1908 National League: Merkle's Boner

Pregame
The most infamous mistake in Major League history happened because of a case of lumbago. Lumbago is an old-fashioned word meaning lower-back pain, and that's what New York Giants first baseman Fred Tenney was suffering on the morning of September 23, 1908. It wasn't a great time for the Giants first baseman to have to miss a game, as the Cubs were in town.

A three-team race in the National League was coming down to the wire, and the Cubs and Giants were in a dead heat on September 23, with the Pirates nipping at their heels. Giants manager John McGraw would have preferred to have Tenney available for the big game, but instead he had to go with 18-year-old Fred Merkle, the youngest player in the National League, and a player who was making his first career start.

Christy Mathewson, the greatest pitcher of the era, was on the mound for the Giants, going up against Jack Pfiester, who had earned the nickname Jack the Giant Killer for his performances in past big games against the Giants.

In this one, both pitchers lived up to their reputations, and it was tied 1-1 entering the bottom of the ninth. With two outs and a runner on first, the rookie Merkle came to the plate and promptly singled down the right-field line to put Moose McCormick, representing the winning run, on third. One pitch later, Al Bridwell deposited a single to center field. McCormick came home and Merkle, thinking his team had won, headed straight for the clubhouse in straightaway center field without touching second base.

It's hard to completely blame Merkle for the play; back then, it was fairly common for players to fail to touch every base on a game-winning hit. He was just following tradition. But it was the middle of a pennant race, and Chicago's Johnny Evers wasn't gonna let a rule violation slide. He loudly called to his teammates for a ball. He got one - in the chaos of the moment, it's not entirely clear whether he got the game ball or one that came from somewhere else - then stepped on second base and demanded Merkle be called out. The umpire knew the rule of course but, seeing he was surrounded by Giants fans, waited until he was in the safety of the clubhouse before calling Merkle out and declaring the game a tie.

The Giants protested to the National League, but the league's hands were tied. By the letter of the law, Merkle was out, and the game was a tie. If it was necessary to make up the game at the end of the season, they would. And of course, the Cubs and Giants ended up in a dead heat, tied at 98-55, requiring the Merkle game to be made up.

The Game
With the pennant on the line, both pitchers went back to the starters from the September 23 game for the October 8 makeup game. But Giants starter Mathewson admitted that he was "dog tired," and asked McGraw if someone else could start. That wasn't going to happen, and so he took to the mound in the top of the first and set the Cubs down in order.

Meanwhile, Jack the Giant Killer wasn't on his best game. The first four Giants reached based against him - he saved himself with a pickoff for the first out - and a run was already in when the Cubs turned to Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown to finish the job. Brown gave up one more run before getting out of the inning, and the Giants took a 2-0 lead after one.

But remember Mathewson's fatigue. The Cubs might not have known about it entering the game, but they took advantage of it in the third. Five straight Cubs batters reached base in the top of the third, with Frank "Wildfire" Schulte and Frank Chance hitting back-to-back doubles to finish off the rally. The Cubs were now up 4-2 and had their best pitcher in Brown on the mound.

That was it for the scoring. Brown shut the Giants down the rest of the way, and while Mathewson finished the job, too, the four runs he gave up in the third were more than enough to doom the Giants. The Cubs won the game and the pennant, their third straight.

Postgame
After beating the Giants, the Cubs advanced to their third straight World Series, and their second straight against the Tigers. Though the Tigers had also survived a tough league pennant race, they were, in reality, no match for the Cubs, who dispatched the Tigers in five games, the last two coming by way of shutout. The 1908 championship is relevant for the Cubs as it represents their most recent World Series title. Their 103-year drought is the longest in North American professional sports.

The Giants would bounce back from the loss and win three National League pennants with Merkle playing first base. Though he anchored their lineup for nearly a decade - and later starred for Brooklyn and the Cubs - he never lived down his failure to touch second base in his rookie year. Almost immediately, and ever since, it became the play he was known for. It forever became Merkle's Boner.

The Rundown

10. Chicago 4, New York 2 (1908 National League makeup game)
11. Boston 12, Cleveland 8 (1999 ALDS)
12. Boston 5, Minnesota 3 (1967 American League)
13. Minnesota 5, Oakland 4 (2002 ALDS)
14. Boston 4, Oakland 3 (2003 ALDS)
15. Cleveland 4, N.Y. Yankees 3 (1997 ALDS)
16. L.A. Angels 5, N.Y. Yankees 3 (2005 ALDS)
17. Texas 5, Tampa Bay 1 (2010 ALDS)
18. San Francisco 3, Atlanta 1 (2002 NLDS)
19. N.Y. Yankees 5, Oakland 3 (2001 ALDS)
20. Seattle 3, Cleveland 1 (2001 ALDS)
21. Chicago 5, San Francisco 3 (1998 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
22. N.Y. Yankees 7, Oakland 5 (2000 ALDS)
23. Los Angeles 4, Houston 0 (1981 NL West Division Series)
24. Montreal 3, Philadelphia 0 (1981 NL East Division Series)
25. N.Y. Yankees 7, Milwaukee 3 (1981 AL East Division Series)
26. Seattle 9, California 1 (1995 AL West tiebreaker)
27. Chicago 5, Atlanta 1 (2003 NLDS)
28. Houston 12, Atlanta 3 (2004 NLDS)
29. N.Y. Mets 5, Cincinnati 0 (1999 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
30. Cleveland 8, Boston 3 (1948 AL tiebreaker)
31. Houston 7, Los Angeles 1 (1980 NL West tiebreaker)