Wednesday, July 13, 2016

World Series: Did You Know?

The entire Giants' pitching staff, while surrendering three runs in 1905, posted an ERA of 0.00. This is one World Series record that will be virtually impossible to break. And the Fall Classic of '05 was not a sweep. The Philadelphia Athletics weren't exactly a bad team, either. They had what New York had, pitching. Just not quite as good.

Well, the great Christy Mathewson was going to set the tone, anyways. He beat Eddie Plank, 3-0 in game one right there in Philly. That would be the score in game two as well. But instead of the Giants being 2-0, it was all tied, 1-1. The A's were the ones with the shutout in game two. Chief Bender was in his usual postseason mood in this very important game. As Mathewson had the previous game, he surrendered just four hits. But his own team managed only six themselves. The series had shifted to the Polo Grounds. Philly was having problems hitting at home and on the road. There must have been the thought that they needed to start getting the bat on the ball more.

Joe McGinnity took the loss for New York, but did not allow an earned run. Although he did not finish the game (Red Ames pitched the ninth), his performance was good. In his eight innings of work, he gave up just five hits.

The only run the A's would need was scored in the top of the third. Starting things off, Osse Schrecongost reached first when Dan McGann dropped the throw from Bill Gilbert, who'd fielded the grounder. A bunt and a groundout had the man on third with two down. A clutch single by Bris Lord gave Chief Bender a run. He'd make it stand up, of course.

But Philadelphia scored twice more in the top of the eighth. Schrecongost struck the match again. But this time, there was one out as McGinnity hung tough. Osse singled. Bender batted for himself and could only pop out. Two down. If McGinnity could get one more out here, and the Giants could hold the fort in the ninth, they might have had a chance.

But they didn't. And the fault did not belong just to McGinnity.

Topsy Hartsel doubled to left, but it that didn't score a run. Osse Schrecongost scored, however, when catcher Roger Bresnahan dropped the throw home that must have had the runner beat. When Lord followed with a single to left, scoring Hartsel. 3-0, visitors. The A's themselves made an error in each of the next two innings, but the Giants were unable to score. However, the winning side would not score again in the 1905 Fall Classic.

Game three was all New York, 9-0 behind Matty again. He even got a hit. His adversaries got just four again. The home team in Philly was over-matched by the great Mathewson, again. And when the teams traveled back to New York for game four at the Polo Grounds, the Giants confidence oozed! McGinnity again gave up just five hits (As did Plank), and it was New York with a narrow 1-0 win to get a stranglehold on this Fall Classic. In a bit of irony, the Giants only run was unearned. I'm sure Joe didn't care. His team was one win away from the World Series champagne! Better still, guess who was pitching game five?

Christy won a close 2-0 decision over Chief, who pitched valently in defeat. The Giants were up to their old tricks, though. They made the only two errors of the game. Matty scored the final run of the ballgame himself.

When it was all over, Mathewson had 27 IP and an ERA of 0.00. So, too, did McGinnity. As mentioned earlier, Bender and company were some stiff opposition. Their numbers were very good. Enough to have brought the mighty A's a World Series. But all they could muster was three (unearned) runs. Matty and co. just slammed the door shut in their faces in the second Fall Classic!


References

Neft, David S., Richard M. Cohen, and Michael L. Neft. The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball, 1992. 12th ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. Print.

Neft, David S., and Richard M. Cohen. The World Series: Complete Play-by-play of Every Game, 1903-1989. 4th ed. New York: St. Martin's, 1990. Print.

Nemec, David et all. 20th Century Baseball Chronicle: A Year-by-year History of Major League Baseball. Collector's Edition. Lincolnwood, Ill: Publications International, 1993. Print.

Sports Reference LLC.  Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 13 Jul. 2016.

Retrosheet. Web.13 Jul. 2016 .  <www.retrosheet.org>

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