No Men Out

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Posted By: Bob

The "goats" were not Lindstrom but Hank Gowdy, Travis Jackson and McGraw. Gowdy circled under Ruehl's pop up, an easy play, and stepped on his catcher's mask. His foot stuck and he tried to kick it off, when that didn't work, he lunged and missed the ball. Given a second chance, Ruel blasted a double. With one out and a runner on second, Walter Johnson had to bat to stay in the game and hit a grounder to Jackson who in his eagerness mishandled the ball. That should have been the 3rd out. Instead, McGraw made two crucial decisions which qualified him, not Lindstrom as the goat: first, he kept Irish Meusel in left rather than putting the strong armed Ross Youngs in left with right handed dead pull hitter Earl McNeely at the plate (McGraw had made this switch in the 11th with Osse Bluege at the plate and it worked); second and more damaging, fearing McNeely would bunt, he instructed Lindstrom to play even with the bag instead of deep and 12 feet off the line.
The pebble was never found but the ball went over Lindstrom's head and Ruel trudged around to score. Meusel was late getting to the ball to his right and simply pocketed the ball when he saw he had no chance to get Ruel.
Few blamed Lindstrom but the youngest player ever to appear in a World Series game drank himself in to unconciousness at the Giants' train rolled back in to New York that night.