For Two Bits: A Ball Game and Farce Rolled Into One Good Time

Minor league baseball in the early 20th Century in America was not the same as today. Yes, it was a step below the big leagues, but the Class A teams were only a little step from the big leagues, not the giant step it is today. Many players in these Class A leagues were in the minors by choice, as the salary for the every day journeyman player was almost equal to the major leagues. The games played in these leagues were taken seriously by players and fans. The many fights resulting from decisions by umpires, and players fighting with players on the opposing team, that took place at the time can also be seen as proof of this. Thus the events of the final game of the 1905 season in Milwaukee are interesting, and a reminder that life was a seen from a little different angle back then. For players and fans alike.

Many of the players in this 1905 photo were involved in the final game of the 1905 American Association season at Athletic Park at Milwaukee’s 8th and Chambers.

The Brewers started the game in second place with a 94 and 58 record, nine games behind the Columbus Senators and six wins ahead of the third place Minneapolis Millers. Thus the game with the fourth place St. Paul Saints (72-77) meant nothing to the American Association standings.

The attendance for the Monday afternoon game was a mere 521. When the Brewers took the field in the top of the first inning, back up catcher Jay “Babe” Towne was behind the plate, left handed starter Jack Hickey was on the mound, and Quait Bateman was at his usual first base position. But the other six players were out of their normal spots on the first. Regular second baseman Barry McCormick was in right field. Shortstop Clyde “Rabbit” Robinson was in center and third sacker/captain Harry Clark was patrolling the left garden. Regular center fielder Frank Hemphill was standing at the shortstop’s spot, while right fielder Harry McChesney was at second and left fielder Jack O’Brien stationed at third base.

The Saints could not score in the first inning. When they took the field their line-up was even stranger than the Brewers had put on the field. Jack Sullivan, a catcher, took the mound. Pitcher Charlie Ferguson put on the tools of ignorance for the game. The infield consisted of regular third baseman Ed Wheeler on first base, pitcher Orville Kilroy at second, center fielder Charlie Hemphill (Frank’s brother) at shortstop and outfielder Phil Geier at third. The outfield was 20-game winter Walter Slagle, shortstop Pete O’Brien and second sacker Art Marcan.

The Brewers could not score in the bottom half of the first inning. However, in the second inning the farce began. McCormick and McChesney both doubled, but the lead runner did not score on the second two-bagger. Pitcher Jack Hickey then came to the plate. Hickey had not had a home run all season. As a matter of fact it appears from his statistics at Baseball-Reference he may have never had one. Hickey’s .140 batting average for 1905 shows what his batting skills amounted to. “All year long the fans have seen this excellent pitcher chase wide ones with indifferent success and when he made a safe hit it was the signal for applause”. But on this occasion Jack Sullivan “lobbed a ball over the plate that was so easy that it was a shame to hit it.” The lefty took a full swing and hit the ball over the left field fence at Athletic Park, clearing the bases. This was Sullivan’s last inning of work; he went behind the plate for the rest of the game and Slagle pitched.

With the score 3 to 0 after the second inning, Harry Clark and Jack O’Brien changed defensive positions for the third frame. From there on the game became a good time for the players. The pitchers simply tossed the ball over the plate and the hitters teed off. But the hitters had little interest in advancing past first base on these hits, simply stopping there in most cases. To top this off, the fielding was a farce. The fielders in some cases tried to catch the ball with their hands behind their backs, and at other times with their caps. Jack O’Brien was the star of using his cap, “saving himself many steps by stopping grounders in this way”. O’Brien must have been quite a spectacle at third base. On one grounder he started to run about a block for the ball that was hit straight at him.

Needless to say this kind of play caused “many ludicrous situations that amused the spectators as much as a variety performance would have done.” In some cases a hitter would slam the ball into the outfield for a double, but be put out in a lame attempt to take third. One time an infielder got the ball and the ensuing rundown became “a chase somewhat resembling two hens playing tag in a barnyard with all the other fellows looking on and bursting their sides with laughter.” After a couple of runs had scored a base runner would decide to sit down 10 or 20 feet from the bag until the ball was thrown in and the side retired. On one occasion, when enough runs had not scored, a fielder threw the ball over the fence so the runners could reach home.

Rabbit Robinson at one point apparently got tired in center field, so laid down and took a nap. Frank Hemphill struck out twice without even looking at the ball. The third time up he threw his bat at the ball and popped up a fly, which almost fell in for a hit as the St. Paul fielder was laughing too hard to get to it.

The score stood 9 to 7, in favor of the Brewers, after eight innings and the two teams braced up to play real baseball. Robinson and Hemphill took their normal defensive spots in the field for the Brewers. However, Jack Hickey was hit just as hard as when he was not trying to get the ball past St. Paul hitters, the Saints scoring three runs to take a 10 to 9 lead. According to the Milwaukee Journal the Saints were only supposed to tie the score, but by accident went ahead by one run. The Brewers could not score in the bottom of the ninth, and the final game of the 1905 season went into the books as a Milwaukee defeat.

In total the Saints made 24 hits off Jack Hickey, while the Brewers knocked out 17 safeties against the two St. Paul pitchers.

From what can be gathered it appeared the fans enjoyed what happened inside the ballpark as much as the players. However, Brewer Manager Joe Cantillon was not at the game, the Milwaukee Journal reporting he “must have been put wise as to what was going to be pulled off in the closing game and did not have the nerve to face it.”