Good evening. This is Dead Legends.

There’s no crying in baseball, except when you’re watching Hardball and G-Baby dies…gets me every time.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about a bizarre riot that took place at Fenway Park in 1917.

Since the dawn of baseball, gambling has always been a part of the game.

For many years, a lot of it was done out in the open — and the league knew it was happening.

But frankly, they didn’t give a shit.

Matter of fact, baseball’s most notorious gambler (before Pete Rose) was a guy named Hal Chase.

He was caught multiple times for bribing teammates and fixing games; the league did nothing about it.

One time, Hal even got his manager fired for accusing him of throwing games, and then the crooked owner of the Yankees hired Chase to take the manager’s position.

In my opinion, the only reason that the MLB ever cleaned things up is because the Black Sox Scandal rocked the entire foundation of baseball and forced the league to take a “harder stance” on the issue.

Very similar to the way they handled the steroid era.

But make no mistake about it, gamblers were in the stands lonnnggg before 1919 — especially at Fenway — and it only got worse under Harry Frazee’s ownership.

Which brings us to June 16, 1917: a day that will forever live in infamy.

Coming into that game, the Red Sox had lost 8 of their last 12 games, and they were facing the best team in the league: the Chicago White Sox.

Even so, they had Babe Ruth on the bump that day, and they thought he’d be able to secure a W.

Straight away, this game was a shitshow.

Before it even started, White Sox Manager Clarence "Pants" Rowland filed an official protest with umpires Tommy Connolly and Barry McCormick over a discrepancy on the Red Sox lineup card.

Carl Mays got tossed in the second inning for arguing from the bench.

Shoeless Joe Jackson had an RBI knock, giving the White Sox a 1-0 lead.

Then it started to rain.

In the fourth, a few fans ran across the field from the outfield bleachers to take cover under the pavilion.

Then the crowd started chanting, “Call the game,” and it only got louder and more aggressive as they went into the fifth.

In the top half of the inning, Babe Ruth retired the first two batters he faced, and then everything went off the rails.

Hundreds of fans walked onto the field to delay the game.

The idea was that if they stalled for long enough, it would be called due to the weather, and the people who had wagered on the Red Sox to win wouldn’t lose any money — the game was only one out away from being official.

There was only about five or six police officers on duty that day, and they were nowhere to be found when this whole thing was going down.

Finally, Tommy Connolly (the umpire) and Jack Barry (the Red Sox manager) were able to convince the crowd to get off the field so that Boston wouldn’t have to forfeit the game.

But the gamblers didn’t go back to their old seats in the bleachers, they climbed into the grandstand boxes instead.

Just when play was about to resume, a new mob came out onto the diamond, the first group rushed back onto the field, and this time it was a full on riot.

The mob converged on the players and both teams battled to get off the field.

Some of the players literally fought their way out of the crowd.

Buck Weaver grabbed a baseball bat and started swinging in all directions.

Fred McMullin started throwing haymakers.

Ultimately, both teams got off the field, and police on horseback stormed into the ballpark to bring things back to order.

In The Sporting News, George S. Robbins wrote:

The game eventually resumed and Boston lost 7-2.

When the White Sox returned to Fenway Park on Monday, June 18th for a Bunker Hill Day doubleheader, Buck Weaver and Teammate Fred McMullin were served with arrest warrants between games.

A Boston fan, Augustine Joseph McNally, had filed assault charges against them both, stemming from the gamblers’ riot.

When they went to court, their accuser didn’t show up, so the case was dismissed.

The White Sox went on to win the World Series that year.

FREE KNOB SHOTS!

There’s two things we KNOW that our readers love: baseball and free shit.

Tonight we’ve got the best of both worlds.

Our friends at Dugout Mugs created these awesome shot glasses that are made from bat knobs.

They’re on the house tonight.

Each Knob Shot comes with your favorite team’s logo engraved on it, and all you gotta cover is the shipping & handling.

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Joseph aka “Pepper” Peploski played baseball for Seton Hall before getting signed by the Tigers.

His Major-League career lasted all of two games, but he went 2 for 4.

His brother, Henry, also played in the big leagues — six games for the Boston Braves.

Not necessarily a family dynasty, but still, pretty cool.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

If you like this story, check out some of our past favorites:

• The Wild Flight: ‘86 Mets f**k up a plane

• The Anthem: Take Me Out to the Ballgame

• The Dirty Blue: Meet the umpire who got banned for life

That's it for today. Tomorrow we're back at it like a bad habit. See ya!

If you like this email, don't keep it to yourself.

Or copy and paste this link to others: Deadlegends.co