The Only Time They Ever Met
A duel that was over in five innings, a record credited to the wrong man, a giant crowd at a race already decided, and a ground ball three days overdue.
Ed. 09.12.26
The Only Time They Ever Met (1911)
Boston billed the nightcap as the duel of the age. Cy Young was 44 and pitching for a 44-107 club. Mathewson was 31 and chasing a pennant. Ten thousand came out, the biggest crowd of the year at the South End Grounds. Young gave up nine runs and three homers in under three innings. Leading 9-0, McGraw pulled Matty after two to save him for the Cubs. The only time the two ever faced each other, and the last time Boston saw Young pitch at home.
The Record That Was Not (1930)
Ebbets Field had a left-field wall three feet high, the last refuge of a dying rule: a fair ball that bounced over the fence still counted as a home run. Rookie catcher Al Lopez hopped one over it past Reds left fielder Bob Meusel. For most of a century the Hall of Fame and nearly everyone else credited him with the last bounce homer ever hit. SABR went back through 1930 and found two more, both at Ebbets, both later that same month.
103 Wins and Eight Games Back (1954)
84,587 paid their way into Municipal Stadium, roughly 86,500 in the building, standing ten rows deep behind the outfield fences. Bob Lemon took the opener 4-1. Early Wynn struck out 12 and won the nightcap 3-2. Three of the four starting pitchers that afternoon ended up in Cooperstown. The Yankees finished 103-51, a season most franchises would frame, and it bought them second place behind a Cleveland club that won 111 and then got swept in the World Series.
The Hardest One of All (1979)
Carl Yastrzemski had gone three days and 13 trips to the plate stuck on 2,999, playing on a pulled Achilles. In the eighth inning of a 9-2 game, the 40-year-old pulled a Jim Beattie pitch past Willie Randolph into right field. First to reach him at the bag was his son. No American Leaguer had ever put 3,000 hits and 400 home runs together before.
