At our last update, April 30th, the 1912 Red Sox were a half game out of first. Since then, from May 1st to May 18th, they went a pedestrian 7-6 (4 of the wins came against the lowly St. Louis Browns who would finish 1912 with a .346 winning percentage), and fell to 5.5 games out, still in second place, at 16-10. And that would be the last time the team would be anywhere near that close to .500. (Remember, they end up finishing almost 60 games over.)

On this day 100 years ago, May 18th, 1912, baseball was on the front pages. A few days earlier in New York, the Tigers' Ty Cobb (the "king of baseball players") was heckled by a fan, to the point where he finally went into the stands after the guy. Apparently Mr. Cobb didn't realize that the man who he was spiking with his cleats had, and I'm quoting Cybil Shepherd's character in Taxi Driver now, "three fingers missing on this hand, and that hand missing on that hand." But he kept pummeling the dude anyway. The league president fined Cobb and suspended him indefinitely. At which point the Tigers said they weren't gonna play anymore. Players around the league backed Cobb saying they should have the right to "personal protection" from fans, other teams prepared to strike along with Detroit, and a "baseball war" was feared. This all led to baseball players becoming, and now I'm quoting Robert DeNiro's character in Taxi Driver, "like a union." Stay tuned....

Labels: 1912 Red Sox