Phillies 100 Year Ago: Memorial Day Doubleheaders Spell Doom For Philly Teams

May 31, 1915

Phillies @ Boston Braves

Phillies @ Boston Braves

Athletics vs. Boston Red Sox

Athletics vs. Boston Red Sox

A double dose of doubleheaders 100 years ago today!  In fact it was doubleheader day all across baseball as the nation celebrated Memorial Day.  It was common in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to schedule doubleheaders on national holidays to attract fans to the ballpark on days when they had off from work.  This tactic rose and waned in popularity over the next few decades before it hit a steep decline in the 1950s.  Before the American and National Leagues joined forces major leagues were competing against each other and doubleheaders were a nice way to attract more fans to a game.  The BOGO of early baseball.  By the 1950s the games were so popular that clubs didn’t have to use the doubleheader as a marketing tool anymore and were actually losing money to play them.  So, once the money got into the game the doubleheaders on holidays went out of fashion.[1]

Phillies 100 Years Ago: A's Beat the Babe and the Braves Beat the Phils

May 29, 1915

Phillies @ Boston Braves

Athletics vs. Boston Red Sox

Athletics vs. Boston Red Sox

The Athletics had their first taste of doubleheader action of the 1915 season 100 years ago today at Shibe Park.  In the first game, Red Sox manager Bill Carrigan gave the ball to Babe Ruth.  This was the Babe’s sixth start of the year and so far it wasn’t going exceptionally well.  He had lost his last three starts and his ERA had ballooned to 3.93.  Though, to be fair, one of those starts came a few weeks ago against his future team, the New York Yankees, and he dominated them until the 13^th inning when allowed his fourth and deciding run.  You can’t really blame him if he keeps the other club at bay for over 12 innings and the rest of his team can’t bail him out.  Today was the third appearance Ruth made against the A’s this season; in the previous meetings he only allowed five hits and three runs over ten and a third innings.  The Mackmen had their work cut out for them.

Phillies 100 Years Ago: Phillies Play Boston In Their First Doubleheader Of The Season

May 28, 1915

Phillies @ Boston Braves

Phillies @ Boston Braves

Athletics vs. Boston Red Sox

The magnates that owned the professional baseball clubs 100 years ago were beginning to get restless.  It was now more than a month into the season and attendance was nowhere near where it had been in previous years.  That fact that the decline was ubiquitous across all leagues meant that the Federal League couldn’t be blame for diluting the product.  There had to be another reason that fans were not willing to come out to the ballparks.  Ban Johnson, President of the American League, believed that he had the answer: rainouts.  Nineteen-fifteen happened to have more rainouts in the first month of the season than any other in the recorded history of the game; between the three major leagues 79 games had been rained out.  The Phillies were involved in eight cancellations thus far, three in the past week, while the Athletics had been relatively lucky to only miss four scheduled games.  All of these games needed to be made up, obviously, which meant doubleheaders, both a blessing and a curse to the magnates.  Fans could watch two games for the price of one, which meant the clubs missed out on a game’s worth of profit, but it was also true that fans were more likely to show up to a mid-week doubleheader than a single game.  For example, say the usual weekday game drew 5,000 fans (which would be a good day), the doubleheader might draw two or three times that, meaning the club would profit in the long run.  So, for the owners, the short-term plight of rainouts would be a long-term gain in doubleheaders.  An interesting side note, the author of the recap of the A’s and Phillies games in the Evening Ledger said that Philadelphia fans “generally tire of double-headers.”  He provides no explanation, maybe it was common knowledge to his readers, but I haven’t found an answer as to why Philadelphia fans didn’t like doubleheaders.  Sucks for them, though, because the Phillies had a lot of games to make up.

Phillies 100 Years Ago: Phillies Sweep Cubs To Take First Place & the Athletics Come Home From Dreadful Road Trip

May 27, 1915

Phillies vs. Chicago Cubs

Athletics @ Cleveland Indians

Today was the last day of the Athletics woeful western road trip.  The trek that Connie Mack believed would be the turning point of his club’s season turned out to be a nineteen-day reality check.  The A’s were losers in 9 of the 14 games so far on the road, though today’s match with the Indians was a chance for progress.  A win represented a sweep in Cleveland, the team directly ahead of them in the standings, and their first winning-streak this season of more than two games.  Unfortunately, not too much time passed between the umpire’s shout of “Play Ball!” and the wind being sucked out of the Athletics’ sails.  Chick Davies allowed four Indians to score in the bottom of the first and another in the next frame, putting his club in a deep hole and jacking his season ERA to 8.71.  His replacement after the second was Bud Davis, another unreliable reliever that allowed four more runs to score over the next six innings.  To the Athletics’ credit they did managed to mount a comeback in the fifth and eighth, scoring eight runs of their own.  But, alas, it was one short.  The A’s limped back into Philadelphia with a 12-22 record, 10 games out of first place and firmly entrenched in the American League basement.  A cartoon was printed in the May 28^th edition of the Evening Ledger where the White Elephant, with a forlorn look and a beat up suitcase in his hand, was greeted by a Philadelphia Fan who wanted to welcome “the old cripple” back to town, encouraging him that “now’s your chance” to get back in the AL pennant hunt.  This was not to be, but here is that strange occurrence where Phillies fans were always looking for the omens of doom and the Athletics fans were encouraging and hopeful.    

Phillies 100 Years Ago: Alexander Pitches Gem to Bring Phillies Back to First Place

May 25, 1915

Phillies vs. Chicago Cubs

Athletics @ Cleveland Indians

We are back after a substantial break in the action.  The Phillies were rained out or had the day off for four straight days.  The Athletics beat the Tigers on May 21^st to momentarily escaped from last place, but then lost the next two to reclaim the basement slot.  Today they beat the Indians for the second day in a row, but this was still not enough to pull them up to seventh place.  In fact, they had been in last place for four days in a row, which, as we talked about in an earlier post, were more days in last place than in their entire existence before 1915.  

Phillies 100 Year Ago: Sun Rings Bring Bad Luck As Alexander, Phillies Lose

May 20, 1915

Phillies vs. Cincinnati Reds

Today saw pro-Italy demonstrations in Zara, the capital of Dalmatia, a territory occupied by the Austrians that sat across the Adriatic Sea from Italy.  The build up of tension due to the Italians’ preparation for war might have caused the Austrian troops stationed in the city to get a bit trigger happy because they fired into the crowd, killing several people.  The obviously enraged Italians, already champing at the bit for war, moved their battleships into position to bombard the port city of Cattaro, though at the time of publication there was no word as to the city’s being under siege.  Ambassadors from both Germany and Austria were forced to leave Rome after the news broke, effectively severing the last chance to negotiate for peace.  The news shocked the Ottomans, as well, who were now staring at the very real threat that Bulgaria and Romania would join the Italians on the Allies side, making their already fragile hold of the region almost unattainable.  They were already planning on renouncing their German-Austro alliance and giving the Allies full access to the Dardanelles if their fears were confirmed.  The death and destruction in Europe was about to be extended.[1]

Phillies 100 Years Ago: The A's Have a Historic Loss and the Phillies Fail to Score

May 19, 1915

Phillies vs. St. Louis Cardinals

Athletics @ Chicago White Sox

We haven’t talked much about the Athletics in the past week or so because there are only so many ways to say that they are a bad team, but today is a significant day for the club.  Let’s start by playing a little catch up and we’ll lead up to the news.  In the last seven games the A’s played they had lost six, including three losses to the St. Louis Browns, possibly the only other team in professional baseball as bad as Philadelphia.  After St. Louis, the A’s moved on to Chicago where they have so far dropped two of three.  This western trip that Connie Mack had hung his hat on as the turning point of the club’s season was proving the Tall Tactician’s short-comings in prognostication.  The pitching and defense had not got the bump Mack had hoped for and was now averaging 5.22 runs per game against, second worst in baseball and by far worst in the American League (the next worst team in the AL was Cleveland, who was averaging 4.63 runs per game against).  Unfortunately, the A’s average runs against would increase after their day game against the White Sox.

Phillies 100 Years Ago: Mayoral Corruption Charges and A Phillies Loss

May 18, 2015

Phillies vs. St. Louis Cardinals

Athletics @ Chicago White Sox

Another day and another probe into the corruption that ran Philadelphia’s politics around the turn of the twentieth-century.  Today, Mayor Rudolph Blankenburg was the subject of the accusations.  In maybe the best example of irony ever, it was the Republican Party that was levying these claims of corruption against the progressive mayor.  As discussed in an earlier post, the Republicans ran Philadelphia for almost a century from the 1850s-1950s and were considered by some to be the most corrupt machine in the nation.  They would illegally sell government jobs to the groups that paid the biggest bribes, stuff ballot boxes in their favor with the names of people that were dead or had never existed, and generally did little to improve the city unless it promised a huge payoff.  They became such an established institution in the city that many believed the city would never elect a non-Republican candidate.  It was as inevitable as the sun rising in the east.  In 1903 there was an article McClure’s Magazine the summed up the city’s feelings towards their elected officials entitled, “Philadelphia: Corrupt and Contented.”  Now, the Republicans had the gall accused Blankenburg of allowing money to influence his judgment. 

Phillies 100 Years Ago: Italy Ramps Up For War and Phillies Launch Three Home Runs In Win

May 17, 1915

Phillies vs. St. Louis Cardinals

Athletics @ Chicago White Sox

Well, it certainly looked like Italy was going to be joining the Great War on the side of the Allies.  The parties in government that wished the nation to remain neutral despite the almost continuous uproar for war made by the citizens had abandoned their stance.  Thousands in Rome cheered the news that mobilization was on the precipice of commencement.  For the Austro-German army, a new front against the Italians was horrible news.  The German government watched the Italian situation so closely that it caused a delay in their reply about the Lusitania demands President Woodrow Wilson sent days ago.  In the meantime, the focus on Italy was expected to slow down the use of submarines until a definitive stance can be taken.[1]

Phillies 100 Years Ago: Phillies Score in Bushels, Alexander Pitches Gem, and Much Is Spent For Two Miles

May 15, 1915

Phillies vs. St. Louis Cardinals

Athletics @ St. Louis Browns

Near the Artois region of France, the Battle of Festubert began today.  The fight was a small part of the larger Second Battle of Artois.  For the past 60 hours the Allies bombarded the German barbed wire and machine gun posts with over 100,000 shells from 433 artillery pieces.  At around 11 pm, the guns begin to slow down and the first wave of British platoons surge forward into No Man’s Land.  The advance was slowed by 12:45 am, but the bombardment started up again to loosen the stalemate.  All through the night bombs burst overhead, machine guns rat-tat-tated in the distance, and chaos ensued.  By 10 am the next morning the adversaries pull back to regroup and closed the gaps in their lines.  The battle continued for 10 more days like this and in the end Allied forces succeeded in taking less than 2 miles of ground.  Over 16,000 British casualties were spent for those 2 miles.[1]

Phillies 100 Year Ago: Phillies Bat Break Out As Baseball's First Month Closes

May 14, 1915

Phillies vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

As was usual these days, World War I news gripped the headlines in Philadelphia.  The Italians were demonstrating in the streets in favor of joining the war effort.  Prime Minister Antonio Salandra had dismissed the cabinet before the discussion of war against Austria and Germany could be addressed and the citizens were not happy.  All over, from Rome to Milan, protesters begged for King Victor Emmanuel III to force the cabinet to reform so war could be declared.  Was this unrest a vision of the future in the United States?  Possibly, but for now the US was relatively calm.  There was some low-level anxiety, though, because President Woodrow Wilson was anticipating a prompt reply from the Germans in regards to the demands he made of them to make the Lusitania bombing right in the eyes of America.  He found out he would not receive the message today, though, because the telegraph cables were too tied up with transmissions.  State officials were saying it would probably be a week before the German government would respond to the message Wilson sent last night.  A week!  Could you imagine such an important message taking that long today?  What people would do?  I mean a slow trickle of news about Marcus Mariota a few weeks ago sent everyone off into speculation and mayhem, imagine if we had to wait a week for any news at all about whether or not the country was going to war.  As this was happening, news was coming from across the Atlantic that the British were rounding up Germans for internment camps, and from across the Pacific that Chinese citizens were protesting against the Japanese.  If this mess of a world was what Americans were reading about day in and day out, no wonder they wanted to stay the hell out of European affairs.[1] 

Phillies 100 Year Ago: Phils' Bat, Defense Fails Demaree

May 13, 1915

Phillies vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

Athletics @ St. Louis Browns

The Phillies hoped to carry the momentum of the victory on Tuesday into their second game of the series against the Pirates.  Bob Harmon was Pittsburgh’s pitcher.  He was not the kind of twirler to induce fear in the hearts of batters, what with his 3.96 ERA and 1.40 WHIP coming into the game.  In his previous five games, Harmon only managed to hold his opponent below three earned runs once.  The Phillies must have been salivating watching him warm up, thinking this could be their chance to finally break out of this team-wide slump they’ve been mired in for two weeks.  Even without Fred Luderus and Bill Killefer, Philadelphia still looked to be able to put up ample enough runs for Al Demaree to get his second win of the season.

Phillies 100 Year Ago: Mack Predictions Come to Pass and Alexander Pitches Phillies Passed the Pirates

May 11, 1915

Phillies vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

Athletics @ St. Louis Browns

Connie Mack’s predictions that his club would get better pitching and move up in the standings during their western road trip proved astute today.  Bob Shawkey led the Athletics on the mound today and pitched the game of his young career.  The St. Louis Browns could only get three hits on the day, and though they worked five walks, they could get no runs on the board.  This was the first A’s shutout since way back in the first game of the season when Herb Pennock almost threw the Opening Day no-hitter.  Shawkey also helped out his cause by belting a double, allowing Stuffy McInnis to scamper around third to score the go ahead run.  It was the eighth win of the year for the A’s, and while it didn’t bring them closer to sixth place, it did give them a full game’s cushion from last.  Mack must have thought he found a stud pitcher in Shawkey after his outing today.  Now if only he could find one or two more to give his club a fighting chance at the playoffs.    

Phillies 100 Years Ago: Lusitania Still in the News as the Phillies Close Out Series in Brooklyn

May 10, 1915

Phillies @ Brooklyn Dodgers

On the front page of the New York Tribune, the Lusitania is still front-page news.  The main headline, in giant bold blocked letters, let it be known that Alfred Vanderbilt, the third son of the business magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, was last seen ushering women in a lifeboat, the lifeboat that was supposed to have been his ticket to safety after the ship was hit.  But instead of rescue he chose death in order to save the lives of strangers.  The articles about the Lusitania were zooming from the macro into on individual experiences, putting faces to the already unbearable lives lost.  Certainly it swayed a certain percentage of the population into the war camp.  Below this article was one about Teddy Roosevelt banging the drum for war.  The former president was quoted as saying, “Duty demands instant action, forbids delay.”  Roosevelt was one of a group that still saw war as a fun, almost romantic game.  And why not?  To him, it was.  His military experience in the Spanish-American War, storming up the famed San Juan Hill with the Rough Riders, was during an expansionist war against Spain, who was already fading as an international power.  It was arguably the most one-sided war the United States every participated in, as exemplified by it accounting for the least amount of casualties ever in a major American war.  So, yeah, to Teddy, the sport of war was relatively easy.  But the call for manliness and joining the Great War would have consequences that hit home hard for Teddy when his youngest son, Quentin, was shot down over Germany.  Quentin was just one of almost forty million men that were casualties of the Great War that Teddy so desperately wanted the generation below him to die in.  But most Americans were following the example of their president and maintained their neutral stance.  “Beyond question the great majority of Americans stand firm for a firm insistence on our conceptions of neutral rights and for an unequivocal demand on Germany that she abandon forever, so far as we are concerned, her policy of criminal aggression on the high seas.” 

Phillies 100 Year Ago: Coombs Clobbers Phillies For Second Time This Season

May 8, 1915

Phillies @ Brooklyn Dodgers

Athletics vs. Washington Senators

The United States was still reeling over the news of the Lusitania.  The reports were coming in fast and all they had were bad news.  There were reportedly 32 Philadelphians on the ship when it sank and all were presumed dead.  The captain of the ship had admitted that he was warned about the dangers of travelling through that stretch of ocean but did nothing to make an attack more difficult.  Surprisingly, considering how they would react late in the century, Americans were willing to wait for the facts to come in before jumping to any rash decisions.  President Wilson was engaging the German government to figure out how the whole mess could be made right again.  Eventually, as I have written previously, the tension would be released, but for now America was as close as it ever was to engaging in foreign entanglements.[1]

Phillies 100 Years Ago: The Lusitania Sinks

May 7, 1915

Athletics vs. Washington Senators

LINER LUSITANIA SUNK BY GERMAN SUBMARINE,
FLEET RUSHES TO AID

137 AMERICANS LOST LIVES; U.S. DEMANDS EXPLANATION

LUSITANIA DEATH TOLL 1346;
132 AMERICAN PASSENGERS LOST; GERMANY JUBILANT

And so went headlines across the United States 100 years ago.  The Lusitania, which was mentioned in a previous post, left New York on May 1 and was nearing her destination of Liverpool when she was fired on by German torpedoes.  There had been warnings that U-boats were in the vicinity the liner and recently three British ships were sunk in nearby waters, but the captain did not heed the warnings, resulting in the death of thousands.  It took only 18 minutes for the Lusitania to sink, but the reverberating effects of the attack would change history.

Phillies 100 Years Ago: Japan Threatens China; Jack the Ripper Clone in New York Cloud Phillies vs. Dodgers

May 6, 1915

Phillies @ Brooklyn Dodgers

Athletics vs. Washington Senators

Itching to expand its sphere of influence and possible get into the World War business, Japan issued an ultimatum to China today that would result in war if not accepted by May 9^th.  Technically they entered the war when it began on the side of Britain and France because there were some German-controlled territories in Asia that Japan coveted.  But in January 1915, Japan made its Twenty-One Demands of China, which were intended to greatly increase Japan’s control over Manchuria and boost its own economy.  The Twenty-One Demands were reduced to Thirteen Demands on May 7^th, and China eventually had to accept them as they were in no position to challenge Japan in a war.  The proposals were opposed by the United States and Great Britain, but neither nation was in much of a position to interfere.[1]

Phillies 100 Year Ago: Alexander Loses; Full On Panic Time For the Phillies!

May 5, 1915

Phillies vs. New York Giants

Athletics @ New York Yankees

Happy Cinco de Mayo to all of the Mexican readers out there.

In Philadelphia 100 years ago, there were some strange front-page headlines from the Evening Ledger that I’d like to share.  The first was a picture of people standing in front of Curtis Publishing Company with the headline “Fire Drill Empties Great Building In Six Minutes.”  It’s hard for us to think that a fire drill would constitute front-page news, but at the time it was a big deal.  We have to remember that it was not uncommon for fires to break out and trap people in buildings, killing hundreds.  The horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire happened in 1911, only four years before this fire drill took place.  The paper makes sure to draw the parallels between the drill and the Triangle Shirtwaist fire by mentioning the number of women that escaped the building at such a fast pace.  This is just another little reminder that things we take for granted today were deadly serious 100 years ago.

Phillies 100 Years Ago: Philadelphia Ball Clubs Struggle and the US Have Concerns About Unrestricted Submarine Warfare

May 3, 1915

Phillies vs. New York Giants

Athletics @ New York Yankees

On Friday night, Ryan Howard played in his 1,299^th game at first base for the Phillies, setting a new club record that had been held by Fred Luderus.  That’s right!  Fred Luderus, the captain of this 1915 Phillies team that we are chronicling, had held the record for almost 100 years.  I think the broadcast team did a great job giving time to honor Luderus.  They told about what a funny guy he was and how he was a great leader and even had the story about how he taught Carl Hubbell his wicked screwball.  Luderus was a fan favorite and great ball player that has slipped from the public’s mind, which is understandable considering his peak was over 100 years ago, but it was nice to have him honored as an all-time great Phillie.  

Phillies 100 Years Ago: Alexander Gets the Phillies Back To Winning and Fate Sets Sail

May 1, 1915

Phillies vs. New York Giants

Athletics @ New York Yankees

Archie Williams was a black track star that competed in the 1920s and 1930s.  He attended the University of California where he began setting world records in the 400 m.  In 1936, he had the honor to compete at the Berlin Olympics (the Nazi games) and was a teammate of Jesse Owens.  Despite the pressure of the Olympics, representing the United States at a time when African Americans were considered less evolved than whites, and performing in front of future-worst-person-ever Adolph Hitler, Williams triumphed by winning the gold medal in the 400 m.  He noted that Hitler would not shake his hand after his race, but also that the German people treated him with respect and didn’t make him sit on the back of the bus.  Commentary!  After retiring from track, Archie joined the military and flew fighter jets in the Korean War.  Williams was a great athlete and a great American, and while he gets overshadowed by the accomplishments Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics, he still deserves recognition.  Today, 100 years ago, Archie Williams was born in Oakland, California.  About 2,500 miles to the east the RMS Lusitania was setting sail for Liverpool.

We’ve come to the end of the first month of the baseball season.  The Phillies finished April 11-3, the best record in baseball.  The hot start was due to excellent pitching and the middle of the lineup smashing balls over every park they played in.  Possum Whitted, Gavvy Cravath, Grover Cleveland Alexander, and Erskine Mayer were leading the suddenly great Philadelphia squad.  Cincinnati, Chicago, and Boston were playing musical chairs with second place while St. Louis, Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, and New York made up the second division. 

Over on the American League side, it was the Tigers that held the claim on first at the season’s first turn, but the lead was tiny as New York, Chicago, and the Washington Senators were bunched within two a half games of each other.  The bottom four, all under .500 on the year, were Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and the St. Louis Browns.  The Athletics were lucky to be playing in the same league as the Browns because they would be basement dwellers in any other league.  If you were just looking at the standings you might not think the A’s were so bad off.  They were within a game and a half of sixth-place Cleveland and a game and a half above the Browns.  But St. Louis was masking how bad the A’s were.  Connie Mack had no good pitchers to give the ball to, which is astonishing because he used the most pitchers in baseball.  For 1915, the average team across the three leagues used a little over 12 pitchers during the year, and of those only two per team pitched in less than three games.  The Mackmen threw 27 different pitchers and 10 of them appeared in less than three games!  Connie was just giving everyone a tryout!  Sadly, almost none of them stuck in the majors.  Mack got so frustrated by the poor performances he witnessed day in and day out that he would just cut guys after one back game.  Poor Connie Mack couldn’t even figure out how to get out of his own way in 1915. 

Needless to say, the first month of a season was a surprise for Philadelphia fans.  Those at 21^st and Lehigh were distraught that the trusted and beloved Mack couldn’t find the right combination to field even a below average major league team.  I’d suspect that A’s fans were probably a little more confident that the club’s run of bad ball would end just because Mack had pulled it off before, but to watch a full month of terrible baseball must have put the fear of God into them.  Ever the pessimists, the fans down the street at Broad and Lehigh might have been confident that their run of good ball would end soon.  I mean, after Alexander and Mayer, who had really stepped up to be the third reliable pitcher the club would need to make a pennant run?  Would the offense maintain all year?  Possum Whitted and Cravath were hitting great, but were they hitting over their heads a bit?  Question, questions, questions.  Luckily, in baseball, there isn’t much time to debate the questions because there’s always a game the next day.         

May 1, 1915 was a Saturday, and Saturday’s meant huge crowds for ball games.  So it was no surprise that the second largest crowd of the season witnessed the rematch of Grover Cleveland Alexander and Christy Mathewson.  The Giants had been the bizzaro-Phillies so far in 1915.  Since starting the season by beating the Dodgers twice, New York lost nine of their next ten games and occupied last place in the National League, seven games behind the first place Phillies.  Mathewson had struggled, losing the only two games he started and posting a 4.09 ERA while only striking out two batters.  As a club, the Giants scored the fewest runs in April while giving up the fourth most. This was quite a shock to the Giants and their fiery manager John McGraw as they had not finished out of the first division since 1902!  Now they were playing ball like a last place team.

The poor play was probably because the Giants were a little beat up to start the season.  Their big Franks, Merkle and Snodgrass, had both missed time and would sit out against the Phillies.  Before the game the Giants received more bad news.  Phillies’ third baseman Bobby Byrne accidently warmed up right into Giants’ pitcher Pol Perritt’s nose, breaking the poor man’s schnoz.  The Phillies were pounding the Giants before the game even started.  Amazingly, the broken nose would only sideline Pol for two weeks before he was back in the second slot of his team’s rotation.

Byrne may have received a bit of luck from the broken nose incident; he hit a single, a triple, and scored a run.  As the Phillies’ leadoff hitter, Byrne was struggling to get starter and posted a .167/.211/.241 slash line in April.  The big game he had today almost brought his average over the Mendoza Line, so things were looking up!  Beals Becker contributed a combo meal (home run plus steal) and two RBIs to shove it in his former team’s face.  Becker had been cut, no trade or buyout, just a straight up cut by McGraw after the 1912 season.  He went to Cincinnat before being traded to Philadelphia, where he found a home in the Baker Bowl’s left field.  The problem in today’s game was that Byrne and Becker provided almost all of the offense today.  The four through nine batters combined to go 3 for 19 and only Possum Whitted had an RBI because that’s what Possum Whitted does.  Mathewson didn’t pitching exceedingly great, but he did show signs of his former greatness.           

As one might guess, Alexander did a great job neutralizing what little there was left of the Giants’ lineup.  He allowed only six hits, and while three of these were doubles, he managed to keep the Giants on the base paths for the most part.  A run squeezed by in the third and another in the eight, but the contest was never really in doubt.  Alex completed his fifth complete game victory of the year, winning by a score of 4-2.   

For a moment it seemed like the Phillies were back on track.  Alex had come in as the Stopper and halted the losing streak, just as he was supposed to do.  While the hitting wasn’t consistent, they received contributions from guys that had not performed well as of yet.  And this series was a great chance to establish something by taking advantage of the scuffling Giants.  In 1915, tomorrow was a Sunday, which meant blue laws, which meant no baseball.  The Phillies would have to wait until Monday to see what kind of stuff this club had.  We’ll check back in a few days to catch up with the Philadelphia baseball clubs.