September 23, 1908: The Legend of Merkle's Boner

When I was a kid, I loved to read about baseball history. If there was a book about random baseball tidbits and folklore, I was all over it. I was a fountain of useless information memorizing all sorts of odd facts and historical events throughout baseball history. I believe strongly that if "Children's Baseball Jeopardy" was a thing, I would've been an unstoppable force.

And one story that stood out to me in particular was the legendary "Merkle's Boner" of 1908. Naturally, part of it had to do with the fact that I was ten years old and I found the word "boner" to be downright hilarious. (Admittedly I'm 40 now and I don't think my maturity level has grown much, but I outside of the word choice I was also fascinated by the story.)

Giants first baseman Fred Merkle

On September 23, 1908 (hey that's today!) ... The Cubs and Giants squared off in a fierce battle at the Polo Grounds in New York. As you remember from yesterday, the Cubs swept a doubleheader from the Giants and the two teams found each other tied for first in the National League. Needless to say ... this game was HUGE!

But before I go into the details of the game that became a legendary (and infamous) part of baseball lore, let me refer back to my post from September 4th, where I outlined the event that likely won the Cubs the World Series.

You can click here for the full story, but in a nutshell the Cubs lost a game to the Pittsburgh Pirates 1-0 under protest. With two outs in the 10th inning of the game, the Pirates delivered what was thought to be the game winning single. However, Cubs second baseman Johnny Evers noticed that the runner on first never bothered to touch second base, and he ran over and touched the base and argued that the run didn't count because the force out at second had occurred.

The problem was ... umpire Hank O'Day had already left the field and didn't notice that the runner hadn't touched the base, and no call was made. The Cubs filed a protest that was denied by the National League offices, and the Pirates kept the victory. But make no mistake, umpires were now well aware of what went down, especially Hank O'Day.

Well guess who just happens to be the umpire in today's game? Hank O'Day!

Paging, Mr. O'Day ... Fate is calling you

So I'm going to go ahead and spare you all the details leading up the play and get right to the meat of the story, since that's what we all want to hear about in the first place. (Also, the insanity that happens after the play is spectacular.)

With the score tied 1-1, the Giants had runners on first and third with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning. Shortstop Al Bridwell laces what appears to be a game winning single to center field as Moose McCormick trots home from third base. As he does, the crowd starts to swarm the field, thinking the game is over. (Keep in mind that in 1908 overflow crowds for big games were allowed to sit ON the field in foul territory.)

As the happy Giants fans swarm the field the runner on first, 19 year old Fred Merkle, who's had all of 46 at bats all season with the Giants, starts trotting off the field as well. The problem for Merkle is that he doesn't touch second base, leaving open the ability to force him out and nullify the run.

Well crap.

Just like he did back on September 4th, Cubs second baseman and future Hall of Famer Johnny Evers notices this and immediately starts screaming to center fielder Solly Hofman to throw him the ball. Hofman hurls it in, but the throw gets away and Giants pitcher Joe McGinnity (who wasn't even playing in the game) realizes what's happening. McGinnity grabs the ball and hurls it into the stands!

At that point (according to the Tribune), Cubs pitcher Kid Kroh takes off into the stands and starts fighting off a "half dozen Giants fans" to retrieve the ball. At this point I should note that all of this can be taken with a grain of salt, because almost every single Cubs game in the Tribune is written in a sensationalized fashion that reminds me of watching WWE Raw. But hey ... it's the only account we have since there's no TV or radio!

Kroh manages to wrestle the ball away, tosses it to Harry Steinfeldt, who turns to Evers to relay the ball to him at second base. Meanwhile, Giants captain Mike Donlin is feverishly trying to drag Merkle back to the field to touch the base (the Tribune says "by the back of his neck"), but it's too late. Evers has the ball and steps on second base.

Here's the ball by the way ...

But that's not the end of the insanity ... now everybody is going NUTS ... players, spectators, and even the police force on hand serving as game security. Cubs player-manager Frank Chance tries to approach umpire Hank O'Day to find out what the ruling is, and the police assume he's trying to attack O'Day and immediately start going after Chance.

The Tribune claims he's attacked by 50 police officers, but we'll go ahead and assume it was more like five or six. Regardless, now Chance and a few other Cubs players start fighting with police as they try to whisk umpire O'Day off the field.

Fortunately for the Cubs when they do this, he explains that Merkle is out at second and the game will end in a 1-1 tie due to darkness (aka "There's a riot going on on the field and a sure as hell ain't going back out there to get killed").

Both teams protest, and the next day National President Harry Pulliam rules to toss the game out and replay it at the end of the year if it's needed to decide the outcome of the pennant (Spoiler alert ... it's needed). [Interesting side note here: Pulliam gives the Giants the option to choose a one game playoff or a best of five series. The Giants choose the one game because they had the best pitcher in the game, Christy Mathewson, and they figure that's their best path to victory.]

So after all that insanity, the game is basically tossed out, but poor Fred Merkle is absolutely destroyed by the media, especially in New York, and "Merkle's Boner" is born.

You gotta feel bad for the guy ... He made a boneheaded mistake, but it ended up dogging him for his entire life, which absolutely sucks. Merkle had a halfway decent major league career that spanned 16 seasons, but his bad luck continued because he was part of SIX World Series losing teams, and also got blamed for taking part in a botched popup in 1912 that cost the Giants a World Series that year as well.

As an admitted Bartman Apologist, I feel like nobody deserves to put up with that kind of agony in their life. We're all human, we all make mistakes, and something like that could happen to just about any one of us if our luck goes South at just the wrong moment in time.

I give props to Watertown, Wisconsin resident David Stalker ... the hometown of Fred Merkle. He fought hard to erect a monument dedicated to the accomplishment of the man's life, and made sure to leave out all the details of that fateful day. Here it is ...

But hey ... we're Cubs fans around here ... so we will take the good fortune! The Cubs are still tied for first and will play the Giants one more time in this series tomorrow, which is sure to be an absolutely crazy affair as well given what just went down today. Stay tuned!