Baltimore Sun, as the steady rain made the playing field better suited for a convention of ducks than for a baseball game.3

Boston outfielder Jimmy Bannon led off the game with a single and advanced to second on a single by Herman Long. Both scored on a double by Hugh Duffy, and Duffy then scored on a single by Billy Nash, giving Boston a 3-0 lead.

There also was some excitement in the Baltimore half of the first inning when the Orioles loaded the bases on a hit batsman, a force out, a single, and then a walk. Orioles outfielder Steve Brodie then came to the plate. Brodie, who had a style of play that made him a favorite of both his teammates and the fans,4 hit a ball just in front of home plate. Boston catcher Jack Ryan picked up the ball, stepped on home plate, and then threw to first for a double play. Brodie claimed it was a foul ball and began to argue the call vehemently. He “used language that didn’t sound well,” swung his fists at umpire Miah Murray and tore the mask off his face; Murray fined Brodie $25 and ordered him from the field. Brodie refused to leave but was finally removed by the police and the game resumed.5

For Boston, the second inning was almost a repeat of the first. Ryan opened the inning with a hit, Dolan reached on an error, and Bannon drew a base on balls to load the bases. Long hit a groundball to Kid Gleason who was playing a deep second base, but not so deep that he could not throw out Ryan, who tried to score from third base. There was one out and the bases were still loaded when Duffy hit a single that plated two runs. Fred Tenney drew a base on balls, then Nash hit a ball to deep right that scored Long. Tucker drew the third base on balls of the inning and that scored Duffy with the inning’s fourth run.

The Orioles went down in order in the third inning, then manager Hanlon pulled Hoffer with a disgusted grunt and put in Duke Esper to see if he could stem the tide of Beaneater runs.

Esper made it easy for a while but in the fifth inning, Dolan and Jack Ryan both got hits and added another run to the Beaneaters total.

The Beaneaters scored three runs in the eighth inning. Duffy walked, Tenney got a hit, and Nash’s sacrifice left the Beaneaters with two men on base and one out. Joe Harrington then stepped up to the plate and hit a home run to put three more runs on the board for the Boston nine. Then Ryan and Bannon singled and Dolan walked. Long flied out to center field, at which point umpire Murray called the game because of darkness.6 The score reverted back to the previous inning, so Harrington’s blast and the three runs didn’t count. Nevertheless, Boston had an 8-0 victory.

The Orioles’ loss reduced their margin over the Cleveland Spiders to 1½ games. The Spiders had five games left on the schedule, three with Pittsburgh and two with Louisville. Baltimore had 11 games left, three with Brooklyn and four each with Philadelphia and the New York Giants.

The Orioles went 8-2 with one tie in the 11 games, and finished 3 games ahead of Cleveland. Boston won six of its final 10 games and finished in a tie for fifth place with the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, 16½ games behind Baltimore.

After the 1895 season, Dolan pitched in only 10 more games, winning one and losing six. He played in the major leagues as an infielder and outfielder until 1906, appearing in a total of 830 games. He should not be confused with the Cozy Dolan (Albert) who played from 1909 until 1922. That player was banned for life by Judge Kenesaw Landis for his part in a bribery scandal during the 1924 season.

Sources

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

Notes

1 “Is This Base-Ball?” Baltimore Sun, September 19, 1895: 6.

2 The attendance was said to be 500. T.H. Murnane, “Kept Guessing,” Boston Globe, September 19, 1895: 4.

3 “Is This Baseball?”

4 William Akin, “Steve Brodie,” SABR Biography Project, sabr.org, accessed April 23, 2017.

5  “Hit the Umpire,” Boston Post, September 19, 1895: 3.