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 1917 World Series Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:

“Back Into the Dead Ball Era We Go!”

1917 World Series: Heine Zimmerman Chases Speedy Eddie Collins Across Home Plate!”

“Who the hell was I supposed to throw to, Bill Klem?” –Heine Zimmerman, commenting about one of the most controversial plays in World Series history.

…Read on to see what it was!

Our tour through Memorable World Series Moments stops today in 1917. In the featured photo, we see the 1917 White Sox outfield: Nemo Leibold, “Clean” Eddie Murphy, John “Shano” Collins, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, and Hap Felsch.

In this memorable World Series, played from October 6-15, the White Sox beat the Giants four games to two. The Series was played against the backdrop of World War I, which dominated the American landscape that year and the next. The White Sox were managed by Pants Rowland, making his only post-season appearance; while the Giants were led by the indomitable John McGraw, who had recently won pennants in 1911, ‘12, and ‘13, but had lost all three World Series. They were looking for their first World Series championship since 1905.

A strong White Sox team had finished the 1917 season with a 100–54 record (.649), a club record for wins that still stands; while the Giants went 98-56 (.636). The Series featured a total of six Hall-of-Famers: White Sox Eddie Collins, Red Faber, and Ray Schalk; Giants John McGraw, plus umpires Bill Klem and Billy Evans.

Eddie Collins was the hitting star, batting .409 over the six games, while Eddie Cicotte and Red Faber combined to pitch 50 out of 52 innings for the White Sox. The great athlete Jim Thorpe made his only World Series “appearance” during Game Five, where he was listed in the lineup as starting in right field, but for his turn at-bat in the top of the first inning, he was replaced by Dave Robertson.

The first two games were played at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. The Sox won both games, behind complete-game efforts from Eddie Cicotte and Red Faber. In New York for Game Three, Cicotte again threw a complete game, but the Sox were shut out 2-0 by Giants’ starter Rube Benton. In Game Four, the Sox were again shut out, 5–0, this time by Ferdie Schupp. The Series was even at two games apiece heading back to Chicago.

Reb Russell started Game Five, but only faced three batters before being lifted for Cicotte. Going into the bottom of the seventh, the Sox were down 5–2, but they rallied to score three in the seventh and three in the eighth to win 8–5. Faber pitched the final two innings for the win.

The two teams were back in New York for Game Six, played on October 15. The Sox took an early 3–0 lead and on the strength of another complete-game performance from Faber (his third of the Series) hung on to win 4–2 and clinched the World Series championship.

But the sixth and final game included one of the most famous plays in World Series history: a controversial rundown in which Giants’ third baseman Heinie Zimmerman engaged in a futile foot race with the speedy Hall-of-Famer Eddie Collins toward an unprotected home plate. Collins scored what turned out to be the Series-winning run. Here’s the setting:

In the fourth inning, with Collins on third and Shoeless Joe Jackson on first, Hap Felsch hit a bouncer back to the mound. Giants’ pitcher Rube Benton spun and threw to Zimmerman, hoping to catch Collins off the bag.

Meanwhile, Giants’ catcher Bill Rariden had run up the third-base line anticipating a rundown, expecting pitcher Benton or first baseman Walter Holke to cover the plate. However, neither of them budged and the plate was left unprotected! The crafty Collins, one of the fastest runners in the game, sized up the situation immediately and took off for the plate. This left  Zimmerman no choice but to chase Collins as he scurried down the basepath toward the vacated plate. Zimmerman was seen in hot pursuit helplessly pawing the ball in the air in a futile and desperate attempt to tag Collins as he scampered home and easily scored the decisive run. 

The New York media blamed Zimmerman for losing the game, and he was added to the list of previous Giants’ World Series goats, which included Fred Merkle and Fred Snodgrass. McGraw, however, put the blame on Benton and Holke for failing to cover the plate.

Conventional wisdom had it that Collins was much faster than Zimmerman, and he had no chance to catch Collins. But that wasn’t completely true. Zimmerman was also known for his speed with 175 career stolen bases. Existing photos show that Zimmerman was only a step or two behind Collins, who slid across the plate as Zimmerman vaulted over him (see photo gallery).  A known shady character, did Zimmerman purposely hold back?

Two years before the Black Sox scandal, Zimmerman found himself having to publicly deny purposely allowing the run to score, and that he had “thrown” the game. A famous quote often attributed to Zimmerman, but actually invented by writer Ring Lardner some years later, was that when asked about the incident, Zimmerman replied:

“Who the hell was I supposed to throw to, Bill Klem?”

Zimmerman played 13 seasons in the majors (1907-1919) with the Cubs (1907-’16) and the Giants ((1916-’19). He hit .295 with 58 home runs and 796 RBIs. His best year was 1912 when he led the National League in batting average (.372), hits (207), doubles (41), home runs (14), RBIs (104), slugging (.571), and total bases (318). He was a member of two World Series championships (1907-’08) with the Cubs.

Zimmerman was eventually banned from baseball for life by Judge Landis due to various accusations of corruption. Eddie Collins, one of the best second basemen the game has ever seen, went on to have a Hall-of-Fame career. Two years later, the White Sox won another pennant; but, as we all know, this time they experienced an entirely different outcome in the Fall Classic, and became known as the “Black Sox.”

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Gary Livacari 

Photo Credits: All from Google search

Information: Excerpts edited from 1917 World Series Wikipedia page.

Check out my latest book, recently nominated for the SABR 1919 Lawrence Ritter award: Reflections On the 1919 Black Sox: Time to Take Another Look now available on Amazon in e-book and paperback. All profits go to the Illinois Veterans Foundation

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