June 25, 1915
Phillies vs. Brooklyn Dodgers
Athletics @ Washington Senators
Out of the Interesting Information Department comes this
story: there was a jewel thief running rampant on Long Island this summer! On the night of June 21st a rather
wealthy couple left their Southampton home to enjoy a nice dinner out on the
town. Upon returning, surely full of all
kinds of wonderful spirits, the woman discovered that her 71-pearl necklace,
diamond ring, and other assorted jewelry, valued at around $40,000, were
missing! The police and private
detective hired for the case concluded that a “porch jumper” (a phrased used
repeatedly in multiple papers) had climb his way into a second-story window and
had his way with the resident’s valuables.
But the unnamed victims were not the only Long Island family to be
relieved of their luxury items; a porch jumper robbed three other homes in a
similar fashion in just the past few weeks.
In a strange 1915-ish way, the newspapers actually listed all of the
names of people that recently moved into summer homes in the area, essentially
rounding up a list of suspects with no suspicion other than they were
strangers. The victims of the most
recent robbery offered a $10,000 reward for the return of their jewelry, no
questions asked. By the way, $40,000
adjusted for inflation is about $1 million in today’s money.[1]
As I mentioned yesterday, the Phillies were entering the
critical phase of their season. They
returned from their longest road trip of the season merely 3.5 games behind the
Chicago Cubs for first place, and considering how their trip began, what with
the poor hitting and poor fielding, they should be thankful to still be in a
position to participate in the pennant race.
The Evening Ledger agreed:
“There were but few local fans who really believed that the team would return
so far up in the race as it is today, especially with such weak batting, and
there is every reason to believe that the club will start battling now that
they have a stretch of a month at home for morning practices.” The paper exalted manager Pat Moran for his
use of the pitching staff, which in previous seasons had been abused to the
point of uselessness by the time July or August rolled around. Moran allowed Grover Cleveland Alexander and
Erskine Mayer their rest between starts, instead of using them in relieving roles,
which was custom, with the purpose of preserving them for the stretch run. He differed from previous managers in that
they “lost sight of the fact that the pennant race was not decided by one
victory, but on consistency over the long route.” The Phillies also benefitted from George
Chalmers, Eppa Rixey, and Al Demaree providing little drop-off from the
aces. Now if only those bats would get
going![2]
Today’s game was a good news/bad news situation. The good news was that the bats did come
out. The bad news was that it wasn’t quite enough to get the home stand off
on the right path. Erskine Mayer started
the game for the Phillies, going for his 12th win of the year. The Dodgers had left Brooklyn for an extended
road trip a few weeks ago in second place.
Since then they lost 11 of 12, including their last seven games, and
dropped all the way the National League’s basemen. So it should be no problem
for Ace 1-A Mayer to get the win, right?
He started the game off okay, getting leadoff hitter Hi Myers to bounce
into an out, but the floodgates opened after.
Ollie O’Mara smacked a double and scored when the following batter, Jake
Daubert, did the same. Zack Wheat
singled to score Daubert. The George
Cutshaw reached base on a fielding error by Dave Bancroft. A few batters later, with runners on first
and second and two out, Gus Getz finished the scoring with a RBI single. The Dodgers left the first inning with a 3-0
lead and didn’t look back.
Brooklyn’s pitcher was Jeff Pfeffer, who was coming off of
an unbelievable 18.2 inning performance in which he let up only two earned runs
and received the loss. I guess pitching
two full games back-to-back in one evening does tricks on your arm because,
even with a week’s rest, he was not his normal self today. The Phillies pounded hit after hit against
the Dodger great, accumulating nine on the day to go along with three walks,
but they had a hard time stringing them together to score. In the fourth, Gavvy Cravath doubled and was
hit home on Bill Killefer’s single for the club’s first run of the day. And then in the seventh Mayer mirrored
Gavvy’s act with a double of his own before being driven in by Bert
Niehoff. But that late run was the last
the Phillies would muster, and when Casey Stengal homered off of Mayer in the
eighth, the final score took form as a 4-2 Phillies loss.[3] [4]
It was a disappointing loss for the fans that came to the
Baker Bowl hoping to see a different club take the field. Well, I guess they did see a different club
take the field, only it was the Dodgers and not the club they rooted for. This loss coupled with a Cubs win over the
Cardinals put the Phillies at their lowest point of the season, 4.5 games back
of first. Now obviously the fans living
through this season didn’t know that the Phillies would not fall any further
behind then they were at the end of today, but at the same time I don’t imagine
there was too much panic amongst the faithful.
The season was barely a third over and 4.5 games was an easy enough bar
to hurdle. It was nice to see the
hitters use the friendly (i.e. tiny) confines of their home park to their
advantage; the best way to score runs is to get on base and Philadelphia did a
good job of that today. So, yes, the
loss was disappointing, but, as evidence by the Evening Ledger’s enthusiasm with the club, the team seemed to be
rounding into a good form. This proved
to be a great prognostication and the Phils were about to tear up the National
League.
[1]
“$40,000 Jewel Robbery Not An ‘Inside Job,’ Say Detectives Of Mystery,” The Evening World, June 26, 1915,
accessed June 25, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1CvXXor.
[2]
“Hitless Phillies Held In Race By Wonderful Pitching, But-,” Evening Ledger, June 25, 1915, accessed
June 25, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1BOX5R7.
[3]
“Dodgers Do Enough Damage In One Rush,” The
Sun, June 26, 1915, accessed June 25, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1TP08OM.
[4]
“Superbas Rise In Wrath And Smite Phillies,” New York Tribune, June 26, 1915, accessed June 25, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1Nf07hV.
No comments:
Post a Comment