“SMILING TIM” and “LAP’S LAST LAP”

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716. NEW YORK GIANTS VS ST. LOUIS BROWNS

CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFF

GAME ONE

OCTOBER 16, 1888

POLO GROUNDS (ORIGINAL)

QUALITY OF PLAY—6.55

DRAMA—8.22

STAR POWER—6.76

CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—7.26

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—7.95

LOCAL IMPACT—7.85

TOTAL: 44.59

1888 was a trying year in New York City. In March the Great Blizzard of ’88 buried the City under 40 inches of late-winter snow, with drifts measured up to 18 feet high in parts of Brooklyn. Powerful winds and bitter cold added to the disaster, which paralyzed NYC for weeks. Some 400 people died, there was tens of millions in property damage, and the town of nearly 3.2 million people shut down almost completely. The gridlock spurred City officials to contemplate life underground—the beginnings of the NYC subway system date to the Blizzard of ’88.

But matters had turned more positive by the fall, at least for the sports-minded. For the nascent nine that made its home on Central Park North, called the New York Gothams upon invention in 1883 and now popularly called the Giants, had captured the first pennant in NYC hardball history. With an 84-47 record the G-men at last had beaten their Second City rivals, the Cubs, to the National League flag. Six future Hall of Famers dotted the lineup, including Buck Ewing, John Montgomery Ward, and star hurler Tim Keefe.

Before the coming of the American League there was the American Association, and before the modern World Series there was a “Championship Playoff" between the best of the AA and the best of the National League. In 1888 the AA champs were the St. Louis Browns, led by Charlie Comiskey, not yet the penny-pinching hardcase who caused the Black Sox scandal thanks to his parsimony as owner of the Chicago White Sox, but a tremendous first baseman and team captain. The league’s batting champ, Tip O’Neill (not that one) was also in the lineup, as was one of the great names to ever play pro ball, Silver King, who had a pitching arm to match his moniker.

Ironically, Comiskey spent most of his time battling his lunatic owner, a saloonkeeper named Chris von der Ahe. Imagine Charles Finley with an ever-present bottle of whiskey, and you can get a taste of CvdA. Perhaps in a drunken stupor, von der Ahe insisted that the championship series against the Giants be a best six out of ten, while forgoing a day’s gate and all potential momentum by agreeing to play the first three games at the Polo Grounds on 110th Street between Fifth and Sixth. The next game would be across the river in Brooklyn, before returning to the Polo Grounds and then playing Game Six in Philadelphia. At last the series would relocate to the banks of the Mississippi River for the final four games, if necessary.

Making the setup stranger was the fact that no one knew for sure whether the Polo Grounds would even be there. The residents of the tony neighborhood around the park (and the Park) demanded that 110th Street be extended for ease of transport, and in late-summer the City approved the plan, which would have the street run directly through the Polo Grounds outfield. Lawyers for owner John B. Day managed to sue for time, and the condemnation of the ballpark was forestalled until after the series. Still, no one was positive the Giants would have a place to play in 1889.

So it seemed certain the ’88 championship would be the last games played in the Original Polo Grounds.

At least New York was favored to win it, largely because of the man who took the Polo Grounds mound on a dreary, rainy Tuesday afternoon, October 16, 1888—“Smiling” Tim Keefe. Keefe was one of the greatest pitchers of the 19th Century, using a submarine style and a “change-of-pace” pitch to baffle hitters. “He could pitch a speedy ball with the same preliminary movements as he used with a slow cut-curve; consequently the batsman never knew just what kind of a ball to expect when he was pitching,” explained the New York Tribune.

An Irishman from Somerville, Massachusetts, Keefe had been pitching in NYC for several years after getting his start with the Giants in 1885, going 32-13. Keefe finished the 1888 season with a 35-12 record, including a record for consecutive wins, 19, that still stands, and a dazzling 1.74 ERA to go with it. All that came despite not pitching until May 1 due to a salary dispute with Day. Keefe wanted $4,500 but settled for $4,000, still a nice bump from the $3,000 he made previously.

The raise was worth every penny as Keefe led the Giants to the N.L. title. He got the nod for Game One against the Browns, naturally, but morning rains seemed to conspire against him pitching that day. A wire report actually announced the game had been postponed, but a massive dumping of sawdust on the field rendered it playable, and the game was played. Only 4,800 came out to watch for the three o’clock start due to the confusion about the weather.

Silver King (born Charles Koenig) opposed Keefe. The “Silver Bullet" was coming off a spectacular 45-20 campaign with an even better ERA than Keefe, just 1.63. Naturally, a pitcher’s duel emerged, even though the Browns were calling Keefe a “fair-weather pitcher” in the press. A sacrifice fly gave New York an early advantage, but O’Neill tied the game in the third with an RBI single.

In the bottom of the same frame, New York’s Mike Tiernan walked with two outs. He stole second, and catcher Jack Boyle sailed the throw into center field. Harry Lyons, the Browns centerfielder, charged the errant throw but missed it completely, and Tiernan raced around the bases to score the go-ahead run. The unearned run made it 2-1, New York. They couldn’t touch King after that.

Which was okay, for from there Keefe dominated. In their lone threat St. Louis got a man to third in the 8th, and Comiskey hit a ball deep down the left field line that dropped just foul. “If it had dropped on fair ground,” reported the Times, “Comiskey would probably have scored a home run and made matters unpleasant for the Giants and their admirers, but it didn’t and all New York in consequence is happy.”

And that was that, as Keefe made the 2-1 lead stand up throughout. He surrendered just three hits on the day, one more than his team gave him in support, but it was enough. He struck out nine and allowed just four balls hit out of the infield. New York was up 1-0 in the Series after the highly tense affair, and hoped to end matters before boarding a train west.

AFTERMATH:

It didn’t quite happen, but the Giants were dominant, thanks to Keefe, who won Games Three and Five (the last game ever played at the original Polo Grounds) as well, as New York took a 5-1 lead in the Series. At Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis the Browns won Game Seven before Keefe won again, an 11-3 romp that finished it off. New York won 6-2 (the teams played the last two meaningless games, both won by the Browns before sparse crowds) and had taken the City’s first-ever championship.

The following season New York repeated as champs, besting Brooklyn in a hard-fought series between the future arch-rivals, while playing in the New Polo Grounds at Coogans’ Bluff. NYC’s role in making baseball the National Pastime was off and cooking.

WHAT THEY SAID:

“The spectators saw 18 muscular young men in the prime of health struggle for the highest honors that can be attained on the ball field, and they watched their every movement with craned necks and strained eyes. The players showed evident signs of nervousness…but as the contest wore on the players regained their accustomed composure and played in their usual brilliant style.”

—The New York Times (unbylined)

FURTHER READING:

Nineteenth Century Stars edited by Robert L. Tiemann and Mark Rucker

VIDEO:

715. ST. JOHN’S REDMEN VS VILLANOVA WILDCATS

NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENT

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

MARCH 20, 1965

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN

QUALITY OF PLAY—6.17

DRAMA—6.70

STAR POWER—6.07

CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—7.75

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—8.84

LOCAL IMPACT—9.07

TOTAL: 44.60

“LAP’S LAST LAP”

One of the great collegiate coaches in NYC history, Joe Lapchick, never played college ball himself. Born in 1900 and growing up in Yonkers, he started playing ball for money as a 15-year old. As a 6’5” 19-year old with good hops, he was making $100 a game while playing multiple games per week—“tin-canning” it was called—for club teams like the Brooklyn Visitations and the Troy Trojans. He then joined the Original Celtics, a fabled barnstorming club that also won the American Basketball League title in 1926-27, before the rest of the league insisted the team disband—they were that dominant.

Lapchick played until he was 36, when he was hired to coach at St. John’s, even though he had never coached and was utterly unfamiliar with the more fundamental and slow style of college ball, having played with showy, run-and-fun teams as a pro. Nevertheless, Lap thrived coaching the Redmen, posting an 180-55 record and back-to-back NIT titles in the war years, including the famous 1944 final when he fainted from the stress.

Taking the game too hard was Lapchick’s thing, and he didn’t always enjoy subjecting college kids to his high-stress style. So in 1947 he jumped to the nascent NBA, agreeing to coach the fledgling Knicks. He had tremendous success, leading New York to three straight finals in 1951-53 (albeit without a victory in any of them) and eight straight playoff appearances. But here too, the stress and gnawing defeats affected his health, and owner Ned Irish was turning meddlesome (sound familiar?), so after the 1956 season he retired—to go back to St. Johns.

The games weren’t any easier upon his return to Queens. Lapchick continued to let the game affect his health. By 1965 Lapchick was often in agony. ”I used to double up with chest pains,” he said. “Sometimes I couldn't even talk to the team during halftime.” Fortunately, then, he was forced by the school’s mandatory retirement age (65) to quit at year’s end.

So that made the ’65 Redmen Lapchick’s last team, and they were determined to send out their frail but brilliant (two-time NCAA Coach of the Year) leader on a high. The team had some good players, especially sophomore Sonny Dove, a forward from St. Francis Prep in Brooklyn who would be a top-five draft pick in 1967 by the Pistons. They also had the McIntyre brothers out of Bayside, Queens, Ken and Bob, the former the point guard, the latter a shooting forward. It wasn’t Lapchick’s best team by any measure but they were solid, ranked tenth in the preseason.

The team started strong, winning seven of nine, including a fabled upset of top-ranked Michigan and their star, Cazzie Russell, at the ECAC Holiday Festival in the Garden. The Redmen were 13-3 come February, but stumbled to a 4-5 finish. Had they really pressed they could have been invited to the 23-team NCAA Tournament but the NIT, in its dying days as a premier event, wanted the locals for themselves, and Lapchick loved the NIT, especially as it was held in its entirety at Madison Square Garden.

So he and the Johnnies revved up for one last run of survive and advance. They swamped Boston College and eased past New Mexico to reach the semis, where they held off a stubborn Army team and its rookie coach, Bob Knight (the Cadets had beaten St. John’s on a buzzer-beater earlier in the season).

That put the Johnnies in the final, against future Big East rivals Villanova, a powerful squad ranked #8 in the nation. The Cats were led by guard Bill Melchionni, who scored 19 points per game, and center Jim Washington, who would be a top-ten draft pick come the spring. It would be Lapchick’s last game, win or lose, and a partisan overflow crowd of 18,500 came to the Garden on a snowy Saturday night, March 20, 1965, to pay tribute to the legendary coach.

Usually, Lapchick was the one with ill health, but in this game he caught a break—he was fine, while Melchionni was sick with “swollen glands and a virus,” according to the junior guard from South Jersey. Villanova was a solid pre-game favorite, but Melchionni only played the first half before having to sit out the second. Meanwhile, “St. John’s came out for this as though on a crusade,” wrote Norm Miller in the Daily News. Villanova opened in its usual zone defense, but excellent outside shooting and dominant rebounding forced coach Jack White to switch to a man-to-man after falling down 30-16.

Even without Melchionni, the second half belonged to Villanova. They started forcing turnovers and the Johnnies started missing shots. “We were patterned to attack a zone defense, and lost our way against the man-to-man,” admitted Lapchick. Things looked dire when Ken McIntyre picked up his fourth foul with about nine minutes left, and St. John’s up just 4, but the Johnnies offense was picked up by Ken’s little brother. Bobby Mac scored 8 straight points to carry the Redmen down the stretch, including a three-point play to make it 53-49 with six minutes left.

“That’s when they gave Old Joe a few fits,” according to the News. Trying to run out the clock, the Johnnies kept turning the ball over, gifting Nova several opportunities to take the lead. But fortunately for Joe’s ticker, the Cats kept missing shots. The score got no closer than 53-51 despite the Redmen also missing a pair of one-and-one opportunities down the stretch. At last, with a couple of seconds left, the Johnnies knocked in some free throws to ice the game.

The final was 55-51, and the Redmen were NIT champs for the third time under Lapchick, and the first since 1944. The Daily News recorded the scene:

“When the final buzzer sounded, hundreds of St. John’s students swarmed out on the court in a wild mob scene and hauled Lapchick to their shoulders. He sat there, beaming and happy beyond words.”

“It’s the biggest win of my career,” Lap said in the jubilant locker room. “It has to be. This is goodbye.”

AFTERMATH:

Lapchick wrote a book in retirement, part memoir, part coaching how-to, that was well-received. He passed away in 1970 of a heart attack, the one that never came while he was on the bench coaching St. John’s and the Knicks. Needless to say, Joe is one of the signal figures in NYC basketball history.

As for Bill Melchionni, he was drafted by the 76ers and was part of the great 1967 team that won the title. He then came to New York, and played with the ABA Nets, winning a pair of championships alongside Doctor J, Julius Erving. He was made the GM of the Nets as they made their leap to the NBA in 1977 while nearly-bankrupt. Melchionni is the man responsible for selling the Doctor off to Philadelphia, a dubious legacy, although as a Philly-area native and ‘Nova alum he may not have felt too bad about it.

WHAT THEY SAID:

“The gallant young men of St. John’s did it for the grand old guy who won’t be around any more to show them how.”

—Bill Miller, New York Daily News

FURTHER READING:

Lapchick: The Life by Gus Alfieri

VIDEO: