After winning the world series in 1905, the New York Giants slumped to the middle of the pack for the next couple of seasons but increasing their number of wins each season. In 1908, New York bolted in front of a tight three team race and were leading by 5.5 games over the Boston Doves heading into September. With ten games remaining, Pittsburgh continued to fall back and St.Louis started coming on strong and trailed the front running Giants by 4.5 games in third place with Boston 4 games behind New York. The Giants clinched the NL title with 4 games to go with the Cardinals finishing in second two games back and Boston was third, three games back. The main hitters for the G-men were Red Murray, Harry Davis and Roger Bresnahan. On the mound, Christy Mathewson led the was with 25 wins, second to only Ed Walsh, who had 26 wins in leading the senior loop. Along with Walsh, St.Louis was led by Honus Wagner, who won his second straight batting title by batting at a .322 clip. He also scored 91 runs and stole 48 bases, both leading the league, on his way to winning the league's Outstanding Batter Award.
In the American League, Philadelphia continued it's domanance by repeating as the pennant winners despite a strong effort by the St.Louis Browns, who finished 6 games behind in second place. The Browns got as close as 3 games with 10 games to play but just didn't have enough to stay with the Mackmen. Philadelphia was led once again by Ty Cobb, who won his first batting title with a .310 average. The Georgia Peach also stole 53 bases on his way to his second straight Outstanding Batter Award. Their mound corps was led by 31-game winner Rube Waddell, who also led the junior circuit with a 1.36 era and 235 strikeouts to win the league's pitching triple crown. It was the second time in his career that he achieved this and this was the third time overall that this has happened. Doves' ace Chief Bender was the first pitcher to do this back in 1903. The Browns had a 2.07 team ERA, second only to the Athletics' 1.85, behind the arms of George Mullin and Harry Camnitz, who won 28 and 25 games respectively.
During the World Series, Philadelphia was down 2 games to 0 before roaring away with the next four games to win it's third straight world's championship.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Philadelphia 99 55 .643 -- New York 88 66 .571 --
St.Louis 93 61 .604 6 St.Louis 86 68 .558 2
Detroit 79 75 .513 20 Boston 85 69 .552 3
Cleveland 73 81 .474 26 Pittsburgh 78 76 .506 10
Boston 71 83 .461 28 Philadelphia 76 78 .494 12
Chicago 68 86 .442 31 Cincinnati 75 79 .487 13
Washington 68 86 .442 31 Brooklyn 64 90 .416 24
New York 65 89 .422 34 Chicago 64 90 .416 24
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
T.Cobb, PHA .310 H.Wagner, SLN .322
F.Snodgrass, PHA .306 H.Lord, PIT .306
M.Grady, NYA .304 J.Kane, PHI .295
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
S.Crawford, DET 7 R.Murray, NY1 8
M.Donlin, NYA 7 H.Davis, NY1 6
T.Jordan, WS1 6 D.Miller, PHI 5
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
H.Lobert, SLA 79 D.Miller, PHI 74
S.Magee, PHA 78 E.Lennox, NY1 67
F.Baker, PHA 76 H.Davis, NY1 66
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
S.Magee, PHA 80 H.Wagner, SLN 91
F.Baker, PHA 74 R.Bresnahan, NY1 77
M.Donlin, NYA 73 P.Dougherty, PHI 70
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
D.Jones, SLA 55 H.Wagner, SLN 48
T.Cobb, PHA 53 B.Shotton, BSN 39
A.McConnell, BOS 47 B.Keister, CIN 38
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
R.Waddell, PHA 1.36 D.White, PHI 1.35
J.Buchanan, PHA 1.57 E.Walsh, SLN 1.48
H.Camnitz, SLA 1.59 B.Donovan, PIT 1.62
Wins W Wins W
R.Waddell, PHA 31 E.Walsh, SLN 26
G.Mullin, SLA 28 C.Mathewson, NY1 25
H.Camnitz, SLA 25 B.Donovan, PIT 24
Saves SV Saves SV
E.Jones, CHA 6 L.Leroy, SLN 6
M.Cunningham, NYA 4 B.Pounds, CHN 5
E.High, DET 4 E.Reulbach, BSN 5
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
R.Waddell, PHA 235 C.Bender, BSN 200
R.Ames, DET 228 H.Krause, BRO 195
J.Wood, BOS 189 B.Donovan, PIT 185
1908 World Series
Game #1
New York (N) 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 1 0 - 5 10 1
Philadelphia (A) 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 2 6 0
G.Winter and R.Bresnahan. O.Overall and F.Snodgrass.
WP - G.Winter (1-0)
LP - O.Overall (1-1)
HR - none
Game #2
New York (N) 0 0 0 1 3 1 1 0 0 - 6 10 4
Philadelphia (A) 1 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 - 5 8 4
F.Corridon and R.Bresnahan. J.Buchanan and F.Snodgrass.
WP - F.Coridon (1-0)
LP - J.Buchanan (0-1)
HR - none
Game #3
Philadelphia (A) 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 - 4 9 2
New York (N) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 5 5
R.Waddell and F.Snodgrass, T.Easterly (9). C.Mathewson and T.Clarke.
WP - R.Waddell (1-0)
LP - C.Mathewson (0-1)
HR - PHA: B.Purtell (1)
Game #4
Philadelphia (A) 2 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 - 5 9 2
New York (N) 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 4 2
E.Plank and F.Snodgrass, T.Easterly (9). D.Hale and T.Clarke.
WP - E.Plank (1-0)
LP - D.Hale (0-1)
HR - none
Game #5
Philadelphia (A) 0 1 1 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 - 10 15 6
New York (N) 1 1 0 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 - 8 16 4
O.Overall, R.Vickers (13) and F.Snodgrass, T.Easterly (9). G.Winter, G.Disch (14) and R.Bresnahan.
WP - R.Vickers (1-0)
LP - G.Winter (1-1)
HR - none
Game #6
New York (N) 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 5 2
Philadelphia (A) 0 2 1 2 1 0 0 0 x - 6 7 2
F.Corridon and R.Bresnahan. J.Buchanan and F.Snodgrass.
WP - J.Buchanan (1-1)
LP - F.Corridon (1-1)
HR - none