Week One: Travel Back in Time 97 Years & Follow the Boston Braves

The Boston Braves lost all seven games they played this week and have now fallen ten and one half games back of the National League leaders, the New York Giants. The disappointing South Enders have just three wins in the first 19 encounters of the 1914 season.

Even worse than losing one game for every single day in the week, the team has been shut out in four of the contests, including a 1-0 whitewashing yesterday (Saturday, May 16) by Cincinnati.

The week started out in New York with three losses to the Giants. The Hub team left Pennsylvania Station after Monday’s 8-6 loss and then spent 18 hours on the train in the Pullman car before arriving at Union Station in Cincinnati to play the Reds on Wednesday. They lost that game 1-0. Then they lost 6-0 on Thursday, 4 to 2 on Friday and ended the week with another 1-0 loss on Saturday.

“Our team is pitching well,” said manager George Stallings, “We have three top notch throwers in Dick Rudolph, Bill James, and Lefty Tyler. Between ‘em Rudolph and Tyler won 30 games last year and you can tell your readers of the Boston Post, the Transcript, the Globe and all those other newspapers…we are going to win more games this year than we did last year.”

Last season the club went 69 and 82 and was 7th of 8, in attendance, drawing just 208,000 fans.

Because Sunday baseball is rare, the team will have a day off today to regroup before they face the Pirates Monday in Pittsburg. They’ll play three there before hitting Chicago on Thursday to play four tilts against the Cubs. The Braves are in the midst of a 26 game road trip in which they will face all seven of their National League rivals. The club will not return to Boston until June 5^th when they start a 30 game homestand that will bring them up to July 6^th.

Although they have only been drawing 2,000 fans per game into the South End Grounds, Stallings promises that the boys will play better at home and that the fans will start turning out when they see the incredible play of the 22 year old shortstop Rabbit Maranville.

Stallings, who manages games with a suit and bowtie just like Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics, says that “Rabbit is an amazing player. You guys didn’t get to see it cause it was a road game last year, but in one of those shutouts the bases were loaded in a scoreless tie. Rabbit comes up to the plate. I calls time out and I goes over to Rabbit and I says, ‘Kid you just get on base any way possible’. The Rabbit looks at two strikes then he takes a Babe Adams fastball squarely in the forehead, forcing in what became the winning run.”

The Braves picked up the great Johnny Evers in the offseason and they gave him a huge $11,000 contract - it’s more than twice what anybody else is making…but this year Ever’s bat is slow and he’s not producing many runs. Some observers are speculating that time may have caught up with the slick 5' 9 ", 125 pound, second sacker. He will turn 33 this year.

From one to nine, the bats are very quet and George Stallings knows as well as anybody that pitching is important, but if you don’t score runs you can’t win.

The Braves won eight championships between 1876 and 1900...but they have won none since 1898.

The upstart crosstown rivals - the Boston Red Sox - didn’t start playing until 13 years ago, in 1901, and yet they have won championships in 1903, 1904 and 1912. Their new field, Fenway Park is the most modern in baseball and last year they drew almost 500,000 fans - they were first in the American League in attendance.

Manager Stallings for his part, has announced a revolutionary new plan to get back on the winning track. He intends to swap batters on a regular basis. He said that when a righty pitcher is on the hill, he’s going to use a lefty batter against him. And when a lefty pitcher is on the mound, he will put up righties against him. This platoon tactic will change the nine man concept of baseball and if it works, will revolutionize the grand ol’ game.

Stallings also told this reporter that he is going to use the 'sacrifice' to manufacture runs. He’s going to get a man on first, any way he can and then bunt or sacrifice or whatever he has to do to get the runner to home plate. He guarantees that his club will start scoring more runs on the upcoming homestand.

More news from Baseball’s National League in this publication next week.

This is the first in a series of articles on the most remarkable season in the 150 year history of major league baseball. Subsequent entries are labelled, 'Week Two', 'Week Three' etc.

I will take you back to 1914. I will put you on the field...In the clubhouse and even on the train for the 28 hour trips from one end of the circuit to the other. You will meet the players, the managers and the umps. I'm not quite old enough to have been there, but my research tapped the memories of some who were there as well as their sons, daughters and other assorted friends and relations.

Here's a few links to some of the next chapters:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Week-2-Travel-Back-in-time-97-years-follow-the-1914-Boston-Braves

http://hubpages.com/hub/Week-3-Boston-Braves-Still-in-Cellar-Evers-Still-Fighting-Everybody

http://hubpages.com/hub/Week-Four-Travel-Back-in-Time-97-Years-with-the-Boston-Braves