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 9th. 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 7th, 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]
Meanwhile New York’s East Side had a child-murderer problem
on their hands. Leonore Cohn and Charlie
Murray, two children from the neighborhood, had been killed within days of each
other. Now, just yesterday, the mother
of Charlie had received a letter at her son’s funeral, presumably from the
killer, saying he would keep murdering children once all of the attention died
down. The New York police were keeping
the case as secret as possible because they had erred in supplying the public
with information about a similar case earlier in the year and it allowed the
killer to escape the clutches of the Philadelphia police. Despite the silence coming from the police,
reporters were able to piece together information from interviews with the
Murrays that the killer was emulating the Jack the Ripper murders, only with
children instead of women. The letter
Mrs. Murray received was signed “R.F.C.” and “R.F. Crane” was crossed off on
the back, though officials and postmen believed the handwriting to be that of
Edward Richman. Sadly, the killer was
never caught.[2]
Meanwhile, right across the East River, the Phillies made
their first trip of the year to Brooklyn to face the Dodgers at Ebbets
Field. The stadium’s giant arched
windows on its imposing rounded façade at the corner of McKeever and Sullivan
Place would become a point of pride for Brooklynites and the premier symbol of
the Dodgers’ time in Brooklyn, but in 1915 it was only in its third season of
operation. The Phillies actually played
in and won the Dodgers’ first game at the park on April 9, 1913. Since then Philadelphia had played a great
stretch of ball that had them win 10 of 11 in 1913 and an equally bad period
where they went 3-8 in 1914. The
Phillies and Dodgers had had a rivalry for many years, but it was not as
contentious as the one between the Phillies and Giants. Actually, and apropos to some themes in the
blog series, Philadelphians believed that the Dodgers jinxed the Phillies. In 1913, the Dodgers beat the Phillies eight
times in two weeks, not only removing them from first place but also completely
eliminating them from contention. And
this season the Dodgers were the ones that started this losing streak the
Phillies currently found themselves embedded in.
I’m not saying the evidence was strong that the Dodgers always knocked
the Phillies off their pedestal; I’m just saying the idea was present in the
minds of fans and caused a bit of consternation as they waited to hear the
result of the afternoon’s game.[3]
A crowd of 1,500 came out on a Thursday afternoon to see
their hometown pitcher Jeff Pfeffer battle Erskine Mayer in a classic pitcher
duel. Fred Luderus once again sat out
with injury, but the club got a confidence boost as Bill Killefer took his
position behind the plate after missing a few game resting an injury of his
own. Too bad he couldn’t help boost the
offense back to early season levels. The
Phillies opened the scoring when Bert Niehoff grounded into a double play with
the bases loaded, allowing Beals Becker to score. This has to the worst way to score since in
order to do it you have to have the bases loaded and no outs, and then trade two outs for a run.
Needless to say, the Phillies only got one run out of that
situation. In the seventh Dode Paskert
smashed a triple off the scoreboard and scored on an error. Becker made his best Dode Paskert impression
in the eighth when he, too, banged out a triple, and Gavvy Cravath did his job as the cleanup
hitter and drove him in. Don’t be
confused; the Phillies offense was not great in this game. They scattered seven hits and were walked
four times but could not capitalize on these occasions. Scoring plays that include an error and a
bases-loaded double play are not what great offensive games are made of. Still, they fought and clawed to get three
runs on a day when they were not their best.[4]
Mayer pitched another outstanding game and deserves credit
for getting his club the win today.
While allowing only five hits, two walks, and an earned run, he had the
Dodgers on their heels all game. In
fact, if you took out the one bad outing he had against the Braves two weeks
ago, one could argue that Mayer, and not Alexander, was the best Phillies
pitcher this season. I’m not going to argue that, but it’s
important to note that in his four complete games he had a 0.11 ERA. That is unbelievably good, even for a short sample
size. And his win today eased some
concern about what direction the club was heading and gave his teammates some
much needed confidence, the job Alexander normally performed. Hey, there’s nothing wrong with having two
aces that were capable of cutting losing streaks off at the knees. It was a big win for the Phillies today 100
years ago. The Dodgers weren't the
harbingers of bad news on this day, thanks to Erskine Mayer, but the
superstitious in Philadelphia did not rest easy tonight. The Phillies still had two more games to play
in Brooklyn.
[1]
“Japanese Ultimatum, Sanctioned by Emperor, Sent to China’s Capital,” The Sun, May 7, 1915, accessed May 5,
2015, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1915-05-07/ed-1/seq-1/.
[2]
“Woods Orders Police Secrecy In Ripper Hunt,” New York Tribune, May 7, 1915, accessed May 5, 2015, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1915-05-07/ed-1/seq-1/.
[3]
“Mayer vs. Coombs In Ball Fray Today,” Evening
Ledger, May 6, 1915, accessed May 5, 2015, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/1915-05-06/ed-1/seq-13/#date1=1915&sort=date&date2=1915&words=Phillies&sequence=0&lccn=&index=2&state=Pennsylvania&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=phillies&year=&phrasetext=&andtext=&proxValue=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=12.
[4]
“Pfeffer, Another Veteran Pitcher, Fails Superbas,” New York Tribune, May 7, 1915, accessed May 5, 2015, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1915-05-07/ed-1/seq-14/#date1=1915&sort=date&date2=1915&words=Phillies&sequence=0&lccn=&index=10&state=New+York&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=phillies&year=&phrasetext=&andtext=&proxValue=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=8.
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