Tag Archives: Sherry Smith

October 11, 2020

This Date in 1920

The Indians host the Dodgers for the sixth game of the best of nine World Series on October 11, 1920. It comes down to a pitching duel between Sherry Smith of Brooklyn and Duster Mails of Cleveland. Both go the distance, but Mails comes out on top 1-0 to give the Indians a 4-2 lead. They need to win just one of the remaining three games to take the crown.

Mails got into trouble in the second thanks to his defense. With two outs, he allowed one of the three Brooklyn hits to Ed Konetchy. That was followed by an error by the shortstop and one by the third baseman to load the bases. Pitcher Smith was up next, and he flew out to center, “which is no place to lift a pill when Tris Speaker is ranging the territory.”

The Indians scored in the sixth inning on a single by Speaker, who comes home to score on a double by George Burns. The best offensive game of the day goes to Joe Evans, the Indians lead-off hitter. He picked up three singles in four trips to the plate.

Grantland Rice notes that this series has been Mails’s revenge:

In the meanwhile Mail’s revenge is complete. In 1917 the Dodgers cast him aside as one unworthy of their select pitching society. Back in Booklyn last week, after Ray Caldwell had been hammered out, Mails held the Dodgers scoreless for seven innings. To-day he added nine more. For sixteen innings he has held his old mates dangling at the end of a wire, working them like mannikins made of wood.
It’s the old story of the cast-off returning to bite the hand that refused to feed him. Baseball is fairly littered with such examples, but few revenges have been more complete than that of Mails.
New York Tribune

The series has now taken in $480,880 on an attendance of 150,832.

October 7, 2020

This Date in 1920

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The Indians and Dodgers play the third game of the World Series on October 7, 1920. The Dodgers take the game by a score of 2-1, and that win gives Brooklyn a 2-1 lead in the best of nine series.

Sherry Smith pitched a complete game for the win, giving up an unearned run on three hits and two walks. He struck out two batters, and the game stories are full of the heroics of the Dodgers infielders on defense:

The Dodger infield alone ran down thirty-seven chances without an error. On three separate occasions the Cleveland attack launched desperate drives, only to find Kilduff, Olson, or Johnston in the way with line of stops and throws. The sole Cleveland run resulted from a double by Tris Speaker in the fourth inning which bounded through Wheat’s open-faced legs and rolled on to the fence. But the industrious Zach more than atoned for this one misplay by rapping out three singles, the first of which played an important part in Brooklyn’s winning rally through the first round.
New York Tribune

Zack Wheat made the error, but he also produced the best day at the plate with three singles, driving in the first run of the game.

It been a low scoring series so far with just ten runs crossing the plate in the first three contests.

Also on the sports page is an article on the National League owners gathering to talk about reorganizing the governance of baseball. They decided to invite the AL owners to a meeting on Oct. 18 to discuss the issues in light of the White Sox scandal.

September 11, 2020

This Date in 1920

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The major leagues play all eleven scheduled games on September 11, 1920, including three doubleheaders. Game two in Brooklyn and game two hosted by the Braves result in the same 2-0 score as the Dodgers beat the Cardinals and the Braves beat the Reds. Those are low scoring games, and both completed a sweep. Three games tie for the high scoring contest. The Dodgers beat the Cardinals 15-4 in game one. In the AL, the Browns beat the Senators 13-6 in game one and 17-2 in game two.

It is a great day for Brooklyn pitching. Leon Cadore of the Dodgers served as the starting pitcher in game one, but takes home best offensive game of the day. He goes three for four with a double and a home run, scoring twice and driving in four runs. That puts his slash line at .299/.264/.349 for the season.

Sherry Smith wins best pitched game of the day for his game two shutout. He allows five hits and two walks, but does not strike out a batter. Smith pitched mostly in relief, and is on a hot streak. His ERA stands at 0.90 in his last six appearances, with 15 hits allowed in 20 innings.

With the Dodgers winning two and the Cincinnati Reds losing two, Brooklyn is suddenly in command of the NL pennant race. They have a three game lead over second place Cincinnati, and a 3 1/2 game lead over the Giants. New York beat Chicago 2-1.

The results of the day in the AL leave the standings a little off kilter. The Yankees beat the Indians 6-2, while the Red Sox beat the White Sox 9-7. That leaves the Indians in first place, but 1/2 games behind the Yankees. The White Sox, also a 1/2 game behind the Yankees, are in third place. So the first and third place teams are 1/2 game behind the second place team!

The Yankees played 138 games so far, Cleveland just 133. So the Yankees are 32 games over .500, the Indians 31 games. Since games back is 1/2 the difference in games over .500, the Yankees are 1/2 game up.

In the AL batting race, George Sisler of the Browns goes three for eight in the doubleheader to end the day at .395, while Tris Speaker of the Indians posts a one for three day to finish at .391.

Here is the sports page for the day.

May 30, 2020

This Date in 1920

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The major leagues saw all seven scheduled games played on May 30, 1920. It was a rather high scoring day, as the Dodgers beat the Braves 5-2 for the low score of the day, while the Giants beat the Phillies 10-6 for the high score of the day. May 30th was the fourth highest scoring day of the year so far at 10.86 runs per game.

Dave Robertson of the Cubs takes home best offensive game of the day as he goes three for three with two doubles and a walk in Chicago’s 6-2 win over the Cardinals. That extended the Cubs winning streak to eight games, and Robertson contributed mightily to that, 17 for 27 with four doubles and five walks, driving in thirteen runs.

Sherry Smith of the Dodgers posted the best pitched game of the day. He allowed two runs, one earned on six hits and three walks. He struck out four. Smith was part of a Dodgers rotation that led the majors in average game score through this date. Due to a number of extra-inning games, and starters going deep, the Dodgers staff was averaging 27.8 outs per start.

In the news of the day, W.O. M’Geehan writes something he probably wanted to take back a few months later (emphasis added):

Betting itself does not jeopardize any sport. They bet extensively upon amateur sports – on golf, on football games, and a bit on tennis matches. But it is the sure-thing gambler who gums the cards, the man who wants to fix things. Of course, the sure-thing man is not a gambler. He takes no chances. That is why they have to exercise such vigilance in baseball because of the sure-thing men who always have been hungry to get in on baseball, and baseball is the one professional sport into which these larcenists have made no inroads.
New York Tribune

September 1920 would prove that statement wrong, as the Black Sox scandal would come into full view.