Nowlin: The 1917 World Series
From SABR member Bill Nowlin at The National Pastime Museum on September 19, 2017:
Both teams dominated their respective leagues in the regular season—the White Sox by nine games and the Giants by 10 games. The World Series opened at Chicago’s Comiskey Park on Saturday, October 6. The pitchers were knuckleballer Eddie Cicotte for Chicago and Slim Sallee for New York, though as was often the custom at the time, the identities of the starters were kept secret as long as possible.
Both pitchers contributed offensively. In the bottom of the third, Cicotte singled to center. Though thrown out at third trying to reach on Shano Collins’s single, Collins took second on the play, thus in scoring position when Fred McMullin doubled him in. In the bottom of the fourth, Happy Felsch swung at the first pitch and homered into the left-field seats, making it 2–0 Chicago. In the top of the fifth, catcher Lew McCarty tripled. Sallee singled him in on a ball hit off his bat handle. That was it for the scoring. Both teams had seven hits, both committed one error, and both had two batters strike out. Sallee only faced 29 batters, but two of the 29 scored, while Sallee’s RBI single was the only run for the New Yorkers. Hugh Fullerton dubbed Cicotte “the real hero” of the game, improving as the game went on.
Read the full article here: https://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/1917-world-series
Originally published: September 19, 2017. Last Updated: September 19, 2017.