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1907 University of Vermont - Holy Cross Baseball Scorecard
Tuesday, May 7th, 1907.
There are three players listed that had distinguished Major League careers:
Jack Barry of Holy Cross (Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Sox), Ray Collins of UVM (Red Sox), and Larry Gardner of UVM (Red Sox).
(In addition,  freshman Kip Dowd  pitched for Holy Cross that day.  Dowd pitched well, but lost to Collins, as UVM won 1 to 0.
Dowd would go on to pitch just one game in the Majors for the 1910 Pittsburgh Pirates.)

The 1907 UVM-HC game was the biggest game of the year.  Ray Collins beat Holy Cross 1-0 and drove in the game’s only run with a triple. Students
celebrated the victory in traditional fashion with a huge celebration by going downtown and staging a mini-riot.

In 1908 Athletics manager Connie Mack signed Jack Barry off the campus of the College of the Holy Cross to play shortstop on what would become his
famous $100,000 infield.  The unit was one of the most famous groups of teammates in baseball history.
Barry was critical to the Athletics winning the American League pennant in 1910, 1911, 1913 and 1914, and the World Series in 1910, 1911, and 1913.
Barry played on the World Series winning Red Sox in 1915 and 1916.  
In 1917 he became the player-manager for the Red Sox (Babe Ruth won 24 games for the Red Sox in 1917).

In a seven-season career with the Red Sox, Ray Collins posted an 84–62 record with 511 strikeouts and a 2.51 ERA in 1336 innings, including 19 shutouts and
90 complete games.  Collins won 19 games in 1913, and in 1914 he became the ace of the Boston pitching staff with a 20 win season.
Collins was an integral part of the 1912 World Series winning Red Sox (the same year Fenway Park opened).  Collins started Game Two of the 1912 World
Series against Christy Mathewson and the New York Giants.

Long considered the greatest baseball player to come out of Vermont, in his 17-season career, Larry Gardner was the regular third baseman on four World
Series championship teams, the Boston Red Sox of 1912, 1915, and 1916 and the Cleveland Indians of 1920.
The 1912 season was a breakthrough year for both the Red Sox and Larry Gardner. Boston ran away with the American League, besting second-place
Washington by 14 games, and Gardner hit .315 with a team-leading 18 triples. Gardner will forever be remembered for one of the most dramatic games in
baseball history.  In the famous 10th inning of the final game of 1912 World Series, the same inning that included Fred Snodgrass (infamous muff) and Chief
Meyers making critical fielding mistakes and giving the Red Sox two extra outs to work with, it was Gardner who drove in Steve Yerkes with the winning run
of the series against Mathewson.

In 1915 Barry, Collins and Gardner played together on the same Red Sox team (with a young Babe Ruth), winning the World Series.
     
In 1915 Barry, Collins and Gardner played together on the same Red Sox team (with a young Babe Ruth), winning the World Series.
   
                                                              Collins and Gardner were two best players to ever play for UVM.   Fun Facts:

  • Fact: Though freshmen baseball players typically played for UVM’s second team or their class team for at least a year, Garder was one of two first-year
    students to make the varsity – the other being fellow future major-leaguer Ray Collins.  In 1906 UVM christened a new baseball field, called Centennial
    Field.  Batting leadoff and making his debut at third base, Gardner made an out in his first at-bat, hence becoming the first UVM batter in Centennial
    Field history.  Ray Collins started the game for Vermont and threw the first pitch at the new ballpark.  Collins pitched a complete game allowing one
    earned run.

  • Fact:  The Holy Cross game had become the biggest baseball game and the biggest social event of the year.  In 1906, the previous year,  the UVM –HC
    game  featured six future major leaguers.  Holy Cross: Bill Carrigan (Red Sox), Jack Hoey (Red Sox), John Flynn (Pirates), along with Jack Barry
    from Holy Cross, and Larry Gardner at third base and Ray Collins in right field for Vermont.

  • Fact:  Collins was one of the best college players of his time.  Collins won 37 of the 50 games he started, surpassing Bert Abbey, Arlie Pond, and Ed
    Reulbach as the greatest pitcher in UVM history.  A possible HOF career cut short, Collins was considered one of the best pitchers in the American
    League for a couple years.

  • Fact:  In Collins debut, on July 19, with the Red Sox down 4-0 to Cy Young after three innings at Cleveland, Boston manager Fred Lake figured it was
    as good a time as any to test out his acclaimed rookie.  In five strong innings of relief, Ray yielded two unearned runs and even singled in his first big-
    league at-bat. This game is best remembered as the one in which Cleveland shortstop Neal Ball made the first unassisted triple play in major-league
    history.  It may also be the only time three Green Mountain Boys of Summer played for the same team in a major-league game: In addition to Collins,
    both Amby McConnell and Larry Gardner appeared in the Red Sox lineup.

  • Fact:  In 1914 Collins picked up his 19th and 20th victories on September 22  by pitching complete games in both ends of a doubleheader at Detroit’s
    Navin Field.  Collins won the first game, 5-3, and the nightcap, 5-0.  It’s no surprise that Ray’s incredible feat came against the Tigers; he seemed to
    own Ty Cobb, Detroit’s temperamental superstar. He once walked a batter intentionally to pitch to Cobb, and the tactic worked when Ty grounded
    weakly back to the mound. The Georgia Peach once said that Collins gave him as much trouble as any pitcher he ever faced. He attributed his difficulty
    to Ray’s peculiar windup, which caused hitters to “swing at his motion.”
SABR Biographies:
Researching further both Gardner and Collins,  I found this incredible picture blog of Ray Collins, compiled by his relatives:
http://raycollins.blogspot.com/

This particular game noted in this scorecard was a highlight of Ray's Vermont career, as he beat Holy Cross 1-0 and drove in the game’s only run with a triple.
A chapter(9 pages) from the book “Opening Fenway Park with Style: The 1912 Champion Red Sox”, is dedicated to Collins, and this game in particular is described.
Collins and Gardner, Red Sox Spring Training