The headline says it all: On Sept. 23, 1908, New York Giants first baseman Fred Merkle committed the most celebrated gaffe in the history of baseball affecting one of the greatest pennant races of all time.
The Pirates, Cubs, and Giants were neck-and-neck-and-neck throughout most of the season, leading up to the September 23 game between New York and Chicago at the Polo Grounds. With the score tied 1–1 and darkness falling in the bottom of the ninth, the Giants had runners on first and third with two out. Shortstop Al Bridwell singled to center to score what everybody thought was the winning run. Believing the game was over and trying to avoid the onslaught of screaming fans onto the field, the runner on first—poor Fred Merkle—ran straight to the dugout without touching second base, a common practice in those days.
Alert Cubs second baseman Johnny Evers, who knew the rule book, retrieved a ball (though it probably wasn’t the actual game ball, which was lost in the melee of swarming fans), got the attention of umpire Hank O’Day, and tagged second base. O’Day ruled Merkle out on the force play, but because it was dark and the field was overrun with fans, the game was called a tie.
The Giants protested the decision, and NL president Harry Pulliam ruled that the game would be replayed at the end of the season if it affected the pennant race.
It did. The two teams met again in the final game of the season in an epic battle between Christy Mathewson of the Giants and Chicago’s “Three-Finger” Brown, won by the Cubs 4–2.
For the rest of his playing days, Merkle would be reminded of his bonehead play and accused by ignorant fans of blowing the pennant for the Giants. In fact, Merkle was simply following baseball tradition, and Giants manager John McGraw never blamed Merkle. What most fans didn’t (and don’t) know was that Evers had tried to capitalize on the same kind of blunder in an earlier game, but umpire O’Day had disallowed his protest; when it came up again, O’Day was ready to rule on the technicality.
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