September 26, 1911: Frank Baker’s homers help Athletics clinch second straight pennant

Heading into the 1911 season, the Philadelphia Athletics were a near unanimous choice to capture their second straight American League pennant and fourth in 11 years despite boasting one of the youngest lineups in the circuit. Their average age was a hair younger than 27 with a core that featured 20-year-old Stuffy McInnis at first base, 24-year-olds Eddie Collins and Jack Barry at second base and shortstop, respectively, 25-year-old Frank “Home Run” Baker at third, and 22-year-old reserve outfielder Amos Strunk.

The Detroit Tigers, on the other hand, were said to have felt the “effects of time” in 1910 when they finished in third place after having copped three straight pennants from 1907 through 1909.1 John B. Foster of the New York Evening Telegram blamed Detroit’s slide in the standings in 1910 on “snarling and petty fault finding on the part of the players,” especially Ty Cobb, whom he called a “spoiled baby.”2

But when the Tigers defeated the Athletics, 9-8, on May 19, 1911, they pushed their record to 27-5, and it looked as though they would cruise to another pennant. The next closest team, the Chicago White Sox, was already 9½ games back and the Athletics sat in fifth place with a 12-game deficit. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Tigers benefited from “striking splendid weather” during spring training and “started off as though they meant to make a runaway race of it.”3

Indeed, the Tigers won 21 of their first 23 games and capped off their run with a 10-0 drubbing of the New York Highlanders on May 9. Led by Cobb, Sam Crawford, Donie Bush, and pitcher George Mullin, Detroit was scoring more than six runs a game while allowing fewer than three. Only one pitching staff was stingier – the Pittsburgh Pirates were allowing 2.85 runs to that point – and the next most potent offense, belonging to the Philadelphia Phillies, was a full run behind.

But the race was far too early to call and the early fates of both squads proved to be a fluke. After a 13-15 start, Philadelphia went 52-20 and passed the Tigers atop the standings on August 7, then spent the next seven weeks building on their lead, which stood at 10½ games on September 25.

The Inquirer blamed lousy weather for the Athletics’ slow start and reported that magnate and skipper Connie Mack had “never encountered such adverse weather conditions for a spring training trip, and as a result it was not until the championship season was well under way that the Athletics began to round into first-class playing shape.”4

At 95-46, all the Athletics had to do to cop their second straight flag was beat the 85-57 Tigers, which was easier said than done. The Tigers had just beaten the Athletics in the first game of a two-game set on Monday and they were the only team with a winning record against Philadelphia, having won 12 of 21 contests.

For Tuesday’s game Mack called on 28-year-old right-hander Jack Coombs, who was leading the league with 26 wins. Of his 12 losses, four had come against Detroit. Hughie Jennings countered with 27-year-old righty Ed Willett, who had struggled to a 13-12 record and an ERA in the mid-3’s after averaging 17 wins and a 2.33 ERA over the previous three seasons.5 The Virginia native had faced Philadelphia twice out of the bullpen and surrendered 10 runs in seven innings before his first start against them.

Neither team scored in the first and Coombs got out of the second with another zero on the scoreboard, but Willett wasn’t so lucky. Athletics cleanup hitter Frank Baker led off the bottom of the second with his ninth homer of the season to stake Philadelphia to a 1-0 lead. “Frank Baker busted open the action of the fray,” wrote Jim Nasium of the Philadelphia Inquirer, “and slapped one of Willetts’ [sic] shoots on the snoot and lifted it far over the right field wall close to the foul line for the first run of the game.”6

Danny Murphy walked and all hands were safe when first baseman Del Gainer fumbled Willett’s throw on a bunt by Claud Derrick. Barry’s force out sent Murphy to third and he and Barry scored on a double to right-center by catcher Jack Lapp. Willett worked out of the jam thanks in part to Bush, who hauled in Coombs’ short fly and doubled up Lapp at second to keep the score at 3-0.

Perhaps buoyed by Bush’s play, the Tigers tied the score, 3-3, in the top of the third. Baker tossed wildly to Derrick on Willett’s grounder to lead off the inning, Bush singled to right, and Cobb beat out a chopper in front of the plate to load the bases with nobody out. Crawford plated Willett on a force out at second, Jim Delahanty knocked in Bush with a sacrifice fly to right, and Crawford tied the score when he crossed the plate on a two-bagger by Delos Drake. Coombs ended the frame and averted tragedy after walking Gainer when he speared a liner by George Moriarty that was heading for his face.7

Willett immediately killed Detroit’s momentum when the Athletics scored two in the bottom of the third. “Then the champs came in and proceeded without further monkey business to put the finishing touches on Mr. Willetts,” wrote Jim Nasium.8 The Tigers hurler retired Bris Lord to begin the inning, but a Rube Oldring hit followed by a triple to left-center field by Collins untied the score. Baker drove in his second run of the game with a double to left and it looked as if the inning would get out of hand when Murphy singled to put runners at first and third with only one out. But Bush made another sensational play on Derrick’s grounder and turned an inning-ending double play.

Coombs continued to put up zeroes and the 5-3 cushion held until the bottom of the sixth when Philadelphia scored another run, this time against relief pitcher Ralph Works, who entered the game in the fourth. Singles by Lapp and Coombs put runners on first and second, and a wild pitch advanced Lapp to third. He came home on a force out at second by Lord and Philadelphia’s lead grew to 6-3.

The onslaught continued in the seventh when Collins walked, then scored on Derrick’s three-bagger to put the Athletics up 7-3. Philadelphia effectively put the game on ice in the bottom of the eighth when four more runs came home. “The eighth inning was a series of disastrous events for Mr. Works,” Jim Nasium reported. “Coombs started the stuff with one down by slamming a two-base whack to the corner of the latitude then Works splashed the ball into the palpitating gizzard of Bris Lord.”9

Both runners scored on a double down the left-field line by Oldring to push the lead to 9-3, then Baker slammed his second four-bagger of the contest and became the first player to hit two home runs in one game at Shibe Park.10 That was all the runs the Athletics would score, but it was more than enough. The Tigers rallied for two runs in the top of the ninth when Cobb singled with two outs and Crawford followed with a two-run homer off Coombs. But the hurler rebounded and fanned Delahanty to win the game, 11-5, and the Athletics clinched their second straight American League pennant.

“There was no doubting the Athletics’ intentions of winning the game yesterday,” waxed the Philadelphia Inquirer. “They gave both Willetts and Works one of the worst grillings to which a pair of visiting slabmen have been subjected at Shibe Park this season. Singles, doubles, triples and home runs were smashed out with such regularity that the 10,000 odd fans were kept continually yelling themselves hoarse over the terrific exhibition of clubbing on the part of the Mackies.”11

SOURCES

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

NOTES

1 John. B. Foster, “Athletics to Run Their Race in 1911 Against the Field,” Owensboro (Kentucky) Messenger, April 2, 1911: 9.

2 Foster.

3 The Old Sport, “Athletics Win Championship From Detroit,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 27, 1911: 1.

4 “Athletics Win Championship From Detroit.”

5 Willett finished the season with a 3.66 ERA, but it’s difficult to know what his exact ERA was going into the September 26 game because neither Baseball-Reference.com nor Retrosheet.org has complete earned-runs data for game logs and daily splits.

6 Jim Nasium, “This Is the Game Which Decided It,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 27, 1911: 10.

7 “Athletics Again Are Champions of American League,” Detroit Free Press, September 27, 1911: 11.

8 “Athletics Again Are Champions of American League.”

9 “Athletics Again Are Champions of American League.”

10 Baker accomplished the feat again on June 26, 1914, against the Washington Senators in the second game of a doubleheader.

11 “Athletics Win Championship From Detroit.”