The World Series by Stephanie Peters Page A

opened on Thursday, October 1, at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds in Boston. Admission cost fifty
     cents for bleachers or standing room, a dollar for grandstand seats. Spectators near the outfield stood behind ropes.
    Warming up were some of baseball's greats, including Pittsburgh's shortstop Honus Wagner and Boston's star pitcher Denton
     True “Cy” Young. At three o'clock sharp, Young took to the mound. The thirty-six-year-old righty — whose nickname “Cy” was
     short for “cyclone,” after the damage his fast-ball had once done to some wooden stands — had been playing professional baseball
     for thirteen years. That season, he had a record of 28 wins, including 7 shutouts and 9 losses, for an earned run average(ERA) of 2.08. His batting average of .321 was just as impressive.
    Leading off for the Pirates was Ginger Beaumont. Beaumont was the National League's batting champ that year, with more than
     200 hits for the season. This at bat, however, the redheaded slugger sent a fly ball to center field for out number one.
    Then Fred Clarke popped up a foul ball. Catcher Lou Criger got under it for the second out. Boston needed just one more to
     retire the side.
    But that last out was a long time coming. First Tommy Leach clocked a ground-rule triple into the roped-off area of the outfield.
     Then Wagner smashed a single to left. Leach crossed home plate, and the Pirates were on the board.
    Things went steadily downhill for Boston after that.
    With Kitty Bransfield at the plate, Wagner stole second. Then Bransfield connected on a pitch. The ball bounced along the
     ground toward second baseman Hobe Ferris. It looked like a sure out — until Ferris fumbled the ball!
    Bransfield was safe at first and Wagner advanced to third on the error. Then, as Young threw in thenext pitch to batter Claude Ritchey, Bransfield took off for second.
    The catcher nabbed the ball, jumped up, and hurled it toward second. The throw was wild! Bransfield bolted for third, and
     Wagner charged home for the Pirates' second run.
    Young walked Ritchey to put runners at first and third. Jimmy Sebring came to bat; and as Young threw in the pitch, Ritchey
     stole second. Moments later, Sebring pounded out a solid single. Bransfield and Ritchey raced home, and the score jumped to
     4–0 with one out yet to go!
    That out seemed in the bag when the next batter, Ed Phelps, missed the pitch for his third strike. But Criger, usually so
     reliable, flubbed the catch! Phelps made it safely to first on the drop-third-strike rule. Luckily for the Red Sox, Young
     struck out Deacon Phillippe to finally end the inning.
    The teams switched sides, and Red Sox Patsy Dougherty came to the plate. He struck out. The second hitter, Jimmy Collins,
     did the same. Chick Stahl managed to single to left, but he died on first when cleanup man Buck Freeman flied out to right.
    Neither team scored in the second inning, but inthe third, the Pirates sweetened their lead by one on a single by Sebring that scored Bransfield. They added two more runs
     by the seventh inning; the second was the World Series' first home run, hit off of Sebring's talking bat.
    With the score 7–0, a Pirates victory seemed all but certain. But Boston wasn't beaten yet. At the bottom of the seventh,
     Buck Freeman led off with a solid triple to right field. Freddy Parent followed with a triple of his own, scoring Freeman,
     and then crossed home plate himself on a sacrifice fly by Candy Lachance. The inning ended soon after that, but the Sox were
     finally on the scoreboard.
    Boston added one more run in the ninth inning. But in the end, those three runs weren't enough. The Pirates won the first
     ever World Series game, 7–3.
    Game two found Red Sox pitcher Bill Dinneen on the mound. He struck out the first batter. Eight and a half innings later,
     he'd struck out ten more and given up only three hits. Boston walked away with a 3–0 win — and the first World Series shutout
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