NewsNew book details 1912 World Series
Vaccaro recounts epic Red Sox-Giants matchup
By Thomas Boorstein / MLB.com
10/13/09 9:50 PM ET
How different was baseball in 1912? Fred Merkle, the Giants' first baseman known for his infamous "boner" of four years before, threatened "to go back to Toledo immediately and take up [his] study of law again" if the Giants didn't improve his contract.But baseball in 1912 sometimes resembled the game in 2009. Fans, unable to watch their teams play on television or even listen on the radio, called newspaper offices for updates or gathered in city centers to follow the game. Almost 100 years later, those away from their televisions still obsess, but they check their phones instead of gawking at street corners for the latest updates.
The game that has changed so much while maintaining its hold on its fans captured the attention of the Eastern Seaboard during the 1912 World Series, an eight-game act detailed in Mike Vaccaro's third book, The First Fall Classic: The Red Sox, the Giants and the Cast of Players, Pugs, and Politicos Who Reinvented the World Series in 1912 (Doubleday, 304 pages, $26.95).
Five Hall of Famers took part in the 1912 World Series, perhaps the greatest of all time. It helped christen a sparkling new Fenway Park with a Red Sox championship. The eight games -- Game 2 ended in a tie due to darkness and was replayed in its entirety -- included moments that became fixtures in the sport's lore. The Hall of Famers -- New York's Christy Mathewson and Rube Marquard as well as manager John McGraw and Boston's Tris Speaker and Harry Hooper -- were only part of the story.
Vaccaro, who also wrote 1941: The Greatest Year in Sports and Emperors and Idiots, weaves together the narrative of the Series with other famous events of October 1912. Progressive Party member Theodore Roosevelt, challenging the incumbent William Howard Taft and the eventual winner, Woodrow Wilson, was shot before Game 7. His folded speech and steel eyeglass case probably saved his life, and he gave the speech before receiving medical treatment from a hospital. The murder trial of Charles Becker, a New York City policeman, also took place while the Giants and Red Sox staged their epic confrontation.
Vaccaro draws off the heavy newspaper coverage of the time period, including many first-person accounts penned by the principals themselves. Just as athletes today give way to cliché, the players in 1912 did as well. But they also sometimes wrote revealing things, and weren't always shy about exchanging barbs with their teammates.
The Series was not without its controversy. The Giants and Red Sox alternated home games rather than the 2-3-2 format that is the standard now. That schedule meant late-night train rides along the quickly familiar route between Grand Central Station in New York and Boston's Back Bay. At the start of the Series, the teams shared one train. Although the players didn't fraternize when their paths crossed, Vaccaro writes, they did at least acknowledge each other's presence in a civil way. By the final trip to Boston (before Game 7), three trains ran: one for the Giants, one for the Red Sox and one for supporters.
Supporters of today's Red Sox might find it hard to believe they have descended from the Royal Rooters, the devoted fan club in 1912. The Rooters followed their team and were prone to boisterous outbursts of singing both at and away from the ballpark.
The rumors of corruption and the rigging of the Series were more than just whispers. Why did the Red Sox, leading three games to one, hold back Smoky Joe Wood from Game 6 with a chance to clinch the series? Did the prospect of another sellout in Boston tempt the Red Sox ownership? Was it fair that the players' cut came from only four games' gate receipts even though the series went eight games? Did the National Commission need that policy to ensure that players would not throw games to lengthen the series?
As Vaccaro points out, anyone who wanted to place a bet at a game he attended didn't have to walk far or even leave the stadium. What kind of effect did this have on the product on the field?
The First Fall Classic tells the story of one of only three World Series to end in extra innings of the deciding game. The book describes each game in detail, weaving in dialogue and players' backstories to add color. In telling of the Series' most famous moment -- Fred Snodgrass' dropped fly ball, or the "$30,000 muff" -- Vaccaro is careful to point out that the center fielder made an outstanding catch later in the inning. He also mentions the inning's forgotten gaffe: Mathewson's poor decision when directing infield traffic on a popup.
Whether the 1912 World Series was the best of all time is debatable, though, as Vaccaro writes, a case can surely be made that it is. But its importance and excitement cannot be denied. The personalities and style of the game may have changed, but few events can rivet the sporting world like a back-and-forth World Series.
Thomas Boorstein is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
