Thompson: 116 years ago, the White Sox and Tigers played an 18-error game that remains a baseball record
From Phil Thompson at the Chicago Tribune on May 6, 2019, with mention of SABR member John McMurray:
The sports writers of 1903 couldn’t have known what significance a sloppy May 6 game between the White Stockings (now White Sox) and Tigers would hold in baseball history, but they knew what they witnessed was far from normal.
“The craziest game that ever disgraced a major-league diamond,” a report said in the May 7 Chicago Daily Tribune.
The Detroit Free Press called it “a contest that was about as weird a one as was ever played by big-league teams.”
There’s no way to gauge whether it is the weirdest or craziest ever played, but one thing is for sure: It’s the game with the most total errors — 18 — according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
The 12 errors by the Sox (interchangeable with Stockings back then) is tied for the single-game record by one team with the Tigers — against, of all opponents, the Sox — in a May 1, 1901, game that also took place in Chicago.
Read the full article here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/ct-spt-white-sox-12-error-game-1903-20190506-story.html
Originally published: May 6, 2019. Last Updated: May 6, 2019.