Europe has broken out into war during the summer and the heat was on the baseball world to try to entertain the citizens. The National League pennant chase was once again a tight struggle as once again as many as five teams had a shot heading into September. The Philadelphia Phillies were leading by 2 games over Brooklyn, who had been coming on strong since August, and they were followed by Boston (5 games back), New York (7) and Pittsburgh (9.5). With a week and a half remaining the Robins had taken the lead by a single game over Philadelphia, followed by both the Braves and the Giants, who were both 3 games behind the front running Robins. Boston got on a hot streak and had passed Philadelphia with three games to go and with only a two game series left with Brooklyn, were only a game behind. The Robins defeated Boston on the next to last day of the season to clinch the National League's title. The Robins could thank the strong hitting of Benny Kauff and Beals Becker, along with their ace pitcher Walter Johnson for their title. Benny Kauff, who co-led the league in home runs (9) and finished second in stolen bases (56), was awarded the league's Outstanding Batter award for averaging .310 along with his 9 home runs and 65 RBIs. Walter Johnson led the NL in wins (26), strikeouts (240) and earned run average (1.66) to capture the pitcher's triple crown. The Boston Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies both tied for second place, 3 games behind the pennant winning Robins. The Braves were led at the plate by the NL's leading run driver, Hal Chase, and on the mound by pitcher Eddie Cicotte, who had a 2.17 ERA, good for third place in the NL, and also won 18 games.
The American League race showed none of the drama of a pennant race -- Philadelphia's rebuilding was now complete and they were expected to win, and win it they did rather handily. The Athletics machine grounded out 693 runs, tops in the league, as Bill "Iron Duke" Kenworthy, Frank Baker and rookie Happy Felsch provided the teeth of the Philadelphia attack. Cy Falkenberg provided the mound leadership with his 21 wins. The St.Louis Browns came in second, relying on good hitting to keep the team in contention. The heart of their lineup featured Vic Saier, who led the junior circuit with 11 home runs. The leader of the Browns' mound staff was 22-game winner Hippo Vaughn, who tied for the AL lead in wins and also finished second in the league with 191 strikeouts.
The World Series promised to be an easy Philadelphia win over Brooklyn and it was as they held the National League champions to only 13 runs in six games and won the series 4 games to 2.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Philadelphia 101 53 .656 -- Brooklyn 87 67 .565 --
St.Louis 83 71 .539 18 Boston 84 70 .545 3
Boston 80 74 .519 21 Philadelphia 84 70 .545 3
Cleveland 77 77 .500 24 New York 82 72 .532 5
New York 77 77 .500 24 Cincinnati 77 77 .500 10
Washington 76 78 .494 25 Pittsburgh 77 77 .500 10
Chicago 65 89 .422 36 Chicago 64 90 .416 23
Detroit 57 97 .370 44 St.Louis 61 93 .396 26
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
H.Felsch, PHI .310 C.Dolan, STL .351
T.Easterly, BOS .309 B.Vaughn, PIT .346
W.Fischer, CHI .291 T.Cobb, STL .324
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
V.Saier, STL 11 B.Becker, BRO 9
G.Cravath, NY 10 B.Kauff, BRO 9
F.Baker, PHI 8 A.Wilson, NY 9
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
B.Kenworthy, PHI 80 H.Chase, BOS 79
G.Cravath, NY 78 S.Evans, PIT 73
F.Baker, PHI 77 A.Strunk, PHI 73
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
B.Kenworthy, PHI 92 B.Shotton, NY 94
F.Baker, PHI 84 C.Milan, BOS 89
H.Felsch, PHI 84 T.Cobb, STL 76
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
H.Myers, CHI 83 T.Cobb, STL 62
J.Tobin, BOS 58 B.Kauff, BRO 56
L.Doyle, BOS 39 C.Milan, BOS 53
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
G.Packard, PHI 1.81 W.Johnson, BRO 1.66
C.Falkenberg, PHI 1.96 R.Russell, NY 1.95
R.Marquard, NY 1.99 E.Cicotte, BOS 2.17
Wins W Wins W
R.Marquard, NY 22 W.Johnson, BRO 26
H.Vaughn, STL 22 G.McQuillan, PHI 21
R.Collins, BOS 21 P.Alexander, PIT 20
Saves SV Saves SV
C.Smith, WAS 9 E.Koestner, STL 6
C.Zamloch, DET 8 F.Sherry, PIT 5
S.Melter, PHI 7 P.Strand, PIT 5
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
J.Wood, BOS 224 W.Johnson, BRO 240
H.Vaughn, STL 191 P.Alexander, PIT 179
D.Leonard, CHI 183 E.Cicotte, BOS 172
1914 World Series
Game #1
Brooklyn 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 4 0
Philadelphia (A) 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 x - 2 3 1
J.Dygert and R.Williams. G.Packard and G.Land.
WP - G.Packard (1-0)
LP - J.Dygert (0-1)
HR - none
Game #2
Brooklyn 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 - 4 9 2
Philadelphia (A) 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 5 1
A.Malloy and R.Williams. R.Witherup and G.Land.
WP - A.Malloy (1-0)
LP - R.Witherup (0-1)
HR - none
Game #3
Philadelphia (A) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 - 4 8 3
Brooklyn 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 8 3
C.Falkenberg and G.Land, P.Graham (9). W.Johnson and R.Williams.
WP - C.Falkenberg (1-0)
LP - W.Johnson (0-1)
HR - none
Game #4
Philadelphia (A) 0 0 0 0 4 0 1 1 0 - 6 7 0
Brooklyn 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 3 4
J.Buchanan and G.Land. R.Comstock and R.Williams.
WP - J.Buchanan (1-0)
LP - R.Comstock (0-1)
HR - PHI: M.Flack (1)
Game #5
Philadelphia (A) 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 - 3 7 1
Brooklyn 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 - 4 7 2
G.Packard, T.Atkins (9) and G.Land, P.Graham (9). J.Dygert, S.Harkness (9)
and R.Williams.
WP - S.Harkness (1-0)
LP - T.Atkins (0-1)
HR - none
Game #6
Brooklyn 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 11 0
Philadelphia (A) 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 5 x - 10 15 1
A.Malloy, C.Brown (8) and R.Williams. R.Witherup and G.Land.
WP - R.Witherup (1-1)
LP - A.Malloy (1-1)
HR - none