The San Francisco call., 1909-06-09
By WILLIAM j. SLATTERY

- " A1A-AEAA' ~ OA~TA LIN
San Francisco and Oakland stamped
their names in the pages of baseball
history on the Oakland diamond yester-
day afternoon by playing "a innings
with two men out in the twenty fourth
inning. 1t was the most sensational
game perhaps in the. history of the
greatest sport of them all. and with it
goes a record that has never been
equaled Twenty three and two thirds
innings without a run is likely to stand
out as mark for many a day to come
1t has never been known before in
organized or league baseball
The rival pitchers. Clarence Henley
and James Wigs, worked through the
"a innings without faltering and both
were strong at the finish. This adds
another chapter to the remarkable
story. Never in the past have two
twirlers gone this strenuous route
without assistance. Only one man re-
ceived a base on balls from. the San
Francisco pitcher.
Fans Are Mystified
Inning after inning each team had
chance upon chance to break the game
up and the finish was in sight an hour
before the game broke up. The fans
could not understand it, The whole
thing was something far beyond their
powers of comprehension. They had
never seen anything of the sort before.
and the longer they pondered the more
mystifying ii was to them
Nick Williams, the big blonde catcher
of the home team, who was put in the
game to take the place of Bodie in the
twentieth inning, made the hit that
brought the honor home to San Fran
cisco in the last inning. Rollie Zeider.
the first batter up, opened with a great
two base drive to deep left field, and on
the bad return throw which Duffey
Lewis made Reider managed to slide
into third base.
The admirers of the Seals set up a
mighty cheer. for here was their man
on third and nobody down. But the
SAlAilto 1OiOhAJ NiidhBCQ " lIOHHS, Gap
tain Mohler lifted long fly to center
and Zeider would not dare to take a
chance of running home, seeing at once
that the fly was too short
Tom Tenant came next laying down
a bunt which Wiggs quickly captured
and threw to third to head off Zeider.
The heady little shortstop played tag
with the entire Oakland infield between
third and home till Tenant had found
his way to third base. Then Zeider
gave himself up, realizing that there
was no further chance left for him.
Great Contest Ends
This made the second out, and most
of the spectators had settled them
selves, expecting another inning at
least. But they had all failed to reckon
with williams. Quietly he stepped up
to the plate, and after allowing one
ball to pass him, he smote the next
safely into right field and the greatest
of ali diamond contests was at an end.
Considering the length of the game
and the difficulties which the players
were forced to contend with, it proved
to be as clean cut an affair as any dia-
mond ever knew. Only five errors were
made, two by the Seal players and three
by the Oaklanders. One of these figured
in the fatal run, the one which Lewis
made at the most critical moment of
the combat
There have been several diamond con-
tests in history which furnished more
innings than yesterdays, but none of
them which helped make organized
baseball history ever went so far with
out run being scored. The nearest
approach to this was back in 1884 when
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