Manager John McGraw’s Giants received an astonishing performance in 1912 from lefthander Rube Marquard, who set a modern major-league record by winning his first 19 decisions. Marquard finished with 26 victories. Christy Mathewson won 23 games. Rookie Jeff Tesreau was a key find, winning 17 games, leading the league in earned-run average with 1.96 figure and tossing a no-hitter against Philadelphia in early September.
Offensively, New York got big seasons from second baseman Larry Doyle, who batted .330 and hit 10 home runs; first baseman Fred Merkle, a .309 hitter who hit 11 homers; catcher Chief Meyers, who had a .358 batting average 371 at-bats; and Red Murray, who led the team with 92 RBIs.
Put together, the Giants were a team that, despite a second-half slump, won 103 games and outdistanced its closest National League rival by 10 games.
The American League champs, of course, were expected to be the Philadelphia Athletics, Series winners the previous two years. However, Connie Mack’s A’s never got fully cranked up and plunged to third place, 15 games behind the pennant-winning Boston Red Sox and one game I back of the second-place Washington Senators. The Red Sox got a phenomenal year from 22-year-old righthander Smokey Joe Wood, who won 34 of 39 decisions and pitched 10 shutouts. Another young player, outfielder Tris Speaker, batted .383 in his fourth full season in the majors.
Wood was Boston Manager Jake Stahl’s pitching selection for Game 1 of the 1912 World Series. Giants Manager John McGraw opted for Tesreau over either Marquard or Mathewson. Wood and the Red Sox prevailed, 4-3, with second baseman Steve Yerkes delivering a tie-breaking, two-run single in the seventh inning.
Game 2 was a stem-winder as the Giants overcame a 4-2 deficit with three runs in the top of the eighth inning, only to allow a tying run by the Red Sox in the bottom of the inning. New York regained the lead, 6-5, in the 10th, but Boston showed its pluck by rebounding once more in its half of the inning. With one out, Speaker drove a smash to deep center field and, running full steam, circled the bases when Giants reserve catcher Art Wilson (who had just entered the game) dropped the ball on a play at the plate. Speaker was credited with a triple. Neither club scored in the 11th, and darkness put an end to the proceedings. The game went into the books as a 6-6 tie.
After Marquard deadlocked the Series the next day with a 2-1 victory, Wood and Tesreau renewed acquaintances in Game 4. Wood got the upper hand again, spacing nine hits in a 3-1 triumph. Then Red Sox rookie Hugh Bedient, a 20-game winner in 1912, outdueled Mathewson in a 2-1 decision that put the American Leaguers in command of the Series, three games to one (with one tie).
Their work obviously cut out for them, the Giants went to work with a vengeance. They blasted Buck O’Brien for five first-inning runs in Game 6 and hammered Wood for six runs in the opening inning of Game 7. With Marquard pitching a seven-hitter and Tesreau turning the tables on Wood, New York won those games by 5-2 and 11-4 scores. The best-of-seven battle would require an eighth game.
Mathewson, winless in this Series after going the distance in the tie game and dropping Game 5, and the 22-year-old Bedient hooked up again in the finale. And, after nine tense innings, it was a 1-1 standoff. Mathewson was still pitching for New York, while Wood had taken over in the eighth for Bedient (who left the game in the seventh for a pinch-hitter, Olaf Henriksen, whose double tied the score).
In the 10th, New York’s Murray laced a one-out double and scored on Merkle’s single. While Wood retired the side without further damage, the Red Sox were faced with trying to rebound from a 2-1 deficit against Mathewson, who had been his usual stingy self all afternoon.
A happy ending to New York’s storybook campaign — a year featuring a spirited World Series comeback — appeared one out closer when Boston pinch-hitter Clyde Engle began the bottom of the 10th by lofting a routine fly ball to center field. Fred Snodgrass camped under the ball-and dropped it. With Engle on second base after the misplay, Harry Hooper was robbed of a hit when Snodgrass made a great catch of his long drive. Engle advanced to third after Snodgrass’ grab, and Yerkes followed with a walk. Speaker hit a pop foul between a “frozen” Merkle and Meyers and, incredibly, the ball fell safely near the first-base coach’s box. Given a reprieve, Speaker singled home Engle with the tying run.
With Yerkes stationed at third and Speaker on first with one out, Duffy Lewis was walked intentionally. Third baseman Larry Gardner then belted a deep fly ball to Josh Devore in right field, and Yerkes tagged up and scored. The Red Sox, with more than a little help from the Giants’ Snodgrass, had come back against the mighty Matty for a 3-2 victory and their second World Series championship.
For the stunned Giants, it was an unbelievable finish to what had been a make-believe season.
This article was originally published on TSN
Game Recaps from Retrosheet
1912 World Series Stories
The 1912 Post-Season Games
World Series: Boston Red Sox (4) defeated New York Giants (3)
World Series Game 1 Played on Tuesday, October 8, 1912 (D) at Polo Grounds V
BOS A 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 - 4 6 1 NY N 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 3 8 1
BOX+PBP WP: Wood (1-0) LP: Tesreau (0-1)
World Series Game 2 Played on Wednesday, October 9, 1912 (D) at Fenway Park
NY N 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 - 6 11 5 BOS A 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 - 6 10 1
BOX+PBP
World Series Game 3 Played on Thursday, October 10, 1912 (D) at Fenway Park
NY N 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 - 2 7 1 BOS A 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 1 7 0
BOX+PBP WP: Marquard (1-0) LP: O'Brien (0-1)
World Series Game 4 Played on Friday, October 11, 1912 (D) at Polo Grounds V
BOS A 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 - 3 8 1 NY N 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 1 9 1
BOX+PBP WP: Wood (2-0) LP: Tesreau (0-2)
World Series Game 5 Played on Saturday, October 12, 1912 (D) at Fenway Park
NY N 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 1 3 1 BOS A 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 x - 2 5 1
BOX+PBP WP: Bedient (1-0) LP: Mathewson (0-1)
World Series Game 6 Played on Monday, October 14, 1912 (D) at Polo Grounds V
BOS A 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 7 2 NY N 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 x - 5 11 1
BOX+PBP WP: Marquard (2-0) LP: O'Brien (0-2)
World Series Game 7 Played on Tuesday, October 15, 1912 (D) at Fenway Park
NY N 6 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 - 11 16 4 BOS A 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 - 4 9 2
BOX+PBP WP: Tesreau (1-2) LP: Wood (2-1) HR: Doyle (1), Gardner (1)
World Series Game 8 Played on Wednesday, October 16, 1912 (D) at Fenway Park
NY N 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 9 2 BOS A 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 - 3 8 4
BOX+PBP WP: Wood (3-1) LP: Mathewson (0-2)
