Evening Star Newspaper, September 29, 1929, Page 107

e adibeo . ool R THE SUNDAY Base Ball Goats and Reviewing Some of the Greatest Championship Battles Since 1905, Billy Evans Here Lists a Few of the Players Who Became Idols or Duffers by Reason of Crucial- Moment Performances. BY BILLY EVANS. NOTHER word series—base balldom's blue ribbon classic—is just around the corner. What fitting climaxes to the major league campaigns these annual American-National clashes are! What thrills and exciting moments pop up during these four- to-seven-game struggles for supremacy! Ordinary players sometimes leap to hero roles and celebrated stars almost as often prove de- cided flops in the great October get-togethers. These big jamborees count for much to both teams and individuals alike. They're sort of a final check-up all the way round. While each world series might well be called a history-making event. obviously, some stand out above the others. To my mind one of the greatest was that played in 1905. Oddly enough, the 1905 meeting was the first played under the Brush rules, which still govern the classic today. Pittsburgh and Boston had met two ‘years before in an eight-game clash, but it wasn't an “official world series.” The 1905 struggle brought the New York Giants and Philadelphia Athletics together. The Giants won, four frays to one. Every one of the five tilts was won by a shutcut, a record never since equaled in the classic. The late Christy Mathewson uncorked one of the greatest bits of hurling a series pitcher ever has flashed. Three times Matty blanked the Mackmen, allowing but 14 hits in the 27 in- nings he worked. He hurled two four-hit games and one six. He fanned 19 batters during the geries. “Iron Man” Joe McGinninty blanked the Macks for the fourth victory while “Chief” Ben- der pitched the only ‘Athletic win by white- washing the Giants in the second game of the series. Only 18 runs were scored in that series and only 56 hits—none for more than two bases— ‘and 40 men fanned. There was classy hurling in that 1905 tussle! Then there was the 1918 argument between the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs. For defensive play this series, without question, stands all by itself. Six games were needed to decide the issue, the Red Sox winning, 4 to 2. Four of the games were decided by one-run margins and in none of the six did the winning team score more than three runs. Only 119 runs were made, one more than hung up in the 1905 clash, which, however, was one game less. The outstanding feature, though, was the play afield. Only six errors were made all told. The Cubs made five and the Red Sox lone mis- cue was made by George Whiteman, left fielder, who, nevertheless, proved the hero of the classic by his timely hitting. NE of the greatest world series upsets T re- call was the victory of the Chicago White Sox over the Cubs in 1906. The Cubs were overwhelming favorites. They had just romped through the National League, copping 116 games, a winning record which still stands in modern major league annals. The White Sox, led by the crafty Fielder Jones, were known as the “hitless wonders.” But they boasted a great pitching staff in Ed Walsh, Nick Altrock. Doc White and Frank Owen. Moreover, Jones had a strong team afield and a splendid catcher in Billy Sullivan. Pitching pulled the “hitless wonders” through much as it had done in the battle for the pennant. That was the series in which George Rohe, hardly more than a rookie third baseman for the Sox, climbed the purple heigh's by his great fielding and timely hitting. It was Rohe’s triple in the first game that brought the Jones camp victory and sent it off to a flying start. PERHAPS the toughest series a club ever lost was that of 1912, when the Boston Red Sox beat out the Giants. That affair went eight games, the second ending in a 6-to-6 11-inning tie. In the final tilt, with the count three games apiece, the combating forces wound up the ninth inning with the score 1 to 1. Mathew- Umpire Billy Evans says the Pirates saved their hits for a rainy day, and one game pitched by Walter Johnson was the most dramatic he ever wit- nessed. son was on the mound for the Giants, while Joe Wood had replaced Hugh Bedient for the Red Sox at the opening of the eighth. The deciding game was played at Boston and it was my good fortune to be one of the umpires in that torrid series, one of the greatest for thrills and unusual incidents I ever worked. In their half of the tenth the Giants pushed over a run and with the great Matty hurling almost invincible ball, it looked all over but the shouting. But Clyde Engle, batting for Wood to STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, S EPTEMBER 29, 1929. e~ | eroes of World Series Christy Mathewson, the first World Series hero. In 1905 he fanned 19 batsmem and allowed the fence-busting Athletics but 14 hits in 27 innings. open the Boston half, hit a high fly to Snod- grass, Giant center flelder. Snodgrass camped under the ball for what appeared a certain out. But then came what later was to be termed the “$50,000 muff.” For Sncddy dropped the ball and Engle reached second. ‘Things looked brighter for the Giants when Snodgrass a moment later made a spectacular catch of Hooper's terrific clout, which had all the earmarks of a triple. Steve Yerkes walked, however, bringing up Speaker. Then came another bad play by the Giants. Tris popped a puny little foul just outside first base. It should have been a soft catch for Merkle, McGraw's first baseman. But for some reason the ball was permitted to drop un- touched between Merkle, Mathewson and Meyers. Given a new lease on life, Speaker promptly poked a long single to right, scoring ‘E;nuc:’e with the {ying run and sending Yerkes to rd. Gardner then sent a sacrifice fly to Devore, Yerkes crossing the plate with the winning run, making the final score, 3 to 2. With the victory went the world series title, four games to three, Perhaps the outstanding game when one con- siders individual records was the second tilt of the 1920 world series, when Cleveland opposed Brooklyn. In that game Elmer Smith and Bill Wambsganns of the Indians hung up feats that still remain unparalleled in world series history. In the first inning Smith hit a home run with three men on and later in the game Wamby chalked up an unassisted triple play. Never be- fore or since were two such individual feats turned. And, oddly enough, they came in the same contest, with Cleveland players turning the trick in each instance. I’VE seen many great plays, but one of the be8t was that pulled by little Johnny Raw- lings, Giant second baseman, in the last game of the 1921 series. It occurred in the last half of the nianth in- ning. The Giants had a 1-to-0 lead on the Yankee Slugger Tony !‘a::t-ri. down but not out, after beatin g home a wide throw from third, where he had been caught napping. He was forced to steal in & her o play which might have made him a “goat.” Yankees. Victory would give the McGraw clam the title. Two were out, Aaron Ward was on first and Frank Baker at bat. One of Baker's old-fashioned wallops would tie the count, per- haps win the game. Baker caught hold of one of Artie Nehf's pitches and drove a fast grounder toward right field. It looked like a certain hit. But Rawlings in some way or other flung himself at the ball, sucoeeding in getting his hand on it, tossing to Kelly in time to nip Baker at first. Meanwhile, Ward, thinking the ball had gone to the outfield, kept legging it for third. But Kelly, who boasted one of the best throwing arms in the league, cut loose with a fast heave to Frisch at third and Ward was retired. Aaron and Frankie went end over end as they collided, but the Giant star managed to hold onto the ball, nevertheless. The play, of course, ended the game and gave the crown to the Giants. For brilliant fielding, lightning-like action and perfection of execution it was a real classic. ONE of the most exciting moments I ever witnessed was the time big Grover Alexan- der fanned Lazzeri with the bases full in the final game of the 1926 Cards-Yanks get-to- gether. The Hugmen were but one run behind at the time, it was the eighth inning and the teams were tied at three wins. A hit by Tony doubtless would have brought the champian- ship to New York. Alexander, during those few tense seconds, was the personification of cool- ness. Perhaps the most dramatic incident I've seen in the world series was that rainy afternoom at Forbes Field, Pittsburgh, in 1925, when Wal- ter Johnson, pitching for Washington, hurled what was to be his final world series game. In the mud and rain the Pirates found him for 15 solid smashes. The two clubs were tied at three victories apiece and Johnson was the hope of the Harris clan. He already had won two games, allowing but one run in 18 :nnings. He looked like a good bet, even more so when the Nats got away to a four-run lead in the first inning. But the great Walter couldn't cling to the pace he had set earlier in the series. The Pirates got eight doubles, a triple and six singles off him that dismal day, winning 9 to 7. The famous Big Train was, indeed, a pathetic figura out there on the muddy mound during the las® few innings that afternoon. FROM a spectator’s standpoint, I doubt if there was ever a more unsatisfactory ending than the climax of the 1927 event. Pittsburgh, beaten three straight games, was making a last stand to prevent a four-game rout. In this series Pitcher John Miljus experienced the thrild of first being a near-hero, only to have the game end with him as the “goat.” Sent in as relief pitcher in the seventh with the score a tie at 3-3, he held the Yankees in check until the ninth. Then, with the bases filled and no one out, Miljus rose to great heights only to fall with a dull thud. Amid the plaudits of fandom ne struck out Gehrig and Meusel. Tony Lazzeri was up with the bases filled, much the same situation he faced in the series of the year previous, when Alexander struck him out. With Lazzeri in the hole, a sweeping curve cluded the grasp of the Pirate catcher and the run that decided the game and series trickled over the plate, There will always be much discussion as to whether it was a wild pitch or passed ball, Had Miljus fanned Lazzeri, making three straight strikeouts with the bases filled, it would have gone down into base ball history as one of the greatest pitching feats ever enacted in & world series. But he didn't. And instead of emerging from the series a hero he came out a “goat,” all because of one badly pitched ball,