The above advertisement for Charles Dennehy Company, distributor of Old Underoof Whiskey, appeared in The Chicago Inter Ocean on Opening Day, April 12, 1911. The defending National League Champion Cubs met the St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago’s West Side Grounds.
The Chicago Tribune said:
“Threatening clouds and misty atmosphere did not prevent the baseball public from of Chicago turning out for the opening. There was almost a parkful [sic] of people there before the teams had begun their preliminary practice. A brass band livened things up before the game started, and between innings a novelty in opening features was the presence of a woman who stood on the roof of the players’ bench and sang popular songs. Mayor Elect Carter H. Harrison Jr. from an upper box tossed out the ball that started the contest. The entire park was draped with American flags.”
Carter Harrison at 1911 Cubs opener
The game was called after 11 innings. The Inter Ocean said:
“Sometime, somewhere there may be such an opening game as was played at the West Side grounds yesterday when the thirty-sixth season of the National League was introduced with a 3 to 3 tie by the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals, but never again will a seventh position club of the season before hang the hoodoo on the league champions as Roger Bresnahan‘s crew did the trick on the Peerless Leader’s squad…It was a sin and a shame.”
Frank Chance, “The Peerless Leader”
The Cardinals scored three runs in the first; starter Ed Reulbach–The Inter Ocean said he “was one wild critter–was pulled by Manager Frank Chance after throwing 10 straight balls to open the game, and was replaced by Orlie Weaver who finished the game.
The Tribune said the tie was the result of two “grievous errors of the mind.”
The first happened when Cubs third baseman Heinie Zimmerman fielded Bresnahan’s first-inning ground ball with runners on second and third: “All Heine needed to do was toss the ball to the plate and one runner would have been caught, but he heaved to first base instead and the man coming from third (Mike Mowrey) scored, after he had actually stopped running.”
The other “grievous error” was made by second baseman Johnny Evers “incredible as it may seem, for Johnny is often talked of as the brainiest man on the team.” Evers tried to score from first on Jimmy Sheckard‘s double in the first inning. Cardinals first baseman Ed Konetchy took the relay throw and “there are none in the National League who can throw harder and with greater accuracy” Evers was thrown out by “ten feet” at the plate.
The Tribune said Chance “knows now that he acted against his better judgment in putting Ed Reulbach in to pitch the first game of the season.” Reulbach had only appeared in 24 games in 1910 and was recovering from diphtheria (some recent references say Reulbach missed part of 1910 because his son had diphtheria–but several contemporaneous accounts say he suffered from the bacterial infection as well).
The box score
The Cubs went on to win 92 games in 1911, but finished in second place, seven and a half games behind the New York Giants. The Cardinals finished fifth at 75-74.
Reulbach was 16-9 with a 2.96 ERA, but continued to struggle with control all season, walking 103 batters in 221 and 2/3 innings.
Below is another Old Underoof advertisement that appeared in The Chicago Examiner:
Baseball History Daily 