championship.
• On Memorial Day, 1916, about 5,000 Spanish-American war veterans formed in line at Copley Square and marched to Fenway Park for a memorial service featuring bands and drum corps. Two years later, on May 26, 1918, about 35,000 attended a memorial service presided over by Boston’s Cardinal O’Connell for departed U.S. soldiers and sailors.
• On September 4, 1916, the Galway Men’s Association hosted a field day at Fenway Park with several thousand in attendance. The event featured Irish football, foot races, and step dancing. The highlight was a hurling match between the Shamrocks of South Boston and the Cork Club of New York, which the hosts won handily.
• Some 10 days later, the Bay State Odd Fellows held a parade through the streets of Boston, followed by religious and patriotic services at Fenway Park, with some 14,000 in attendance. The story noted that, “it was neither too warm nor too cool. . . . This and the splendid music made the parade enjoyable for even the women, about 400 of them.”
Ruth had spent much of the season playing in the outfield so that his bat could be in the lineup every day. After blanking the Cubs, 1-0, on September 5 in the road opener of the Series, he held them scoreless until the eighth inning of the fourth game, running his postseason scoreless streak (including his 1916 appearance) to 29⅔ innings, breaking Christy Mathewson’s record.
Since attendance had tumbled, the Series was back at Fenway instead of Braves Field and the fifth game almost wasn’t played after both teams initially refused to take the field as a protest against their reduced shares. “The players have agreed to play for the sake of the public and the wounded soldiers in the stands,” Mayor Fitzgerald told the crowd after a settlement was reached. Although the Cubs prevailed, 3-0, the Sox took the championship a day later as Mays, who’d won both ends of the August 30 doubleheader against the Athletics that all but clinched the pennant, mastered the visitors, 2-1, on three hits.
The victory left a bitter aftertaste. “With many minds wandering in serious channels, it can plainly be seen that it was a fatal mistake for baseball men to argue over dollars,” the Globe observed, “creating a situation that should have been diplomatically squelched in its infancy.” In retribution the national commission that oversaw the sport deprived the players of the diamond lapel pin that was the precursor to the championship ring.
It also was the last hurrah for the Sox, who didn’t reach the Series again until 1946 and didn’t win it again until 2004. It wasn’t until 1934 that Boston even finished in the first division again. The 1919 season was a dismal downer. Mays, who’d won 72 games for the Sox in five seasons, left the club in mid-July and was dealt to New York just before the August trading deadline. Ruth, whose rambunctious roistering had become a clubhouse problem, squabbled with both Frazee and Barrow. But if he frequently acted as if he was above the team, it may have been because he was its colossus. Even as the club tumbled into the second division, eventually finishing fifth with its worst record (66-71) in a dozen years, the Big Fellow was its top drawing card.
It was clear to Ruth, if not his employer, that he was worth twice as much as the $10,000 per year he was earning. “Frazee knows what I want,” Ruth declared as he flew off to Los Angeles to make a movie called Headin’ Home . “And unless he meets my demands I will not play with the Boston club next year.” But the thought of paying $20,000 to an ungovernable, if inimitable, man-child was anathema to the owner, who decided that he could make a far better deal with a certain gentleman in New York.
A panoramic view of Fenway Park in 1914.
IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
BY RON DRISCOLL
When the team’s popularity outgrew the Huntington Avenue Grounds (now the site of Northeastern University), the Red Sox
• On Memorial Day, 1916, about 5,000 Spanish-American war veterans formed in line at Copley Square and marched to Fenway Park for a memorial service featuring bands and drum corps. Two years later, on May 26, 1918, about 35,000 attended a memorial service presided over by Boston’s Cardinal O’Connell for departed U.S. soldiers and sailors.
• On September 4, 1916, the Galway Men’s Association hosted a field day at Fenway Park with several thousand in attendance. The event featured Irish football, foot races, and step dancing. The highlight was a hurling match between the Shamrocks of South Boston and the Cork Club of New York, which the hosts won handily.
• Some 10 days later, the Bay State Odd Fellows held a parade through the streets of Boston, followed by religious and patriotic services at Fenway Park, with some 14,000 in attendance. The story noted that, “it was neither too warm nor too cool. . . . This and the splendid music made the parade enjoyable for even the women, about 400 of them.”
Ruth had spent much of the season playing in the outfield so that his bat could be in the lineup every day. After blanking the Cubs, 1-0, on September 5 in the road opener of the Series, he held them scoreless until the eighth inning of the fourth game, running his postseason scoreless streak (including his 1916 appearance) to 29⅔ innings, breaking Christy Mathewson’s record.
Since attendance had tumbled, the Series was back at Fenway instead of Braves Field and the fifth game almost wasn’t played after both teams initially refused to take the field as a protest against their reduced shares. “The players have agreed to play for the sake of the public and the wounded soldiers in the stands,” Mayor Fitzgerald told the crowd after a settlement was reached. Although the Cubs prevailed, 3-0, the Sox took the championship a day later as Mays, who’d won both ends of the August 30 doubleheader against the Athletics that all but clinched the pennant, mastered the visitors, 2-1, on three hits.
The victory left a bitter aftertaste. “With many minds wandering in serious channels, it can plainly be seen that it was a fatal mistake for baseball men to argue over dollars,” the Globe observed, “creating a situation that should have been diplomatically squelched in its infancy.” In retribution the national commission that oversaw the sport deprived the players of the diamond lapel pin that was the precursor to the championship ring.
It also was the last hurrah for the Sox, who didn’t reach the Series again until 1946 and didn’t win it again until 2004. It wasn’t until 1934 that Boston even finished in the first division again. The 1919 season was a dismal downer. Mays, who’d won 72 games for the Sox in five seasons, left the club in mid-July and was dealt to New York just before the August trading deadline. Ruth, whose rambunctious roistering had become a clubhouse problem, squabbled with both Frazee and Barrow. But if he frequently acted as if he was above the team, it may have been because he was its colossus. Even as the club tumbled into the second division, eventually finishing fifth with its worst record (66-71) in a dozen years, the Big Fellow was its top drawing card.
It was clear to Ruth, if not his employer, that he was worth twice as much as the $10,000 per year he was earning. “Frazee knows what I want,” Ruth declared as he flew off to Los Angeles to make a movie called Headin’ Home . “And unless he meets my demands I will not play with the Boston club next year.” But the thought of paying $20,000 to an ungovernable, if inimitable, man-child was anathema to the owner, who decided that he could make a far better deal with a certain gentleman in New York.
A panoramic view of Fenway Park in 1914.
IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
BY RON DRISCOLL
When the team’s popularity outgrew the Huntington Avenue Grounds (now the site of Northeastern University), the Red Sox
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