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October 11, 1936
The World Series was first played (in this universe) in 1920, and the winners were the San Diego Padres. Until this season, the Padres had not been back to the Fall Classic, but this month they gave their long-suffering fans plenty of reasons to celebrate. The San Diegos defeated the National League champion Boston Red Sox in seven games to bring the World Series title back to the beautiful shores of Southern California.
The teams split the first two games. Boston ace Satchel Paige coasted to an easy win in Game One, while San Diego's Roy Weir fired a five-hit shutout the next day to even things up.
Cliff Melton, the star of the Padres' ALCS victory over Portland, took the mound for Game Three, and turned in a gutsy performance that did not look like the work of a rookie who was playing amateur ball in May. Melton allowed seven hits and seven walks, and seemed to spend the entire day pitching out of trouble. He allowed only one run to score, however, and the Padres got to Red Sox rookie Robert Hampton twice to win the game 2-1.
In Game Four, Satchel Paige proved once again that he is one of the most tenacious competitors the game has ever seen. Satch didn't have his best stuff, but he held the Padres off until his teammates' bats awakened and earned a 5-4 victory. The Sox won again in Game Five, with Ed Brandt pitching a gem, going the distance for a 3-1 victory. Padres starter Weir left the game in the second inning with shoulder trouble, which was later diagnosed as a minor rotator cuff strain.
The Padres faced elimination in Game Six, and once again they turned to Cliff Melton. He responded with a five-hit shutout, while his teammates battered Robert Hampton for 14 hits in an easy 9-0 win.
The league champions would now face a Game Seven showdown in Fenway Park. With Satchel Paige and Dutch Leonard in the box and a chilling wind blowing briskly in from left field, most fans expected a pitchers' duel. They got the opposite, as the Padres unloaded on Paige from the first inning on. The AL champions hammered eight doubles, and leadoff man Roy Johnson hit a home run into the teeth of the wind. Before Paige left with two outs in the seventh frame, the Padres were ahead 11-1, and that ended up as the final score.
One member of the 1936 World Champion Padres was also a member of the 1920 Series winners. Elton Kirkpatrick won 17 games as a 22-year-old rookie in 1920, and endured the long years of losing that followed the Padres' one championship. Elton finished the '36 season with a lifetime record of 115-156, and since 1933, has done most of his work from the bullpen. He appeared in 14 regular season games, working 33 innings this season.
In Game Seven, the Padres manager sent Kirkpatrick to the mound to pitch the ninth inning with his team leading by ten runs. "Elton is the only original Padre left," he said later. "I wanted him to be the man on the mound when the final out was made."
Kirkpatrick worked a one-two-three inning, retiring Red Sox shortstop Mickey Haslin on a pop foul to catcher Rick Ferrell for the final out. Then Kirkpatrick was surrounded by a joyful crowd of teammates. In the clubhouse after the game, Ferrell presented Kirkpatrick with the ball he'd used to end the Series.
"That might be the last inning I ever pitch," said Kirkpatrick, 39. "I can't think of a better way to go out, can you?"
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