1909...Tragedy
amid growth
The 1909
baseball season ended with the Pittsburgh Pirates beating the Detroit Tigers in
the World Series. It was the Pirates' first World Series win, and the Tiger's
third straight World Series loss. The Tigers would be the first team to lose
three straight Series'.
The Series
also featured the first post-season meeting between each league's batting
champion. Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner topped their leagues in batting average. It
also featured the first rookie to ever start a game seven in a Series, Babe
Adams pitched a complete game win over Detroit, 8-0, to clinch Pittsburgh's
title.
Adams
started three of the seven games in the Series.
But before
we got to the Series, we had two significant incidents that overshadowed the
season.
In
Philadelphia, the Athletics opened the season with a new home field.
Shibe Park
debuted in April, historic in many ways. It was the first true concrete and
steel structure, and truly set in place a template for baseball stadiums to
emulate for the decades to come.
The double
decked stadium, which cost approximately $600,000 to build, featured seating
for 23,000 fans, and accommodations were made to 'rope off' areas of the
outfield for standing room only ticket holders, should the need arise.
The Boston
Red Sox were the first visiting team to be hosted in the new ballpark, and
excitement was definitely in the air for the Opening Day festivities. In all,
it's estimated that over 30,000 fans made their way into the stadium, a good
amount of those getting in free due to the massive crowd necessitating another
gate to be opened. Another estimated 6,000 people watched the game from nearby
rooftops as well. The excess crowd was situated seven deep cordoned off behind
ropes that stretched from the left field to the right field wall.
That early
attendance success, combined with the success of the ball club, led to further
stadium expansion by the Shibe family, which continued into the 1950's., by
which time the Phillies were the sole tenant. Shibe Park, which later became
Connie Mack Stadium, remained the home of Philadelphia baseball until 1970,
when the Phillies moved into Veteran's Stadium.
The A's
defeated the Sox that day, by the score of 8-1, but the A's suffered a big loss
that day.
Michael “Doc” Powers, and eleven year veteran,was the
starting catcher for the A's. Powers, who was a licensed physician, was injured
when he crashed into the concrete wall at the stadium while chasing a foul ball
late in the game.
His
intestinal injuries, which he also somehow blamed on his eating a cheese
sandwich before the game, led to internal bleeding, and he required surgery.
Three surgeries, in fact, to help stop the internal bleeding. And while the
third surgery was successful, it led to an infection, and then gangrene.
Two weeks
after the opening game, the thirty-eight year old catcher would pass away.
Making him the first player to die as a result of an injury in a major league
game.
Meanwhile,
National League President Harvey Pulliam was having some issues.
Harvey Pulliam was a sportswriter from
Kentucky, who was recognized early on for his knowledge of the history of the
game. He worked for the Louisville Commercial, where he worked hi way up
to City Editor.
He was
hired away from the Commercial by Louisville Colonels owner Barney
Dreyfus, to become the club secretary. He became the club president a short
time later, negotiating for a portion of the club in the process. As president,
he was instrumental in the acquisition of player Honus Wagner.
Prior to
the forming of what is the modern day National League, the League had twelve
teams. Those twelve were contracted to eight after 1899 season, leaving the
Louisville franchise (along with Baltimore, Cleveland and Washington) out of
the loop.
Dreyfus
purchased and interest in the Pittsburgh franchise, bringing Pulliam with him.
They also brought several players from Louisville, including Chief Zimmer, Fred
Clarke, Rube Waddell and Honus Wagner.
Pulliam was
elected as President of the National League in 1902, and also served as
Treasurer and Secretary of the league simultaneously. He held all three
positions until 1907,when, according to The New York Times, “...his
health began to give way under the strain of the multitude of duties.”
In 1908,
Pulliam made a ruling in the infamous Fred Merkle play, which resulted in that
game being replayed in its entirety, and ultimately led to the Chicago Cubs
defeating the New York Giants for the National League pennant, a race that was
decided by that singular replayed game.
As a quick
recap, Merkle singled and was on first base when the next batter singled in the
winning run. Merkle, seeing the winning run score, neglected to run to second
base, and went to the Giants clubhouse. The Cubs second baseman, Johnny Evers
realized his goof, and got a hold of the ball (or a ball) and told an umpire.
Evers touched second base, and the umpire called Merkle out, for the last out
of the inning.
By that
time, the Giants had left the field, and the fans had entered the field,
streaming towards the exit. The umpires declared the game a tie, since darkness
was setting in, and the Cubs protested the game, and asked for a ruling from
Pulliam.
Pulliam
decided that the game should be replayed, which it was, with the Cubs winning
the game and the pennant.
The
National League Board of Directors met in a special meeting to discuss the
decision made by Pulliam, and decreed that he did, in fact, make the correct
decision. That committee, who released their report in early October, also
criticized Merkle for his “reckless, careless, inexcusable blunder”.
Pulliam was
exonerated by the league as a whole, although the Giants may not have done so,
since it cost them the pennant. But Pulliam was troubled by his decision, and
its aftermath.
His health,
both physical and mental, became a concern to the National league owners. He
had been granted a leave of absence in early 1909, taking a 'long trip through
the Western states'. He returned to office in late June, 1909.
On July
29th, while staying at his apartment in the New York Athletic Club, Pulliam
made the decision to shoot himself. He left no note behind.
Every Major
League Baseball games were canceled on the day Pulliam was buried, something
that had never been done in the history of baseball. And for the first time
ever, each team wore a black armband on their jersey for 30 days, in
remembrance of Pulliam.
His maxim
“Take Nothing for Granted in Baseball” is still used today.
Let's move
on to highlights from the field of play.
In
Philadelphia, Athletics rookie pitcher Harry Krause pitched seven shutouts.
In
Cleveland, shortstop Neal Ball performed the first recorded unassisted triple
play in American League history.
In
Washington, pitcher Dolly Gray, who would give up Tris Speaker's first home
run, established a record on August 28th. In the first game of a
doubleheader, he pitched an historic second inning. He walked eight batters,
which is the record for most in an inning, and walked seven of those batters
consecutively, which is also a record.
In all,
Gray walked eleven batters, giving up six runs, earning the loss. But, on a
bright note, he allowed just one hit.
Teammate
Bob Groom lost 26 games that year.
In Chicago,
the Cubs won 104 games, but didn't win the pennant. (The Pirates won 110 games
and ran away with the title) That record would stand until the 1998 Atlanta
Braves, who won 106 games, but lost to the San Diego Padres in the National
League Championship Series.
Outfielder
Jimmy Sheckard established a record with 46 sacrifice hits.
For the
cross-town White Sox, the established a record by winning three consecutive
games by a 1-0 score.
Pitcher Ed
Walsh stole home in a game, one of twelve steals by the White Sox that day. In
doing so, Walsh became the first American League pitcher to have a steal of
home in two consecutive seasons. Joe McGinnity (in 1903-04) is the only other
pitcher to accomplish this.
And the Sox
hit just four home runs for the season, five less than Ty Cobb, whose nine led
the American League.
In New
York, the Giants' Arlie Latham became
the oldest second baseman to play in a game. And, at 49 years old, remains the
oldest player to steal a base in a game.
And
outfielder Red Murray became the first Giant player to lead the league in home
runs. He hit seven.
In
Brooklyn, Superbas catcher Bill Bergen homered. It was his first homer since
1901, or 2,480 at bats earlier. This was, at the time, the second longest
streak of this kind.
Infielder
Whitey Alperman set a record for the lowest walks per at bat in a season for
players with 300 or more at bats. He walked just twice in 420 at bats.
In Boston,
Red Sox rookie outfielder, Tris Speaker, had 35 outfield assists. How important
is this? Well, Dave Parker's 26 was the last time anyone had 25 or more in a
season, and Gene Moore's 32 in 1936 was the last time that 30 or more were
recorded...
The Detroit
Tigers were all about Ty Cobb. He won the Triple Crown, leading in Home Runs,
Runs Batted In and Batting Average. His nine home runs were all of the inside
the park variety, the only time that had happened.
He won his
third straight batting title, and third straight RBI title. He was the first to
steal 2nd, 3rd and home in an inning three times. He set
the record for stolen bases (76) by the League's home run champion. He is also
the first to have amasses 100 runs batted in and 75 or more stolen bases in a
season. He would also do this in 1911, the only other time it had been done.
He, along
with teammate Donie Bush, became the first teammate to combine for 125 stolen
bases in a season.
But it was
Pittsburgh that was standing tall when the dust cleared, winning the World
Championship over the Tigers in seven games. And for the Pirates, it was all
about Honus Wagner.
Wagner, the
preeminent shortstop of the day, completed his fifth season in which he tallied
35 doubles and 35 stolen bases. He won his third consecutive Runs Batted In
title, and his sixth straight batting title.
He stole 2nd,
3rd and home in an inning in two consecutive games. Wagner, along
with teammates Fred Clarke, Tommy Leach and Bobby Byrne held the top four
places in runs scored.
As for the
team statistical rankings, the top three in each league in pitching were:
National
League
|
American
League
|
Chicago Cubs
|
Detroit Tigers
|
Pittsburgh
Pirates
|
Chicago White
Sox
|
New York Giants
|
Philadelphia
Athletics
|
And for
hitting, that list is:
Pittsburgh
Pirates
|
Detroit Tigers
|
Chicago Cubs
|
Philadelphia
Athletics
|
New York Giants
|
Boston Red Sox
|
So our
overall top 5 teams for 1909 were as follows:
Pittsburgh
Pirates
|
World Series
Champion
|
Chicago Cubs
|
Won 104 games,
2nd in NL
|
Detroit Tigers
|
American League
Champions
|
New York Giants
|
3rd
in National League
|
Philadelphia
Athletics
|
2nd
in American League
|
For this
season, the 'power ranking' held true to the eventual outcome.
As for the
player rankings, we'll start with the National League pitching, again featuring
Runs Allowed Average as well as Earned Run Average. The initial top performers
list is as follows:
Pitcher
|
Team
|
W-L
|
RAA
|
ERA
|
Christy
Mathewson
|
Giants
|
25-6
|
1.86
|
1.14
|
Three Finger
Brown
|
Cubs
|
27-9
|
2.05
|
1.31
|
Howie Camnitz
|
Pirates
|
25-6
|
2.39
|
1.62
|
Orvall Overall
|
Cubs
|
20-11
|
2.08
|
1.42
|
Ed Reulbach
|
Cubs
|
19-10
|
2.36
|
1.78
|
Vic Willis
|
Pittsburgh
|
22-11
|
2.61
|
2.24
|
Art Fromme
|
Reds
|
19-13
|
2.71
|
1.90
|
Hooks Wiltse
|
Giants
|
20-11
|
3.04
|
2.00
|
Jake Pfeister
|
Cubs
|
176
|
3.07
|
2.37
|
Lefty Leifield
|
Prates
|
19-8
|
3.39
|
2.37
|
Then, as we
compare the pitchers to their team's pitching performances, we get this next
top ten performers:
Nap Rucker
|
Brooklyn
|
13-19
|
2.76
|
2.24
|
Christy
Mathewson
|
Above
|
|
|
|
George Bell
|
Brooklyn
|
16-15
|
3.62
|
2.71
|
Art Fromme
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Lew Richie
|
Boston/Phillies
|
8-8
|
3.67
|
2.24
|
Johnny Lush
|
Cardinals
|
11-18
|
3.90
|
2.37
|
Al Mattern
|
Boston Doves
|
15-21
|
4.04
|
2.85
|
Fred Beebe
|
Cardinals
|
15-21
|
4.44
|
2.82
|
Earl Moore
|
Phillies
|
18-12
|
2.79
|
2.10
|
Harry Gaspar
|
Reds
|
19-11
|
3.36
|
2.01
|
This brings
us to our overall top ten National league pitching performers:
Christy Mathewson
Three Finger Brown
Howie Camnitz
Orval Overall
Art Fromme
Ed Reulbach
Vic Willis
Hooks Wiltse
Nap Rucker
Earl Moore
Mathewson
had another stellar season, with a ridiculously low ERA, and a runs allowed
average of less than two, meaning he averaged giving up less that two runs per
game, and still managed to lose six times for the Giants team that won 92
games, but still finished 18 ½ games behind the high powered Pirates.
Now, we'll
look at the American League pitchers, which features a few lesser known
pitchers. That initial list looks like this:
George Mullin
|
Tigers
|
29-8
|
2.84
|
2.22
|
Harry Krause
|
Athletics
|
18-8
|
2.07
|
1.39
|
Ed Walsh
|
White Sox
|
15-11
|
2.03
|
1.41
|
Chief Bender
|
Athletics
|
18-8
|
2.46
|
1.66
|
Eddie Plank
|
Athletics
|
19-10
|
2.51
|
1.76
|
Frank Smith
|
White Sox
|
25-17
|
2.56
|
1.80
|
Cy Morgan
|
Boston/Athletics
|
18-17
|
2.30
|
1.81
|
Ed Summers
|
Tigers
|
19-9
|
2.91
|
2.24
|
Ed Killian
|
Tigers
|
11-9
|
2.34
|
1.71
|
Addie Joss
|
Cleveland
|
14-13
|
2.63
|
1.71
|
And then
compared to their team's, we get:
Walter Johnson
|
Senators
|
13-25
|
3.40
|
2.22
|
Barney Pelty
|
Browns
|
11-11
|
2.84
|
2.30
|
Harry Krause
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Ed Walsh
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Jake Powell
|
Browns
|
12-16
|
3.13
|
2.11
|
Addie Joss
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Chief Bender
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Eddie Plank
|
Above
|
|
|
|
Cy Young
|
Cleveland
|
19-15
|
3.36
|
2.26
|
George Mullin
|
above
|
|
|
|
So, our
final American League pitching rankings are:
Harry Krause
George Mullin
Ed Walsh
Chief Bender
Eddie Plank
Frank Smith
Cy Morgan
Addie Joss
Ed Summers
Ed Killian
The
American League pitchers outperformed the National League pitchers by 3.5%.
Switching
over to the offensive side, we'll start looking at the American League first.
The
rankings will include runs scored and runs created per game, instead of home
runs, which were not a critical part of the game during this time.
The initial
list for the American League is:
Player
|
Team
|
Avg
|
RBI
|
Runs
|
RC/G
|
Ty Cobb
|
Tigers
|
.377
|
107
|
116
|
1.37
|
Sam Crawford
|
Tigers
|
.314
|
97
|
83
|
1.12
|
Eddie Collins
|
Athletics
|
.347
|
56
|
104
|
1.03
|
Frank 'Home
Run' Baker
|
Athletics
|
.305
|
85
|
73
|
1.04
|
Tris Speaker
|
Red Sox
|
.309
|
77
|
73
|
1.00
|
Jake Stahl
|
Red Sox
|
.294
|
60
|
62
|
0.91
|
Clyde Engle
|
New York
Highlanders
|
.278
|
71
|
66
|
0.99
|
Hal Chase
|
Highlanders
|
.283
|
63
|
60
|
1.01
|
Harry Davis
|
Athletics
|
.268
|
75
|
73
|
0.97
|
Donie Bush
|
Tigers
|
.273
|
33
|
114
|
0.94
|
And then
comparing the players to their team average performances, we get this list:
Ty Cobb
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Patsy Dougherty
|
White Sox
|
.285
|
55
|
71
|
0.90
|
Bob Unglaub
|
Senators
|
.265
|
41
|
43
|
0.62
|
Nap Lajoie
|
Cleveland
|
.324
|
47
|
56
|
0.80
|
Eddie Collins
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Sam Crawford
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
George Browne
|
Senators
|
.272
|
16
|
40
|
0.53
|
Tris Speaker
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Frank Baker
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Bill Hinchman
|
Cleveland
|
.258
|
53
|
57
|
0.78
|
This helps
us get to the final rankings, Which were:
Ty Cobb
Sam Crawford
Eddie Collins
Frank Baker
Tris Speaker
Patsy Dougherty
Jake Stahl
Clyde Engle
Nap Lajoie
Hal Chase
And then
the National League, where the offense averaged 6.1% better than the American
Leaguers, we get this initial ranking:
Honus Wagner
|
Pirates
|
.339
|
100
|
92
|
1.36
|
Ed Konetchy
|
Cardinals
|
.286
|
80
|
88
|
1.08
|
Fred Clarke
|
Pirates
|
.287
|
68
|
97
|
1.07
|
Tommy Leach
|
Pirates
|
.261
|
43
|
126
|
1.08
|
Moose McCormick
|
Giants
|
.291
|
57
|
68
|
1.01
|
Dots Miller
|
Pirates
|
.263
|
87
|
71
|
1.03
|
Red Murray
|
Giants
|
.263
|
74
|
91
|
1.06
|
Dick Hoblitzel
|
Reds
|
.308
|
67
|
59
|
0.86
|
Larry Doyle
|
Giants
|
.302
|
49
|
86
|
0.88
|
Sherry Magee
|
Phillies
|
.270
|
66
|
60
|
0.87
|
And then,
against their team performances, the top players were:
Tim Jordan
|
Brooklyn
|
.273
|
36
|
47
|
0.78
|
Ginger Beaumont
|
Boston
|
.263
|
60
|
35
|
0.77
|
Honus Wagner
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Johnny Bates
|
Boston/Phillies
|
.291
|
38
|
70
|
0.76
|
Ed Konetchy
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
Sherry Magee
|
Above
|
|
|
|
|
John Hummell
|
Brooklyn
|
.280
|
52
|
54
|
0.70
|
Al Burch
|
Brooklyn
|
.271
|
30
|
80
|
0.72
|
Dave Shean
|
Phillies/Boston
|
.243
|
33
|
46
|
0.70
|
Moose McCormick
|
above
|
|
|
|
|
Bringing us
to this final ranking:
Honus Wagner
Ed Konetchy
Moose McCormick
Fred Clarke
Red Murray
Tommy Leach
Tim Jordan
Sherry Magee
Dots Miller
Dick Hoblitzel
So, were I
to vote on the best players in each league, my vote would have been thus:
American League
Player of the Year:
Ty Cobb
American League
Pitcher of the Year:
Harry Krause
National League
Player of the Year:
Christy Mathewson
National League
Offensive Player of the Year:
Honus Wagner
This would
be the eighth straight year that Wagner was the best in the league...and the
third straight for Cobb. Christy Mathewson's second time as the player of the
year, and Harry Krause's first time on the list.
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