Fate was not kind to the New York Giants. During the early part of April, there was a fire at the Polo Grounds and during the late part of April, star pitcher Christy Mathewson was lost for at least half of the season due to bone chips in his elbow. The Giants were invited by the Highlanders to play there home games there but the hitters struggled and New York collapsed and finished in 7th place. Meanwhile in Chicago, the Cubs got off to a hot start behind the 1-2 pitching combination of George Bell and Three Finger Brown. Brown won 24 games but Bell outdid him by winning 27 games, leading the NL, and also led the league in ERA with 2.67. Wildfire Schulte led the attack as he led the league in home runs with a tremendous total of 18. At the beginning of September, Chicago led the defending NL champion Boston Rustlers by 7.5 games and 8 games over Philadelphia. The Rustlers collapsed while the Cubs went on and clinched the NL title with a week and a half to go. Philadelphia and St.Louis tied for second, 10 games behind, as the Cardinals' hitters got red hot, especially Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner. Ty Cobb finished second in the NL in average (.391) and home runs (11), while leading the league in runs scored with an amazing 140 and in stolen bases with 100, both new major league records.
In the junior circuit, the Boston Red Sox caught fire and ran off to a 14-game lead as the calender hit September. The Red Sox were able to withstand a late charge by Cleveland as Cleveland had cut the lead down to 8 games with ten games remaining. Boston held on and clinched it's second straight league title with a week remaining. The Red Sox were led by the bat, and feet, of Tris Speaker as he captured the AL's Outstanding Hitter award with an average of .323 to go along with 9 homers, 87 ribbies, and a league leading 61 stolen bases. On the mound, leading the way was Smokey Joe Wood, who won the league's Outstanding Pitcher award by capturing the pitcher's triple crown. Wood led the league with 26 wins, an ERA of 1.90 and 237 strikeouts. The Cleveland club finished in second place, 9 games behind, thanks to Burt Shotton, who they purchased in a trade during the offseason. Shotton hit a league leading, and new major league record, average of .406. Fred Beck hit a new major league record of 19 home runs and drove in a league leading 109 runs to help Shotton in leading the Cleveland attack.
During the World Series, the Boston Red Sox jumped to a 2-0 start by taking both games in Chicago, then took games four and five to win their second straight world's championship behind the pitching of Burt Keeley. Keeley was acquired in a late season trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates and won games one and five of the series.
During the 1910 season, both leagues introduced a new "jack-rabbit" ball. Although it only showed a modest increase in runs an home run production the first season, in 1911 the change showed a much bigger increase as six major league hitting records fell, not counting Ty Cobb's base stealing record.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Boston 94 60 .610 -- Chicago 96 58 .623 --
Cleveland 85 69 .552 9 Philadelphia 86 68 .558 10
St.Louis 81 73 .526 13 St.Louis 86 68 .558 10
New York 77 77 .500 17 Boston 84 70 .545 12
Detroit 73 81 .474 21 Cincinnati 82 72 .532 14
Washington 72 82 .468 22 Pittsburgh 64 90 .416 32
Philadelphia 71 83 .461 23 New York 63 91 .409 33
Chicago 63 91 .409 31 Brooklyn 55 99 .357 41
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
B.Shotton, CLE .406 A.Marsans, BOS .393
S.Crawford, DET .356 T.Cobb, STL .391
F.Baker, PHI .342 R.Chapman, CHI .346
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
F.Beck, CLE 19 F.Schulte, CHI 18
S.Magee, PHI 11 T.Cobb, STL 11
M.Donlin, NY 9 F.Merkle, STL 11
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
F.Beck, CLE 109 H.Wagner, STL 124
T.Easterly, BOS 94 F.Merkle, STL 111
S.Magee, PHI 93 C.Meyers, PHI 104
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
F.Snodgrass, PHI 112 T.Cobb, STL 140
B.Shotton, CLE 109 F.Schulte, CHI 127
T.Speaker, BOS 102 E.Konetchy, CHI 110
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
T.Speaker, BOS 61 T.Cobb, STL 100
L.Doyle, BOS 59 M.Carey, BOS 60
F.Snodgrass, PHI 51 A.Fletcher, CHI 57
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
J.Wood, BOS 1.90 G.Bell, CHI 2.67
J.St.Vrain, CLE 2.24 E.Hughes, PHI 2.77
F.Arellanes, PHI 2.50 E.Walsh, STL 3.12
Wins W Wins W
J.Wood, BOS 26 G.Bell, CHI 27
J.St.Vrain, CLE 23 M.Brown, CHI 24
J.Harris, CLE 21 B.Adams, CIN 22
Saves SV Saves SV
E.Hendricks, CHI 10 C.Brandom, CIN 6
H.Camnitz, STL 8 H.Billiard, CHI 5
H.West, STL 7 D.Phillippe, PIT 5
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
J.Wood, BOS 237 E.Walsh, STL 227
O.Overall, PHI 215 W.Johnson, BRO 217
C.Hendrix, WAS 213 J.Coombs, STL 186
1911 World Series
Game #1
Boston (A) 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 - 4 11 2
Chicago (N) 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 6 4
B.Keeley and T.Easterly. G.Bell and J.Stahl, J.Kling (9).
WP - B.Keeley (1-0)
LP - G.Bell (0-1)
HR - BOS: B.Bescher (1)
Game #2
Boston (A) 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 1 1 - 6 6 1
Chicago (N) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 6 9
B.Schlitzer and T.Easterly. C.Patten and J.Stahl.
WP - B.Schlitzer (1-0)
LP - C.Patten (0-1)
HR - BOS: D.Gainer (1)
Game #3
Chicago (N) 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 0 - 6 7 2
Boston (A) 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 - 3 10 2
M.Brown and J.Stahl. J.Wood and T.Easterly.
WP - M.Brown (1-0)
LP - J.Wood (0-1)
HR - CHI: F.Schulte (1)
Game #4
Chicago (N) 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 - 4 10 1
Boston (A) 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 x - 5 12 2
R.Ford and J.Stahl. R.Collins and T.Easterly.
WP - R.Collins (1-0)
LP - R.Ford (0-1)
HR - none
Game #5
Chicago (N) 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 4 - 6 12 2
Boston (A) 0 0 0 4 1 0 3 0 x - 8 11 1
G.Bell and J.Stahl. B.Keeley and T.Easterly.
WP - B.Keeley (2-0)
LP - G.Bell (0-2)
HR - CHI: E.Mensor (1)