“The Most Controversial Game in Baseball History”
…SUSPENSE…
No, not Tony Tarrasco. Not Chase Utley’s slide. No, not even an infield fly rule enforced in deep left field.
A BONER.
That’s right! The most controversial game in baseball history involves a boner.
Now that I have your attention, I felt it necessary to provide the definition for our new favorite word. Per Dictionary.com, there are three different definitions. One helpful. One vulgar. One nonsense. Let’s go with ‘nonsense’ first.
1– A person or thing that bones. What? Do you even bone bro?
2– An erection of the penis. Sadly, that is not the helpful definition.
3– The most controversial game in baseball history involves “a foolish and obvious blunder; a stupid mistake.”
Allow me to set the scene. The year: 1908. The teams: New York Giants vs. Chicago Cubs at the Polo Grounds. The boner: Rookie Fred Merkle’s inability to advance to second base on a potential game winning hit.
The game took place in late September, so right in the heat of the pennant race. Every win and loss mattered to these two teams. In the early 1900s, the Cubs, Giants and Pirates were the only teams that seemed to compete in the National League pennant race, year after year.
In the bottom of the ninth inning with the game tied at one run apiece, Merkle (only playing in this game because the starting first baseman was ill) singled with two outs, putting runners at first and third. Next up? Who cares. He hit a ground ball into centerfield. Notice that I did not say he singled into centerfield. The runner on third base touches the plate. Game over, right? Giants get a much needed win to propel them to the NL pennant right? In the words of Charlie Murphy: WRONG! WRONG!
Merkle never made it to second base.
See, in this time of American baseball history, it was commonplace for fans to transform into unhinged idiots and charge the field without an ounce of consideration as to how they may actually affect the outcome of the game or the safety of the players. Depending on which instant replay is provided from that day in 1908, the blame could be placed on these idiots. It could be placed on Merkle. It could even be argued that the umpire is to blame for enforcing this rule amongst a sea of fans, players and media. But what we can all definitely agree on is that it is just so god damn fun to say the word ‘boner’ out loud. And now I shall continue with the story of… the boner.
Keeping in line with the title of “Most Controversial Game in History,” there is a lot of hearsay and competing accounts of what exactly took place on that fateful day. Without continuously beating and pounding this boner into the ground, I will try to make this a quickie. Whether instructions came from the Cubs dugout or the Cubs’ second baseman, Johnny Evers (or as no one calls him: Johnny on the Spot), acted alone, it appears Evers is the one that screamed for the ball from the centerfielder. Evers then got the attention of the umpire, alerted him to what happened and then stepped on second base. The umpire signaled that Merkle was out and everyone accepted this decision, shook hands, commented on the weather and went home amicably.
Another layer to this remarkable story and one that is actually supported by the Chicago Tribune, is that the Giants knew that Merkle never got to second base and their first base coach got ahold of the ball and proceeded to throw it into the sea of fans on the field. A Cubs player from the dugout saw this, retrieved the ball and gave it to our guy Johnny, who then stepped on second base. Another rule, the second layer to this, states that the ball becomes dead if a player that had not been in the game touches said ball. If that was enforced, Merkle should have been awarded second base on the dead ball.
And to all of this, I have just one word to say… and that is, “WHAT?”
Can you imagine this happening now? I would LOVE to see the video evidence. Not only of Merkle taking his secondary lead, seeing the ball get hit through the infield, then saying “fuck it” and go back to his dugout, but to see the first base coach taking the game ball that he somehow came upon, throwing it into left field like a madman, only to have an even larger psycho come sprinting out of the Cubs dugout to find this ball. I picture him on all fours, crawling, mouth-breathing, biting fans’ ankles. He then stands up and runs over to Johnny on the Spot, explains to him what the hell he just did and what Johnny now has to do. All of this happening amongst 10,000 baseball fans dressed in three-piece-suits and top hats. People, this needs to be a Drunk History episode.
To close out, they had to replay this game because of darkness (CHARLIE MURPHAYYY!), since the idiot fans were standing on the field for hours. The game was pushed to the end of the season, after the regular schedule was completed. You won’t believe it, but the Cubs and Giants were fucking tied at the end of the season at 98 wins and 55 losses and this makeup game bought an appearance in the World Series. The Cubs won the game 4-2 and then beat the Tigers in the 1908 World Series. Fun and sad fact, this was the last World Series the Cubs would win until the Ben Zobrist-led Cubs would win in 2016. Is this the curse of The Boner?
I would like to thank the global pandemic for making me download the PBS app on my Apple TV to watch Ken Burns’ baseball documentary, entitled…. Baseball. It was a great learning experience that makes me truly appreciate the existence of video footage in today’s game.