The Mascots of 1911

by

Bob Schroeder

In 1911, Connie Mack and John McGraw—arguably baseball’s all-time greatest managers—nurtured the game as each pitch was thrown and every base was stolen. And they did it with the help of their quirky mascots and superstitious players.

Set in the stadiums, hotels and clubhouses of baseball’s formative years, The Mascots of 1911 is peopled with brilliantly colorful characters. This fictional yet historically accurate story is told through the teams’ managers and mascots: Connie Mack and Louis van Zelst of the Philadelphia Athletics, and John McGraw and Charlie Faust of the New York Giants.

Louis, a young, misshapen hunchback, believes in the goodness of the soul of baseball; he says teams should "win for the right reason—they’re the best." Under the wing of the even-tempered and gentlemanly Mack, Louis inspires the A’s by concealing his personal agony with joy.

Feeble-minded Charlie Faust, the Giants’ mascot, arrives bearing a gypsy’s prophecy: if he gets to pitch, he’ll ensure the Giants win the Pennant. Barely tolerated by the pugnacious McGraw, Faust entertains the crowd and convinces the players that spells, good luck charms and black magic will improve their play.

All through that curious season of 1911, the story was clearly bigger than the final score.

What happened when these two opposing forces met in the World Series shaped the game for the next hundred years.