Jaybird's Jottings

Fred Merkle

Frederick Charles Merkle.    All the young Giants player did that fateful afternoon a hundred years ago was follow a custom, something base runners did back then at the end of games.

Well, if only history would have recorded it that way.

Merkle, as the story goes, made a costly base-running mistake on the afternoon of September 23, 1908.    The 19-year-old's supposed mental lapse took place towards the end of one of baseball's greatest pennant races.  The first-place Giants were hosting the second place Cubs at the Polo Grounds.   Chicago had beaten New York in the first two games of the four-game series to pull to within six percentage points, a virtual tie.  

A crowd of 20,000 filled the ballpark, part of a record-setting season of attendance, an average of over 11,000 and a mark not eclipsed until 1920.  The great Christy Mathewson, on his way to 37 wins, held the Cubs to one run.  

In the bottom of the ninth, with two out, the score tied at one, and Moose McCormick at first, Merkle came up.  Filling in for the injured veteran Fred Tenney, and making his first start of the season, he singles to right.   On the play, McCormick moved to third.  

Al Bridwell, the Giants shortstop, is up next and cracks a hit to center.   The crowd roared as McCormick crossed home plate with what everyone thought was the winning run.

Everyone except Johnny Evers.   The Cubs second baseman had watched Merkle turn away before he reached second base.    Knowing the rule required the runner to touch second, Evers appealed the play to umpire Hank O'Day.   Evers had made a similar appeal in Pittsburgh three weeks earlier.   By some accounts, O'Day didn't see that the Pirates' Warren Gill had failed to touch second base.   Others indicated O'Day told Evers, "Clarke was over the plate.   His run counted anyway."

O'Day denied the appeal in Pittsburgh, but this time he was watching the runner, and for the first time, enforced the rule.   Merkle was out.   National League President Henry Pulliam upheld the ruling.   If the game was needed at the end of the season to break the tie, it would be replayed.

A month after the Merkle game, The Editor for The Sporting Life commented on the situation, saying, "Merkle only did what has been done in hundreds of championship games in the major leagues, and what has been done a hundred times this year in such games." 

By then, however, it was too little, too late for Merkle's tattered reputation.  Baseball fans and readers had already turned to their newspapers.   The morning after the controversial game, the New York Times headline said, "Blunder Costs Giants Victory."   Charles Dryden of the Chicago Tribune called him "fat-headed."    The Sporting News wrote, "the stupidity of Fred Merkle."  

After the game of the 23rd, 15 contests remained on the Giants schedule.  They won 10, including a final three of Boston to tie the Cubs at 98 and 55.  

(Lost in all this is how close the Pirates came to winning.  Had they beaten the Cubs in Chicago on the final Sunday, the pennant was theirs.   50,000 filled the streets in Pittsburgh to listen to updates.  The Pirates lost, which kept the Cubs and Giants alive.)

The Giants sweep of the Braves set up the replay of the Merkle Game, in essence, the very first one-game pennant playoff.   Angry fans at the Polo Grounds who could not get in knocked down parts of the wooden outfield fence.   Police had to use sticks to keep them out (The same sort of thing had occurred in the Pirates at Cubs games).   A record, overflow crowd watched the Giants and Mathewson lose 4-1.   Merkle's fate was sealed.

When I was a kid growing up in the 60s, I remember reading about  Merkle.   His name, his photograph, the word Bonehead, and the painful fact the Giants had lost the pennant made it stick in my mind.     

In the coming years, I learned a little more about the story but it wasn't until 2000 that I began to see that Merkle had been unfairly treated.  David W. Anderson's More Than Merkle, A History of the Best and Most Exciting Baseball Season thoroughly examines the season and the controversial game.   He notes that it is possible Merkle was briefed or somehow knew about the Gill play (David Nemec said the newspapers covered the "Gill play," but Anderson found the New York papers mostly didn't).   That, however, seems highly unlikely.  Merkle was sharp mentally, played chess and bridge.

Anderson lays some blame at McGraw who should have briefed his players and most likely did not.  O'Day's silence after the Gill Play did not help matters.

The author is most critical of National League Henry Pulliam. 

"the problem lay in what he did not do. While he alluded to the impact a third out on a force play would have, he did not comment on either the substance of the protest or the application of Rule 59... Had Pulliam taken the lead of the Pittsburgh Press and directed his umpires to be aware of the Gill play, there probably would have been no Merkle boner."

In the years after the 1908 season, Merkle received support from time to time, an article here and there that would try to explain how he was unjustly blamed.   But those were teardrops in the ocean.   For the rest of his life, he paid a terrible price for his supposed mistake.   Soon after the game, a vaudeville comedian joked, "I call my cane Merkle because it has a bone head." (Dave Anderson, Pennant Races)

Haunted by comments like, "Hey bonehead, don't forget to touch second," Merkle's batting average plummeted from .268 in 1908 to .191 the next year (OPS+ went from 141 to 48).   McGraw told him to ignore the peanut galleries and gave his six-foot first baseman from Watertown, Wisconsin a raise.   Merkle responded with seven more solid seasons with the Giants.   He also played for the Dodgers, Cubs and Yankees, had a OPS+ above 120 five times and went to the World Series six times.  

At the end of the 1926 season, Merkle retired from the big leagues.   Daytona Beach brought much-needed seclusion but as his daughter observed, escape was not always possible.    "It followed him his whole life… you never knew when someone would start calling out that name."  (Wall Street Journal, 2003)

"That name" reappeared several times.   As Trey Strecker notes in his SABR bio, Merkle managed a team in Daytona in 1929.   During a game, a player called him a bonehead.  Merkle walked off the diamond and never returned.   Several years later, a minister visiting their church told the congregation, "I am from the place of the infamous Fred 'Bonehead' Merkle.'"  Merkle and his family walked out (Anderson).  While umpiring an exhibition game between the Senators and a minor league team, one of the players called Merkle a bonehead (Cait Murphy).  A bully at school called one of his daughters a bonehead. 

 

In 1950, Horace Stoneham and the Giants reached out to Merkle who accepted their invitation to an Old-Timers Day at the Polo Grounds.  The event took place 58 years ago today.

It must have been tough for him to walk back to the site where he got the clutch hit and had a good career, but received so much undeserved blame and abuse.   This time though, he received a special tribute and warm applause from the crowd of 35,000.   One paper noted the ovation he got was one of the loudest of the day, a way of acknowledging he had been "done wrong."  

The New York Times published a picture of him smiling and standing beside Larry Doyle, his friend and Giants roommate for 10 years.  During their re-union at Toots Shor's restaurant, The Sporting News noticed "he enjoyed himself tremendously and was one of the last to leave."   Merkle told a reporter, "It's strange how things work out.  I never had such a good time.  It was worth it to talk to Larry Doyle… everybody was so great."  

By all indications, Merkle had a great time, but if the Washington Post's caption summed it all up, Merkle, in the eyes of many, was still the goat.   

"All's Forgiven - Fred Merkle, whose boner 42 years ago cost the New York Giants the National League championship, returned to the Polo Grounds yesterday…"

Within the last decade or so, there have been some attempts to give Merkle a fair shake.  Anderson is squarely in his corner, as well as Dan Gutman who authored  Baseball's Biggest Bloopers : The Games That Got Away.  He writes:  "It's not really fair to say that Fred Merkle's mental error cost the New York Giants the 1908 pennant. First of all it was common practise in those days to run right off the field after the winning run had scored."

Christopher Bell, author of Scapegoats, is very sympathetic of Merkle, and in fact, calls him a hero for all the pain he endured. 

At his website, Stan Isaacs has reported on Olbermann's efforts to "revise the record about Merkle."   In the foreword to Anderson's book, Olbermann writes,

"I have done a report of some kind on the Fred Merkle story whether in print, on radio, or on TV, on or about its anniversary, September 23, virtually every year since I was in college… I have often proposed September 23 as a nation day of amnesty, in Fred Merkle's memory."

In 2005, David Stalker, a SABR member who lives in Watertown and collects Merkle memorabilia, got together with some of the Merkle family and purchased a granite memorial marker for Merkle.   The plaque purposely makes no mention of the play.  In SABR's Deadball Era Committee newsletter (Feb 2006), Stalker writes,

"The person who has heard the bonehead story, and reads it, will see that there is so much more than just the 9-23-08 play.  For these reasons I feel as though I am granting him his wish, in helping forget, or at least look past the infamous play."  

The Stalker group donated the plaque to the Watertown Historical Society in September 2005.  It can be seen at 919 Charles Street in Watertown, near the Historical Octagon House. 

Note:  Stalker will put his memorabilia collection on display at the site in the month of September.   The monument is located about 2 blocks west of Washington Park, where you can find Fred Merkle Field.

  
The 100th anniversary of the September 23rd game is upon us.  Hopefully, a high profile publication or TV network will produce something that explains the whole story, and it would be great if the Giants do something positive.  

Fred Merkle knew in his heart the recorded history was wrong, but it must have been cold comfort.   A couple of years before he passed away in 1956, he granted a reporter a rare interview.  He said, "I suppose when I die, they'll put on my tombstone, Here Lies Bonehead Merkle."

Pitch F/X

This morning's SABR-L has a note from Professor Alan Nathan.  He has done work with Pitch f/x, a system that measures the trajectory and speed of each pitch in the major leagues.  

At SABR38 in Cleveland, he gave a presentation about the system.  Afterward, he was interviewed by Cory Schwartz of MLBAM.

Here is a link to the video.   

The Pennant Race in 1889

A blog I like to read is Dan Fox's Dan Agonistes.   It's an excellent mixture of the getting to know the person and sabermetrics, as well as the knowing that Fox, previously part of the great team at Baseball Prospectus, is now part of a team that is trying to restore the Pirates to some semblance of prior glory days.  

One of the things Dan is working on right now is measuring great pennant races.   He produced the graphs for the pennant races in the excellent book, It Ain't Over Till It's Over, and now he's writing some mini-essays on what makes a great pennant race.   

All terrific stuff, but Dan, nor the B.P. team, did not include any 19th Century races.  That's certainly understandable; no one starts before 1900 anymore.  

And what a shame that is.   As far back as 1871, the first year of the National Association, teams engaged in close races that created excitement among the fans (the winner got to fly the "whip pennant").   Stories developed like the great Chicago fire that hurt the White Stockings chances and the controversy over who won the pennant.   (You can hear Yogi saying, "It was over, but it wasn't over...")    

Not much has been written about the great pennant races of the 19th Century. Much is owed to David Nemec's Encyclopedia of 19th Century Major League Baseball, where you can find sketches of some of the races.    With his new book, A Game of Brawl, Bill Felber has brought back to life the exciting battle in 1897 between Baltimore and Boston.   In the final month, the two were separated by a game or less, and met in a showdown series in Baltimore in the next to last series of the season.

I'd like to tout the National League races of 1885 and 1889, two that involved the Giants.  I've previously written about 1885, the duel between the Giants (New Yorks) and the Cubs (White Stockings), so I will just summarize.  

Chicago was the great baseball city.  Led by Cap Anson, they had crushed opponents on their way to titles in '76, '80, '81, and '82.  New York, on the other hand, didn't even have a National League team from 1877 to 1884.   After finishes of sixth and fourth, they finally had put together a very good team in 1885.   

The two fought tooth and nail all summer long.   The race riveted baseball fans in Gotham.   When the New Yorks, two games back, traveled to Chicago in the penultimate series of the season, baseball fever gripped Gotham like never before.   Ultimately, it was anti-climatic, in that Chicago took three of four of the Giants, which all but eliminated the New Yorks.    

Four years later, the Giants went at it with Boston.  In the looking back, there's no question that the 1889 race suffers from the fact that the New York newspaper writers were not as excited as they were in '85, plus the Giants had won all the marbles in 1888.   Boston was trying to find the summit after four straight so-so seasons.  

Several books have been written on great pennant races.   One of my favorites is Dave Anderson's Pennant Races.   Anderson did not take a sabermetric approach like IAOTIO.   I think he would probably scoff at trying to measure such things, and go with the old adage of, you know greatness when you see it.  

Clay Davenport did take the objective approach and he is to be given a lot of credit for coming up with a formula.   It surely wasn't easy, given all the great races there have been.  And as they note, what is the best ingredient?   Is it the roaring back like the '51 Giants or the Rockies last year, or is it day to day closeness like the A.L. in '67?  

The 1885 race was fairly close with an average margin of two games.  1889 saw the Giants draw close and then the final month was very tight.    Here is a look, in terms of games behind. 


1889

Tied, 1, 1, 1, .5, 1, 1, 2, 1.5, .5, .5, .5, Tied, Tied, .5, .5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, Tied, Tied, .5, .5, Tied, 1, Tied, Tied, Tied, 1  End of Season

Not sure how that ranks in terms of a "closeness score" among pennant races with two teams, but it sure seems like it would be right up there.     This race looks like it would hold up well using the formula Davenport used.  He gave weight to closeness at the end.  

Two other areas where 1889 gains points are the quality of players and the quality of play.   Both teams combined for 10 future Hall of Famers.    The Giants, with a one-two punch of Tim Keefe and Mickey Welch, and the big bat of slugger Roger Connor, won 39 of their last 53 to finish at 83 and 43 (107 and 55 for 162 games.)

Boston was led by their extraordinary ace John Clarkson, who won a record 49 games.  As Nemec notes, the gap between his totals was the biggest in the history of the game.   Boston also had "Big Dan" Brouthers, arguably the greatest batter in the 19th Century.      

Perhaps the reason few have taken on the 19th Century races is the fact the game was not played in the modern age sense.   Statistical comparisons, I would think, are not easy.   But the other elements of the game were the same as today.  The races were covered by the press, fans flocked to the games, players did heroic things and there was even scoreboard watching back then. 

Some of these things can be seen in three newspaper accounts I took from Jean-Pierre Caillault's A Tale of Four Cities.  


Monday, September 30
Boston Herald

There has never been so much excitement in a campaign as there has been this season.  Go into Music Hall and afternoon and gaze about you.  The character of the gentlemen that constitute the patrons will amaze you.  The game has got its hold upon all, and the exciting character of the present struggle has intensified this fact.  The ladies, too, have shown the greatest interest in the result. 


Tuesday, October 1
Boston Herald

(Five games were left, the Giants at Pittsburgh.  Boston was at Cleveland.   The Giants were in first at 79 and 42, Boston in second at 80 and 43.


On all sides in Boston hilarity prevailed last evening, and the great topic of discussion was the victory of the Bostons and the most unexpected defeat of the New Yorks.  In every place where scorecards were displayed crowds stood and stared in silent delight.  


Friday, October 4
Boston Herald
(Next to last game, New York won at Cleveland 6-1, Boston won at Pittsburgh 4-3.  )

It looked at one time today as though the jig was up.  The telegraph indicated that the New Yorks were winning at Cleveland.  The Pittsburgs were playing like fiends against the Bostons, and a defeat for the latter meant a settlement of the championship problem right off.  It was not until after two men were out in the ninth, with the bases full, that jolly Dan Brouthers made one of his terrific ground hits past third base and the game was won. 

And on the eve of that last day of the season the championship is unsettled, for if on the morrow Boston wins and New York loses, Boston wins the pennant.  Clarkson will pitch for Boston.   

PIT   000 300 000 - 3
BOS 002 010 021 - 4

In the final game, the Giants had Keefe on the mound.   Mike Tiernan clouted one over the head of right fielder Radford, good enough for an inside-the-park, two-run home run in the first.  Cleveland scored two runs in the fifth to pull within one.

In the bottom of the frame, Tiernan came up big again.   He walked, stole second, went to third on a force out and came around to score after the catcher threw to second when Buck Ewing "made a feint to steal second.   

Down 5-2, Cleveland scored once in the top of the ninth but that was it.   The New Yorks had their second straight pennant.  The next day, the team arrived home on the Western express train.   A throng of about 700 admirers and fans applauded their return.    In his speech, manager Jim Mutrie said, "The Bostons are good players but we are the people."  

The Giants backed their manager's claim up two weeks later when they won their second straight championship, this time over Brooklyn of the American Association.   Their pennant race had also come down to the final day.

Mays and Aaron on HBO

HBO is broadcasting a 90-minute look at the state of the game on the Costas Now program.  It was recorded Wednesday from New York University.   Caught most of it last night.   If you read the collective wisdom Maury Brown put together at Business of Baseball, you probably didn't learn anything new.

They saved the best for the last, Aaron and Mays taking the stage.   Costas spends about 15 minutes with them, starting out with a nice video tribute, then asking them some questions.  Aaron always seems more polished and refined, but Mays will give you a straight, no BS answer. 

Say Hey Willie's honesty included calling Bob Gibson, who was sitting in the audience a "headhunter."  Costas engaged Gibson, who seemed to be staring down Mays for that comment.   The Cardinal great went on to explain that he didn't throw at players, they just got in the way when they leaned over the plate.   Everybody except Gibson, who would make a great poker player, chuckled!

At the end, Costas brought up the fact that none of Aaron's season totals in HR and RBI were top 10 all time, a tribute to his longevity.   Mays got the "joy to watch" compliment, but one thing I think that gets overlooked is he led the league in stolen bases four years in a row ('56-'59).      

Speaking of Mays and New York City, there's an effort to get a street named after him at the site of the old Polo Grounds.   Details at this article by Frank Lombardi of the Daily News.  

The Sun Field

The Hardball Times has reviewed a new edition of The Sun Field, a previously out-of-print novel by Heywood C. Broun, published in 1923.  Darryl Brock writes the introduction. 

The book is published by Rvive Books, whose mission is "to return to print some of the lost and classic works of American literature and nonfiction."   Evidently, they have no website yet but the book is available through Amazon and others. 

Broun covered the Yankees and the Giants.  He wrote more than a dozen books and won the Hall of Fame's 1970 J.G. Taylor Spink Award.   His son, Heywood Hale Broun, accepted the announcement in 1976.

Broun's reporting and writing began in New York in 1908, and continued until his death in 1939.   Historian William Burgess describes him as "a violent rooter" for the Giants.  

Broun penned the famous "look of eagles" description of John McGraw's young players.   He also founded and presided over the American Newspaper Guild (now called the Newspaper Guild).

RUSH!

Well, yours truly crashed last night, and missed RUSH's appearance on The Colbert Report.   The video is at the show's website, re-airs today, and Counterparts has a link to YouTube.

The guys looked a little nervous, and without their wall of sound, Tom Sawyer sounded a bit funny.   The small stage was kind of cool but they looked like they were auditioning for American Bandstand. 

Colbert was, of course, classic deadpan, especially:

"Have you ever written a song so long, that by the end of it, you are being influenced by your own song?"

So if you missed their first 34 years, you got the quick summary.  Geddy still yearns for an appearance on American Idol, would sing Hair if he did make it on the show, and serves as the default spokesman.  Neil has lots of drums and a quick wit.   Alex likes little dolls and lets his guitar do his speaking.  

Now it's on to the "Colbert Effect."   Look for RUSH on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, appearances on Good Morning America and E!, the long-awaited VH-1 Behind the Music segment, and is that Cleveland calling??

Anyway, many thanks to Jimmy and Colbert.   Seeing them on TV like that is something RUSH fans will never forget.  

Giants Oral History

The following Giants memory is from Ken, a Giants fan from Napa.   Many thanks to him for sharing his thoughts.

I was religious about listening to games on the radio or watching them on TV.  My years of going regularly were when the Giants moved out here in '58 to start off with. My uncle had a furniture factory 2 blocks from Seals Stadium and my dad worked with him. The company had a box with 12 seats right next to the visiting team's dugout.

I used to bring a friend every day during the summer to work with my dad.  We'd kill a couple of hours at the shop and then walk over to the stadium, watch infield, batting practice and then the games.  The games would usually end before my dad's work was done. 

I went to 20 or more games each summer in '58 and '59 so I saw a ton of Orlando Cepeda and Willie McCovey who were rookies of the year in those years.  I was 10, and 11 during those years.  When they moved to Candlestick in '60 I went to most of the day games in the summer too, after taking a jitney from Daly City of Mission and Geneva and then catching a bus from there to the park.

The first couple of years were soooo easy to sneak into the Stick because there was continuous construction and ladders were all over the place making it easy to climb over walls.  After that I'd still go to a few games a year and saw a lot in '87 when we lost to the Cards in the playoffs (remember Candy Maldonado sliding and the ball going over his head?)

Then I went to the playoffs in '89 against the Cubs.  We had tickets for all the games in the upper deck in right center.  The weather was outrageously warm.  Then I had the World Series tickets.  After the earthquake, I knew we'd have to face Dave Stewart and Mike Moore again, instead of their number 3 and 4 pitchers so I didn't even go, figuring we had no shot.  It was really depressing to lose to the A's in 4. 

My friend got a season ticket in the club level of Pac Bell when it first opened.  The first three years we'd get 5 games each season.  But, I got tired of paying so much… so I am through going but listen religiously on the radio.  I almost prefer it on the radio.  When I watch it on TV I get nervous and pace during really tight situations.  I love Brian Wilson but he makes me really nervous. 

I love these Giants and I can see them getting better and better as long as they get more and more playing time for the younger guys. It's a catch 22 because I like Aurilia and Durham, but, they aren't the future.  You just gotta enjoy each game as it's own entity.  That's how I've always viewed it.

Say Hey Willie!

Well, let the record show Say Hey Willie was interviewed on the Red Carpet at 51 minutes past the hour.

More than worth the wait through the parade of commercials.   Mays is looking good, and you just know he got a big kick out of returning to the streets where he used to play stickball and the cabbies and everyone loved him.   

Also great to see Willie Mac, Juan, Gaylord, and Orlando. 

And those position by position introductions, with the currents alongside the all-time greats, that was as good as it gets.

The San Francisco Missions

In the July/August issue of The SABR Bulletin, Dick Beverage, Pacific Coast League historian and President of SABR, reports on a group research project on the San Francisco Missions.   San Francisco native Carl Haas, who went to the Mission Reds games, spearheads the effort to write "the definitive history of the club."  

Some good thumbnail coverage on the Missions can be found in Nuggets on the Diamond, Professional Baseball in the Bay Area From the Gold Rush to the Present.    The franchise arrived from Southern California in 1926.   Sharing Recreation Park and then Seals Stadium with the more popular Seals, the Mission Reds' finest season came in 1929.   Ike Boone's triple crown bat (407/55/218) helped lead the way to a 123 and 78 record and the pennant.   In the playoffs with Hollywood, the Missions lost four games to three. 

Playing in the shadow of the Seals and crippled financially by the Depression, the franchise shifted to Hollywood after the 1937 season.     

No word on when this research will be published, or what form, but I will try and remember to post a link.   It's certainly great to see these pages dusted off.   As Beverage noted, "It is a small period of California baseball history that has never been searched."

RUSH on The Colbert Report

The other day, I saw a headline, something like G8 Votes for Emissions Reductions by 2050.  

I thought to myself, sometimes these headlines can be Onion-like, and you can have fun thinking about them that way.

That thought popped up again today when I saw this at rushisaband.

Rush live performance on The Colbert Report?

It's no joke, however, as the AP has a report on it.   As Ed explains

I'm hearing that they're booked to make a one song (Tom Sawyer) appearance as a spoof on the whole Rush / Rush Limbaugh name confusion. Colbert has had fun with this subject in the past (see this post) and the show's director is a big Rush fan, so it's certainly plausible. 

By the way, this is a pretty big deal for RUSH and their fans.  They have played over 1600 concert shows in the last so many years, but they haven't played on U.S. television since 1975 on the Don Kirshner Rock Show.  

I remember that being a great show for rockheads who stayed up until 1 am on Saturday nights when the show came on.     Tonight will take a little effort too, chugging some coffee, and I better go forewarn the better half.  Although I have seen them play Tom Sawyer many times, hubby can't miss this one...