Double Your Pleasure (Squared)

While there is no question getting old beats the alternative, there are still things from the past, now gone forever, that we miss.  For me, from a baseball standpoint, the most obvious is the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn which as an 11 year old in a more limited, somewhat sheltered media environment, I was a little too young to fully understand.  Another thing I miss that might be somewhat surprising is winner take-all pennant races - no divisions, no wild cards, none of that stuff that began over 50 years ago.  I understand all the logic of how more post season opportunities facilitates a broader base of interest, but there is something about the excitement of those last days of a season, sometimes the last day itself, with so much at stake.  I had actually forgotten how much I enjoyed such late season drama until Paul Zinn and I wrote our book about the 1916 season which had multiple teams in both leagues in contention right up until the final week.   So high was the intensity of the National League race in Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Boston, the contemporary media described it as:

"The Apoplexy-Breeding National League Pennant Race" - New York Times

"The nerve shattering strife for the baseball supremacy of the National League" - Philadelphia Inquirer

"The most maddening baseball melee in history" - Boston Herald

One characteristic of  such close pennant races is teams and players give it everything they have, holding nothing back. Perhaps the best illustration of that spirit in 1916 is how six times National League starting pitchers took the mound trying to win both ends of a doubleheader of which there was no shortage that season.  Two of those efforts were not only by the same team, the Philadelphia Phillies, but also took place in the space of just four days.   On Wednesday, September 20, the Phillies who trailed first place Brooklyn by two games, hosted the Pirates for a doubleheader at Baker Bowl before a crowd estimated between 12-15,000.  Thanks to an excessive number of rain outs early in the season, it was Philadelphia's eighth doubleheader in just under three weeks.  On the mound for the home team was right handed pitcher Al Demaree, opposed by Wilbur Cooper of the Pirates.  The two hurlers matched zeros until the Phillies erupted for seven runs with two out in the bottom of the sixth allowing Demaree to coast to a shutout victory.  Perhaps remembering how his team had been beaten twice on the same day by Pol Perritt of the Giants just two weeks earlier, Phils manager Pat Moran quickly accepted Demaree's offer to start the second contest.

Al Demaree clearly had help in his first game shutout of the Pirates - Philadelphia Press - September 21, 1916

Demaree got a big hand when he took the mound, but it initially looked like his appearance would be brief and ineffective.  The Pirates put runners on first and second with just one out, but fortunately for Phils, Max Carey, the lead runner, was thrown out an attempted double steal. Demaree's problems weren't over however.  Playing in his next to last season, the great Honus Wagner doubled to right, but once again aggressive base running hurt the Pirates as Bill Hinchman was thrown out at the plate.  Having escaped that threat, the Phils wasted little time getting on the board themselves, scoring twice in the bottom of the inning.  Pittsburgh finally got a run off Demaree in the third, but still trailed 2-1 heading to the top of the ninth.  The Pirates were not done, however, with one out Wagner and Fred Schulte singled bringing Doc Johnston to the plate as a pinch hitter.  By this point, Moran had his ace Grover Cleveland Alexander warming up, but elected to stay with Demaree who struck out Johnston.  On the pitch, however, in classic Deadball Era style, Doug Baird (running for Wagner) and Schulte successfully executed a double steal, putting the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. 

Al Demaree

Only Bill Wagner stood between Demaree and two complete game victories on the same day, but Wagner singled driving in Baird to tie the game.  Once again, however, Demaree was bailed out by his defense when center fielder Dode Paskert threw Schulte out at home on what was either a "perfect throw" or a "herculean heave."  With one out in the bottom of the ninth, George Whitted hit one to center field which "refused to bound" into the bleachers.  Under the rules of the day had the ball gone into the stands on a bounce, it would have been a game winning home run.  Instead Whitted was at second, but not for long, stealing third to put the winning run only 90 feet.  After walking the next two batters and then getting the second out on a foul out, Pirate pitcher, Al Mamaux faced pinch hitter Claude Cooper.  Reportedly Mamaux tried to intimidate Cooper by attempting to dust him off with the first pitch.  If so, seldom was a poor strategy, executed even more poorly as the pitch went all the way to the backstop allowing Whitted to score the winning run.  Although he had just pitched two complete games, Demaree still had enough energy to outrun his adoring fans on the way to the center field club house where team owner, William Baker was waiting with a $100 check.  It was no wonder the fans were excited not only had they seen a pitcher earn two complete game victories in a single day, the ninth inning was worth the price of admission alone.

Philadelphia Inquirer - September 21, 1916

Perhaps somewhat lost in the excitement was that the Phillies had picked up a half-game on the Dodgers who won their game, putting Philadelphia 1 1/2 games back with 15 to play.  Unfortunately, over the next two days, Brooklyn added another game to its lead, leaving the Phillies further back as they prepared to host Cincinnati for a double header on September 23rd.  Although the Reds were in last place, they had just won three straight in Boston, effectively knocking the Braves out of the pennant race.  Fortunately for the Phils, they had their ace, Grover Cleveland Alexander on the mound for the first game.  Already a 29 game winner, Alexander got off to a rough start when three Red hits and a Dave Bancroft error gave the Reds an early l-0 lead.  Just two innings later, Alexander was bailed out by his defense when Milt Stock's "sensational one-hand stop" got him out of a bases loaded jam.  Things began to turn around for the home team in the bottom of the inning when the Phillies tied the score without the benefit of a hit.  Philadelphia then broke things open in the sixth largely due to a three run home run by Bert Niehoff because this time the ball did bounce into the bleachers.

Grover Cleveland Alexander

Alexander's performance was hardly a work of art since he allowed 12 Reds hits while coasting to a 7-3 win.  Remembering Demaree's feat of just two days earlier, there were probably few in the capacity crowd who were surprised when Alexander began warming up for the second game.  The fans greeted him with "thunderous applause which grew to a roar" as he took the mound.  The Reds continued to get hits against the Phils right hander, five in the first four innings, but instead of growing tired, Alexander gradually became "absolutely invincible." He allowed just three hits over the last three innings and only one base runner reached third in the entire game.  The Phils offense produced four runs and at game's end, Alexander had not only his 31st victory, but a record setting 15th shutout.  He would add one more whitewash before the season ended, a record of 16 that still stands.  Alexander was not as quick to the clubhouse as Demaree so that the fans carried him the last 30 yards on their shoulders where owner Baker was again waiting with a $100 check.   Alexander had wasted in little time in the second game which lasted only one hour and seven minutes, just 16 minutes shy of the major league record.  Incredibly, though the teams had played two full games, it was only 4:20, giving the fans not only plenty of time to get home for dinner, but to celebrate over a few beers at their local tavern.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle - September 24, 1916

Of course, the obvious question is how did Demaree and Alexander pitch two complete games on the same day.  Unfortunately box scores from that era don't give as much statistical detail as today, but Jim Gantz of the Philadelphia Press helpfully published Alexander's second game pitch count - just 78 pitches, including only four in the first and five in the second.  All told the future Hall of Famer gave up eight hits while striking out four and walking just one.  Obviously the low number of strike outs and walks kept the pitch count down while the number of hits doesn't have that much impact since a hit is only one pitch.  Clearly an extremely low pitch count helped, but a more likely explanation is that pitchers didn't throw as hard on every pitch compared to today.  In an era of few home runs, one bad pitch was unlikely to do that much damage so that a pitcher could literally pick his spots to throw hard.  Dodger pitcher, Leon Cadore, may have alluded to this a few days after his 1920, 26 inning performance when he said the toughest part of the extra innings was having to concentrate so much because one pitch could lose the game, suggesting that such focus was not the norm.

Despite Demaree and Alexander's efforts, cartoonist Jim Nasium's (Edgar Forrest Wolfe) dream of a pennant for the Phils did not come true - Philadelphia Inquirer - September 24, 1916

No matter how they managed to accomplish this feat, it's still an impressive performance, especially considering the extra pressure of the close pennant race.  But in the end, Alexander and Demaree's feats did the Phillies little good.  Just a week after Alexander's twin win, he took the mound for the second game of another double header at Ebbets Field.  Philadelphia had moved into first place by one-half game after winning the opener and with their ace on the mound for the second game, all the probabilities seemed to be in their favor.  Baseball, however, doesn't always work that way and on that cold September afternoon, the Dodgers, led by Casey Stengel's home run over the right field fence on to Bedford Avenue, knocked Alexander out of the box and the Phillies out of first.  While it still wasn't over, the Dodgers kept winning while the Phils couldn't keep pace even though Alexander did win his 33rd game and 16th shutout in his last start of the season.  Even though Philadelphia failed to win the pennant, they certainly gave it everything they had - just one example of the memorable things that can happen in a winner take-all pennant race.