|
Yesterday, May 8, 2010, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox played a game at Fenway Park that celebrated the 107th anniversary of their first meeting on May 7, 1903. The Yankees won this time, but Boston won in 1903. And it wasn’t even the Yankees all those years ago; it was the New York Highlanders. As is its custom, The New York Times published the complete box score, all the players, hits, time of the game and so forth, but because this was an anniversary, they also published the box score and a story from 1903. Another reason was that the game yesterday lasted over three hours and the game in 1903 lasted but 98 minutes, and this was part of the story. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t pay too much attention to a story like this except something caught my eye in the old box score, the kind of thing that grabs you with a glance for a reason you can’t easily explain. It was the name of the pitcher for New York. His name was Wiltse, an uncommon name. In the early and mid-1950’s I was a baseball nut and on the evening of September 18, 1954 found myself at a meeting of the Syracuse, New York Hot Stove League with a bunch of other baseball nuts, mostly much older baseball nuts. These older guys didn’t have an excuse for their nuttiness. I did because I was only a kid. I don’t remember any of the details of that day except for one and that’s only because I have a scrap of paper inscribed George “Hooks” Wiltse New York Giants 1904-1914 September 18, 1954. He was the honored guest that evening and I got an autograph. He probably made a bit of a speech and answered questions. At the time he was 75 and his handwriting was a little shaky. As I looked at the old box score, I wondered if this was the same Wiltse that pitched for the other New York team in 1903? I was pretty sure it was. The Baseball Encyclopedia said no. There was another Wiltse, an older brother, who bounced around for a minute or two with Pittsburgh, Philadelphis and finally New York but wasn’t nearly as good a pitcher as Hooks. The brother was known as Snake, but his name was much more unpleasant that his fastball and the game against Boston was his next to last in the bigs forever. The following year Hooks joined the Giants and, working in tandem with Christy Mathewson, the two won 435 games. But I’m glad the name, even if it was wrong brother, caught my attention. It was fun to compare the box score and there’s no puzzle in why the game lasted so much longer in 2010. This year, the Yankees had 11 hits and 10 runs; Boston had 9 hits and 3 runs. In 1903 the Red Sox had 13 hits and 6 runs, New York had 6 hits and 2 runs. Twenty hits versus 19; 13 runs versus 8; two doubles and one home run in 2010; the same in 1903. There was one big difference; one player, Chick Stahl, hit two triples. I had to look him up; I’d never heard of Chick Stahl and in looking at his record it was puzzling to see he played for one or the other Boston teams from 1897 to 1906 and then died shortly before the 1907 season was to begin. He was only 34. There’s probably a sad field of dreams-like story there. Back to the big difference, the length of the game. This is why. In 1903 nine men played for each team, one pitcher, each of who pitched a complete game, no substitutes, no pinch hitters, pinch runners, no designated hitters, and no relief pitchers. No trips to the pitcher’s mound, nothing that might delay the game. In 2010 there were twenty-nine players, including a pinch hitter for a designated hitter and six pitchers. I don’t know if the game in 1903 was any better than the game in 2010, but this year’s game was certainly longer, over-thought, over-computerized, over-strategized, and employed too many people measuring the speed of fastballs and every other kind of thing. Or perhaps the thinking is that if someone is paying a lot of money for a skybox seat, they should be able to stick around as long as possible to get their money’s worth and eat every last morsel of complimentary food. But I wonder if anyone in all of major league baseball has had two triples in one game this year? I kind of doubt it and to see some guy dashing around the bases and beating the throw to third is a bit more exciting than counting pitches, the endless waiting for yet another relief pitcher to face one batter or watching some guy run slowly around the bases after a home run. |
|
price comparison viagra cialis levitraPosted in on September 07, 2010 by |
Hooks Wiltse
