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Already up two games to one in the 1913 World Series, Athletics ace Chief Bender gets ready to deliver to New York Giants pinch-hitter Doc Crandall as he precariously holds to a 6-5 lead in the top of the ninth inning of a pivotal Game Four.
Led by catcher Wally Schang’s two two-run singles, the A’s had jumped to a 6-0 lead by the 5th inning and with steady Bender on the mound looked to be on their way to an easy Game Four win and a commanding three games to one series lead. But John McGraw’s feisty Giants had other ideas beginning with first baseman Fred Merkle whose three-run homer in the seventh inning help cut the lead in half (6-3) scoring George Burns and Red Murray.
In the eighth inning the Giants continued to rally and the rookie Burns was right in the thick of it once again! The speedy outfielder, who stole 40 bases in his first season (and caught stealing 35 times to lead the league), doubled down the left field line to score Buck Herzog, who had reached on a single to lead off the frame. Up next was the Giants center fielder Tillie Shafer and he responded with a clutch two-out triple to deep right scoring Burns and now closing the A’s once insurmountable lead to just a single run.
But Bender buckled down with the score 6-5 and the tying run now on third and with the winning run up at bat in Murray, who up to this point had been a thorn in the Chief’s side hitting .600 against him in the series. But this time Murray would go down in ease grounding out to second base ending the threat.
Athletics ace Chief Bender, winner of Game Four, 1913 World Series
In the ninth inning the Giants hoped to keep the pressure on Bender and continue the same magic the previous two frames produce in their impressive comeback, but the Chief regain the upper hand and set down the Giants in a one-two-three inning, including Crandall grounding out to second base for the first out, and moving Connie Mack’s A’s a win away from their third World Series title in the past four years.
After the game some of the New York press questioned McGraw’s wisdom in starting a gimpy Fred Snodgrass in center field that might have costed the Giants the lead when he couldn’t catch up with a weak fly ball hit by the A’s Stuffy Mcinnis.
McInnis would come around to score the first run of the game prompting the Brooklyn Daily Eagle to write:
“To our mind, McGraw made an almost inexcusable blunder in sending Fred Snodgrass, the victim of a Charley horse to center for the first two innings. Snodgrass was lame, and the outfield was soft and soggy. It would have been better to have kept him on the bench, when he might have been used as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning The game should have been started with Shafer in center and Herzog at third, which arrangement was put into effect went to the field for the third inning.”
Proving second guessing from the press is no different today than it was over a hundred years ago.
An interesting side note to the 24-year-old Shafer’s eighth inning triple – it would be his last hit in the Major Leagues. In the off-season he would retire from the game for good. Being from an affluent background (his family had money, lots of it) and not drinking, smoking and chasing dames, the shy and dapper lad was an easy target of razing and insults from the not so clean cut players of that era. He would return to California and tend to the family business and become an accomplished amateur gold player winning multiple titles well into the 1930’s.
As for the series, the following day the Athletics, behind the stellar pitching of southpaw Eddie Plank and the hitting of Home Run Baker (two runs batted in), would defeat the Giants at the Polo Grounds and take Game Five by a 3-1 score and securing another title for Mack’s dynasty. Plank would limit the Giants to just two hits and walking just one to finish the series with a 0.95 ERA, the Giants struggled with a .201 batting average against A’s arms.
-Ron A. Bolton
