September 30, 1916: Cleveland’s Jack Graney keeps league lead in doubles; White Sox win to remain in race

With only two days left on the Cleveland Indians’ 1916 schedule, Jack Graney already had a season to remember. The 30-year-old St. Thomas, Ontario, native,1 a member of Cleveland’s American League franchise since his 1908 major-league debut, had piled up career-high totals in runs, doubles, triples, and home runs, rated among the best defensive left fielders in baseball, and reached base nearly 250 times as the club’s primary leadoff hitter.2

Graney’s 40 doubles led a tight race for the AL lead. The Indians’ Tris Speaker and Chicago White Sox outfielder Shoeless Joe Jackson, a former Cleveland teammate,3 trailed Graney by one as the Indians and White Sox prepared for the first of back-to-back doubleheaders to end the season. Graney, who had played at least 116 games in five of the six previous seasons, had never finished in the top five in any offensive category.4

All three players doubled before 10,600 fans in the second game of the September 30 doubleheader at Cleveland’s League Park – a continuation of the “merry battle”5 for the league lead in two-baggers. But Chicago fans hailed Happy Felsch as the hero after his 12th-inning, inside-the-park grand slam gave the White Sox a 7-3 victory that kept their slim pennant hopes alive.

The race for the AL pennant had brewed all month. On September 1 only the basement-dwelling Philadelphia Athletics had been mathematically eliminated. One by one, teams lost hope until only the White Sox and Boston Red Sox remained. Going into the final series of the season against Cleveland – which saw games postponed on September 28 and 29 – the White Sox could have clinched the pennant with four victories and four Red Sox losses, a combination few expected would happen with Boston facing the lowly A’s (34-116) in three of those contests.

“You can figure for yourself what the chances are the White Sox will take four from the Indians,” the Chicago Tribune’s I.E. Sanborn advised readers on September 30, “and when you have arrived at those figures, dope out Philadelphia’s chances to take more than one out of three from the Red Sοx.”6

Even though White Sox hopes were slim, the 1916 season had come down to one of the closest races the AL had seen since the three-way gallop to the finish in 1908.7 Manager Pants Rowland’s club sought its first AL pennant since 1906.8

The White Sox beat Cleveland 7-2 in the day’s first game on September 30, and Jackson took aim at Graney’s league lead to help open the scoring in game two. After Eddie Collins grounded out to open the fourth, Jackson sent a Joe Boehling pitch to left-center to pull into a tie with Graney with his 40th double of the season. Felsch jump-started a 3-for-5 game by following with an RBI double to left for a 1-0 White Sox lead.

An inning later Byrd Lynn singled and Shano Collins doubled to put runners on the corners for Chicago. Buck Weaver grounded to short, but Bill Wambsganss threw home wildly, allowing Lynn to score and Collins to move to third. Eddie Collins popped up on the infield, but the White Sox took a 3-0 lead when Shano Collins and Weaver executed a double steal of home and second. Weaver also tried to swipe third but was tagged out to end the inning.

Graney retook the league lead in doubles by smacking his 41st with one out in the bottom of the sixth, and he scored when Speaker tallied his 40th two-bagger after Ray Chapman grounded out. Speaker scored on Braggo Roth’s single to left to cut Chicago’s lead to 3-2.

The White Sox looked poised to sweep the afternoon’s games going to the bottom of the ninth, but the scrappy Indians pushed another run across against Chicago starter Lefty Williams. Roth walked to open the inning and advanced to second on a sacrifice. Chick Gandil – who was sold to the White Sox in 1917 and played a leading role in the 1919 Black Sox scandal – reached on an infield single to put runners at first and second, but Terry Turner popped up to the catcher for the second out. With pinch-hitter Walter Barbare at the plate, Roth and Gandil pulled off back-to-back double steals against Lynn – Chicago’s rookie backup to future Hall of Fame catcher Ray Schalk – to tie the game.

Chicago stranded a runner in scoring position in the 10th and 11th innings before breaking through in the 12th. Cleveland committed consecutive errors to put Weaver and Eddie Collins on first and second. Jackson beat out a bunt to load the bases and set up the 25-year-old Felsch’s second career grand slam, off former White Sox hurler Pop-boy Smith.9 Felsch’s five RBIs matched his career-high total.

Eddie Cicotte, who relieved Williams in the 11th, allowed a single to Turner in the bottom of the 12th, but after Turner stole second, Cicotte struck out pinch-hitter Danny Moeller – a seven-year veteran who never made another major-league appearance10 – and backup catcher Hank DeBerry to secure the victory.

While the White Sox swept the doubleheader on September 30, Boston beat the New York Yankees 1-0 in 10 innings. So Chicago’s only remaining pennant chance was to win both games of the next day’s doubleheader against the Indians and hope the Red Sox lost their final three games against the Athletics. In that case, Chicago and Boston would have finished with identical 90-64 records.

Cleveland quickly ended Chicago’s quest, beating the White Sox 2-0 in the opening game of the season-ending doubleheader behind a two-hit shutout from Fritz Coumbe, who reportedly earned $100 from a Boston fan for his effort.11 Chicago won the last game to finish 89-65, two games behind the Red Sox – who won two of their final three games for a 91-63 record.12 In 1917 the White Sox flipped the script, going 100-54 to beat Boston by nine games. Chicago defeated the New York Giants to win their second World Series championship.

The Indians landed sixth in the 1916 standings at 77-77, but that marked a 20-game improvement in the win column. The first season of James C. Dunn’s ownership tenure started an upward trend that culminated with the 1920 World Series championship.

Some of Cleveland’s on-field turnaround in 1916 centered on Graney’s breakout and the acquisition of Speaker, the center fielder who joined the Indians in a blockbuster trade with the Red Sox a few days before the season started.13 The outfield duo shared the league lead with 41 doubles,14 while Graney’s 14 triples and 5 home runs both ranked fifth. Graney also finished second in the league with 102 walks and 106 runs. His 60 extra-base hits trailed only Jackson, whose 64 extra-base hits included 40 doubles, a league-best 21 triples, and 3 homers. Speaker won his only career batting title with a .386 average.

“There are two players of whom I cannot ask better work. They are Speaker and Graney,” said Cleveland manager Lee Fohl. “True, Graney did not bat quite as well as usual” – .241 compared with his career average to that point of .258 – “but there was terrific power to his hits and he walked more than a hundred times.15 As for Speaker, well, I don’t see how he can eclipse his record of this year.”16

Graney maintained his place as a regular contributor for the Indians, spending six more years with the club. Over 14 seasons exclusively with Cleveland, Graney appeared in 1,402 games, at the time the third-most in franchise history.17

After his playing career, Graney became the radio announcer for the Indians from 1932 to ’53 (save for 1945), and he posthumously won the Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence in 2022. In Canada, his name is attached to an equivalent annual broadcasting award presented by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, which inducted Graney as part of its second class in 1984.18

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bill Marston and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent material and box scores. He also used information obtained from news coverage by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Chicago Tribune, and The Sporting News.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE191609302.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1916/B09302CLE1916.htm

Notes

1 St. Thomas offers a sculpture and a mural depicting Graney, who was born there in 1886.

2 Graney had spent time atop Cleveland’s lineup prior to 1916, leading off in 292 of his 734 games from 1910 to ’15 – including 118 leadoff appearances in 1911. In 1916 he led off on Opening Day for the second time and otherwise appeared as the leadoff batter except for three starts as the fifth hitter and one appearance in the ninth slot as a pinch-hitter. Between hits, walks, and hit by pitches, Graney reached base 246 times across 155 games in 1916, a significant increase over his 1911 total of 219 in 146 games.

3 Jackson played in Cleveland from September 16, 1910, until August 21, 1915, when the Indians traded him to the White Sox for Ed Klepfer, Braggo Roth, $31,500 in cash, and a player to be named later. Chicago sent Larry Chappell to Cleveland to complete the trade on February 14, 1916.

4 Prior to 1916, Graney had only a handful of top-10 finishes: ninth with 12 triples in 1913, sixth with 66 walks and 11 hit by pitches in 1911, and ninth with 67 walks in 1914.

5 “Jackson and Graney Battling,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 3, 1916: 20.

6 I.E. Sanborn, “Rain May Shatter Hope of Teams Still in Race,” Chicago Tribune, September 30, 1916: 13.

7 Excluding the first month of the 1916 season, six teams held the top spot in the AL standings at some point. Only the St. Louis Browns and Philadelphia Athletics failed to hold first place. Other close finishes in the AL before 1916 included Boston’s 2½-game margin over Detroit in 1915, Detroit’s 3½-game margin over Philadelphia in 1909, Detroit’s ½-game margin over Cleveland and 1½-game margin over Chicago in 1908, Detroit’s 1½-game margin over Philadelphia in 1907, Chicago’s 3-game margin over New York in 1906, Philadelphia’s 2-game margin over Chicago in 1905, and Boston’s 1½-game margin over New York in 1904.

8 Chicago won the first AL pennant after the league declared its major-league status in 1901 and added another in 1906. That year, the White Sox defeated the Chicago Cubs in the World Series.

9 Felsch’s first career home run, on June 18, 1915, was a grand slam that landed in the bleachers at Shibe Park in an 11-4 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics.

10 Also playing in his final career game was Chicago’s rookie first baseman, Jack Ness. Known for his 49-game hitting streak with the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League in 1915, Ness quit professional baseball after the White Sox sent him a contract for 1917 that called for a pay cut.

11 Sam Weller, “Last Chance for Pennant Goes as Sox Split Even,” Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1916: 15.

12 The Red Sox defeated the Brooklyn Robins in five games to claim their fourth World Series title. Boston previously won the World Series in 1903, 1912, and 1915. The Red Sox also won the AL pennant in 1904, but there was no World Series that year.

13 The Indians also benefited from the development of young pitchers like rookies Stan Coveleski and Jim Bagby, and third-year starter Guy Morton. Cleveland acquired Speaker on April 9 in exchange for Sad Sam Jones, Fred Thomas, and $55,000 in cash. The season began three days later, and Speaker drew three walks in the season opener.

14 Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Bert Neihoff led the majors with 42 doubles, securing the tiebreaking two-bagger in his final game of the season, on October 4. Speaker doubled in the second game of the October 1 doubleheader, spoiling Graney’s chance to keep the AL doubles lead to himself.

15 Graney led the AL in walks with 94 in 1917 and 105 in 1919, which made him the fifth AL player to draw at least 100 walks in two seasons. He joined Donie Bush (three times), Eddie Collins, Topsy Hartsel, and Burt Shotton.

16 Henry P. Edwards, “Optimism of Fohl Pleases Cleveland,” The Sporting News, December 7, 1916: 8.

17 Graney trailed Terry Turner (1,619) and Nap Lajoie (1,614). Through 2023, Graney ranks 11th in franchise history.

18 The Jack Graney Award is presented by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame to a media member who has made significant contributions to baseball in Canada. The award was presented in 1987 and ’88, 1990 and ’91, 1996, and from 2001 to ’05. Since 2009, the honor has been awarded annually.