October 8, 1915
World Series Game 1
Phillies vs. Boston Red Sox
Finally! Here we
are! Game One of the 1915 World
Series! It was a tough road for the
Phillies, but they waded through all of the slumps and sketchy pitching (by
everyone except Grover Cleveland Alexander, of course) and stayed atop the
league to snatch the first pennant in the club’s history. The situation wasn’t so certain on September
7 when the Phillies lost three games in a row to the second place Dodgers. With the league lead trimmed to just one
game, the Phillies went on a monumental run to sure up the title. Starting September 8, Philadelphia ripped off
seven wins in a row, sweeping the Giants and taking three of four from
Pittsburgh. In the week following the
disaster in Brooklyn, the Phillies extended their lead to five games. But they didn’t stop there! Philadelphia won fourteen of their final
twenty games, laying down a pace that the other contenders were unable to
keep. On September 28 the rival Dodgers
hosted the Phils at Ebbets Field and were defeated, officially eliminating them
from the National League race. The very
next day the pseudo-Miracle Braves played host to the NL leaders, needing to
sweep the Phillies just to keep their heads above water. But Alexander was on the mound that day and
he would not be beat. After a quick hour
and thirty-five minutes game, Alexander blanked the Braves and the Phillies
were National League Champions.
The 1915 World Series was the twelfth modern championship
matchup between two leagues (there were championship series in the late
nineteenth-century, but the World Series as we know it, between the AL and NL,
started in 1903 and became a yearly meeting in 1905). Of the previous twelve series, eight featured
either a team from Boston or Philadelphia.
In fact, the 1914 World Series featured the other two Boston and
Philadelphia teams in a dramatic matchup that saw the Miracle Braves defeat the
Athletics in a sweep. This was the only
time in history when two cities played in consecutive World Series but flipped
AL and NL representatives. The Phillies
were hoping to knock off the more powerful Boston team, just as the Boston
Braves did to the Philadelphia A’s the year prior.
National League president John K. Tener predicted victory
for the Phillies in their World Series matchup with the Red Sox. “When one considers what a wonderful race the
Philadelphia team put up to capture the National League pennant it is hard to
imagine that they will lower their colors to the Red Sox when they clash in the
world’s series…When they take the field the Red Sox will face a perfect,
smooth-oiled playing machine that makes very few mistakes and moves along in a
resistless manner.”[1] Of course Tener would say that; he’s the
president of the National League, after all.
But anyone that has read this blog knows for a fact that the Phillies
made plenty of mistakes over the season, but Tener is correct in that the team
really came together at the end to win all of those games down the stretch when
the pressure is intense. But to say the
Phillies were the favorite against the Red Sox is a bit of a stretch. The Sox were the best team in professional
baseball in 1915 according to Baseball-Reference’s Pythagorean Record; the
Phillies were only the fourth best team, behind the Detroit Tigers and Chicago
Whales of the Federal League.
Philadelphia proved to have the better pitching staff in 1915, but it
was only by the slimmest margin. And,
really, the Phillies won a lot of their games in the National League because
their staff was so much better than anyone else they faced. They could still remain competitive when the
offense was off because they lapped the competition on the mound. The Red Sox did not have that luxury. They had a top-level staff, that’s for sure,
but the American League had three of the top-five pitching staffs in baseball. Obviously Boston couldn’t rely on pitching
and needed to hit to win games, and that’s where their advantage over the
Phillies really took shape.
If you compare the Phillies and Red Sox out of context, it
looks like they had similar offenses.
The Sox had a .260/.336/.339 team slash line while the Phils came in at
.247/.316/.340. But, as was just said,
the American League had much better pitchers than the National League, so the Sox
slash line is more impressive when you consider their competition. Boston had a 105 OPS+ (second best in
baseball) while Philadelphia’s was only 97, meaning the Red Sox lineup produced
almost 20% more offense than the Phillies.
The only area the Phillies had the edge was in home runs. Thanks in large part to the super-short right
field wall at the Baker Bowl, Philadelphia smashed an league-leading
fifty-eight home runs while Boston hit only fourteen (and four of those were
from the young pitcher named Babe Ruth).
Here’s a fun fact! The Phillies
hit forty-six home runs during home games and only twelve on the road, despite
the fact that they had almost 200 more plate appearances in road games. This is why, years later, Chuck Klein will be
chided as a hollow home run hitter; the Baker Bowl was a ridiculously tiny
park.
But even though there were those that felt the Phillies had
the better club, including Tener and Johnny Evers (of the famed Evers to Tinker
to Chance double play combination. Evers
played for the Boston Braves in 1915 and, even though he was busy, you know,
playing baseball, apparently had time enough to scout the Red Sox to ensure
Phillies fans that their pitching staff was flawed), there were some folks in
Philadelphia that saw the clash of champions differently. The Evening
Ledger found the Red Sox to be a balanced team, maybe even the best team to
ever make it to the World Series. Coming
from a newspaper in a city that just saw the Athletics make four of the past
five World Series, that’s certainly saying something. The Ledger
didn’t think Boston’s roster was filled with elite players, just really good
ones that played well together: “There is only one real star, Speaker, and he
is not what he was a few years ago…These near stars, all graceful and finished
ball players, have been welded together into a wonderful machine by [manager
Bill] Carrigan.” To a certain extent
this analysis is spot on. Tris Speaker
was the only star player in the field for the Red Sox, but the pitching staff
of Ernie Shore, Rube Foster, and Babe Ruth all put together above average to
great seasons and were no schlubs themselves.
Isn’t it strange to see a newspaper proclaim Speaker as the only star
when Babe Ruth is on the team? (Quick
sidenote, Ruth hit .315/.376/.576 (188 OPS+!) and a team-leading four home
runs. That’s right, 20-year-old, still
primarily a pitcher, and only getting 103 plate appearances, Babe Ruth lead the
Red Sox in home runs in 1915.) The Ledger’s prediction for how to beat the
Red Sox came down to punching them in the mouth as quickly as possible: “But
let the opposing team take the initiative and beat a team that has balance as
its greatest asset and invariably it will crumble faster than even a mediocre
aggregation.”[2]
Now, on to the game.
You’re looking live at the scene in North Philadelphia. It’s a beautiful early fall afternoon with
plenty of sunshine and a cascading warm breeze.
It’s a Friday afternoon, but it looks as though everyone in the city has
called in sick as twenty thousand screaming Quaker fans have packed the Baker
Bowl to witness their club’s first ever entry in World Series. It’s the Philadelphia Phillies versus the
Boston Red Sox. Here are your starting
lineups:
Boston Red Sox Philadelphia
Phillies
1. Harry Hooper RF 1.
Milt Stock 3B
2. Everett Scott SS 2.
Dave Bancroft SS
3. Tris Speaker CF 3.
Dode Paskert CF
4. Dick Hoblitzell 1B 4.
Gavvy Cravath RF
5. Duffy Lewis LF 5.
Fred Luderus 1B
6. Larry Gardner 3B 6.
Possum Whitted LF
7. Jack Barry 2B 7.
Bert Niehoff 2B
8. Hick Cady C 8.
Ed Burns C
9. Ernie Shore P 9.
Grover Cleveland Alexander P
As the nation watched on (figuratively, of course, there
were no television or radio broadcasts), this was Grover Cleveland Alexander’s
first chance to show that he was the greatest pitcher in the game to a national
audience. So much hype had been built
into the Phillies star that it was expected that he would win two or three
games in the series. Well, things didn’t
start off very well for the 30-game winner as Hooper smashed a single back
through the box to begin the game. Scott
sacrificed Hooper to second and Alex walked Speaker to give the Red Sox first
and second with one out. But the
Nebraskan settled down and got Hoblitzell to ground to short, forcing Speaker
at second. Duffy Lewis, probably the Sox
second best hitter on the year, stepped in to bat with a runner on third, but
his RBI chance was neutered when Lewis took one too many steps off of first and
was picked off by the quick thinking Alexander.
Okay, okay, the first inning was a little shaky, but Alexander got a bit
of a brake and, as they say, no harm, no foul.
The Phillies went down in order with three straight infield
pop-ups in their half of the first, so Alexander trotted out for his second
inning. Once again, it didn’t start well
for the home team as Lewis singled to left.
For the majority of his games this season, Alexander did a great job
holding opposition off the bases, but three of the five Red Sox he faced got
on. You can just imagine the crowd
silence with fear that their ace was going to let them down. It would be a very Phillies thing to win
thirty games and then completely fall apart when it mattered most. But Alex kept his cool and retired the next
three Boston batters.
The Phillies second started with a walk to Gavvy Cravath,
but he was immediately forced out at second on a ground ball hit by
Luderus. Luderus then got caught
stealing to remove any Phillies from the bases.
A walk to Whitted and a strikeout by Niehoff ended the inning. We’ve seen signs of this kind of offense from
Philadelphia in the past and it does not bode well for their chances. There were plenty of games where the Phillies
hit the ball around the park or worked walks only to have the following hitters
unable to move the runners along. Most
of the time it resulted in losses, but on the days Alexander pitcher there was
always the chance he would stifle the other team just long enough for the
Phillies bats to squeak a run or two across and take the game. It looks like the club was going to have to
rely on Alexander today.
Alexander looked better in the third, though he did give up
another disconcerting hit, and then in the bottom half of the inning he singled
to center for the Phillies first hit in a World Series game (there’s some
barroom trivia for you!). Of course the
next batter hit a sharp grounder to third and Alex was forced at second. The Phillies are nothing if not
consistent. Undeterred, Alexander went
out in the fourth and put the Red Sox down, again, only giving up one single.
The Phillies ceased to shoot themselves in the foot in the
bottom of the fourth. Well, almost. Dode Paskert led the inning off with a single
to right. Gavvy Cravath, the same power
hitting, short-right-field-wall-loving Gavvy Cravath that led the league with twenty-four
home runs (as you’ll recall, the Red Sox team
had fourteen all year), bunted Paskert to second. BUNTED!
I guess manager Pat Moran figured if the players aren’t going to screw
this inning up, he needed to step in to hinder the Phillies attack. Anyway, Paskert advanced to second on the
bunt and then to third when Luderus did his best to end this scoring chance by
grounding to second base for the second out.
Honestly, it’s an epidemic of grounders!
Thank the Lord that our boy Possum Whitted was up next! He was a clutch hitter in the early part of
the season and, following some time off with an injury, really started to
regain his swing towards the end of the year.
Let’s see what our boy Possum will do.
Hit a grounder to second?!?
WHAT?! Oh my God, how is this happening?
Luckily Possum is a bit speedier than his namesake. He beat the throw from second and Paskert
strolled home to give the Phillies the lead.
There’s another trivia answer for you: Possum drove in Dode for the
Phillies first RBI and run scored in World Series play.
After that run, both Shore and Alexander found their groove
and took control of the game. First
Alexander would go out, face four Red Sox, give up one hit, and head back to
the dugout with no harm done. Then Shore
would take his turn to make the Phillies batters look silly. Rinse; repeat. The game fell into a pitching and defense
contest as most of the hitters smacked grounders all around the infield. Shore didn’t allow a base runner from the
fifth to the seventh inning except for when Larry Gardner made an error by
dropping a Milt Stock pop-up. After
Burns grounded out to end the seventh inning, the Phillies had a 77% chance of
winning the game.
Everett Scott led off the top of the eighth for the Red Sox
with a pop-up to Bancroft at short for the first out. Then, in a fit of wildness, Alexander walked
Tris Speaker. Hoblitzell then chopped a
weak grounder to third, Stock made a great play on the ball but his only choice
was to get the out at first. So, with
Speaker on second and two outs, the Phillies chance out winning the game sat at
80%. But that all changed in a blink of
an eye when Duffy Lewis singled to left and Speaker rounded third to tie the
game up at one. Just like that we have a
new ballgame. Alexander can’t totally be
blamed for blowing the lead; it’s not fair to expect that he’s going to shutout
one of the best offenses in baseball.
Alexander got Gardner to fly out to center, but still, the reality is
the momentum took a major swing toward the Boston dugout.
The situation didn’t get any better when Alexander led of
the eighth with a groundout to second.
That’s right, the pitcher led off the eighth inning in a tied game. Moran didn’t want a pinch-hitter in this
instance? He was probably clinging to
the hope that Alexander could hold the Red Sox down for another eight innings if necessary, you know, depending on when the
Phillies decided to start hitting again.
Well, with one out things started moving in positive direction for the
Fightins. Stock started it all when he drew
a walk. Bancroft, probably the best
bunter on the team, was allowed to swing away and he smacked a ball to second
that was just out of reach for Jack Barry.
Paskert took his cuts next and drew a walk that loaded the bases. So, bases loaded, one out, and the best
hitter on the team stepped to the plate.
And what did the mighty Cactus Cravath do? Cravath grounded out to the shortstop. But wait!
It was a positive groundout because Stock raced home to give the
Phillies a 2-1 lead! The crowd went
crazy as the Phillies came back and turned the momentum back in their
direction. The move to keep Alexander in
the game doesn’t look so dumb now, does it?
Next up was captain Fred Luderus.
Continuing the trend of the day for Philadelphia, he grounded a ball
back to the box, but it wasn’t easily played and Luderus was safe at first as
Bancroft crossed home for the insurance run.
The inning ended when Luderus was caught stealing for the second time in
the game, but the Phillies had the lead going into the ninth! They were three outs away from their first
World Series win in club history.
Alexander stood on the rubber with history within his
reach. First up was Jake Barry. Alexander didn’t care. Three strikes later Barry walked back to the
bench with his head hung. Next up was
Olaf Henriksen who hit a shot down the line that ate Luderus up; Henriksen was
safe at first on the error. Alexander
once again didn’t care. In stepped
pinch-hitter Babe Ruth. God, could you
imagine how great it would be if we had a time machine and could go back to
watch the star pitcher of baseball Grover Cleveland Alexander face off against
the pre-fame Babe Ruth in the bottom of the ninth in a World Series game? Nobody watching the game knew they were
witnessing an amazing matchup of pitcher and, well, pinch-hitting pitcher, but
soon to be greatest hitter in the game.
Ruth ended up rolling one over to Luderus for an easy unassisted second
out. One more to go! Harry Hooper, the man that started this game
with a single off of Alexander, dug into the batter’s box. He took a hard swing and popped the ball
straight up. Fred Luderus settled under
it, closed his glove, and the Phillies took the first game of the World Series
from the Boston Red Sox! The Evening Ledger described the scene after
the final out like this: “A near-riot broke loose when Hooper pop-flied out and
all was over. The fans rolled onto the
field like a section of the German army and then turned loose very much unlike
an army and did a war dance.”[3]
Man, what a game! It
basically worked out exactly how it was billed.
Both pitchers were expected to overmatch their opponents and that’s
exactly what happened. The only difference
between the clubs today was that the Red Sox couldn’t bunch their hits together
and the Phillies were able to turn their weak grounders into runs. And, hey, the Phillies accomplished what the Evening Ledger said they needed to do to
take the Red Sox down in the series.
They went out there and faced down the best the Sox had to give and came
away victorious. A quick punch to the
face that Boston wasn’t expecting and now the favorites were off-balance. But, as the old saying goes, momentum is the
next day’s starting pitcher. If the
Phillies were going to pull off the upset they would need a great start
tomorrow from Erskine Mayer and hopefully just a few more hits.
[1]
“John K. Tener Foresees Victory for Phillies,” Harrisburg Telegraph, October 5, 1915, accessed October 7, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1GwnS1n.
[2]
“Philly Pep May Upset Boston Balance In The Classy Clash,” Evening Ledger, October 7, 1915, accessed October 8, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1NpTm0K.
[3]
“Crowds Surge From Stands, Wild With Joy,” Evening
Ledger, October 8, 1915, accessed October 8, 2015, http://1.usa.gov/1NpTm0K.
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