DETROIT — The Chicago Cubs stormed back with five runs in the top of the ninth inning to beat the Detroit Tigers 10-6 in Game 1 of the 1908 World Series in Detroit, a rain-soaked comeback that happened 118 years ago today on Saturday, Oct. 10, 1908.
Chicago had taken a difficult road to the Series. The Cubs won the makeup for the famous "Merkle Game" 4-2 on Oct. 8 in New York as Mordecai Brown outdueled Christy Mathewson after the original September game at the Polo Grounds was declared a tie. Detroit had clinched the American League pennant Oct. 6 and had three days to prepare, while Chicago had to take a train from New York to Detroit with only one day off. Ed Reulbach started Game 1 for manager Frank Chance. I.E. Sanborn of the Chicago Tribune noted the conditions: "The battle took place under the most wretched conditions imaginable, as it was started in the early stages of a rain storm which never ceased and it was finished on a field so soggy that footing was insecure and the base lines almost two inches deep in mud."
Reulbach allowed a run in the first, but Chicago answered with four in the top of the third and added a run in the seventh to lead 5-1 with nine outs to go. Reulbach allowed three runs in the seventh and Orval Overall was summoned, but after Overall issued a leadoff walk in the eighth, Chance called on Brown on one day's rest. Brown threw a wild pitch and, after an error put runners on first and third, allowed a single that scored the tying run. Another Cubs error gave Detroit a 6-5 lead heading to the ninth.
Chicago rallied immediately. After Johnny Evers grounded out to start the inning, Frank Schulte reached on a bounder to shortstop Charley O'Leary, and Chance followed with a single to center to put runners on first and second with one out. Harry Steinfeldt singled to left to load the bases, and Solly Hofman lined a single to left that scored Schulte and Chance to retake the lead. Steinfeldt went to third on the throw home and scored on Joe Tinker's bunt that traveled less than 20 feet from the plate. Tinker and Hofman then executed a double steal in the mud, and Johnny Kling singled to center to score both for the fifth run of the inning and a 10-6 lead.
Brown made the lead stand in the bottom of the ninth. He put two Tigers on base with one out on a walk and a single, then retired Sam Crawford on a fly ball and Ty Cobb on a comebacker to close the win. Chicago went on to win three of the next four games, two by shutout, to claim its second straight World Series title.