South Side Ball Park

Browns at White Sox, May 7, 1908

South Side Ball Park

If you came across this game without knowing anything about how this replay has gone so far, you’d think this would be a snooze. The White Sox have to win, right? After all, nobody considers the 1908 Browns to be a good team, right?

Yeah, you’d be wrong.

The second place Browns broke a 1-1 tie in the top of the 7th inning when shortstop Bobby Wallace hit into this error:

It looked like that second run was all that St. Louis starter Jack Powell would need — but then the bottom of the 8th rolled around.

With pitcher Doc White on at first base and nobody out, Patsy Dougherty managed to move him to third:

Dougherty was called out trying to steal second with George Davis up there. And, as it turns out, he probably should have been more patient:

Davis wasted a good pair of rolls, getting a 66 followed by an 11 on a bunt. Still, the game was tied at 2 each, and we were headed for extra innings.

And man, oh man, how this game continued.

Both starters ended up leaving before the conclusion. We pick up the action in the bottom of the 12th inning, where St. Louis reliever Dode Chriss comes out to try to send us to the 13th.

First up was catcher Art Weaver for Chicago, who is known for anything but his bat:

That brought up Lee Tannehill, and we all knew what he was going to do:

Charge the error to Tom Jones, who committed the first and only error for the Browns on that play.

I decided to bring Billy Sullivan up as a pinch hitter for relief pitcher Nick Altrock:

The sacrifice fly was deep enough, and, before you knew it, the game was over.

Sometimes we have 1908 games with 20+ hits between both sides combined. And then sometimes we have real defensive struggles like this one. You never know what you’re going to get!