Daily Notes: May 2, 1916

One of these men was called “Handsome Rube.” The other was called “Bob the Gob.” You be the judge.

FEATURED GAME

New York Highlanders @ Philadelphia Athletics
Matchup: Bob “the Gob” Shawkey vs. Raymond “Rube” Bressler

Shawkey, man of “mystifying hooks and fast ball,” makes his return to Philadelphia after moving to the Bronx last season. Handsome young southpaw Bressler, “among the most accomplished work-shirkers that ever adorned a manager’s bench,” tends to be “a marvel one day and a poor excuse for a pitcher the next.” Nonetheless, he is handsome. “[T]hey do say that the pink teas and the soirees and the bridge fights and the receptions likewise reek and drip with the shape of Heinie Groh’s legs, and guesses as to whether or no the handsome Rube Bressler is engaged…and so forth and so forth ad lib.”

OTHER GAMES

Cleveland Indians @ Detroit Tigers
Matchup: Guy “Alabama Blossom” Morton vs. Harry “Giant Killer” Coveleski

Morton, “the Kohinoor of the Cleveland pitching staff,” was “a tough customer last year and he looks like a comer.” Coveleski, “a member of that troublesome Polish family,” is well-known to be distracted by taunting, and in particular by the song “Silver Threads Among the Gold,” when sung lustily from the opposing dugout.

Chicago White Sox @ St. Louis Browns
Matchup: Urban “Red” Faber vs. “Gettysburg” Eddie Plank

“Sorrel-topped flinger” Faber has a moose named after him at Charlie Comiskey’s hunting lodge in Wisconsin. A spitballer, he’s said to be “like the little girl with the curl — when he is good he is ‘very, very good.'” Veteran side-wheeler Plank and his “seasoned, hard-muscled south wing” pitch “high grade, double distilled ball.”

Boston Red Sox @ Washington Senators
Matchup: “Long” Ernie Shore vs. John Joseph “Joe” Boehling

Shore’s arm is rumored to receive “steam heat treatment” between innings, for he “shies the ball across…with such terrific speed.” Boehling, “like all other Washington youngsters,” idolizes Walter Johnson.

Philadelphia Phillies @ Boston Braves
Matchup: Al “Steamboat” Demaree vs. “Big” Ed Reulbach

Demaree, the “elongated Phillie moundsman,” the “Mobile stogie smoker,” the “$10,000 beauty,” brings his “tantalizing, mysterious curves” to Boston today. Opposing him is Reulbach, who has a tendency to “hurl the ball about the knees, head and neck.” “Big Ed” pitched minor-league ball under the assumed names “Lawson” and “Sheldon.”

St. Louis Cardinals @ Chicago Cubs
Matchup: “Spittin'” Bill Doak vs. James “Hippo” Vaughn

Doak, “flinger of spitballs,” “elderly Sunday school teacher,” has “ancient cunning” in his right arm. Against “that distinguished artist” Vaughn, with his “big, wide, honest face,” opponents are often “helpless against his speed and mystifying service,” especially when he “flips his wiggling shoot” at them.

Brooklyn Robins @ New York Giants
Matchup: Edward “Big Jeff” Pfeffer vs. Charles “Big Jeff” Tesreau

Please note: Neither one of these men were named Jeffrey, yet both were called Jeff. “[Who] will be called upon to wear the spiked shoes that for so long a time have been engulfing the feet of one Christy Mathewson? Some pitching personage is going to get the assignment, for, unlike the babbling brook which the late Mr Tennyson used to speil about, a slab artist can not run along forever and get away with it. Along Broadway they are picking ‘Big Jeff’ as the man directly in line for the promotion.”