Honus Wagner
October 4, 1902: The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 11-2 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. Shortstop Honus Wagner goes 1-for-5 with an RBI, while 1st baseman William "Kitty" Bransfield goes 3-for-5 with an RBI. Charles "Deacon" Phillippe goes the distance, for his 20th win against 9 losses.
The Pirates finish the season with a record of 103 wins and 36 losses. That's a winning percentage of .741, and it's still a record. They win the National League Pennant by 27 1/2 games, also a record 1st-place finish to this day. They clinched the Pennant on September 2, yet another record. (The American League record is September 4, by the 1941 New York Yankees.)
Pitching, as it so often is for a championship team, was the key. In addition to Phillippe going 20-9 with a 2.05 ERA, Jack Chesbro went 28-6 with 2.17, Jesse Tannehill went 20-6 with 1.95, Ed Doheny went 16-4 with 2.53, and Sam Leever went 15-7 with 2.39.
The team as a whole batted .286. Center fielder Clarence "Ginger" Beaumont led them with a .357 average, while Wagner batted .330, and right fielder-manager Fred Clarke batted .316. Wagner led the team with 91 RBIs, and 3rd baseman Tommy Leach had 85.
A Pittsburgh native, John Peter Wagner was the son of German immigrants, and so "John" was often reverted to the German name "Hans," which became "Honus." Despite his bowed legs, he was very fast, allowing him to steal bases, and play just about any position well, but especially shortstop, the most difficult position in the infield. He was known as "The Flying Dutchman" -- "Dutch" meaning "Deutsch," as in "German," not "Dutch" as we now understand that term, meaning "from the Netherlands."
At the time, Wagner was 28 years old, and was regarded as the best player in baseball -- at the least, one of the top two, along with Napoleon Lajoie, of the team that would, the next season, actually be named for him, the Cleveland Naps.
John McGraw, himself a pretty good player in the 1890s, and newly installed as manager of the New York Giants, called Wagner "the nearest thing to a perfect ballplayer." And Chicago sportswriter Hugh Fullerton once wrote, "If a man with a voice loud enough to make himself heard all over the United States should stand on top of Pike's Peak, and ask, 'Who is the greatest ball player?' the name he'd hear shouted back would be, 'Wagner.'"
He helped the Pirates win 3 straight NL Pennants: 1901, 1902 and 1903. The Pirates lost the 1st World Series, in 1903, to the team now known as the Boston Red Sox. By the start of the next decade, he would be surpassed by Ty Cobb, center fielder for the Detroit Tigers. But in 1909, Wagner's Pirates beat Cobb's Tigers in the World Series, and Wagner outplayed Cobb. Both men would be among the 1st 5 players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, along with Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson.
*
October 4, 1902 was a Saturday. These other baseball games were played that day:
* A doubleheader was split at the South End Grounds in Boston. The Boston Beaneaters won the opener, 5-2. John Malarkey (yes, that was his name) outpitched Christy Mathewson. The New York Giants won the nightcap, 5-1. Joe McGinnity (21-18) outpitched Vic Willis (27-20).
* And the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals were rained out after 7 innings at Robison Field in St. Louis, with the game tied, 7-7.
It was also a day for college football. The University of Kansas and Kansas State University play each other in football for the 1st time. The Kansas Jayhawks beat the Kansas State Wildcats 16-0, at McCook Field on the Jayhawks' campus in Lawrence. Through the 2021 season, the Jayhawks lead the all-time series in the "Sunflower Showdown," 64-49-5. (UPDATE: Through 2023, it's 65-51-5. The Jayhawks haven't won it since 2008.)
In other notable games:
* Army beat Tufts, 5-0 on The Plain in West Point, New York.
* Navy lost to Princeton, 11-0 at Worden Field in Annapolis, Maryland.
* Harvard beat Bates College, 23-0 at Soldiers' Field in Boston. (Unlike the later stadium in Chicago, this one was, and is, named "Soldiers' Field," not "Soldier Field.)
* Massachusetts beat Boston College, 30-0 at Alumni Field in Amherst, Massachusetts.
* Yale beat Amherst, 23-0 at Yale Field in New Haven, Connecticut.
* The University of Pennsylvania beat Penn State, 17-0 at the original Franklin Field in Philadelphia. The schools haven't played each other since 1958, when Penn embraced its Ivy League status, and accepted that they couldn't be as big as Penn State then was, even with Joe Paterno just an assistant coach under Rip Engle.
* Michigan, defending and upcoming National Champions, beat Case, 48-6 at Regents Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
* The University of Chicago beat Knox College, 5-0 at Marshall Field in Chicago.
* Nebraska beat Colorado, 10-0 at Gamble Field in Boulder, Colorado.
* And Columbia beat Rutgers, 43-0 at Neilson Field in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
And in English soccer, Bristol City beat Woolwich Arsenal, 1-0 at St John's Lane in Bristol, in England's West Country. In 1904, City moved to Ashton Gate. Woolwich Arsenal would later move to North London, change their name to simply "Arsenal," and, decades later, become the team I support.
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