September 1, 1906: A Pivotal Game Early in the Deadball Era

This article was published in the SABR Deadball Era Committee’s February 2026 newsletter.

Jack Coombs of the Philadelphia Athletics (Library of Congress)

 

During a game at Boston’s Huntington Avenue Grounds on September 1, 1906, Jack Coombs of the Philadelphia Athletics faced 89 batters.1 The two whom he walked consecutively during this 24-inning marathon — the most innings played in a game during the Deadball Era — may have been the most consequential.

In the bottom of the nineteenth inning, on the heels of twelve consecutive scoreless innings, Philadelphia manager Connie Mack instructed Coombs to walk Boston batters Hobe Ferris and Jack Hoey in succession with one out and Freddy Parent on third. Mack’s “perfect strategy,” according to Coombs, worked: swinging third strikes from Myron ‘Moose’ Grimshaw and Red Morgan with the infield in ended Boston’s threat. “Experience by the older man, Mr. Mack,” said Coombs, “saved the situation.”2

Coombs, then 23 and a sidearm pitcher, was matched against Joe Harris, then 24, of the Boston Americans.3 Coombs was straight out of Colby College. Later, Coombs earned great fame from battling Ed Walsh in a sixteen-inning scoreless tie in 1910 and by winning three games in a single World Series. Mike ‘Doc’ Powers that day caught Coombs for all 24 innings. Harris, “a big youth from Melrose, Mass.” entered the game with a disheartening 2-17 record.4

This memorable game, played in four hours and 40 minutes, featured many elements that made Deadball Era baseball so captivating: abundant scoring chances, strategic moves, a quick pace, critical umpiring decisions, and individual endurance. The game also marked a turning point for three players.5

For Coombs, it was his first magnificent pitching effort, one that previewed his pitching greatness, but the strain placed on his arm from the marathon outing likely affected Coombs in the future. For Harris, the game was a single enduring highlight in a career short-circuited by illness. For Powers, it represented his greatest achievement in a decorated but truncated career, but the game also became a symbol of what might have been. Less than three years later, Coombs was a pallbearer at his catcher’s funeral.6

Coombs was a rookie. He made his debut only 59 days prior, pitching a complete-game shutout against the Washington Senators. As recounted by baseball historian Norman Macht, Powers and Harry Davis settled Coombs down after some initial trouble in his debut.7 Powers was known to be a savvy handler of pitchers: a vintage Boston Herald piece said that Powers, himself trained in medicine, “often calmed the high-strung [Eddie] Plank with his familiar chant: ‘Work hard, old boy, work hard.’ They were friends off the field too, and Doc even became Plank’s personal physician. Powers was a gentleman with a sunny disposition, respected and well-liked.” 8

Harris, a right-hander, had made his debut for Boston nearly one year prior. In what could be taken as an omen, he lost a complete game decision at home in his debut, 2-1 against Harry Howell and the St. Louis Browns. Harris’ lone win in 1905 for the Jimmy Collins-managed team came against the Tigers of Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford on September 30, a seven-inning complete game during which Harris struck out eight.

The 1906 Athletics did not exhibit the pennant-winning form they had a year before, on the way to a sluggish fourth-place finish. Still, circumstances were appreciably worse in Boston. The presence of both Cy Young and Jesse Tannehill in Boston’s starting rotation notwithstanding, the Americans that season lost their first twenty games of the month of May, plunging into last place. The team’s performance led to Chick Stahl, the team’s RBI leader in 1906, replacing Collins as a player-manager on August 27, just five days before this game in Boston. It is a delight that two otherwise forgettable teams would play the most remembered game of 1906.

Boston was buoyed by a crowd of 18,084 fans for this 1:30 pm Saturday afternoon game, the first of a scheduled doubleheader. The game had one umpire: Tim Hurst, known best for his combustible personality, behind the plate.9

The third inning brought the first run. Powers struck out, but Coombs reached when Harris slipped trying to field his grounder. Coombs stole second and advanced to third on a Topsy Hartsel groundout, scoring when Bris Lord beat out a hit.10

Philadelphia came close to getting an extra run in the top of the sixth inning. Hartsel got to second after a single and a Lord sacrifice. After a Davis groundout got Hartsel to third with two out, Freddy Parent made “a phenomenal stop and throw of Seybold’s grounder from behind second,” ending the scoring chance.11 In the bottom of the sixth, Boston finally scored: following a Hayden groundout, Parent, on the heels of his run-saving play, hit a triple. Stahl then singled, scoring Parent, only to thereafter be part of an inning-ending double play on a grounder by Ferris. The game was now tied, 1-1.

During the seventeen consecutive scoreless innings to follow, the teams tried to manufacture runs without success. There were many scoring chances for each team: in the top of the eleventh inning, for instance, Ossie Schreckengost (‘Schreck’ in most box scores) — pinch hitting for Davis in Philadelphia’s only substitution of the game — tripled before Socks Seybold’s groundout ended the inning. In another instance, in the bottom of the fourteenth inning, Parent got to second base only to have Stahl and Ferris strike out and Danny Murphy ground out to end the threat.

A controversial moment occurred in the bottom of the fifteenth inning. Buck Freeman pinch-hit for Bill Carrigan with one out and Grimshaw on second base. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Freeman swung at an intentional ball four and easily grounded out to the mound. “It was Boston’s last chance to score.”12 With the heading: “Dumb Work by Freeman,” the Boston Daily Globe characterized Freeman’s reach as “the dumbest play ever seen at the Huntington Av. Grounds” and threw “away a splendid chance at a Boston victory.”13

The crowd at the Huntington Avenue Grounds appeared to appreciate the magnificent efforts of both pitchers:

“Every good play by Philadelphia was as generously cheered as a good play by Boston. Coombs was given an ovation every time he went to the bench, just as Harris was. Even after the game had been lost the rooters stood up and cheered Harris.”14

Recounted The Boston Daily Globe:

“The game developed into a wonderful machine-like affair. One side came to bat only to be retired by some fast fielding stunt, and as inning after inning passed on, and neither pitcher seemed to weaken, the continual outs tired a part of the crowd. “Watching a ball game four hours was more than enough for many, and they left the park, but their number was very few.”15

It is sometimes forgotten that Powers threw out Hoey and Hayden stealing in consecutive innings (the twenty-first and twenty-second, respectively), a feat that may have saved the game. During the game, Powers caught 24 consecutive errorless innings at catcher, a record which still stands and one which ranks among baseball achievements that are least likely ever to be surpassed.

It was becoming dark, and the second game of the doubleheader was canceled. But umpire Hurst “has no record of calling a game,” reported the Boston Daily Globe, and he did not do so on this day, no matter what pressure he received from the respective teams.16

In the top of the twenty-fourth, the Athletics’ ship found new wind. Following a Coombs strikeout, Hartsel singled, and Lord struck out. Then, Schreckengost’s two-out hit scored Hartsel all the way from first, finally breaking the 17-inning tie. With quick efficiency, the Athletics padded their new lead. Seybold’s triple scored Schreckengost, and Murphy’s triple scored Seybold. Three runs were in by the time Monte Cross flied out to end the inning.

But here, the crowd had affected the outcome of the game. With the sun setting, the enthusiastic fans moved closer and surrounded the players. “But for this, two of the triples made off of Harris would have been outs or doubtful two baggers.”17

The bottom of the twenty-fourth inning was almost anticlimax: Hoey grounded out, Grimshaw was out, and Lou Criger grounded out. The game was over, with Philadelphia a 4-1 victor.

It is worth noting that Philadelphia stole six bases in this game, and Boston stole one. The only player to steal two bases on that September afternoon was Coombs, who toiled for 24 innings on the mound.

Though no record of pitch counts exists, if Coombs and Harris each averaged three pitches per batter, it is reasonable to assume each threw roughly 250 pitches overall. Note also that each pitcher came up to bat nine times. In one instance, Coombs batted with a runner on second base and two outs in the ninth inning, a re-markable event especially since no substitutions had been made in the game to that point.

Coombs was the winner, and Harris was the very hard-luck losing pitcher. Perhaps surprisingly, Coombs later said that this 24-inning complete-game victory was not as good as the game he pitched against Walsh.18

The inside game of baseball, beyond pitching prowess alone, was also a factor. Coombs walked a total of five batters intentionally, living dangerously in a tight game.

“The great work of the pitchers was due as much to the catchers as to the box work,” opined the same outlet, “with Powers showing special strength in this line of work, and he seemed happiest when asked to work out of some small hole.”19

Powers was a team stalwart, even if he was the epitome of a light-hitting catcher (not hitting above .200 in any of his final seven full seasons). He continued in that same role for Athletics through the season opener in 1909, the day that Shibe Park opened. That day, Powers experienced major abdominal pain around the seventh inning, later diagnosed as acute gastritis. He subsequently endured three surgeries, including “the removal of least twelve inches of his bowels.”20 Powers, “one of the best known and most popular players in the country,” died of gangrene two weeks later.21 A posthumous benefit game in Powers’ honor was held on June 30, 1910.

Called “the game of all games” by the Boston Daily Globe, the September 1, 1906, 24-inning contest was the essence of pure Deadball Era baseball.22 The game featured six triples and no home runs, constant scoring chances, and perpetual excitement, as the teams played nearly two complete scoreless games with the score tied 1-1. Even with singles, sacrifices, triples, and walks in nearly every frame, the average time of a complete inning in this game was approximately 12 minutes.

Coombs struck out 18 batters in this game; no other pitcher struck out more Red Sox batters in a single contest than Coombs did until 1962.23 Harris, too, pitched brilliantly. The Boston Daily Globe recounted that the home team “had a dozen chances to win by anything like a sharp hit, but was at the mercy of the young college pitcher.”24

During his own complete game, Harris faced 87 batters, yielded 16 hits, and struck out 14 Philadelphia hitters. Formidable as Harris may have been on this September day, he finished the 1906 season with a 2-21 record, leading the American League in losses. More critically, “Harris,” noted one account, “was stricken with typhoid shortly after the game and never regained his speed or his ability. Whereas Coombs proceeded to the heights, Harris dropped back to the minors in 1907.” Harris never won another major league game.25

One recapitulation of this game noted that Coombs “impressed the overflow crowd with his precocious poise and ability.”26 Still, it is easy to wonder if Coombs’ endurance in this game hurt his future prospects; Coombs had “arm trouble” to wind down the 1906 season, and, after a promising start to the 1907 season, he strained his arm. Coombs played 47 games in the outfield during the 1908 season on account of arm tendon issues.27 His top-notch pitching form was realized until 1910 when he posted a 31-win season, and one can reasonably wonder if Coombs might have had a Hall of Fame career but for his extended outing in this 1906 game.

Perhaps just as consequentially, the game was a seminal moment for Coombs, who eventually enjoyed sustained success, and for Harris, who didn’t. That day’s game also represented the apex of Powers’ career. At once, it was a majestic baseball moment but also a reminder that fates can be fickle, especially in baseball and even more so during the Deadball Era.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

With thanks to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for providing clippings of vintage articles cited in this piece and to Bill Lamb, who provided helpful suggestions.

 

NOTES

1. Box score of September 1, 1906, game between the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Americans available at https://baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS190609010.shtml.

2. Jack Coombs, as told to Frederick G. Lieb, “My Greatest Diamond Thrill,” The Sporting News, November 2, 1944, 17.

3. Harry Grayson, “Strong-Armed Jack Coombs Overcame Typhoid Spine,” November 21, 1963. No publication given. Unattributed clipping from Coombs’ Hall of Fame file. Mack noted that Coombs, especially around the time of his first injury, had a “dinky little curve” but “got so he could break it all the way to the ground” in 1908.

4. “Longest Game Finished in Baseball History,” New York Times, September 2, 1906.

5. The 4:40 time is included in the box score on baseball-reference. com, but it is worthwhile to note that some contemporary accounts list the game as lasting for 4 hours and 47 or 48 minutes.

6. Joe Dittmar, “Doc Powers’ Shocking End,” The National Pastime (Vol 13: 1993), 64.

7. Macht, Norman. Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press: 2012), 368.

8. Dittmar, 62-65.

9. The fan total and the umpire are noted in the baseball-reference. com box score, and the start time of the game is included in “New Pitcher Wins Longest Game in League’s History,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 2, 1906, pp. 1-2. At this time, Retrosheet does not have a play-by-play for this game.

10. All play-by-play recounted in this article derives from “New Pitcher Wins Longest Game in League’s History,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, above, 1-2. At this time, Retrosheet does not have a play-by-play of this game available.

11. “New Pitcher Wins Longest Game in League’s History,” 2.

12. “New Pitcher Wins Longest Game in League’s History,” 2.

13. “Boston Beaten in 24th Inning,” 1-2.

14. “Athletics Win in 24th Inning,” Chicago Sunday Tribune, September 2, 1906, 9.

15. “Athletics and Boston in Record 24-Inning Go,” Washington Post, September 2, 1906, S1.

16. “Boston Beaten in 24th Inning,” 1.

17. “New Pitcher Wins Longest Game in League’s History,” 2.

18. Coombs, as told to Lieb, 17.

19. Coombs, as told to Lieb, 17.

20. Dittmar, 62-65.

21. “Catcher Powers, Veteran Catcher of Philadelphia Athletics Is Dead,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 27, 1909: 4.

22. “Boston Beaten in 24th Inning.”

23. Joe Dittmar, “The Coombs-Harris Marathon,” undated clipping from Coombs’ file at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

24. “Boston Beaten in 24th Inning,” 1.

25. Frederick G. Lieb, “Jack Coombs Dies at 73; Won 24-Inning Marathon,” The Sporting News, April 24, 1957, 30.

26. Joe Dittmar, “The Coombs-Harris Marathon.”

27. Coombs, as told to Lieb, 17.