June 1, 1915
Phillies @ Brooklyn Dodgers
Athletics vs. Washington Senators
A few days ago the German government responded to President
Woodrow Wilson’s demands that they quit all unrestricted submarine warfare and
apologize for the lives lost when the Lusitania
was sunk by more or less telling the United States that they needed to shut up
while the grown ups are talking. The
ship was armed to threaten U-boats and therefore was a ship of war, according
the Germans. They also let the president
know that if he really wanted to place blame he should look no further than
Britain, who had not only did a poor job of warning the captain of the
submarine threat in the area but also continued to blockade the North Sea,
forcing Germany to use submarines just to survive. The Germans did have a point in regards to
the blockade. By the end of the war the
civilian death total that resulted from hunger or disease due to the blockade
would number between 400,000 and 800,000.
Britain had the best navy in the world at the time and could choke off
all sea trade to the Central Powers; and while Germany was an up-and-comer as a
naval power, they couldn’t compete with the Brits unless they employed the
advantage of the submarine. But Wilson
would not back down. This had gone
beyond the Lusitania and was now
about respecting international law. He
met with his cabinet today and decided that he would force the German
government to declare their official position on the use of unrestricted
submarine warfare. If they didn’t respond
or declared they could continue with this tactic, Wilson was prepared to ask
the Congress for war.[1]
Germany wasn’t the only nation President Wilson was sparring
with in 1915 because the Mexican Revolution was getting closer and closer to
involving the United States. Reports
were coming out that an American name I.E. Bowers was under attack at his home
in Sonora from a group of ten Mexican bandits.
Wilson came down hard on the revolutionaries, stating that their initial
goals of ousting a corrupt government that ignored the nation’s constitution
was noble and supported by the United States, but that the in-fighting of these
groups was now destroying Mexico more than the old government ever had. It was up to the revolutionary bands to come
together for the benefit of the Mexican people, stop allowing small raiding
parties to encroach on American land, and build a stable republican
government. If this proved too
difficult, Wilson let them know he would side with the group that best
represented American interests and would back them with the US Army.[2]
We went a little heavy on the history today! But it gives some context to America in
1915. Looking back now as Americans we
rarely think about the Mexican Revolution/Civil War because it’s totally overshadowed
by World War I and it’s consequences, but to people living at the time the more
imminent threat of war was with Mexico.
And in fact within a year the United States sent troops to fight the
Mexican General Pancho Villa after his raid on Columbus, New Mexico. These events in American foreign policy show
where the nation was in respect to the rest of the world. Wilson obviously thought the US Army could go
down to Mexico and whip the revolutionaries without much effort and restore
some semblance of peace to that nation, hence why he issued threats almost like
a father that’s had enough of his sons’ roughhousing. However Wilson was forced to repeatedly ask
Germany just to respond to his questions about their use of submarines. He knew he could threaten war only because he
would join Great Britain and France as allies, otherwise the American army
would be not be able to hang in a war with Germany. But the president also knew that the United
States was on the verge of joining those European nations as significant
international players. All he had to do
was keep the country in its lane and not rock the boat too much.
And yes there was baseball today 100 years ago! The Athletics lost a game to Walter Johnson
and the Washington Senators that put them 13½ games out of first place. Johnson’s only hiccup in the game came in the
second when he allowed three A’s to cross home plate to tie the score. Washington scored two more in the top half of
the third and never looked back. The
final score was 5-3.
The Phillies were trying to build a winning streak to
counter balance all the losing they’ve been doing recently and had the best
pitcher on the mound to do so, or so everyone thought. Grover Cleveland Alexander came into today’s
game with an 8-3 record and a 1.58 ERA, but two of those losses and almost half
of the earned runs he had given up all year came in his last three starts. He was a microcosm of this team; he hit a
rough patch and needed to prove that he still had the magic that he started the
season with. Overall Alexander pitched
great today; he gave up only four hits and a walk through seven innings of
work. But as often happens when in a
slump, those four measly hits Alex gave up were bunched around each other in
the second and fourth innings and resulted in three runs for Brooklyn. Undismayed, Alexander retired Brooklyn in
order after the fourth until he was replaced by a pinch hitter in the eighth.
The Phillies batters were showing their usual stripes by not
getting on base for most of the game.
Wheezer Dell, Brooklyn’s pitcher, moved right along for the first half
of the contest without a hitch, but then in the sixth inning he began walking
batters one after the other. In the
sixth it resulted in a run for Philadelphia, in the eighth they got another,
and in the ninth two more crossed the plate to give the Phillies the lead! Dell walked nine batters in the game and was for
some reason allowed to remain in even after giving up the lead. Al Demaree relieved Alexander and was a strike
away from nailing down the second win in a row for the Phillies when he gave up
a towering fly to Zack Wheat that flew between Dode Paskert and Beals Becker
and bounded to the left-centerfield wall.
Wheat rounded third as the ball was relayed from the outfield. Catcher Ed Burns received the throw just as
Wheat slide under him to score the tying run on an inside the park home run. The roar of the crowd that only comes with
the miraculous reversal of inevitable defeat rung through Ebetts Field and was
completely demoralizing for the Phillies.
The game continued into extra innings with a new inevitability due to
the momentum shift. In the bottom of the
eleventh the prophesy was fulfilled with Zack Wheat once again at the plate,
though this time is was not a long shot but a tiny dribbler than landed in the
Bermuda Triangle between the pitcher, second baseman, and first baseman. All three charged the ball for the Phillies
and first base was left uncovered, allowing Wheat to beat out an infield single
that drove in the winning run.[3]
[4]
Another bad loss for the floundering Phillies. This monstrous road trip was only five days
old and already the club had dropped five of its six games. What would you do if you were manager Pat
Moran? The talent is there in all phases
of the game, but how do you convince your players that the awful baseball
they’ve been playing for over a month now is not the real version of the club? There’s only so many times you can say “We’ll
get ‘em next time” before the response is “Will we, though?” To make matters worse Boston defeated the
Giants and the Cubs won in Pittsburgh, meaning the Phillies were now official
closer to third place than to first. The
most likely course for clubs that have taken so many punches to the gut is to
fold up and give in to the loser stigma.
The good news is that we are entering the tail end of the club feeling
like this. In a few days the process of
turning this season around will be in full swing.
[1]
“Will Insist On Direct Reply From Germany,” The
Sun, June 2, 1915, accessed June 1, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1FXepCT.
[2]
“President Calls On Mexican Chiefs To End Civil War Which Has Rent The Nation,”
Evening Ledger, June 2, 1915, accessed
June 1, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1Fll5pS.
[3]
“Two Out In Ninth; Wheat Hits Homer,” The
Sun, June 2, 1915, accessed June 1, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1BChgvX.
[4]
“Wheat And His Bat Win For The Superbas,” New
York Tribune, June 2, 1915, accessed June 1, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1JjstI0.
No comments:
Post a Comment