100 Years Ago Today 10/3/1920: Brooklyn Robins Close Regular Season With Victory Over Braves

From the desk of: FINGERPRINTS OF DEM BUMS

100th Anniversary

BROOKLYN ROBINS

1920 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

Game #155: Sunday, October 3, 1920 - BR

Boston Braves vs. Brooklyn Robins

Ebbets Field

Robins Win Final Game of Season; Next Stop World Series Versus Cleveland Indians

Brooklyn wraps up a wildly successful 1920 season with one final defeat of the Boston Braves in front of 10,000 crazed fans at Ebbets Field.  As if 26-innings weren't enough, the teams need another ten innings in order to decide a victor.  The Robins and Braves back on May 1 played nearly the length of three nine innings games only to end the day tied at one.  Boston jumps out to a quick 3-0 lead, all runs are unearned.  No changes in the score are affected through the seventh.  However, Brooklyn finally strikes for two runs in the eighth.  With a runner on Zack Wheat connects on his ninth home run for the season and his second in as many games.   Boston picks up an insurance run in the ninth.  But the Robins rally for two more in the bottom half, tying the game at four.  In the home tenth, Hi Myers triples home Bill McCabe with the winning run.  George Mohart and Johnny Miljus join together for the victory, allowing four runs, none earned, on nine hits and three walks.

From the first of September through the end of the season the Robins post a 23-6 (.793) record.  They end the season with a 93-61 record, seven games in front of the Giants and 10.5 games ahead of the now dethroned N.L. champ Cincinnati Reds.  After averaging just 65 wins over the last three seasons, their 93 victories ties for fourth highest in franchise history and falls just one win shy of their 1916 record.  Robinson's team never fell below .500 and were never more than 3.5 games out of first place.  The New York Giants got off to a poor start after Frankie Frisch was stricken by appendicitis.  They surged with a 20-11 record in August, but would ultimately lose 15 of 22 games against the Robins.

"No special system of playing won the 1920 pennant for the Brooklyn Superbas.  Nerve and Spirit won the pennant." - Wilbert Robinson. 

This is Uncle Robbie's second pennant since parting ways with the Giants and taking over the Superbas in 1914 from Bill Dahlen.  Only nine members of the 1916 N.L. champs remain.  Nine other players were acquired over the previous two seasons.  In fact, this year's team is largely unchanged from last season when they won only 69 games (a 24 game improvement).

A veteran lineup, seven of eight position regulars are 30-years of age or older.  Two of Wilbert Robinson's savviest moves were making Jimmy Johnston the starting third baseman and plugging Pete Kilduff at second.  Thirty-four year old Ivy Olson caught a lot of flack at shortstop by fans but he proved clutch with a stick.

The heart of the lineup proved solid.  Acquired last season, 34-year old first baseman Big Ed Konetchy bats .308 with 63 runs batted in.  Center fielder Hi Myers plays every game this season.  Myers finishes with a .304 average and once again leads the National League with 22 triples.  He posts career bests in on-base percentage and slugging average and leads the Robins for a second straight season with 85 runs batted in.  Brooklyn's undeniable star Zack Wheat registers his eighth .300 season.  The 1918 batting champion this season places fourth in the race with a .328 average and ranks fourth in the league with a .385 on-base percentage.

Acquired from the Pirates in 1918, Burleigh Grimes enjoys his finest season as a pro.  The spitballer posts a career high 23 victories against eleven losses with a 2.22 earned run average.  He finishes third in the N.L. with 131 strikeouts, while his wins and ERA both rank second.  In fact, the Robins lead the league with a 2.92 team ERA.