Tracking the Moonlight

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 of Los Angeles – 11-1 in a game played 121 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, if Mathewson is paying much – if any – attention when Giants right fielder George Browne leaves the game in the bottom of 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 before 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 does not get to the plate that day.

Or any other day, either, as his major league career ends with just his one inning in one game.

No matter as the at-bat that never happens for that player lives on, becoming forever immortalized in pop culture from the 1989 movie Field of Dreams.

The player?

That would be Archibald “Moonlight” Graham.

After his half-inning with the Giants, Graham drifts back to the minors for a couple of more seasons in Memphis and Scranton.

Then, just as the movie depicts, Graham moves to Chisholm, Minnesota, and becomes a beloved pediatrician there.

Graham, a native of Fayetteville, N.C., remains in Chisholm until passing away in 1965 at the age of 87.

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