1920 Pennant Race - The Story Thus Far

Historians have a natural tendency to attempt to categorize the past into specific time frames or eras.  While understandable, the practice sometimes has unintended consequences. A case in point is the 1920 baseball season which has become something of an historical stepchild.  It is just after the end of the Deadball Era (1901-1919), but not quite within the Yankee/Babe Ruth/Lou Gehrig dominated Roaring 1920s.  The season is also overshadowed by two tragedies, the fatal August beaning of Cleveland's Ray Chapman by Carl Mays and the first revelations of the fixing of the 1919 World Series by Chicago's infamous Black Sox.  In the National League, the 1920 race was a three team affair where Brooklyn took on both the past (Cincinnati) and future champions (the Giants).  Perhaps one final reason, the 1920 season gets less attention, is the National League race didn't come down to the last day, weekend or even the last week.  In fact, the 1920 National League pennant race was effectively decided over four days in mid-September.  Beginning on September 10th (the 100th anniversary of the first game), a series of posts will explore how the Dodgers brought Brooklyn their second championship in four years.  But first a look at the season thus far.

Abe Yager Sports Editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle predicted the team known interchangeably as the Superbas, Robins or Dodgers would win 95 games and the National League pennant.

Although it took three second division finishes, not to mention a World War, by 1920, Charles Ebbets had built a contenting club by making some sound additions to an already solid core.  Among the holdovers were two-thirds of the outfield, future Hall of Famer Zack Wheat and the underrated Hi Myers, who, Al Munro Elias, founder of the Elias Sports Bureau, considered "the biggest asset of the Brooklyn club."  In the infield, the shortstop was 35 year old Ivy Olson whose performance in the field was consistently inconsistent with, according to Elias, an "unhappy faculty of bungling when it hurt the most."  First base was occupied by Ed Konetchy, also in his mid 30s, acquired from Boston in 1919 after Ebbets traded his disgruntled star Jake Daubert to Cincinnati.  Although Konetchy hit only .236 for Boston in 1918, he resurrected his career in Brooklyn hitting .298 in 1919 and would top .300 in 1920.  As Elias noted, Ebbets "saved the player from the minors and he has more than repaid" the Brooklyn owner.  The other outfield position had been occupied by Tommy Griffith, but before the 1920 season, Griffith decided to give up baseball for the "stockbrokers game" which meant Jimmy Johnston had to play the outfield rather than third base making an already weak infield even weaker.  

According to Al Elias, Jimmy Johnston's play at third became "one of the outstanding features of the [1920] season."

As with their 1916 pennant winning club, pitching was Brooklyn's strength with holdovers Rube Marquard, Jeff Pfeffer and Sherry Smith well complemented by Burleigh Grimes, Al Mamaux and Leon Cadore of 26-inning fame.  Grimes and Mamaux were acquired from Pittsburgh after the 1917 season in exchange for another disgruntled Dodger, Casey Stengel (and George Cutshaw).  Since Grimes and Mamaux were coming off 3-16 and 2-11 seasons respectively, Ebbets took more than a little risk in making the trade.  The Brooklyn owner was doubtless relying on manager Wilbert Robinson's judgement which once again proved to be sound especially in the case of Grimes. With six capable starters, equally divided between left and right side, Brooklyn had pitching depth other teams could only dream about.  Although far from perfect, going into the season, the Dodgers were a contender with Abe Yager of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle not only picking Brooklyn to win the flag, but also predicting the club would finish with a 95-59 record.  Such optimism about the Dodgers chances was not limited to Brooklyn with Robert "Tiny" Maxwell of the Evening Ledger of Philadelphia claiming the team had a real chance if they could overcome their "wobbly" infield.   

Ed "Jeff" Pfeffer was a key member of the Dodgers pitching staff which was the team's greatest strength

The Brooklyn club got off to a good 8-4 start before the record setting frustration of playing 58 innings over three days in early May with only a 1-1, 26 inning tie to show for it.  Fortunately, since he used only three pitchers, Robinson didn't burn out his entire pitching staff and Brooklyn was in second place at the end of May.  The outlook improved even more when Griffith decided the stock market could wait and rejoined the team.  With Griffith in right field, Johnston went back to third where along with Konetchy at first, Pete Kilduff at second and Olson at short, Brooklyn had an infield which, although far from perfect, was by far the best combination available. Kilduff quickly became a fan favorite prompting roars of "Hit Her on the Nose Petey!" from the crowd.  The Dodgers climbed into first place in early June, but lost 8 of 11 games in a home stand against the western clubs, dropping to third place in the process.  In spite of the team's poor play in June, Brooklyn fans could take some solace from the National League standings which on July 1, 1920 reflected a wide open race with only eight games separating seventh place New York and the league leading Reds. 

Brooklyn shortstop Ivan (Ivy) Olson - when he was good he was very good.

Dodger first baseman, Ed Konetchy - note the spacious outfield before the 1931 construction  of Ebbets Field's left and center field bleachers

Brooklyn got back on track by winning seven of eight in early July and left on their second western trip only one-half game out of first.  At the time western trips meant playing 15 to 20 consecutive road games while spending days and nights on the railroad and in hotels, all without air conditioning.  The challenges posed by the travel alone made a .500 record more than satisfactory, but the Dodgers stayed hot, going 13-7 and moved into first place.  The Dodgers continued to struggle at home however and dropped back into second as they began the season’s final long road trip in late August.  Brooklyn continued to be competitive on the road and finished August in the lead, but just a scant half game over the Reds.  By that point the Giants had turned things around and it was now a three team race. John McGraw’s team was in a rebuilding mode and were hurt by the loss of their young star, Frankie Frisch to an emergency appendectomy. By September, however, Frisch was back in the lineup and it was a wide open three team race.

Even before the Dodgers had Hilda Chester and the Sym-Phony band, they had vocal (and eccentric) followers like Henry Greenblatt - Standard Union - September 27, 1920

Throughout the 1920 season, Brooklyn had played better on the road. Without hesitation, Tom Rice of the Eagle blamed the poor play at home on “a certain sort of Brooklyn fans” who “denounce them [the players - especially Olson] without mercy for the slightest misplay, and never hand them a word of encouragement, if things are breaking badly.”  In his many years of covering baseball, the writer claimed he had never seen a contending team treated as badly as the 1920 Brooklyn club.  Something had to change Rice insisted or “such fans will come pretty near, if not entirely, to costing Brooklyn a pennant,” which would be “unique in the annals of baseball.” Although only 6,000 fans showed up for the next home game, many had obviously gotten the message.  Rice praised the “change of attitude” to something akin to “the loyal rooting of a college football crowd.” The idea that fans could make that much difference is hard to accept, but regardless of the reason, the Dodgers turned things around at home, going 7-2 headed into a September 10th game with St. Louis.  Even with the improved play however Brooklyn was only 1/2 game ahead of Cincinnati with the Giants lurking a mere 2 1/2 games back