Red Sox — Yankees, 1908 Style
April 27, 1908
Red Sox - Yankees, 1908 Style
1908 was back when you could pick up your evening copy of The World and find that day’s entire game summary sitting right in front of you:
Note that this is the play-by-play for that day’s game, not for the game the day before. And also note that it is 100% complete.
Now, there was a discussion on Twitter or Facebook or something the other day about what time these games would start. It turns out that games in New York in 1908 started at 4 PM. This comes from The Sun on April 27 as an advertisement for that afternoon’s game:
Those who claim that attendance in those days was low due to potential fans being at work have forgotten that games frequently started around 3:30 or 4 PM — even as early as April.
And, yes, they played quickly to avoid the fall of darkness. Per The Sun, this game took only an hour and a half — and was played in front of a not-so-small crowd of 4,000:
On to the simulation.
Close Shave
Just like it’s real life equivalent, this one was low scoring and close. New York nursed a 1-0 lead going into the top of the 7th, when Bob Unglaub came up for the Red Sox with a runner on second and two men out:
And, just like that, we were tied.
Jack Chesbro was able to get the Highlanders out of this mess, though, and New York had a chance of its own.
Charlie Hemphill came up in the bottom of the 8th with two men out and a runner on second, and wound up with this roll:
Charge that error on Doc Gessler.
And that was it — New York won, 2-1.
This wasn’t one of those drag ‘em out 4-hour Red Sox — Yankees games that we’ve become accustomed to in recent years. This was a pitcher’s game played quickly, with a handfull of errors for both teams and only a few hits.
I wish baseball were still like this today.