Walk-Off Walk: Seasons1914

Showing posts with label Seasons1914. Show all posts

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Seasons in Time: 1914 (Part 5 of 5)

John F. Riley | Library of Congress

The 1914 Braves were a team of destiny. During the summer and fall, everything seemed to go their way. Yet, the 1914 Braves were not a collection of standout talent that was put together for a big run. Only two players off that team would be enshrined in the Hall of Fame - 32 year-old Johnny Evers and 22 year-old Rabbit Maranville. The rest of the team was full of young players whose rise to fame was nearly as sudden as their fall.

In 1915, the Braves were always good enough to be in the mix, but never good enough to push the Philadelphia Phillies for first place. After May, the closest they were to the top of the NL was 2.5 games. Boston finished 83-69 and in second place - eight games back. Evers broke down during the season and only played in 83 games. With their captain struggling to stay on the field, the rest of the squad cobbled together the third best offense in runs scored on the heels of the best on-base percentage in the NL. The pitching staff remained very good, though Bill James only was able to throw 68.1 innings. 31 year-old Pat Ragan and 22 year-old Art Nehf stepped in, but Boston was simply not the class of the league anymore.

The offense worsened in 1916 and Boston fell to third place. By 1917, the team fell under .500 and with the exception of 1921, they remained under .500 until 1932.

George Stallings was dismissed following 1920. The team's offense under Stallings went from bad-to-brutal after 1915 and the war effort in Europe took many players away. The Big Three were broken up in 1915 after James' arm shut down. Just 24 years-old, James was likely suffering from a torn rotator cuff and it would be many more years before the medical field could fix such an injury. James tried to come back in 1918 and 1919 with him appearing in one game for the '19 Braves, but that would be the only major league game he pitched in after 1915.

D. Rudolph's Grip | Library of Congress

Lefty Tyler pitched for Boston until 1917 when he was dealt to the Cubs for a pair of players and cash. Dick Rudolph played a few more years with Boston as the last remaining member of The Big Three, but his arm was giving out on him. After missing 1921, he pitched only seven times over the next two years. He briefly made it back in 1927 for one game, but his career was effectively over after 1920. While Boston would cycle in pitchers left-and-right to keep the team competitive in games, none were as dominant as the Big Three had been in 1914.

While the pitching staff remained decent, it was the offense that pushed the Braves back toward the bottom of the NL. Evers played in 139 games in 1914 while earning an MVP, but would never play in more than 80 games for the rest of his career - which didn't last long anyway. He was waived and joined the Phillies in 1917. Joe Connolly hit .306 with an .886 OPS in 1914, but his OPS fell a hundred point in 1915 before falling another 160 points the next year. His short four-year career in the majors was over.

Hank Gowdy shined in the World Series for Boston with a .545 batting average, five extra base hits, and five walks to just one strikeout. The backstop would play for Boston until 1923. That doesn't include time he missed as the first active major leaguer to enlist to fight in World War I. Gowdy was gone from the Braves for most of three years while missing 1918 completely as he fought on the Western Front. Once back as a full-time major leaguer in 1920, Gowdy struggled to stay on the field. However, his bat never left him and that was especially apparent after the Braves traded him back to the Giants in 1923. It was with the Giants he got back to the Fall Classic. In Game Seven of the '24 Series, Gowdy tore off his mask to catch a foul pop-up with nobody on and one out. However, he stepped on the mask and couldn't reach the ball. The batter doubled and scored the winning run as the Senators beat the Giants. He later rejoined the military as an athletic coach during World War II and Fort Benning's Gowdy Field is named for him.

Other important players from the 1914 Braves faded away either because of performance or being moved to other teams. When the first Stallings-less Braves took the field in 1921, outside of Gowdy, they didn't look a thing like the '14 Braves.

The sudden rise and fall of the '14 Braves and their surprising upset of the more favored Athletics have led some people to find parallels between the 1914 World Series and its counterpart in 1919. In the latter case, the best team in baseball and the heavy favorites to win it all, the Chicago White Sox, conspired to throw the Series. Was the '14 Series fixed? Many conspiracists have argued that it was, but the proof seems limited to the belief that the Braves couldn't have possibly beat the A's.

That theory ignores that the series, while a sweep, was still competitive. The Athletics were in position to win Game 2 and Game 3, but simply failed to execute whereas the Braves did. In so many ways, that was a microcosm of the 1914 Braves - they executed when others couldn't. They don't win the NL without help and the Giants going 32-34 after July was a big part of the reason the Braves were able to even to reach the World Series. The fact that there were no other NL contenders to stand in Boston's way was also a big assist.

In the World Series, Eddie Collins had three singles while Wally Schang had just two hits. Home Run Baker, who led the AL with nine homeruns, managed just four hits including a pair of doubles. He was their best option on offense during the four game sweep. Boston's Big Three, who threw all 39 innings during the series for the Braves, had a 1.15 ERA with 28 strikeouts.

Unlike the Chicago White Sox in 1919, who committed 12 errors over the eight game series, the Athletics didn't boot the ball around. They committed just two errors - or half as many as Boston did. Philadelphia ran into a buzzsaw. Bill James, Dick Rudolph, and Lefty Tyler were pitching the best baseball of their career all at the same time. Hank Gowdy destroyed the ball during the series and Johnny Evers was always on base. As were Rabbit Maranville and Possum Whitted.

Boston fell back to Earth because their run was unsustainable. They weren't better than the A's or the Giants when it came to talent. They didn't have to be. They needed only to be the best team in baseball for a few months. When it came to that, they pulled it off and shocked the world.

Seasons in Time: 1914

Part 1 - Prologue
Part 2 - The Road Trip that Wouldn't End
Part 3 - Finding Their Footing
Part 4 - Unfazed on the Biggest Stage
Part 5 - Epilogue

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Seasons in Time: 1914 (Part 4 of 5)

Connie Mack (left) in 1914 | Library of Congress

If Boston felt they all the momentum on their side when the World Series began, they were greatly mistaken. In Philadelphia, something big also took place. Connie Mack's Athletics went on a similar run from beginning in the dog days of summer. Unlike Boston, Philadelphia wouldn't have to come from behind to win the pennant - they led the AL by three games as play picked up on July 8. While they weren't as dominant as Boston in wins-losses, they were as dominant on the field. Boston scored 415 runs after July 7. The A's scored 414. Boston surrendered 264 runs while Philadelphia was charged with 239.

The Athletics had taken over the AL lead on June 9 and never gave it back. Five different Hall of Famers played on the team and that doesn't include their revered skipper, Mr. Mack. Already a seasoned manager at 51, Mack had taken over the A's in 1901 at 38 year-old. Even more amazing, he wasn't a rookie manager as he was already in his second stop as skipper. Already with pennants in 1902 and 1905, Mack guided the A's to the promise land in 1910 and they would follow that up with two more titles in three years. It had been expected that John McGraw and Mack would battle wits in the Fall Classic for a fourth time in 1914. Mack had already got the best of McGraw's Giants in 1911 and 1913 while McGraw won his first World Series in 1905 against Mack. Of course, that was before George Stallings and the Braves rolled past the Giants.

Nobody had even come close to matching Philadelphia's 749 runs in 1914. It was tough to find an easy out in their lineup. Eddie Collins had OPS'd .904 on the heels of 39 extra base hits, 58 steals, and 97 walks to go with 31 K's. At third base, Home Run Baker lived up to his name with nine homers, which gave him his fourth consecutive homerun title. The infield, which also included first baseman Stuffy McInnis and shortstop Jack Berry, was dubbed the $100,000 infield for their worth when McInnish joined the other three in 1911.

Beyond their valuable infield, the Athletics had catcher Wally Schang, who finished 1914 with a .775 OPS a year after making a name for himself as the A's rookie catcher who hit .357 in the 1913 World Series. Schang would later become a catcher and utility player for the 1918 Red Sox, catching - among others - Babe Ruth.

The rotation, which had been built on the arms of Eddie Plank and Chief Bender for much of the dynasty, was beginning to shift toward younger arms like 21 year-old Bullet Joe Bush and 23 year-old righty Bob Shawkey.

The A's had won 98 games during the regular season and were huge favorites to beat the scrappy Braves. The belief was that Boston had accomplished a great deal to get to this point, but the A's were the most complete team in baseball and would shove these upstarts to the side in rout to a fourth title in five years.

Dick Rudolph | Library of Congress

The Braves traveled south to Philadelphia to open the series. Dick Rudolph got the start for the Braves while Mack countered with 30 year-old Chief Bender. Born Charles Albert Bender in Minnesota, Bender was born to a German-American father and a Ojibwe (Chippewa) mother. Bender was one of at least 11 children. The family settled in the White Earth Reservation of Minnesota before Bender was sent to a boarding school for American Indian children in Pennsylvania. It was there he learned baseball and was discovered by one of Mack's people. Mack would later say of Bender that despite managing the likes of Lefty Grove and Rube Waddell, there was no other pitcher he would rather give the ball to in a must-win game than Bender.

But on October 9, 1914, the Braves had Bender's number like they had the number of so many greats they faced during the season. After a scoreless first, the Possum Whitted led off with a walk. Whitted had settled into the cleanup spot and hit .321 over the final 14 games after joining the team following a late June trade with the Cardinals. With one out, Hank Gowdy doubled in Whitted to draw first blood. Rabbit Maranville followed with an RBI single and the Braves were out to a lead they would not surrender. Whitted added a two-run triple in the sixth as the Braves plated six runs off Bender in the latter's final appearance in the Fall Classic. The Braves rolled to a 6-1 win.

A day later, back at Shibe Park, a true classic was developing between Bill James and 38 year-old Eddie Plank. Born in Gettysburg ten years after the Civil War ended, Plank had failed to throw 200 innings for the first time in his career in 1914. Still, he maintained a 2.87 ERA and 2.17 FIP during the season. Like Bender, Plank had been around for the glory years of the Athletics under Mack. He would end his career with the most wins by a lefthander in baseball history until Warren Spahn passed him. In an era of big stolen base numbers, Plank rarely threw over to first base. A former player recalled Plank saying, "There are only so many pitches in this old arm, and I don't believe in wasting them throwing to first base."

With a lefty on the mound, Braves skipper George Stallings shifted his lineup. He benched Herbie Moran and Joe Connolly in favor of Les Mann and Ted Cather while keeping Whitted in center field. The Braves threatened Plank in the first with a single and a walk, but couldn't score. Meanwhile, in the bottom half, Bill James walked the first batter he faced. Unlike Plank, he didn't mind throwing over and picked off Eddie Murphy straying a little too far away from first. The A's wouldn't get another baserunner until the sixth.

Boston continued to threaten Plank throughout the game. The top of the seventh was the first time Plank got through an inning unscathed. He was always on the verge of disaster while James rolled through inning-after inning until the sixth, when Wally Schang broke up a no-hit bid with a double. Despite the contrast between utter dominance and just getting by, neither team could score against James and Plank.

In the top of the ninth, Charlie Deal doubled. Deal was a good glovesman at third base, but not much of a hitter as his .210 batting average during the year showed. He would only manage two hits during the 1914 series, but this one was a big one. With Plank unwilling to throw to second to keep him close, Deal stole third to put the go-ahead run on third base. Plank bore down and struck out James, who Stallings refused to pinch hit for. That brought up Les Mann with two outs. Whether or not the stolen base mattered is not readily known, but suffice it to say, it was easier for Mann to bring Deal in from third base than second base. Which Mann did as he singled to plate Deal and put Boston on top.

In the bottom of the 10th, James worked around two walks to finish the game on a Rabbit Maranville-to-Butch Schmidt double play. James had yielded just two hits and three walks while striking out eight. The statistician Bill James later developed "Game Score," as a way to determine the value of any one start by a pitcher. In Braves World Series history, James's 88 Game Score is tied with Warren Spahn's outing in Game 4 of the 1958 World Series as the best individual pitching performance for a Brave in the playoffs.

For Plank, he shared one more thing in common with his long-time teammate Bender. Plank's appearance in the 1914 World Series was the final postseason game of his career.

The World Series shifted to Boston for Game 3 after a travel day. The Braves continued to roll out their Big Three as Lefty Tyler took the bump. The A's countered with the youngster Bullet Joe Bush. In his second full season, had finished strong with a 2.15 ERA over his final 12 outings (eight starts). He had rose to fame in the previous year's World Series after shutting down the Giants to swing a 1-1 series in the favor of the A's.

Rather than play in the Braves' usual home of the South End Grounds, the series was shifted to Fenway Park to accommodate a bigger crowd. With over 35,000 on hand, it was the road team again jumping out to an early lead. An error on the defensively challenge Joe Connolly led to a run to give Philadelphia's its first lead of the Series. Hank Gowdy tied it up in the second with a double that scored Rabbit Maranville. Again, the A's took a one-run lead in the fourth and again, the Braves came roaring back with Maranville driving in a run. It remained 2-2 until the tenth. With Home Run Baker at the plate and the bases loaded, Tyler pitched carefully to the big hitter, but couldn't retire him. Baker singled passed Johnny Evers to score a pair of runs and for the third time, the A's had the lead.

In the bottom of the tenth, the Boston quickly got one of the runs back courtesy of a Hank Gowdy homerun. Herbie Moran walked with one out and advanced to third on an Evers single. That would become key as Connolly followed with a flyball to center that was deep enough to score the run and tie the game up again.

By Bain (Library of Congress) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Bill James, who had just thrown a shutout two days before, replaced Tyler on the mound after the latter had been pinch-hit for. Despite some control issues, James powered through the A's lineup to add two scoreless frames to his already impressive World Series stats. In the bottom of the 12th, it was that guy again as Hank Gowdy hit a ground-rule double. Les Mann would run for him and after an intentional walk, Moran stepped to the plate. Stallings called a bunt to try to get the runner to third and give Evers and Connolly, who would follow Moran, a chance to win it. Instead, Bush tried to nail Gowdy at third. The throw got away and Gowdy scampered home to score the walkoff run.

It was deflating for the A's. Three times, they had taken a lead on the Braves only to watch the never-say-die kids from Boston come back each time. A day later, the A's were looking for answers and a chance to extend the series. Stallings once again stuck to his Big Three with Dick Rudolph getting the ball. Mack countered with young Bob Shawkey. He stuck with his lineup, believing it would finally work.

After both pitchers traded goose-eggs for the first three innings, Butch Schmidt singled in Evers to put Boston on top. Shawkey took matters in his own hands and doubled in a run to tie it in the fifth, but Rudolph got him back in the bottom half. With two outs and Shawkey trying to finish off a quiet frame, Rudolph kept the inning alive with a single. The right-hander reached third on a Herbie Moran double. The next batters was Evers. Earlier in the season, he had been challenged to play better and the Braves captain came through then. He would also come through that Tuesday afternoon with a two-run single. Once again, the Braves were on top and saw the finish line.

The A's seemed powerless to stop Boston. Rudolph rolled through Eddie Collins and Home Run Baker in the sixth. In the seventh, Rudolph got himself into trouble with a walk and wild pitch, but was bailed out by - who else? - Gowdy. After Rudolph struck out Jack Barry, Gowdy threw down to second to nail the runner straying too far from the base. In the eighth, Rudolph efficiently recorded three outs for an easy inning. Collins and Baker, two of the best hitters in the game, got last shot at redemption in the ninth, but Collins stuck-out while Baker grounded out to Evers. Stuffy McInnis was the A's last hope. Hit smacked a grounder to third where Charlie Deal picked it and fired to first to win the game - and the World Series!

The Miracle Braves' season was finally complete. They had clawed their way from the bottom to the top of the mountain while taking down the Giants and A's in the process. There was a belief that the Boston Braves were on the cusp of a dynasty to rival the glory days of the late 1880's and 90's.

That, unfortunately, would never come to fruition.

(In the final part, I'll look at suspicions of a fix and why the Braves weren't able to keep up the momentum into 1915 and beyond.)

Seasons in Time: 1914

Part 1 - Prologue
Part 2 - The Road Trip that Wouldn't End
Part 3 - Finding Their Footing
Part 4 - Unfazed on the Biggest Stage
Part 5 - Epilogue

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Seasons in Time: 1914 (Part 3 of 5)

B. James | By Bain News Service [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

On the bright side, the team had shown some signs of snapping out of it. Eight of their eleven overall victories came in the final two weeks of the road trip. They also finally had their entire starting rotation as Otto Hess and Bill James, who both missed the beginning of the season, were back in the saddle with Lefty Tyler and Dick Rudolph. Further, after a month on the road, Boston's upcoming homestand would last thirty-one games and end on July 6. It was time for Boston to make some noise.

The Braves split a four-game set with the Reds to open the homestand before sweeping the Pirates in four games by a combined score of 23-10. Tyler, James, and Rudolph were each credited with wins during the series. After taking Sunday off, as the NL often did, Boston took three-of-four from the Cubs - including a doubleheader sweep behind Tyler and James. After splitting a four-game series with the Cardinals from June 18-22, Boston had matched their win total before the homestand began (11 wins) in 23 fewer contests.

Things were about to take a turn for the worse, though. A tough six-game series with the Giants featuring two doubleheaders stunned the Braves as they split the series. Philadelphia came into town next for a four-game set over two days - they won all but one against the Braves. Boston was run ragged after playing 10 games in eight days. After a well-deserved day off, a five-game set with Brooklyn loomed that included two doubleheaders with an off day in between. Boston would win just two of the five.

A promising start to the homestand ended with the Braves leaving Boston at 28-40. While the 17-14 homestand gave the team a bit of a lift, they had only climbed out of the NL cellar for one day during the home swing and were now a game-and-half further behind the league lead than when they arrived home in Boston a month before. At the top of the league was the New York Giants, who led the National League by the same amount of games Boston trailed 7th place by - four.

And then...the Braves finally hit rock bottom.

It was bad enough that they were twelve games under .500. All of the loses, both heartbreaking and blowouts, were tough on the players. What happened on July 7, though, was inexcusable. Lose to Christy Mathewson? You can handle that. Future Hall of Famer Rube Marquard rolls past you? These things happen. He's a major league pitcher and a good one.

But lose to the International League Buffalo Bisons in an exhibition game 10-2? That just cannot happen. As the players boarded the train for Chicago, their manager George Stallings lit into them. "You're not even Grade A sandlotters. I'm shamed of you all." The team held a player's only meeting in which young Rabbit Maranville challenged team captain Johnny Evers to play better with a question that had everyone else in the clubhouse asking themselves the same thing - "can you play better ball than you have been playing?"

The answer was the same for each player. They absolutely could and should be playing better.

The next day, they arrived in Chicago and Lefty Tyler pitched all eleven innings in a 7-4 win at the West Side Grounds. They would win two more games to take the four-game set before splitting four games in St. Louis. They would lose just once more to finish the road trip at 12-4. Returning home, the Braves lost 5-4 to the Cubs, but followed with nine straight wins - besting their previous best win streak by three.

The win streak pushed them over .500 for the first time in 1914. It also propelled them into fourth place. They would add two more victories during the homestand before hitting the road on August 13 with a 51-46 record, a grasp of third place, and a six game hole.

Up next was the New York Giants, who continued to pace the National League. They had taken over sole possession of first place on June 2 and as they welcomed the Boston Braves on the 13th of August, they were up by 6.5 games on second place. The Giants were under the tutelage of one of baseball's greatest minds - John McGraw. The previous season, they had won 101 games in rout to a third consecutive NL Title. However, like 1911 and 1912, the Giants had failed in the World Series. A year older, the '14 Giants were still among the elite teams in baseball. Christy Mathewson and Rube Marquard led a pitching staff that, despite the league's best offense, was finally showing signs of wear. Mathewson was 15 years into his magnificent career and two years later, he would be done. Marquard was younger, but struggling in his fourth full season. He would be dealt the next year and later was able to turn his career around in Brooklyn.

A year after leading the NL in ERA, the Giants dropped to sixth. Their offense, led by George Burns, remained excellent. The smart money was on the Giants regardless of how old they were getting, but the team simply could not score enough runs to make up for a surprisingly ineffective pitching staff for its time.

Gowdy | Public Domain via Wikipedia Commons

Over the three game set with the visiting team from Boston, the Giants went with Marquard and Mathewson in the bookend games with Jeff Tesreau taking the ball in the middle outing. The Braves countered with their Big Three - Dick Rudolph, Bill James, and Lefty Tyler. In the opener, the Braves jumped out a 4-0 lead by the sixth inning to roll 5-3. Les Mann had two hits, including his third homerun, while Ted Cather, went 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles. The next day, the Braves again got to the Giants pitching early and often. This time, it was Joe Connolly hitting a homerun. The outfielder would actually finish a triple short of the cycle as the Braves rolled 7-3. The finale was a pitcher's masterpiece. On one side, Tyler was excellent. He tossed ten scoreless innings while yielding just five hits and striking out seven. Mathewson was nearly as good, but after nine shutout innings, the Braves got to him in the tenth. Hank Gowdy tripled in a run and scored on a wild pitch to give Boston the edge they would need to sweep the Giants in New York.

Now just 3.5 games back, the Braves had every reason to believe that fate was on their side. Two days later, they swept the Reds in a doubleheader. After a loss stopped their mini win streak, they would win four of their next six games to end August 25 in a previously unthinkable position - tied for first place.

A week later, as they swept the Phillies in a double header, they took over sole possession of first place. They would hand it back to the Giants a day later, but on September 8, they beat New York 8-3 with James out-pitching Marquard to take over the lead for good. After winning the second game of a double header on September 9, Boston put on the afterburners and lost just five times the rest of the way. On September 30, Boston beat the Giants 7-1 to clinch the NL Title.

There were a lot of heroes who led the way after the humiliating exhibition loss on July 7 to a pennant win less than three months later. Bill James pitched 27 times with 24 starts after that exhibition loss. The team won all but two of those starts with James being credited with 19 wins to go along with a 1.55 ERA over 214.2 innings. Hitters batted just .215 with a .531 OPS during that time. Dick Rudolph was nearly as dominant with a 1.83 ERA over his final 23 games. The team lost just three of those games and hitters managed a measly .488 OPS against Baldy, which was Rudolph's nickname. The team wasn't as good in Lefty Tyler's games, though he had a 1.94 ERA during his final 162.1 innings.

At the plate, first baseman Butch Schmidt slashed .285/.354/.367 after the exhibition loss. Outfielder Joe Connolly, who one of the few stars who hit all season, upped his production for the stretch run with a .325/.413/.509 slash after the exhibition loss despite being benched often against left-handed pitchers. The double play combo of Johnny Evers and Rabbit Maranville remained steady throughout and the team found solid performances from Red Smith and Ted Cather. Smith had been bought from Brooklyn in mid-August while Cather had been acquired from the Cardinals for pitcher Hub Perdue at the end of June. With the performances from other pitchers in the mix, the Braves didn't need the veteran Perdue all that much anymore. Also acquired in that trade was Possum Whitted, who would OPS .703 over 66 games in a utility role before becoming a fixture of the lineup in the World Series.

In the middle of the miraculous comeback was Hank Gowdy. The 24 year-old former first baseman had spent nearly all of the previous year in the minors just to improve his game behind the plate. While his offensive numbers (.250/.361/.327) may not approach Connolly or Schmidt, Gowdy started 60 of the remaining 88 games and his manager, George Stallings, later referred to Gawdy as his choice for MVP of the 1914 Boston Braves.

With the season clinched, the Braves started to look to the future and a matchup with the Philadelphia Athletics. They would once again have to succeed when the cards were stacked against them as the A's were possibly the best team in baseball that season.

But Boston was kind of getting used to the idea of shocking the world.

Seasons in Time: 1914

Part 1 - Prologue
Part 2 - The Road Trip that Wouldn't End
Part 3 - Finding Their Footing
Part 4 - Unfazed on the Biggest Stage
Part 5 - Epilogue

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Seasons in Time: 1914 (Part 2 of 5)

(In this series, I will recap in a series of posts one season of Braves baseball from Boston-to-Atlanta and everything in between. If you have a particular season you'd like to see reviewed, let me know in the comments.)

Part 1 - Prologue

Part 2 - The Road Trip that Wouldn't End

You can't have a great comeback without something bad happening first. With that in mind, the 1914 Braves had a horrendous beginning to the season. With just two holdovers from the previous year's starting lineup, the team needed time to come together and that time did not come in April or May.

The season opened with a rain-soaked series in Brooklyn where the Braves only played twice - losing both games. They headed south to Philadelphia where they would drop a third game before finally pulling out a victory with a ninth-inning run to win 4-3. However, they would win just one more time in April. Fortunately, they only logged nine games during the month, but their 2-7 finish already put them in a six game hole behind the Pirates. They had plated just 21 runs - the worst in baseball.

Otto Hess By unknown author [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

May didn't get off to a much better start. The Giants whipped Dick Crutcher and the Braves 11-2 on the first day of May before Hub Perdue took his third loss against the Phillies the next day. Cutcher and Perdue were part of the supporting cast that was holding things together while Bill James and Otto Hess were out with injury. Braves manager George Stallings attempted to not ride his other two horses, Dick Rudolph and Lefty Tyler, too much which made Crutcher and Perdue even more important early on. Fortunately for Boston, the reinforcements were on their way. The May 2 loss charged to Purdue also saw James make his season debut in relief. He wouldn't stay in relief for long. Hess would be on his way back as well.

After a win on May 4, Boston went into a tale spin. It was the kind of thing that Boston fans had grown used to seeing from the squad. The Braves arrived in New York to battle the Giants - they lost all three, including a 2-0 letdown in which Christy Mathewson out-dueled Tyler. After a one-game set with the Pirates turned into a loss, Boston lost four consecutive in Cincinnati. They were now a miserable 3-16 on the year. All told, they dropped seven straight with one tie included. It would be their longest losing streak of the year.

Odd makers were putting the Braves' prospects of becoming champs as 1,000-to-1 and those odds were only increasing. All of the hope that the Braves had of building on 1913's strong season were evaporating and the road trip from Hell was a long way from ending. The Braves had hit the road on May 7. They would return to Boston nearly a month later. They did salvage something after ending their seven-game slide by going 8-10 over the rest of the trip. It was a modest improvement, but considering that the team won just 4-of-its-first-23 games, the Braves would take any sort of positives as they returned home to Boston on June 5.

On that day, they were 11-26 on the season and 12.5 games back. They were averaging just 2.8 runs per game and hitting .224 with a .283 OBP as a team. Their pitching staff had a good, but not great 3.58 ERA. However, they were finally getting all of their starters back. Otto Hess had returned on May 22 and gave them a competent fourth option. Hess, who was born in Switzerland, only pitched 14 games for the Braves in 1914. The Big Three of Rudolph, Tyler, and James would eventually take over nearly every start down the stretch. Regardless, Hess gained the admiration of his manager, who called him, "our old reliable Otto Hess."

The Braves made a rather interesting, though not well known move in the first two months of the 1914 season. In mid-April, the Boston Braves purchased Clarence Kraft from Brooklyn. Already 27 years-old, Kraft was known for his power in the minors and the Braves hoped he could give their lineup a boost. However, he never seemed to fit into the team Stallings wanted on the field and after three games, he was sent back to Brooklyn. The Superbas (later known as the Dodgers) tried to send Kraft back to the minors and he refused to report and sought the help of the Base Ball Player's Fraternity, one of the first player unions. Because of a new rule that the league adopted to appease players and keep them from jumping to the newly minted Federal League, players were supposed to be offered to all Double-A teams before a parent club tried to demote the player to a lower classified team. By that rule, instead of rejoining Nashville of the Southern Association, Kraft should have gone to Newark of the International League.

Maranville By Chicago Daily News
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

That conflict could have had lasting ramifications as the Fraternity threatened to strike. Had it happened, the 1914 Miracle Braves would have dealt with yet another obstacle. Ultimately, cooler heads prevailed and Charles Ebbets, the owner of Brooklyn, paid off Nashville to drop their claim and Kraft headed to Newark to finish the year. Kraft would play ten more years in the minors, but was never able to make it back to the bigs like he did for a three-game cameo with Boston in 1914.

While the pitching staff was rounding into form as their top pitchers returned, the offense's problems stemmed from poor play out of their best options. Rabbit Maranville was hitting just .193 with a .250 on-base percentage as they returned to Boston. For the first 37 games of the season, he had hit in one the top three spots in the lineup each day. In addition, starting center fielder Les Mann had played in all but one of the games and was slashing a putrid .164/.214/.264. Maranville and Mann were both in their second seasons after playing a key role in getting Boston turned toward the right direction the previous year. Now, both were playing pivotal roles in bringing the Braves down.

With the final four-plus months of the 1914 season looming, the Boston Braves were at a crossroads. How long could they continue to flounder before the season was completely lost? Fortunately, they were about to find their footing in a big way. All they needed was the most embarrassing loss of the 1914 season.

Seasons in Time: 1914

Part 1 - Prologue
Part 2 - The Road Trip that Wouldn't End
Part 3 - Finding Their Footing
Part 4 - Unfazed on the Biggest Stage
Part 5 - Epilogue

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Seasons in Time: 1914 (Part 1 of 5)

The Sporting News Collection, Public Domain

Prologue - The Seeds of a Title is Planted in 1913

If you are a Braves fan, certain years immediately pop out as big ones. 2005. 1995. 1991. 1974. 1966.

And if you are a fan of Braves franchise history, you start thinking beyond the recent history of the franchise in Atlanta and start thinking of the Milwaukee years - specifically 1957 and 1958 when the Braves split a pair of October Classics with the Mickey Mantle-led Yankees.

The Braves played in Milwaukee from 1953 until 1965. Before that, they can be traced back to 1876 in the city of Boston. They were known as the Bees, the Rustlers, the Doves, the Beaneaters, and the Red Stockings, but the name that stuck the most was the Braves. They adopted it for the first time in 1912 and outside of a five-year run as the Bees in the late 30's, they remained the Boston Braves until their move to the midwest. They lost over 500 more games under the moniker than they won, but also did something in 1914 that is still one of the biggest accomplishments in baseball history - they won it all.

The franchise had won two pennants as the Red Stockings and six as the Beaneaters during a dominant stretch of baseball in the 1880's & 90's, but once the National League and American League joined to give us the first World Series in 1903, the Braves had been shut out. They had finished with 100 loses in six of eight years before 1913 and gave up a mind-boggling 1021 runs in 1911 despite the deadball era, which stifled offenses. The Cardinals gave up the second-most runs that year - 745.

Things started to change for the better in 1913. The Braves named George Stallings as their new manager. He had previously helmed the Phillies, the Tigers, and the New York Highlanders (Yankees) before being unceremoniously relieved from his job after the team's star convinced ownership to fire Stallings. The Highlanders were 19 games over .500 at the time.

After two years managing in the minors, James Gaffney, the owner of Boston, brought in Stallings. "I have never seen any club in the big leagues look quite so bad," Stallings later remarked. Luckily for the Braves, Stallings was about to change the culture in a big way.

He wasn't alone - Boston was finally starting to get some players. 1913 was the first full season of future Hall of Famer Rabbit Maranville's career. One of the game's slickest shortstops, Maranville was a web gem generator long before the phrase was coined. Also a rookie on the 1913 squad was center fielder Les Mann. A former three-sport star in high school, Mann had been signed the year before after leaving school early. After one season of minor league ball, Mann, who had been a football captain for Training College the previous fall, jumped to the bigs to solidify center field. He wasn't much of a hitter, but was a lifesaver in center field with his speed.

Stallings used a pair of catchers in 1913, but the team had another backstop in the minors in Hank Gowdy who they were high on. The Braves had acquired him from the Giants in 1911, but he couldn't find the field even after he switched from first base-to-catcher. Stallings liked him, but felt the 23 year-old needed to refine his receiving skills and a year in the minors could do him wonders.

Also new to the Braves in 1913 was corner outfielder Joe Connolly. For much of his professional career, Connolly had been a pitcher, but he was considered too small (5'7") and by 1910, he was suffering arm troubles. He kept his dream alive to play in the majors by moving to the outfield full time and while he was defensively challenged, Connolly was a big-time hitter. Playing for Montreal in the International League, Connolly hit .316 with a .434 slugging percentage in 1912. That season led to Connolly finally getting his break - Washington drafted him. After failing to secure a spot on the Senators' roster, the Braves purchased Connolly just as the 1913 season was beginning. The now-29-year-old became an immediate force for the Braves, hitting .281/.379/.410 for Stallings' first team.

Just two years removed from one of the worst pitching staffs during the deadball era, the Braves were beginning to also put together a competent pitching force on the mound. Lefty Tyler (2.89 FIP), Dick Rudolph (2.62 FIP), and Bill James (3.28 FIP) were all 25-and-under in 1913 with James a fresh-faced 21-year old rookie.

The 1913 Boston Braves finished 69-82 and 31.5 games out. While that's bad, the 69 wins were the most since 1902. They were much younger in 1913 than they had been in the previous two years and went through 46 players to find the right mix of talent heading into 1914.

Evers | George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress

Before that magical season, first came a winter that saw the Braves find a leader. They sold off starting first baseman Hap Myers and in February of 1914, Boston acquired Johnny Evers from the Chicago Cubs. Evers had been immortalized in the Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance poem along with being one of the smartest players of his era. In his final season with the Cubs, the then-31-year-old hit .285/.361/.372 and guided the Cubs to an 88-65 season as a player/manager.

However, because the Cubs had not improved on their third-place finish, Cubs owner Charles W. Murphy removed Evers from the managerial role and initially tried to spin it as Evers resigning from the position. The respected player denied the charge and public opinion, and the other owners, were on Evers' side. The PR disaster continued to blow up as Murphy tried to deal Evers to the Braves for a pair of players and cash, but Evers said he would not report and with the brand new Federal League offering $30K for Evers to jump, the concern was that the National League was about to lose another of its stars. Finally, the rest of the league stepped in and awarded Evers his release. He negotiated a move to Boston which made him the highest-paid player in baseball. Stallings quickly appointed Evers the new team captain.

As 1914 loomed, the Boston Braves were taking shape. They had Rudolph, James, and Tyler in the rotation. They lacked a fourth starter, but made due with a number of options. Gowdy came up from the minors to take over as catcher while Butch Schmidt, who the Braves had purchased from the International League the previous August, became the everyday first baseman. Connolly and Mann brought stability to the outfield while the Braves searched - and failed - to find everyday options at third base and in right field.

Nevertheless, a team that had been effectively built in two years began 1914 with reserved aspirations, but the knowledge that they were on the rise. How quickly would they be contenders?

Turns out - quicker than anyone imagined.

(Next time, I'll look at how the 1914 Boston Braves began the season.)

Seasons in Time: 1914

Part 1 - Prologue
Part 2 - The Road Trip that Wouldn't End
Part 3 - Finding Their Footing
Part 4 - Unfazed on the Biggest Stage
Part 5 - Epilogue

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