Great Slab Duel Between Kanty and Knoxville Bill Doak on Opening Day

• Cards, Doak win complete game 6-hitter from Pirates with squeeze play, 2-1
• 15,000 Wild Fans Cheer Heroes;
• Wagner Received Cum Laud
• Well-timed Movement Gives Cardinals First Victory of Season in Game With Manager Callahan’s Team
• Wild Throws by Shortstop Smith and Catcher Wilson Contribute to Success of Miller Huggins’ Nine
• Doak gives up 1 run on 6 hits, 3 going to fellow Pennsylvanian Honus Wagner

April 12, 1916,  Age 25                             By Charles J. Doyle, Pittsburgh Post Gazette

A perfectly timed squeeze play gave the Cardinals a 2 to 1 victory over the Pirates in the opening game of the 1916 National League season this afternoon at Robinson Field.  Wild throws by Shortstop Smith and catcher Wilson figured prominently in the home club success.

The league’s forty-first season was inaugurated here in a manner befitting the occasion except for a breeze which swept across the field at intervals. The weather conditions were ideal. Almost 15,000 fans were on hand to cheer the Cards in their get-away against Jimmie Callahan’s athletes.

What’s Strap-hanging to a Fan?

The crowd at the park was typical of St. Louis fandom. At the noon hour the street cars began to pick up the anxious partisans and at 1 o’clock every car that followed the circuitous traction route to the baseball park was loaded over capacity with surging mobs of fans who were out to get first choice on the bleacher seats. Coats were discarded in the heat of the warm Missouri sunshine. Old Sol painted a pretty picture in the left field stand where upwards of 5,000 shouting followers of the sport sat coatless and tried to get on the nerves of the visiting club.  A 40-piece band, augmented by a quartet of vocalists, added to the noise and general good feeling of the multitude.

Big Hand for Honus

Honus Wagner’s reception by thousands of loving admirers and the great player’s 1000 batting feat during the day will ever linger in the minds of those who saw Honus “going back” as he began his twentieth season in the Nationals. Wagner surely did everything in his power to start Callahan’s career as Pirate manager with a victory. The veteran got three hits in his first three trips to the plate and he reached first by virtue of a base on balls in the ninth inning, but was left stranded. The fans did not wait for Wagner’s appearance at bat to pay him a tribute. When Honus strolled from the clubhouse toward the Pirate bench garbed in a new Pirate traveling uniform. the stands broke loose with a roar of applause that continued until the favorite lifted his cap. As he walked to the plate in the first inning the storm of shouting and hand clapping broke loose again.

The game was a battle from the moment Hank O’Day grabbed his little broom and dusted the home plate until Betzel and Hornsby engineered their game-winning squeeze with one out in the ninth. The fighting was keen enough in the sixth to cause Doc Johnston the loss of his temper, and the Pirate first baseman was ejected from the game by Mal Eason while the SL Louis fans yelled in glee.

Erving Kantlehner and Knoxville Bill Doak faced each other in a great slab duel. The white-haired spitball exponent from the Pittsburgh district proved a puzzle to his neighbors excepting Carnegie’s favorite son. Doak’s spitter was breaking nicely and his control was good when steadiness was necessary. Kanty pitched just as well as his opponent, but the Pirate attack could not compensate for the costly errors. The young lefthander worked like a winner throughout.

Both clubs were making a bitter struggle for supremacy when the deadlock was broken by the Pittsburghers. Six innings with many tense situations had been completed before Bill Hinchman scored the first run of the game. Hinchman put his powerful swing against a spitter to open the seventh and a new white ball sizzled into left field. Wagner beat out an infield hit and Hinchman reached second. Viox advanced both runners with a sacrifice and things looked good for Pirate scoring.

The Squeeze

Hornsby and Betzel,  who were largely instrumental in landing the city series for the Cards, brought about the downfall of Pittsburgh just at the close of the exciting struggle.  Betzel got an infield hit with one down in the ninth.  He started to steal second and Wilson’s throw was high and bounded out of Smith’s glove to the outfield, Betzel taking third.  The fans were pleading for the run when Hornsby tapped the ball to Kanty while Betzel chased along the base line to the plate.

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