The Game That Never Happened

A game the record book erased, a pennant seized for keeps, the end of baseball's longest losing streak, and a thousand-dollar shoe.

This Day in the Old Ball Game comic strip for July 28: four panels depicting umpire Brick Owens botching the batting order in Boston's 10-5 win over the Browns in 1924, a win Ban Johnson later voided; the White Sox beating the Yankees 4-3 behind Billy Pierce and Al Smith's two-run homer to take first place for good in 1959; Anthony Young ending his record 27-game losing streak when the Mets rallied in the ninth at Shea in 1993; and Brian Wilson coloring his orange Nike cleats black with a marker after a $1,000 fine in 2010.

Ed. 07.28.26

The Game That Never Happened (1924)

Boston hung five runs on the Browns in the tenth to win 10 to 5. Except they didn't. In the ninth, umpire Brick Owens refused to let pinch-runner Norm McMillan bat and ordered catcher Tony Rego up instead. Two eighth-inning substitutions had swapped the shortstop and catcher in the order, and Owens missed it. He admitted it afterward. On August 17 Ban Johnson voided Boston's win and ordered nine innings replayed from scratch. Boston won the do-over in September, 13 to 11, with Owens behind the plate again.

Chicago Stops Looking Up (1959)

The White Sox had not won a pennant since 1919, a year nobody on the South Side cared to discuss. At Comiskey they beat the Yankees 4 to 3 behind Billy Pierce's twelfth win, the margin coming on Al Smith's two-run homer off the left field railing with Nellie Fox aboard. It moved Chicago past Cleveland into first place and they never gave the spot back. Five games clear, and a World Series for the first time in forty years.

Twenty-Seven and Done (1993)

Anthony Young had not won a game since May 6, 1992. Over 74 appearances he lost 27 decisions in a row, the longest streak any pitcher has ever carried, and saved 15 games that didn't stop it. At Shea he came on in the ninth of a tie game and gave up the go-ahead run, which is how these things went. Then the Mets scored twice, Eddie Murray doubled Ryan Thompson home from first, and it was over. Young said what came off his back wasn't a monkey. It was a zoo.

Nike Air Sharpies (2010)

Brian Wilson wore bright orange Nike cleats in the All-Star Game, which was allowed, then wore them against the Marlins, which was not. Florida's manager called the league. MLB fined him $1,000 and told him half of each shoe had to be black, so he sat at his locker with a black marker and colored them in himself. He called the result the Nike Air Sharpies. Three months later he closed out the World Series.

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The Game That Never Happened