Take Nothing for Granted - Obscure Ball

Sorry about missing an episode in the middle of a series!

Check out Obscure Ball: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/obscureball/id1472304111

Additional Health Resources:
https://abortion.cafe/ - this is a collection of abortion resources
shoutyourabortion.com - this is a campaign to normalize abortion
https://donations4abortion.com/ - donate to support abortion funds by state
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/supportabortionfunds - donate to the national network of abortion funds (donations split between 80+ abortion funds)
https://usow.org/repro/volunteer/ - this is a list of abortion clinics across the country that need volunteers
https://dontbanequality.com/ - this is language for companies to use to stand against the ruling
plancpills.org/ambassadors - here are early abortion access pills you can store in your cabinet
https://prochoice.org/ - this is an abortion access hotline
https://natalist.com/products/early-pregnancy-test-strips - buy early pregnancy test strips
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/birth-control - get info on types of birth control
https://choice.crd.co/ - this is a collection of these above links and more. Managed by @starplanes - DM them on twitter to add more
https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/abortion-policy-absence-roe - abortion policy by state as of June 1, 2022
More in-depth version: https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hey, everybody. If you regularlylisten to this show, then you'll probably
notice that the introduction is missing,at least the introduction that you're used to.
On Tuesday, I tested positive forCOVID, and I have felt like
human garbage until basically today, whichis Sunday. So the evenings that I

(00:22):
normally would have stayed up late researchingand writing for the show, I was
trying to go to bed early,hydrate, get back on track as soon
as possible so that I could geton with the rest of my life.
And I'm on the end, butstill not sounding or feeling quite one hundred
percent. So I have super apologized. There's no actual episode of Obscure History

(00:46):
this week, but stick around.After just a brief announcement here, we'll
get to an episode of Obscure Ball, which is exactly the kind of show
that you're going to want to listento. Obscure History basically only focusing on
sports. The presentation is lovely,the writing is well done, and I

(01:06):
think that if you stick around,you're going to really enjoy what you hear.
But before we get to that,we need to have an actual,
real conversation real quick. If you'renot interested in what I have to say,
then you can always hit the fastforward button a couple of times and
then enjoy the episode of Obscure Ball. I know that you are going to
enjoy it, but before we getto that, I've got some things to

(01:27):
say real quick. Because of myreal job and my position in my actual
community, I am very guarded withthe things that I say and how I
express my personal beliefs. That's oneof the main reasons that Obscure History has
been a political and after today itwill go back to being a political.

(01:52):
But recent events have been weighing heavilyon me, and I think that i'd
like to give you an explanation andpotentially some resources. I haven't announced this
to the podcast yet, but mywife and I are having a baby.
She's due October fifth, and tothis point, pregnancy has been perfect.

(02:14):
My wife is healthy, baby's healthy. It has been great. However,
that's not the case for many couplesaround the nation. Pregnancy is often complicated,
and it breaks my heart to knowthat in if we had a different

(02:37):
pregnancy and we're in a different state, we might have to be talking about
how I would raise our boys withoutmy wife that's a real conversation people are
going to have in the coming weeksand are probably already having because of recent
events, and that should break yourheart. I think it breaks mine to

(03:00):
know that that is something that peopleare going through. And I'm very thankful
that our pregnancy has gone perfectly wellto this point, and I pray that
it continues to. But my heartis with all of the families that have
been affected by the recent events withthe Supreme Court that said, if you

(03:21):
are a woman in need resources,I will be posting some links to some
various resources in the show notes.They'll be listed under health resources. I'll
be posting them there until everyone's rightsare federally protected again. Hopefully that is
soon, though I don't know.Again, this show is a political ninety

(03:44):
nine point nine percent of the time. And while I'm breaking my own rules,
if you've listened to this show longenough, you could probably infer that
I am a Christian and I havea very short but particular message to my
fellow believer. In this situation andin all situations, do not forsake true

(04:06):
mercy for the appearance of holiness.That's all that I'm going to say.
That's all I'm comfortable saying on anyof this, I've probably already said too
much. Like I said, myreal life Jahab and my real life position
in my real community requires that Iam highly guarded in particular with what I

(04:29):
say. I thought and wrote thesewords fifty times and deleted them and rewrote
them. And I think that I'vesaid everything that I can within the realms
of being appropriate for the my reallife. So if you did not like

(04:50):
any of that, that you areentitled to your opinion. This is America.
We're all free to believe the thingsthat we believe. I hope that
you continue to come back to ObscureHistory, because, like I said,
ninety nine point nine percent of thetime, the show is not political.
You do not put my personal feelingson the episodes except for today, and

(05:12):
because this situation is monumentous and farreaching in ways that I think many people
have not yet even fully comprehended,myself included. So my thoughts and prayers
are with everyone affected. Like Isaid, I will continue to post resources
in my show notes if that issomething that you need. I really wish

(05:35):
that I could do more, andhow that I have fully brought the episode
to an emotional grinding halt. Ihope that you stick around for this episode
of Obscure Ball. It really isan amazing show, is right in the
line with what fans of obscure historyshould be he into. And I think

(05:55):
that if you made it through allof that and you're still I didn't depress
you too much. I think thatyou will really love the show. I'll
put a link to Obscure Ball inthe show notes as well, so it's
easy for you to go follow themlisten to them. I think that they
are totally worthy of being included inyour regular listening lists. So thank you

(06:16):
so much. I'll be back withpart two of Harrison G. Dyer's Crazy
Tunnels next week, I promise.I think I am on the end.
I might not sound like it,but I am feeling far better than I
have for all of the last fewdays. So thank you so much for
listening. I appreciate you all enjoythis episode of Obscure Ball. This episode

(06:43):
of Obscure Ball contains depictions of violenceand death that some people may find disturbing.
Listener discretion is advised. Even beforeall hell broke loose, the tension
at the Polo Grounds on September twentythird, nineteen o eight, was palpable.
Along with the Pittsburgh Pirates, theNew York Giants at Chicago Cubs were

(07:04):
in the middle of a three teampennant race and the right to represent the
National League in the World Series.With only about two weeks left in the
season, each game became more andmore crucial, and all three teams needed
any edge they could get. Sowhen the Cubs and Giants faced off in
New York that day, everybody onboth teams and to some twenty thousand fans

(07:25):
in attendance knew that the stakes werehigh. By the bottom of the ninth
inning, with the game tight atone, two outs and runners on the
corners, the stakes were even higher. Moments earlier, A nineteen year old
rookie named Fred Merkel kept the Giantshopes alive when he sharply singled down the
right field line, advancing Moose McCormickthe third base that brought Giant shortstop Al

(07:48):
Bridwell to the plate. He justneeded a hit and the game would be
over. So when he did geta hit to center field, the stadium
erupted. Fans poured onto the fieldto celebrate what they assumed was a game
winning base hit. Let's pause herefor a moment and take stock of the
situation. If this were a movie, it'd probably be a freeze frame.

(08:13):
This moment was not only crucial inthe game that day, it impacted the
whole season. It set off achain of events that nearly tore the city
of New York apart. There'd beriots, arson, bribery, organized crime,
forbidden romance, and before all wassaid and done, there'd be more
than one casualty. That story isnext. Alexander's Wooden Porium is a custom

(08:45):
woodshot based in Nashville, Tennessee.They made custom wood products like tables,
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Find them online at Alexander's Woodenporium dotcom. Now onto this episode of Obscure
Ball. It's called take Nothing forGranted. Fred Merkel made one serious mistake.

(09:09):
Any schoolboy would have run to secondbase, but Merkel gave way to
the ecstasies of real baseball delight andstarted to the clubhouse to talk it over.
The New York Star and Advisor Septembertwenty sixth, nineteen oh eight,
in nineteen oh eight, not manypeople knew about rule fifty nine in baseball,

(09:31):
which stated that if a base runnerreaches home on or during a play
in which the third man be forcedout or be put out before reaching first
base, or run shall not count. Put another more simple way, runners
can't score after a force out endsthe inning. Today, it's common knowledge
among baseball fans, and for anyonewho ever played as early as little league,

(09:52):
you're always taught to run it out. That's because rule fifty nine played
a big role in the events thatunfolded that fall. Oddly enough, the
impetus for all of this might havebeen a section in the Chicago Tribune called
Inquisitive Fans, where readers can simitquestions to the sports editor, and if
it's a good enough question, theeditor will reply. So. In July

(10:16):
of nineteen oh eight, a beerleaguer named Joseph Rubb wrote in to settle
a dispute during one of his amateurgames. He asked about a base runner
leaving early in the bottom of theninth inning, resulting in a disputed force
out. The Tribune responded with asimple, one line response. Run cannot
score when third out is made beforereaching first base. The exact impact this

(10:41):
exchange had on professional baseball has beendebated for some time and can't really be
proven one way or the other,but the general consensus is that someone from
the Cubs must have read that Sundayissue of the Chicago Tribune. Many people
think that someone was Cub second basemanJohnny Evers. Along with shortstop Joe Tinker.
Evers was part of one of thegreatest double play combos in baseball history

(11:05):
and is known to have had anacademical acknowledge of the game. Now,
again, it's just a theory,but the timeline matches up with events we
know happened. For a fact,Rupp rode into the Tribune in July of
nineteen oh eight. That's a fact, the time when Evers was known to
be nursing an injury and would havehad extra time on his hands to do

(11:26):
something like read the Sunday paper.Another provable fact is that Rule fifty nine
came up during a September fourth gamebetween the Cubs and Pirates with the score
tight at zero in the bottom ofthe tenth inning and two outs, a
scenario very similar to what Rupp describedhappened. There was a runner on third
base when Pittsburgh right fielder oen ChiefWilson slapped a single to right field,

(11:48):
and the game was over. TheRunts scored, except we're in Gil,
the Pirates first baseman was on firstwhen the hit happened, never advanced.
He just started sell rating with histeammates. I mean, this is a
Pennant race, after all. Evers, who either studied the rule book carefully
or happened to read the Sunday editionof the Chicago Tribune, tried to tag

(12:09):
him out at second. It wouldhave been a force out. Had the
rule been correctly applied, the gamewould have gone into the eleventh inning.
But an umpire named Hanko Day wasthe only umpire working that game and never
saw it, so the ruling stood. The Pirates won, and the Cubs
were annoyed. To put it mildly. Now, in all fairness to Warren

(12:31):
Gil, what he did wasn't thatunusual for the time. The most salient
thing to me is the application ofthe rule, which should just been ignored.
But the thing is, nobody hadpushed it before other than stut Thornley
has written quite a bit about thedead ball era well he's written a lot
of things. In general. He'sthe author of more than a dozen books,

(12:54):
mostly about baseball and basketball history,plus a novel, and as a
frequent contributor to the Society for AmericanBaseball Research, he's one awards for his
writing and research, and most importantly, for our purposes, has studied the
nineteen o eight Pennant race at length. As he points out, rule fifty
nine had never really been implemented,but it still existed, and O'Day knew

(13:16):
the rule. But again, henever saw what Gil did. It wasn't
like there was a precedence set tothe loan umpire of that game that I
just didn't see it. I can'tcall it. But it wasn't saying like,
no, we're not you know,you're getting too picky. We're not.
We're not going to call him outfor that. Come on, he's
you know, it's just a formalitythat he didn't take. Will ignore that.

(13:37):
Hank O'Day understood the rules, andpresumably if he had seen what had
happened exactly in Pittsburgh on September fourth, he would have called Warren Gil out.
They would have said the run doesn'tcount. They'd go to the eleventh
inning. But Day's explanation is reallyimportant here. He never said that Evers
was wrong or that he wouldn't implementthe rules. Simply said he didn't see

(14:01):
it, leaving any logical person tobelieve that should he see something similar in
the future, he'd correctly implement therule. So you might say it was
the perfect storm on September twenty third, when again the clubs were playing,
and again O'Day was the umpire.This time, though he had help fellow

(14:22):
umpire Bob Emslie was working the basis, but the extra help didn't stop the
chaos that would later unfold. Thatbrings us back to this moment in the
bottom of the ninth inning, arguablythe most infamous half inning ever to be
played in the history of baseball,Al Bridwell single into center field should have

(14:43):
won the game, and for afew minutes that appeared to be the case.
Fans poured out from the stands,which, given how drunken rowdy many
of them were, could be anunpredictable situation. So the players for both
teams rushed for their clubhouses beyond thecenter field fence. That included Merkel,
who never touched second base. Everssaw this, so it did hank O

(15:09):
Day, and when Ever's tag secondbase with the baseball, oh, Day,
remembering what happened on September fourth,had no choice but to call Merkel
out. It's a forest play,and we all know that no run can
score when the third out of aninning is made on a forest play.
The incident is known among baseball historiansas Merkel's boner. Back then, boner

(15:30):
meant a bone headed or stupid mistake, and today's vernacular it means something else.
Entirely that aside, Fred Merkel waspanned by the media and baseball fans
after the game. He earned thenickname Bonehead and ivory Pain. But upon
further examination, it's hard to blamethis solely on Merkel. Up until this

(15:50):
very moment, rule fifty nine wasa technicality that umpires rarely, if ever
enforced. A nineteen year old rookiemaking his first career start can hardly be
for not reading every section of therule book. But there's another odd wrinkle
to this tell that's never really beenworked out. With thousands of people now

(16:12):
on the playing field, no oneknows which ball Ever's actually ended up with
or how he ended up with it. There are as many versions of what
happened on that play as there arepeople who have written about it. Pretty
much everybody has something else to say. If this all seems like good material
for a novel, Floyd Sullivan,who you'd just heard, beat us to

(16:33):
the punch. Floyd is the authorof Called Out, a novel of baseball
in America in nineteen o eight.We'll touch more on the actual novel later,
but Floyd's written a lot about Chicagobaseball in general. He's also the
author of the book Waiting for theCubs, and has research the Mercal incident
and the events that followed in somedetail. While Called Out is fictional,

(16:55):
it's obviously based on true events,including the controversy over what happened into the
game ball, which to this dayis still technically a cold case. We
know for a fact that someone threwEvers a baseball and that he tagged second
base. Why else did O'Day rulethe way he did? But that's about
all anyone can agree on, evena century and change later. Like Floyd

(17:18):
said, there were dozens of differentaccounts on what exactly happened after Bridwell singled
to center field. Evers went tohis grave, proclaiming that center field or
Sally Hoffmann, fielded the ball cleanlyand threw it to second base, where
he caught it. He signed awritten affidavits saying as much. On the
other hand, Fred Merkel also saidthat he actually touched second base, but

(17:40):
there's not much evidence to back upeither version of events, and years later
Merkel actually copped to the fact thathe never touched second Various retellings of the
incident suggest that Joe mcginnitty, apitcher for the Giants who was also coaching
first base that day, made hisway onto the field and actually intercepted the
ball when it was thrown from theoutfield. Keep in mind, the team

(18:02):
on offense can't intercept the baseball.That's totally against the rules, but McGinnity
apparently didn't care. He intercepted theball and hurled it into a sea of
people, where multiple eyewitnesses claimed aman with a brown bowler hat retrieved it.
One of these eyewitnesses was Rube Crowe, a seldom used relief pitcher for

(18:22):
the Cubs. He claims that theychased this guy down and they got in
the way that they got him todrop the ball is to punch his hat
over his eyes. And when hetried to free his hat, and he
dropped the ball. And they gotthat ball and related into Chinker, and
Chinker through it to Evers and thatwas it. And Ohday was watching the
whole thing. And it's a day'saccount written on the evening of September twenty

(18:45):
third, nineteen oh eight, hoursafter the game. That is the most
telling. Merkel did not run theball out. He started towards second base,
but on getting halfway there, heturned and ran down the field toward
the clubhouse. The ball was fieldedinto second base for a Chicago man to
make the play when McGinnity ran fromthe coacher's box out onto the field to
second base and interfered with the playbeing made. Em Sli, who said

(19:08):
he did not watch Merkle, askedme if Merkel touched second base. I
said he did not. Then mslyly called Merkle out. I would not
allow McCormick's run. The score thegame at the end of the ninth inning
was one to one. The peopleran out on the field. I did
not ask to have the field cleared, as it was too dark. To
continue play. So, according toa day's report, it was the interference

(19:32):
by mcginnitty and the fans rushing inthe field and the sun setting that doomed
Merkle, not the force out.None of that was clear in the moment,
though. When the Giants, inparticular manager John mccrawl realized what was
happening, that the game would endin a tie and not a Giant's win,
things turned ugly. The fans becameso restless that, according to a

(19:56):
story from the New York Times,police had to rush onto the field to
keep the p Luckily, no onegot seriously hurt this time, but the
saga was far from over. StutThornley has coined a term he calls showdown
games. I'll let him explain whatthat means. Shoot teams meeting and for

(20:21):
one game for either going home ormoving on like the seventh game of the
World Series. You know it's anall or nothing type of game. October
eighth, nineteen o eight leads thecriteria of a showdown game. The Giants
and Cubs have played at the PoloGrounds, with the winner moving onto the
World Series and the loser going homeall or nothing as extraordinary of a day

(20:47):
as October eighth was, and believeme when I say it was extraordinary.
The events leading up to that daywere pretty amazing as well. On September
twenty three, Hanko Day, BobEmsy, and the Chicago players managed to
escape the unruly crowd at the PoloGrounds. Aside from some fistfights, no
one was too badly injured this timearound, but another type of fight was

(21:11):
just beginning. Neither team was happywith the outcome. The Giants believed they
won the game two to one.Mccormicks run should have counted, and all
this business with evers in a dayit was just a technicality. Likewise,
the Cubs argued that Merkle was outand the Giants should have forfeited the game
since it was their fans who stormedonto the playing field. In the end,

(21:33):
both teams pled their case to theNational League. That forced an unlikely
character to take center stage in thiswhole saga. Harry Pullia was the president
of the National League at the time, and he was one of the people
whose life was changed by this event. He's also the protagonist of Floyd's book
Called Out. Most people would saythat the Merkels story is probably the most

(21:56):
tragic element of this, But tome it was by a Harry Pulliam,
and he started interesting me, andthat his story reminded me very much of
the story of Tchaikowski. Peter Tchaikovsky, arguably one of the greatest composers of
the nineteenth century, is an interestin comparison to a lifelong baseball man.

(22:18):
But once you dig beyond the surface, there's some similarities between these two men
that are striking. Tchaikovsky differed fromother Russian composers at the time by combining
technical proficiency with a degree of professionalism, and it was inspired, as music
historian Francis May put it, toreach beyond Russia with his music. The
way he saw it, his musicbelonged to the world. He wanted everyone

(22:41):
to enjoy it. Pulliam, himself, a poet and lover of the arts,
saw baseball as a beautiful game thatcould be loved and appreciated by Americans
from all walks of life, aviewpoint that stood in direct opposition to the
culture of the game at the time. It was an era of rough and
tumble baseball, a lot of connectionsto gamblers, a lot of fighting,

(23:03):
kicking. They called it at thetime a lot of disrespect for umpires,
And you know, these were justrough guys who fought each other. The
Cubs of that year were as quickto fight each other as they were to
fight people on the other team.It was a brawling kind of nineteenth century
gain that I think at one pointI compared to lower easside rat fight and

(23:26):
Pulliam saw the beauty in the game, the elegance in the game, and
worked to maximize that aspect of thegame that you had to be an athlete,
you had to excel at certain thingsthat involved both high level of athletics
skill, but also a strong elementof elegance and almost artistry. And you

(23:51):
know, he wrote poetry and hewas interested in the arts, and so
he saw that part of baseball,the beauty of baseball, And so when
he was put in a position ofpower, he tried to apply those standards
to the game and essentially pull thegame kicking and screaming out of the nineteenth

(24:11):
century and into the twentieth century.He wanted to legitimize it a pastime for
all ages, both sexes. Hedidn't want it to be just the bastion
of gamblers, fighters, and rowdies. Another trait both Pulliam and Tchaikovsky shared

(24:32):
was the question about their sexuality.In retrospect, it's largely agreed that both
men were gay. In theory thatshouldn't matter, but of course, social
conventions being what they were at thetime, they both were forced to hide
their sexuality in public. This likelyplayed a role in another commonality, which

(24:52):
was their bouts with depression. Inthe case of Tchaikovsky, it probably cost
him his life. His official causeof death, cholera, is widely disputed
by historians, many of whom speculatehe killed himself. With Harry Pulliam,
there'd be no doubt. Pulliam washired as a National League president in nineteen

(25:14):
oh two, when he was onlythirty two years old. At the time,
he was known as a brilliant baseballmind who had at various times worked
as a journalist and executive who workedfor the Louisville Colonels and eventually the Pittsburgh
Pirates. He even found time torun for public office and briefly served in
the Kentucky House of Representatives as aDemocrat, where he managed to introduce legislation

(25:36):
to protect redbirds. One of hisfamous quotes, take nothing for granted in
baseball, is used to this dayand was weally prophetic. As nineteen o
eight played out, Pulliam was goodat his job. He negotiated an alliance
with the American League at a timewhen the two leagues were feuding, which
led to the first ever World Series. He also started the first ever haul

(25:57):
of fame in baseball, and hisbusiness acumen brought a degree of professionalism and
legitimacy that the game had always lacked. In short, he made baseball better,
and before September twenty third, nineteenoh eight, Pollium was a reasonably
well liked person in baseball. Whilehe clearly didn't fit in with the rich

(26:17):
business magnates who own the teams orthe heavy drinking, brawling men who played
the game, he was respected forhis devotion to the game, his fair
rulings, and his support of hisumpires. Oddly enough, it was those
very traits that would pit him againstsome powerful forces in baseball after the Mercal
situation, namely one of the mostshrewd men professional baseball ever Knew, John

(26:41):
t. Brush, owner of theNew York Giants. He was a businessman,
and he bought the Giants. Ithink strictly as a business investment,
and he wanted maximum return on hisinvestment. There are a lot of examples
of John T. Brush making decisionsor working pretty much exclusively to maximize his

(27:10):
profits. Prush and Giants manager Johnmcgrawl, who epitomized the barbarism of the
nineteenth century in early twentieth century baseball, were two of the people who didn't
care for Pollium. They'd become increasinglyconvinced over the years that Pulliam ruled against
them in order to help the Pirates, the club he'd previously worked for.

(27:30):
The accusation itself is so juvenile andunsupported that it's hardly worth bringing up.
But in nineteen o eight, whenhe upheld a day's ruling from the September
twenty third game, the game thatended in a one one tie and not
a Giant's two one victory, theywere certain of it. Their view was,
of course biased, and the clubswere equally convinced that he was screwing

(27:51):
them over. Things got even dicehere on October two, when Pollium decreed
that the game would have to bereplayed on October eighth if it would have
had any bearing on the outcome ofthe Pennant Race, something that by no
means was guaranteed. At that point, Pittsburgh was in first place by a
game and a half at ninety sevenand fifty five, while the Cubs and

(28:12):
Giants were now tied for second atninety five and fifty four in ninety six
and fifty five, respectively. Ifthe Pirates could just hang on their Mercal
game wouldn't actually matter, but thatdidn't happen. Sunday, October fourth was
the final day of the season forthe Pirates, who still led the Cubs
by half a game. A winwould guarantee their place in the World Series.

(28:37):
However, when the two teams facedoff in Chicago, the Cubs won
five to two behind a complete gameeffort by Mordecai three finger Brown that put
Chicago in first place alone and effectivelyeliminated the Pirates. Because of scheduling irregularities,
the Giants still had three games leftto play, trailing the Cubs by

(28:59):
a game and a half. Thescenario was pretty straightforward. They had to
win all three remaining games against theBoston Doves, where they would be eliminated
again. This is another opportunity forthe Mercal game to not really be a
factor at this point, it couldstill only be a footnote in the annulls
of baseball history. With a seasonon the line, the Giants crushed the

(29:22):
Doves in a three game series atthe Polo Grounds between October fifth and seven,
eight one, four to one,and seven two. The games weren't
even close. That put the Giantsrecord at ninety eight and fifty five.
The club's record also ninety eight andfifty five. That meant the Mercal game
would be replayed on October eighth,and it would be, as Stu Thornly

(29:45):
puts it, a showdown game.Before we get to that, though,
it's worth briefly visiting the other pennantrace that was brewing in the American League.
Many baseball historians have reached the conclusionthat for all the hoop law around
the National League pennant race that year, the race in the American League was
the better of the two. Here'sStu Thornley again. Probably what gives the

(30:08):
distinction to the National League one isthe bizarre nature the whole Mercle incident.
If that had just happened in someother way, or you didn't have that
I think the intensity and the attentionand the historical recollections of it wouldn't be

(30:29):
as great. But now only youlook back, well more than one hundred
years and you talk about nineteen oheight, what automatically comes to mind is
the National League race, and that'sbecause of the miracle bonner. Essentially,
this was another three team race betweenthe Detroit Tigers, the Chicago White Socks,
and the Cleveland Naps, while theSaint Louis Browns weren't far behind and
fourth with less than a week leftin this season, all three teams and

(30:52):
even the Browns had a shot.My friend David Gunn, who helps him
with research from time to time,dug into the stats a bit. The
numbers are pretty interesting. So theWhite Sox arguably were the worst of the
three teams based on a couple factors, so their record was not as good.
So they were last placed in thedivision with home runs. They only

(31:15):
had three home runs RBI's total basesslugging percentage, and next to last in
batting average. However, what waswhat helped Chicago was actually their pitching.
They had the best pitching out ofthe three teams. If you look at
the numbers of strikeouts and all thepitching stats, they actually were the best

(31:37):
team back to hitting. Cleveland wasin the middle and Detroit was near the
top. The nineteen o eight WhiteSox would in fact participate in one of
baseball's all time great pitching tools.On October two, Ed Walsh, one
of four guys on the team nameddead, was contending for his fortieth his
forty four zero win of the season, and tossed eight innings of one ball,

(32:00):
allowing just one run on four hitswhile collecting an impress of fifteen strikeouts.
His opponent at a Joss, however, happened to throw a no hitter
and Cleveland won won to nothing.Not only was it one of the greatest
pitching duels ever, but it wasa huge win for Cleveland. It put
them within a half a game ofDetroit. The five games left on their

(32:22):
schedule were plenty to overtake the Tigers, led by none other than Tie Cobb,
except they lost to Chicago the nextday and tied with the Browns a
day after that before splitting a doubleheader with the Browns on October fifth.
They finished this season with a fiveto one win against Saint Louis and a
record of ninety and sixty four tiedfor the most wins in the American League.

(32:45):
But Detroit and the White Sox werestill in the mix and faced off
for a dramatic three game series toend the season. The Socks took the
first two games, which set upan odd and confusing dynamic. On October
sixth, the Tigers were in firstby half a game at eighty nine and
sixty three to Chicago's eighty eight andsixty three. Cleveland, having played more

(33:07):
games, finished at ninety and sixtyfour, effectively eliminating them from winning the
pinnet. So the game between theWhite Sox and Tigers on October sixth was
a stude Thorny puts it another showdowngame. The winner would go to the
World Series. It was never close. Detroit played at four runs in the

(33:29):
top of the first inning and wenton to win seven to nothing and clinched
the American Link Pinnet. Chicago finishedin third at eighty eight and sixty four
and Cleveland finished ninety and sixty four, a half game behind the Tigers.
You could argue that, in asense, the Tigers won the pinnet partially
due to a technicality, the AmericanLeague, clearly operating under different rules,

(33:54):
didn't force the teams to make upgames that ended in ties. In the
case of the Tigers, September twentyfourth, one day after Merkel's infamous boner,
had a game called off into tenthending against the Philadelphia Athletics. Likely
the game spilled into the evening,and with no stadium lights, it was
too dark to play. The gamewas never made up, and had the

(34:16):
Tigers lost that game, they wouldhave finished at nineteen sixty four tied with
Cleveland. Instead, by virtue ofhaving played a full schedule, the Naps
could only watch helplessly as the Tigersand White Sox battled it out in a
showdown game on October sixth. Detroitclaimed the al pennant and now awaited the
result of the October eighth game todecide their opponent. It's not really clear

(34:39):
why American League president Ban Johnson optednot to force Detroit and Philadelphia to play
a makeup game. His decision waspretty unpopular in Cleveland, to be sure,
but that controversy was overshadowed by eventsin the National League. It's a
good example of how you have thepresident of each League, making opposite rulings

(34:59):
and receiving a lot of criticism fortheir respective decision. They're seven to win
over the Doves on October seventh,put the Giants at a record of ninety
eight and fifty five, or tiedwith the Cubs for first place, who
had neutralized the Pirates by beating themfive to two on October fourth, thus

(35:20):
bringing into fruition what I imagine wasHarry William's worst nightmare, the replayed game
between the Cubs and Giants Again.Before we get to everything that happened on
October eighth, it's important to understandthat by the summer of nineteen oh eight,
the game of baseball had captured thehearts of Americans all over the country
and cities all over America. Ifthey couldn't get to the stadium, or

(35:43):
if their favorite team was playing onthe road, people would gather to watch
electronic scoreboards, both Stu Thornley andFloyd Sellivan explain, and as they got
the telegraph report, somebody would beputting up the results or putting up on
the scarboard for on scored, andthat drew a big crowd too to be
able to watch that. So partof It is just shows the intense interest

(36:06):
that there was in baseball at thattime. Many cities that were contending,
the newspapers or the teams would putup these electronic game boards that showed the
progress of the game as it washappening. They had little lights and stuff
that denoted the runners and the fieldersand all this kind of stuff, And
there would be guys with these bigmegaphones and they would stand there and announce

(36:28):
the game, and there'd be thesehuge crowds in front of newspaper buildings,
in front well in front of theNational League headquarters, which was also the
Giants headquarters at the time. Theinterest among Americans in the game of baseball
that summer became so intense that famoussongwriter and performer Jack Northworth, a man
who never even saw a professional baseballgame until nineteen forty, penned a song

(36:51):
take Me Out to the Ballgame.In a way, Williams's dream was being
realized. Baseball was quickly becoming amiracles sport, and for the first time
in the history of the game.The pennant would come down to one game,
a showdown game, if you will. So when the Cubs and Giants
met at the Polo Grounds on Octobereighth. It was against the backdrop of

(37:13):
a controversial call, a pennant racelike no other before it, and a
growing interest in the game of baseball. Still a few people could have predicted
just how out of control everything wouldget. That's after the break. If
you've listened to a lot of podcasts, then you can maybe guess what I'm

(37:35):
about to ask you to do.That's right. If you're enjoying the show,
I hope you'll take a few secondsto rate and review Obscure Ball on
Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen topodcasts. There's a reason why so many
podcasters make this request. Doing sowill help other people find Obscure Ball,
which in turn will make it easierfor me to keep bringing you more content.

(37:57):
If you're not enjoying the episode,well thanks were sticking with me anyway.
Now back to the show, gloomdescends once more people begin to get
Quarrelsome they would just love a disputeddecision to fight about. They're being none.
Some of them fight anyhow. There'sa beautiful row over at the right

(38:17):
field bleachers. A fat cop climbsthe rail and nips it in the Bud.
Meanwhile, no one can hit threefingered Brown with three feeble attempts to
do so, the last hope expires. The Cubs, now champions, call
joyfully around the field that one sadthird inning did it all. The New

(38:38):
York Sun October ninth, nineteen oeight. At two thirty on the afternoon
of October seventh, the Cubs,their coaches, team ownership, and a
hindful of reporters boarded a state ofthe art train called the twentieth Century.

(38:59):
A massive crowd gathered to give thema hero send off for their seven hundred
and ninety mile journey to the BigApple. They arrived in New York at
ten am on October eighth to amuch different reception. The fans of New
York, still angry about the Septembertwenty third game, convinced they had been

(39:20):
cheated out of a pennant due toa technicality, found out where they were
staying, and surrounded their hotel,honking horns and making as much noise as
possible to ensure no one on theCubs could get any rest before their two
thirty PM game later that day.Giants owner John T. Brush figured there'd
be trouble, so he arranged forsome three hundred police officers to be stationed

(39:45):
around the polo grounds to try andkeep the peace. Ever, the savvy
businessman, he also wanted to preventscalpers from taking advantage of the situation,
so he sold no advanced tickets.The box office opened at eleve an am
and it was first come, firstserve. Everyone showed up. A city

(40:06):
of four million people just decided toplay hooky that day. People skipped school
and work to get to this game, and by noon tickets were sold out.
Scalpers still managed to weasel some ticketsanyway, and a group of people
who were duped by one of thesescalpers beat the guy up. One of
many brawls that broke out. Hundredsof people would be escorted out of the

(40:28):
stadium and taken to the one hundredand fifty third Street police station. More
than a dozen ambulances were dispatched tothe scene. About half an hour before
a first pitch, the situation haddeteriorated even more. While fans too ball
tickets or were somehow able to sneakin commandeered nearly every inch of stadium seating.
Those unable to gain entry became desperate, and some set fire to a

(40:52):
section of fence and right center field. The fire department, unable to quickly
put out the fire disperse the fansby them down. By some estimations,
around two hundred and fifty thousand peopleshowed up to a stadium that seated maybe
forty thousand. Nearly every surface withinsight of the polo grounds was occupied.

(41:14):
Rooftops, via ducks, balconies,and a hill known as Kugan's Bluff were
filled to the brim with fans.The train that ran along the one hundred
and fifty fifth Street elevated tracks wasblocked by people who had managed to climb
on top. It's even been rumoredthat Charles Phelips Taft, the older brother
of William Howard Taft, the manwho would run for and win the presidency

(41:37):
that same year, crawled under thestadium bleachers in order to sneak into the
game. Oddly enough, he'd purchasedthe Cubs in nineteen fourteen from Charles Murphy.
Jane Matthewson, the wife of Giantsstarting pitcher Christy Mathewson, was carrying
her small child and was nearly trampledto death just trying to get in.
Another spectator at the Polo Grounds thatday was an duty firefighter named Harry T.

(42:00):
McBride. He'd managed to climb upon some elevated train tracks just to
get a better view of the game. He fell off and died. Unsympathetic
fans just moved his body aside,and someone else took his spot inside the
stadium. On the field, theatmosphere was also pretty tense. First of

(42:23):
all, the Cubs had to sneakinto the stadium and disguises for fear of
being mobbed by angry New York fanswho had been sending them death threats.
When they did take the field,those two a chorus of booze and insults.
That picture three finger. Mordecai Brownlater described, I never heard anybody
or any set of men called asmany foul names as the Giants fans called

(42:45):
us that day, from the timewe showed up till it was over.
The Giants, meanwhile, are welcomedwith thunderous applause. As manager John mccrawl
and each of his players emerged fromthe center field entrance, the stadium erupted
with chief years the low, anexception being Fred Merkel, he was given
the silent treatment. Merkel had thesupport of his manager and teammates, but

(43:09):
the press and the New York fanshad been ruthless. Like I said earlier,
he'd been given the nickname Bonehead,and Ivory Pate reportedly he'd lost weight
in the two weeks since the incidentand his on field performance had been slipping.
Two he went one for eight andthe games that followed September twenty third,

(43:29):
the Giants opted to start usual firstbaseman Fred Tenny that day. Because
of all the chaos, Rush optedto move the game up fifteen minutes earlier,
which cut the Cubs batting practice shortfrom twenty minutes to five. So
the Giants began taking fielding practice withJoe mcginnty hidden grounders, but the Cubs,

(43:49):
who were still taking batting practice atthe time, refused to see the
playing field. This pitted mcginnitty andCubs manager Frank Chance against one another.
Now what you need to know aboutboth of these guys, as they were
both pretty quick tempered and both thoughtnothing of fighting another person. The benches
cleared, and had things escalated anymoreat this point, it's likely there would

(44:13):
have been no baseball game at allthat day. It's easy to imagine a
full scull riot breaking out, butthe players intervened and prevented an actual fight
from breaking out. And now weknow that Chance had actually instructed his players
to try and bait the New Yorkplayers into fighting in hopes of getting some
of them objected. It didn't work, and yet before the first pitch was

(44:37):
even thrown, there was another veryserious crisis brewing. Umpires Bill Clem and
Jimmy Johnstone were assigned to the Octobereighth game, the thinking probably being that
it was too controversial to have HankoDay calling it. However, Clem found
himself in the middle of controversy.Before the game, he alerted the league

(44:59):
office that someone had attempted to debribe him to call the game in favor
of the Giants. Unable to doanything about it at the time and not
being able to find a replacement onshort notice, League Secretary John Hayler took
down a statement from Clem and Johnstone, who confirmed the accusation and told the
umpires he trusted them to call thegame fairly. To their credit, they

(45:22):
did for everything that happened leading upto it. The game itself was unremarkable,
which is kind of surprising because thesetwo teams matched up well on paper.
Here's David again, winning streak,losing streak, runs scored, the
most runs scored in a game,most runs allowed in a game, longest

(45:43):
game by innings, which is interesting. Cubs had a seventeen inning game and
Giants had a sixteen inning game.The biggest lead they had in the division
was four and four and a halfgames perspectively, and most games behind in
the season we're six and six anda half games. So, I mean,
if you look at the season,these two teams were battling it out
in the National League the whole thewhole year. If you jump back to

(46:06):
winning streak, the Cubs had nineand the Giants had eleven. Losing streak
was five and four season wise.I mean, it was a pretty interesting
season between the two teams. No, none of these numbers are you know,
crazy, I mean, seventeen ingame. You don't really see a
lot of those, and they don'tnecessarily tell the story, but it could
explain some of why tensions were sohigh and why having known a little known

(46:31):
rule can make a huge difference forthe Giants. Future Hall of Famer Matthewson
was starting on the mount. Theright hander was vying for his thirty eighth
win, a stat that should bloweveryone's mind. For the Cubs, Jack
Feister got the nied. Feister hadbeen battling fatigue and an inter throwing arm

(46:58):
for some time, and it showed. He hit leadoff man Fred Tenney,
who later scored two batters later whenTurkey Mike Donlin doubled him home one Nothing
New York, The crowd is goingwild. Feisser was eventually replaced by Brown.
His actual name was Mordecai Peter CentennialBrown, but after a farming accident

(47:19):
took two of his fingers, hewas called Mordecai three finger Brown, which
was one of baseball schooler nicknames.He got the job done, hilled the
Giants to just one run for therest of the game. Matthewson also pitched
twelve well, aside from the topof the third inning. The Cubs peppered
him for four runs in that frame. It was the only runs he allowed

(47:40):
all game, but the damage wasdone. He too, was worn out
from a long season in which heplayed fifty six games, making forty four
starts and by that point and hadlittle left in the tank. He later
expressed a price at how long ittook the Cubs to score on him.
The Giants managed just one more run. It was in the bottom of the

(48:00):
seventh In the bottom of the ninthinning. Brown wasted no time retiring the
side, and everyone knew before theinning began that it was over. When
the final out was made, fansagain rushed onto the field, this time
not to celebrate a supposed win,but to mourn a loss, or,
to put it less delicately, toattack the Cubs. The Cubs can't even

(48:22):
celebrate their pennant victory. They've gotto get off the field. One incident
reported in the New York Sun claimsthat a fan sucker punched Frank Chance as
he made his way to the clubhouse. Other accounts chronicle and effort by fans
to break into the Cubs clubhouse,who had to be fended off by the
cops. Ultimately, some kind oforder was restored, and The New York

(48:45):
Sun also reported that many fans expressedsportsmanship afterwards, even going so far as
to congratulate the Cubs on winning thegame. Fair and square is one put
it. For all the drama inboth leagues, the World Series was a
rather tame affair. The Cubs,having won at the previous two years,

(49:07):
dismantled the Tigers in five games.Despite having the best player in baseball,
Ty Cobb, the Tigers couldn't evenmanage a single run in the final two
games in Chicago, crews to theirthird consecutive World Series, the last one
they'd win for more than a centuryAfter that, For the most part,
life moved on. Fred Merkel,the player so maligned by the media and

(49:30):
booed by his own fans, actuallywent on to have a professional career that
spanned nearly two decades, even signingwith the Cubs in nineteen seventeen. To
this day, there's a bar acrossfrom Wrigley Stadium named after him. As
far as his legacy in all ofthis, baseball historians are far kinder to
him than contemporary writers were. Hedid what he had seen everybody on both

(49:53):
teams do his whole life, whichis, when there's a winning hit bottom
of the last inning and the runscores to win the game, everybody takes
it for granted that the game's over. You don't need to run out.
You know you're hit, you don'tneed to run to second base or whatever.
And if John McGraw had been doinghis job and the same situation came

(50:16):
up on September twenty third, justa couple of weeks later, why in
Heaven's name he did not tell thisnineteen year old to complete the play by
running to second base and touching secondbase. Why he did not do that?
To me, that's that's fundamental coaching. You tell your your this is

(50:37):
what happened in Pittsburgh, and thisis how the league ruled. If it
happens again here, they're not goingto count the run. It's as simple
as that. And it was thesame umpire, it was Oh Day both
times. So to not have thiskid ready to run out the play and
touch second base, to me,is the real crime of that game.

(51:01):
Hanko Day, oddly enough, washired by the clubs to be their manager,
replacing none other than Johnny Evers,who by that time was a player
manager before being traded to the CincinnatiReds. Posthumously, a Day was inducted
into the Hall of Fame in twentythirteen, having been a player, umpire
and manager. Evers Brown Matthewson tinkerAll went on to the Hall of Famers

(51:23):
as well. In a way,this crazy story almost ended happily. Ever
after almost there's still one chapter tothis bizarre tell. The fate of Harry
Pulliam was not a happy ending.Harry C. Polliam, president of the

(51:45):
National League, attempted suicide at aboutnine thirty last night in his room at
the New York Athletic Club. Heshot himself through the head, and late
last night it was said he wouldnot recover The New York Times July twenty
ninth, nineteen o nine. Asnineteen o eight came to an end and
nineteen o nine began, there wasstill one very troubling word on the mind

(52:07):
of Harry Pulliam. Bribery. Theattempted bribe of umpire Bill Clem was the
very type of thing he had promisedto root out of professional baseball. Perhaps
the confusion of October eighth, nineteenoh eight, superseded this attempted bribe,
But once the dust settled on allof that, a much more clear picture

(52:28):
of what happened came into focus.We know now that the man who attempted
to pay off Clem was doctor JosephKramer, the team physician for the Giants.
That happened, that's a fact.Kramer found Clem under the bleachers before
the game and offered to pay himtwenty five hundred dollars or eighty thousand dollars
today if he'd call the game inNew York's favor. We also know that

(52:52):
Clem did the honorable thing and refusedand reported the incident to league officials.
Kramer allegedly told him you know who'sbehind me and needn't be afraid of anything.
He also promised him a job forlife and name dropped a well known
politician. That information is based ona written affidavit from Claim himself saved in

(53:13):
the league archives. What's less clearis why an otherwise straight laced doctor who's
known to have started various charities andclinics, risked his entire reputation just to
bribe and umpire. It's very likelythat Kramer did this at the behest of
someone else and was later made ascapegoat. Floyd's one of a few writers

(53:36):
who has looked deeper into this,and he thinks there's a political connection.
My feeling is that it all goesback to Tammany Tammany was involved in gambling.
The two guys who ended up owningthe Highlanders who later became the Yankees,
were connected to Tammany. It wasrife. Tammany Hall, of course,
was a sophisticated political machine that ranevery aspect of New York City life

(54:00):
in the late nineteenth and early twentiethcentury. They likely would have been involved
in sports betting and pool hall gamblingas well. And it's a known fact
that Giants manager John mccrawl owned severalpool halls in the city and at that
time Tammany ran a protection scheme.You know, it was typical mob stuff

(54:21):
where okay, you have to payus off, otherwise you can't open a
pool hall. So he had tobasically subscribe to Tammany Protection in order to
open that pool hall. And hewas connected with Pimlico and Baltimore back when
he was on the Baltimore Orioles andall kinds of stuff. Gambling and connection
to Tammany Hall in particular was rampant. Beyond that, it's also known that

(54:44):
Kramer was a personal friend of mcgrawl. None of this was lost on Harry
Pulliam To get to the bottom ofthe matter. Pulliam commissioned an investigation,
but somehow, the committee tasked withsolving the crime was chaired by John Brush,
you know, the owner of theGiants. Some people might call that
a conflict of interest. Unsurprisingly,the committee's findings were vague and did no

(55:08):
damage to the team's reputation. Theyconcluded only that someone tried to give Clem
money to call close plays in favorof the Giants. It didn't reveal who
the perpetrator was. It would beanother several months April of nineteen o nine
before the public knew anything about thebribe attempt, and that's only because sports
writer Harvey Woodruff broke the story forthe Chicago Tribune. He named Kramer as

(55:32):
the culprit, but was still unableto draw a connection between Kramer and anyone
else from the Giants. For hispart, Kramer was banned from baseball and
that was the end of that.Now Chicago they had their own ethical dilemma.
On top of the bribe attempt,the league was also looking into allegations
that the Cubs were running a ticketscalping scheme. In essence, team ownership

(55:58):
was buying tickets to their own gameand then turning around and selling them the
scalpers, ensuring that every game wouldbe sold out. An unattended consequence was
that the scalpers were asking for waytoo much money, and the Westside Stadium
in Chicago was half empty for muchof the nineteen o eight World Series.
Pulliam hated this. It conflicted withhis belief that baseball was a game that

(56:22):
belonged to everyone, not just therich, and it also might have been
illegal. The League officially reprimanded theCubs and team owner Charles Murphy, saying
that they are deserving of the severestcriticisms and censure for their handling of ticket
sells and foul to hold them responsible. Already mythed about the ruling on the

(56:43):
Mercal game. Murphy was reportedly furiousat the league, specifically at Pulliam himself.
Rich powerful men like John T.Brush and Charles Murphy were perhaps for
the first time in their lives,coming up against someone willing to hold them
accountable. From their view, Polliumwas affecting their bottom line, and they
absolutely did not like that. Theylobbied for him to be fired and made

(57:07):
it known they would not vote torenew his contract. There's also some reason
to believe that they were planning somethingeven more sinister. Now we don't know
this for a fact, but FloydSullivan has maintained for some time now that
he believes polliums sexuality played a factorin his downfall. In Floyd's novel,

(57:28):
he describes a fictitious scenario where Brushand mcgrawl hired private investigators to spy on
him and ultimately threatened to expose himif he planned on ruling against them in
any way. Again, that's apiece of fiction, but not a far
fetched piece of fiction. It wasfairly common practice in those days for team
owners to hire private investigators for variousreasons. In some cases, they'd hire

(57:52):
provocateurs that would entice players for opposingteams when they came to town to go
out drinking late at night so thatthey'd be tired and hungover for the next
day's game. Christy Mathewson, whowas famously straight laced, had one oddly
specific weakness, gambling at checkers.People knew this, and on at least
one occasion when the Giants went toChicago, Murphy hired a private eye to

(58:14):
coax him into playing checkers all nightwhen he was scheduled to pitch against the
Cubs the next day. Team ownerseven hired people to keep an eye on
their own players. I detailed suchan effort on this podcast in the episode
about Ray Chapman. The Gary HermanPapers, a collection of documents from Cincinnati
Red's owner Gary Herman, shed evenmore of light on this type of behavior.

(58:37):
He was known to employe Pinkerton agentsto spy on many different people around
baseball, including his own players.Herman was also one of Pulliam's early detractors
and was one of four league ownerswho planned to vote against renewing his contract.
And if something is duplicit as blackmail, seems low for people like Brush
and McCaul think about this. Grawlis rumored to have once paid homage to

(59:01):
a site where a black man waslynched by a racist mob. Legend has
it he kept a piece of therope and referred to it as his lucky
rabbit foot. Brush is suspected ofburning down the Polo Grounds in nineteen eleven
to collect the insurance money that bankrolledthe construction of a new stadium and the
same spot. These weren't virtuous menthat Pulliam had made enemies of. They

(59:23):
were ruthless. They won a lotof baseball games, and they won them
at all costs, So it's notthe craziest theory in the world. Whatever
was actually going on behind the scenesas well in the public arena, it
took a toll on Pollium. Earlierin his career, the press went out

(59:44):
of their way to describe his impeccableappearance, noting that all colors of the
rainbow were used in his outfits.But in photos between nineteen o eight and
oh nine, he looked disheveled anddistraught. For a man already known to
have suffered from depression to now beunder such public scrutiny, it was happening
an effect on him. In aseries of league meetings, and the winner

(01:00:06):
of nineteen oh nine, Polliam suffereda nervous breakdown. There are multiple accounts
of his breakdown in the newspapers.The league owners and officials had gathered in
Chicago for the Winter Meetings, anannual event to discuss a wide array of
baseball issues. One item on theagenda was whether or not to rehire Pollium.
Reports at the time indicate that theywere split four to four, and

(01:00:30):
as if things weren't already tense enough, Murphy, now playing the rule of
full on villain, began leaking leaguesecrets to the press just to embarrass the
league, namely that Pollium and hislongtime friend Barney Dreyfuss, the owner of
the Pittsburgh Pirates, had had somesort of fallen out. Pulliam was furious.
This set up a very different kindof showdown, this time one that

(01:00:53):
pitted the league president against the leagueowners and a fiery speech. Pulliam berated
them, My days as a baseballman are numbered, he shouted, The
National League doesn't want me for presidentanymore. It longs to go back to
the days of being bottom of thepack, hiding the cards under the table,
and to the days when trademark wasto gumshoe strong words. Things only

(01:01:19):
got more bizarre from there. OnFebruary nineteenth, a day after his dramatic
speech, Pulliam randomly announced to thepress that he planned to be married in
Saint Louis. The bright to bewas never named, and the only person
that he's thought to have been romanticwith was a guy named mister Russell,
someone described in the press as aLouisville intimate. It's also known that mister

(01:01:42):
Russell visited Polliam in Chicago at thebehest of some of his remaining friends among
league owners and officials. This isa very confusing piece of history. But
thinking back to what Floyd said andcomparing Pulliam to Chakovsky, the latter of
whom married a woman just to hidea sexuality, there's one theory that kind
of makes sense. He must havereally believed that his detractors would use his

(01:02:06):
sexuality against them, so the marriageannouncement was just a ruse. No one
was buying it. In fact,a few of the owners decided to intervene.
That very same day, he tooka cab to the train station,
presumably to head off to Saint Louis. George Duvey, the owner of the
Boston Doves, in one of hisremaining allies, disguised himself as a cab

(01:02:28):
driver, commandeered Pulliam's cab and tookhim in the opposite direction of the train
station. Once he realized what washappening, Pulliam bolted out of the horse
drawn carriage and ran to the station, just leaving his baggage in his coat
behind. That happened. It wasa real event that was recorded in multiple
newspapers in Chicago at that point,they were probably more trying to protect him

(01:02:51):
than anything. They knew. Eventhough he claimed that he was going there
to be married, they knew thatthere was no such engagement. They knew
he had probably no play instead ofa honeymoon in Honolulu. He was breaking
down very severely, and they thoughthe needed help and the last thing he
needed to do was travel to SaintLouis and pretend to get married. After
his spectacular escape, Pulliam made itto Saint Louis but never got married.

(01:03:15):
By February twenty firsts, according tomultiple reports in the news, he was
in Cincinnati, resting in a carefacility. The Baltimore Son, for instance,
reported that he arrived in Saint Louiswithout any baggage, but was followed
there by his brother and another friendand was convinced to go to Cincinnati.
Soon after that, he was granteda leave of absence by the league.

(01:03:36):
That same day, February twenty first, the Chicago Examiner reported that he was
at the Saint Nicholas Hotel in Cincinnati, be intended to by physicians. As
the paper put it, he wasnearing a state of collapse from there,
he is known to have gone toNashville and stayed at his family estate for
some time, But before leaving Cincinnati, he told the Examiner, there are

(01:03:58):
two things that cannot be done tome. I cannot be forced to resign
my position as head of the NationalLeague, and I cannot be forced into
a newspaper marriage. So the marriagething was just made up. After some
time off, Pulliam eventually returned tohis post as president of the National League,
but his condition worsened Throughout the nineteeno nine season. He spoke often

(01:04:20):
of suicide, telling those closest tohim that he saw himself as unfit to
live and that it was a sinfor him to stick around in such a
condition. He was serious about it. On July twenty eight, nineteen o
nine, loan in his room atthe New York Athletic Club, the most
brilliant baseball executive of his time,shot himself in the head. He lingered

(01:04:44):
for hours afterwards, but doctors whotried to treat him said he couldn't be
saved. He died the next dayat thirty nine years old. At his
funeral, every team in both theAmerican and National League Senate representative with the
loan exception of the New York Giants. Harry Pulliam was probably the chief proponent

(01:05:04):
of standardizing the game, making ita an athletic contest that followed the rules,
that didn't put up with the rowdinessof the players, the drunkenness,
the gambling. Tried to legitimize itas an entertainment that reflected American society as

(01:05:30):
he saw it, which was acivilized society, a society of hard work,
but also an appreciation for the finerthings in life. And that to
me was his greatest contribution. Buthe you know, in terms of just
fundamentals, he was one of thefirst proponents of legitimizing the American League and

(01:05:56):
joining the two leagues in essence withthe National Agreement. He was adamant in
trying to make this a national game, expanding its reach and legitimizing it.
And I think he did that.And the fact that he always supported his

(01:06:16):
umpires when he never overruled his umpires. He believed in the rules of the
game and the enforcement of Rule fiftynine, and the Mercal plays as a
case in point, probably the mostdramatic case in point in the history of
the game. Obscure Ball is presentedby Small League Productions. Each episode is

(01:06:48):
written, narrated, edited, andproduced by me. Additional research for this
episode was provided by David Gunn andOlivia Carteo narrated the newspaper clippings. For
more information on how Small Leak Productionscan help you create a handcrafted podcast,
visit small Leak stud dot com.Music for this episode and all previous episodes

(01:07:09):
are courtesy of story Blocks. Aspecial thanks to stut Thornly employ Telivin for
their contributions to this episode, andbe sure to subscribe to Obscure Ball on
your podcast app of choice so you'llget alerts when new episodes are released,
which is occasionally