July 19, 1915
Phillies vs. Chicago Cubs
Athletics @ Detroit Tigers
“The revolution in child life in Pennsylvania which began
with the passage of the child labor law had its first perceptible manifestation
today at 12th and Locust streets.”
Around this time in the history of our nation many of the rights we now
enjoy as workers (and maybe take for granted) were fought for and won. Minimum wages, safe working conditions,
eight-hour workdays, weekends, and many others were hashed out about 100 years
ago. Some of the biggest improvements to
workers’ lives were child labor laws, and it looks like Pennsylvania passed a
big bill based on this post’s opening quote from the Evening Ledger. It was, in
fact, a momentous occasion even though the meat of the bill may sound a bit
thin to a modern reader. The bill passed
in Pennsylvania made it so that all children between 14 and 16 had to have at
least eight hours of schooling a week.
That’s it. But think about what
that meant. It was the first time the
city mandated that it was a child’s right to learn. It also provided a way to reduce the amount
of hours a child worked each week so they were not strapped to their job. This bill also shows that progress is
progressive; providing time for a child
to learn at a school was a big deal in 1915 and a first step towards programs
that ensured safety in otherwise potentially abusive jobs. Today eight hours a week of schooling,
tomorrow no children under ten allowed operating dangerous machinery. There were 23,000 children affected by this
bill in Philadelphia alone.[1]
The Phillies and Cubs set out today to play two, but Mother
Nature came in to ruin that chance. The
first game was completed with the pall of thunderclouds overhead. Erskine Mayer was still looking to regain his
early season form that slipped away over his previous three starts. His opponent was Bert Humphries. Over the course of May and June, Humphries
pitched in a ten games and kept his ERA below 1.00. It was an astonishing display of skill that,
sadly for him, did not last. His last
four games resulted in a 3.38 ERA and 1.21 WHIP, which was much closer to his
career average. Both pitchers, their
teammates, and the 18,000 people that filled the stadium on a Monday afternoon
knew the importance of this game in the clash for first place.
The offenses of both clubs were ready to go as soon as the
umpire yelled “Play Ball!” Chicago took
the lead in the second by plating two.
Mayer had to be totally frustrated with his inability to keep his
opponents off the bases to start the game.
During the middle innings he was totally fine, but the early stages
proved to fluster Mayer. Luckily for him
the Phillies brought their lumber to the bottom half of the inning and cut the
lead to one. Humphries appeared rattled
on the mound as the Phillies knocked him around a bit over the subsequent
innings, but to his credit he pitched well enough to escape the jams. Despite many hits from both teams, the
middle-third of the game was scoreless.
Over the final third of the game Mayer and Humphries showed
signs of tiring. Luckily for
Philadelphia, Humphries lost his way first.
Between the sixth and seventh innings the Phillies piled on three runs
to take the lead. In the eighth, Pete
Standridge came on in relief but could not keep the Phillies off the
board. During the three-inning rally,
both Dave Bancroft and Gavvy Cravath hit solo home runs. Bancroft’s didn’t actually make it out of the
park, per se; it went through an open door that led to the scoreboard supplies
in deep center field. Technically it was
a home run because left the field on a bounce, and while no one argued the
ruling at the moment, you can be sure Cubs manager Roger Bresnahan will have
something to say about it later. Anyway, just
as it looked like the Phillies had a clear path to victory, Mayer began to
tire. In the eighth he let up a run that
brought the score to 4-3. He seemed okay
to finish the game and got two outs in the ninth, but that third out was
elusive and before he knew what to do to stop the bleeding, the Cubs again cut
the lead to one and had a runner on third.
Phillies manager Pat Moran didn’t like the matchup of the exhausted
Mayer against the breakout-slugger Cy Williams, so he did what any manager
would do and went to his best pitcher to close out the game. But isn’t the Phillies best pitcher Grover
Cleveland Alexander and didn’t he pitch two days ago? Yes and yes.
Alexander was called in to close out the Cubs and did so using only four
pitches, three of which were strikes. Erskine
Mayer was off the losing streak, Alexander picked up a save, and the Phillies
owned sole possession of first place.
After the game in which his club lost by one run, Bresnahan
inquired about why, exactly, Bancroft’s home run was allowed to stand. He apparently argued the rule for 10 to 15
minutes, knowing full well that rain was in the forecast and they had another
game to play. Whether he did it
purposefully or not is unknown, but obviously his protest fell on deaf ears and
the results stayed, but the argument lasted long enough to affect the second
game. The Cubs were up to bat in the
fourth inning when the rain finally washed the game out. At the time, the score was 3-1 in the
Phillies favor. Had they played one more
inning it would have been an official game and the Phillies would have
won. Based on the previous game, an
inning took about 12 minutes, or approximately the amount of time Bresnahan
argued in vain. Obviously there are too
many “what-ifs” in this scenario, but it is an interesting tidbit
none-the-less.[2]
[3]
As I mentioned earlier, the Phillies took sole possession of
first place with today’s win. The loss
was not the only bad news the Cubs got today; the Brooklyn Dodgers caught them
in second place. Brooklyn was the stuff
the Cubs’ nightmares were made of.
Before playing the Giants and Phillies, the Cubs were swept by Brooklyn
in four games. Since the start of that
series and the eastern road trip, the Cubs were 3-8 and in full collapse. Now the air had to have been sucked out of
the Cubs clubhouse with the news that they slipped again in the standings. The Giants, also buoyed a bit by winning
three recent games against the Cubs, were beating the Cardinals all over the
Polo Grounds. Three straight wins pulled
New York from sixth place in the National League up to fourth, hopping over St.
Louis and threatened to eclipse Chicago.
What a crazy amount of shuffling going on in the NL pennant race! The Phillies played their third game against
Chicago tomorrow afternoon and knew that another win would go a long way in keeping
them out of the quagmire in the middle of the standings. Newly minted star Eppa Rixey was the one
tasked to lead the Phillies over the Cubs and Jimmy Lavender.
[1]
“Child Labor Law Has Its First Actual Test,” Evening Ledger, July 19, 1915, accessed July 16, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1HAIhlX.
[2]
“Strength Of Phillies On Road Basis For Strong Pennant Hopes,” Evening Ledger, July 20, 1915, accessed
July 16, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1SpDid5.
[3]
“Alexander Saves The Day,” The Sun,
July 20, 1915, accessed July 16, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1e2TbIC.
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