A Grand Opening of Baseball Churches

April 20th, 1912 is a date known to most history buffs as the day the Titanic sank. For baseball historians however, the date signifies the opening of two legendary ballparks in Boston and Detroit.

The New York Highlanders, soon to be known as the Yankees, came to Boston on April 18 ^th looking for revenge. The rival Boston Red Sox went into their yard, Hilltop Park, and beat them three times to open up the season. Unlike previous years, the Highlanders would not travel to the Huntington Avenue Grounds to play the Red Sox in Boston but instead to the brand new Fenway Park. A capacity crowd was expected and on hand were the Mayor of Boston, John F. Fitzgerald, and the Governor of Massachusetts, Eugene Foss. However, the weather had bigger authority than both government officials and rain delayed the opening of the stadium until the 19 ^th, and when the rain kept coming, the teams agreed to try again on the 20 ^th .

Fenway Park actually held its first baseball game 12 days previous to its major league opener in an exhibition between the Red Sox and Harvard University. Boston defeated the University men 2-0 through a light flurry of snow that was making its way through New England. It was a short wait for the new park since the day in 1910 when Red Sox owner John Taylor, sick of the lease agreement with the Huntington ballpark, announced his intent to build a new baseball diamond for his team in the Fenway district of Boston. Construction workers broke ground in late-September 1911 and the $650,000 stadium was ready for use by mid-March.

27,000 fans showed up to Fenway on the 20 ^th for opening day in their new ballpark. 30-year-old right-hander Buck O’Brien was tasked with pitching the first game in Fenway Park history and he got off to a dreadful start. The hurler walked a batter, gave up three hits, and threw a wild pitch while allowing three New York runners to cross the plate. The Red Sox cut the deficit to two in their half of the first, but New York enlarged the lead to 5-1 in the third, when manager Jake Stahl decided to replace O’Brien with Charley Hall.

In the fourth, the Red Sox put together a rally. The first three Red Sox batters up against Highlander starter Ray Caldwell reached base on a single, a walk, and an error. With the bases loaded, pinch hitter Olaf Henrikson drew a walk to force Larry Gardner in from third. At that point, New York manager Harry Wolverton replaced Caldwell with Jack Quinn but he could not stop the bleeding as Boston scratched three runs across in the fourth to cut the Highlander lead to 5-4.

Boston added another run in the sixth to square the game up but New York struck back in the eighth, when a Hal Chase double brought home Benny Kauff. The Red Sox didn’t waste any time getting things even with their rivals when, in the bottom of the inning, Steve Yerkes and Stahl hit back-to-back doubles to bring the score to 6-6. Boston had a chance to take the lead with Stahl on third base but a magnificent catch by New York rightfielder Bert Daniels kept the game tied.

The game went into extra innings and the eleventh belonged to Tris Speaker. The Red Sox centerfielder made a big catch on the run in the top of the inning to keep the Highlanders off the scoreboard and then he came to the plate in the bottom half with a chance to win the game for the home side. After Yerkes reached on an error charged to New York third baseman Cozy Dolan, reliever Hippo Vaughn’s first pitch to Speaker hit the backstop, advancing Yerkes to second base. Then, at 6:25 PM local time, Speaker hit a pitch into center field to score Yerkes for Boston’s seventh – and winning – run of the ballgame, sending the new Fenway Park into a frenzy.

Meanwhile, on the same day in the Motor City, the Detroit Tigers opened up their regular season home schedule against the Cleveland Naps in the brand new Navin Field (the original name for Tiger Stadium). The new ballpark, named after team owner Frank Navin, replaced old Bennett Field, which had been used by the Tigers for the previous 15 years. When Navin acquired land around Bennett Field, he ordered the demolition of the 15,000 seat, wooden stadium after the 1911 season, to be replaced with a newer, 23,000 capacity stadium made entirely out of steel and concrete. During the offseason, construction workers tore down Bennett Field and put up Navin Field in time for opening day, at the cost of $300,000.

Detroit Mayor William B. Thompson was on hand to throw out the opening pitch, but the crowd’s pre-game favorite was behind the plate, catching the Mayor’s pitch. The catcher was none other than Charles Bennett, the former backstop for the old Detroit Wolverines and the man whom the old ballpark was named after. In fact, Bennett caught the first pitch at every Detroit baseball home opener since 1896, a few years after his career was cut short after he lost both of his legs in a train accident.

The Tigers got off to a running start in their new ballpark, literally. The speedy 3-4 combo of Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford reached base in the first inning with two outs and successfully completed a double steal with Jim Delahanty at the plate. During the same at-bat, the duo tried and succeeded in another double steal attempt, this time with Cobb swiping home for a 1-0 Detroit lead. Delahanty would later drive Crawford home to put the Tigers up two runs.

Like the game 702 miles away in Boston, this game went into extra innings. In the eleventh, with the game tied at five, Naps starter Vean Gregg got the first out before surrendering a single to shortstop Donie Bush. Gregg retired the next hitter, Oscar Stanage, but allowed Bush to advance to second base on the play. With two outs, Gregg prepared to face his counterpart, Tiger starter George Mullin, with the winning run only 180 feet away. Mullin hit a hard ground ball down to Naps third baseman Terry Turner, who let the ball skip right between his legs. It was Cleveland’s fifth error of the game and its most costly one as Bush scored the game-winning run in front of a record Detroit baseball crowd of 24,000.

Fast forward to September 27 ^th , 1999 at 7:07 PM, when Tiger closer Todd Jones struck out Kansas City Royals centerfielder Carlos Beltran to end the 6,873 ^rd regular season major league game at Tiger Stadium. It was also the last game to be played at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Trumbell Boulevard after over 100 years of Tiger baseball on that location, stretching back all the way to 1895 at Bennett Park.

As for Ol’ Fenway, it’s still kicking after all of these years and is still a site to see for all baseball fans. The Highlanders have become the Yankees and the hottest ticket in baseball might be when New York comes to Fenway to play the Red Sox.