website watertownhistory.org
ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
Chapter on Watertown Baseball
1913
Chicago White Sox
vs.
Watertown Goslings
Washington Park
David J. Stalker
The Watertown Goslings played
host to the Chicago White Sox at Washington Park
on May 23rd, 1913. This was within seven
years of the White Sox waving the 1906 World Champion banner. The Goslings, not to be confused with the high
school team, were in the Central State League.
Promoting the event was a man named Paddy Ryan. Paddy put up hundreds of posters in Watertown
and surrounding cities and counties, advertising the event. He stated that he never scheduled a game were
interest ran so high. The anticipated
attendance was set at 6,000 to 7,000.
The White Sox announced their
starting line in the Watertown newspaper prior to the event. A few of the names that stirred up excitement
were Ed Walsh, Billy Sullivan and Frank Lange.
Ed Walsh was a future Hall of Fame pitcher known for winning 40 games in
1908, and was part of the 1906 World champion team. Billy Sullivan was Ed’s catcher, and also a member
of the 1906 Champion White Sox. Billy
however, was returning to an area close to where he grew up. He was born in Oakland, Wisconsin and played
baseball and attended school at Fort Atkinson.
Frank Lange grew up and played baseball in Columbus Wisconsin, and he
was coming off a season in which he pitched 10 victories for the White Sox. It
is easy to understand exactly why the interest was so high, not just in
Watertown, but the surrounding area as well.
Fifteen members of the White Sox
arrived by train a couple of hours prior to the scheduled 3:00 start. With local businesses hanging up their closed
signs, and factories closing down, there was a large gathering of fans watching
the players warm up.
The Goslings had a strong team in
1913, but they would not match up well to the White Sox. Hurting the Goslings confidence early was
Frank Lange and his devastating curve ball.
He stuck out the first 5 players he faced, and eleven out of fifteen
batsmen in the 5 innings that he pitched.
Smith came in a pitched the 6th though 8th innings, and chalked up four
more strike outs. The Goslings would not
score until the 9th inning, to avoid the shutout. This was when the White Sox manager Jim
Callahan, who is also known as Nixey, came in to
pitch the 9th inning. Manager Callahan
had not pitched a major league game since 1903.
The Goslings took advantage of
the former pitcher, who was getting close to the forty year old mark. Ruesch opened up
the inning with a double, and the crowd went wild when Watertown’s shortstop
Schumann belted the games only home run.
This made the final score 13-2 in favor of the White Sox. The White Sox collected 2 hits off Woelffer and 7 hits off Watertown’s Richards. Judging by the fact the White Sox had more
runs than hits, the White Sox players would have drawn more than just a couple
of walks.
It is uncertain if Ed Walsh made
the trip or not. Out of the fifteen
members for the Sox, only twelve saw action in the game, and were as follows.
Schaller lf, Roth 2b, Berger ss, Fournier 1b, Bodie 3b, Zieder cf, Mattick
rf, Sullivan c, Kuhn c, Lange p, Smith p, and
Callahan p.
For the Watertown Goslings were
Powers lf, Ruedig 3b, Hahn cf,
Schumann ss, Kronitz 1b, Woelffer p, Richards p, W.
Richards 2b, Hornickle c, Demin
ss-3b, Weihert cf, Heye rf, and Ruesch
ph.
History of Watertown,
Wisconsin