by Scott Fennessy
9/11/1905
Cincinnati, OH
The Cubs are going for a critical sweep as a victory would give them a 1 game lead over the idle Giants. They are then off for a couple of days while the Giants have three games with the lowly Dodgers. It won’t be an easy task however, as the Reds send “Long Bob” Ewing against Jake Weimer of the Cubs. These two have met twice before and have split the two meetings. That said, had Cincinnati provided any hitting in the first meeting Ewing would have won both.
As expected both pitchers look strong and the score was still 0-0 in the 4th when Frank Chance slices an off-speed pitch into the corner and pulls in with a stand up triple, his 11th of the year for the MVP candidate. Art Hofman then hits a fly ball to deep center field. It looked initially like it may clear the wall, but Fritz Odwell makes a fine catch just short of the warning track and can only watch as Chance tags and scores. Johnny Evers draws a walk, but is stranded as the inning ends 1-0 Cubs.
I am still enjoying a great pitcher’s duel as the Cubs come to bat in the 6th inning. Frank Schulte gets his first hit of the day with a floater just over Al Bridwell at third. Chance then sends the runner and he hits a single into the gap between Miller Huggins and Joe Kelley and runners are on the corners. Chance then steals second, which I thought may actually help Ewing initially as the next few hitters have only recently started to produce. I looked like I was right as Hofman and Evers both pop up, but then Joe Tinker (pictured above) than hits a one hop scorcher that eats Tommy Corcoran up at short, and both runners score to give the Cubs a 3-0 lead. It could be all they need as Weimer is pitching a gem right now. John O’Neill grounds to Ewing as the inning ends. Meanwhile the Reds continue to do nothing at the plate.
Ewing returns to form over the next two innings and we come to the ninth inning and the Reds defense hurts Bob yet again. Evers hits a ball that bounces off of Kelley’s glove at first and before Huggins can get to it he’s on board. Then a sign that the tide may be turning for Tinker for a long stretch comes as the rarest of rare feats for me occurs. Tinker gets 4 straight rolls with a 14. Ewing has a Z rating so Tinker really had to work him for this; and it pays off as O’Neill moves the runners to second and third on a ground out and Weimer himself delivers the final blow with a sac fly to right field. Jake gets another scoreless inning in the bottom of the ninth for the win.
The Reds fought hard, but just did not provide much help with the sticks for poor Bob Ewing who just becomes another victim for the Tornado. Ewing allowed just four hits, but the Cubs moved the runners over with a combination of steals and bunting, and in the end the errors by Kelley and Corcoran were the difference.
For the visitors it was a return to more recent form as the hitters did just enough damage to allow Weimer to grind out the win. Chance had another three hit game, including his 11th triple and 65th stolen base. Combine that with his 5 home runs, .346 average, 65 walks (contributing greatly to his .440 OBP) and you can see why he will be a major competitor for the MVP award. The only down side to those walks is that he will just barely get enough at bats to qualify for the batting title, although I doubt anyone catches Mike Donlin and his .374 mark. Frank Schulte now has a 7 game hitting streak, which ties him with Johnny Kling and Chance for the longest on the team this season. Weimer picks up his 31st victory of the year on his mind boggling 12th shutout of the year. That’s more shutouts than any pitcher in today’s era has complete games!
just read that Tinker’s first wife committed suicide on Christmas Day. Dang.
I think I had read that someplace but forgot about it. Bummer indeed.
Scott. I am a little curious at your AL race is….and if clev chi and phila is a close race.
Hi Gary,
The Indians and White Sox are indeed having a terrific run. This will go to the end of the year, unfortunately the A’s have really not fared as well as I hoped for.
I thought with the power of Jasper Davis and Socks Seybold and some pretty good speed they would be in this all the way, but unfortunately some injuries and the underperformance of guys like Ossee Schreckengost, Monte Cross and Danny Murphy the pitching has not been able to overcome the lack of hitting.
Waddell, Plank and Coakley have really done a great job. The oddity among the pitching is Chief Bender who has been hit pretty hard in his starts.
Thanks Scott. It s interesting to me that the Indians always seemed to do very well in dead ball replays I had completed on the competing game computer version, and again in your replay here, but in reality they didn’t really challenge that much in many years other than 1908. White sox pitching is always something you can count on…
Hey Gary,
That’s interesting to know. From what I know of my two completed replays and read in books the Indians were pretty awful for a couple of years, then with the arrival of Lajoie and Flick the team began to make a lot of adjustments, and the team took on a much better form.
I am not sure, but I think it was a combination of financial resources for the Cleveland ownership and the fact in those days the bigger cities had an “appeal factor” as most players had little to no education and was their chance to leave the smaller towns they lived in behind. So the White Sox had that, and because the A’s were always a threat was their hook and the tribe just got stuck in a rut to speak.
Arrival of Joss as well. Your thoughts on why AL clubs in phila and Chicago, and ny in NL at least, seemed to have most consistent success are interesting view to consider. I guess you could add Boston, Pgh, and Detroit which were big populations in country then to that as well….certainly bigger than Cleveland then