“Just the greatest”

Eddie Plank

Scuttling rumors that the Philadelphia Athletics might tank Game 5 of the 1913 World Series because of a potential big home crowd for Game 6 at Shibe Park, Eddie Plank beats Christy Mathewson and the New York Giants 3-1 at the Polo Grounds to give the A's the championship 111 years ago today.

Plank, the left-hander from Gettysburg, Pa., allows only two hits and an unearned run in the finale, which gives Philadelphia its then-record third World Series title.

Plank does not allow a hit until two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning, when an RBI single to left field by Larry McLean cuts Philadelphia’s lead to 3-1.

The Giants’ only other hit off Plank came on Mathewson’s single to right leading off the sixth inning.

Plank then retires the final 11 batters he faces, starting with Buck Herzog’s double-play grounder that follows Mathewson’s single.

In a bit an anomaly, Plank and Mathewson combine for just three strikeouts in a game that lasts only 99 minutes before a Saturday afternoon crowd of 36,632.

For their careers, the two Hall of Famers combine for 4,753 strikeouts and together average 9.2 strikeouts per nine innings.

“Plank was not the fastest, not the trickiest and not the possessor of the most stuff,” says Eddie Collins, the Athletics’ Hall of Fame second baseman. “He was just the greatest.”