Fenway 1912 by Glenn Stout Read Free Book Online Page B

investment is not a success I am stone broke." Having Stahl on board would be some insurance against that, but when asked, the banker remained coy about returning. Owning a piece of the team was not payment enough for Stahl. He still wanted a contract that recognized his on-field talents and had no intention of going to Boston to lose either baseball games or money.
    Meanwhile the Red Sox, as if relieved to be freed from the Taylor regime, suddenly and somewhat inexplicably began playing their best baseball of the year. In a doubleheader on September 16 against Cleveland, Wood and O'Brien both tossed shutouts, sparking a run that saw the Red Sox win thirteen of their final nineteen games, including their final six, the longest streak of the season. The streak lifted the club from below .500 and sixth place to a final record of 78-75, fourth place, as over the final three days of the season the team managed to vault past both New York and Chicago.
    While some of their success had to do with the opposition—they avoided the first-place A's and everyone else was merely playing out the string—some was due to the pitching of O'Brien and the sudden emergence of Joe Wood. He seemed to be inspired not only by O'Brien's performance but also by the release of Karger, Carrigan's injury, and some rest. Before shutting out Cleveland, he had gone nearly two weeks since his last appearance on the mound, and he then went another nine days before pitching again, beating St. Louis 9–2 and striking out eleven. A week later, against the Yankees, he was even better. Despite the fact that the game was called after eight innings because of darkness, he shut out the New Yorkers and struck out thirteen, the highest total in the league that season and a performance he punctuated by striking out both the first three hitters he faced and the final three. No one noticed, but over the last three weeks of the season the Red Sox were the best team in baseball.
    That was not all that went unnoticed. On September 25, over on Jersey Street, work began on the new ballpark. The club didn't bother with holding a grand ceremony marked by speeches or politicians or ribbon-cutting or golden shovels. With opening day barely five months off, that would have been a luxury, since there was work—a lot of it—to be done. Workers from Charlie Logue's construction company got busy clearing the site, grading the property, erecting a construction house, and moving equipment and materials on-site as surveyors began laying out the foundation and other structures, driving stakes into the ground, and marking them with bright strips of ribbon.
    On September 29 papers were passed that transferred the property from the Taylors to the Fenway Realty Trust, whose trustees included both General Taylor and John I., as well as Ashton Carr, the vice president and treasurer of the State Street Bank, and Arthur Wise, an attorney whose firm bought the bonds that were issued to finance the building of the park and would soon make them available for purchase. The trust was capitalized to $300,000, divided into 3,000 shares worth $100 each. The mortgage securing $275,000 in nontaxable bonds was recorded on the deed, presumably to provide construction funds in advance of the bond sale.
FOR DEVELOPMENT
Fenway Park, New Home Of Red Sox, Transferred To Three Trustees For Improvement
    While the baseball world turned its attention to the pending World's Series between the Giants and the Athletics, on the last day of the season, October 7, the Red Sox played in the Huntington Avenue Grounds for the last time.
    Had it been just another game, it never would have been played, for it rained hard the night before and the field was a quagmire. But John I. Taylor had declared it "Kids' Day," promising free admission for children, and several hundred young ruffians took advantage of the offer. They were nearly alone. Most fans held little sentiment toward the old park and chose, in the cold damp