The Merkle Tragedy, Part Two

“The game isn’t over until that man touches second base! Why don’t you wait until the game is over, you big fathead!” –Cubs’ second baseman Johnny Evers screaming at umpire Hank O’Day in September, 1908.

You’d probably guess this quote was from the infamous Merkle game, right? The game between the Cubs and Giants played on September 23, 1908 at the Polo Grounds in which Fred Merkle failed to touch second base after Al Bridwell drove in the apparent winning run.

Well…you’d be wrong!

It was actually from a game played a couple weeks earlier in Pittsburgh between the Cubs and Pirates, in a much lesser-known game that came to be known as the Warren Gill Game. In Part One of my series on Fred Mekle, I presented an overview of the game played at the Polo Grounds that ended with the infamous “Bonehead Merkle” play. I gave reasons why I thought Merkle had been unjustly branded as the scapegoat. Here is the game that set the tragic chain of events into motion.

On September 4th, 1908 – a couple weeks before the Merkle game – the Cubs were in Pittsburgh to play the Pirates. At the time, the Cubs were in third place, one half game behind the Pirates, and two behind the Giants. The 1908 pennant race was heating up. The game turned into a scoreless extra inning pitching duel between two future Hall-of-Famers: Mordecai Brown for the Cubs and the Pirates’ Vic Willis.With one out in the bottom of the tenth, Brown plunked the Pirates’ 29-year old rookie Warren Gill in the ribs to load the bases. Gill was a week in to what would become a one-month major league career. After Ed Abbaticchio struck out, Chief Wilson hit a soft liner over Johnny Evers head at second and Fred Clarke scored the apparent winning run. But the always-alert Evers kept his eye on Gill, who, like many players at the time, stopped running once he realized Clarke was going to score. Rather than jogging all the way to second, Gill make a u-turn for the clubhouse to avoid the fans now pouring onto the field to celebrate. This quick exit by Gill to avoid the fans was not considered unusual or controversial.

Sound familiar so far, doesn’t it? Well, read on, as the story gets even stranger. Here’s an account of what happened next, from author Dennis Snelling’s, “Johnny Evers: A Baseball Life”:

“Realizing that a force play remained in effect, Evers stood near second base and shouted for centerfielder Jimmy Sagle to throw him the ball. Umpire Hank O’Day, after dutifully watching Clarke cross home plate, turned to the exit the field. Once Evers received the ball from Slagle, he stomped his foot on the bag and screamed at O’Day that he had recorded a force out. O’Day acted as if he did not hear, so Evers ran over to him. With his jaw twisted one way, his mouth another and his eyes squinting in the late afternoon sun, Evers repeatedly thrust the ball at O’Day while pressing his case that because Gill had not touched second, he had recorded the third out on a force. O’Day simply responded, ‘Cut it out Johnny, the game is over.’”

The game was protested by Cubs’ owner Charles Murphy to National League president Henry Pulliam. Murphy had been an advocate of a two-umpire system and he realized this incident afforded him a chance to strongly make his case. The appeal was denied by Pulliam because, he said, O’Day had not witnessed Gill’s failure to touch second base – and not because it was unnecessary for Gill to do so, a significant distinction.