by Scott Fennessy
Chicago, IL 6/5/1905
North Side Park
The Cubs and Pirates finish their series today with the Cubs having taken the first 3. Charlie Case vs. Mordecai Brown. Given the lackluster play from the Bucs lately I had my hopes high; sadly this was not the case. Getting a taste of their own medicine the Pirates scored in the first when Ginger Beaumont hits a rocket to short that eats up Johnny Evers. Bob Ganley slaps a beautiful hit and run single through the vacated slot putting runners on the corners. Evers to Tinker to Chance for a DP but Beaumont scores for a 1-0 lead. Then Brown becomes unraveled in the second as Hofman drops a fly to allow Howard who has been subbing lately to lead off with an error. Hillenbrand strokes a single putting runners on the corner and now the Pirates use the hit and run themselves and Tom Leach drops one perfectly in center and Maloney comes up throwing, but Howard slides in under the tag and runners are on first and second with nobody out. One out later Charlie Case walks to load the bases and Beaumont puts a soft floater into left center scoring two more and the inning ends 3-0 Pirates.
Case continues to hold the Cubs in check and the Pirates finally put Brown away in the 5th on a string of singles. Lundgren becomes the first relief pitcher of the season for the Cubs and retires the last two hitters and the inning ends 6-0 Pirates. The pen holds again in the 6th, and finally the Cubs come to life. Evers reaches on an error and moves to second on a grounder and scores on Tinker’s two out single. Joe is still struggling offensively, but has had hits in 3 of his last 4 games. Pfeffer holds the Bucs again and in the 7th the Cubs come storming right back into the game on yet another Pirate error opening the inning followed by Kling being hit by a breaking ball that never came to the plate. Casey moves the runners to 2nd and 3rd on a sacrifice, and Maloney works the bases loaded with a walk. Evers crushes one to the gap for a bases clearing double and is followed by an Art Hofman walk. Frank Chance ties the game with a two run double and Case is gone. Lynch finishes the inning tied 6-6.
Once again the Pirates retake the lead with a two out RBI single by Honus Wagner coming off the bench off of Briggs, and that would clinch the game, but the Pirates having seen no mercy from the Cubs earlier this year take advantage of an error in the ninth put up 4 more in the ninth on a couple of triples and the unhappy final is Pirates 11 Cubs 6.
The Cubs despite having fielding one commit 3 errors, partially offset by 2 DP’s, but the Pirates slapped hit and run singles all day and finally put it away. Reserve players did the biggest damage for them. Howard had a hit reached 3 times total, scoring 3 times and stole a base. Heine Pietz who is really struggling reached twice and Hillenbrand who was a sub who is not doing all that much went 5 for 5 with a triple and 4 RBI with 2 runs scored. Good news for the Cubs was Tinker and Kling continue to slowly come out of their season wrong slumps, Lundgren and Pfeffer looked good from the pen, but Briggs got roughed up badly in his first appearance. Cubs catch a break as the Giants also lose so they hold their slim lead for the pennant.
Hi
Big Jeff Pfeffer was a University of Illinois alum and is buried in the cemetery across the street from the building I work in.
Go Illini! :)
Interesting info. I know from my time playing small ball seasons that most players in those days did not have much education if any.
Scott, Enjoyed your previous ’01 replay articles, and am equally interested in you ’05 Cubs replay. I want to do a 1908 replay and was curious how much you use the sacrifice and hit and run. Thanks.
Joe, the hit and run is extremely important for my game play. The Cubs for example have all 8 starters with at least 1 eleven in the first column. The Pirates have 3 players with 3 31’s and the Giants have 7 starters with 11’s, so I have found myself using the Hit and run at least once or twice in every inning.
Regarding sacrafices. I personally don’t like to intentionally give up the outs, espically in the 05 season where there are over a dozen A starters and I have had 7 no hitters this year, but you sometimes have no choice. The Cardinals have a lot of guys underperforming and some very weak hitters in general so I find myself using it 2-3 times a game.