Merkle's Boner
baserunning mistake committed by Fred Merkle in 1908
Merkle's Boner refers to the notorious base-running mistake committed by rookie Fred Merkle of the New York Giants in a game against the Chicago Cubs on September 23, 1908. Merkle's failure to advance to second base on what should have been a game-winning hit led instead to a force play at second and a tied game. The Cubs later won the makeup game, which proved decisive as they beat the Giants by one game to win the National League (NL) pennant for 1908. It has been described as "the most controversial game in baseball history".
Background
The NL pennant race of 1908 was a three-way fight among the teams that dominated the league in the first decade of the modern era: the Pittsburgh Pirates (pennant winners in 1901, 1902, and 1903), the Giants (winners in 1904 and 1905), and the Cubs (winners in 1906 and 1907). The teams were clustered in the standings all year, with Pittsburgh never more than 2.5 games ahead or 5 games behind, the Giants never more than 4.5 ahead or 6.5 behind, and the Cubs never more than 4 ahead or 6 behind. When play began at the Polo Grounds in New York City on September 23, 1908, the Cubs and Giants were tied for first place, although the Giants had six more games to play, with an 87–50 record as opposed to the Cubs' 90–53). The Pirates were 1.5 games behind with an 88–54 record.
Merkle was 19 years old in 1908, the youngest player in the National League. He played in only 38 games all year, 11 of which were at first base as the backup for regular Giants first baseman Fred Tenney.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Merkle's Boner” is baserunning mistake committed by Fred Merkle in 1908. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Merkle's, Boner and baserunning, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17018688. The first chronological checks are 1908, 1901, 1902 and 1903.
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This entry incorporates text from “Merkle's Boner” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.