April 29, 1915
Phillies vs. Brooklyn Dodgers
Athletics @ Washington Senators
There was some news coming out about what was known as the
Baseball War between what was then (pretentiously?) called Organized Baseball
(aka the American and National Leagues) and the Federal League. As I’ve discussed before, the Federal League
was an upstart circuit hoping to provide a third option for professional
baseball fans that in time, the investors hoped, would merge with the other big
leagues at a huge profit. The American
League had done a similar thing in 1901.
When the Feds starting playing in 1914 they raided the rosters of the
more established leagues in order to make the transition easier for the fans. Hence we have ourselves a war (Isn’t it funny
that writers would call this challenge to professional baseball’s de facto
monopoly a “war” considering the most deadly war the world had ever seen was in
progress? Seems a little gauche with 21st
century eyes). The news coming out
today was that the New York Giants had signed Federal League star Benny
Kauff. There were two problems with
this. Problem the first was that the
National League had always asserted that they would not accept contract
jumpers, and yet here was a National League doing just that. Secondly, if Organized Baseball wasn’t going
to honor the Feds as a actual major league, then Kauff jumping off the new
league’s rotation would mean his rights belonged to the New York Yankees, the
team he initially jumped from. The
speculation was that fans were now completely turned off by the war and the
National League had done little to ingratiate themselves with the public after
the Giants’ latest stunt. Rumors had it
that Ban Johnson had struck a deal with the Federal League, which meant the
AL/NL partnership could end soon. John
McGraw, man, ruins everything just to get slightly better.[1]
One of the biggest raiders when the American League
established itself in 1901 was Connie Mack and his case in an example the Feds
can point to show their tactic could work.
Mack parlayed a minor league managerial position in Milwaukee into part
owner of one of the most successful teams in baseball history. Now, all these years later, he was trying to
regain his magic. After taking two
straight defeats despite great pitching from his club, Mack sent his most
trusted twirler, Herb Pennock, to the mound in the nation’s capital hoping he
could keep the streak alive long enough to allow the bats to wake up. For most of the game Pennock held his end of
the bargain, but the hitters just couldn’t mount anything significant. Actually, the game was swung in the eighth
inning when the Senators’ pitcher, Doc Ayers, fielded a routine grounder and
proceeded to launch it over first baseman Chick Gandil’s head and into the
crowd, allowing two runs to score for the A’s.
Pennock would lock the rest of the game down, with a little help from a
diving catch from Stuffy McInnis that stopped a rally in the ninth, and the
Athletics won 3-1. It was more of the
same for the A’s: good pitching and a lot of hits scattered throughout the game
but not many strung together to allow for runs.
But, hey, they won the game, and that’s all you can ask them to do. Still, it didn’t inspire confidence that the
tide was turning or anything when they won the game with three unearned runs.[2]
The Phillies didn’t play their best game today, either. They fell to the Dodgers 7-4. Al Demaree started for the Phils, despite
having what was called a “sore arm.”
Even if the description was vague, Demaree proved he was injured with
how he pitched. Through seven innings he
was knocked around to the tune of 12 hits and five runs while only striking out
two. The Evening Ledger lets Demaree off the hook a bit, blaming the usually
sure-handed third baseman Bobby Byrne with two bad plays that lead to runs for
the Dodgers. With the Phillies up 3-1 in
the top of the fourth, Byrne kicked a sure fire third out that kept the
inning. Brooklyn took full advantage by
scoring three two-out runs to take the lead.
Later he repeated the performance when kicked another routine grounder
that would have got Demaree out of the inning.
This, too, lead to a Dodgers’ run, the one that would put the game out
of reach. On a totally unrelated note, the Phillies young outfielder Bud Weiser made his major league debut in today's game. He wouldn't last long in the league, but he certainly had an A+ name.[3]
We are in the third week of the 1915 season and this was
only the second lost of the year for the Phillies. Despite a win by the second place Cincinnati
Reds, the Phillies still held a 2.5 game lead after their disappointing
performance today. Also, they still had
the best record in baseball, so this lost wasn’t earth shaking or
anything. Today’s game drew 8,000
people, the second biggest crowd of the year at the Baker Bowl. The papers made sure to draw the erroneous
conclusion that the Phillies had trouble playing before big crowds since they
also lost the game with the highest attendance.
The team would show they could win in front of big crowds as the year
went on. As for today, it was just a
small hiccup, right? It’s not like the
Phillies would blow this great start to the season and play like a subpar team
until the end of June, essentially playing like a club on pace to win only 69
games, right? RIGHT?!
[1]
“New York Giants Muddle Plans For Baseball Peace,” Evening Ledger, April 30, 1915, accessed April 28, 2015, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/1915-04-30/ed-1/seq-12/#date1=1915&sort=date&date2=1915&words=Phillies+PHILLIES&sequence=0&lccn=&index=5&state=Pennsylvania&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=phillies&year=&phrasetext=&andtext=&proxValue=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=11.
[2]
“Doc Ayers’ Wild Peg Is Fatal to Nationals,” The Washington Herald, April 30, 1915, accessed April 28, 2015, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045433/1915-04-30/ed-1/seq-10/#date1=1915&sort=date&date2=1915&words=athletes+Athletic+athletic+Athletics&sequence=0&lccn=&index=14&state=District+of+Columbia&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=athletics&year=&phrasetext=&andtext=&proxValue=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=59.
[3]
“New York Giants Muddle Plans For Baseball Peace.”
No comments:
Post a Comment