2005-II Week 1 Games 1-8

Welcome to my blog.

This space will document a baseball season played by an all-time roster of Harrisburg Giants versus many superb major league (and other Negro League) teams. The Giants, as you may know, were a spectacular Negro League team that had its heyday in the twenties when they were members of the Eastern Colored League. They were one of the highest paid teams in Black baseball during their period, were one of the few teams soley owned by a single African-American entrepreneur, and featured on their roster some of the best hitters ever accumulated on any team in any league in any era. They were perhaps the best Negro League franchise to have never captured a pennant. The season, to be played between July 4, 2005 and the end of the year will be simulated using the APBA Major League Baseball Game. In addition to reporting linescores of each game complete with pitchers involved in the decsion, homers and game notes various historical pieces will be interspersed to bring the season alive. This blog - as most are - is an egotistical effort that is intended to educate, entertain and perhaps stimulate further interest.

The season (154 games) will consist of 20 weeks each (except the final) containing two series – a 5 gamer v a MLB team and a 3 gamer, including a Sunday doubleheader, with another Negro League team. Here is the early season schedule for the always homestanding Giants:

July 4-8 New York Yanees of 1927
July 9-10 Hilldale Daisies of 1925
July 11-15 Pittsburgh Pirates of 1960
July 16-17 Chicago Leland Giants of 1910
July 18-22 Detroit Tigers of 1909
July 23-24 Pittsburgh Crawfords of 1935

… and now, Opening Day

2005-II-1 07/04/05 Island Park Harrisburg, PA A-3,325
1927 NY Yanks 000 003 034 - 10 15 2
GIANTS 010 000 104 – 6 13 2
HR- Ruth, Meusel, Lazzeri, Taylor (1)
WP – Waite Hoyt
LP – Willie Gisentaner 0-1

NOTES:
* Game breaks in 6th with a long Ruth HR, a Gehrig triple, and a Meusel single
* Three Finger Gisentaner weakened in 8th and 9th allowing 7 runs
* Waite Hoyt returned favor in bottom of 9th allowing 4 of his own
* Bob Meusel and Jumpin’ Dugan had 3 hits each
* Ben Taylor had 2 hits, 2 ribbies, and 2 runs
* Baseball has been played at Island Park, since 1890, Mayor Hoverter tosses first ball

2005-II-2 07/05/05 Island Park Harrisburg, PA A-1,649
1927 NY Yanks 111 023 000 – 8 16 2
GIANTS 000 002 000 – 2 7 0
HR- none
WP – Herb Pennock
LP – Ping Gardner 0-1

NOTES:
* Earle Combs 5 hits, Koenig & Lazzeri 3 each
*Herb Pennock CG victory
* Rap Dixon 3 hits, Ben Taylor two more hits (4 for 9)

2005-II-3 07/06/05 West End Grounds Harrisburg, PA A-1,109
Today (actually this is an error, Paige's birthday is July 7th) is Satchel Paige’s birthday; he would be 99 years old if the most popular sources are to be believed. His childhood buddy – Double Duty Radcliffe – who shares the same birth date claims Paige was two years older (i.e. 105 since Duty turns 103 today). Happy Birthday Leroy & Ted!!!

In the 1950s when the Harrisburg Giants were a solid semi-pro club Paige brought his All-Stars to town and sometimes pitched against the Giants and sometimes took the field as their pitcher against another team. Accordingly, particularly being down two games to nothing --- today ol’ Satch will pitch for the Harrisburg Giants as they take on the Murderer’s Row Yankees.


1927 NY Yanks 000 000 000 - 0 3 2
GIANTS 000 000 001 – 1 7 0
HR- none
WP – Satchel Paige 1-0
LP – Urban Shocker

NOTES:
* The game was played at West End Grounds, 4th & Seneca, in uptown Harrisburg near present day Emerald Park
* Paige 9 IP 3H 0R 2W & 12Ks for the CG win!
* After 26 outs, with the score knotted at 0-0 … Manager Charleston sent three pinchitters to the plate: Heavy Johnson doubled, Spottswood Poles was purposely passed and Blainey Hall won the game with a clutch single batting for Paige.

2005-II-4 07/07/05 West End Grounds Harrisburg, PA A-989
1927 NY Yanks 020 000 001 000 – 3 11 1
GIANTS 000 201 000 001 – 4 12 0
HR- Tony Lazzeri, Oscar Charleston (1), John Beckwith (1)
WP – Carter 1-0
LP – Wilcy Moore

NOTES:
* All games in this series are played in 1925 at one of four Harrisburg Giant home parks. The initial two contests were played at Island Park, where baseball has been played since 1890 and presently where the Harrisburg Senators of the Eastern League play. Yesterday and today’s games are being played at West End Grounds in uptown Harrisburg. Next up will be Steelton’s Cottage Hill Field at which today the local high school team plays football. On Sundays, in Harrisburg in 1925 professional baseball was prohibited by Pennsylvania’s Blue Laws so another site was needed. It turns out that a ballpark in Lancaster was available and legal; accordingly all Sunday games will be played at Rossmere Base Ball Park, present site of my alma mater Lancaster Catholic, and home of the Lancaster Red Roses early in the 20th century.
* Today’s game was actually played (i.e. the APBA game) in front of an unbelievable crowd of 1,200,000 persons on Ben Franklin Parkway in front of the Art Museum (can you say Rocky?!) in Philly at last Saturday’s Live 8 concert. During Keith Urban & Rob Thomas sets I played the above thrilling game.
* Tony Lazzeri’s 9th inning HR sent it to extras
* In the 12th, Rap Dixon singled, stole second; Charlie was walked and Ben Taylor reached on an error … setting up Walter Cannady’s game winning, wall banging single. It was the 2nd straight walk off win for the Jints.

2005-II-5 07/08/05 Cottage Hill Field Steelton, PA A-1, 061
1927 NY Yanks 111 000 040 - 7 14 2 [3-2, Yankees capture the series]
GIANTS 001 001 001 – 3 6 0 [2-3]
HR- Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Fats Jenkins (1), Ben Taylor (2)
WP – Waite Hoyt (2nd win of the series)
LP – Sam Cooper (0-1)

NOTES:
* Hoyt 9 6 3 3 0 1 2-0 2 CG for his 2nd win and clinching series for the Bombers
* Joe Dugan’s two run single in 8th breaks open one run game
* 4th consecutive errorless game for Harrisburg
* Bill James in his recent work – The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract – ranks the top players of all-time. He places Ruth first but – to his credit – ranks Harrisburg’s Oscar Charleston 4th behind onlt the Babe, Willie Mays and Honus Wagner. Accordingly I offer the comparative statisitics for the pair of greats –
#1Ruth 6-20 w 2 HRs, 5 walks, 5 runs/2 rbi .300 .440 .600 1.040
#4Charleston 6-19 w 2-2Bs, HR, 4 walks, 3 runs/2 rbi .316 .435 .579 1.014

2005-II-6 07/09/05 Cottage Hill Field Steelton, PA A-781
1925 Hilldale 200 010 100 – 4 11 0
GIANTS 000 100 000 – 1 9 0 [2-4]
HR- none
WP – Phil Cockrell
LP – Ping Gardner (0-2)

NOTES:
* Phil Cockrell scatted 9 hits and a walk aided by 3 DPs and a toss out at home
* Dibo Johnson threw Beckwith out at home to end the 4th
* Clint Thomas had 4 hits for the wining Daisies
* Rap Dixon had three hits in the losing cause

2005-II-7/8 07/10/05 Rossmere Base Ball Field Lancaster, PA A-2,261
A beautiful Sunday in Harrisburg in 1925 … let’s play two! Unfortunately Pennsylvania’s Blue Laws do not permit professional baseball to be played on Sunday’s in Harrisburg (or Philadelphia for that matter as, long before they did move to Kansas City, Connie Mack dabbled with the idea of moving the Athletics do to this restriction on Sunday baseball.)

Accordingly we are now introduced to the 4th home field of the Harrisburg Giants – Rossmere Base Ball Park in Lancaster, PA. From 1924-27 the Harrisburg Giants played their Sunday home games here at the former home of the Lancaster Red Roses. Today, and every Sunday, we are treated to doubleheader Negro League action as the home standing Harrisburg Giants play two against the Hilldale Daisies.

1925 Hilldale 000 002 500 01 – 8 11 0
GIANTS 000 022 201 00 – 7 12 0 (2-5)
HR- Willie Gisentaner
WP – Scrip Lee (in relief of Rube Currie)
LP – Carter 1-1 (in relief of Gisentaner)

NOTES:
* 3rd loss in a row was a toughie after coming back from 7-4
* Daisies opened 7-4 lead with 5 in 7th sparked by Warfield’s bases loaded trip
* Giants tied it on a Dixon double in 9th
* Giants had sacks loaded with one out in 10th but failed
* Hilldale won when their first four reached in the 11th, Thomas had game winner

Second Game
1925 Hilldale 110 000 020 – 4 8 0
GIANTS 000 100 000 – 11 15 2 [3-5]
HR- Oscar Charleston 2 (3)
WP – Geechie Corbett (1-0)
LP – Red Ryan

NOTES:
* Giants hit .264 for the week scoring only 4.4 runs per game … disappointing
Giants E.R.A. of 4.91 was as expected and realistic IMHO
* After a quiet initial 7 games, Oscar Charleston came alive in the middle of this game with a double and a run scored in the 4th and three-run blasts in both the 5th and 6th innings. For the week he hit .323 with team leading totals in ribbies (7), total bases (22), walks (5) and slugging (.710)
* John Beckwith did a little better batting .408 and leading the team production with 1.133.
* Next week’s schedule includes 5 with the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates and a visit from Rube Foster and the 1910 Chicago Leland Giants.