Fenway 1912 (43 page)

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. 15 Two young phenoms, Smoky Joe Wood (left) of the Red Sox and Jeff Tesreau of the New York Giants, squared off in game 1 of the World's Series at the Polo Grounds. On this day Wood outpitched his rival to win 4–3.

George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

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. 16 The 1912 Boston Red Sox pose in front of their dugout at Fenway Park during the World's Series. Top row (left to right): Joseph Quirk (trainer), Tris Speaker, Joe Wood's sister Zoe, Joe Wood, Hick Cady, Pinch Thomas, Buck O'Brien, Hugh Bradley, Duffy Lewis. Middle row: Harry Hooper, Bill Carrigan, Steve Yerkes, Olaf Henriksen, Clyde Engle, Les Nunamaker, Charley Hall, Larry Gardner, Ray Collins, Jake Stahl. Front row: Heinie Wagner, Hugh Bedient, mascot, Larry Pape, Marty Krug.

George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

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. 17 On Boston's Newspaper Row and in other large cities all across the country, newspapers provided re-creations of the World's Series for the convenience of fans. Operators behind the board received telegraph reports of the game and within seconds, fans knew what had taken place hundreds of miles away.

George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

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. 18 Player-manager Jake Stahl (center) leads the Red Sox on a long march across the field from the clubhouse to the dugout at the Polo Grounds in New York before a World's Series game.
Courtesy of the Print Department, Boston Public Library

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. 19 The Red Sox pose for a team picture in front of the grandstand early in the 1912 season. Not all grandstand seats have been installed, indicating that this photograph was taken before opening day, likely just before or after the exhibition game versus Harvard.
Courtesy of the Print Department, Boston Public Library

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. 20 Fenway Park, 1912 World's Series. To accommodate more fans, bleacher seats were constructed on the third-base line, on Duffy's Cliff, and even more seats placed in front of the embankment. As a result it would be impossible to hit a home run over the fence in left field during the World's Series. Umpires decided that any ball hit over the short fence into the crowd, off the wall, or even into Lansdowne Street would be a ground-rule double.
Courtesy of the Print Department, Boston Public Library

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. 21 The Royal Rooters were the best-known group of fans in the country. They sang and cheered from the first pitch to the last.

Courtesy of the Print Department, Boston Public Library

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. 22 After their seats at Duffy's Cliff were given away before game 7, the Rooters tried to take the field and sit behind home plate. Mounted police helped herd them off the field. The Rooters were so upset that most did not attend the pivotal game 8.
Courtesy of the Print Department, Boston Public Library

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. 23 "The Royal Rooters and the Cossacks of the Fens." After their seats on Duffy's Cliff were given to other fans, the Royal Rooters rioted. This cartoon, which refers to the police as "Cossacks," reveals the allegiance of the artist.

Collection of the author

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. 24 Fenway Park today. Roughly speaking, the original grandstand stretched from section 28 through 15, the pavilion from section 14 thru section 8, and the center-field bleachers from section 39 thru 43. The third-base stands, from section 29 thru 33, and the right-field bleachers, section 1 thru 7, were added in September 1912 for the World's Series.
Courtesy of Boston Baseball

There were plays in the field which simply lifted the spectators out of their seats in a frenzy. There were others which caused them to want to sink through the hard floor of the stand in humiliation. There were stops in which the fielders seemed to stretch like India rubber and others in which they shriveled like parchment that has been dried. There were catches of fly balls that were superhuman and muffs of fly balls which were "superawful."

—John B. Foster,
Spalding's Official Baseball Guide

W
HILE NEW YORK
fans slipped back into their seats and turned away disgusted, their cheers brought to a dead stop by Wood's last pitch, from the third-base stands the Rooters spoke as one. Within moments they poured out of the stands and onto the field, dancing behind their band and singing with all their might. They continued the impromptu parade outside the ballpark and made a successful charge to the top of Coogan's Bluff, a conquering army of sorts, the escarpment their San Juan Hill with both McGreevey and Fitzgerald vying for the role of Teddy Roosevelt. By the time the Rooters gave ground and poured into their cars, the Polo Grounds was empty. As they passed the Bretton Hall Hotel they all piled out and resumed the parade, this time for the benefit of the Boston players, who had already made it back to the hotel and were preparing to leave.