2017 Houston Cheated
In 2017 the Houston Astros cheated and took home a World Series title. Was that why they won? We will never know. No players were ever punished. Only the Astros manager, A.J. Hinch, and general manager, Jeff Luhnow, were punished.
Both were fired by the Astros and the team was fined $5 million and lost draft picks. Many will say that was a light punishment. Others will disagree. I am not here to argue one way or the other on the 2017 team. I am here to tell you it wasn’t the first time Houston cheated.
1914 Houston Cheated
Granted the team I am referring to existed long before the Astros did, and we are not talking Major League Baseball. Instead, I am referring to the 1914 Houston Buffaloes of the Texas League.
Back then the Texas League was a Class B League in Minor League Baseball. The system was based on the total population of the leagues teams with A being the highest level. The Buffaloes were a great team in the 1910s winning 3 championships before the 1914 season.
The 1914 team was the oldest in the league, at an average age of 29. Several players had Major League experience with the St. Louis Browns such as Buddy Napier, Chuck Rose, Dode Criss, and Pat Newnam. However, none were successful at the major league level. But they made for a solid Class B league team and won pennants in Houston.
What Happened
Heading into the last day of play on September 7, 1914, Houston was in a battle with the Waco Navigators for the league title. Both teams played a double header on the last day of the season with nearly identical records. Waco needed to win both of its games against Dallas and hope for Houston to drop 1 of 2 against Galveston. And that was exactly what was happening until…[1]
Waco won both of its games against Dallas that day. Houston won the first game versus Galveston, but Game 2 looked like a loss. So, Houston did what Houston does, it cheated. The team started stalling, noticeably. And with Houston trailing Galveston in the 4th inning, while it was still light out according to many, the game was called due to darkness. Thus, allowing Houston to retain its title.[2]
The following day in the Houston Post the President of the Buffaloes Ottos Sens was quoted, “I am more than gratified at the outcome.” He went on to praise the manager and the fans, but he saw no issue with how the season ended.[3]
Club Secretary-Treasurer Doak Roberts was also quoted in the paper, “That the Houston ball club should win its third consecutive pennant is a source of profound gratification for me…All the credit belongs to Newman, the boys, and the fans. I am satisfied with the conduct of the club in general…”[4]
Protests Come Flying In
However, if you look at the Houston paper the day after the season ends, you will see articles about protests from several teams. But these protests were about games earlier in the season. Waco was attempting to protest games from June in which Houston played Austin. On June 28, Houston and Austin played a double header. With Houston up big in Game 1, the two teams agreed to cut the game to 7 innings so they could get in Game 2 before darkness. The Houston paper claimed that Waco might protest that the first game did not go 9 innings, which according to the paper was, “said to be a baseball law,” but nothing could be found in the league rule book. But the paper points out that any protest needed to be issued 24 hours after the game.[5]
In fact several teams were protesting the 7 inning games. Waco was also concerned with the failure of Houston to finish the second game of the double header vs Galveston. According to the Waco Times-Herald, the Houston team had been “loafing”, and the team was upset because thetheres still light in Waco when they received word of the game being called.[6] Of course the Houston writers claim that, “people fail to understand the sudden change of climate in the Bayou City.”[7]
Results
President of the Texas League Davidson threw out all fist games of double headers that were 7 innings. This was for all clubs, so several games were thrown out. This led to the two teams tying for the title. Davidson backed up his position by saying he did not make the rules and could not make them. Instead, he stated that he was just making sure all teams abided by the rules.[8]
Despite why the tie came about, the quotes for the year go to Waco manager Ellis Hardy. He was quoted as saying,
No one can make me believe that I won the pennant, but I feel that I should have won it. I don’t want to win the pennant on technicalities. I would rather have the pennant go to Houston under the present circumstances, with all the dishonor that goes with it….The calling of the second game between Houston and Galveston during the fourth inning yesterday was a disgrace and will always be a stench in the nostrils of the fair-minded lovers of the game.[9]
Not to be outdone by the Houston paper, he was quoted in the Waco paper as well, “It’s never so dark at the end of one inning that one more inning could be played if necessary. I wonder if anybody believes that if Houston’s winning the pennant had depended upon the playing of that game it would have been called at the end of the fourth inning?”[10]
Today
In the end the two teams both shared the 1914 Texas League Championship, but the people in Waco still feel they were robbed of a title. Even in 1953 the Waco News-Tribune was still barking about the shared title, although the writer Jinx Tucker did get some of the details wrong saying that Houston tried to play a triple-header on the last day of the season and called off the third game due to darkness.[11] Regardless, Waco was shorted the chance to earn the title outright. If the league only had a playoff system in play for 1914 we could have seen who would have really come out on top.
Bibliography
[1] “Texas League Race Ends with Games Today: Waco and Houston Neck and Neck With Odds on Local Aggregation to Win the Rag.,” The Houston Post, 07 Sept. 1914, p. 5.
[2] “Houston Quitters Claim the Pennant,” Waco Tribune-Herald, 08 Sept. 1914, p. 4.
[3] Otto Sens, “Magnates Praise Champs: Both Local Owners Speak Highly of Newman and His Cohorts,” The Houston Post, 08 Sept. 1914, p. 5.
[4] Doak Roberts, “Magnates Praise Champs: Both Local Owners Speak Highly of Newman and His Cohorts,” The Houston Post, 08 Sept. 1914, p. 5.
[5] “Concerning Protest: Waco’s Protest, if Filed, Would Be Too Late Under League Ruling,” The Houston Post, 08 Sept. 1914, p. 5.
[6] “Houston Quitters Claim the Pennant,” Waco Daily Times-Herald, 08 Sept. 1914.
[7] “Waco Fans Road on Losing the Pennant,” The Houston Post, 08 Sept. 1914.
[8] “President Davidson Issued Statement as to His Position,” The Houston Post, 09 Sept. 1914, p. 4.
[9] “Hardy Doesn’t Want Flag: Waco Leader Caustic Over Houston’s Finish but Disapproves of the Protest,” The Houston Post, 09 Sept. 1914, p. 4.
[10] “Houston’s Rage Over Davidson’s Decision: Hardy’s Poser,” Waco Daily Times-Herald, 09 Sept. 1914, p. 7.
[11] Jinx Tucker, “Waco Teams Finish on Top Only 3 times in History,” Waco News-Tribune, 14 April 1953, p. 7.
Stay tuned for more posts on baseball history in Texas.
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