by Scott Fennessy
8/17/1905
New York, NY
After another solid home stand the Cubs take the train to New York and face off against their rivals. The mood on the train was a bit somber, although not depression. Frank Chance had spoken to several of his struggling players privately in his sleeper car, and while none of them had anything to say about the meeting, most looked less than happy, although Jimmy Slagle looked very determined.
Meanwhile, back in Gotham, John McGraw was his usual, cantankerous self and welcomed the opportunity to “bury the Cubs” at last, and was not concerned about their continued persistence and slight gain on his ballclub.
Today’s matchup is interesting to be certain, as the streaky Mordecai Brown, who has been tiring down of late against the immortal Christy Mathewson, for whom the Cubs seem to be his kryptonite, as he is merely human against them, although he has beaten them back in May.
Both pitchers look solid through the first three innings, although Mathewson got defensive help from the underrated Giants infield. While only a fielding two team, they have only committed 70 errors, and have turned 35 double plays. While that may not sound like much through 93 games, most teams this year have over 110 errors and some have less double plays. This has really helped the Giants keep away from long innings and keeps their solid staff stronger than most.
The Cubs finally score the first run of the game in the fourth inning. Chance rips a line drive into the right field corner and gets a stand up triple, his 8th of the year. He has really led by example at the plate, and has shown a bit of power lately as well. Jim Casey then hits a sac fly deep to left to score the all-important first run as this is clearly going to be a low scoring game. Slagle draws a walk, and steals second, but Mathewson shuts the rally down and the Cubs take the field up 1-0. Brown continues to cruise as the home team goes down 1-2-3.
Neither team does much in the 5th, but Chance gets another hit to start the sixth inning, this time with a booming double to center field that just misses clearing the fence. George Browne plays it well, and gets it back to the infield. Casey moves Chance to third with one out and Slagle hits a fly to deep left field where Sam Mertes waits and makes the catch, but the throw is up the first base side, and Chance scores for the second time today. Tinker is overpowered by the Giants hurler, and the inning is over with the visitors leading 2-0. Once again Brown gets a perfect inning, and looks like he may just do the impossible, shut out the turbo charged Giant offense.
Neither team scores in the 7th, although Brown is starting to tire as he walked two in the inning, but John O’Neill finally catches a runner trying to steal as Mertes tried his luck with no outs and was gunned down on a close play. The rally sputtered, but the Giants are starting to smell blood and look primed for another of their patented late inning rallies.
Chance gets his third straight hit to lead off the 8th inning, but is stranded there and he looks to Brown to stem the tide one more time as the Giants come to bat in the inning, with the bottom of the lineup due to bat. Brown whiffs Mike Bowerman to start things, but Sammy Strang gets a solid single to center, and McGraw sends the runner. Bill Dahlen gets a fastball away, and he goes with the pitch, and this one carries over Frank Schulte’s head in right. He plays it well, but Dahlen is on second with an RBI double, and suddenly this game is in jeopardy. Now with two out and Dahlen still on second Art Devlin draws a walk. O’Neill and Chance visit the mound, and Brown gets a big strikeout to end the inning, but the Cub lead is now just 2-1 headed into the ninth.
“Big six” gets a solid inning, and the G-men come to bat in the ninth. Mike Donlin hits the first pitch and this is a slicing liner toward the gap in right center field that looks to be a double, but wait! Billy Maloney makes a terrific diving grab! WOO HOO! Brown looks really pumped up now, and he then makes quick work of the next two hitters and the Cubs win a dandy 2-1.
Just when I had given up on the Cubs they are suddenly very much in this race again. Tomorrow looms as a must win for both teams now, and I am expecting another pitching duel.
Giants 68 26 .723
Cubs 66 30 .688
Great piece, Scott.
some interesting tidbits about Chance I just found via Wikipedia:
“Chance was a disciplinarian. He preached moderation in socializing, including avoiding alcohol, to his players. Chance fined his players for shaking hands with members of the opposing team and forced Solly Hofman to delay his wedding until after the baseball season, lest marriage impair his abilities on the playing field.
In August 1911, Chance suspended Tinker for the remainder of the season for using profanity, though he reinstated Tinker two days later.”
Whatever works, Frank!
Hi Tom.
I found out about his ways on accident. I was just doing research that day to see if Evers Ave. in the city was named after Johnny. It is not.
Speaking of research, I was on APBA’s site l
yesterday and read the promo for the 1905 season and while the numbers may not be exactly the same, the end results are going to be pretty close.
Odwell of the Reds led the NL in homers, and I did not realize that only two AL hitters cleared .300. I currently have an amazing 3 way battle between Crawford and Lajoie, when out of nowhere Bay jumped right into the fight.
Only 5 calendar days left on schedule, and I figure I should be ready for the series in about a week.