October 7, 1911: The Story of Victory Faust

October 7, 1911: With just 1‚000 fans on hand at the Polo Grounds‚ and with the Pennant already clinched, Giant manager John McGraw finally listens to the appeals of Charles Victor "Victory" Faust, who'd told McGraw that a fortune teller in his home town of Marion, Kansas had told him that if he pitched for the Giants, they'd win the Pennant.

Faust was kept on the roster all season, as a good-luck charm. Now, 2 days short of his 31st birthday, he is sent to the mound in the 9th inning against the Boston Rustlers (named for their new owner, William H. Russell)‚ allowing a hit and a run in a 5-2 loss. Faust also hits‚ circling the bases for a score as the Rustlers, who are in on the joke, deliberately throw wildly.

Faust will reprise his act on October 12, in the regular season finale against Brooklyn: He allows a hit in his 1 inning; is hit by a pitch and then steals 2nd base and 3rd base‚ and scores on a grounder. In both cases, it was the 9th inning of games that the Giants were already losing.

On November 21, 1911, William H. Russell died. The team was purchased by James Gaffney, an officer in New York's Tammany Hall political organization. These officers are known as "Braves," and the team was renamed the Boston Braves.

The team carries the name to this day, although they are now in Atlanta. Braves Field is built in 1915, and one of the bordering streets is still named Gaffney Street. Boston University's Nickerson Field complex was built on the site, with the right-field pavilion of Braves Field still standing as the home stand. An NFL team named the Boston Braves will also play there, changing its name, to avoid confusion, to the Redskins. They will move to Washington in 1937. They became the Washington Commanders in 2022.

As for Charlie Faust, you may be thinking that he's the Rudy Roettiger of baseball. No, he wasn't: Rudy, at least, was good at football in high school. Faust was nothing but a joke. The laughter stopped: McGraw and Giants owner John T. Brush did not invite him to spring training in 1912, and his baseball career was over.

He told anyone who would listen that it wasn't, and in 1913, he was committed to a psychiatric hospital in Oregon, and then to another in Steilacoom, Washington, where he died of tuberculosis in 1915.

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October 7, 1911 was a Saturday. These other baseball games were played that day:

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 8-1 at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. Tris Speaker had to leave the game early due to an injury. The Red Sox moved into Fenway Park the next season.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-0 at the West Side Grounds in Chicago. Honus Wagner goes 1-for-4.

* A doubleheader was split at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Cleveland Naps won the 1st game over the Chicago White Sox, 4-3. George Kahler outpitched Ed Walsh, who was 27-18 on the season. The White Sox won the 2nd game, 4-1. Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, the great 2nd baseman, great hitter, and not-so-great manager for whom the Indians-and-Guardians-to-be were named, went 1-for-8. Shoeless Joe Jackson went 3-for-4 with an RBI in the 1st game, and didn't play in the 2nd game.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the St. Louis Browns, 1-0 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Ralph Works pitched a 3-hit shutout. Ty Cobb did not play.

* The St. Louis Cardinals were supposed to play the Cincinnati Reds at the Palace of the Fans in Cincinnati, but were rained out. It was made up as part of a doubleheader on October 9, since Sunday baseball was still illegal in Ohio. The Reds won the opener. The Cards won the nightcap. The score of each game was 6-2. The Reds would then demolish the fancy Palace of the Fans, and build Crosley Field on the site.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies were not scheduled to play.

* And the New York Highlanders, who became the Yankees in 1913, and the Philadelphia Athletics, had finished their season.

And there were college football games played, including these:

* Army beat Vermont, 12-0 on The Plain in West Point, New York.

* Harvard beat Holy Cross, 8-0 at Harvard Stadium in Boston.

* Princeton beat Villanova, 31-0 at Osborne Field in Princeton, New Jersey.

* Rutgers beat Haverford, 10-6 at Neilson Field in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

* Michigan beat Case, later Case Western Reserve, 24-0 at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

* The University of Chicago beat Indiana, 23-6 at Marshall Field in Chicago.

* Vanderbilt, again the best team in the Southeast -- this was a long time ago -- beat Maryville College, 46-0 at Dudley Field in Nashville.