It was a pitcher's year in the American League as there were only four regular .300 hitters, the Detroit team batting average was .266 and it was good enough to score a league-leading 642 runs and bring the franchise back from a down year in 1904 to the league title. The Tigers' return to the top of the standings thanks to the bats of Armbruster, who led the AL in average with .320, and Sam Crawford, who finished third in the league in RBI. The team had a really good 2.17 team ERA but the league leading honors went to the second place Philadelphia Athletics, whose staff compiled an ERA of 2.15.
Although Philadelphia's pitching was great enough to make the race a photo-finish between themselves and the Tigers, most of the season saw a three-way race between Detroit, Philadelphia and Cleveland, the defending champs. Cleveland faded in the end as they started September 9 games behind and finished 13 games back. The Athletics hung close to the Tigers but even with the strong hitting of Sherry Magee, the team didn't have enough muscle to overtake Detroit. Philadelphia had started 6.5 games back heading into September and got as close as 2 games before Detroit clinched the title on the next-to-last day of the season. The Athletics were led by the pitching of Eddie Plank and Rube Waddell, who won 22 games, had an era of 2.14 and struck out 315 batters in receiving the league's outstanding pitcher award.
In the National League, the Giants had a rough race with the Chicago Cubs but managed to become league champs by clinching the title around the middle of September. Chicago kept within striking distance as the team headed into September trailing by 8 games then they hit a cold spell and ended up 11 games behind the front running Giants. The Giants' pitching staff led the way thanks to the pitching of Christy Mathewson and Dad Hale, who 22 games with an era of 2.30 to gather the NL's Rookie of the Year award.
The Cubs had a tremendous 2.10 team ERA and were led by the pitching of Hooks Wiltse. Wiltse finished with a league-high 27 wins to go along with a league leading 1.55 era and 224 strikeouts to win the league's Outstanding Pitcher award.
After a one-year absence, the World Series resumed with the Giants still hot as they defeated the Detroit Tigers, 4 games to 1.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Detroit 91 63 .591 -- New York 97 57 .630 --
Philadelphia 89 65 .578 2 Chicago 86 68 .558 11
Cleveland 78 76 .506 13 Boston 83 71 .539 14
St.Louis 76 78 .494 15 Pittsburgh 79 75 .513 18
Boston 75 79 .487 16 St.Louis 74 80 .481 23
Washington 71 83 .461 20 Philadelphia 72 82 .468 25
Chicago 69 85 .448 22 Cincinnati 70 84 .455 27
New York 67 87 .435 24 Brooklyn 55 99 .357 42
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
H.Armbruster, DET .320 B.Congalton, PHI .327
S.Magee, PHA .310 G.Stone, BSN .327
T.Jordan, WS1 .301 H.Wolverton, PHI .319
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
T.Jordan, WS1 18 P.Foster, CHN 8
H.Davis, PHA 9 G.Stone, BSN 8
G.Browne, CLE 6 J.Delahanty, CHN 6
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
E.Beck, CLE 73 G.Stone, BSN 78
G.Beaumont, WS1 72 F.Clarke, PIT 72
S.Crawford, DET 72 P.Foster, CHN 72
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
T.Jordan, WS1 98 D.McGann, NY1 84
L.Davis, WS1 93 E.Hahn, PHI 83
H.Armbruster, DET 84 G.STone, BSN 81
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
L.Davis, WS1 72 B.Maloney, BSN 67
S.Magee, PHA 65 F.Chance, CHN 58
H.Armbruster, DET 59 B.Hamilton, BRO 55
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
F.Owen, DET 1.70 H.Wiltse, CHN 1.55
E.Plank, PHA 1.90 C.Mathewson, NY1 1.72
A.Joss, BOS 1.92 C.Robitaille, PIT 1.79
Wins W Wins W
R.Donahue, SLA 23 H.Wiltse, CHN 27
T.Sparks, DET 23 D.Hale, NY1 22
F.Owen, DET 22 J.Thielman, SLN 21
Saves SV Saves SV
W.Piatt, CHA 6 L.Leroy, SLN 9
E.Barry, WS1 4 G.Disch, NY1 6
J.Bracken, CLE 4 J.Katoll, NY1 6
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
R.Waddell, PHA 315 C.Bender, BSN 234
R.Ames, DET 289 H.Wiltse, CHN 224
R.Caldwell, CLE 223 F.Glade, CIN 181
1905 World Series
New York Giants defeated Detroit Tigers, 4 games to 1.
(sorry, didn't jot down the games)