Week 2 - Travel Back in time 97 years & follow the 1914 Boston Braves
65Braves in Last Place, But Show Spark
The Boston Braves wrapped up a good week today with a 3 to 2 win over the Chicago Cubs. Hippo Vaughn took the loss. The long 6’4” leftie has been outstanding for Chi-Town so far this season with 4 wins and just one defeat.
The winning hurler, picking up his first ’Plus’ of the season, was Lefty Tyler. The portsider’s ‘crossover’ pitching style had the Cubs off balance all day.
The Tribe took 3 out of 4 from the Cubs between Thursday and Sunday.
People are beginning to notice that there is something unusual about this 1914 Braves team. Although they are in the cellar, 13 games behind the league leading Pirates, these guys have an ’attitude’ unlike any other club. Of course, the big men on the club have swagger. When batters stare at the huge pitcher ‘Seattle’ Bill James - fans say the ‘knee knock’ of the hitter is often louder than his bat sound when he hit’s the ball. ‘Seattle’ Bill is 6’3” high. When he came to Boston last year as a rookie, the scribes gave him the nickname of ‘Seattle Bill James’ so that he could be told apart from ‘Big Bill James’, who pitches for the St. Louis Browns in the American league. “Big Bill, at six four, is one inch taller than Seattle Bill…but they both weigh North of 200 pounds!
Well anyway, you would expect ‘attitude’ from ‘Seattle Bill’ but who knew that the smallest man in baseball would have it? I am speaking of the “Crab”, Johnny Evers. The grizzled, 32 year old veteran, came to the Boston Braves this season after being fired as player/manager of the Cubs last year. He signed with Boston for the whopping sum of $11,000.
Fans in Beantown know how good Evers is from watching him ‘tripled’ with Frank Chance and Joe Tinker in the greatest double play combo in the history of hardball.
Everybody remembers that poem that a Metropolitan scribe wrote four years ago, about the ‘Triplet’ of Double Play guys….
“These are the saddest of possible words (for a New York giants fan):
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double –
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance”
In case you are not up on your diamond jargon…what it all means is this. Bear Cubs is Chicago Cubs - the World Champs. Tinker was the shortstop, Evers the 2nd base and Chance held down the 1st base. The ‘double’ means making a Giant player hit into a double play. The Gonfalon is the National League Pennant which the Cubs won four times between 1906 and 1912.
Zeider - picked on for his 'Nose'.
Evers - Picked on for his 'Lantern Jaw'
The $11,000 Man is a Scrapper
The 5’9” Evers, who weighed just 95 pounds when he broke in with the Cubs, tips the scales right now at only 125 pounds, but he will fight anybody at any time. He has got in more scrapes than a “Gem” razor blade.
We used to think they called him “The Crab” because of the way he scuttled around the infield, picking up everything that was anywhere near him. Now it seems he’s earned the nickname for his propensity to get in battles. In a recent contest with his old team, the Cubs, he got into a fight with Rolly Zeider, Chicago’s third baser.
Evers was at bat with a three and two count and complained loudly when the umpire called the next pitch a strike. After some comments about the eyesight of the umpire and questions about his paternity the ump booted Evers out of the game. Walking with his bat in hand, he passed by Zeider and asked Zeider to toss him his glove which was near the third base bag. “Get it yourself 'Lantern Jaw', who do you think is going to wait on you?”, said Zeider.
Without a word, Johnny walked up to Zeider and decided to pick on Zeider's large nose. He put his bat next to Zeider’s nose. With his fingers, he measured off on it the length of Zeider’s nose and held up the bat and showed it around the stadium.
Zeider then walked over to Evers and with his hands, measured the length of Evers’ jaw and held them up to show the crowd its abnormal length.
Johnny struck next, grabbing Zeider by the nose and dragging him around the park. Zeider fired back by reaching out and glomming onto Johnny’s chin. For more than a minute there was a nose and chin pulling battle all over the infield. The umpires finally threw out both players.
Getting back to the week’s play,
The Bostons faced Honus Wagner’s Pirates starting on Monday. They won the first game 4 to 1 before dropping Tuesday’s game 7-5.
On Wednesday, Pittsburgh grabbed a 4-1 win on the strength of 3 hits by Honus Wagner. The great shortstop had been hitting only .220 coming into the series but was able to raise his average by almost two dozen points after feasting on Boston pitching. Wagner will turn 41 this year and it may be his last season. The ‘Flying Dutchman’ has won eight batting titles and is regarded as the greatest player in the history of baseball. He reportedly is making a hefty $10,000 per year.
The Pirates are still in first place with a record of 20 and 8. The New York Giants are in second place with 16 wins.
In the American league, Detroit with Ty Cobb is in first place, Washington is second and the Philadelphia Athletics are in third place.
The Boston Braves shortstop, Rabbit Maranville, will probably never be regarded as a great player, since his average is usually in the low 200s - but everybody who watches him is amazed at his speed and fielding ability.
Off the field, the Rabbit is also colorful and sometimes it gets him into trouble.
On a recent road trip, Maranville was reportedly trying to bolster team morale by running through the Pullman Car in the middle of the night pouring water on sleeping players heads. Maranville supposedly said that he was trying to ‘wake up the team’ up after their horrible start of just 3 wins and 16 losses. After going four and three this week, the record of 7 and 19 looks a little better.
More news of this year's Boston Braves team, in this space next week.
If you missed them , here's the links to earlier weeks in this series
http://hubpages.com/hub/Travel-Back-in-Time-97-Years-Follow-the-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
