When Jim Creighton threw out the first pitch at Cleveland Forest City's first playoff game, a local comedian called out, "Hey, Jim, why don't you pitch the whole game?" Two hours and change later, the 58-year-old Creighton probably wished he had taken the fan up the offer, as the Toronto Maple Leafs got to CFC starter John Healy early and often in a 7-4 win. But Forest City bounced back with a 7-4 victory of their own in Game 2, and the deciding game was a tight, well-played contest. In the ninth, Toronto seemed to punch their ticket to the semifinal by taking a 3-2 lead in the top of the ninth, when Ad Gumbert uncorked a wild pitch allowing the Leafs' Harry Koons to scoot home with the go-ahead run. It looked like Gumbert, who had won 33 games on the season while batting .369, would wear the goat horns...until Cleveland bailed him out in the bottom of the frame. When two walks and an error loaded the bases, Steve Matthias singled to score Mortimer (
Mortimer!) Hogan to tie the game. Up stepped Gumbert with a chance to be the hero...and he embraced it, socking a 3-2 pitch up the middle to give Forest City the game and the series.
Meanwhile, in Pittsburgh, the other Forest City club strode into the Steel City and promptly dusted off the Yellow Jackets, 6-3 and 4-1. Despite facing the conference's best offense, Rockford held Pittsburgh to 14 hits in 18 innings, thanks to hurlers Dad Clarkson and Gus Weyhing.
But an even bigger shock came in Lowell, Mass., as the Chippies hosted fellow Bay Staters, the Fall River Marksmen. Despite having the NABU's best record, Lowell dropped the first game, 6-4, as Pete O'Brien homered and pinch-hitter Charlie Atherton knocked a two-run double in the seventh. Then Fall River ace Clem Kimerer, with a 37-7 record in the season, shut down the Chippies in Game 2, allowing one unearned run on eight hits; and just like that, Lowell was out.
The defending Cup holders from Wilmington, meanwhile, also found themselves on the ropes. Brooklyn's 35-game winner Kid Nichols started Game 1, and matched pitches with Quicksteps' hurler Hank O'Day -- in fact, it was Nichols himself who lined a two-run single in the seventh to tie the game at two. In the eleventh, Eckford scored twice on an Austin Martin triple and no less than three errors, leading to a 4-2 win. But Wilmington got up off the deck in Game 2, as Phil Knell held Brooklyn to five hits and two unearned runs in a 5-2 victory. In the deciding third game, the Qs spotted Eckford two runs before exploding for five in the third and seven more in the fifth to take a 13-3 lead; Tim McCallum led the way with a double, a triple and 3 RBI. Brooklyn battled back with five in the sixth off a tiring Foghorn Bradley, and one more in the seventh to cut the lead to 13-9, but it was too little, too late as the Quicksteps moved on to the semifinals.
