September 20, 1902: Ike Butler earns only major-league win for Orioles

Baltimore had been a respectable team for the first half of the 1902 American League season, but the upheaval caused when John McGraw led a revolt that sent half the roster to either the Giants or Reds of the National League effectively killed their season. Wilbert Robinson took over the reins for the Orioles and with Ban Johnson’s help patched together a roster to finish the season. By the end of July, Baltimore had fallen from fifth place to out of the race. Then, the weakened Orioles started losing in a way that might remind you of the 1899 Cleveland Spiders. From August 26 through a blowout loss to Boston on September 17, Baltimore went 1 and 21 with two ties.

Washington, meanwhile, had been reasonably consistent all season. In May, the Senators had fallen to seventh place, but reversed course by gaining on .500 and planting themselves in the fifth-place position that Baltimore surrendered when their roster was decimated. As the summer wore on, Washington slowly slid to sixth place, where they stayed the rest of the way. The season was nearly over when the Senators faced off with Baltimore in a pair of doubleheaders on September 20 and 22.

Near the end of the losing streak, Wilbert Robinson received a new good-luck charm from O.P. Chase, who lived in Robinson’s hometown, Bolton, Massachusetts. Chase sent Wilbert a beagle hound puppy named May. The puppy arrived in Washington before the first game of the September 20 doubleheader with the Senators.1 With Robinson’s new mascot (and potential hunting companion), Baltimore won the first game, 6-5.

Ike Butler made the start for Baltimore in the second game. When the Orioles were reassembling a roster following McGraw’s exit and theft, some teams loaned players to Baltimore, and some players were purchased from minor-league teams around the country.2 An opportunist most of his life, Ike Butler saw a chance to play for a major-league team and sent a telegram to manager Robinson offering his services.3 Robinson, in desperate need of pitching, looked into Butler, saw his record (11-12 on a Shreveport team that was already 18 games under .500), and agreed to purchase his rights. Butler got a nice raise, too. Shreveport paid the right-hander $125 per month. Robinson offered Butler $400 each month to pitch for Baltimore.

Ike Butler’s record stood at 0-8 when he took the hill against the Senators for game two. Baltimore went down in order in the first. Washington’s Jack Doyle singled; a Jimmy Williams error put Doyle on third. Ed Delahanty drove in the first run of the game with a fly ball to center. Baltimore scored two runs in the second inning off Washington starter Bill Carrick. Harry Howell, the spitball pitcher now playing shortstop, singled and moved to second on Tom Jones’s sacrifice. A groundout and a walk put runners on first and third. Rookie Jimmy Mathison bluffed a steal of second and drew a throw from the Senators catcher, Lew Drill, which gave Howell an opening to steal home. Aleck Smith singled to score Mathison, giving the Orioles the lead. Baltimore added two more runs in the third inning behind a double by leadoff hitter Herm McFarland and consecutive singles by Williams, Howell, and Jones. Trailing 4-1, Washington chipped into the Baltimore lead in the bottom of the third when singles by Ed Delahanty, Bill Keister, and Watty Lee scored a run.4

Washington turned good fortune and timely hitting into a 5-4 lead in the fourth. Butler walked catcher Drill; earlier in the season the Senators loaned Drill to Baltimore for a couple of games. Bill Carrick next clumsily reached out with his bat and flipped the ball into right field for an unexpected double. Jack Doyle also doubled, scoring both runners. Jimmy Ryan’s single put runners on the corners and Bill Keister’s single scored Doyle to give Washington the lead.

Neither Washington nor Baltimore scored in the fifth, but the Orioles opened the sixth with a Harry Arndt double. Aleck Smith’s single tied the score, 5-5. Baltimore took back the lead in the eighth. Harry Howell homered over a short fence in left field to start the scoring. Harry Arndt next reached on a walk and later scored on a grounder by Butler, helping his own cause. Baltimore added two insurance runs in the ninth when Kip Selbach tripled and Jimmy Williams hit a towering homer into a pond beyond the right-field wall. Baltimore took a 9-5 lead into the bottom of the ninth.

Butler pitched four straight scoreless innings – and the pitcher was up in the ninth. Carrick hit the ball to short, but Howell’s poor throw allowed Carrick to reach. Jack Doyle singled to right, his fourth hit of the day, sending Carrick scurrying to third. Ryan’s fly ball scored Carrick, bringing up Ed Delahanty. Big Ed drove the ball to deep right field, but Arndt got a good jump on it, making a fine catch to end the game.

Neither Butler nor Carrick pitched well. Carrick allowed 17 hits; Butler 16. Butler also walked four batters, and three teammates made errors that contributed to two Washington runs. Still – Baltimore won. For Ike Butler, he finally got his first – and as it turns out, his only – major-league victory. The doubleheader sweep moved Baltimore temporarily out of last place, just percentage points ahead of Detroit. The Orioles won the first game of the September 22 doubleheader, giving them a three-game winning streak, but lost the second game. And then the good times were over. Baltimore lost the last six games to Philadelphia and Boston.

Ike Butler lost two of those final decisions to finish with a 1-10 record for the season – and for his career. When the Baltimore franchise moved to New York for 1903, Butler’s services were not retained. Butler jumped to the new Pacific Coast League, where he would find success for the next decade. While he won just one major-league game, he won nearly 200 minor-league games, most of them on the West Coast.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS1/WS1190209202.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1902/B09202WS11902.htm

Notes

1 “Beagle Pup for ‘Robbie,’” Baltimore Sun, September 21, 1902: 6.

2 Retrosheet.org lists all the Oriole players who were acquired by the Giants or Reds in connection with John McGraw’s revolt. The Giants acquired McGraw to manage their team. With Baltimore, McGraw played in only a third of the team’s games but led the team in on-base percentage when he played. They got Roger Bresnahan, who played center field, third base, and backup catcher. Bresnahan was on his way to the Hall of Fame. They added Dan McGann, a first baseman who batted .316 for Baltimore and .300 for the Giants. Joe McGinnity won between 26 and 28 games in the three seasons prior to 1902. A 13-game winner for Baltimore, he joined the Giants and split 16 decisions. The Iron Man would pair with Christy Mathewson and they won more than 30 games apiece in each of the next two seasons. McGraw thought Jack Cronin would be a solid starter for the Giants. He went 5-6 in New York with a 2.45 ERA, but his career didn’t really move forward with the Giants after he moved back to the National League. The Reds picked up Joe Kelley and Cy Seymour. Seymour was a converted pitcher who joined the Reds and hit .340 as the new center fielder. Kelley had played mostly center field for Baltimore, but became a utility player in Cincinnati – playing most every day at one of five positions. He batted over .300 for both teams in 1902.

3 “Orioles Fly Today,” Baltimore Sun, July 30, 1902: 6.

4 The entirety of the game summary comes from the following newspapers: “Senators Drop Two Games to the Weakened Orioles,” Washington Times, September 21, 1902: 10; “Baltimore Took Two Games from the Senators,” Washington Evening Star, September 22, 1902: 9; “Not Tail-Enders Now,” Baltimore Sun, September 21, 1902: 6.