Rube Waddell
July 4, 1905: The Philadelphia and Boston teams of the American League play 29 innings in 1 day. Rube Waddell pitched 20 2/3rds of them, and won both games of a doubleheader.
It wasn't meant to be that way. The Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Americans -- the Boston team would become the Red Sox in 1908 -- met at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston for a 4th of July doubleheader. A full house of 12,666 fans would see it.
Going into the day, the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Naps (forerunners of the Indians and the Guardians) were tied for 1st place in the AL. The A's were a game and a half back. Everybody else was much further back: The Americans and the Detroit Tigers, a few weeks away from the major league debut of Ty Cobb, were both 10 games back; the New York Highlanders, later the Yankees, 12 back; the St. Louis Browns, 17 back; and the Washington Senators, 17 1/2 back.
For all intents and purposes, there was no race in the National League: The New York Giants had a solid 7-game lead on the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8 ahead of the Chicago Cubs, 8 1/2 ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies, 14 ahead of the Cincinnati Reds, 24 1/2 ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals, and 29 each ahead of the Brooklyn Superbas (Dodgers) and the Boston Beaneaters (Braves).
The 1st game wasn't especially interesting. Eddie Plank started for the A's, but only went 3 innings. In contrast, Jesse Tannehill went the distance for the Red Sox. (I know, but it's simpler to call them "the Red Sox," instead of what they were actually called, or what I, as a Yankee Fan, would rather call them, which isn't fit to print.)
The game was tied 2-2 after 7 innings. The A's scored 3 runs in the top of the 8th, and hung on to win, 5-2. Manager Connie Mack brought Waddell, perhaps baseball's original crazy eccentric lefthanded pitcher, in to get the last 2 outs, and he ended up as the winning pitcher. Under today's rules, he would not have: Andy Coakley, who was Philadelphia's pitcher when they went ahead, and went 5 1/3rd innings, allowing just 1 run, would have been credited with the win. Freddy Parent, who would turn out to be the last survivor of the Boston team that won the 1st World Series in 1903, went 5-for-5.
Mack intended Waddell as the starting pitcher for the 2nd game, and he started it anyway, against Cy Young. At the time, Waddell, Young, and Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants were the 3 best pitchers in the game. On May 5, 1904, Young had pitched pitched a perfect game against Waddell and the A's.
Cy Young. "BA" stood for "Boston Americans."
The Red Sox scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 1st. The A's scored 2 runs in the top of the 6th. What followed was 13 1/2 innings of zeros -- "goose eggs" -- on the scoreboard. Young allowed 12 hits, Waddell 15; Young struck out 9, Waddell 11; Waddell walked 4, Young none. That's right: One man, pitching twenty innings in one day, and walking exactly zero batters.
In the top of the 20th inning, A's 2nd baseman Danny Murphy grounded to Jimmy Collins, the Boston manager, who was hailed as the best-fielding 3rd baseman the game had yet seen, but he couldn't come up with the ball. The next batter was rookie shortstop John Knight, and Waddell -- given the circumstances, it was probably unintentional, but, with Rube, you never know -- hit him in the head with a pitch. No batting helmets. He was knocked unconscious, and was replaced by pinch-runner Monte Cross. Knight missed 8 games before returning.
The next batter was catcher Ossee Schreckengost. He popped up. Young could have caught it, or 2nd baseman Albert "Hobe" Ferris could have. Ferris tried, but he dropped it. The A's had the bases loaded, and nobody out.
Waddell himself came to bat. He and Young were both 0-for-8 at the plate for the game. This time, Waddell hit the ball to Parent, who could have thrown home to get the lead runner. But he also failed to field the ball cleanly. He recovered and threw to 3rd base to retire Cross, but Murphy scored. Young struck out left fielder Bristol "Bris" Lord -- no, he wasn't Jewish -- but center fielder Danny Hoffman singled to center and scored Schreckengost.
With 1 out in the bottom of the 20th, Boston 1st baseman Bob Unglaub doubled to left. That brought the tying run to the plate. But Collins, a lifetime .294 hitter then batting .243, popped to short. Ferris was now 0-for-12 on the day. He hit a long drive to left field, but Lord caught it. Game over: Athletics 4, Americans 2.
The Boston Post wrote that the game was, "undoubtedly one of the best ever seen in Boston." The Boston Herald declared, "Had it not been for errors behind 'Cy' the result might have been a draw." In other words, in those days before ballparks had lights, they would have kept on playing until the umpires had to call the game due to darkness.
Waddell advanced to 16-4 on the season, and would finish with a career-high 27 wins against 10 losses, and a career-low 1.48 ERA. This was the 4th of 6 straight seasons he would lead the AL in strikeouts, with 287. The season before, he struck out 349, an MLB record that stood for 61 years, and an AL record that stood for 69 years. Young fell to 7-10, and would finish 18-19, albeit with a 1.82 ERA.
This game stands as perhaps the best pitching duel in American League history. The best in National League history? There are 2 legitimate candidates, and both happened on a July 2, involving the Giants: 1933, when Carl Hubbell went 18 for New York to beat the St. Louis Cardinals and Jesse Haines, 1-0; and 1963, when Juan Marichal went 16 for San Francisco to beat the Milwaukee Braves and Warren Spahn, 1-0 on a walkoff homer by Willie Mays.
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July 4, 1905 was a Tuesday. Lionel Trilling, one of America's foremost writers and literary critics in his time, was born.
All 16 teams then in what would eventually be called Major League Baseball played doubleheaders on the holiday. Aside from the one at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, there were these:
* The New York Highlanders swept the Washington Senators, 8-5 and 3-2 at Hilltop Park in Upper Manhattan. The Highlanders became the Yankees in 1913.
* There was a split at National League Park in Philadelphia, later to be known as Baker Bowl. The Philadelphia Phillies won the opener, 2-0. Jack Sutthoff pitched a 3-hit shutout, and beat Christy Mathewson. The New York Giants won the nightcap, 6-3. Joe McGinnity outpitched Tully Sparks.
* The Brooklyn Superbas swept the Boston Beaneaters, 8-0 and 2-1 at Washington Park in Brooklyn. Mal Eason pitched a 7-hit shutout in the 1st game. The Superbas became the Dodgers in 1911, and the Beaneaters, after owners named Dovey and Russell named them the Doves and the Rustlers, respectively, became the Braves in 1912.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates swept the Cincinnati Reds, 8-2 and 8-1 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. Over the 2 games, Honus Wagner went 1-for-7 with an RBI.
* There was a split at League Park in Cleveland. The Chicago White Sox won the 1st game, 8-2. The Cleveland Naps won the 2nd game, 5-2. The Naps were named for their manager, 2nd baseman and best hitter, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, who didn't play in either of these games.
* There was a split at Bennett Park in Detroit. The Detroit Tigers won the 1st game, 4-1. The St. Louis Browns won the 2nd game, 11-0. Harry "Cy" Morgan, no Cy Young he -- and no Harry "Colonel Potter" Morgan, either -- allowed 8 hits, but kept the shutout.
* And the Chicago Cubs swept their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 and 11-1 at the West Side Grounds in Chicago.
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