The World Series Read online

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  Copyright © 2007 by Matt Christopher Royalties, Inc.

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  First eBook Edition: December 2009

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  ISBN: 978-0-316-09451-1

  Contents

  Copyright

  Introduction

  Chapter One: EARLY 1900s

  1903-1912: The First World Series, Missed Catches, and an Amazing Finish

  Chapter Two: 1920s: 1924

  The Big Train Steams to Victory

  Chapter Three: 1930s: 1932

  The Legendary Called Shot

  Chapter Four: 1940s: 1947

  Seventh-Game Showdown

  Chapter Five: 1950s: 1955

  The Dynasty Is Toppled — Once

  Chapter Six: 1960s: 1960

  The Pirates Steal the Series

  Chapter Seven: 1970s: 1975

  The Best Sixth Game Ever

  Chapter Eight: 1980s: 1988

  “Unbelievable!”

  Chapter Nine: 1990s: 1991

  The Worst-to-First Classic

  Chapter Ten: 2000s

  2004 and 2005: What Curses?

  World Series Results

  Matt Christopher®

  The #1 Sports Series for Kids: MATT CHRISTOPHER®

  Introduction:

  The Road to the First World Series

  Ask baseball fans when their favorite sport was born, and you're likely to get several different answers.

  “Alexander J. Cartwright wrote down the first official rules for baseball in 1845,” one may say, “and on June 19, 1846, his team, the New York Knickerbockers, played a game by those rules. Since we still follow most of those rules today, that was the first real baseball game.”

  “But in 1839 in Cooperstown, New York, Abner Doubleday drew a huge diamond in the dirt and put a base down in each corner,” another might counter. “That's why it's called baseball and why the Baseball Hall of Fame is in Cooperstown.”

  “The word baseball was used long before 1839,” a third might object. “A document written in 1791 warns people not to play baseball within 80 yards of the new Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Meeting House. The town was afraid someone would hit a ball through the house's windows!”

  “But the game itself was around even earlier than that,” a fourth will add. “When George Washington was at Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War, he played an English version of baseball called rounders.”

  The truth is that modern baseball has no single birthday. It evolved from similar games that used bats and balls and involved running, pitching, throwing, and catching.

  What is known, however, is when and how professional baseball began. The first baseball team made up entirely of paid athletes, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was formed in 1869. That team won 56 straight games before being defeated by the amateur Brooklyn Athletics on June 14, 1870.

  The Red Stockings' amazing success convinced others to create teams of paid players. On March 17, 1871, nine of these teams were organized into the National Association of Professional Baseball Players (NA). This league lasted only four years before gambling, scandal, and infighting caused it to fold. But on February 2, 1876, a new professional association, the National League (NL), was created.

  The NL was a much stronger organization than the NA had been — so strong, in fact, that in 1882, owners of teams that were not in the league decided to form a rival, organization, the American Association (AA).

  The competition between the two leagues was instantaneous and fierce, and at the end of the 1882 season, it came to a head. That September, the NL's number-one squad, the Chicago White Stockings, agreed to play a series of exhibition games against the AA's top team, the Cincinnati Reds. Considered by many to be the first true World Series, the event ended in a tie at one game apiece.

  Although there was no rematch in 1883, the two leagues met again in 1884 and continued to meet in the postseason until the AA shuttered its doors at the end of the 1891 season due to financial difficulties.

  The NL was not going to be without a rival for long, however. In 1892, sportswriter Byron Bancroft “Ban” Johnson and Reds manager Charlie Comiskey set out to turn a minor baseball organization, the Western League, into a major-league powerhouse. It took ten years, but by early December 1902, the new organization, the American League, had grown just as strong and as popular as the National League. NL team owners had no choice but to recognize the AL as a major league.

  The AL began its first official season in April 1903. By August, one team, the Boston Red Sox (or Pilgrims or Americans, as they were sometimes called), had emerged as the league's standout team. Meanwhile the Pittsburgh Pirates of the NL came out on top for the third season in a row. That same month the Pirates' owner, Barney Dreyfuss, challenged owner Henry Killilea and his Boston squad to a best-of-nine series to determine which team was stronger.

  And with that challenge, the World Series was born.

  CHAPTER ONE

  EARLY 1900s

  1903-1912: The First World Series, Missed Catches, and an Amazing Finish

  The 1903 World Series opened on Thursday, October 1, at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds in Boston. Admission cost fifty cents for bleachers or standing room, a dollar for grandstand seats. Spectators near the outfield stood behind ropes.

  Warming up were some of baseball's greats, including Pittsburgh's shortstop Honus Wagner and Boston's star pitcher Denton True “Cy” Young. At three o'clock sharp, Young took to the mound. The thirty-six-year-old righty — whose nickname “Cy” was short for “cyclone,” after the damage his fast-ball had once done to some wooden stands — had been playing professional baseball for thirteen years. That season, he had a record of 28 wins, including 7 shutouts and 9 losses, for an earned run average (ERA) of 2.08. His batting average of .321 was just as impressive.

  Leading off for the Pirates was Ginger Beaumont. Beaumont was the National League's batting champ that year, with more than 200 hits for the season. This at bat, however, the redheaded slugger sent a fly ball to center field for out number one.

  Then Fred Clarke popped up a foul ball. Catcher Lou Criger got under it for the second out. Boston needed just one more to retire the side.

  But that last out was a long time coming. First Tommy Leach clocked a ground-rule triple into the roped-off area of the outfield. Then Wagner smashed a single to left. Leach crossed home plate, and the Pirates were on the board.

  Things went steadily downhill for Boston after that.

  With Kitty Bransfield at the plate, Wagner stole second. Then Bransfield connected on a pitch. The ball bounced along the ground toward second baseman Hobe Ferris. It looked like a sure out — until Ferris fumbled the ball!

  Bransfield was safe at first and Wagner advanced to third on the error. Then, as Young threw in the next pitch to batter Claude Ritchey, Bransfield took off for second.

  The catcher nabbed the ball, jumped up, and hurled it toward second. The throw was wild! Bransfield bolted for third, and Wagner charged home for the Pirates' second run.

  Young walked Ritchey to put runners at first and third. Jimmy Sebr
ing came to bat; and as Young threw in the pitch, Ritchey stole second. Moments later, Sebring pounded out a solid single. Bransfield and Ritchey raced home, and the score jumped to 4–0 with one out yet to go!

  That out seemed in the bag when the next batter, Ed Phelps, missed the pitch for his third strike. But Criger, usually so reliable, flubbed the catch! Phelps made it safely to first on the drop-third-strike rule. Luckily for the Red Sox, Young struck out Deacon Phillippe to finally end the inning.

  The teams switched sides, and Red Sox Patsy Dougherty came to the plate. He struck out. The second hitter, Jimmy Collins, did the same. Chick Stahl managed to single to left, but he died on first when cleanup man Buck Freeman flied out to right.

  Neither team scored in the second inning, but in the third, the Pirates sweetened their lead by one on a single by Sebring that scored Bransfield. They added two more runs by the seventh inning; the second was the World Series' first home run, hit off of Sebring's talking bat.

  With the score 7–0, a Pirates victory seemed all but certain. But Boston wasn't beaten yet. At the bottom of the seventh, Buck Freeman led off with a solid triple to right field. Freddy Parent followed with a triple of his own, scoring Freeman, and then crossed home plate himself on a sacrifice fly by Candy Lachance. The inning ended soon after that, but the Sox were finally on the scoreboard.

  Boston added one more run in the ninth inning. But in the end, those three runs weren't enough. The Pirates won the first ever World Series game, 7–3.

  Game two found Red Sox pitcher Bill Dinneen on the mound. He struck out the first batter. Eight and a half innings later, he'd struck out ten more and given up only three hits. Boston walked away with a 3–0 win — and the first World Series shutout — to tie the Series at one game apiece.

  The next day, however, it was the Pirates' star pitcher, Deacon Phillippe, who led the charge, giving Pittsburgh a 4–2 victory over Boston. Phillippe pitched again in game four, the first played in Pittsburgh, and again, he was in top form, holding the Sox to just one run for the first eight innings. The Pirates, meanwhile, chalked up five.

  Boston managed to push across three runs in the ninth and came very close to winning the game and tying the Series. But they didn't. Final score, 5–4 Pirates.

  There were five games yet to be played in the best-of-nine series. The championship was still up for grabs.

  The next game was scoreless through the fifth inning. Then, in the top of the sixth, the Red Sox loaded the bases. Pitcher William “Brickyard” Kennedy then handed Boston its first run by walking the next batter. Another run was scored when Wagner made a wild throw to first. Criger bunted in a third run, and two more runners crossed home plate when Young blasted a triple into the crowds in left field. When Dougherty also lambasted a triple, Young made it home. In a single inning, the score had gone from 0–0 to 6–0!

  By the bottom of the ninth inning, the Red Sox had added five more, while the Pirates had posted a mere two runs for a final score of 11–2. The next day's game saw the Pirates falling again, this time 6–3. The Series was now tied at three games apiece.

  Game seven was scheduled to be played the following afternoon in Pittsburgh. But Barney Dreyfuss postponed the game after receiving reports of sixty-mile-an-hour winds at Exposition Park. He believed that such winds could put the players at risk.

  Boston players protested loudly. They thought that Dreyfuss had put off the game so that his team could recover from its two recent losses. If so, the strategy failed. Boston thrashed Pittsburgh 7–3 the next day.

  The two teams returned to Boston for game eight. Once again, Bill Dinneen was masterful, sending the first eleven batters back to the dugout without a hit. He allowed Wagner a hit in the fourth inning, but Wagner died on base. Boston, meanwhile, racked up two runs that same inning, and then added another in the sixth.

  The Pirates were still scoreless when they came to bat in the top of the ninth. The first two batters flied out, bringing up Wagner. Two pitches later, the count was 0 and 2.

  A third strike would end the game and the Series. A hit would keep things alive for the Pirates. An article in the next day's Boston Post tells what happened next:

  “Slowly [pitcher Bill Dinneen] gathered himself up for the effort, slowly he swung his arms above his head. Then the ball shot away like a flash toward the plate where the great Wagner stood, muscles drawn tense waiting for it. The big batsman's mighty shoulders heaved … as he swung his bat with every ounce of power in his body, but the dull thud of the ball, as it nestled in Criger's waiting mitt, told the story.”

  With that final strike, the Boston Red Sox won the first-ever World Series. There was no World Series in 1904 due to ongoing tension between the NL and the AL. But in 1905, the two organizations officially adopted the World Series as baseball's championship. That year, and the years that followed, the World Series saw play by some of the sport's best-known athletes. Cy Young, Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Rube Marquard, Frank Baker, Babe Adams, and their talented teammates all delivered outstanding performances that contributed to their teams' victories and helped the World Series become a world-class sporting event.

  But even the most skilled athletes and teams have off days. The 1912 World Series proved that.

  That year, the New York Giants faced the Boston Red Sox. The Giants had had a stellar year, with a final record of 103-48. The Sox were even better, posting 105 wins and 47 losses, a season record that went unmatched until 1931.

  Strong pitching was a big reason for the two teams' successes. The Giants' Christy Mathewson won 23 games that season, and teammate Rube Marquard won 26, including an amazing 19 in a row. Rookie Jeff Tesreau led the league with an ERA of 1.96. Boston's staff wasn't as deep, but it boasted the rocket arm of twenty-two-year-old “Smokey Joe” Wood. Smokey Joe — who got his nickname after a teammate observed that his fastball “sure could smoke 'em!” — had won 34 games, 10 of which were shutouts.

  Game one was played at the Polo Grounds in New York on October 8. Tesreau, jittery in front of such a large and vocal crowd, walked the first batter. Then he settled down and got the next three out. Smokey Joe retired the Giants without giving up a hit. The second inning went scoreless for both teams, too, but in the bottom of the third, Red Murray belted out a single that gave the Giants a 2–0 lead.

  That's how the score stayed until the top of the sixth. Then, with one out and no one on base, Boston slugger Tris Speaker approached the plate. Tesreau toed the rubber and threw.

  Crack! Speaker blasted a line drive to left center field.

  Outfielder Fred Snodgrass moved to make the catch. So did Josh Devore. A moment later, Devore stepped aside. Snodgrass lifted his glove.

  Bloop! The ball glanced off Snodgrass's glove and bounced away! What should have been an easy out was instead a stand-up triple. And when Duffy Lewis sent a grounder to second, Speaker raced home to give Boston its first run.

  The Sox added three more runs in the top of the seventh to go ahead 4–2. That was where the score remained until the bottom of the ninth.

  Smokey Joe was still on the mound for Boston, but he was looking tired. He got one runner out but then gave up two singles and a double. With the score now 4–3 and runners on second and third, the Giants just needed a solid hit to take the game.

  They didn't get it. Smokey Joe blasted his fastball by the next batter for his tenth strikeout of the game. He kept things tense by working the next batter, Doc Crandall, to a 3–2 count. Then, on the next pitch, Crandall swung — and missed. Wood had his eleventh strikeout and the Red Sox had their first win of the Series!

  New York hoped to tie the Series in Boston the next day. But after going eleven innings, the match was called on account of darkness and ended in a 6–6 tie.

  Darkness played a part in game three as well, but in a different way. The score was New York 2, Boston 1, in the bottom of the ninth. Boston had two outs and runners on second and third when Hick Cady socked a high fly ball into deep
center field. The runners on second and third charged home. The Sox won the game 3–2.

  Or did they? What few people realized was that Josh Devore had caught Cady's hit for the game-ending third out! Devore had all but disappeared into darkness when he made the catch, and then, confident the out had been noted, he'd trotted off the field into the clubhouse. The final score was actually 2–1!

  The Series was knotted at a game apiece. By the end of game three, it was 2–1 Boston, thanks to Smokey Joe and his eight strikeouts. Boston's lead was sweetened to 3–1 the following game, despite the best efforts of Christy Mathewson, who gave up only five hits. Those five were enough for the Sox to push across two runs, however, one better than the Giants.

  But the next game, New York fought back and racked up five runs in the first inning! Although those were the only runs the Giants would get, they were enough to give them the victory.

  Game six was played in Boston. As usual, the stands were full of Red Sox fans — too full, as it turned out. When the Royal Rooters, Boston's most faithful and intense fans, entered the park, they discovered that their usual seats were already occupied. Somehow, duplicate tickets had been sold.

  The angry Rooters burst onto the field to protest. It took more than half an hour for order to be restored. During that time, Smokey Joe Wood sat on the bench. When the game finally started, his pitching arm was so cold that he gave up six runs in the first inning! The Giants took the game 11–4 to tie the Series at three games each.

  The deciding game took place on Wednesday, October 16, at Fenway Park. Mathewson was pitching for the Giants. Hugh Bedient, a young but skilled pitcher, was on the mound for the Red Sox. The two had last battled in game five, with Bedient emerging as the winning pitcher. Whether he could best Mathewson again was anybody's guess.

  Neither team scored in the first two innings. Then, in the third, Bedient walked leadoff batter Josh Devore, bringing up Red Murray. Murray blasted a drive toward left center field. Tris Speaker rushed back to make the catch but missed, putting the socre at Giants 1, Red Sox 0.