“The game isn’t over until that man touches second base! Why don’t you wait until the game is over, you big fathead!” –Cubs’ second baseman Johnny Evers screaming at umpire Hank O’Day in September, 1908.

Today, I’ll continue with Part Two of my three-part series on the tragedy of Fred Merkle with a look at the “Gill Game.”

You’d probably guess the above quote was from the infamous Merkle game, right? The game between the Cubs and Giants played on September 23, 1908 at the Polo Grounds in which Fred Merkle failed to touch second base after Al Bridwell drove in the apparent winning run.

Well…You’d be wrong!

It was actually from a game played a couple of weeks earlier in Pittsburgh between the Cubs and Pirates, in a much lesser-known game that came to be known as the “Warren Gill” Game.

Fred Merkle on the 1916 Robins

In Part One of my series on Fred Merkle, I presented an overview of the game played at the Polo Grounds that ended with the infamous “Bonehead Merkle” play. I gave reasons why I thought Merkle had been unjustly branded as the scapegoat.

Here’s a description of the game that set the tragic chain of events into motion:

The Warren Gill Game

On September 4th, 1908 – a couple of weeks before the Merkle game – the Cubs were in Pittsburgh to play the Pirates. At the time, the Cubs were in third place, one-half game behind the Pirates, and two behind the Giants. The 1908 pennant race was heating up. The game turned into a scoreless extra-inning pitching duel between two future Hall-of-Famers: Mordecai Brown for the Cubs and the Pirates’ Vic Willis.

(In the featured photo above, we see Fred Merkle wearing the haunted facial expression that was always apparent in photos throughout the remainder of his career. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo of him smiling until he retired from the game).

With one out in the bottom of the tenth, Brown plunked the Pirates’ 29-year old rookie Warren Gill in the ribs to load the bases. Gill was a week into what would become a one-month major league career. After Ed Abbaticchio struck out, Chief Wilson hit a soft liner over Johnny Evers head at second and Fred Clarke scored the apparent winning run.

But the always-alert Evers kept his eye on Gill, who, like many players at the time, stopped running once he realized Clarke was going to score. Rather than jogging all the way to second and touch the base, Gill make a u-turn for the clubhouse to avoid the fans now pouring onto the field to celebrate. This quick exit by Gill to avoid the fans was not considered unusual or controversial.

Sounds familiar so far, doesn’t it?

Well, read on, as the story gets even stranger. Here’s an account of what happened next, from author Dennis Snelling’s, “Johnny Evers: A Baseball Life”:

“Realizing that a force play remained in effect, Evers stood near second base and shouted for centerfielder Jimmy Slagle to throw him the ball. Umpire Hank O’Day, after dutifully watching Clarke cross home plate, turned to the exit the field. Once Evers received the ball from Slagle, he stomped his foot on the bag and screamed at O’Day that he had recorded a force out.

O’Day acted as if he did not hear, so Evers ran over to him. With his jaw twisted one way, his mouth another and his eyes squinting in the late afternoon sun, Evers repeatedly thrust the ball at O’Day while pressing his case that because Gill had not touched second, he had recorded the third out on a force. O’Day simply responded, ‘Cut it out Johnny, the game is over.’”

The Cubs Protest the Game

The game was protested by Cubs’ owner Charles Murphy to National League president Henry Pulliam. Murphy had been an advocate of a two-umpire system and he realized this incident afforded him a chance to strongly make his case. The appeal was denied by Pulliam because, he said, O’Day had not witnessed Gill’s failure to touch second base – and not because it was unnecessary for Gill to do so. This was a significant distinction.

Even though the appeal was denied, Johnny Evers also felt he had made an important point. He now had the attention of the National League president, umpire Hank O’Day, and his Cub teammates. As fate would have it, a couple of weeks later the same participants found themselves aligned once again in a situation eerily similar. But this time the game had even greater importance, with direct ramifications on the ever-tightening 1908 pennant race.

Warren Gill played only 27 games in the major leagues, but his failure to touch second base set off a chain reaction with tragic consequences for a 19-year old rookie named Fred Merkle. Gill was about to become an important footnote to one of the most famous moments in baseball history…as we will see in Part Three of the Tragedy of Fred Merkle.

Gary Livacari