June 23, 1915
Phillies @ New York Giants
Athletics vs. New York Yankees
Athletics vs. New York Yankees
There was some big news from around the country today. First of all, Robert Lansing’s interim status
was removed as he was sworn in as the Secretary of State. Lansing had been acting in that role since
William Jennings Bryan resigned on June 9th due to disagreements
with President Woodrow Wilson’s approach to diplomatic relations with
Germany. In Philadelphia, the body of a
Max Rutnick, a 23-year old man that had been missing for several weeks, washed
up in the Delaware River near Fort Mifflin where soldiers out for a swim
discovered him. The Rutnick family
feared that Max had taken his own life because he could not find work and now
those fears were confirmed. Lastly, a
devastating earthquake rocked the Imperial Valley in Southern California and
northern Mexico, killing at least 20 people and causing over $1,000,000 in
damages. Martial law had been declared
in the Mexican city of Mexicali while entire sections of towns along the border
were destroyed. It wasn’t a totally
happy day 100 years ago, to say the least.
The news was not much better for the Athletics, who were
hosting the Yankees in a doubleheader for the second time in three days. There was a strange twist for the A’s in this
one: players making their major league debut started both games. Of course, due to his track record of finding
elite players, whenever Connie Mack signed a new, young talent there was buzz
that the kid was going to be special, so to have two such rookies debut on the
same day was something to behold. In the
first game, Mack turned to Cap Crowell, a 22-year from Brown University. The Yankees were baffled by young Crowell and
only managed to get two hits in the game.
Alas, they did draw five walks and turned them into three runs. Overall it was solid first start for
Crowell. It was just too bad that his
teammates couldn’t help him out in the slightest. The A’s had 10 hits and five walks but
somehow only came away with two runs.
Crowell learned right away that playing for the 1915 Athletics meant
losing even when he played well.
The game two starter was Bruno Haas and, well…Bruno had a
rough day. It wasn’t bad enough that he
let up 13 hits. Nor was the worst part
his 16 walks, though there was certainly an argument for it. It was the 15 runs he allowed. Now, yes, seven of those 15 runs were
unearned, but could you imagine sitting through the kind ineptitude that Haas
portrayed today? Inning after inning
there were base runners and errors and walks and runs and hits and the poor kid
kept plugging away, hoping that his misery would be over soon. And Mack made him pitch the entire game! Needless to say the A’s lost 15-7. Haas pitched in five more games, each one
worse than the previous, before his career was finally over on September 11,
1915. But Haas would forever be able to say that it was he that held the record for most batters walked in a nine inning game.
The Phillies, meanwhile, looked to continue their unbeaten
streak at the Polo Grounds. In the five
games so far played in the Giants stadium, the Phillies took each one except for
yesterday’s tie. Today George Chalmers
took on New York’s Jeff Tesreau. The
Phillies jumped out to their patented early lead only to forfeit any real
attempt to score for the majority of the rest of the game. An error on a Dave Bancroft bouncer to short
and a single by Bobby Byrne put the Phillies up 1-0, but after Gavvy Cravath
singled later in the first inning, the Phillies only recorded two more hits off
Tesreau through the remainder of his eight innings of work. Chalmers did just as well as his foil and
held the Giants scoreless for most of the game.
In the bottom of the eighth, though, New York scratched out a run when
Red Murray and Hans Lobert executed a perfect double steal. Neither team scored in the ninth, which meant
extra innings. Pol Perritt replaced
Tesreau and Chalmers gave way to Erskine Mayer.
The Phillies pounded poor Perritt around in the extra innings, finally
getting the go ahead run in the 11th. Mayer didn’t allow a hit in his two innings
of work and got one of the easiest wins of his career. He faced six batters, struck out three of
them, and left the park as the Phillies hero.[1]
It was a nice win for the Phillies, especially considering
that the offense was once again useless.
Pitching kept them in this one long enough that the law of averages
finally came down on the side of the Phils hitters. After the game the Phillies found out that
the Cubs had won, which normally would have been bad news seeing as
Philadelphia was trying to catch them in the standings, but Chicago beat St.
Louis, meaning the Phillies were now tied with the Cardinals for second
place. They were still two and a half
games behind the Cubs, so there was work to be done, but at least tomorrow’s
game against New York was the final game of this forever-long road trip. After tomorrow the Phillies could concentrate
on catching Chicago while playing at the Baker Bowl for the next month.
[1]
“Phillies Win In Eleventh From The New Yorkers,” Evening Ledger, June 23, 1915, accessed June 23, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1Hbqoxo.
No comments:
Post a Comment