Fred Merkle, New York Giants vs. Chicago Cubs / 1900s
On September 23, 1908, a 19-year-old Giants rookie named Fred Merkle became the central figure in what has been called the most controversial game in baseball history. New York and Chicago were locked in a three-team National League pennant race with Pittsburgh, and the Giants entered the bottom of the ninth inning tied 1–1 with the Cubs. After Art Devlin reached base and Moose McCormick advanced to third, Merkle singled to right with two outs. Al Bridwell then appeared to win the game with a clean single to center, sending McCormick home. Giants fans poured onto the Polo Grounds field in celebration, as was customary in that era, and players began leaving the field. Merkle, seeing the chaos, turned toward the Giants’ clubhouse without touching second base.
Cubs second baseman Johnny Evers recognized that Merkle was still technically forced to advance. He called for the ball and attempted to make the force play at second, while competing accounts claimed that Giants coach Joe McGinnity interfered with or threw away the ball and that the Cubs had difficulty retrieving it amid the crowd. The details became permanently disputed: later stories variously credited Evers, Cubs manager Frank Chance, shortstop Joe Tinker, or center fielder Solly Hofman with directing the play, and some accounts even alleged that a substitute ball was used. Home-plate umpire Hank O’Day ruled that the apparent winning run did not count, while base umpire Bob Emslie ruled Merkle out at second. Under the force-play rule, the third out occurred before the run could score, leaving the game tied. Hostile fans surrounded O’Day, forcing police to escort the umpire to safety, and darkness prevented the contest from being completed.
National League president Harry Pulliam and, later, the league’s board of directors upheld the umpires, rejecting both the Giants’ appeal and the Cubs’ request for a forfeit. The ruling forced a decisive replay on October 8, when the Cubs defeated New York 4–2 before an estimated 40,000 spectators and captured the pennant. Chicago then won the 1908 World Series against Detroit, beginning a championship drought that lasted until 2016. Merkle’s mistake became a national punchline; newspapers branded him “Bonehead,” a nickname he carried for the rest of his life despite later becoming a regular first baseman and playing in five World Series. He admitted in 1913 that he had failed to touch second, though he maintained that he had been assured the Giants had won. The episode remains historically verified, but the precise path of the ball and the identities of those who handled it remain clouded by contradictory eyewitness accounts. A remarkably similar minor-league play occurred in 2013, when a runner failed to advance during a celebration and an apparent winning hit was nullified.
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