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Monday

The great Tris Speaker hit his 700th career double on this date in 1926, and it was notable for a variety of reasons.

First, it was important just at the level of the game in which it happened, because it was the ninth inning of a scoreless tie between Speaker’s Indians and the Philadelphia A’s. The two teams were battling for second place in the league, so the game mattered a bit. Howard Ehmke, recently acquired by the A’s from Boston, was pitching pretty well despite a bad start to the season, having held Cleveland to just three hits in the first eight innings.

The wheels came off for Ehmke in the ninth, though. Second baseman Freddy Spurgeon led off with a double, bringing up Speaker. Knowing a single run might win the game, Speaker did what most players would do in that day and age; he tried to get the runner to third base. That’s what made Speaker’s double even more notable. I’ll let Henry P. Edwards of the Cleveland Plain Dealer tell you what happened next:

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 22, 1926.