September 23, 1913: A’s clinch AL pennant, then put on offensive clinic

As the 1913 regular season neared its end on Tuesday, September 23, the Philadelphia Athletics under Connie Mack had clinched the pennant behind a stellar 1-0 shutout performance by Eddie Plank the afternoon before. Plank’s gem was the second game of a doubleheader following a 4-0 shutout by Bullet Joe Bush earlier in the day. Hughie Jennings’s Tigers, the victims of both defeats, fell to 32½ games out in sixth place in the American League. For Mack’s men, it was their third pennant in four seasons. For Jennings, it was now four years since the Tigers’ last pennant and two since their last strong season (second place in 1911).

Detroit’s team, while not competitive in 1913, featured a 26-year-old center fielder named Ty Cobb who was about to win his seventh straight American League batting title. Also in the lineup was Sam Crawford, who led the league in triples and hit .317 while playing right field or first base.

The Athletics of 1913 featured the famous “$100,000 infield,” Home Run Baker at third base, Jack Barry at shortstop, Eddie Collins at second base, and Stuffy McInnis at first base. Future Hall of Famers Eddie Plank and Chief Bender were the aces of the pitching staff, helped by a great season from Boardwalk Brown and contributions from Bullet Joe Bush and Byron Houck.

After the doubleheader sweep, fans flocked to Connie Mack’s office at Shibe Park and hung around to wish the team well in the World Series. Mack suggested that he would be giving his regulars three days off but not until the Washington series. He planned to have them all back at Shibe Park for the final series against the New York Yankees as a tuneup for the likely encounter with John McGraw’s New York Giants.1

Hughie Jennings tapped 20-year-old rookie Lefty Williams to take the hill against the Athletics on Tuesday, the 23rd, which was the final game of the series. Williams was 1-0 at the time, having beaten the Washington Senators 4-2 in his first major-league start, on September 17. He would later be known for his performance in the 1919 World Series as a member of the Black Sox. Though acquitted by a jury, Williams was among the players banned from baseball by Commissioner Kenesaw M. Landis after the 1920 season.2

With the pennant in the bag, Mack started 19-year-old Herb Pennock, who had pitched mostly in relief for two seasons. Pennock would go on to win 241 games and land in the Hall of Fame mostly for his work with the Yankees of the 1920s.3

The game did not begin well for the teen Pennock. After retiring the Tigers’ leadoff hitter, shortstop Donie Bush, shortly after 2:00 P.M. before 4,000 Philadelphia fans, Pennock walked second baseman Paddy Baumann and then served up a shot over the right-field fence by Sam Crawford. The Tigers led 2-0.

Pennock was back at it in the second inning. With two out, third baseman Baldy Louden and pitcher Lefty Williams walked. Bush followed with a single, scoring Louden. Baumann’s double scored Williams and Bush. Crawford capped the inning with a triple that added another run, Baumann crossing the plate. The Tigers led 6-0. It was beginning to look like a blowout for the Tigers, the A’s bats quiet so far as if the players were disinterested since winning the pennant.

The A’s awakened against Williams in the second. Stuffy McInnis, Jimmy Walsh, and Jack Barry knocked consecutive singles, McInnis scoring on Barry’s hit. Wally Schang was plunked by a Williams offering, loading the bases. Pitcher Pennock made the first out, popping up to catcher Frank Gibson. Right fielder Eddie Murphy then stepped in and launched one of Williams’s offerings on a line to center, over Cobb’s head. This cleared the bases as Murphy slid into third with a triple. The score was now 6-4, but the fun was only beginning.

Left fielder Rube Oldring singled Murphy home. Second baseman Eddie Collins followed with a single, Oldring heading to third. With men on the corners, Home Run Baker served a Williams offering to right, scoring Oldring. The speedy Collins tried to score from first, but was cut down at the plate for the second out, the score tied 6-6.

McInniss gave the A’s the lead with a hit that scored Baker. After Walsh walked, Barry singled in McInnis and Walsh. Schang then drove in the 10th run of the inning, his single driving Barry home. Pennock made his second and the final out of the inning. The A’s now led 10-6 on a 10-spot in the second. It was a season high for runs in an inning for Philadelphia. It was also the end of Williams’s outing. His line for the day was two innings pitched, 10 earned runs allowed on 11 hits.

Though the Tigers tallied another run in the third inning, the A’s pressed on the accelerator, scoring in every inning the rest of the way: two in the third, one in the fourth, two in the fifth, one in the sixth, three in the seventh, and two in the eighth. The 11 additional runs were all charged to Ralph Comstock, who gave up 14 hits in his six innings.

The final score was 21-8. For the Athletics, the $100,000 infield scored 10 runs and knocked in nine on a total of 12 hits. Barry led with five RBIs followed by Murphy’s four. Overall, the team ripped 25 hits, walked five times, and were hit by pitches twice. Young Herb Pennock went the distance, earning his second win of the season. He yielded 13 hits, walked five, and was charged with eight earned runs.

The limping Tigers had one bright spot in the game. Sam Crawford nearly hit for the cycle, needing only a single in his final two at-bats. It was not to be.

After this game the A’s cruised to the finish line with a 2-8 record over the final 10 games. They went on to defeat the New York Giants in five games in a memorable World Series, Eddie Plank defeating Christy Mathewson in the final game to clinch another championship for Connie Mack.4

SOURCES

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

NOTES

1 Jim Nasium, “Athletics Are Champions for Fifth Season,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 23, 1913: 1, 12.

2 Jacob Pomrenke, “Lefty Williams,” SABR BioProject, sabr.org/bioproj/person/0998b35f.

3 Frank Vaccaro, “Herb Pennock,” SABR BioProject, sabr.org/bioproj/person/612bb457.

4 Lawrence Knorr, Gettysburg Eddie: The Story of Eddie Plank (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Sunbury Press, Inc., 2018), 291-292.