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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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FENWAY'S FIRST TEAM August 27, 1912 ... The game at Fenway Park ended in a draw at the close of the 12th inning with each team having scored eight runs and the result being that they must play a doubleheader tomorrow. The last two innings of the game were played in darkness and during the last inning, it was difficult to see the outfielders. The streetlamps had been lit and the electric cars passing by were illuminated. How any of the players got away without being injured, is a mystery. That the umpires allowed the game to go this long in the darkness is questionable. But another question arose in the seventh inning when Bill Carrigan was caught off second, but got away from a dozen fielders and back to second base safely. The Chicago men set up a howl, wanting Carrigan called out for running outside the base path. The Chicago bench emptied and the players swarmed around umpire Westervelt, throwing their gloves in the air and making a scene that has not been seen at the ballpark in a long time. There was no intention of the Chicago players to return to their positions and Westervelt finally put away his watch. The umpires lacked either nerve or baseball knowledge and the Chicago men were allowed to kill more than 10 minutes with their unsportsmanlike actions, with the two helpless officials in the air about what to do. The White Sox players could see that the umpires were rattled and they played their antics to their heart's content, thus dragging down the American League to a level of southern Texas Bush Leaguers. Jake Stahl also made a protest on some play at home plate and was ordered off the grounds by umpire Silk O'Loughlin. After the big scene staged by the White Sox, Morrie Rath and Buck Weaver were ordered out of the game, while pitcher Ed Walsh remained there to kick at the officials and continue the faultfinding.
One of the interesting features of the game was the first appearance in Boston of the catcher Ray Schalk. He was sold to Chicago by Hugh Duffy's Milwaukee club. His catching is as good as any major league team has had in years. His throwing was superb, nipping Tris Speaker off third and getting him at second for the last play of the game. When it came to hitting, he looked fully as strong with the bat as he was behind the plate and promises to be a very interesting ball player. The visitors walloped Hugh Bedient all over the field. His support was poor but his pitching did not worry the White Sox batters at all. Charley Hall came in and settled down after the first inning, pitching very well for the last six innings of the game. He also helped things along by smashing out a base hit off Ed Walsh and sent home the tying run in the seventh inning. Eddie Cicotte was very wild for Chicago, and was hit easily, but he made up much of the ground he lost by turning in base hits his first three times up. Jimmy Callahan came across with three singles also, driving home a bunch of runs. Walsh came into pitch in the seventh inning, and with darkness coming on, he smoked them over and held the Red Sox down all the time. At one time the Red Sox had a lead of three runs, but allowed Chicago to score five on five hits in the sixth inning and then were lucky enough to tie up the game and take a chance on a doubleheader tomorrow. Morrie Rath opened the game for Chicago with a sharp single by Larry Gardner. Wally Mattick then hit for two bases and Callahan singled to center to score Rath giving Chicago a first inning 1 to 0 score. The White Sox got another run in the third and one in the fourth. The Red Sox first run came in the third inning when Harry Hooper led off with a double to right and Speaker smashed one close to line for three bases to score Hooper. The Speed Boys then came up with five big runs in the fourth inning to take a commanding lead. Both Heinie Wagner and Bill Carrigan started off with free passes. Bedient laid down a sacrifice bunt, but Cicotte fielded the ball and threw to Zieder at third. Zieder's foot was off the bag when he caught the throw and the bases were filled, with the head of the batting order coming up. Hooper came across with a single to score Wagner and Steve Yerkes hit one back to Cicotte, who got the force at the plate. Schalk then threw down to first base in an attempt to get the double-play, but hit the runner. Speaker came up and slammed one into the right-field corner, that bounced around and allowed him to get a home run, arriving at the plate only a split second after Steve Yerkes. That made the score 6 to 3 in favor of the Red Sox. The lead didn't last too long because in the sixth inning Chicago let loose on Bedient. Schalk opened it up with a single and Cicotte followed suit, for his third hit of the game. Gardner made a fumble on Rath's slow ground ball to fill the bases and after Mattick struck out, Callahan singled to center to score Schalk. On the play, Speaker picked up the ball and threw it home and the ball got by Carrigan allowing Cicotte to score. At this point Charley Hall was brought into pitch and he passed Shano Collins. Ted Easterly came up for the next batter Ping Bodie and knocked out a base hit that scored two runs. Zieder singled to right and the ball got by Hooper and as he chased the ball down the field and got it back to Steve Yerkes, Easterly broke for home. Yerkes made a fast throw to the plate where Carrigan got the ball and blocked out Easterly, who went tumbling over the Boston catcher for the second out of the inning. Buck Weaver was finally thrown out on a ground ball to Wagner and the awful inning was over, Chicago now in the lead 8 to 6. In the next inning, Larry Gardner started with a single but was forced at second on Clyde Engle's grounder back to Cicotte. Wagner walked for the fourth straight time and Carrigan singled over second base to score Engle. Now Walsh came in to pitch and Hall burned a single to center to score Wagner with the tying run. There was too much wrangling in the game to please the fans. Umpires O'Loughlin and Westervelt failed to show their authority in handling the game. The game should have been called at the close of the 11th inning and tomorrow the teams will go at it in a doubleheader, with the first game starting at 1:45. |
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