October 16, 1909: Wagner vs. Cobb

Ty Cobb (left) and Honus Wagner

October 16, 1909: Rookie Charles "Babe" Adams comes through with a 6-hit shutout as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-0. It is his 3rd complete-game World Series victory, and gives the Pirates their 1st World Series win -- if not, technically, their 1st World Championship.

Since there was no World Series in 1901 and 1902, and the NL was widely considered the better League, the present-day Bucs could claim "world championships" for those seasons, the way the New York Giants always did for 1904. However, they do not.

The Pirates and Tigers combine for 34 errors‚ with Detroit contributing 19. Both of these figures remain World Series records. In the battle between the 2 best players in baseball, Pittsburgh's John Peter "Honus" Wagner, a.k.a. the Flying Dutchman, considered the best player in the game at this point, excels much more than Detroit's Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb, a.k.a. the Georgia Peach, who would soon replace Wagner as the best player in fans' imagination.

Adams would be the only Pirate player still on the team when they won their next Pennant and Series, in 1925, 16 years later. By the time the Tigers won another Pennant, in 1934, 25 years later, none would be left.

Babe Adams

Adams was the only rookie in the 20th Century to win a Game 7 in the World Series. The next to do it was John Lackey of the Anaheim Angels in 2002. Frank "Spec" Shea in 1947 and Mel Stottlemyre in 1964 would be rookies starting Game 7s for the Yankees, but Mel would lose, and while the Yankees did win in '47, Shea would not be the winning pitcher. Billy Martin was planning on using Ron Guidry had the 1977 Series gone to a Game 7, but the Yankees won Game 6 on Reggie Jackson's 3 home runs and Mike Torrez's complete game, rendering a Game 7 unnecessary.

The last survivors of this World Series? For the Pirates, pitcher Albert "Lefty" Leifield, who lived until 1970; for the Tigers, left fielder Davy Jones, who lived until 1972 -- beating out, by just 2 days, shortstop Owen "Donie" Bush. Ironically, Bush would be the manager of the next Pirate title team. He was also the namesake of the ballpark in his hometown of Indianapolis, home of one of the great teams of Triple-A ball, the Indianapolis Indians, whom he would serve as manager for many years.

In 1949, Ogden Nash, my grandmother's favorite poet, wrote "Line-Up for Yesterday" for Sport magazine, an alphabetical list of star players. For the letter C, he wrote: 

C is for Cobb,
Who grew spikes and not corn,
And made all the basemen
Wish they weren't born.

And for W:

W is for Wagner,
The bowlegged beauty;
Short was closed to all traffic
With Honus on duty.

UPDATE: The Pirates have a team Hall of Fame. However, from their 1900s teams, they have inducted only shortstop Honus Wagner and right fielder-manager Fred Clarke. From their previous period, from their 1882 founding until their 1899 merge with the Louisville Colonels, they have inducted 1st baseman Jake Beckley.

The Tigers do not have a team Hall of Fame, but they honor their Hall of Fame players on the outfield wall at Comerica Park. From the 1907, '08 and '09 Pennant winners, they honor center fielder Ty Cobb, right fielder Sam Crawford, and manager Hughie Jennings. Along with pitcher George Mullin and team owner Frank Navin, they are also in the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.

Between their 1909 and 1934 Pennants, right fielder Harry Heilmann and left fielder Henry "Heinie" Manush were also elected to both the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.

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October 16, 1909 was a Saturday. This was also the day that Jack Johnson knocked Stanley Ketchel out in one of the most famous Heavyweight Championship fights of the era. I have a separate entry for that event.

These notable games were played in college football:

* In a match of unbeatens, at the original Franklin Field in Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania beat Brown University, 13-5.

* In another match of unbeatens, on "The Plain" at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, Yale beat Army, 17-0.

* At Worden Field on the campus of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Villanova upset Navy, 11-6.

* Michigan beat Ohio State, 33-6 at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

* Alabama beat Clemson, 3-0 at the Birmingham Fairgrounds in Birmingham, Alabama.

* At the Polo Grounds in New York, Carlisle beat Syracuse, 14-11.

* In New Jersey, in another battle of unbeatens, Princeton beat Sewanee, of Sewanee, Tennessee, 20-0.

* And Rutgers lost to Franklin & Marshall, 15-0 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Also, Woolwich Arsenal lost 6-2 to Sunderland, at Roker Park in Sunderland, in the North-East of England.