Wind, Homers, and a Stolen Home: A Wild Day for St. Louis Baseball
The Cubs outslug the Cardinals in a wind-blown 10–9 thriller featuring four Chicago home runs, while George Sisler steals home and the Browns capitalize on a costly Detroit error. Ty Cobb adds drama by suspending pitcher Kenneth Holloway.
Coverage from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat - Wednesday Morning, June 2, 1926
In This Edition
- Four Home Runs Enable Cubs to Again Defeat Cardinals, 10 to 9
- Browns, Aided by Tavener's Fumble, Gain Victory Over Detroit, 9-7
- Cobb Sends Holloway Home Under Suspension
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Four Home Runs Enable Cubs to Again Defeat Cardinals, 10 to 9
Hartnett Makes Circuit Wallop with Three Men On for Decisive Punch
Heathcote Also Does Much Damage by Putting Ball in Bleachers Twice—Bottomley Delivers for St. Louis.
Special Dispatch to the Globe-Democrat.
CHICAGO, ILL., June 1.—One of those brisk winds that seemed to come direct from the plains of Kansas blew the ball out of the North Side park five times today while the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals were engaged in the fourth game of their present series. Four times it was blown out while the Cubs were at bat and only once while the Cards were hitting, all of which aided materially in bringing a victory for Chicago. The count was 10 to 9.
In other words it was a combat of home runs which naturally leads one to think it was a big day for a couple of well-known four-base knockers, Mr. Rogers Hornsby and Mr. Hack Wilson. Strange as it may seem, neither one of these outstanding sluggers landed one. Cliff Heathcote reaped the honors with two drives into the right bleachers. Gabby Hartnett, however, glorified himself by socking one into the left-center bleachers with the bases filled. The other big blow for the Cubs was struck by Mandy Brooks, and it was Jim Bottomley, who poled the one for St. Louis, turning the trick in the first round with one mate on.
The mound in the middle of the diamond was no place, on this occasion, for a pitcher who is nervous about his reputation. Care-free men without nerves were needed there. Tony Kaufmann was sent to the rubber to start. Apparently Boss Joe McCarthy didn't think about the gale blowing toward the bleachers and the effect it would have on a curve artist with temperament. Tony was removed from the battlefield after the first inning, when it seemed he might burst forth any moment and curse nature for inventing wind.
Piercy Saves Chicago.
Bill Piercy was summoned for duty. Bill is a debonair lad, who never troubles trouble and trouble never troubles him. He was just the man for the job. He stepped out there and hurled the ball at the St. Louis sluggers with carefree abandon. They made a lot of hits and scored a lot of runs and sometimes were in front, sometimes behind and sometimes tied, but Mr. Piercy just smiled through it all, while his mates were out socking the ball up into the air and letting the old Kansas breeze do its stuff.
Bill Sherdel, the veteran and cunning southpaw of the Cards' staff, was on the mound at the start. He usually is deliberate, calm and dispassionate in his work, but this job was too tough for him. He's so clever he can make a batter pop up into the air almost any time, but with that gale from the Southwest whisking over the roof of the stand, a pop-up was most liable to turn into a home-run drive, and in the fourth inning, after Heathcote made his second homer, Mr. Sherdel was removed from the scene, showing signs of going into a tantrum.
Sothoron Relieves Sherdel.
Alan Sothoron, the Beau Brummel of the big leagues, was called from the pen to stop the rioting with his moist ball and he struggled along until he gave way to a pinch hitter in the eighth, after which Jesse Haines finished.
The 5000 fans assembled were kept excited because it was a see-saw contest. The Cards hopped off with three runs in the first and the Cubs got one and then another in the second. St. Louis tallied in the third, which made the score 4 to 2, and then in the same round, Hartnett poled his homer with the bases filled and the Cubs led, 6 to 4. Each side scored in the fourth and it was 7 to 5, then in the sixth the Cards went to the front with a three-run rally, only to have the Cubs take the lead by one when they scored two. St. Louis tied it in the first of the seventh and in the last half the Cubs produced the winning run.
Browns, Aided by Tavener’s Fumble, Gain Victory Over Detroit, 9-7
Tiger Shortstop Lets Chance for Third Out Slip and 2 Runs Score
Sisler Steals Home Cleanly to Tie Up Game and Gerber’s Single Drives Across Tallies that Prove Decisive.
By MARTIN J. HALEY.
Another wretched game at Sportsmans Park yesterday, but unlike Monday, there were fewer sufferers in the stands. The stands were well-nigh deserted. If a fellow were a liberal-hearted estimator, he'd place the “gate” at one grand and a century, and if those 1100 hardened souls had been the least bit appreciative, they would have rained applause upon Detroit’s shortstop, “Tiny” Tavener, when the two hours and ten minutes of agony were at an end.
It was through Tavener that the Browns were ahead, 9 to 7, at the finish. Through, is a most appropriate word. The ground ball which should have been the third out for the Browns in the seventh inning went right on through Tavener and placed two men in position to score the final two runs of the day on Wally Gerber’s single to right field.
Sisler Steals Home.
Just prior to that decisive boot by the Detroit short fielder, Manager George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns uncovered for those baseball starved 1100 one of the few choice morsels of the day. Sisler had reached third base on his own single, one by Ken Williams and a double play. Detroit was ahead, 7 to 6. Marty McManus was at the plate. Rip Collins was on the Detroit mound. He took a windup and Sisler streaked for the plate. Collins’ pitch was high inside, and Sisler’s slide was low outside. There was no doubt about the play. It was as clean a steal of home as ever was perpetrated on an unsuspecting pitcher. It was then that McManus singled, Tavener booted and Gerber singled to decide the loose issue.
That’s how the Browns had to play and the help they were forced to take to win an amateurish tussle in which they held a lead of 6 to 2 as late as the fifth inning. The box score shows fourteen hits for the Browns, but do not be misled. There were so many pop fly hits and scratch infield taps in the collection that the total of fourteen carries no significance, except that the Browns were extremely lucky.
On the other hand, Detroit needed only seven hits to aggregate seven runs. The Tigers’ scoring equaled their hit-making because St. Louis pitching was about as loose jointed as pitching can be without being dislocated.
There was Charley Robertson, for example. He started for the Browns and was taken out in the second inning after he walked three straight men following a single by Harry Heilmann. The third pass forced over Detroit’s first run and caused Sisler to bring in Chester Falk, who got $4500 a year ago last winter for signing a rather healthy contract.
Falk Forced to Retire.
With Falk’s advent there was no further damage in the second inning, thanks to reckless base running by Detroit and more thanks to Harry Rice’s strong right arm. Neither was there any scoring against Falk in the next three rounds, but in the sixth. Well, to make a long story take up as little space as possible, Detroit scored four times in the sixth on four hits and a pass, and Falk didn’t come out for the seventh.
Earl "Eelum" Vangilder was in there in the seventh and when Bob Fothergill hit the first ball “Eelum” pitched for the game’s only home run, “Eelum” looked all set for a bad stay, but that home run was a bum prognosticator, for there wasn’t another hit off “Eelum” in those last three innings, so “Eelum” is more entitled to the victory than any of the seven pitchers on the lot, or throwers, if you prefer.
Manager Ty Cobb, who benched himself in favor of “Phat” Fothergill, sent four flingers against Sisler’s three. Cobb opened with the St. Louis home-bred southpaw, Gus Johns, and after the Tigers fielded foolishly behind Johns’ delivery for four innings, Cobb nominated Sam Gibson, Collins and George Smith, all right handers, but not bragging about it.
The difference between the two sets of hurlers, the Brownie trio and the Detroit quartet, is simple of explanation. The Brownie hurlers, at least the first two, made their team look bad because they weren’t good. As for the Detroit hurlers, they looked terrible because their team was atrocious.
Here’s an example of what we mean. First Inning: Rice singled to center. He continued on to third when Fothergill let the ball hop past him. Then Southpaw Johns retired Frankie Melillo on strikes, Sisler on a grounder to Neun and Williams on strikes, but the Browns scored a run, nevertheless. Rice went across on Sisler’s ground out.
Rice’s Throw Gets Tavener.
All right, the Browns are leading, 1 to 0. They enter round 2. Here’s where the Browns looked bad, on account of their pitcher. Heilmann singles. Johnnie Warner, Tavener and Lu Blue draw a pass apiece, Heilmann being forced home. With Falk on duty, Johns grounded out to Melillo, Warner scoring. Then Neun lined to Rice. Now Rice has one of the strongest arms in the game, and he caught that ball in shallow right field, but Tavener tried for home, despite the odds against him. He was caught with both dogs so flat he didn’t have a chance to slide.
Can you picture that kind of baseball?
In their second, the Browns also scored twice. Buster Hargrave popped a single to right and stole second, aided by Marty McManus’s bad throw. Pinky scored when Heinie Manush gave the fans a laugh trying for a shoestring catch on McManus’ left-field drive, which was scored a double. Later in the round McManus scored when Falk got a scratch hit to Tavener near second.
The score now was 6 to 2, but Detroit tied it in the sixth on singles by Heilmann and Warner, a pass to Charlie Manion, pinch batter Eddie O'Rourke’s double and Neun’s single. The score remained at 6 all until Fothergill homered into the bleachers in Detroit’s seventh, after which the Browns won out in their half of the same stanza.
Chicago’s snow footgear are here today and tomorrow for single games.
Cobb Sends Holloway Home Under Suspension
Ty Cobb, manager of the Detroit Tigers, yesterday sent Kenneth Holloway, right-hand pitcher, home under suspension and ordered him not to report back to the club until he was in condition to pitch.
Cobb took this action as a result of Holloway's inferior showing against the St. Louis Browns in the second game Monday. The Tigers had given Holloway a 5-to-0 lead in their first two innings, but the Browns scored nine runs off Holloway in the second and third.
The only game in which Holloway has pitched creditably this year, according to Detroit newspaper men, was the one in which he defeated the Browns, 2 to 1, in Detroit a week ago last Sunday.
Manager Cobb has not plastered a fine on Holloway, but the pitcher must pay his own expenses getting into condition and his pay ceases while he is away from the club.
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