Phillies 100 Years Ago: Actually Today It's the Athletics and Babe Ruth 100 Year Ago

April 16, 1915

Athletics vs. Boston Red Sox

The Phillies did not play today and the Athletics game resulted in a tie, but something awesome happened in the game: Babe Ruth was the starting pitcher for the Red Sox.  This was only Ruth’s second season in the majors and the first where he made the Opening Day roster.  The Great Bambino hadn’t even hit his first home run yet!  It was his first game facing Mack and the A’s, though there would be many more important games to come when he became a Yankee.  But in this game Ruth was inconsistent throughout, giving up five hits, four walks, and five earned runs through four innings of work.  It’s amusing to read about a game in the newspaper that Babe freaking Ruth participated in and only have him be casually mentioned, but that’s the kind of game the young Sultan of Swat had today 100 years ago. 

In the bottom of the 7^th, Rube Oldring pounded a Ralph Comstock pitch deep into the left field bleachers, tying the game for the Athletics.  This also marked the first home run a Philadelphia player hit during the 1915 season.  The A’s may have started the home run hitting, but the Phillies would contribute a lot more in the months to come.  In fact the Phillies had who many consider to be the Babe Ruth of the Deadball Era: right fielder Gavvy Cravath.  This is actually an often used, though unfair, comparison.  Cravath certainly was the premier power hitter of the Deadball Era, but he was not Ruth.  Not even close. Nobody is/was/might ever be Ruth.  Gavvy could pound homers better than anyone else he played against, but he couldn’t hit for the average Ruth could and he couldn’t do it for as many years as Ruth did.  But Cravath was exciting, as we will see; often he hit more home runs than the many teams in the either league. 

As the day closed on April 16, 1915, the Athletics are 1-1-1 and only a half game out of first place.  We know they are heading for an awful season, but it isn’t evident yet to those surrounding the club.  The Phillies are 2-0 still and preparing to battle one of the top clubs in the National League, the New York Giants.  Phillies and Giants games always got a little chippy and bitter, but they were exciting no matter where the clubs were in the standings.  Tomorrow’s game was sure to be one for the ages: Grover Cleveland Alexander vs. Christy Mathewson.