Meanwhile the New York Giants, led by Fred "Bonehead" Merkle scored 10 runs in the first inning before St. Louis recorded an out. That's not the only record the Giants set that day. Reliever Rube Marquard entered the game in the second inning for NY and struck out 14 Cardinals in 8 innings, which is still a major league record for strikeouts by a reliever.
"Bonehead," huh? I'd love a baseball nickname, but not sure if I'd want that one.
The nickname, Bonehead, is better than his last name, Merkle.
Bonehead Merkle sounds very Dickensian.
But, gina, there's a very interesting baseball story behind his nickname that I'm sure SC knows (as he may have been a bright-eyed, dirty-faced rapscallion, selling hot roasted peanuts to the throngs that filled the Polo Grounds on that sunny, late Sepyember afternoon in 1908).
The Pirates, Cubs and Giants were in a virtual dead heat for the NL crown with a week or so left in the season. The Cubs and Giants were locked in a 1-1 game in the bottom of the ninth with 2 out. Moose McCormick was on the third and Merkle on first for the Giants when the batter singled to center, allowing Moose to gallop triumphantly home with the apparent winning run. Celebrating the victory, Merkle bypassed second base and joined hgis teammates in the dugout. Cubs' secondbaseman, Johnny Evers (of Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance fame) noticed Merkle missing second, called for the ball, and stepped on second, which resulted in a force out, and as a run may not be credited on a play where the final out of the inning is a force, Moose McCormick's run was nullified.
Under protest the Cubs won the game in extra innings. I believe the League ruled that the game would be replayed if it mattered in the standings at the end of the season. It did as the two teams had tied at the end of the year. In the play-off Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown beat the Giants, sending the Cubs to the World Series...with the help of Merkle's "bonehead" play.
As a footnote Merkle's nickname was especially curious as he was actually regarded as one of the most intelligent and scholarly men in professional sports at the time.
This golden age of the game has always fascinated me. I'd take a few years off my life just to sit in the Polo Grounds and watch that game, beginning to end, buying a bag of peanuts from SC.
