The Half-Game Pennant of 1908 by Charles C. Alexander

Author:Charles C. Alexander
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2018-01-05T05:00:00+00:00

FIVE

* * *

“Lucky to get safely to his hotel”

All of the American League clubs had a two-day break in the schedule on August 12 and 13, 1908. As the season had gone along, people in various places began talking about having some kind of occasion to honor the avuncular Cy Young. With Ban Johnson’s approval, Boston president John I. Taylor announced that Thursday, August 14, would be “Cy Young Day” in Boston. Taylor paid for nearly everything, including train fare for Young’s wife Robba to come east from their farm in eastern Ohio. The highlight of the festivities was a game between the Red Sox and an “All-Stars” outfit, made up of fourteen veteran players from the other seven AL teams. The Boston players decked themselves out in an array of outlandish costumes—two as clowns, two more as “Chinamen,” another as a cowboy, another as an admiral, another as Abraham Lincoln, and so on. Young donned overalls (befitting a farmer) and a fake beard and rode around Huntington Avenue Grounds in a wagon.

Gifts came from various parties: a plaque from his teammates, a travel bag from the AL umpires, loving cups from other AL players and Boston merchants, and the key to the city from the lieutenant governor. From a paid attendance of 18,163, Taylor donated the entire gate receipts—about $7,500, which was $3,500 more than Young’s current salary.

The Boston players put on their uniforms and the game, which nobody took very seriously, got underway with Billy Evans doing the umpiring. Young pitched two innings, followed by two others; five players took turns on the mound for the All-Stars. The Boston bat boy imitated Hughie Jennings in the coacher’s box and even took a turn at bat. The game actually lasted eleven innings, ending in a 3–2 verdict for the All-Stars. The event was, in the overwrought description of a Boston Globe reporter, “the greatest demonstration of love and stanch esteem ever accorded one man in a given limited enclosure.”1

The All-Stars broke up to rejoin their teams and resume serious baseball on Friday the 14th. Chicago began a four-game series in Washington, starting with a doubleheader. Otis Clymer was back in the outfield, but Bill Shipke was at third base for the Nationals in place of the still-suspended Jim Delahanty. The White Sox’s stay in the east got off to a bad start, with setbacks in both games of the doubleheader. In the first game, Walter Johnson, who seemed to be getting stronger as the season progressed, struck out ten in pitching a two-hit shutout, 1–0. A fumble by George Davis, substituting at first base for an ill Fred Isbell (who had himself been subbing for the injured Jiggs Donahue) and Bob Unglaub’s single two outs later beat Doc White. Frank Smith lost the second game in the ninth inning, when John Anderson made a bad throw from right field and George McBride scored. Tom Hughes was the winner, 3–2.

Ed Walsh set things right the next day, although he had to pitch fifteen innings and outlast Charlie Smith and Burt Keeley to do it.

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