June 8, 2015
Phillies @ St. Louis Cardinals
Athletics vs. St. Louis Browns
An event that happened today 100 years ago that exhibits how
people received and digested their news during that era. The Germans had sent a note back to President
Woodrow Wilson that explained their recent attacks on ship liners, including
the Lusitania. It was not the note Wilson was hoping for
that would outline Germany’s new, restricted use of submarines; instead it was
a promise to pay for US ships that had been attacked in error and to
investigate the attacks more closely.
Wilson stated that this was welcomed news, but it did not answer his
questions fully. He intended to draft
another correspondence with the German government to define the nations’ roles
with each other a little better. Now,
all of this is relatively banal, run-of-the-mill politicking and those that
read this news back then would probably agree, but late in the day Wilson’s new
note caused some disagreement within the administration. As it turned out, Secretary of State William
Jennings Bryan did not agree with Wilson’s approach to the German letter and
resigned. Many evening editions of east
coast newspapers only got the first half of the story, saying nothing of
Bryan’s resignation, and the western newspapers didn’t know what to print with
their late editions. So, as with the Ogden Standard from Ogden City, Utah,
there was a large, bold headline that ran the length of the first page that
read “SECRETARY BRYAN RESIGNS,” but
the article associated with it claimed that all within the cabinet agreed with
Wilson’s letter, which would be forwarded to Berlin very soon. It’s interesting to see that stories could
make their way across the country in only a few hours, yet the information was
not readily available to everyone. Most
people on the east coast had to wait for the morning editions to get the
updates while those in California knew about the resignation but not the
circumstances surrounding it.[1]
A lot of this blog relies on the same type of information
transmissions. With the Phillies in St.
Louis, it’s hard to find a lengthy or detailed article about the game play
because Philadelphia newspapers didn’t send many reporters to the west if they
sent any at all. I can read a box score,
but it won’t tell me what inning Gavvy Cravath scored a run, only that he
scored one. It’s essential to find
firsthand accounts to liven up these posts, just like it was essential to
selling evening newspapers 100 years ago.
So papers like the Evening Ledger
would print telegraphed batter-by-batter data of a game in progress up until
the time the edition had to go to print, thus enticing the sports fan to buy
the paper to find out the latest scores.
It was sort of like checking the Sportscenter App is for us today.
Speaking of the Phillies in St. Louis, the clubs played a
fantastic game today. Gavvy Cravath started
the scoring off when he slammed a double off of Cardinals’ pitcher Dan Griner
that scored Beals Becker. Later in the
inning Fred Luderus hit a triple to drive in Cravath and Bert Niehoff, giving
the Phils a 3-0 lead. St. Louis
responded in the bottom of the second with two runs off of Erskine Mayer that
cut the lead to one. A brief lull in the
action occurred in the middle innings as both Griner and Mayer settled into a
routine, but the fireworks went off again starting in the bottom of the fifth
when the clubs started trading runs by the inning. First the Cardinals tied the game only to
have Philadelphia retake the lead in the next inning, but St. Louis scrounged
out another tying run in bottom of the seventh.
Back and forth it went until the top of the eight when the captain Fred
Luderus was the hero of the day. With
Becker on second, Luderus unleashed the coup de grace RBI single that not only
drove Griner from the game but also put the Phillies ahead for good. Erskine Mayer pitched two flawless innings to
close out his ninth complete game victory of the year.[2]
And with that the Phillies packed up their gear and hopped
on a train leaving St. Louis, winners of four of their last five. It was the first time they took care of
business and handily defeated an inferior team in a series since they played
Pittsburgh back in early May. What a
rejuvenating feeling that must have filled those train cars on their way to
Chicago! They were playing very good
baseball again, just in time to face the Cubs for a first-place deciding
series. And the Cubs were reeling as of
late. Since taking over first place on May
29th they were 4-4 and lost series to the Pirates and the New York
Giants, both second division clubs. Now
the main event was set! The Phillies
arrived in Chicago a half game behind the Cubs.
They would play three games and the winner of the series would take
first place in the National League.
Buckle up!
[1]
“Wilson’s Note Not Held Up,” The Ogden
Standard, June 8, 1915, accessed June 8, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1QieJmC.
[2]
“Luderus A Demon With Bat,” The Sun,
June 9, 1915, accessed June 8, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1QFpmus.
No comments:
Post a Comment