The World Series of 1889
When the Giants and Dodgers first met in the postseason
I offer this story below as a corrective to the widely articulated notion that the Giants and Dodgers are set to meet for the first time in postseason play. Of course the three-game playoffs resulting from ties for the pennant in 1951 and 1962 don’t count — these are defined as regular-season games and accrue to the statistics of both teams and their players.
The source is Preston D. Orem’s indispensable BASEBALL (1882–1891) from the Newspaper Accounts, recently reissued by SABR in a single volume incorporating the ten booklets originally published in 1966 and 1967. A key feature, unavailable on the web: box scores for each of the nine contests. https://sabr.org/latest/new-sabr-research-resource-preston-orems-baseball-from-the-newspaper-accounts-1882-1891/
The preliminary conference between John B. Day of New York; Charles H. Byrne; and Ferdinand A. Abell of Brooklyn took place at the Sporting Times office on October 16th, consuming two hours. A series of eleven games was decided upon, but the series should end when a team had won six games, a decided improvement over past arrangements. The new plan would eliminate the past farces which took place when games continued to be played after a team had already won the championship. Such contests were also unattractive to the fans and drew small crowds.
The first game was to take place at the Polo Grounds, the next at Washington Park, thereafter the games were to be alternated between the two home grounds, without trips to other cities as in the past, another improvement. Should rain or other weather conditions interfere, the series would go on in the same manner, the game being rescheduled for the same park on the first clear day. The admission prices were fixed at 50 cents, plus 25 cents extra for grandstand seats. The umpires would be cloaked with the same authority as in regular championship games during the league seasons. They could levy fines and eject players in the same manner. Any fines assessed by the umpires would go to the opposing club, and had to be paid within 24 hours under penalty of a forfeiture of the next scheduled game. Manager McGunnigle was not present; rumor had it that he was resigning immediately because of some differences with president Byrne.
Newspapers had suggested Kelly and Gaffney, who had officiated with such successful results in previous series. However, it was Gaffney and Lynch who were the first selections. After Lynch declined to accept the offer of $400 for umpiring the entire series, Ferguson was selected in his place. Lynch, however, came in to umpire the second game.
New York was attired in white uniforms with black trimmings and black caps. The Brooklyn outfits were white suits also but trimmed in red. Gaffney wore a neat wine colored suit. Lynch, when he officiated, was dressed in a gray suit, with a letter carrier type cap.
At the Polo Grounds on October 18th, the Bridegrooms made six errors and stole fewer bases than the Giants but outplayed New York in other respects. Less than 9,000 witnessed the game but provided more enthusiasm than ever seen before at the New York grounds. Both clubs were unduly excited and made some plays that would ordinarily shame them if perpetrated.
After the Giants, batting first, were retired, the Bridegrooms practically murdered the overconfident Giants right at the start. O’Brien hit one past second; Collins doubled to left field; Burns bingled over Richardson’s head, scoring two runs. Burns went to second on the throw in and to third on a sacrifice by Foutz. Clark hit safely past Keefe, scoring Burns. Terry singled to right and went to second on the throw to third. On a double to left by Corkhill, two more tallies counted. The Brooklyn supporters were jubilant at the five runs in all.
The Giants carne back in the second with two scores. Ward led off and walked. Collins fumbled an easy grounder by Connor·. Ward was caught trying to steal third. Rich[ardson] singled to right, Connor scoring when Burns let the ball go by. A sacrifice fly by O’Rourke to center scored Richardson, who had taken third. In the Brooklyn half, Collins hit into the free seats in left field for a homer.
In the fourth, Ewing doubled but was out on an attempted steal. The Giants couldn’t run wild on Clark as they had on the St. Louis catchers. Ward and Connor both walked. Ward, safe on a steal of third, overslid and was tagged out. Richardson flied to Corkhill who, in catching the ball, turned a complete somersault, fell on the ground stunned, and “nearly broke his neck.” Both Connor and Richardson came in. The Bridegrooms claimed that Corkhill had caught the ball but both umpires disagreed. Corkhill being too dazed to play further, Visner was substituted for him.
Keefe walked in the fifth as the wildness of Terry continued. Gore sacrificed. Ewing walked. Ward singled to right, scoring Keefe. Both runners advanced on the throw in. Connor retired the side by fanning as the New York crowd groaned, the tying and winning runs being on base.
But New York apparently Won the game in the seventh inning. After Keefe had been retired, Gore and Tiernan singled. Ewing popped up and Pinckney made a purposeful muff to attempt a double play. The umpire would not allow it, declaring out under the “momentary holding rule.” Ward’s safe hit scored Gore. When O’Brien fumbled, Tiernan came in also. Then O’Brien dropped a hard drive by Connor and Ward came in. Visner continued the comedy of errors by fumbling a hit by Rich and allowing Connor to tally. When O’Rourke tripled, Richardson became the fifth man to cross the platter in the inning. Whitney, ninth to go to bat, went out.
Four runs behind, Brooklyn was still far from beaten. Ward made an “excusable error” on a hard drive by Collins. Burns singled, Foutz doubled, Pinckney sacrificed, two runs resulting.
After the Giants were retired in the eighth inning, the Bridegrooms won the game. It was really too dark to play; electric lights in the neighborhood were already flickering. Foolish baserunning had retired the Giants in their half of the inning, probably preventing at least one run. This proved costly. After Terry was out, Visner doubled. Smith was retired. With two out, it was now or never, as it would obviously be impossible to play another inning. Richardson missed O’Brien’s grounder, the turning point that lost the game. Visner scored. Collins made a two bagger, scoring O’Brien with the tying run. Another double by Burns won the game, Collins counting. Foutz hit towards third. Whitney either could not see the ball, or pretended he could not, Burns tallying. Foutz allowed himself to be tagged out and the game was over. Howls from the crowd: “Who won?” “What’s the score?” This is it:
Next day at Washington, every seat was occupied an hour before game time. Long ropes encircled the space for the players but by 3 p.m., nearly every space in the enclosure was taken. A human wall encircled the field. Agile latecomers perched on the high fences around the grounds. The attractive fair sex was not as numerous as usual. Anticipating the crush, they remained at home. Paid attendance was 16,172.
There was admirable police work and good service to the grounds on the elevated. Not much grumbling was heard. A floral horseshoe ten feet high, near the players’ bench, presented by the Brooklyn Furniture Co., failed to bring the home team any luck as the Giants had an easy win. The Bridegrooms, who had batted the New York’s best pitcher, Keefe, hard, had trouble with big Ed Crane and made only three hits. Most of the Giant runs were due to poor Brooklyn fielding.
In the first inning, Gore singled to left, went to second on a wild pitch, third when Visner dropped a third strike on Tiernan, scored on an out.
Connor singled in the second, went to second on a fumble by Smith, scored on two outs.
The Bridegrooms had matched these two runs.
O’Brien walked, Collins singled, Foutz scratched a hit. One run.
Caruthers walked. Richardson erred on Corkhill. Smith popped out to Crane, who missed an easy double play. O’Brien sacrificed in Caruthers.
New York scored what proved to be the winning run in the third. Gore singled, stole second, scored on Smith’s error on Ewing.
In the fourth, O’Rourke singled and stole second. A wild throw by Smith on Gore’s grounder allowed Jim to score.
Tiernan started off the fifth with a single, stole and went to third on Visner’s poor throw. Ward’s hit scored the run. John also stole a base and scored on another bad throw by the Brooklyn catcher.
A phenomenon took place on the following day, Sunday, October 20th, at Ridgewood Park. Brooklyn played Baltimore during the World Series and actually won after a hard fight instead of, as customary, making a farce of the game. Attendance was only 3,329. Brooklyn,6; Baltimore, 2.
Muddy grounds prevented the Monday game. The series was resumed on Tuesday, October 22nd, at New York.
Darkness played an important part and, in fact, determined the outcome of a very close, hard hitting game.
Welch was in wretched form, finally being relieved by Hank O’Day in the 6th inning, who held Brooklyn runless but it was too late. Hughes, hit hard throughout, was relieved by Caruthers in the 8th inning. The Giants appeared overconfident again at the outset but should have lost all of it before the contest was over.
After Gore was out to start it, Tiernan singled. Mike went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Ewing’s bingle. Buck stole second. Ward bunted and beat the throw but was out stealing second, Ewing holding third. Connor’s double scored Ewing. Richardson hit safely and stole second. When O’Rourke walked, the bases were loaded, but Whitney hit an easy fly to O’Brien for the third out.
The Bridegrooms tied the score in the second; went ahead by scoring three runs in the third. Hughes walked, Collins singled to left, Burns flied to Gore. The Giant outfielder first muffed, then threw wild, and the bases were full. Safe drives by Foutz and Clark scored three tallies.
Corkhill homered over the left field fence in the fourth inning,
Four runs behind now, the Giants made three in the fifth, but the Bridegrooms came right back with two of their own, Tiernan tripled in the sixth and scored when Ward singled past short.
Smith continued his poor fielding, muffing an easy pop fly by Connor. A single to center by Richardson allowed Ward to count.
It was pretty dark at the end of the 8th inning but Gaffney allowed New York to c6me to bat in the ninth. Then with the bases full and one out, the game was called to the great delight of the Brooklyn supporters, the great disgust of those of the Giants.
Cudworth, captain of Worcester, who was present in the grandstand, lit a big piece of paper and held it over his head. He thought it was funny thus to intensify the falling shadows of the ninth inning but president Day was rendered very angry. He averred that Cudworth would not be allowed to enter the Polo Grounds again.
Even friends of New York admitted that it would have been all but impossible to complete the ninth inning but thought that, once started, more of an attempt should have been made to complete the inning.
Two base hits- Gore, Connor, Welch, Pinckney, Clark, Smith-2. Three base hit- Tiernan. Home run- Corkhill. Bases on balls- Welch, 3; O’Day, 3; Hughes, 2. Struck out- Welch, 1; O’Day, 3; Hughes, 3; Caruthers, 1. Stolen bases — Tiernan, Ewing, Richardson. Wild pitches — O' Day, Hughes. Passed ball- Clark. Umpires- Gaffney and Lynch. Time- 2:07. Attendance, 5,181.
Next day, there was a very unsatisfactory contest before 3,045 half frozen spectators at Brooklyn. The Giants, beaten again, did not relish this sort of treatment. Day talked of ending the series as the Bridegrooms led, three games to one.
“The exhibition today bore only a slight resemblance to the National Game, and the crowd, mostly, went home thoroughly disgusted. There was about half an hour of ball playing, the rest of the time was spent in wrangling. Anyone with an ounce of brains who saw yesterday’s game, witnessed the temper and hatred illustrated by both teams, would certainly have dismissed all thoughts of hippodroming from his mind.”
The kicking started early as Ewing claimed that Brooklyn would not have scored in the first inning but for an unfair decision. But the real trouble came in the sixth.
The Giants had been playing miserably in the field and Brooklyn led by a score of 7 to 2 after five innings. Then the rally started. Jim O’Rourke doubled, Whitney beat out a bunt and went to second on a passed ball. When Crane and Gore both hit three baggers, New York had three runs. “Tiernan struck out on tutti-frutti.” Many objected to Mike’s constant chewing gum habit. Ewing hit the ball right in front of the plate. As Gore started to score, Clark grabbed the ball and attempted a rundown. When the catcher’s throw hit Gore in the back, Gaffney called Gore out for intentional obstruction of the throw. Several minutes of hard wrangling ensued, as the Giants were mad as hornets at what appeared an unusual ruling. Then Ewing, who had taken second, was sent back to first, causing more ineffectual dispute. Ward singled, Ewing going to third. John started to second on a steal but Clark threw to third in an attempt to nab Ewing. As the ball went out into left field, Ewing and Ward crossed the plate. In returning the ball, it had hit O’Rourke, who was on the coaching line. Ward would probably have scored anyway but the Bridegrooms set up a claim of intentional interference. This dispute lasted thirty minutes. Gaffney, after fining O’Rourke for intentionally interfering with the ball, ordered Ward back to third base. Ewing appealed to umpire Lynch, declaring if the runner were sent back to third, he would remove New York from the field. Lynch, believing both men would have scored anyway, allowed both runs. “Brooklyn then adopted the tactics common to the Southern mule and so prevalent in baseball today and it was almost dark when the teams got back into position to play.”
In the last half of the sixth, an error by Richardson was instrumental in giving the Bridegrooms three runs and the game.
Day said after the game that he was most tempted to end the series right then and not to allow his team to play another game. The New York owner said the umpires were not treating his players fairly and he was not accustomed to this sort of a deal. A conference was set for the following day at 1 p.m., between Day, Byrne and the two umpires to talk the matter over seriously.
Gaffney’s opinion was that the Giants were not playing at all in their true form, nor anything like they played against St. Louis in 1888. There was tremendous locaI feeling. The fighting and wrangling would have to stop or it would spread to the spectators and a riot would ensue. In order to play a full innings, the next game would start at 2:30 p.m., and actually should start at 2 p.m. Gaffney firmly believed both Gore and O’Rourke had purposely interfered with the ball.
The conference took place before the game on the following day. In addition to the team presidents and the two umpires, Mutrie and McGunnigle were present. McGunnigle had not resigned as manager after all. It was agreed by all that a stop must be put to the wrangling. Games were to start in the future at 2:15 at the Polo Grounds and 2:30 at Brooklyn.
2,901 hardy souls were present for the fifth game on October 24th at Washington Park. The weather was raw and very cold. There was less partisan feeling displayed and the umpires had an easy time. For one thing, the Giants pounded Caruthers hard and won easily. Ewing was out with a sore hand. Clark was badly hurt running to first in the sixth inning and had to retire.
In the third inning. Whitney tripled, Gore walked, Tiernan singled, Brown doubled, Burns muffed Ward’s fly, Richardson singled, all adding up to four runs.
Fifth inning. Tiernan walked, Brown singled, Connor tripled, Richardson hit a home run past the carriages in center field. Four runs.
Home runs by Crane and Brown were instrumental in adding three more tallies. The Bridegrooms just nibbled along off Crane.
With the weather now very cold, many of the comfort-loving supporters of the Giants would not come out but the 2,556 who did see the sixth game saw easily the best contest of the series, hard fought and well won on the part of New York as the series was tied up at three games each.
“Well, I would not have missed that game for $50,” said a Wall Street broker. “$50,” scornfully exclaimed Digby Bell, his chubby face marked with great disdain, “I would not have missed that game for any money! Why. I know some cranks that won’t sleep in a week, because the cold weather kept them downtown today.
“It was a remarkable game, illustrating all the scientific points and so quick and sharp that it was over in two hours. And last Wednesday it took 2:15 to play six innings.”
In the second inning, Pinckney, Visner, Terry and Corkhill hit successive singles. But Pinckney was out at third on Visner’s hit; Terry was doubled off second on a pop fly by Davis. The poor baserunning held the Bridegrooms to one run. As it transpired, this lost the game. But the run looked awfully big until the New York half of the ninth inning; bigger yet when Tiernan and Ewing were retired. Ward had two strikes on him, then hit past Collins into right field. John, playing it all or nothing, stole second. Not content with this, he then stole third and pandemonium reigned. Connor hit to short, Ward scoring as Davis momentarily fumbled. Connor also stole second and third but Richardson was an out.
Slattery opened the eleventh inning with a single and went to second on Tiernan’s out. Ewing sacrificed the runner to third and Ward came up again. He sent the ball rolling slowly to the weak spot at shortstop. Davis hesitated, then waited for the ball, handling it rather slowly. Ward just beat the throw by a step as Slattery scored the winning run. The big difference in the teams was at shortstop and it beat the Bridegrooms as they lost the “big game” of the series. The injury to Clark hurt also as Visner seemed unable to hold the Giant baserunners.
On October 26th at New York, there was a drizzling rain and the grounds were muddy. Crane could not control the wet ball; Lovett was helpless before the bats of the Giants. Keefe replaced Crane; Caruthers took Lovett’s place in the fourth inning. The only feature of the game was the heavy hitting of New York, which took the lead in the series. The game got under way at 2:20 p.m., before 3,312.
The Giants scored in the first inning on a wild throw by Pinckney and Ewing’s hit. Then in the second, twelve men came to bat. Two home runs, three two base hits, two singles and two bases on balls resulted in eight runs for New York.
Brooklyn counted four times in the third on two singles, two errors and three passes. In the fifth inning, with the bases full, Smith hit the ball into the free seats for an apparent home run but O’Rourke retrieved the ball and retired “Germany” at the plate. Naturally this led to a long wrangle, of which there were plenty otherwise. Undoubtedly, the ball had been tossed out to O’Rourke by a spectator but, unless this fact were perceived by an umpire, the out would be allowed under the current rules, which allowed an out in a case where a ball had gone into the stands, then bounced out under its own power.
The Giant supporters started hollering for O’ Day in the fifth inning, shouting, “take him out, “ but Keefe braced and was effective the rest of the way.
On October 28th at Brooklyn, the Bridegrooms had no chance at all. Visner could not catch Terry, Clark being his regular receiver but now injured, so Terry was pounded for 12 runs in the first four innings. Foutz came in to pitch in the fifth inning, Terry going to first base.
Brooklyn, for the second day in a row, made seven runs on only five hits. Crane was put in again by New York and pitched the full game, once more being a bit wild.
In the first inning for the Giants, Slattery beat out a slow hit to short, Tiernan singled, Ewing sacrificed, Ward beat out a bunt. This filled the bases. Connor’s single scored two. The runners moved up on a passed ball. Richardson’s hit scored two more. He took second on the throw in and scored on a long fly by O’Rourke. These five runs were augmented by eleven more. It was a hollow victory, Scarcely anyone could see a chance left for Brooklyn which would now have to win three in a row.
The weather was cold, disagreeable and damp at the Polo Grounds on October 29th. When the Bridegrooms put Terry in the box again it looked like another walkover, but Bushong was catching and Terry hurled a fine game. The contest was desperately fought. Once again, Smith, who had fielded very poorly in the series, made a costly miscue. He threw to first in the sixth instead of making a play at the plate for Ward, who would probably have been retired. As it was, Ward scored the tying run.
A ludicrous feature was Connor’s effort to “bring in a run” in the seventh inning. “The ton of bone and muscle caused the run to score alright but lost the seat of his knickerbockers in the process. The game was called while he went to the clubhouse for a new pair.”
At the close of the game, the attendance of a scant 3,067 joined as one in the Giant battle cry of “We are the People”; then gathered around the grandstand gong. The noise was deafening.
