Bonehead Merkle

September 23rd
19 Hundred & Eight
Cubs against the Giants
Giants at the plate
Bridwell came to bat
There were two outs & two on
It was the bottom of the 9th
The infield it was drawn

Two weeks left in the season
It was a classic pennant race
The Giants had a one game lead
And the Cubs were giving chase
Polo Grounds were rocking
Score was tied at one
Moose McCormick was on 3rd base
He was the winning run

Which brings us to Fred Merkle
Whose name would soon be cursed
He was the other runner
He took his lead off first
Bridwell drilled a line-drive
Out into right-center
McCormick could’ve walked home
And the Giants were the winners

The Polo Grounds erupted
Thousands rushed the field
The players all ran for their lives
Fans right on their heels
& Merkle was halfway to second
By the time McCormick scored
But then Merkle made a bee-line
Straight for the clubhouse door

Now the door to the clubhouse
Was in the outfield wall
Merkle never did touch 2nd
And the Cubs retrieved the ball
The throw back to the infield
Reached the wrong couple of hands
& Giants coach McGinnity
Threw the ball up in the stands

And after a long deliberation
The Ump ruled Merkle “out”
It would take too long to clear the field
Of the unruly crowd
And since night games were unheard of then
And it would soon be dark
He called the game a 1 - 1 tie
And would have to sneak away from the park

Giants manager McGraw argued
That this Rule 59
Never was enforced
And so why should it be this time?
But only two weeks earlier
It ran on all the wires
The same play happened to the Cubs
And to the very same umpire

But none of the New York papers
Deemed the story fit to print
And so it was that thanks to them
Their team was ignorant
But all throughout the Baseball world
And elsewhere people knew it
A runner has to touch his base
And Merkle didn’t do it

So the matter was turned over
To the Baseball powers-that-be
Who upheld the Ump’s decision
& they ruled prophetically
That if the season were to end
With the Cubs & Giants tied
They’d have to replay “The Merkle Game”
So First Place could be decided

Well, they replayed “The Merkle Game”
And fee-fi-fo-fum...
The Giants lost the pennant
And Merkle was the bum
The papers let him have it
They gave it to him good
They ran the kind of headlines
That only New York papers could

They dubbed him “Bonehead” Merkle
They made up Merkle words
One might “pull a Merkle”
And “to Merkle” became a verb
Some would yell “touch 2nd, Bonehead”
When he stood on first
Little kids yelled “moron”
And the older kids much worse

It haunted him his whole life
Until 42 years later
In front of 35,000
Former Merkle haters
Back there at the Polo Grounds
For an old-timers game
There was a long standing ovation
When they announced Fred Merkle’s name