It Was More Than Just Fred
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by user LouGehrig
Harold Friend
The second time a World Series went to a seventh game was 1912, and Game 7 was actually the eighth game the teams played. The Boston Red Sox, winners of the first World Series ever played, played the New York Giants in one of the most unforgettable of all World Series. The Red Sox won 105 games during the season, the Giants won 103, and the "experts" differed in their opinions when determining which team would win. The Boston "experts" of course, thought the Red Sox would win. The New York "experts" disagreed.
Hugh S. Fullerton, a former baseball player turned journalist formulated a complex analysis that concluded Boston would win the Series, losing no more than two games. Fullerton qualified his position by writing that it would be foolish to think that the Giants had no chance because in a best of seven series there could be conditions under which even baseball's worst team, the St. Louis Browns, could beat the Red Sox, so nothing was definite. The element of luck must play a major role in order for the worst team to beat the best, but it was possible.
Looking back to 1912 from the perspective of 2006, it turns out that Fullerton was one of the first baseball sabremetricians, once again illustrating that the more things appear to change, the more they haven't. Fullerton analyzed the Red Sox and the Giants man by man, compared them as individuals and as team players, calculated the relative strength of each position on defense, and ranked the individual value of each man offensively.
He studied the players' averages, he listened to what the players said about each other, their work ethics, each player's batting style with respect to what he has done and is likely to do against the pitching he will face, described how the Giants defense was sloppy and how the outfielders' throws to the infield were not properly backed up by the infielders, and then Fullerton reduced everything to cold figures. Based on an absolute perfection of 100, Fullerton figured the Red Sox at 69 and the Giants -56, a difference so great that not even luck would not allow the Giants to win.
Boston was superior to New York at seven of the nine positions, played better team baseball, and had the better pitching. The Giants hustled, took advantage of every opportunity it was given, and played hard-nosed baseball, but so too did the Red Sox. Fullerton thought that the Pirates, who finished second, a distant 10 games behind the Giants, and the Cubs, who finished third, 11 1/2 games out of first, would have a better chance against the Red Sox.
Fullerton then wrote that which no modern baseball writer would dare to say. "Mark this---the New York team is not a "game" ball club. The two clubs of the National League that go out and fight the Giants---Chicago and Pittsburgh---whipped them regularly, and whipped them not by superior strength, but by out gaming them and making them quit. They did quit. Every player on the Chicago and Pittsburgh teams will tell you that the Giants, (when) challenged and fought hard, will lie down. In the American League, something of the same charge has been brought against the Boston club. This season the players admit that Boston is fighting back and refusing to quit."
Imagine that being written today. Fullerton would probably be relieved of his duties if an editor would dare to allow it to be printed. And the editor would fired. What great progress our free press had made.
Fullerton continues, pointing out that the Giants depended on strong pitching and base running to win. In a short series, pitching dominates and the baseball writer who used statistics before sabremetrics were a gleam in the eye of Bill James concluded that out of 9 points, pitching is worth 7, hitting is worth 1, and fielding is worth 1. Since Boston and New York pitching were extremely close, Fullerton concluded that Boston's superior offense would give them the edge needed to prevail.
The Red Sox offense, led by Tris Speaker, the player considered the greatest of all centerfielders until the New York press in the 1950s decided that Joe DiMaggio was greater, scored 799 runs, hit 29 home runs, batted .277 and stole 185 bases. The Giants actually scored more runs (823), hit 47 home runs, batted .286, and stole 319 bases. The Red Sox had a 2.76 ERA while the Giants ERA was 2.58. You tell me how Fullerton drew his conclusions. I guess it's Mark Twain quoting Benjamin Disraeli. "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
The World Series opened at the Polo Grounds on October 8. The Red Sox started Smoky Joe Wood, whose nickname describe his fast ball. The twenty two year old Wood had been 34-5 with a 1.91 ERA. The Giants countered with 24 year old Jeff Tesreau, who had won 17 and lost 7 with a 1.96 ERA. The Red Sox, scoring 3 runs in the seventh inning, won 4-3.
The teams took the New Haven Railroad to Boston for Game 2, a game that has gone down in baseball history as one of the great games that no team won, a game in which the Giants committed five errors. After eleven innings, the score was tied 6-6 when the umpires called the game because of darkness. The teams remained in Boston to play another Game 2, this time their was a winner, and it was the Giants by a score of 2-1. After six games had been played to a decision, each team had won three, forcing a seventh contest. And what a contest it was.
The visiting Giants started one of the greatest of the great, Christy Mathewson, who had won 23 games during the season and who would win 373 games in his career. The Red Sox countered with Hugh Bedient, a 22 year old right hander who won 20 games in his first major league season. This was a game that would be as tense as a game could be and the tension would be broken in the worst of all possible ways for the loser.
The Giants scored first in the third inning when Josh Devore led off with a walk, advanced to third on consecutive ground outs and scored on Red Murray's double. Mathewson shut out the Red Sox until the seventh inning when with two outs and runners on first and second, pinch hitter Olfaf Henrksen, batting for Bedient, doubled home Stahl with the tying run.
With the game tied, Stahl, Boston's playing manager, brought in 34 game winner Smoky Joe Wood, who had started the previous day's game and had been blasted for six first inning runs (That is another fascinating story). The game became a battle between Mathewson and Wood, two of the finest pitchers who ever played the game. They exchanged zeros in the eighth and ninth innings. Then the fun began.
With one out in the Giants' tenth, Red Murray doubled to left, bringing up Fred Merkle, the same Fred Merkle whose failure to touch second base on what was thought to be a game winning single cost the Giants a victory that resulted in the Cubs winning the 1908 pennant. But this was 1912 and Merkle would not be a goat this time.
The much maligned Giants' first baseman singled to center, scoring Murray with the go-ahead run. Merkle reached second when the greatest defensive center fielder to play the game, Tris Speaker, made an error on the hit. Stahl ordered an intentional walk to Duffy Lewis to put runners on first and second with one out, a move that worked when Buck Herzog struck out and Chief Myers bounced back to the mound.
Now the stage was set. The Giants needed three more outs to become World Champions and they had Christy Mathewson on the mound. The fact that Mathewson was going into his tenth inning of work was not a consideration since Mathewson had started 34 games that season, completing 27 of them. It was par for the course.
Smokey Joe Wood, a pretty good hitter who batted .290 was the first scheduled batter but he would not get the chance to hit. Stahl sent Clyde Engle up to pinch hit. Engle had batted .234 in limited duty. The fans were tense, realizing what was at stake. The players, especially Mathewson, were calm.
Mathewson got set on the mound, peered in to get the signal and delivered his fade away to the right handed hitting Engle. Mathewson was the first right handers to perfect the screwball, which he called his "fade away." All Engle could do was lift a soft fly ball to right center field. Fred Snodgrass drifted to his left and the ball settled into the pocket of his glove, but Snodgrass, in his eagerness to throw the ball back to the infield, couldn't pull it out of the pocket cleanly. It dribbled to the ground, allowing Engle to perch on second base with the potential tying run.
Mathewson merely waved his glove toward the outfield and retired Harry Hooper on the liner to Snodgrass for the first out, but he walked Steve Yerkes to put runners on first and second, bringing up Tris Speaker. And it was here that there was an event almost never mentioned that was a significant as Snodgrass' misplay.
Speaker hit a high pop up near first base. Mathewson, first baseman Fred Merkle, and catcher Chief Meyers converged on what appeared to be the crucial second out of the inning. But none called for it. Not Mathewson, not Merkle, and not Meyers. The ball fell in foul territory, untouched by Giants' hands. Speaker would get another chance.
The three Giants argued as Mathewson walked back to the box, gesticulating angrily. Speaker, one of the greatest of all left handed batters, stepped back into the batter's box. Engle led away from second, Yerkes took a short lead from firs, the Boston fans thirsted for Giants' blood as Mathewson delivered.
Speaker blasted a line drive to right field for a base hit. Engle scored the tying run as Yerkes raced to third and Speaker, with a meaningless run, took second on throw to the plate. The batter was Duffy Lewis who was walked intentionally to create a force at home, bringing up the left handed hitting Larry Gardner, who was a fine batter.
Mathewson delivered and Gardner hit a deep fly ball to right field. Josh Devore made the catch and fired a strike to the plate but it was too late. Yerkes scored the winning run and the Red Sox were World Champions. After the game, the Boston fans kept shouting for "the best player on the Giants' team---Fred Snodgrass." Even in those days, Boston fans didn't recognize significant plays.
References:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1912_WS.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL_1912.shtml
http://www.twainquotes.com/Statistics.html
Fullerton, Hugh S. "Two Sides to a Big Story: Fullerton Tells Why and How the Red Sox are Going to Win the World Series and the Times' Baseball Expert Tells Why the Giants Should Win." The New York Times. 7 October 1912, p. 12.
"Sox Champions on Muffed Fly; Snodgrass Drops Easy Ball, Costing Teammates $29,514, Boston Winning, 3-2." The New York Times. 17 October 1912, p.1.
