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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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FENWAY'S FIRST TEAM August 17, 1912 ... Fenway Park was packed to overflowing by a crowd that saw the Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers by a score of 6 to 4. It was the largest gathering that ever anything alls of the grandstand and finally bursting out on to the field, behind third base and taking advantage of every spot where they could see the players. It was really a sad picture first six innings in which the Tigers scored three runs on some sharp hitting and ragged work by Boston's classy outfield. Unfortunately for the fans, the first two thirds of the game there was a noticeable lack of enthusiasm. George Mullin was working his corkscrew curves with telling effect. He was cool and his nerves were like steel. The smile that later crosses his sunburned face was like that of the executioner awaiting the king's orders. Hughie Jennings, the Tiger manager, was full of pepper. He knocked out an imaginary foe in less than one round, kicking the air full of holes and led the cheers for his players. Meanwhile, the big crowd with its heart in the success of the Speed Boys, looked on with as much interest as they would at a swarm of bees feeding on a patch of golden flowers. However, manager Jake Stahl was encouraging his boys from the dugout, but even with all the fight ingenious he could muster, not a Boston man had reached third base when the game was two thirds done. Then came the seventh inning which opened with Larry Gardner working a pass. The crowd started to clap and inspire their boys on. Clyde Engle worked the count down to three and two and Mullin was forced to groove the next pitch. Gardner was running with a pitch and Engle smashed the ball safely close to third base, and Gardner made it to the third-base bag while Engle slipped down the second base on the throw. It was then that the crowd opened up and started to shake the grandstands with hoots and howls, with rhythmic clapping. On Mullin's next pitch Heinie Wagner cracked the ball to left for a base hit and two runs came over the plate. Bill Carrigan followed with a sacrifice and Olaf Henriksen took a couple of bats and strolled to the plate to bat for Ray Collins. He hit the ball right at Mullin who turned it off to Ossie Vitt, but Henriksen beat the ball to first and the stands continued rocking with applause. Mullin decided take no chances on Harry Hooper and intentionally passed him to fill the bases, feeling he had a better chance with Neil Ball. When he came to bat the infield closed up, but Ball hit a fast grounder that Vitt was able to block, picked it up and got his man at first on a close play. But Heinie Wagner had crossed the plate and a yell from Jennings told the Tigers that there was a cloud of dust also moving toward the plate. The ball got shot to the catcher Oscar Stanage and he swung it for his man. It was young Henriksen who dove wide of the plate and by a clever move tagged the rubber as he went by. Umpire O'Brien yelled out that he was safe and now the Red Sox were in the lead and the crowd rose and cheered even harder. Hooper had slipped over to third-base on the throw and scored very soon on a poor play by Ossie Bush. The Red Sox were now two runs to the good and when Joe Wood took up the reins and walked out to the mound the crowd cheered in a way to tell the Tigers that the game belonged to their boys. The first five men Wood faced in the last two innings went down in order. With the score 6 to 3 in favor of the Red Sox going into the ninth-inning, Stanage lined a triple to right-center and was followed by Mullin, bringing him in with a single to cut the deficit to two runs. Then Davy Jones popped one up to Heinie Wagner and a thrilling game had come to an end in favor of the Red Sox. |
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