Crazy Game in Brooklyn
I'll never forget this one.
Crazy Game in Brooklyn
This game was fairly innocuous in real life:
For another perspective, here’s a more reticent article from The Sun:
Note, as I’ve said before, that these references to “scientific baseball” chiefly mean sacrifice hits and hit and run plays.
None of this could compare to the craziness that happened in my replay, however.
Without A Hit
The Giants scored first — before they even got their first hit.
Leading off the second inning, Fred Tenney reached first on an error by first baseman Tim Jordan. Tenney moved up on a ground ball and a sacrifice bunt (more scientific baseball), putting him on third with two out. Roger Bresnahan was the batter:
And, just like that, it was 1-0 Giants.
Brooklyn had a chance to tie it in the bottom of the 3rd. Jordan came up with an early chance to redeem himself, batting with two outs and pitcher Nap Rucker on second:
Sadly for Brooklyn, Rucker has an “S” rating, which meant he was thrown out at the plate after that single. Rucker’s out ended the inning.
Brooklyn Comes Back
The Superbas had a few more chances.
Rucker came up again in the bottom of the 5th, this time with nobody out and runners on first and third. I told him to bunt, but decided to call a safety squeeze instead of a full squeeze. And this is what happened:
Nap just couldn’t follow through, and the runner at first wound up being thrown out at second.
Jordan was up next:
It wasn’t a base hit, but it got the job done. The sacrifice fly scored the run, and the game was now tied 1-1.
More came in the bottom of the 6th. Billy Maloney came up with two men out:
That double column “2” result placed Maloney squarely on third base, bringing up Harry Pattee, who is turning into a favorite of mine:
Pattee’s legend started to grow as he knocked in the run that put Brooklyn up 2-1.
Not So Easy
Of course, it’s never that easy — especially when you’re playing against the 1908 Giants.
Al Bridwell came up for the Giants with two out and a runner on first in the top of the 8th. I decided to call for a hit and run:
Bridwell’s double tied the game at 2, and made me start to panic. You see, I decided to play this one in the afternoon, figuring that I had ample time before my next meeting. There were a few computer glitches, however, and I started to panic when I realized that this was turning into a really good game, and that extra innings were beckoning.
I had no idea what was coming.
The 9th
As we saw in the articles above, the real life Mike Donlin threw himself out on the basepaths. He wasn’t so easy in this game, though. Donlin came up with one out in the top of the 9th:
Up next came Larry Doyle:
And, finally, up came Cy Seymour with two outs:
Devlin singled after that one to knock Seymour in as well. The Giants lead was now 4-2, and I decided not to take a screenshot, figuring that Brooklyn would go down quietly in the 9th and that I’d get away without writing this article.
Big mistake.
Weak hitting Phil Lewis led it off for Brooklyn:
It’s kind of hard to see what happened from this screenshot. This error was caused by that small “E” to the right of the play result number. I’ll talk more about that “E” and what it’s doing there in a future post, though it might take a few months to get that far.
After the next batter flied out for the first out, up came pinch hitter Whitey Alpermann, another poor hitter. I figured Brooklyn only had 2 more chances left, and that I might as well make them count:
So now there were runners on second and third with only one out. I decided against bunting with Jordan, who was one of the few guys on Brooklyn who could conceivably drive in both runs. I also decided to play the infield deep, figuring that the runner on third didn’t matter so much with a 2 run lead.
I figured that this outcome was acceptable from the Giants’ perspective. The score was now 4-3, there were two outs, and Brooklyn’s last hope rested with Tommy Sheehan:
And now it was back to the drawing board. Sheehan drove in the run from third. He was caught stealing afterwards, but the damage had been done.
And now it was time for extras.
10th Inning
New York went down quietly in the 10th. Brooklyn didn’t.
Harry Lumley led things off:
The fielding in this game was awful, simply awful. There were errors all over the place for both teams.
Anyway, the next two Brooklyn batters made outs, bringing up our friend Pattee again:
I thought something big might happen here. Pattee wound up walking - but the next Brooklyn batter struck out, ending the threat.
12th Inning
The 11th was quiet for both sides.
New York threatened in the 12th, however. Tenney lead off, doing what Tenney does best:
Al Bridwell came up next:
I brought the infield in, but I also figured that there was no way the Giants could be stopped from scoring here.
Up came Spike Shannon. I decided to swing away with him instead of bunting:
Yeah, you read right. Shannon hit a fly ball to Lumley in right field, who promptly thre Tenney out at the plate.
I was really starting to worry about getting to my meeting at this point. It looked like this game would simply never end.
Tommy Sheehan led things off for Brooklyn in the bottom of the 12th:
Yep, you guessed it: another error.
Lumley flew out to right, which brought up John Hummel:
Maloney was up next. I told him to bunt, and he promptly fouled off two straight bunt attempts. And so I took the bunt sign off:
This was unbelievable. It’s as if the dice had decided to conspire against me, dragging out the ending of this game as slowly as possible.
And up came Pattee, to cement his status as a blog legend and a channel hero:
Of course, Pattee didn’t hit a base hit: that would have been too obvious. Nope — he went the sacrifice fly route instead.
Brooklyn won, 5-4, in one of the craziest games I’ve ever played. It was crazy for reasons I haven’t written here, too. If you don’t believe me, go up and watch the video for yourself.
8 errors and 24 hits make this look like a game from 1901, not 1908. I left Wiltse in there until the bitter end despite his obvious lack of effectiveness as the game wore on. Honestly, part of that is because of the time pressure I was under.
There were 5 sacrifice hits in this one. I pride myself on my ability to use the scientific sacrifice method, as opposed to the brutish habit of swinging away.
We also only had one stolen base and two men caught stealing, which feels low. But that’s how the dice roll sometimes.