May 6, 1920 saw all eight schedule games played. Scoring was low in general on that day. The Giants beat the Dodgers 2-1 for the lowest run total of the day. The games between these two clubs had a heightened sense of rivalry at the time, as the Dodgers manager, Wilbert Robinson, was a protege of Giants manager John McGraw. Robinson’s team is referred to the Robins instead of the Dodgers, but it’s not clear the fans adopted the name. One of Bill James less popular works is a book called The Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers, and in it he discusses how in time how McGraw’s managers became the archetype of all managers in baseball.
The high scoring game of the day took place in Philadelphia as the Braves beat the Phillies 8-6. Neither starter lasted long, but the relievers who came in each finished the game. That was the expectation at the time, whoever came in in relief was expected to go the distance.
Tony Boeckel and Hank Gowdy of the Braves posted the best offensive games of the day. Boeckel went four for five with a double, while Gowdy collected three hits in four at bats, all three doubles. His third double drove home the winning run. Boeckel hit well in his career, with a .282/.339/.381 slash line, and was a bit of an iron man. He led the NL in games in 1919 with 140, then played 153 games in both 1920 and 1921. He was not a good defensive third baseman, but at the time, his offense was enough to keep him in the position. His record ends after the 1923 season due to his death in an auto accident in February of 1924.
On the pitching side, Jessie Haines of the Cardinals shutout the first place Reds to take pitcher of the day honors. Haines pitched to contact that day, allowing just three hits with one walk and one strikeout. In 1920, he was at the start of a long career in which he allowed batters to hit the ball, walking 2.4 batters per nine innings and striking out 2.8 batters per nine innings. He would lead the league in games pitching in 1920 with 47. There were 11 complete games on the day.
Larry Kopf of the Reds led the majors in grounding into double plays at this point with five. GDPs were not an official statistic at the time, so they do not appear in the Baseball Reference record. He led the majors by two. He was a switch hitter, so batting left-handed most of the time, one would think he could beat out some relay throws.
Walter Johnson led the majors in strikeouts per nine innings pitched with a paltry 5.46. He and Bob Shawkey were the the only pitchers with at least 20 innings above five.