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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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FENWAY'S FIRST TEAM May 18, 1912 ... If Hugh Bradley had not dropped Heinie Wagner’s throw from short in fourth, and Duffy Lewis had not dropped Ping Bodie’s foul pop up in the eighth, the White Sox and Red Sox might still be playing. The Chicago White Sox displayed a fighting spirit and the finest kind of teamwork, by beating the Red Sox 3 to 1 at Fenway Park. It was the second meeting of the two leaders in the American League race, and thoroughly convinced more than 20,000 spectators that the White Sox position was now held not by accident. It would be a simple matter to point out that several blunders were made by the Speed Boys and better judgment might have placed the White Sox on the wrong end of the score. There was very little difference in the hitting, with the Red Sox carried off the honors in that department, but the men from Chicago made their hits timely and sent their three runs over the plate, while the run made by the Sox came in a bad misplay by Harry Lord. Perhaps the most sensational all around fielding seen in quite a while was performed by Buck Weaver at shortstop, covering the ground with the speed of a greyhound and making every play possible. Weaver gathered in the most difficult ground balls on the dead run and his throwing was deadly from all angles, but his throws were made more often by getting himself into the proper position. Twice the Red Sox runners were nipped at the plate. Harry Hooper and Heinie Wagner both tried to score as the catcher threw down to second base and Morrie Rath cut them down. Boston's one run in the second inning was a pure gift. Two were down when Hugh Bradley worked his way around on a scratch hit, a stolen base and two errors. After stealing second he made it to third on catcher, Walt Kuhn's wild throw down to second base. He later scored when Harry Lord fumbled Wagner's ground ball to give the Red Sox and early 1 to 0 lead. In the fourth Jimmy Callahan grounded a ball down to Wagner but beat the throw to first, as Bradley dropped the throw. Callahan then stole second without a throw and later scored on Rollie Zieder's base hit. Their second run scored in the sixth inning after two men were out, when Hugh Bedient walked Ping Bodie, Shano Collins singled and Zieder singled to score Bodie, giving Chicago a 2 to 1 advantage. The final Chicago run came in the eighth-inning when Lord beat out a slow ground ball to Engle and was sacrificed to second by Callahan. Duffy Lewis uncharacteristically dropped a high fly in foul ground off the bat of Bodie to give him a second life, and he made good by knocking out a single and scoring Lord. The style of ball played by the Red Sox would never beat a good ball team and no doubt it was a setback for Boston. Heinie Wagner and Tris Speaker played a great game for Boston, with Speaker making a great running catch, grabbing the ball only a few inches off the ground on the dead run with two men on base. Pitcher Hugh Bedient failed to hold his runners at first, making it impossible for Bill Carrigan to throw out even the slow runners. As an example, Callahan scored the first run by stealing second with a running start. |
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