July 6, 1920: The Democratic National Convention meets at what's now the Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, now the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. This is the 1st major party Convention on the West Coast.
With the 19th Amendment close to ratification, giving women the right to vote, Laura Clay, a suffragette from Kentucky, became the 1st woman to have her name placed in nomination at a major-party Convention, although she only got 1 Delegate.
In spite of his physical and political paralysis, incumbent President Woodrow Wilson has only recently come to terms with the fact that he cannot be considered for a 3rd term. There is some debate as to whether he used his son-in-law, also his former Secretary of the Treasury, William Gibbs McAdoo, as his stand-in or "stalking horse," or tried to stop him. Either way, McAdoo -- like Wilson, a panderer to racists but progressive on most other issues -- led on the 1st 11 ballots.
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, he of the original Red Scare, the Palmer Raids, was 2nd behind McAdoo, and remained so through 6 ballots, as it took 2/3rds of the Delegates to secure the nomination -- a rule designed to give the conservative South an effective veto on any racial progressive. Governor James M. Cox of Ohio was in 3rd place on those ballots.
Then, pretty much anybody not pledged to McAdoo or Palmer -- at that point, even Democrats had what we would now call "Wilson fatigue" -- united behind Cox. He overtook Palmer on the 7th ballot, and overtook McAdoo on the 12th.
But McAdoo wouldn’t give in: On the 30th ballot, he retook the lead. On the 39th ballot, Palmer's delegates, determined to stop McAdoo, began switching, and Cox retook the lead. Finally, on the 44th ballot, Cox got the 2/3rds majority. The 50-year-old Governor would be nominated against the Republicans' Senator Warren Harding -- also a newspaper publisher from Ohio.
In contrast, picking a Vice Presidential nominee was easy: Cox asked the Convention to accept, by acclamation, the handsome, charming, 39-year-old Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a New Yorker who was known to be well-liked by both Wilson and the party at large. They accepted him. It was probably the best thing Cox could have done for himself in the campaign, because the Secretary had, as was said at the time, "a magic name." He was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
In the end, FDR was unable to help. And the thought of either McAdoo with his racism or Palmer with his paranoia becoming President is pointless: The Democrats had no chance: The American people saw them as the Party of Woodrow Wilson, and thus as the Party of the League of Nations, and thus as the Party of internationalism, and thus as the Party of possibly another war, even if Wilson was "The Prophet of Peace." If they had nominated an opponent of the League, it would have been, well, so what, we might as well vote for a Republican.
After an insane 103 ballots in 1924, the 2/3rds rule was kept. It took only 1 ballot to nominate Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York in 1928. It took 4 ballots to nominate his successor as Governor, FDR, in 1932. The 2/3rds rule was finally done away with in 1936, because, by then, FDR was President and had full control of the Democratic Party. Since then, the Democrats' nomination has only needed a majority. The Republicans' always has.
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July 6, 1920 was a Tuesday. These baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 17-0 at National Park (later Griffith Stadium) in Washington. Carl Mays pitched a 3-hit shutout, and went 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs in his own cause. Every Yankee starter had at least 1 hit. The only home run was hit by Del Pratt, who went 2-for-4 with a walk and 4 RBIs. Babe Ruth went 2-for-5 with a walk and 2 RBIs.
* The Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were known while Wilbert Robinson managed them, 1914-31) beat the Boston Braves, 4-2 at Braves Field in Boston. Zack Wheat went 1-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs.
* There was a doubleheader split at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The Boston Red Sox won the opener, 11-0. Sad Sam Jones did not live up to his nickname, pitching a 5-hit shutout. Gene Bailey and Everett Scott each got 4 hits, while Scott and Mike Menofsky each had 3 RBIs. The Philadelphia Athletics won the nightcap, 5-1.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The game went to extra innings, and each team scored a run in the 10th inning. Oscar "Happy" Felsch hit a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning to win it. He was one of the "Eight Men Out" who would be accused of throwing the previous year's World Series. Another, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, went 1-for-5 with a walk. Another, Charles "Swede" Risberg, went 3-for-5 with an RBI. George "Buck" Weaver, not one of them but banned because he knew about the fix and didn't report it, went 3-for-5. Eddie Collins, not one of them, went 2-for-6. Indians player-manager Tris Speaker went 1-for-5.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 12-8 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Turner Barber, the Cubs' 1st baseman, went 5-for-6 with 2 RBIs. Charlie Hollocher, the Cubs' shortstop, went 4-for-5 with a walk and 3 RBIs. Rogers Hornsby went 1-for-5 with an RBI for the Cards.
* The Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Browns were rained out at Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 23. The Browns swept, 8-4 and 3-0. Bill Bayne pitched a 7-hit shutout in the 2nd game. Over the 2 games, George Sisler went 1-for-6 with 3 walks and an RBI, and Ty Cobb went 2-for-7 with a walk and an RBI.
* And the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies were not scheduled.
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