Back And Forth In Boston
Giants at Doves, April 30, 1908
Back And Forth In Boston
This was one of those really wild ones.
The story really begins in the bottom of the 8th. New York was winning, 3-1, and had been dominant offensively all game long.
However, starting pitcher Doc Crandall started to waiver. With runners on first and third and one out, Bill Sweeney came up to hit:
That made the score 3-2, and Boston wasn’t done yet. Up next came pitcher Cecil Ferguson:
I’m not sure why Skeetersoft calls him “George,” since Baseball Reference clearly calls him Cecil. At any rate, he came up and bunted, just like he was supposed to.
Up next came Claude Ritchey:
That double-column single made this a 4-3 ballgame in Boston’s favor, and really set everything on its head.
9th Inning
Now, if it all ended like that, I’d probably still write up one of these summaries. But, of course, it was much more exciting than a little 8th inning comeback.
Al Bridwell reached to lead off the top of the 9th, and Cy Seymour came up to push him up to second:
One thing you’ve really got to keep in mind about the deadball era is that it doesn’t really matter whether you bunt or use the hit and run. The goal is to move the runner up, especially if it’s a one run game in the late innings. Seymour did exactly what I wanted him to do.
Up next came Larry Doyle:
That’s the reason you want that runner in scoring position. Somebody like Doyle will come up and drive him in.
Doyle was caught stealing, but it didn’t matter, of course. The game was tied, and we were headed for extras.
The 12th
I’ll save you a lot of the boring details. You can watch the video if you want to see everything that happened.
Both teams had scoring opportunities, but neither team could push anything over. But then, with one out in the top of the 12th, Roger Bresnahan figured out a way to get himself into scoring position quickly:
The New York Giants are a really rough team to beat. The lineup is filled with players who can beat you one way or another. Up came Mike Donlin, who is absolutely one of those terrors:
That single did the trick. The Giants led, 5-4, and were able to overcome a relatively weak attempt to come back by the Doves to close it out.
Is this really the deadball era? There were 26 hits between the two teams. Yes, there were 3 sacrifices in all, as well as 4 stolen bases - but there were also 6 men caught stealing.
Either way, it was a lot of fun.