Grand Tournament 5th series best of 9 double elimination the 1917 Chicago White Sox beat (i.e. spanked) the 1915 Philadelphia Phillies 5 games to 1, Not sure I ever saw such pathetic hitting as the line-up of the 1915 Phillies and the 1917 White Sox only were adequate but that was enough. I can find only 2 stars in this series Eddie Cicotte pitcher for the White Sox who won 2 complete game shutouts with one being a No-Hitter by scores of 1-0 and 3-0. The second star is Grover Cleveland Alexander of the Phillies who had the misfortune to pitch against Cicotte twice. Alexander pitched 2 complete games but got zero batting support as the Phillies only got 1 hit in 18 innings against Cicotte. In fact the Phillies only averaged 1.3 runs and 3 hits per game. In 1915 Alexander and slugger Gavvy Gravath led the Phillies to the pennant. Alexander pitched 376 innings in 1915 winning 31 games with a 1.22 ERA. Gavvy Cravath was the all-time home run hitter in MLB prior to Babe Ruth. In 1915 he hit an amazing 24 homeruns and drove in 115 runs. The 115 RBIs represented 24% of the Phillies total RBIs that year. I have not studied RBIs and earned runs in the dead ball era, but the fact the Phillies scored 103 of their 589 total runs unearned seems high to me, and may help explain the Phillies pennant win. Because if Alexander and Cravath dont do it, nobody else can. Cravath was the goat of the series going hitless in 6 games, and then was thrown out on an ill-advised caught stealing for the final out of the series. W L R H E SB CS 5 1 19 39 3 9 3 White Sox 1 5 8 19 4 3 3 Phillies Keys to victory are basically the Phillies top five batters in their line-up had a total of 5 hits in 6 games. Phillies Manager Pat Moran once again made the mistake of using good fielding no stick Bobby Byrne as the lead off man. Byrne is a 5 fielder at 3B, but his OPS is the worst on the roster with players >100 plate appearances. Byrne had a 54 OPS and an OBA of only .245. Anybody but Byrne would have been a better lead-off man, and his stats do not lie as he only got 1 hit and 2 walks in 6 games. The White Sox really do not have any hitting stars, but their line-up is pretty well balanced. Their best hitter is Joe Jackson with only a 81 OPS and Eddie Collins with a 79. At least Gavvy Gravath with the Phillies has the potential with a 90 OPS, while Phillie 1b Fred Luderus is better than Jackson with a 83 OPS. Since there is no third star player in this series I will give it to the Baker Bowl that the Phillies played in. The right field dimensions was only 280 feet and it was only 300 feet to right center. However it was known for its very large right field wall to make up for the short dimensions. The wall was 60 feet high. By comparison, the Green Monster at Fenway Park is 37 feet high and 310 feet away. The wall dominated the stadium in much the same way as the Green Monster does, only some 30 feet closer to the diamond; and because of its material, it made a distinctive sound when balls ricocheted off it, as happened frequently. The clubhouse was located above and behind the center field wall.No batter ever hit a ball over the clubhouse, but Rogers Hornsby once hit a ball through a window. I have attached a photo of this monster wall with the Lifebouy advertisement. Since the Phillies were bad for most of the years playing in the Baker Bowl except for 1915, the fans would joke about the Lifebouy ad saying, That even if the team used the product, they still stunk.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 02:05:16 +0000
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