The Mystery Of The 7 Triples Hit By The Reds
In our many years of research, we have run across all sorts of folks. Folks that support Joe and believe that he did not participate in the fix and then there are those folks that believe Joe was totally involved in throwing games during the 1919 World Series. Our response to those folks is; "bring us proof Joe did anything wrong on the field". We usually get no response from these folks, because quite frankly (in our opinion) there is no proof that can be provided to prove that Joe participated in the fix. Now, let us say this again, as we have said many times in the past, we do not believe, nor have we ever subscribed to the "Saint Joe" theory. We believe Joe knew some details about the fix (but then again, we also believe many of the "so called" Clean Sox knew what was going on, as well as owner Charles Comiskey, but all that is another story unto itself. The reason we say this about Joe is we believe Joe should have been punished for his "guilty knowledge" of the affair, just not to the extent he was and still is being punished to this very day.
OK, getting back to our original point....
While proof reading some chapters for Gene Carney, author of "Notes from the Shadows of Cooperstown" we noticed he had put together a list of all the triples hit by the Reds in the 1919 World Series, what field they were hit to and the newspaper/publication that he gathered that information from (we added the New York Times accounts to his list). We liked how Gene pulled all this information into one spot, so we asked his permission to publish them on our site. Gene gladly gave us that permission and what follows is his work and we think it is a fitting rebuttal to those naysayers that always mention this amount or that amount of triples were hit to left. Our hope here is to solve once and for all the mystery of the 7 triples hit by the Cincinnati Reds in the 1919 World Series. Those dreaded triples that are always popping up in conversation and usually associated with Joe Jackson. The text below are excerpts of the play by play from press accounts of the day, so here it is as published by Gene Carney.
"Another statement often heard goes like this: 'Jackson was not charged with any errors in the Series, but he played out of position, let balls fall in for hits, and three of the Reds' triples went to left field, where triples are rare.'
I thank Jim Sandoval for sharing part of his collection of play-by-play description from the 1919 World Series. Here are the descriptions of the seven triples hit by the Reds:
The accounts are from these sources (see abbreviations):
Neft and Cohen World Series (N&C); The Sporting News (TSN); Cincinnati Times-Star (CTS); Cincinnati Enquirer (CE); Reach Guide 1920 (RG); Spalding Guide 1920 (SG); NY Tribune (NYT);
Boston Evening Globe (BG); New York Times (NY Times).
Game 1 at Cincinnati
Ruether 4th inning: Triple to fence in left center (N&C); Ruether tripled to center (TSN); Ruether's mighty blows caromed off the short, temporary fence in left center and the centerfield fence. (CE); Ruether's a tremendous drive to left center that bounced back off the temporary wire fence into Felsch's hands. (CE); Ruether hit over short into the crowd in left center for three bases (SG); His long left-handed swing met the ball solidly and sent it out to centre (sic) field. The pellet rolled to the edge of the crowd for three bases. (NYT); Ruether's bat crashed against the ball and it went sailing on a journey to the temporary fence in left centre for a triple. (NY Times)
Daubert 7th inning: Ground rule triple into crowd in right (N&C); tripled to right field (TSN); Daubert hit into crowd (CE); Daubert opened up with a powerful smash into the right field seats (bounded into seats) for a triple (CE); Daubert caught one on the end of his bat and hit it so far to right field that it hopped into the crowd on the first bound. This was a ground rule triple. (SG); Jake picked on Williamson and drove the ball into loving hands in the right field bleachers. This, according to ground rules, went for a three-bagger. (NYT); Jake drove the next one to the far corner of right field, the ball bounding in among the standing crowd on the first bounce. Under the rules announced by Umpire Rigler pervious to the start of the game, Jake was entitled to three bases. (NY Times)
Ruether 8th inning: Tripled to deep center (N&C); triple to left center (TSN); Ruether slugged a wonderful drive far over Felsch's head, which rolled clear to the concrete wall in deepest center (CE); Ruether smashed to the center field fence for another triple (SG); His concluding performance was another three-bagger right through centre field, a long hit in any ballpark. (NYT); Ruether set himself for the next pitch and crashed the ball on a line to the permanent fence in centre field for a triple. (NY Times)
Game 2 at Cincinnati
Kopf 4th inning: Tripled to fence in left (N&C); Kopf tripled into the crowd in left center (TSN); Kopf to left center, bounded back from wire fence for three bases (CE); Kopf hammered the first ball for a clean three-bagger to left center (SG); Kopf's hit was a triple that rolled to the temporary inside fence at centre field. (NYT); Kopf sent one on a fast journey to the temporary fence in left field.(NY Times)
Game 5 at Chicago
Roush 6th inning: Tripled to deep center (N&C); Roush followed with a high fly that Felsch could not hold, though he touched it on the run and it went for a three base hit. (TSN); Roush whaled the ball over Felsch's head for three bases. Hap misjudged the ball, then let the ball trickle off his left hand (CE); Felsch played Roush's fly badly and finally muffed it, but the scorers were liberal and called it a three-base hit (SG); Roush heard a strike called and then crashed a triple to deep centre. (NY Times)
Game 6 at Cincinnati
Neale 4th inning: Tripled to deep right (N&C); Neale tripled to right, a tremendous blow to right center (TSN); Neale tripled mightily to right field. John Collins dashed over and came near blocking it down but the ball took a band (sic) bound away from him. (CE); Neale sent one to right, which took an eccentric bound (RG); J. Collins overran Neale's safe hit to right field and the ball rolled far enough to give the batter a triple. (SG); Neale, the first man up, whaled a three-bagger to right. (NY Times)
Game 8 at Chicago
Kopf 5th inning: Tripled to right center field fence (N&C); Kopf tripled along the right field foul line (TSN); Kopf smashed a triple to right field, the ball eluding Gandil. (CE); Kopf bounced one past Gandil and way down on the safe side of the foul line for a triple. (RG); Kopf hit along the right field line for three bases (SG); Kopf tripled to right, the ball going over first base and reaching the extreme right field corner before Felsch retrieved it (NYT); Kopf belted a triple past Gandil and Felsch to the fence in right centre. (NY Times)
This exercise points to the difficulty of eyewitness accounts. Take the last triple -- was it along the right field line or did it go to the fence in right-center? Probably it hugged the line (Gandil played first base), but if you used the Neft & Cohen account, Gandil never had a chance at the ball.
In any case, Jackson's name is nowhere mentioned in any of the accounts of any of the triples and we can only account for 1 triple being recorded to left field (Fourth Inning, Second Game)." So, there you have it, we didn't say it, we didn't make it up, it's the record of the day from the various press accounts listed above. Once and for all there were not 5 triples hit to Joe in left, not 4, not 3, not 2, we can only account for 1 triple hit to Joe in left (and the play by play is not clear as to whether Jackson even had a chance to make a play). We published this to make a point and that is, there is so much mis-information out there concerning Joe Jackson and his performance in the 1919 World Series, and that mis-information over time becomes fact. Our point here is to prove that you shouldn't believe everything you read in the press, just as we have said about our site. Just because you read it on this site doesn't mean it's fact, but we strive to give you the best information available via the various press (eyewitness) accounts. The study of this affair is almost like religion, you either believe or you don't. We are not here to make you believe, you have to do that on your own. We are simply trying to provide you with our extensive research and findings on the subject. The game of baseball is a strange game, where a game can be thrown and no one will be the wiser. For example, if you believe the game is fixed, you can see many plays that look suspect, but if your friend (watching the same game) believes the game is being played on the square, he will see normal baseball, where the best hitters sometime strike out, the best fielders sometimes make errors, where the best pitcher on the team suddenly loses his stuff, it's baseball, it's a great game, but what makes it a great game can also make it a game that is easily cheated. The wide throw to first, was it an honest error, or did the player mean to throw it wide. The strike out in the clutch situation by our leading hitter, was it an honest strike out, or did he go in the tank for that at bat? Who's to say, it all goes back to "You either believe or you don't". All of us around here simply believe!!