After falling to third place in 1908, the Boston Doves returned to the top of the National League. The team was led at the plate by Harry Wolter, who finished first in the NL in RBI and stolen bases, and by Burt Shotton. Burt Shotton was the first player in the modern era to bat .400. For this feat, he was awarded the league's Outstanding Batter Award. The Doves' mound corps was once again headed by their ace, Chief Bender. Bender won 27 games, leading the NL, and also led the league in ERA with 1.61 while finishing second in strikeouts. Bender was chosen the league's outstanding pitcher. Boston headed into September 10 games ahead of the second place Cardinals, then clinched the title with 10 games to go.
St.Louis was lead by pitcher Red Donahue, who finished with 23 wins. The Chicago Cubs finished a distant third, 12 games behind the front running Doves, and were led by Ed Konetchy and Duffy Lewis, who paced the NL in home runs with 9. Mordecai Brown finally had a good season as he finished with 25 wins, enough to finish second in the league.
The Philadelphia Athletics continued their domination over the rest of the American League by winning their third straight title. However, this time the margin was only 3 games. Philadelphia led the second place Boston Red Sox by 8 games and the third place St.Louis Browns by 9 games heading into September. With ten games remaining, St.Louis was gone but the Red Sox had gotten hot and only trailed by 3 games. Boston got to within 2 games but were eliminated on the next-to-last day of the season. The Mackmen were once again led at the plate by Ty Cobb and Frank Baker. Ty Cobb was awarded the AL's Outstanding Batter Award as he led the league in average (.368), finished third in RBI (74) and finished second in runs scored (94).
Boston finished second, 3 games behind, and was led at the plate by Tris Speaker, and on the mound by their outstanding rookie, Ray Collins. Collins finished with a league-leading 26 wins and was awarded both the AL's Rookie of the Year Award and the AL's Outstanding Pitcher Award.
Institutions came to pass in 1909. Harry C. Pulliam's six-year reign as president of the National League came to an end. Forbes Field in Pittsburgh and Shibe Park in Philadelphia opened their gates for the first time.
The World Series again did not provide much excitement as Eddie Plank won two games in leading the Athletics to a 4 games to 1 world championship over the Doves. The Series was anticipated to be a showdown between Ty Cobb of the Athletics and Burt Shotton of the Doves but it was Eddie Plank of Philadelphia who stole the spotlight with his two complete game victories over a Boston lineup that also featured George Stone, another great hitter besides Shotton.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Philadelphia 97 57 .630 -- Boston 96 58 .623 --
Boston 94 60 .610 3 St.Louis 86 68 .558 10
St.Louis 81 73 .526 16 Chicago 84 70 .545 12
Cleveland 78 76 .506 19 Cincinnati 76 78 .494 20
Chicago 72 82 .468 25 New York 72 82 .468 24
New York 72 82 .468 25 Pittsburgh 69 85 .448 27
Washington 67 87 .435 30 Philadelphia 68 86 .442 28
Detroit 55 99 .357 42 Brooklyn 65 89 .422 31
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
T.Cobb, PHA .368 B.Shotton, BSN .400
F.Baker, PHA .333 J.Kane, PHI .337
E.Collins, CHA .321 E.Konetchy, CHN .312
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
F.Baker, PHA 9 D.Lewis, CHN 9
T.Speaker, BOS 7 C.Wilson, PHI 8
H.Zimmerman, PHA 6 R.Murray, NY1 7
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
T.Speaker, BOS 92 H.Wolter, BSN 96
F.Snodgrass, PHA 80 C.Engle, BRO 78
T.Cobb, PHA 74 E.Konetchy, CHN 76
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
F.Baker, PHA 109 B.Cree, CHN 94
T.Cobb, PHA 94 H.Lobert, NY1 86
J.Evers, WS1 81 H.Wolter, BSN 86
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
D.Jones, SLA 65 H.Wolter, BSN 56
K.Elberfeld, BOS 57 J.Devore, SLN 50
D.Bush, SLA 55 R.Murray, NY1 50
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
R.Vowinkel, CLE 1.79 C.Bender, BSN 1.61
R.Waddell, PHA 1.79 W.Johnson, BRO 1.89
J.Deering, CHA 1.82 J.Lush, BSN 2.04
Wins W Wins W
R.Collins, BOS 26 C.Bender, BSN 27
E.Plank, PHA 24 M.Brown, CHN 25
O.Overall, PHA 22 R.Donahue, SLN 23
Saves SV Saves SV
M.Cunningham, NYA 6 G.Disch, NY1 8
T.Fisher, NYA 4 H.Billiard, CHN 6
L.Pape, WS1 3 D.Phillippe, PIT 3
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
O.Overall, PHA 246 W.Johnson, BRO 263
R.Ames, SLA 210 C.Bender, BSN 237
R.Waddell, PHA 200 E.Walsh, SLN 220
1909 World Series
Game #1
Boston (N) 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 5 3
Philadelphia (A) 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 x - 4 8 1
E.Hughes and R.Bresnahan. E.Plunk and F.Snodgrass, T.Easterly (9).
WP - E.Plunk (1-0)
LP - E.Hughes (0-1)
HR - none
Game #2
Boston (N) 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 - 3 9 2
Philadelphia (A) 0 2 4 0 0 0 0 0 x - 6 10 2
J.Powell and R.Bresnahan. J.Buchanan and F.Snodgrass, T.Easterly (4).
WP - J.Buchanan (1-0)
LP - J.Powell (0-1)
HR - none
Game #3
Philadelphia (A) 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 2 4 1
Boston (N) 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 x - 3 7 4
R.Waddell and T.Easterly. C.Bender and R.Bresnahan.
WP - C.Bender (1-0)
LP - R.Waddell (0-1)
HR - none
Game #4
Philadelphia (A) 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 - 4 9 2
Boston (N) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 7 0
O.Overall and T.Easterly. T.Hughes and R.Bresnahan.
WP - O.Overall (1-0)
LP - T.Hughes (0-1)
HR - PHA: O.Overall (1)
Game #5
Philadelphia (A) 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 2 0 0 2 - 7 13 4
Boston (N) 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 - 6 10 2
E.Plank, R.Vickers (11) and T.Easterly. E.Hughes and R.Bresnahan.
WP - E.Plank (2-0)
LP - E.Hughes (0-2)
S - R.Vickers (1)
HR - none