October 7, 1902
Pittsburgh, PA
The World Series comes to Pennsylvania for this matchup between the Philadelphia Athletics, who after coming up short last year to the Red Sox, and seemingly the perennial favorites who come up short and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates have a lot of “technicals” here. Because I did not get to play 1901-1903 in order the Pirates are technically playing in their third straight World Series and going for their third straight championship after winning in 1901 and 1903.
Pitching is the key to this series. The Pirates have the best staff in all of baseball with 4 A starters, and although he was #3 in the rotation, Jack Chesbro, an A Y starter will get the nod for the buccos. Jack led the NL in victories with 34. Fred Clarke did not adjust his rotation as he was quoted after a 4-1 victory over the Braves in Boston just before the season ended “I’ll put any of my boys against anyone else’s best and still come on top every time” when asked about matchups against either the A’s or the Browns, who were only 4 games out.
Connie Mack and the A’s counter with Rube Waddell. He had his most dominating year yet, going 36-10 with the most strikeouts in baseball with 251.
Chesbro and Waddell are pitching to what one would expect in this game. Jack escapes the first inning with a two out walk and strands the runner on third, and Waddell overcomes yet another error by second baseman Danny Murphy (one of 7 Danny Murphy’s to play in the majors) who was easily one of the worst defenders in the AL this year, but the Pirates come up with nothing and we go to the second with no score.
Lave Cross opens the second with a one hop rocket that nearly tears the glove off of third baseman Tommy Leach’s hand. Tommy drops the ball and the throw to Bransfield at first is late and Tommy gets a tough error. Cross moves to second on a ground out and Monte Cross draws a walk to put runners on first and second with two out, but Waddell fans to end the threat and Chesbro has worked out of trouble for two straight innings, despite allowing no hits.
Waddell dominates in the second by striking out two of the three batters he faced and neither team has a hit so far as we enter the third inning.
Chesbro finally gets a 1-2-3 inning, but this time Waddell struggles. After striking out Claude Ritchey and Chesbro on a series of overpowering fast balls for three straight whiffs in the game Leach hits a grounder that Lave Cross makes a fine grab, but his throw pulls Davis off the bag and is ruled an error. Ginger Beaumont executes a perfect hit and run single the opposite way and runners were on the corner as the deadly Dutchman Honus Wagner came to the plate. Wagner got fooled by a 2-2 curve ball and struck out and we are a third of the way home with no score.
Chesbro seems to have found his groove as he gets another perfect inning in the fourth and the Pirates finally reward him in the bottom frame. Bill Bransfield hits a fly ball deep into the right field corner and gets a one out triple. Clarke orders the infield in from his perch in right, and still clearly not happy he could not get to the ball faster, when catcher John O’Connor hits a frozen rope into the left center alley. O’Connor, who is really slow still manages to slide into third with what seems to be his last breath and gets under Leach’s tag for a run scoring triple.
Alfonzo Davis, who struggled badly this year hits a fly ball to deep center field. Fultz makes a great running catch, but his momentum ensures that there will be no throw and O’Connor scores and the home team now has a two run lead with a great pitcher on the mound. Ritchey hits a grounder and Murphy boots this one too for his second error of the game. You can almost see the veins bulging out of Connie Mack’s neck as he yells his disapproval from the bench. Chesbro strikes out to end the inning, but this looks like enough for another Pittsburgh win at this rate.
Chesbro continues to dominate with another perfect inning, and now has retired 10 straight batters and the A’s are still looking for their first hit of the day after 5 innings. The Pirates waste an opportunity to build on the lead when Leach got a leadoff single and moved to second on a ground out and was still there when Clarke got hit by a fastball right in the ribs, but Bransfield grounded out to end the threat and we go to the sixth with the Pirates on top 2-0.
Dave Fultz hits Chesbro’s first pitch of the inning into center for a clean single and the longest no hit bid in World Series history ends at 5 innings. Dave then steals second and was still there with one out when Jasper Davis hits a grounder up the middle for what looks like an RBI single, but Ritchey makes a great back hand grab, and without planting his feet makes a pivoted throw to first that just beats Davis for the out, although Fultz does move to third. Ralph Seybold hits a grounder right back to the mound for an inning ending play and the A’s are still scoreless.
John O’Connor
O’Connor, who only hit .220 for the season gets his second straight hit of the day with a single to right on a 1-2 changeup. Waddell would regret the decision to go off speed as Davis, who was even worse at .213 slips a grounder just past Murphy for a single to right that allows O’Connor to take third. Davis then takes off on the very next pitch to Chesbro and with a head first slide steals second, with O’Connor holding at third. Ritchey then hits a fly ball to medium center field, and O’Connor slides in safely on the sacrifice fly and the Pirates now lead 3-0. Chesbro draws a walk, but after Mack visits the mound Waddell retires the side.
After two quick outs Murphy gets a single to left, but is stranded as the Pirates continue to dominate, but Waddell seems to have taken Connie Mack’s advice and go almost exclusively with hard stuff as the Pirates go quietly in the bottom of the 7th.
Chesbro would retire the final 7 batters in order, and Pittsburgh came up short in the bottom of the 8th when O’Connor, who clearly seems to be enjoying his first time in the limelight gets a double to lead off the inning, but got a little too cocky, as he tried to score from second with one out on a single to center by Ritchey, and Ginger Beaumont’s throw was a beauty and he was out easily. The final score was 3-0 Pirates with Waddell taking the loss with 3 runs on 8 hits and 8 strikeouts, while Chesbro allows just two hits and the Pirates take a 1-0 lead.
