Fenway Park as it looked during the Red Sox 4-1 series victory over Phillies in 1915 World Series
Major League Baseball has been doing this Inter-league stuff in the regular season for just over two decades now. The Phillies and American League’s Boston Red Sox will face off as a pair of first place teams over the next two nights at Fenway Park in Boston.
Fenway Park is particularly famous to opposing fans due to its huge left field wall. The “Green Monster” stands 37.2 feet tall and is just 310 feet from home plate. For the Phillies, it has been the stuff of nightmares.
The Phillies have visited Fenway Park on 10 separate occasions over the last 21 seasons prior to this one. Those visits have seen the two club square off in 28 regular season games in Boston. The Phillies have walked out a winner just nine times. That’s a miserable .321 winning percentage.
Things weren’t so bad in the early years of Inter-league play. The host Bosox swept the Phillies in the first-ever three game series at Fenway Park back in 1997.
But over the next seven seasons between 1998-2004, the Phillies captured six of the 11 games spanning four series. In one memorable game on June 9, 2001 the Phillies beat Boston’s Hall of Fame ace Pedro Martinez 5-2 behind the pitching of Omar Daal.
However, since the Red Sox ended their “Curse of the Bambino” by winning the 2004 World Series, things have not been good for the Phillies. The Red Sox swept a three-game series between the two clubs in 2006 and have gone 11-2 against the Phillies under the backdrop of their Green Monster over the last five series between the teams in Boston.
A year ago, the Red Sox pulled off a pair of dramatic walkoff victories against the Phillies at Fenway. That gives Boston five straight victories over the Phillies at Fenway Park entering tonight’s contest.
After losing three of four to the last-place Cincinnati Reds over this past weekend, the Phillies cannot afford to get swept in Boston. A loss tonight would make it four defeats in a row, something that the team has experienced just twice all season in pushing to the top of the NL East. They have yet to drop five in a row.
If the Phillies are going to come back home for their big Alumni Weekend still in first place, they are likely going to have to figure out a way to beat the Boston Red Sox in front of the Green Monster. That will be even tougher this year. Boston’s record of 74-33 is the best in baseball.
If over the next 2-3 days someone tries to tell you that they have some kind of special insight into who is going to win the 2013 World Series, then they are simply lying. These are clearly the two best teams in baseball, and you’d do well to simply toss a coin to pick a winner.
Most pundits and talking heads, as well as tons of amateurs and partisans, will indeed try to pick a winner. Some will inevitably end up correct. But going into it, these two teams are so evenly matched that legitimate arguments can be made for either.
The 109th MLB World Series will feature the best team, based on regular season record, from both the National League and the American League for the first time since 1999. Both the Boston Red Sox and the Saint Louis Cardinals won 97 games to pace their respective leagues.
Also, each of the two teams will have reached the Fall Classic after having battled through similar paths, first vanquishing divisional rivals, and then arguably the 2nd best teams in their respective leagues. Saint Louis beat the Pittsburgh Pirates and then the LA Dodgers, while Boston beat the Tampa Bay Rays and then the Detroit Tigers.
This will also mark not only the 2nd World Series meeting between the NL’s Cardinals and the AL’s Red Sox in the last decade, but will be a matchup between a pair of franchise’s that have each won two World Series titles within this past decade.
The Red Sox finally vanquished “The Ghost of the Bambino” by sweeping past the Cards in the 2004 World Series, then won again in 2007 when they also swept the Colorado Rockies. The Cardinals blitzed the Detroit Tigers in five games in the 2006 Series, then won a dramatic 7-gamer over the Texas Rangers in 2011.
I am personally rooting for a long, dramatic series featuring the kinds of moments that live on in baseball lore: Don Larsen’s 1956 ‘Perfect Game’, Bill Mazeroski’s 1960 Series-winning homer, Carlton Fisk’s Game #6 homerun in 1975, Kirk Gibson’s Game #1 walkoff in 1988, the Clemens-Piazza bat-throwing showdown of 2000, Chase Utley’s fake-and-throw-home in 2008.
This 2013 version of the Fall Classic features the “Fear the Beard” Bosox coming at you with a multi-dimensional offense and a worst-to-first, something-to-prove chip on their shoulders against the Redbirds, the most consistently excellent organization in the NL. I’m picking Boston, and call it in 6 or 7 games.
Much is made, and rightfully so, of the Cardinals vaunted 1-2 postseason pitching tandem of Adam Wainwright and rookie sensation Michael Wacha. Both of these arms can shut down any offense in the game. If they do it early at Fenway Park, and take each of the first two games in Boston, the Cards could steamroll to victory in the series. But I don’t believe it will happen.
The Red Sox lineup is the difference for me between the two teams. Each have excellent hitters, with grizzled, proven veterans and talented youngsters. Each has outstanding starting pitching. Boston will throw Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz in those first two games, and those two are just as capable of shutting down the Cards as vice versa. And the two bullpens seem evenly matched to me as well.
It’s that multi-faceted Red Sox offense that I will give the slight edge to, enough of an edge to win the World Series. Boston can bash you with Big Papi, Mike Napoli, and Jonny Gomes, and they can run you ragged with Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, and Shane Victorino. And those last two are not one-dimensional, as “The Flyin’ Hawaiian” showed once again with his ALCS-clinching grand slam vs. Detroit.
The Cardinals have tremendous run-producing clutch hitters of their own in Matt Holliday, David Freese, and perhaps the best postseason hitter of recent years in Carlos Beltran. But Jon Jay led the club in steals with 10 this season. Running is simply not a part of their game. Meanwhile, Ellsbury swiped 52 bags, Pedroia stole 17, and Victorino took another 21 for Boston. These guys run, and they will challenge the great Saint Louis catcher Yadier Molina at pivotal points of games. His ability to shut them down could be the difference.
An ‘X-factor’ for the Cardinals will be Allen Craig. The 1st baseman who has been out of the Saint Louis lineup nursing a sprained foot is listed as probable, and is expected to DH in the first two games at Fenway. With his bat in the lineup, the Cards have 5 players who each hit at least .296 during the season. They can wear down a pitching staff. But the Red Sox also have 5 such players, at least when Daniel Nava is in left field rather than Gomes.
The pitching matchups have not been announced for every game, but logic and prior use would seem to point to Lester vs. Wainwright in the Opener, followed by Buchholz vs. Wacha in Game #2, both at Fenway Park. Back at Busch Stadium in Saint Louis it should then be John Lackey for Boston vs. Joe Kelly for the Cards in Game #3, Jake Peavy vs. Lance Lynn in Game #4, and then a return to the top of the respective rotations for the balance of the series.
There is not likely to be any edge in the dugout that will decide this matchup. John Farrell in his first year as Bosox skipper has been exactly what his team needed, and Mike Matheny of the Cardinals played in that 2004 Series between the two clubs. Both are talented skippers who have the respect of their teams, and have strong coaching staffs supporting them.
Two storied franchise’s battling it out on the diamond in front of two of the best and most knowledgeable and passionate fan bases in the game. It’s hard to ask for anything more from a baseball purist standpoint. The Boston Red Sox should come out of this with a hard-fought, beard-pulling title. But the real winners should be fans of the game everywhere. Sit back and enjoy the 2013 World Series between two talented teams, the best in baseball.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…well sort of, the Philadelphia Phillies appeared in the World Series during the early part of the 20th century.
The Phillies lost the 1915 World Series to the Boston Red Sox and legendary outfielder Tris Speaker by 4 games to 1, marking the second straight season that a team from Boston had defeated a team from Philly for the championship.
The previous year, the Boston Braves of the National League had swept Connie Mack and the Philadelphia Athletics out of the Fall Classic.
It is not likely that there are many left alive who saw or in some other way experienced first-hand that 1915 Series. If you were born that year, you are now 93 years old. So, most everyone – perhaps all who were there, in fact – are now gone.
Much as with their current 2008 brethren, things started well in that 1915 Series for the Phillies. They won the first game here in Philadelphia at the old Baker Bowl, edging the Red Sox by a 3-1 score behind the pitching of ace Grover Cleveland Alexander to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
The Phillies got on the board first in the 4th inning as leffielder George Whitted, nicknamed Possum, singled home center fielder Dode Paskert.
The Sox tied it up in the top of the 8th, but in the Phils bottom half they manufactured a pair of runs to take the 3-1 lead. The 28-year old Alexander, who had won 31 games that season, finished up a complete game win, but not before some baseball history was made.
In that top of the 9th, the leadoff batter reached on an error, and the Red Sox sent to the plate a kid pinch-hitter who they felt had some pop in his bat. It would be the first-ever World Series plate appearance in the big leagues for the 20-year old Babe Ruth, and in fact it would mark his only appearance in the entire Series.
Ruth was in just his second season with Boston, having begun with 10 plate appearances in 1914 and another 92 in that 1915 season, so he had just 102 total big-league at-bats to that point.
Alexander induced Ruth into an easy ground out to the first baseman, then got the final hitter on a popup to first, and the Phillies had their first-ever World Series win.
Little did the franchise’ owners, players, and fans know that it would be 65 years before they would enjoy another.
Game 2 was also at Baker Bowl, which was located in a small one-square block area bordered by Broad Street and 15th Street, Lehigh Avenue and Huntingdon Street.
Approximately 20,000 fans would pack the Baker Bowl for each of the three games played there that fall, and for this second game of the World Series there was more history made. One of those in attendance was President Woodrow Wilson, marking the first time that a U.S. President had attended a Series game.
The game began with the Sox scoring a run in the top of the 1st inning, and it would be their only run until they scored another in the top of the 9th frame. Unfortunately for the Phillies, they could only muster one of their own, and the Red Sox evened the Series at a game apiece thanks to that 2-1 victory.
When the series switched to Boston for Game 3 and 4, the now famous Fenway Park was the Red Sox sparkling new home, having just opened a couple of years earlier.
However, the team ownership often used Braves Field, which had just opened that very year and was the home of the National League Boston Braves (now the Atlanta Braves) for the Red Sox ‘big games’ because Braves Field was larger and held more fans than Fenway.
So the Phils never got into Fenway Park that year, instead playing before over 40,000 rabid sox fans at Braves Field. The Red Sox 2-1 victory in the second game was exactly duplicated in those next two games, with Boston winning each by identical 2-1 scores to take a 3-1 lead in the Series.
Things looked good early on in Game 5 back in North Philly at Baker Bowl thanks to veteran first baseman Fred Luderus, who doubled home a run as the Phillies scored twice in the 1st inning.
Boston answered with single runs in the 2nd and 3rd innings, but then Luderus blasted a solo homer and the Phils rallied for another in the bottom of the 4th for a 4-2 lead.
That lead held all the way into the top of the 8th before Boston left fielder Duffy Lewis cracked a two-run homer off Phils‘ reliever EppaRixey to tie the score at 4-4 heading into the 9th inning.
In the top of that 9th, right fielder Harry Hooper, who would be selected to baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1971, broke the tie with a one-out homer, his second of the game.
The Red Sox took that 5-4 lead into the bottom of the frame where the Phillies went down in order meekly.
Both of Hooper’s homers actually bounced over the fence in what would be considered ‘ground rule doubles’ today. The center field fence that his 9th inning, game-winning homer had bounced over was erected especially for the World Series to allow more seating capacity at Baker Bowl.
Boston celebrated it’s third World Series championship, having won the first-ever modern series in 1903, and then again winning it in 1912.
For the Phillies, that first-ever World Series championship would have to wait all the way until 1980.
But it was in 1915 that the Phillies got their first taste of the World Series, only to fall short thanks to four consecutive frustrating one-run defeats.
