Merkle's Boner is now 100 years old

Merkle's play was common for the day, as the story points out, and usually on such plays the player who didn't touch the next base was given a gentleman's C, so to speak. So it's somewhat understandable why Merkle didn't advance and simply touch second base, and not an "inexcusable" error.

A far bigger mistake (to me) is Lonnie Smith's baserunning error in the 7th game of the 1991 series, when Chuck Knoblauch faked him into thinking a ground ball had been hit instead of a gapper double. Smith held up, could only make it to third instead of scoring easily, had he paid attention and picked up the ball, and was stranded.

Twins subsequently win in 10.

 

I've got one issue with Merkle's mistake being bigger than Buckner's, et al, and that is:

The Giants played 16 games after Sept. 23, 1908.

They lost three times in a week -- on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday -- to Harry Coveleski of the Phillies, then had to sweep Boston to finish in a tie with the Cubs. They had plenty of chances to win the pennant even with that tie game (it wasn't even a loss -- just a tie) against the Cubs.

Merkle got blamed for losing the pennant, but that wasn't really the case. It's like blaming Bartman for the Cubs losing in the NLCS, when it was just a foul ball and nothing really changed.

As far as the actual "bonehead" play, I'd place more blame on McGraw for not putting a stop to the rookies and substitutes being allowed to tear off for the clubhouse as soon as the game ended. If he nips that in the bud, the 19-year-old Merkle doesn't get in the habit of racing for center field and probably keeps running toward second base when Bridwell's hit lands, and he's as well-remembered today as Dode Paskert or Sherry Magee (who, you ask? Exactly.)

 

Glad you paid attention...

 

Not sure if anyone can open this, but SABR's Deadball Era Committee put together a special 23-page Merkle Edition newsletter to commemorate the anniversary. Essays and articles from Keith Olbermann, Cindy Thomson (who helped write a fantastic bio on Three Finger Brown recently), Norman Macht (author of an exhaustive new bio of Connie Mack), and many others.

http://www.sabr.org/cmsFiles/Files/theinsidegame-volume8no4.pdf

 

Buck: Thanks for the awesome link.

 

The other thing that's crazy is how the fans just stormed the field after Bridwell's hit. I understand if it was a pennant clincher, like Chambliss' homer. Just seems like a bit of an overreaction , seeing that there were 16 more games left.

Or, was that how fans exited the stadium then? If so, it seems kind of weird that they went through turnstiles to get in, but used the field to leave.

 

Actually, I think that's how fans in the lower seats were allowed to exit. I don't think it was a "storming the field" situation quite like Chambliss (frankly, I think that was so insane there's never been anything like it!) I believe it was Fred Snodgrass -- in the Glory of Their Times transcripts, IIRC -- who said that "the fans only wanted to shake your hand or something like that."

Read Pete Wevurski's post on the Yankee Stadium thread (on Anything Goes). He mentioned being able to walk along the warning track to leave a game after it was over, and that was in the 1960s. So I think it was pretty common in those days. Remember, in big games with overflow crowds, they often used to set up a rope in the outfield and fans would stand behind the rope on the field itself. Wasn't unusual at all for people to be on the field during or after games.

 

Yeah, I remember leaving Yankee Stadium via the warning track as a kid.

 

My dad told me that he got to walk on the Yankee Stadium warning track after the game. I always thought he was a very lucky man.

 

Hell, that warning track thing may still happen. I remember sitting on the track at a couple spring training games in Clearwater when I was in college.

 

I'm pretty sure in the Polo Grounds as it was configured in 1908, the Giants clubhouse (maybe both teams') was located in deep center field, not connected to the dugouts by tunnels, so when the game was over, players took off for deep center field to get to the clubhouses.

And I think there were also outfield gates that opened directly onto the street, so it was normal for ushers to open the field gates, allow the crowd to go down on the field and then exit via the outfield gates.

 

Correct. That was the reason Merkle -- and the rest of the scrubs -- took off pell-mell for center field as soon as every game ended.

I believe when the new Polo Grounds was rebuilt in 1911 (after the old one burned down), there were tunnels under the stands leading to the clubhouse. That's why Bobby Thomson didn't have to fight the crowd to get up the stairs after his home run ... but Ralph Branca took the quicker route through center field after he walked off the mound, giving Red Smith a long, long look at that "huge number" on the back of his jersey ... 13.