Books and articles about Larry Gardner

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Gardner was a steady third baseman and an above-average dead-ball era hitter. The lefthanded batter joined the Red Sox out of the University of Vermont in 1908, and was their regular third baseman from 1912 through 1917, including three World Championship seasons. Gardner's sacrifice fly in the tenth inning of the final game of the 1912 WS finished the Giants. In early 1918, the Red Sox sent him in a package to the A's for standout first baseman Stuffy McInnis. After a year in Philadelphia, Gardner joined Cleveland and his former teammate, manager Tris Speaker. He cashed another WS check with the Indians in 1920, and hit a career-high .319 in 1921. Gardner later returned to his alma mater as baseball coach and athletic director. (EW)

FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY » July 2, 1912: At New York, Boston's Larry Gardner legs out two inside-the-park homers but the Red Sox still lose, 9–7, to New York. » September 21, 1912: Boston 3B Larry Gardner breaks his finger and will be out the rest of the season. He is expected to play in the World Series. » October 16, 1912: In the Series finale, Christy Mathewson squares off against Hugh Bedient in quest of his first win of the Series. He takes a 1–0 lead into the 7th, but with one out, Boston manager Jake Stahl hits a pop-up to short LF. The ball drops among Art Fletcher, Josh Devore, and Fred Snodgrass. Heinie Wagner walks, and with two outs, pinch hitter Olaf Henriksen doubles home the tying run. Smoky Joe Wood relieves Bedient, and the two aces match zeroes until Red Murray doubles and Fred Merkle singles in the 10th to give New York a 2–1 lead. In the last of the 10th, pinch hitter Clyde Engle lifts a can of corn to CF Snodgrass, who drops the ball. Snodgrass then makes a great catch of a long drive by Harry Hooper. Steve Yerkes walks, bringing up Tris Speaker, who pops a high foul along the 1B line. C Chief Meyers chases it, but it drops a few feet from 1B Merkle, who could have taken it easily. Reprieved, Speaker then singles in the tying run and sends Yerkes to 3B. After Duffy Lewis is walked intentionally, 3B Larry Gardner hits a long sac fly to a retreating Devore that scores Yerkes with the winning run. This World Series was the most butterfingered in history, with thirty-one errors recorded, seventeen for The Giants. The Red Sox earn $4,024.68 each; the Giants' share is $2,566.47 each. » May 5, 1916: Red Sox pitcher Carl Mays relieves Babe Ruth with the score 4–2 in the 9th against New York. New York ties the game on a 2-out error by 3B Larry Gardner, and wins in 13 innings, 8–4. Mays makes his first appearance of the year following a tonsil operation in the spring. » June 27, 1916: Boston's Babe Ruth allows two runs in the first inning, but settles down to beat the A's, 7-2, while striking out 10. Red Sox infielder Larry Gardner is caught stealing three times, the 2nd time this year that A's catchers have caught a base runner three times (New York's Fritz Maisel, April 26). On June 29th, Lee Magee will be caught three times by the A's while trying to steal, and not until Rickey Henderson, in 1982, will an AL runner be cut down thrice in a game. » October 11, 1916: Rube Marquard, Larry Cheney, and Nap Rucker yield 10 hits as the Red Sox win Game Four easily 6–2. The Brooklyn Robins score twice in the first, but Larry Gardner's 2nd home run, an inside-the-park blast, scores three in the 2nd and puts Boston ahead to stay. Dutch Leonard holds his foes to five hits. » January 10, 1918: Connie Mack alarms Philadelphia by dealing Stuffy McInnis, the last player in his $100,000 infield, to Boston for players to be announced. The furor dies down when Mack announces he has received 3B Larry Gardner, OF Clarence "Tilly" Walker, and C Hick Cady. » March 1, 1919: Connie Mack makes one of his biggest player mistakes, trading 3B Larry Gardner, OF Charlie Jamieson, and P Elmer Myers to Cleveland for OF Bobby "Braggo" Roth. Vet writer Ernest Lanigan predicts that Roth will lead the circuit in homers at Shibe, but Roth will be shipped on to Boston by midseason. Gardner will put in six more .300 years, and Jamieson will be a top leadoff man and .303 hitter for the next 14 years. » August 25, 1921: With Cleveland waltzing to a 15–1 win over the Yankees, NY hurler Harry Harper, pitching in the 8th, plunks OF Charles Jamieson in the ribs, Larry Gardner in the arm, and Steve O'Neill in the back. O'Neill throws the ball back at Harper precipitates a bench clearing brawl. New York OF Bob Meusel contributes four errors in the game. The Tribe takes over 1st place from the Yankees.