BOISE, Idaho — THIS DAY IN SPORTS…May 13, 1911:
We are in Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine today (IYKYK). The New York Giants establish a major league record by scoring 10 runs before a single batter is retired as they rout the St. Louis Cardinals 19-5 at the Polo Grounds. At the end of the first inning the score was 13-0, and Giants manager John McGraw lifted his starter, Christy Mathewson, to save him for a closer game. Rube Marquard pitched the final eight innings and rang up 14 strikeouts. That’s what I call a closer.
Mathewson was one of the most dominant pitchers in history and was one of the first five players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. He recorded 373 career victories—tied with Grover Cleveland Alexander for the most in National League history. Mathewson’s Hall of Fame plaque reads: “Greatest of all the great pitchers in the 20th century’s first quarter. Pitched 3 shutouts in 1905 World Series. First pitcher of the century ever to win 30 games in 3 successive years. Won 37 games in 1908. ‘Matty was master of them all.’”
In the early 1900s, the National and American Leagues were more or less at war, and Mathewson was involved in a brokering of peace between the two entities. He was signed by the St. Louis Browns of the AL in 1903 after being offered four times what he was making with the Giants. But Mathewson and Browns owner Robert Lee Hedges ultimately tore up the contract as part of the settlement that ended the interleague conflict and led to the first World Series at the end of that season.
By the way, the record for most runs in one inning is 17, set by the Boston Red Sox in a 23-3 win over Detroit in 1953. That was a season that saw the Red Sox laboring without the great Ted Williams, who was still serving in the Korean War. According to MLB.com, “the score was a respectable 5-3 entering the bottom of the seventh when things spiraled out of control against three Tigers relievers. There were 11 singles, five walks, two doubles and a three-run homer. Boston sent 23 batters to the plate, and 20-year-old rookie Gene Stephens set a modern record with three hits in the same inning.”
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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