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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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FENWAY'S FIRST TEAM May 11, 1912 ... Joe Wood came up large in the game at Fenway Park, which the Red Sox won from the St. Louis Browns by a score of 8 to 1. He was in fine form and for about two thirds of the game, it looked like he was a sure thing to shutout the visitors without a hit. After passing the first man up in the first inning, the Browns were retired in order until two were out in the sixth inning. Then Bert Shotton popped in a Texas Leaguer to short center and the no-hit bid was history. Wood did not seem to exert himself thereafter. Frank Laporte and Bobby Wallace, one after the other, slammed the ball onto the incline behind Duffy Lewis in left field for doubles in the eighth inning. These two hits, which were good for one run scored by the Browns and the lucky hit by Shotton, were all that were made off Wood for the nine innings. The Browns not only failed to hit the ball safely, but they had considerable difficulty in hitting the ball at all, as their 14 strikeouts would indicate. The Red Sox hitters found the ball and what they did to Elmer Brown, the starter, was plenty. Harry Hooper started the game with a single to right, but was caught when he attempted to steal second. Clyde Engle came up next and drove the ball to the incline in left field. Leftfielder Willie Hogan threw the ball in to nobody in particular and no one tried to catch the ball on the play, so Engle took off the third-base. Tris Speaker then cracked a single and brought him home for the first Boston run. In the second inning, Hugh Bradley smashed a ball that was too hot for Jimmy Austin to handle. Bradley then stole second and as the throw to stop him was low, it got by Wallace, allowing Bradley to get the third, where he scored on Heinie Wagner's single. Nunamaker came along and singled over second base and that was it for Brown. Earl Hamilton came in and took up the burden. The first hitter he faced, was Harry Hooper, and he knocked out a triple to bring home Wagner and Nunamaker. Speaker then poked one past Austin to score Hooper and give the Red Sox a 5 to 0 lead. In the third inning the Red Sox got three more runs. After Bradley had flied out to Austin, Wagner singled, Nunamaker got a scratch hit and Joe wood dropped one over near the right-field foul line. Hooper then forced Wood and stole second base, where he scored on Engle's base hit. That gave Boston an 8 to 0 lead. Eight runs in the first three innings slowed the game up at the start, and Hamilton pitched effectively thereafter as no more runs were scored. But with the way Joe Wood pitched, the Red Sox hitters supplied much more than needed. The Browns just could not get going at all. The most effective thing the Browns could do, was pull off the hidden ball trick. Les Nunamaker was the victim and it unfolded in the fifth inning. Heinie Wagner was given a base on balls and Nunamaker legged out a grounder over second base, which Del Pratt scooped up about two feet from the bag. Wallace had gone over to cover second and Pratt could almost have handed him the ball. Instead he gave a little toss to a surprised Bobby Wallace, who threw it over to George Stovall at first base. Wagner was forced at second, but Nunamaker was safe at first. Wallace decided to have a talk with Pratt about the play as Stovall walked over to Hamilton apparently to give him the ball back. Nobody seemed to pay much attention as to who had the ball, because the Boston players were watching the discussion between Pratt and Wallace. The discussion ended and Nunamaker took his lead off first, where Stovall put on the tag, having hid the ball in his glove. Probably none of the spectators knew how the thing came about, and it was one of the most surprising things that they ever saw at a baseball game, because without a clue, the Red Sox players started to walk back to their positions on the field, as half the fans were asking the other half what was going on. The Red Sox now had such a good lead, that they started to substitute their starters toward the end of the game. In the ninth-inning the Brown scored their one run on the doubles by Laporte and Wallace to make the final tally, 8 to 1. |
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