Fred Merkle
Let’s forgive Fred Merkle his boner.
It’s that play—Merkle’s Boner—back when he was a 19-year-old rookie trying to help the Giants topple the Cubs in the 1908 pennant race that will forever stick with Merkle. The facts of the play are much-disputed, but the gist of it is this: Merkle was on first base with a runner on third and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of a crucial 1-1 game. The Giants’ batter, Al Bridwell, lined a hit up the middle, scoring the runner from third and apparently giving the Giants the win. But Merkle, instead of running to second, veered toward home to join the swarm of celebrating teammates and fans. What happened next is contentious. Merkle may have gone back to the base. One of the Giants may have grabbed the ball and chucked it into the crowd. Or the Cubs may have tagged the base and, thus, gotten Merkle out on a force play.
Fred Merkle, well after his famous boner play. (Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.)
In the end, the game was called a tie, which helped win the ’08 pennant for the Cubs. The play would stick with Merkle in the history books, but what often gets overlooked is that, after that one simple baserunning mistake, Merkle became a very productive big-league first baseman. He played 1,638 games over 16 seasons, and batted .273. In 1914, Braves manager George Stallings called Merkle, “One of the greatest ball players I have ever seen.”
Merkle was sold to the Cubs in 1917 when the team’s regular first baseman, Vic Saier, broke his leg. He batted .266 in Chicago, after hitting only .236 in 1916. Those numbers led many Cubs fans to wonder whether Merkle, still only 29 years old, was washed up and whether manager Fred Mitchell would begin using youngster Turner Barber at first base in 1918. The Cubs had a light-hitting infield, and first base looked like a place where they could upgrade. But Mitchell stood by Merkle, and it paid off.
Merkle was on a hot streak to start the year, and was a productive cleanup man. By the end of May, he was batting .351, among the National League leaders. Writer James Crusinberry dubbed him, “Mr. Muscle Merkle.” Leaving the preseason criticism firmly behind him, the Chicago Daily American reported, “[Merkle’s] fielding improved and his hitting went over the .300 mark and he again looked upon the affairs of life with a cheerful countenance.”
Eventually, Merkle dipped to .297 on the year, but 1918 was a very good bounce-back season for him. He slipped to .267 the next year, and in 1920, he was one of the players mysteriously called back to testify about the Cubs’ throwing a game to the Phillies on August 31. Merkle’s role in that scandal was never explained, but he was abruptly released by the Cubs the next winter, despite hitting .285. He spent four years in the minor leagues before getting a job as a coach with the Yankees, for whom he also played in a few games.
