21st & Lehigh: 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.

I’d also like to wish a happy birthday to Stu Hart, who was born 100 years ago. Hart was the father of WWF greats Bret and Owen Hart. I’m a quasi-wrestling fan and don’t nearly watch it as much as I did in middle school, but I recognized Stu’s name and contributions to the sport/entertainment. I got into the WWF a little after the Montreal Screwjob and Owen Hart’s death, so I didn’t get to see his children’s careers, but if Wikipedia is to be believed, Stu trained Chris Jericho, Edge, Christian, Mark Henry, and Chris Benoit, all of whom were staples when I first started watching. So happy birthday to Stu Hart!

Now, the Evening Ledger for May 4, 1915 had a Page 1 story about ships being blown apart by German submarines. Over the past 48 hours, the German’s had sunk 10 vessels, including an American ship called Gulflight. At first, the United States believed that the ship did not sink due to nefarious events, but new information received yesterday lead President Wilson to change his mind and consider the Gulflight a victim of a German torpedo. The president wasn’t going to rush into any decisions about the attack until all the facts came to light, but it was obvious that he wanted answers from the German government that just weren’t going to come. The United States was angry that the German’s had declared the North Sea a war zone in November 1914 and commenced their unrestricted submarine warfare strategy, but the British blockade of Germany also didn't sit well with America. So, like with the rest of the war, the US didn't take a stand with one side or the other. However, American merchants being killed by German acts of war was unacceptable and would eventually push the US towards action. As of right now, though, Wilson was making sure everything was accounted for before he made a decision. We’ll see more about this later in the week, but for now, let’s get back to the baseball.

The Athletics brought their bats to the game today, for sure, but maybe they should have eaten more Wheaties, which actually wasn’t even a thing until 1922. Where else do you get fun facts like that?! The lineup that had been struggling to hit got 12 today, but only two of them were extra base hits. Still, they had Yankees’ pitcher Ray Fisher pitching in and out of jams all afternoon. Fisher was in the beginning of his best season as a pro, one in which he would win 18 games and a 5.3 fWAR. While he didn’t look to be at his best today, he did hold the A’s to only four runs. But, hey, that was more than the A’s had scored in a game in over a week, so maybe they could capitalize on timely pitching to pull out a win.

Uh, no. This was the 1915 Athletics, after all, and when one segment of their game was going well, the other parts had to be terrible. Let’s have the Evening Ledger explain how this one got away from the A’s: “Joe Bush essayed a twirl after two weeks absence owing to an injury, and while Joe had all kinds of speed and curves he seldom got them near the plate. Rube Bressler, who followed Bullet Joe, also had everything, but he, too, was wild.” I mean, wild is one way to describe what happened. Walking 14 batters between the two pitchers is a completely different thing. Thirty-nine batters came to the plate for the Yankees and a 36% of them walked. When you throw in the terrible defense that was played behind Bush and Bressler (there were four errors in this game by the A’s), you have a situation where the Yankees scored eight runs and only had six hits. This was the third game in a row dropped by the Athletics. They were outscored 25-8.[1]

The Phillies, meanwhile, were set up to take another victory against the Giants. George Chalmers was fantastic on the mound, picking up right where he left off when he faced the Giants in the first week of the season and held them to just one run. Over eight innings, New York’s hitters managed only five hits and a walk and were completely overmatched by Chalmers. Beals Becker launched his fourth home run of the year in the first inning and Oscar Dugey scored on a double steal in the fourth to give the Phils a 2-0 lead. That was it, though. The offense had sputtered again and was becoming a concern, especially because Gavvy Cravath was steeped in his worst slump in years. But Pat Moran was probably happy to take a lead into the ninth with Chalmers cruising along as he was, even if he was going to face the middle of the Giants lineup.

New York’s first batter in the ninth was former Phillie slugger Hans Lobert, who promptly doubled off of Chalmers for his first hit of the day. Art Fletcher grounded out weakly, which allowed Lobert to take third. Geroge Burns’ long shot was caught, but it was deep enough for Lobert to trot home and cut the lead to 2-1. Dave Robertson, who already had three of the Giants’ six hits on the day, then took his turn at the plate. Chalmers got ahead of him 1-2. The fourth pitched seemed to be right over the plate for strike three, but the umpire disagreed and called it ball two. After a bunch of foul balls, Chalmers eventually rocketed a 3-2 fastball that Robertson swung at and popped up behind home plate. The Phillies everyday catcher, Bill Killefer, had the day off, so it was backup Ed Burns that squeezed the ball in his glove for the third out. The joyous fans in attendance at the Baker Bowl streamed onto the field to celebrate with a walk around the park, the normal fashion of the day. Everything was great except for one thing: Burns dropped the ball. The police had to corral the confused fans back into the grandstands so the game could be completed. When the game resumed, Robertson singled and went to second when Fred Brainard got a hit behind him. Chief Meyers banged a ball into left field that Possum Whitted could not get to. Robertson rounded third and scored to tie the game. Brainard was coming home all the way from first. Whitted grabbed the ball and threw it home with plenty of time to beat the runner, only it was way off target and Brainard scored the go-ahead run. The Phillies could mount nothing in their turn at the plate and just like that they grasped defeat from the jaws of victory.[2] [3]

It was a dramatic conclusion even if it didn’t go in favor of the Phillies. And of course this was one of those “what if” moments that happen in every sport throughout a season. What if the umpire called that pitch strike three? And what if Burns managed to catch the pop foul? The Phillies would be winners of two in a row and the two losses from last week would have been a faint memory. Instead, the club got kicked in the gut. Just like that, in the amount of time it takes to drop a pop fly, the narrative changed. Now, instead of two wins in a row for the Phils, it was that the Phillies were losers of 3 of their last 4. Do you start to panic if you’re Pat Moran or do you hope that the slump will just work itself out? Do you decide to switch things up to change the momentum? Moran probably wasn’t thinking too much into it because he had Alexander scheduled to go in the next start. Alex was great for breaking bad stretches, as he had done in his last outing. Now if Alex loses, maybe something needed to be done to right the ship.