The Seamheads.com Wayback Machine

I recently posed this question to members of my Seamheads group at Facebook: “If you could go back in time and witness one baseball game, event, or moment, which would it be?”

I chose the September 6, 1912 game between the Red Sox and Senators at Fenway Park, in which Smoky Joe Wood outdueled Walter Johnson and led the Sox to a hard-fought 1-0 victory.  As far as the pennant race was concerned, the game was inconsequential because by then there was no pennant race.  Boston held a comfortable 14 1/2 game lead over the second-place Philadelphia A’s and a 15 1/2-game cushion over the Senators with 20 games to play en route to their third pennant and second World Series title in 12 years.

But the game was historic, nonetheless.  According to Red Sox co-owner Bob McRoy, the crowd, estimated at just over 29,000, was the largest ever to see a regular season weekday game at Fenway (the game was played on a Friday).  Secondly, the game featured two hurlers who had only one loss between them in their previous 29 starts combined.  Wood was working on a winning streak that had reached 13 games and would eventually reach 16, significant because Johnson had just had his own 16-game winning streak snapped on August 26 by the St. Louis Browns.  When Johnson won his 15th straight game on August 20, he broke the American League record for consecutive wins by a pitcher, previously held by Jack Chesbro, who won 14 straight in 1904.  Less than a month later, Wood would challenge Johnson’s record, but he’d need to beat “The Big Train” on September 6 first.

That’s exactly what he did—Wood surrendered six hits and three walks, and struck out nine for the win.  Johnson was even more judicious, allowing only five hits and a walk, while fanning five, but the Red Sox used consecutive two-out doubles by Tris Speaker and Duffy Lewis in the sixth inning to push across the game’s only run.

Wood ran his winning streak to 16 before it was snapped on September 20 when the Tigers beat him, 6-4.  He finished the 1912 season with an astonishing 34-5 record and a 1.91 ERA.  Johnson went 33-12 with an even more impressive 1.39 ERA and 303 strikeouts.

Here are others’ choices:

Bill Nowlin, Author and co-founder of Rounder Records: “For 48 years now, I’ve been kicking myself for not going to the September 28, 1960 ballgame. I went to quite a few games that year. I could have gone to the last home game, too. After all, I knew it was going to be Ted Williams’ last game.

“Instead, I stayed home and listened to the game on my new-fangled transistor radio while I was doing my newspaper route. Ted came up for his last at-bat….BAM! Home run!”

Michael Rosenberg, Author: “I’d want to watch for myself to see if Ruth really called his shot against the Cubs.”

Mike Petraglia, MLB.com reporter and owner of SportSound: “Game 7 of the 1955 World Series as the Dodgers finally break through against the Yankees.”

David Pinto, BaseballMusings.com: “I would have liked to have seen the Babe Ruth/Ernie Shore no hitter. Ruth hit the first batter, then got ejected. Shore erased the runner, then retired the next 26 batters. For a long time, this was considered a perfect game for Shore.  The event I would like to have seen was Lou Gehrig day at Yankee Stadium.”

Al Wilson, Program Manager, Qualcomm: “Easy for me. I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1990, having taken some classes on the ground where Forbes Field once stood. I’d loved to have seen Game 7 of the Series and Mazeroski’s home run. Partly for the moment, and partly to see what it was like to watch a game at Forbes Field!”

Randall Hall Chandler, Pharmacist: “The Merkle Incident happening, September 23, 1908.”

Christian Ruzich, Research Director of TRU and Founder of All-Baseball.com: “For me it would definitely be Cubs vs. Giants, 9/23/08 — the Merkle’s boner game.”

Steve Marantz, Author, researcher at ESPN: “The game Doc Ellis pitched while on LSD.”

Jack Armstrong, Counselor/Therapist at BHC Alhambra Hospital: “My grandfather was at Lou Gehrig’s farewell game. I would’ve liked to have been there with him when he was a young man. Also, as a life long Dodgers fan, I would’ve liked to have seen Jackie Robinson’s debut and/or Sandy Koufax’s perfect game against the Cubs.”

Eli Timmons, Digital Desktop Technician, ICC Macmillan: “Not a deep cut here Mike, this might be the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ of baseball moments, but I’d like to have seen Ted’s last at bat…or any of his at bats. The red seat home run would be on the list also.”

Patrick DiCaprio, Associate Editor, Fanball.com: “Definitely the Merkle Boner!  How about the Harvey Haddix game?”

Ron Kaplan, Features/Sports Editor, New Jersey Jewish News: “Wow. ONE game. Hard choice, but off the top of my head, I would liked to have seen the 1-0, 16-inning double complete game duel between Warren Spahn and Juan Marichal (July 2, 1963), won on a Willie Mays’ homer.”

Rod Nelson, Project Manager, Tiger Stadium Conservancy, Inc.: “I’ll take the Merkle Boner (9/23/1908) and Shot Heard Round the World (10/3/1951), both at the Polo Grounds.”

Jonathan Mayo, Author, MLB.com writer: “It’d be easy to pick something like the Bobby Thomson “shot heard ’round the world” game, especially since my mom lived in NY and was a Giants fan at the time. But I’d probably pick Game 7 of the 1965 World Series, to see Koufax pitch on two days’ rest and throw a three-hit shutout. If that option wasn’t available, I’d throw the time machine into hyper drive and go to Game 1 of the 1903 World Series, just to thank Barney Dreyfuss and co. for starting the whole concept.”

Phil Quinlan, Congressional Aide: “Top of my head, I would have to pick Koufax’s perfect game, September 9, 1965, as much because of how Bob Hendley threw nearly as well. Arguably the best pitched game of the live-ball era.”

Michael Taylor, Writer, Seamheads.com, MVN.com, BleacherReport.com: “Wow Mike, great topic…many of mine have already been stated here from Gehrig’s speech to Babe Ruth’s called shot to “The shot heard round the world.” Another that I would loved to have attended would be Don Larson’s perfect game in the 1956 Series. Or even Jackie Robinson’s first game in Brooklyn.”

Michael Clark, Author: “Great question, Mike. Easy answer for me – Don Larsen’s perfect game! Imagine taking it all in…… Larsen’s no-wind-up delivery, Sal Maglie’s gem of an effort, Jackie Robinson’s line-drive careen off of Andy Carey straight into Gil McDougald’s glove, Mickey Mantle’s miracle catch in the 5th, Dale Mitchell’s check-swing on the final strike of the game, and then Yogi jumping into the “Gooney Bird’s” arms at game’s end. Think of it… seeing them all together – Mantle, Robinson, Berra, Reese, Snider, Campy, Hodges, Slaughter, Casey Stengel, Walter Alston, Bill Dickey and the voice of Mel Allen – then topping it all off with perfection. Not only would I want to go back in time to see it, I would want to be Babe Pinelli behind the plate. Wow!”

Jacob Pomrenke, Writer/Editor: “So hard to narrow it to one! But I’ll go with this: 1934 All-Star Game at the Polo Grounds. Hubbell striking out five Hall of Famers in a row, Frisch and Medwick homers, the AL busting out for six runs in the 4th with this awesome sequence (Ruth BB, Gehrig BB, Foxx 1B, Simmons 1B, Dickey BB, Averill 2B, Gehringer BB, Ruffing 1B), Dizzy Dean shutting ‘em down for three innings after that. 15 HOFers in the game for the NL, 12 for the AL. Wow!”

F.X. Flinn, chairman of SABR’s Internet committee: “Of course responses will be all over the lot depending on your age.  For example, I would not pick seeing Brett’s magnificent towering shot deep into the RF upper deck at Yankee Stadium off Goose Gossage’s 1st pitch in the last game of the 1980 ALCS because I did witness it. Nor would I ask to be at YS the night Reggie came back and took Guidry deep and caused the YS crowd to finish a ‘Reggie’ chant with a minute of chanting “Steinbrenner Sucks” (reported in SI by my pal Steve Wulf as ‘the crowd chanted a vulgarism that implied Steinbrenner whistled backwards’) because I was there. Or even for the Clemens-Piazza bat incident.

“But I do wish I’d seen Nolan Ryan throw one his no hitters, or any perfect game. So along those lines I’ll choose the Haddix ‘imperfect game.’ What a pelt that would be to have on the wall.”

Josh Deitch, Teacher, Coach, Writer, Seamheads.com: “Bobby Thompson’s shot heard round the world is an easy one. Also the 16 inning affair between Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn. Any Sandy Koufax start would have made me the happiest baseball fan in the world. In these times, though, I would love to have been there when Eddie Gaedel strode out of the St. Louis dugout.  Willie Mays’ catch would also be high on my list.”

James Dutton, Jane Finch Community Legal Services: “Satchel Paige when he intentionally walked two batters to face Josh Gibson in ninth with the bases loaded and tells Gibson he’s going to throw him three fastballs.”

Matt Dahlgren, Author: “For selfish reasons I’d like to see my grandpa’s [Babe Dahlgren] home run in the 1939 World Series or the home run he hit the day he replaced Gehrig. Aside from that, I’d have to say Gehrig’s speech (July 4, 1939). There have been a lot of memorable moments from games played; too many to count. But that day, that speech, has to be the most indelible moment in baseball history. Of course that’s just my opinion.”

Derrick Goold, Writer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “For the grand importance of the event, I would like to have covered/attended Jackie Robinson’s first major-league game. As a moment in history — baseball, American, etc. — that would be hard to beat for its blend of sport and culture. …

“A close second, and one more interesting to me personally than me professionally, would be going to Baxter Springs, Kan., in 1948 with a Yankees scout to see Mickey Mantle begin his comet-streak toward the majors. I’d like to see the 16-year-old Mantle, on the brink of stardom, at the moment his talent sparks and dazzles a scout’s eyes.”

Note: If you’d like to contribute to this list, just add a comment and I’ll add you to a future post.  If you want to join my Seamheads group at Facebook, you can find it here.