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The White Sox and Giants finally reached the Pacific -- and the 4,000-mile mark, by my estimate -- but they still had 10 more cities to tour before they could set sail across it.
It started with a two-day stay in Los Angeles, which offered the tour's biggest crowds yet.
Nov. 8 in Los Angeles: White Sox 5, Giants 3
An estimated 11,000 to 12,000 fans swarmed upon Washington Park in Los Angeles. The stadium had never handled a crowd quite that size, and the Chicago Tribune picked an unusual unit of measurement:
It was impossible to start the game on schedule time because of the long time of fans in front of the ticket windows. More than $1,000,000 worth of automobiles were parked outside the playing field when the contest started.
A parade, headed by a brass band, labored to get through the streets. Every fan had some favorite player and all insisted on offering personal greetings to their heroes.
And the player most came to see was Christy Mathewson, the Giants' scheduled starter. They didn't see him at his best, as the White Sox tagged him with yet another loss. He trailed 3-0 after the top of the third, but the Giants bailed him out by tying it up in the bottom half.
Reb Russell tightened up, but Mathewson didn't. A double steal by the clown combo of Germany Schaefer and Steve Evans -- a St. Louis Cardinal who joined the Sox in Texas -- put the Sox ahead for good in the sixth. So Matty's rough luck continued, but the wire story from the day offered a decent excuse:
Matthewson pitched for the Giants and was licked by a score of 5 to 3 for his pains. But the "Big Train" [sic] had a robust alibi, as between the hours of 12 and 2 he was forced to shake several hundred trailing palms and listen to the chatter of many enthusiastic admirers.
In "The Tour To End All Tours," James E. Elfers relays the account from Harry Williams, a baseball writer from the Los Angeles Times. Elfers indicates that Williams wasn't easy to please:
The thing that impressed me the most about either team was the number of lefthanders in the White Sox lineup. Never before have I seen so many deformed people on one team.
Nov. 9 in Los Angeles: White Sox 7, Giants 7
An even bigger crowd of 15,000 showed up for the second ballgame, which turned out to be a circus called by darkness. The most unusual game of the tour featured:
*Seven errors -- three by the Sox and four by the Giants. That doesn't count Ray Schalk's three passed balls.
*Lee Magee "pulling the prize boner" of the battle in the seventh inning, according to the Dallas Morning News. He caught a fly for the second out but thought it was the third. His toss to fellow outfielder Mike Donlin ended up rolling to the wall, and two runs came around to score.
*Buck Weaver getting ejected by Bill Klem for the second time on the tour for arguing a play at third. With the Sox roster already shorthanded, manager Jimmy Callahan had to activate himself.
*Callahan racking up a single, triple, stolen base and the game-tying RBI before Klem decided to call it a night.
*Schaefer stealing an out with his signature hidden-ball trick.
Once again, a quote from Williams relayed by Elfers sums it up the best: "If this be major league baseball, then friends, let us remain a minor league for the rest of our lives."