by Scott Fennessy
9/24/1905
Chicago, IL
This is it. The final scheduled meeting between these two battle hardened teams. Both managers had inspirational speeches prior to the game, with Frank Chance focusing on patience, and John McGraw’s rally cry was at a fever pitch, and focused on pitching and defense.
This all important game features two all-time greats in Joe McGinnity and Mordecai Brown. Regardless of the outcome neither team will have a decisive advantage, but the stakes are still high indeed. The Giants start out quickly as Art Devlin drills Brown’s first pitch into center for a single. Devlin is off with the pitch, a curve ball to Sam Mertes that just kept coming in and catches him in the shoulder. “Sandow” heads towards first and McGraw is actually smiling, knowing this is the catalyst he needs to motivate his troops.
Mike Donlin, who is the top candidate for MVP hits a one hop smash right at Johnny Evers, who fires over to Joe Tinker at short. Tinker tags the base and leaps over a hard sliding Mertes and gets the throw off to Chance for the double play! McGann grounds weakly to Brown to end the inning with no score. That was big as Donlin and McGann have really been on a roll of late.
The Cubs offense looks pumped up as well. Billy Maloney gets a first pitch fastball, and he hits it hard into the left field corner, and gets robbed as George Browne makes a terrific diving catch. Frank Schulte gets a two out single and Chance singles into shallow left putting runners on first and second, but Art Hofman grounds out to end the inning and we have no score.
Brown gets a more calm second inning allowing just a one out single by Mike Bowerman, but no score for the G-men. The Cubs are still firing away as Joe Tinker hits a solid double over Browne’s head in center with one out. Johnny Kling drills a single to left and the coach sends “Trojan” around third, the relay from Bill Dahlen is a good one, Tinker slides in, but Bowerman has the plate blocked with his leg and he is OUT. That hurts, as runs have been harder to come by than an honest politician. Kling steals second, but the wind was really cut out of the Chicago sails and the inning ends with no score.
Brown has really settled in nicely and New York goes down in order. McGinnity also gets a 1-2-3 inning and pitching begins to take over as neither team has done anything until the 5th inning when Sammy Strang gets a one out second and steals second. Still there with two out and McGinnity at the plate. Perhaps relaxing a bit Brown gets a bit too much of the plate and McGinnity slips a single to right to score the first run of the day and the Giants are finally on the board. Devlin grounds out to end the inning, but the way the Giants have been pitching lately that is enough to win.
The Cubs go quietly in the 5th, and the Giants do nothing in the top of the 6th, but the Cubs come back in the bottom of the frame when Schulte rips a double to right with one out. Chance then hits a triple over Browne’s head in center that scores “Wildfire” and Frank’s in with a triple to tie the game. That was a good thing as Hofman rips the next pitch right at Devlin at third, and he beats Chance back to the bag for an unassisted double play, but the game is tied at 1 after six innings.
Once again the pitching takes over, although McGinnity has a bit of a wild streak and walks three hitters over the next three innings, but the Cubs fail to score, and we are headed for bonus baseball as the 9th ends with a 1-1 tie thanks to Browne’s shoestring catch of Joe Tinker’s sinking fly ball. George has really played well today defensively.
Browne has looked sharp late in the game, and unlike yesterday when Ed Reulbach ran out of steam in the 7th inning and struggled to keep the game close “3 Finger” strikes out the side with ease and we go to the bottom of the 10th.
Kling draws a walk, and the hit and run is on. Brown is not the greatest hitter, and strikes out too much for the sacrifice, and Brown stuns McGinnity by getting good wood on the ball. This one splits the gap in right center and rolls to the wall. No need for either outfielder to get this one as Kling was off with the pitch and scores the winning run easily! Cubs win 2-1 and reclaim the top spot in the National League!
I don’t know if this was the luck of one of my two Christmas presents I bought myself yesterday, my official Cub hat, that unfortunately fits well, but not quite right, or my replacement of the “Cardinal red” dice with a blue dice for the Cubs, or just a lucky swing of the bat for Brown. The Cubs are a full game in front, but have two more games played then the Giants. The end of the season looms, and the Cubs schedule is very helpful to the cause, as they now host the horrid Dodgers and equally bad Braves next.
Speaking of the Dodgers, the worst team in baseball actually swept a double header against the Reds and their two best pitchers. I would not have wanted to be in the Cincinnati clubhouse after game two when Brooklyn catcher Lou Ritter was ejected after questioning the home plate umpires view on the strike zone. Bill Bergen, easily the worst hitter in baseball history, and his .094 average were forced into the ball game. Bergen has a pretty bad card (no surprise), and has only seen action in 18 games, most as replacement time for Ritter during an injury. So of course Bergen goes four for four, and draws a walk and drives in a run, while scoring three times. WOW.
