1911-1919

[Baseball Guru]

1911


What could the defending World Series champion Philadelphia Athletics do for an encore in 1911?

Virtually what they did in their first Series-winning season, that's what. For starters, Connie Mack's team again ran roughshod over its competition in the American League, winning the pennant by 13 1/2 games. The Athletics possessed the junior league's home-run king in third baseman Frank Baker, who anchored the club's $100,000 infield (so called because of its purported worth). Not only did Baker sock 11 homers -- a sizable total in that era -- during the 1911 season, he batted .334. Second baseman Eddie Collins hit .365 and first baseman Stuffy McInnis, seeing his first full-time duty in the majors, posted a .321 average. Shortstop Jack Barry contributed a .265 mark and steadiness afield.

Outfielders Danny Murphy, Bris Lord and Rube Oldring batted a composite .312, while pitchers Jack Coombs, Eddie Plank, Chief Bender and Cy Morgan combined for 82 victories.

The Athletics' World Series opponent was the New York Giants, setting up a rematch of the storied, shutout-punctuated 1905 fall classic that paired Mack's team against John McGraw's battlers. The Giants were a run-happy bunch in 1911, stealing a modern major-league record of 347 bases. Christy Mathewson, who had thrown three shutouts against the A's in the Giants' earlier Series appearance, was still McGraw's pitching ace, as reflected by his 26-13 record.

Just emerging was 2l-year-old Rube Marquard, a lefthander who brought a 9-18 record into the season and proceeded to win 24 games. And the Giants had some heavy hitters, too, headed by Larry Doyle, Fred Merkle and Chief Meyers.

All was not rosy for the Giants, however. Their ballpark, the

Polo Grounds, burned to the ground in April and wasn't ready for reopening until late June. McGraw and company persevered, playing their home games at the park of the AL's New York Highlanders and beginning their run at a 99-victory season.

Game 1 of the fall classic, played before a Series-record throng of 38,281 at the rebuilt Polo Grounds, pitted Bender against Mathewson. And Mathewson, a winner over Bender in the Series finale six years earlier, prevailed again. The A's seized a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Baker singled, moved to second on a groundout, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on a single by veteran Harry Davis (who was filling in for the injured Mclnnis). After tying it in the fourth without benefit of a hit, the Giants collected the game-winning run in the seventh when Meyers and Josh Devore doubled. Mathewson finished with a six-hitter in New York's 2-1 victory. Bender gave up only five hits and struck out 11.

Marquard and Plank waged a magnificent pitchers' duel in Game 2. Neither walked a batter and hits were at a premium. The score was 1-1 when the A's came to bat in the bottom of the sixth inning, and Marquard showed no signs of weakening as he retired Lord and Oldring. However, Collins followed with a double and cleanup hitter Baker was up next. Baker, playing only his third full season in the big leagues and still building his reputation as a power hitter, walloped a home run over the right-field wall. The smash proved the difference, with the A's holding on for a Series-evening 3-1 victory.

It was more of the same the next day. With Philadelphia trailing Mathewson and the Giants, 1-0, with one out in the ninth, Baker strode to the plate and drilled a homer into the right-field stands.

Rescued from the abyss, the A's went on to score two runs in the 11th and would up 3-2 winners. Coombs and Mathewson both pitched the distance, Coombs permitting only three hits and Mathewson giving up nine.

Then an unexpected force came into play: Mother Nature. For six days, it rained. And rained. And rained.

Game 4 finally was played on October 24, exactly a week after Game 3 and 10 days after the Series had begun (the late starting date was because the National League's regular season ran through Columbus Day). And this time Bender got the best of Mathewson in a 4-2 decision that gave Philadelphia a Series lead of three games to one.

New York escaped elimination in Game 5, in which Philadelphia, behind Coombs, held a 3-0 edge after six innings and a 3-1 lead with one out in the Giants' ninth. Art Fletcher doubled for the National Leaguers, moved to third on a groundout and scored on reliever Doc Crandall's double. Devore followed with a game-tying single. Then, in the 10th, with Plank on in relief for Philadelphia, Fred Snodgrass doubled and scored on a fly ball by Merkle. The Giants won, 4-3, and clung to life.

However, the never-say-die New Yorkers were left for dead in Game 6 when Philadelphia went on a four-run burst in the fourth inning and a seven-run spree in the seventh. With Bender stopping the Giants on four hits, the A's waltzed to a 13-2 victory and claimed their second successive World Series championship.

The Giants' offense had gone pfft in the Series, with six regulars batting .190 or less (cleanup man Red Murray was O-for-21). And after running NL opponents into the ground during the season, the Giants stole only four bases against the Athletics.

The A's, meanwhile, had Bender, Coombs and Plank, who allowed New York only eight earned runs in six games. Perhaps most of all, they had a young slugger who made a name for himself in this Series because of his timely long-ball hitting. Frank Baker was Home Run Baker.

[Baseball Guru]

1912


The New York Giants had a storybook season in 1912 -- that ended in a horror story.

Manager John McGraw's Giants received an astonishing performance in 1912 from lefthander Rube Marquard, who set a modern major-league record by winning his first 19 decisions. Marquard finished with 26 victories. Christy Mathewson won 23 games. Rookie Jeff Tesreau was a key find, winning 17 games, leading the league in earned-run average with 1.96 figure and tossing a no-hitter against Philadelphia in early September.

Offensively, New York got big seasons from second baseman Larry Doyle, who batted .330 and hit 10 home runs; first baseman Fred Merkle, a .309 hitter who hit 11 homers; catcher Chief Meyers, who had a .358 batting average 371 at-bats; and Red Murray, who led the team with 92 RBIs.

Put together, the Giants were a team that, despite a second-half slump, won 103 games and outdistanced its closest National League rival by 10 games.

The American League champs, of course, were expected to be the Philadelphia Athletics, Series winners the previous two years. However, Connie Mack's A's never got fully cranked up and plunged to third place, 15 games behind the pennant-winning Boston Red Sox and one game I back of the second-place Washington Senators. The Red Sox got a phenomenal year from 22-year-old righthander Smokey Joe Wood, who won 34 of 39 decisions and pitched 10 shutouts. Another young player, outfielder Tris Speaker, batted .383 in his fourth full season in the majors.

Wood was Boston Manager Jake Stahl's pitching selection for Game 1 of the 1912 World Series. Giants Manager John McGraw opted for Tesreau over either Marquard or Mathewson. Wood and the Red Sox prevailed, 4-3, with second baseman Steve Yerkes delivering a tie-breaking, two-run single in the seventh inning.

Game 2 was a stem-winder as the Giants overcame a 4-2 deficit with three runs in the top of the eighth inning, only to allow a tying run by the Red Sox in the bottom of the inning. New York regained the lead, 6-5, in the 10th, but Boston showed its pluck by rebounding once more in its half of the inning. With one out, Speaker drove a smash to deep center field and, running full steam, circled the bases when Giants reserve catcher Art Wilson (who had just entered the game) dropped the ball on a play at the plate. Speaker was credited with a triple. Neither club scored in the 11th, and darkness put an end to the proceedings. The game went into the books as a 6-6 tie.

After Marquard deadlocked the Series the next day with a 2-1 victory, Wood and Tesreau renewed acquaintances in Game 4. Wood got the upper hand again, spacing nine hits in a 3-1 triumph. Then Red Sox rookie Hugh Bedient, a 20-game winner in 1912, outdueled Mathewson in a 2-1 decision that put the American Leaguers in command of the Series, three games to one (with one tie).

Their work obviously cut out for them, the Giants went to work with a vengeance. They blasted Buck O'Brien for five first-inning runs in Game 6 and hammered Wood for six runs in the opening inning of Game 7. With Marquard pitching a seven-hitter and Tesreau turning the tables on Wood, New York won those games by 5-2 and 11-4 scores. The best-of-seven battle would require an eighth game.

Mathewson, winless in this Series after going the distance in the tie game and dropping Game 5, and the 22-year-old Bedient hooked up again in the finale. And, after nine tense innings, it was a 1-1 standoff. Mathewson was still pitching for New York, while Wood had taken over in the eighth for Bedient (who left the game in the seventh for a pinch-hitter, Olaf Henriksen, whose double tied the score).

In the 10th, New York's Murray laced a one-out double and scored on Merkle's single. While Wood retired the side without further damage, the Red Sox were faced with trying to rebound from a 2-1 deficit against Mathewson, who had been his usual stingy self all afternoon.

A happy ending to New York's storybook campaign -- a year featuring a spirited World Series comeback -- appeared one out closer when Boston pinch-hitter Clyde Engle began the bottom of the 10th by lofting a routine fly ball to center field. Fred Snodgrass camped under the ball-and dropped it. With Engle on second base after the misplay, Harry Hooper was robbed of a hit when Snodgrass made a great catch of his long drive. Engle advanced to third after Snodgrass' grab, and Yerkes followed with a walk. Speaker hit a pop foul between a "frozen" Merkle and Meyers and, incredibly, the ball fell safely near the first-base coach's box. Given a reprieve, Speaker singled home Engle with the tying run.

With Yerkes stationed at third and Speaker on first with one out, Duffy Lewis was walked intentionally. Third baseman Larry Gardner then belted a deep fly ball to Josh Devore in right field, and Yerkes tagged up and scored. The Red Sox, with more than a little help from the Giants' Snodgrass, had come back against the mighty Matty for a 3-2 victory and their second World Series championship.

For the stunned Giants, it was an unbelievable finish to what had been a make-believe season.

[Baseball Guru]

1913


Having undergone considerable mental anguish over their misfortunes in the 1911 and 1912 World Series, the New York Giants were hurting physically in the 1913 fall classic.

Fred Merkle was hobbled by a bad leg and was limited to 13 at-bats in the Series, while Fred Snodgrass, suffering from a severe charley horse, appeared in two games and made only three trips to the plate. And Chief Meyers went to the sidelines after breaking his finger in practice before Game 2.

Giants Manager John McGraw, whose team had won the National League pennant by 12 1/2 games, did have the services of pitching aces Rube Marquard, Christy Mathewson and Jeff Tesreau throughout the Series, which conceivably could have been enough to overcome Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics. Conceivably . . .

The Athletics roughed up Marguard in the opener, shelling him for five runs and eight hits in five innings. Home Run Baker singled home a run in the fourth and launched a two-run homer in the fifth in support of Chief Bender, who yielded 11 hits while struggling to a 6-4 victory.

Mathewson, coming off his next-to-last 20-victory season in the majors (he posted a 25-11 record), was vintage Matty in Game 2. The old Bucknell University star, matched against former collegiate rival Eddie Plank (Gettysburg), broke a scoreless tie with a l0th-inning single and New York went on to a 3-0 victory. Mathewson permitted eight hits, and Plank gave up seven.

Bullet Joe Bush, a 20-year-old rookie who won 14 games for Mack in 1913, shut down the Giants on five hits in Game 3 as Philadelphia battered Tesreau in an 8-2 victory. The next day, catcher Wally Schang drove in three runs with two singles and helped Philadelphia to a 6-0 lead after five innings. Merkle then fueled a Giants comeback bid with a three-run homer in the seventh, but Bender and the A's held on for a 6-5 victory. The win was Bender's fourth straight in Series competition.

With the Athletics in three games to one, Plank and Mathewson went at it in Game 5. This time, Plank was the master as he allowed only two hits -- the first coming with one out in the fifth -- in a 3-1 decision. The Giants had been outmanned and outplayed, losing in the World Series for the third consecutive year.

Baker, whose homer in Game 1 was his third and last in Series play, led Philadelphia with a .450 batting average and seven runs batted in. Eddie Collins hit .421, while Schang contributed six RBIs and a .357 average.

Bender's conquests in Games 1 and 4 boosted his Series victory total to six. Mathewson, pitching in what would be his final Series, wound up with a 5-5 lifetime mark in the fall classic -- he was 4-0 at one point-- after splitting two decisions in 1913.

Mathewson's Series slippage having mirrored the Giants' recent postseason problems, McGraw was fiercely determined restore his club to fall-classic glory. But it would be four years before McGraw's New Yorkers would take the field again for a World Series game.

[Baseball Guru]

1914


Make no mistake about it, the Boston Braves had pulled off a miracle during the 1914 season. In mid-July, Manager George Stallings' team was in last place in the National League. By season's end, the Braves had captured the pennant -- by 10 1/2 games.

However, most baseball people thought the miracle would cease once the Braves went head-to-head in the World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics, winners of three of the last four fall classics. Connie Mack's American League champions boasted a .344 hitter in Eddie Collins, a .319 batsman in Home Run Baker and a .314 producer in Stuffy McInnis, plus seven pitchers who won 10 or more games.

Dick Rudolph, a 27-game winner for the Braves, was chosen to start Game 1 against Chief Bender, whose .850 winning percentage(l7 victories in 20 decisions) led the majors in 1914. Rudolph spun a five-hitter and batterymate Hank Gowdy singled, doubled and tripled. Boston won, 7-1.

The next day, Stallings called on his other ace, Bill James, who had won 26 games. Connie Mack countered with 39-year-old Eddie Plank. After eight innings, the Braves had no runs and five hits and the Athletics no runs and two hits.

In the top of the ninth, Boston's Charlie Deal hit a one-out double, stole third base and scored on a two-out single by Les Mann. In the last half of the inning, James walked two batters but got out of the jam by inducing Eddie Murphy to hit into a game-ending double play. James' two-hit, 1-0 victory gave Boston a Series lead of two games to none, and the scene shifted to the Braves' home city -- not their home ballpark. The National Leaguers' home field was the South End Grounds, but the Braves opted to play their Series home games at the Boston Red Sox's Fenway Park, deemed a more attractive facility.

Game 3 was a wild one with the A's and Braves tied, 2-2, through nine innings before Baker apparently settled matters with a two-run single in the 10th off Braves starter Lefty Tyler. But the Braves, still not out of miracles, struck for two runs in the bottom of the 10th when Gowdy led off with a home run and Joe Connolly produced a run-scoring fly ball later in the inning.

James then took over for Tyler, who had retired for a pinch hitter, and shut out Philadelphia in the next two innings. In the last of the 12th, Gowdy lashed a double off Bullet Joe Bush (who pitched all the way for the A's) and gave way to a pinch-runner, Mann. After an intentional walk to pinch-hitter Larry Gilbert, Herbie Moran followed with a bunt. Bush grabbed the ball and threw to third baseman Baker in an attempt to force Mann, but Bush's throw sailed past Baker. Mann darted home with the winning run. Braves 5, A's 4. Three victories for the Braves, none for the A's.

Having failed to win with Bender, Plank and Bush, Mack turned to second-year major leaguer Bob Shawkey in an effort to get his team back into the Series -- or at least avoid a sweep. Shawkey held Boston scoreless for three innings, then permitted a fourth-inning run. The 23-year-old righthander helped his own cause with a game-tying double in the top of the fifth, only to surrender a two-run single to Johnny Evers in the bottom of the inning. Rudolph, who had pitched masterfully in Game 1, made the runs stand up and the Braves were 3-1 winners -- and World Series champions.

Miracle Braves, indeed.

Gowdy, a .243 hitter during the regular season, performed miraculously in the Series. He slugged three doubles, a triple and a home run against the A's and batted .545. Evers hit .438. Rudolph and James, after accounting for 53 of the Braves' 94 regular-season victories, registered all four of Boston's Series triumphs.

No A's regular batted above .250 in the Series, and Philadelphia posted a .172 team mark. No wonder Philadelphia had become the first team in Series history to be eliminated in four games (the 1907 Tigers also went winless, but Detroit managed to play a tie game against the Chicago Cubs, extending play to five games).

Stunned by his team's poor showing, Mack began dismantling the Athletics. Collins was traded over the winter, Baker sat out the 1915 season in a dispute with Mack before being sold to the New York Yankees and Plank and Bender went off to the Federal League (to whom they had pledged allegiance at the time of the '14 Series). And by the middle of 1915, Barry, Murphy and Shawkey had been traded or sold.

[Baseball Guru]

1915


Boston and Philadelphia, World Series opponents in 1914, met again in the 1915 fall classic and, once more, Boston made quick work of Philadelphia.

This time, though, the teams were the Red Sox and Phillies, not the Braves and Athletics. And, in another twist, the Red Sox used the Braves' ballpark in the 1915 Series -- after the Braves "borrowed" the Red Sox's field in '14.

Five pitchers, including 20-year-old lefthander Babe Ruth, won 14 or more games in 1915 for Manager Bill Carrigan's Red Sox, whose 101 victories (against 50 losses) were just enough to stave off the Detroit Tigers (100-54) in the American League pennant race. The Phillies rode the pitching of Grover Cleveland Alexander and the slugging of outfielder Gavvy Cravath to their first National League flag. Alexander tossed four one-hitters and won 31 games in 1915 (the first of three straight years in which he reached the 30-victory mark). Cravath slammed 24 home runs -- a major-league high to that point in the century -- and drove in 115 runs.

Alexander faced Ernie Shore in the Series opener, and the Phillies' Ol' Pete emerged a 3-1 winner. With one on and one out in the ninth, Alexander had to dispose of Boston's leading home-run hitter, pitcher Ruth, who despite his 18 victories was limited to this one appearance in the 1915 Series (as a pinch-hitter for Shore). Ruth, who had hit four homers in this dead-ball-era season, grounded out and Alexander got Harry Hooper on a game-ending pop fly.

Boston's Rube Foster was the story in Game 2. Not only did Foster shackle the Phillies on three hits at tiny Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, he also drove in the winning run with a ninth-inning single. Erskine Mayer was the tough-luck 2-1 loser in a game witnessed by President Woodrow Wilson, whose appearance was the first by a chief executive at the Series.

With the Series tied at a game apiece, the action moved to new Braves Field, whose capacity outstripped that of Fenway Park. And, with a crowd of more than 42,000 looking on, lefthander Hubert (Dutch) Leonard was dazzling in a confrontation with Alexander. Leonard retired the last 20 hitters and was a 2-1 winner when Duffy Lewis singled home Hooper in the ninth.

Manager Pat Moran's Phillies suffered their third consecutive 2-1 loss the next day when Shore set down the National Leaguers on seven hits.

First baseman Fred Luderus and reliever Eppa Rixey kept Philadelphia in the hunt in Game 5, to no avail. Luderus whacked a two-run double in the first inning and a bases-empty home run in the fourth, helping the Phils to a 4-2 lead; Rixey, pitching in relief of Mayer, took over with one out in the third and shut out the Red Sox through the seventh. In the eighth, however, Lewis hit a game-tying, two-run homer. Then, in the ninth, Hooper smashed his second homer of the game and, with Foster retiring the Phils in order in the bottom of the inning, Boston pulled out a Series-clinching 5-4 victory.

As for those other Boston and Philadelphia teams, the Braves ran out of miracles and finished second in the NL in 1915 and the Athletics ran out of players and wound up last in the AL. After their breakup by Connie Mack because of a dismal showing in the '14 Series, the A's fielded a team that ended up 58 1/2 games Red Sox.

[Baseball Guru]

1916


Brooklyn's Ebbets Field, site of many memorable moments in World Series history, played host to its first fall classic in 1916. Brooklyn fans would have little to cheer about in this Series, though, a postseason fate that the borough's burghers would have to endure for nearly 40 years.

The Boston Red Sox inflicted the initial Series disappointment on Brooklyn, beating the National Leaguers in five games. While they were without gifted outfielder Tris Speaker (traded to Cleveland in April after a contract dispute), the Red Sox still had Harry Hooper, Duffy Lewis and Larry Gardner. Most important, they had a young and talented pitching staff headed by lefthander Babe Ruth, who followed up his excellent rookie season of 1915 by winning 23 games and leading the American League with a 1.75 earned-run average. Ruth, 21, had sturdy support in Ernie Shore, 25, and Dutch Leonard and second-year major leaguer Carl Mays, both 24. Submarine pitcher Mays showed his vast potential by winning 18 games.

Manager Wilbert Robinson's Dodgers -- they were known as the Robins at the time -- had standout hitters in Zack Wheat and Jake Daubert, plus a

formidable pitching staff led by Jeff Pfeffer (a 25-game winner), Larry Cheney and Sherry Smith, a threesome backed by retreads Rube Marquard and Jack Coombs of New York Giants and Philadelphia Athletics fame, respectively.

Robinson thought Brooklyn could get the upper hand in the Series by starting lefthanders in Games 1 and 2, so he nominated Marquard and Smith to pitch the opening games at Braves Field, which the Red Sox again chose as their postseason home field over Fenway Park. Marquard and Shore were locked in a 2-1 battle through six innings -- Boston was in front -- before both clubs went on scoring flurries. The Red Sox jolted Marquard for three runs in the seventh and scored once more in the eighth off Pfeffer, while the Dodgers struck for four runs in the ninth. Shore held on for a 6-5 victory with large assists from Mays and shortstop Everett Scott. Mays came on to get the last out, which was recorded when Scott made a great stop on Daubert's bases-loaded grounder.

Smith and Ruth hooked up in a double masterpiece in Game 2. After Brooklyn's Hy Myers hit an inside-the-park home run off Ruth in the first inning and Ruth delivered a run-scoring groundout for Boston in the third, the teams traded zeros. More zeros. And even more zeros. Through 13 innings, Smith and Ruth had allowed only one run and six hits. In the 14th, Ruth kept it going by retiring Brooklyn in order. Boston's Dick Hoblitzell then led off the bottom of the inning by drawing his fourth walk of the game. After Lewis sacrificed Hoblitzell to second, Red Sox Manager Bill Carrigan inserted Mike McNally as a pinch-runner. Pinch-hitter Del Gainor followed with a single off Smith, giving Boston a 2-1 victory.

Having been foiled in his efforts to win with lefthanders, Brooklyn's Robinson turned to righthander Coombs for Game 3, the first Series game ever at Ebbets Field. And Coombs, with standout relief from Pfeffer (who retired the eight batters faced), came out a 4-3 winner. But Boston came back for a 6-2 victory the next day as Leonard pitched a five-hitter and Gardner rapped a three-run homer -- his second homer in two days.

Shore wrapped up things in Game 5, stopping Brooklyn on three hits and winning, 4-1.

One thing Brooklyn fans did have to cheer about was the play of a 27-year-old outfielder, a man who later would cause the borough considerable grief in his role as an opposing World Series manager. The player's name? Casey Stengel. As 0l' Case, he managed the New York Yankees to four Series conquests of the Brooklyn Dodgers. As young Case, he batted a Series-leading .364 for Brooklyn in 1916.

[Baseball Guru]

1917


Entering Game 6 of the 1917 World Series, the New York Giants hadn't exactly played exemplary baseball in some of the big games in franchise history.

Here was a team that paid dearly -- in the form of the National League pennant -- for a baserunning mistake by Fred Merkle in 1908; a club that had bungled a Series title in 1912 by making two crucial blunders in the 10th inning of the final game, the first being outfielder Fred Snodgrass' muff of a fly ball and the second a misplay of a catchable pop foul near the first-base coach's box; a franchise that, in fact, had wound up a loser in its last three Series appearances, which had come in succession from 1911 through 1913.

And Manager John McGraw's Giants, down three games to two in the 1917 Series, were back at their old tricks in Game 6. And it wasn't pretty. Rube Benton of the Giants and Red Faber of the Chicago White Sox were engaged in a 0-0 struggle when the American Leaguers came to bat in the fourth inning. Eddie Collins led off and grounded to Giants third baseman Heinie Zimmerman, who made a base-throwing error on the play. Joe Jackson's ensuing fly ball dropped by right fielder Dave Robertson, leaving the White Sox with runners on third and first.

Happy Felsch then grounded back to Benton, who saw Collins break from third and threw to Zimmerman in an attempt to get Collins hung up. Zimmerman ran Collins toward home plate; the White Sox star bounded past catcher Bill Rariden to make it a Zimmerman-Collins race to the plate. Collins won, with major assists from Rariden, Benton and first baseman Walter Holke, all of whom left the plate unattended as Zimmerman chased Collins across it. Jackson moved to third and Felsch to second during rundown, and they scored Chick Gandil's single. Faber already had enough runs to win.

The Giants cut the deficit to one with a two-run fifth, but the White Sox salted away the victory and their second World Series crown with an insurance run in the ninth, winning, 4-2.

Faber, besides winning Game 6, also was victorious in Games 2 and 5, the latter triumph coming in relief. But Faber had some off moments, too, as in the fifth inning of the second game when he tried to steal third base -- which was occupied at the time by teammate Buck Weaver. And he was a 5-0 loser in Game 4 as the Giants' Ferdie Schupp pitched a seven-hitter and Benny Kauff slammed two homers.

Eddie Cicotte, a 28-game winner, beat the Giants and pitching rival Slim Sallee, 2-1, in the Series opener and Felsch added a homer. After Faber's 7-2 victory the next day pushed Manager Pants Rowland's White Sox into a two-games-to-none lead, New York tied the Series on the shutout pitching of Benton (a five-hit, 2-0 victory) and Schupp. But the White Sox regained the Series lead in Game 5, breaking loose for three runs in both the seventh and eighth innings and winning, 8-5. Five players -- Chicago's Collins, Jackson and Felsch and New York's Robertson and Rariden -- had three hits..

The chain of events set the stage for Game 6, another not-so-memorable moment in Giants history.

While Faber grabbed most of the headlines in the 1917 World Series, the Giants' Robertson was another notable performer. Despite his costly error in Game 6, Robertson won plaudits for his 11-for-22 performance at the plate. Collins was a force, too, as evidenced by his .409 average for the White Sox.

In an oddity, famed Olympic Games athlete and football star Jim Thorpe made the only Series "appearance" of his major-league career in Game 5 -- but never got onto the playing field. Listed as the Giants' starting right fielder for that game, the righthanded-hitting Thorpe, positioned sixth in the batting order, was removed for a lefthanded pinch-hitter, Robertson, in the top of the first inning after the White Sox had lifted lefthanded starter Reb Russell in favor of righthander Cicotte.

Still, nothing in this fall classic stood out quite like the Giants' knack for coming up with the big misplay. Again.

[Baseball Guru]

1918


A fall classic this was not.

In the aftermath of the United States' entry into World War I in 1917, a U.S. government edict called for the end of major-league baseball's 1918 regular season by Labor Day and the playing of the World Series immediately thereafter. Accordingly, the 1918 Series was a late-summer classic that ran from September 5 through September 11.

Whatever its seasonal designation, baseball's big event was a big success story for the Boston Red Sox. Four times the Red Sox had appeared in the Series, and four times they had won it. Hopes of making it five for five rested on the strong right arms of Carl Mays, Sad Sam Jones and Bullet Joe Bush and the multi-talents of Babe Ruth.

Manager Ed Barrow's Red Sox got 21 victories from Mays, 16 from Jones and 15 from Bush in winning the shortened American League race with a 75-51 record. Ruth, seeing his first significant duty in the outfield while still making 19 pitching starts, chipped in with 13 victories, a .300 batting average and 11 home runs (tied for the league lead).

First baseman Stuffy McInnis, outfielder Amos Strunk and catcher Wally Schang, obtained along with Bush in trades with the Athletics, were key additions for Boston.

The National League champions were the Chicago Cubs (84-45), who boasted 20-game winners in Hippo Vaughn (his 22 victories led the NL) and Claude Hendrix and received 19-victory production from Lefty Tyler. Charlie Hollocher, Chicago's rookie shortstop, was the fourth-best hitter in the league, batting .316.

Many big-league standouts, of course, missed the 1918 season because of military duty. And while the Red Sox and Cubs, as a result, may not have quite measured up to previous Series teams, they put on a spirited battle for baseball's top prize.

The World Series opened at, of all places, Comiskey Park, home of the Chicago White Sox. While the Red Sox had chosen Braves Field over their own Fenway Park as home grounds in their previous two Series appearances, it was the National League team that switched home bases in this go-round. The Cubs' decision to play Series games at Comiskey instead of Weeghman Park (later Wrigley Field) was based on greater seating capacity.

Ruth, who threw 13 consecutive scoreless innings in his only previous Series pitching appearance two years earlier, extended his shutout streak to 22 innings by outdueling Vaughn, 1-0, in Game 1, which featured only 11 hits -- all singles. Tyler squared the Series the next day, pitching a six-hitter and collecting a two-run single in a 3-1 decision.

Vaughn was a hard-luck loser again in Game 3, losing 2-1 to Mays and the Red Sox. The final out came when the Cubs' Charlie Pick was caught in a rundown between third and home while trying to score from second base on a passed ball. Boston surged ahead three games to one. Then it was up to Ruth, increased his Series scoreless streak to 29 innings, a record, in a 3-2 victory. Ruth batted sixth in the order and delivered the big hit, a two-run triple in the fourth inning.

Manager Fred Mitchell's Cubs received a big lift from Vaughn in Game 5. Having allowed three runs and 12 hits in 18 innings in his previous two starts but possessor of a 0-2 record, Vaughn reached back for even a little more and baffled Boston, 3-0, on five hits. Dode Paskert's two-run double in the eighth provided Vaughn with some breathing room. But the Cubs were done. Mays supplied the finishing touch in the form of a three-hit, 2-1 triumph in a game that was delayed as players haggled over gate receipts. (Series shares would be reduced drastically because, for the first time, all first-division clubs shared in the revenue.)

And the Red Sox were 5-0 in Series competition.

To say that pitching dominated the 1918 World Series would be a gross understatement. Neither team scored more than three runs in a game. The winning Red Sox batted .186, the Cubs .210. There were no home runs in the six games. Boston pitchers combined for a 1.70 ERA; Chicago's staff (minus Grover Cleveland Alexander, who went to war early in the season) a 1.04.

Considering the wartime scenario, player depletion and shortened season, it wasn't a bad late-summer classic.

[Baseball Guru]

1919


"...Any man who knows anything at all about base ball and base ball players knows absolutely that both the game and its exemplars are absolutely honest so far as its public presentation is concerned, and any man who insinuates that the 1919 World's Series was not honorably played by every participant therein not only does not know what he is talking about, but is a menace to the game quite as much as the gamblers would be if they had the ghost of a chance to get in their nefarious work ..."
--Francis C. Richter, editor, 1920 Reach Baseball Guide

Unfortunately, Francis C. Richter was a little off the mark. The 1919 World Series was, in fact, not honorably played by every participant, as was disclosed late in the 1920 season when confessions were made.

Eight members of the 1919 White Sox -- pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude (Lefty) Williams, outfielders Joe Jackson and Happy Felsch, first baseman Chick Gandil, shortstop Swede Risberg, third baseman Buck Weaver and reserve infielder Fred McMullin -- were charged with conspiring to fix the outcome of the fall classic against the Cincinnati Reds. The eight became forever known as the "Black Sox."

A sharp shift in the betting odds shortly before the start of the World Series -- the highly favored White Sox suddenly became underdogs -- aroused curiosity, as did swirling rumors that something might be amiss in certain players' onfield effort. But, overall, fans and other observers accepted the "public presentation" of the 1919 Series. Perhaps, as apparently was the case with Richter, they saw only what they wanted to see.

What everyone saw in Game 1 was a scintillating performance by the Reds' Dutch Ruether. Whatever "assists" he might have received from various members of the opposition, Ruether pitched a complete-game six-hitter and went 3-for-3 at the plate (two triples) with three runs batted in. Outfielder Greasy Neale, who went on to lead the Reds in hitting in the Series with a .351 average and later became a noted football coach, and first baseman Jake Daubert also had three hits apiece. The Reds were rolling, 9-1. The White Sox were rolling over.

Cincinnati's Slim Sallee stopped Chicago the next day, 4-2, with Larry Kopf's two-run triple in fourth inning the telling blow. But White Sox rookie Dickey Kerr, untouched by the scandal but sensing something was amiss, was too tough for anyone -- supposed friend or foe -- to mess with in Game 3. The lefthander set down the Reds on three hits in a 3-0 victory.

Manager Pat Moran's National League champions rebounded for 2-0 and 5-0 victories in Games 4 and 5 with Jimmy Ring and Hod Eller pitching shutouts. In recording Cincinnati's fourth victory, Eller struck out six consecutive White Sox batters.

Under normal circumstances, the World Series would have been over at this point. But these were not normal circumstances. Because of an intense postwar interest in the Series, baseball's bigwigs decided to make the 1919 classic a best-of-nine affair. What timing. A "spectacular" was created just when baseball was about to make a spectacle of itself.

Chicago rebounded in the next two games as Kerr won a 10-inning, 5-4 struggle and Cicotte pitched a seven-hitter, winning, 4-1.

Cincinnati tore into Williams in Game 8, though, scoring four first-inning runs. The Reds expanded their lead to 10-1 on the way to a 10-5 victory that gave the team the World Series title in its first post-season appearance.

That the "Black Sox" were selective in their misdeeds was apparent. Jackson, for instance, batted a Series-leading .375 but acknowledged that he had let up in key situations. Weaver hit .324. Gandil had game-deciding hits in the third and sixth games. And Cicotte, with his team one loss from elimination, pitched a one-run game for Manager Kid Gleason's Sox.

On the other hand, Williams, a 23-game winner, lost all three of his Series starts. Cicotte made two errors in the fifth inning of Game 4, helping Cincinnati to the only two runs of the day. Plus, he hit the first Cincinnati batter of the Series, Morrie Rath, with a pitched ball, which supposedly was the signal to bettors that the fix was on. Gandil, despite some bright moments, hit only .233. Felsch and Risberg batted .192 and .080, respectively. McMullin made only two appearances in the Series, both as a pinch-hitter.

The "Black Sox" were acquitted by the courts in 1921 despite their confessions (records of which were stolen from the prosecutor's office) but were banned from baseball by Kenesaw Mountain Landis because of their undeniable link to gamblers. Not even a recanting of the players' confessions could sway Landis.

"Regardless of the verdict of juries," the commissioner said in a statement, "no player that throws a ball game, no player that entertains proposals or promises to throw a game, no player that sits in a conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing games are discussed, and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever again play professional baseball."

While the infamy of the "Black Sox" lives on, so does the pluck of Dickey Kerr. Trying to win with the odds stacked against him, Kerr went 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA in 19 innings during the 1919 Series. Francis C. Richter would call him an absolutely honest exemplar of the national pastime.