July 11, 1914

[Frayed Knot]

One hundred years ago today (Friday), 19 y/o G. H. Ruth made his ML debut on the mound and batting 9th as the Boston Red Sox hosted the Cleveland Indians.

Ruth�s line: 7 IP, 3 Runs (2 earned), 0 BB, 1 K � and the �W�
The Sox pushed across a run in the bottom of the 7th to give Ruth a 4-3 AT WHICH POINT HE WAS PINCH-HIT FOR and Dutch Leonard finished the final two innings (and got the save).
Do you suppose Ruth was pinch-hit for because he was on a pitch count?!? Nah, probably not.
Babe went 0-2 with the bat in the game with one strike-out.

Ruth would go on to play in just four more games that season, a start five days later where he got tagged with the loss, then three more in October: a CG win vs the Yanx, once as a pinch-hitter, and once as a reliever. He spent time in both (minor league) Baltimore & Providence in between.
Final 1914 stats: 2-1; 3.91 ERA, 4 games, 3 starts; 23 IP, 21 Hits, 7 BB, 3 K, 1 HR allowed, and with the bat: 2-for-10 with 1 double & 1 single
The BoSox finished 2nd that season with a 91-62 record.



Other players of note in that game
* HoF-er Tris Speaker in CF for the Sox
* Olaf Henrickson was in LF for Boston - I only mention him because I like the name so I looked him up and it turns out he�s the only major leaguer ever born in Denmark.
* Shoeless Joe Jackson in RF for Cleveland, then in his 8th season and coming off a three year span (1911-1913) where he averaged .393/.462/.574 over just shy of 2,000 PAs
* Nap Lajoie - the HoF 2nd baseman for the Indians (who was so synonymous w/Cleveland that some called the team the 'Naps') was then in his 19th season and about to turn 40 y/o
* Ray Chapman, Cleveland�s SS who was to become the only MLer to be killed in a game six years later.

The game lasted 1:33

Edited July 10, 2014 by Guest

[Guest d'Kong76]

Assuming it wasn't Dutch Leonard, who was the
pinch hitter?

[ashie62]

Julio Franco...

[Frayed Knot]

d'Kong76 wrote: Assuming it wasn't Dutch Leonard, who was the pinch hitter?

It appears to be Duffy Lewis - who responded with a single, although did not score, and stayed in the game for the final two innings to play LF (a double switch!!) as Leonard replaced Henricksen in the batting order.
Lewis, in 1914, was then in the middle of an 11-year ML career which would also take him from Boston to the Yanquis.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Thanks, it was getting late and lazy for me.
My friends birthday is today and I texted him about the
hundredth anniversary think being on his birthday and of
course he asked who the pinch hitter was.

Duffy Lewis: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/5f9f3a44