October 2, 1920: The only tripleheader ever played in the 20th Century, forced by rainouts, is played at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the defending World Champions, the Cincinnati Reds.
Game 1 was the makeup of a rainout from June 5. The Reds led 2-0 going into the bottom of the 2nd inning. The Pirates then scored 3 runs to take the lead. But the Reds scored 6 in the top of the 3rd, and coasted from there, winning 13-4. Winning pitcher: Ray Fisher, a former Yankee who later became the longtime head baseball coach at the University of Michigan. Losing pitcher: Wilbur Cooper, who came into the game with 24 wins, but sustained his 15th loss.
Game 2 looked a lot better for the Buccos, as they led 2-0 after 6 innings. Then the dam burst, as the Reds scored 7 in the 7th, and won, 7-3. Game 3 would be more to the Pirates' liking: They scored 3 runs in the 1st inning, and 3 more in the 6th. But, with Autumn underway, and with the Reds having already had 2 innings of at least 6 runs on the day, they just couldn't get 3 full games in. This finale was called due to darkness at the end of the 6th inning, with the Pirates ahead, 6-0. (The Reds would be the 1st major league team to get lights, in 1935. The Pirates added them in 1940.)
Peter Harrison was the home plate umpire for all three games. No one hit a home run all day. Game 1 took 2 hours and 3 minutes; Game 2, 1:56; Game 3, 1:01. Total: 5 hours exactly. Or, as the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox of the 21st Century would call it, "nine innings at Fenway." It helped that there weren't a lot of pitching changes: All 3 Red pitchers went the distance, while 2 Pirate pitchers did, and they used 3 pitchers in the 2nd game.
Edd Roush
For the Reds, Edd Roush, their Hall of Fame center fielder, went 2-for-6 with an RBI in the 1st game, then got the rest of the day off. For the Pirates, Hall of Fame center fielder Max Carey went 2-for-9 before getting the 3rd game off; and Hall of Fame 3rd baseman Harold "Pie" Traynor, playing shortstop in the 1st and 3rd games while sitting out the 2nd, went 1-for-7, and also reached base by being hit with a pitch. In spite of all the Reds' hitting, Clyde Barnhart and Fred Nicholson were the only players on either side to get as many as 4 hits in the game.
Also for the Pirates, Billy Southworth, who later managed Pennant-winners with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Braves, went 0-for-3 with a walk in the 1st game, then got the rest of the day off; while Charlie Grimm, who managed Pennant-winners with the Chicago Cubs, went 3-for-5 with 2 walks and an RBI, despite sitting out the 2nd game.
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October 2, 1920 was a Saturday. These other baseball games were played that day:
* The Brooklyn Robins, as the Dodgers were known during the managerial tenure of Wilbert Robinson, 1914 to 1931, beat their arch-rivals, the New York Giants, 4-2 at the Polo Grounds.
* A doubleheader was split at Braves Field in Boston. The Boston Braves won the opener, 8-2. The Philadelphia Phillies won the nightcap, 4-2 in 11 innings.
* The Washington Senators swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Athletics, 7-5 and 4-3 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 10-1 at Navin Field in Detroit. (It was renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938, and Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Tris Speaker went 3-for-6, on his way to also managing the Indians to Cleveland's 1st World Championship in baseball. Ty Cobb went 1-for-4.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-1 at Cubs Park in Chicago. (It was renamed Wrigley Field in 1926.) Rogers Hornsby went 2-for-4.
* The Chicago White Sox, newly shorn of 7 players including Shoeless Joe Jackson due to the Black Sox Scandal, beat the St. Louis Browns, 10-7 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The ChiSox still had Eddie Collins, who went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs. The Browns had George Sisler, who went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
* The New York Yankees had completed their schedule on September 29, the Boston Red Sox theirs on September 28.
There was also college football on this day, including the following games:
* Ohio State beat Ohio Wesleyan, 55-0 at Ohio Field (predecessor to Ohio Stadium) in Columbus. They went on to win the Big Ten Conference title, going 7-0 in the regular season. Ohio Wesleyan now compete in NCAA Division III.
* The University of California beat the Mare Island Marines, 88-0 at California Field (predecessor to California Memorial Stadium) in the San Francisco suburb of Berkeley, California. World War I had been over for nearly 2 years, so the days when a military base's football team could compete on an even keel with the top collegiate teams in the country were very much over. Cal was beginning a dynasty: They went undefeated at 9-0, won the Pacific Coast Conference title, and beat Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.
* Georgia beat The Citadel, 40-0 at Sanford Field (predecessor to Sanford Stadium) in Athens, Georgia. They went 8-0-1, and won the title in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The Citadel now compete in NCAA Division I FCS (formerly known as Division I-AA).
* Texas beat Southwestern University, 63-0 at Clark Field in Austin, Texas. They went undefeated at 9-0, and won the Southwest Conference title. Southwestern dropped their football program after the 1950 season, but reinstated it in 2011, at the NCAA Division III level.
* Notre Dame beat Kalamazoo College, 39-0 at Cartier Field in South Bend, Indiana. George Gipp starred for Knute Rockne's Ramblers, unaware that he would be dead within 3 months. (The name "Fighting Irish" was already being used, but did not become official until 1927.) Various organizations that retroactively chose National Champions for seasons prior to the 1st Associated Press poll in 1936 split their selections for 1920 between Notre Dame and Cal. Kalamazoo now compete in NCAA Division III.
* Boston College opened their season the next week. They went 8-0.
* The University of Southern California opened their season the next week. USC, then an independent, finished 6-0.
* Army beat Union College, 35-0 on The Plain in West Point, New York. Union is another school that now competes in NCAA Division III.
* Navy lost to North Carolina State, 14-7 at Worden Field in Annapolis, Maryland.
* Among New York City teams, Fordham beat the State University of New York at Farmingdale, 71-0 at Fordham Field in The Bronx. Columbia beat Trinity College, 21-0 at South Field in Morningside Heights, Manhattan. New York University beat the crew of the battleship USS Pennsylvania, 46-0 at Ohio Field in The Bronx. (Another military unit that should have stopped playing major college teams after the 1918-19 season.)
No longer part of the SUNY system, Farmingdale, on Long Island, then known as the New York Aggies, are now officially Farmingdale State College.
Fordham now compete in NCAA Division I FCS. NYU, Farmingdale State and Trinity compete in, you guessed it, NCAA Division III.
* Among New Jersey teams, Rutgers beat Maryland, 6-0 at Neilson Field in New Brunswick. And Princeton beat Swarthmore, 17-6 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.
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