September 29, 1898: Jimmy Collins grand slam helps Beaneaters score 6 in ninth to beat Philadelphia

 The Boston Beaneaters entered their three-game series with the Philadelphia Phillies in a foul mood. Their frustration stemmed from a disappointing loss to the Brooklyn Bridegrooms the day before. The entire City of Boston seemed upset by the fact that Beaneaters manager Frank Selee had decided to start Vic Willis against Brooklyn just one day after he’d pitched a complete-game victory over them. Selee reasoned that since Philadelphia had been successful against Willis in the past, he’d use him against Brooklyn and save his other pitchers for the Phillies.1

Unfortunately, Willis did not have his best stuff pitching on back-to-back days and the tired pitcher lasted just four shaky innings. Tempers boiled over during the game when Boston captain Hugh Duffy was ejected. Despite a comeback attempt in the ninth when Boston loaded the bases, Brooklyn hung on to win, 5-2. Kid Nichols pitched the final five innings, partly defeating the purpose of trying to save Boston’s top arm for the Phillies. Tim Murnane of the Boston Globe wrote, “After the game everyone looked warm under the collar. Manager Selee came in for severe criticism from the directors and players for pitching Willis.”2 The Boston Post criticized the manager’s decision to start Willis, writing that Selee had acted with “anxiety for the future without any regard for today.”3 The loss snapped Boston’s eight-game winning streak and cut the Beaneaters’ lead over the second-place Baltimore Orioles to four games.

The displeasure over the loss to Brooklyn carried over to the next day, as the Beaneaters opened their series with the Phillies. The Boston Traveler reported, “Both the crowd and the team were out for the game, and there was plenty of ginger. They were sore at the loss of Wednesday’s game and were ready to kick at anything.”4 This was the atmosphere at Boston’s South End Grounds as the Beaneaters sent right-hander Fred Klobedanz to the mound to face Phillies right-hander Al Orth.

The Beaneaters jumped out to a first-inning lead when Bobby Lowe singled to right field, bringing home Billy Hamilton. Later in the inning, Lowe was gunned down at the plate on a great relay throw by Phillies second baseman Napoleon Lajoie for the third out.

The Phillies wasted little time jumping all over Klobedanz’s pitches. In the second inning, Phillies pitcher Orth “sent a long fly down right center, which (Billy) Hamilton muffed, letting in two runs.”5 Duff Cooley singled home Orth as center fielder Hamilton launched a wild throw home, and the Phillies increased their lead to 3-1.

Billy Lauder launched his second home run of the season in the third inning, a three-run shot over the left-field wall, to put Philadelphia up 6-1. That would be it for Klobedanz, who the Boston Journal noted had been saved for the Phillies, but “had proved to be just their ‘mutton.’”6 Ted Lewis was brought in to pitch the fourth, and the first batter to face him, Duff Cooley, lined one deep to center field.

As the Boston Traveler told it, “Hamilton started back for it and the ball just hit the tip of his fingers. Then it rolled clear to the fence behind the flagstaff and Cooley tore home.”7 The Boston Journal wrote that the inside-the-park home run, the first of the season at the South End Grounds, was due to “slow fielding” by Hamilton, while the Boston Evening Record reported that Hamilton was playing with a bad knee, which helped explain his poor defensive play.8

The Beaneaters came back with a run in the fourth, but Philadelphia answered in the top of the fifth when Billy Lauder singled, and two wild pitches later scored the Phillies’ eighth run of the game. Later in the inning, Boston right fielder Chick Stahl kept another run from scoring when he threw from the right-field fence to nail Ed McFarland at the plate, on a play that the Boston Traveler said was “a beauty, but the crowd was so sore at the way the game was going that they didn’t appreciate it at all.”9 In the bottom half of the inning, Boston picked up a run when Hamilton tripled and was driven home by Herman Long to cut the lead to 8-3.

Both teams picked up a run in the seventh and eighth innings. Boston’s run in the eighth came when Jimmy Collins picked up his third hit of the day, belting his league-leading 14th home run over the left-field fence to cut the Phillies lead to 10-5.

The Beaneaters entered the ninth inning trailing by five runs. With angry fans filing out of the ballpark, Boston was in danger of losing its second straight game and having its lead in the standings shrink even more. Hamilton led off the Beaneaters’ ninth with a single to center. Fred Tenney followed with another single, “and the crowd woke up.”10 Herman Long hit a sharp grounder to third baseman Lauder that could have been a double play, but Lauder “fumbled the ball” and all hands were safe.11 Lowe then lined a single to left, scoring Hamilton, while Tenney “mindful of the runs behind him, took no chances and very properly held at third.”12

With the bases loaded, Jimmy Collins, already 3-for-4 with a home run, stepped to the plate as the game’s tying run. The Boston Evening Record described the scene:

Somebody shrieked out the discovery that a home run would tie the game, and the bleachers and stands fairly seethed with excitement. Five thousand eyes were on Collins, who by the way, leads the league in home runs, but the grand little player was cool as an iceberg and took his time. Two balls he fouled trying to get the range. Then he met one fair, and with a report like a pistol shot the ball sped over the fence while the spectators went simply crazy with excitement over the unexpected turn in affairs.13

As the crowd celebrated, a rattled Orth walked Chick Stahl. After Marty Bergen sacrificed Stahl to second, Hugh Duffy moved him to third on a groundout to shortstop Monte Cross and a “splendid pickup” by first baseman Klondike Douglass.14 Pitcher Ted Lewis came to the plate with two outs and the winning run at third base. Lewis hit a high fly to shallow left field that left fielder Ed Delahanty, center fielder Duff Cooley, and shortstop Monte Cross all converged on to no avail. The crowd went wild as Stahl crossed the plate with the winning run. The Boston Journal described the chaotic celebration:

Hats were hurled into the air as if their owners did not care if they never came back. Men hugged and whacked their neighbors, whether strangers or not, and neighbor passed it along. A thunder of incoherent shouting filled the air. Sober and staid citizens yelled like demons in a crescendo of pleasure when the climax came and the Bostons had won the game. A kodac (sic) picture of any one of three-quarters of the spectators would be damning evidence against sanity.15

The hero of the day was Jimmy Collins, who went 4-for-5, with two home runs, including the game-tying grand slam, and five runs batted in. After the game, the Boston Evening Record noted that in value to his team, Collins “ranks with the greatest players in the league. That may be trite, but it is true.”16

After a frustrating two days, Collins’s late-game heroics quickly turned a disheartened crowd into a jubilant frenzy. The Beaneaters had accomplished what they failed to do the day before, complete a dramatic ninth-inning comeback. The Boston Evening Record summed up the ninth inning perfectly, writing that the Beaneaters’ improbable rally was “one of those things in baseball that make the game the national sport.”17

Notes

1 W.S. Barnes Jr., “A Game Thrown Away,” Boston Journal, September 29, 1898.

2 Tim Murnane, “Too Much Willis,” Boston Globe, September 29, 1898.

3 “Cost Hub a Game,” Boston Post, September 29, 1898.

4 “Baseball Notes,” Boston Traveler, September 30, 1898.

5 Murnane, “Fancy Finish,” Boston Globe, September 30, 1898.

6 Barnes, “Overcame Long Lead,” Boston Journal, September 30, 1898.

7 “Jim Collins Was the Hero,” Boston Traveler, September 30, 1898.

8 Barnes, “Overcame Long Lead”; The Sportsman, “From Diamond, Track, Turf, Court and River,” Boston Evening Record, September 30, 1898.

9 “Baseball Notes,” Boston Traveler.                                                 

10 Murnane, “Fancy Finish.”

11 Barnes, “Overcame Long Lead.”

12 “Collins the Hero,” Boston Evening Record, September 30, 1898.

13 Ibid. The actual attendance was 2,500 and both the Globe and Traveler noted that a large number of fans had left before the ninth-inning rally.

14 Barnes, “Overcame Long Lead.”

15 Ibid.

16 The Sportsman, “From Diamond, Track, Turf, Court and River,” Boston Evening Record, September 30, 1898.

17 Ibid.