Friday, March 21, 2008

April 14th, 1908: Boston (NL) at Brooklyn

I've chosen to play a few games for the 1908 DMB Co-op League that Sposfan set up. In-between watching college basketball and reading Taiwanese newspapers, I fit in a game this afternoon. I wrote up a quick blurb and attached the boxscore below, along with a few pictures. Hope you enjoy!

April 14
th, 1908

BROOKLYN – Through poor defense and absent-minded play, the Superbas handed the first game of the season to the Boston Doves, 4-2. The large crowd that turned up for this inaugural contest left empty-handed, their heads spinning with visions of runners left standing on the bases.

For a while, it seemed that the hometown Superbas would pull out with a win. But in the top of the 8th, with the score tied 2-2, Bill Sweeney smacked a Nap Rucker fastball down the left field line. By the time Brooklyn left fielder Hummel came up with it, Sweeney was standing on third base. Frank Bowerman, the next Boston batter, battled ferociously, fouling off pitch after pitch until one of Rucker’s floaters failed to break. Bowerman’s single sent Sweeney home, and that decided the contest.

Boston twirler Irv Young had a masterful performance, spreading two runs out over 7 hits. Three errors by the Boston defense threatened to spoil his masterpiece, but Young remained true to the end, stopping Brooklyn rallies in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings.

Nap Rucker’s knuckleball baffled Boston for the most part. Save a first inning rally and Sweeney’s heroics in the 6th and 8th, Rucker sent ‘em down as soon as they got up. No less than 8 Boston batters struck out in the course of Rucker’s brave complete game.

Rucker’s efforts were spoiled by 5 Brooklyn errors and bonehead baserunning. Down by one, with one out and Al Burch on first in the bottom of the 8th, John Hummel promptly ground into a double play. Why Burch wasn’t running on the play is anybody’s guess.

The two teams meet again on the 16th, as Brooklyn’s Harry McIntire faces George Ferguson.

Boxscore

I can't get the boxscores to format correctly on Blogspot (no surprise). You can view the boxscore here. Please let me know if this link doesn't work.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

great write-up! The link for the boxscore didn't work by the way, think there's an internet conspiracy to keep people from posting DMB boxscores? :)

sposfan

Dan Evensen said...

Hmm -- I'm not sure why the link to the boxscores doesn't work. Seems to work here on my computer. I'll think of something...