Base Ball Today

Red Sox at Athletics, May 1, 1908

Base Ball Today

How many chances can a guy get?

Eddie Plank, the famous Athletics pitcher, got 5 straight rolls in his last at bat in this crazy game.

Philadelphia and Boston were tied at 4. It was the bottom of the 9th inning, that bewitching hour when the improbable actually happens.

Simon Nicholls was perched on first base, having reached on this roll:

Naturally, it was time to bunt with Eddie.

Plank’s first dice roll was a 24, resulting in a foul strike. That result comes thanks to the idiosyncracies of the NPIII sacrifice boards, where a strikeout turns into an extra chance.

And this was the second roll, with the bunt still on:

The potential winning run was now at second base, and there was still nobody out. Lou Criger had made the big blunder.

Plank then rolled a 13, resulting in another 13 result: another foul strike. That was roll number 3.

Plank’s fourth role, again a bunt, didn’t end his plate appearance either:

The 53 dice roll was originally a 21, but was changed to a 22 by the automatic adjustment system in the NPIII computer game.

In other words, in a single plate appearance, Nicholls had advanced to third on a passed ball and an error. Plank was still up there with two strikes on him. The infield was now in, and Cy Young was sweating up a storm.

In came the fifth roll.

Inexplicably, Plank didn’t strike out. I also decided not to bunt, despite Nicholls’ obvious speed. It’s a good thing that I didn’t; that 33 might have been a double play otherwise.

That set the stage for Jimmy Collins, whose game winning sacrifice fly felt like a foregone conclusion:

We’ve had a number of these high hit games so far in 1908. There were 19 hits between both teams combined. It doesn’t quite feel like the deadball era, does it?