Moonlight in the daylight

Tom Forget illustration

In just another day of their century-plus rivalry, the Giants – then of New York – beat the Superbas – later the Dodgers of Brooklyn and then Los Angeles – 11-1 in a game played 119 years ago today before a Thursday afternoon crowd of 2,000 at Washington Park.

The focus of the game, as usual, is Giants pitcher Christy Mathewson, the future Hall of Famer who strikes out seven over five shutout innings before taking off the rest of the afternoon.

The victory is Mathewson’s 13th of the 1905 season on his way to a major league-leading 31 wins, marking the third straight season in which he wins 30 or more games.

Not sure, though, is Mathewson is paying much – if any – attention when Giants right fielder George Browne leaves the game in the eighth inning and is replaced by a 27-year-old rookie from Fayetteville, N.C.

Turns out the rookie is on deck to bat in the top of the ninth when Claude Elliott ends the inning against Brooklyn’s Jack Doscher by flying out to right fielder Harry Lumley.

Alas, that 27-year-old rookie right fielder from the Giants never again plays in the major leagues – let alone gets a chance for an at-bat there – but decades later becomes forever immortalized in pop culture from the 1989 movie Field of Dreams.

The player?

That would be Archibald “Moonlight” Graham.