A couple of weeks ago, we reviewed the Kentucky newspaper coverage of the 1919 World Series, the “Black Sox” series after which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of having accepted bribes to fix the series and banned for life. In the century since that World Series, the majority view of the 1919 World Series has been along the lines of Chicago Manager Kid Gleason’s view – that if the series had been on the level, the White Sox would have won easily. So beginning this week, we’ll be simulating a replay of the series, using the preeminent historical baseball simulation game – Strat-o-Metric 2020®. In the real world, Cincinnati defeated Chicago in Game 1, beating White Sox ace Eddie Cicotte 9-1 behind the pitching of Dutch Reuther at Cincinnati’s Redland Field.
In the real world, accused fixer Eddie Cicotte began the bottom of the first by hitting Morrie Rath in the back with a pitch. In our simulated replay, Cicotte retired the Reds 1-2-3. The White Sox got on the board in the top of the second. Hap Felsch led off with a single, Chick Gandil sacrificed him to second and after Swede Risberg struck out, catcher Ray Schalk brought the run home. But the Reds immediately answered back in the bottom half of the inning, scoring one run on a base hit by league-leading hitter Edd Roush. Roush then stole second and came home on Larry Kopf’s base hit. But the White Sox took back the lead in the top of the third, stringing together base hits from Eddie Collins, Joe Jackson and Hap Felsch. The White Sox added another run in the top of the fourth, taking a 3-1 lead on a walk to Ray Schalk, a base hit by Shano Collins, a walk to Eddie Collins (loading the bases) and a wild pitch.
The Reds closed to within one in the bottom of the fourth when Edd Roush singled, Larry Kopf singled him around to third and Sherwood “Sherry” Magee sacrificed home the run.
Eddie Cicotte sailed along for the next several innings. The Reds wasted a two-out triple by Larry Kopf in the bottom of the sixth and base hits by Jake Daubert and Henry “Heinie” Groh in the bottom of the eighth.
That brought us to the bottom of the ninth. Larry Kopf led off for the Reds with a double. Pinch hitter Charlie See singled Kopf over to third with the tying run. The White Sox brought in Dickie Kerr, relieving Cicotte and Reds manager Pat Moran sent in Billy Zitzman to run for See (yes, I know Dickie Kerr starts Game 3 in the real world, but I’ve disabled the fatigue factor and I’m too lazy to figure out how to override the computer’s choice of relief pitchers). Ivan Wingo brought in the tying run with a sacrifice fly. Moran put up Jimmy Smith to pinch hit for pitcher Dutch Reuther. Smith reached first on an error by shortstop Swede Risberg. The White Sox replaced Kerr with pitcher Joe Benz, and Morrie Rath drove in Billy Zitzman with a walk-off single.
So one game into our simulated 1919 World Series, we’re . . . exactly where the real one was – Reds lead, one game to none. Attendance for Game 1 was 46,324, and the game took 1 hour and 59 minutes.
Image courtesy of Pixabay by Geralt (no changes).
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