With America entering full force into World War I, baseball was unscathed due to it being allowed to continue in order to try to entertain those people who had relatives and friends overseas. Labor Day marked the beginning of the stretch run as both leagues had heated pennant races.
The St.Louis Browns won the American League pennant by 3 games over the Boston but it wasn't as easy as it looks. On Labor Day, St.Louis had a very slight 1/2 game lead over Boston with Chicago 5 1/2 back and Detroit 9 back. With a week to go, however, Boston had tied St.Louis as the others faded away. The Browns finally broke away from the Red Sox and clinched the title on the next to last day of the season. St.Louis was lead by Billy Southworth at the plate but it was the pitching of Wilbur Cooper and Leon Cadore that led the team to it's second straight AL title. The Boston Red Sox finished 3 games behind despite the loss of Tris Speaker due to injury thanks to the hitting of Ted Easterly and Tilly Shafer. Fred Arellanes led the Bosox pitching corps with 25 wins.
The National League race was as tight as it could ever be as only 11 1/2 games separated the first place Cardinals from the last place Cubs as Labor Day rolled around. Cincinnati was only 1 game back and New York was 1 1/2 back while Boston was 3 1/2 and Philadelphia was 4 1/2. With a week and a half remaining, the Phillies had closed to withing 1 1/2 games while the Giants were 1/2 and the Reds were 1 1/2 behind. St.Louis got red hot during the last week of the season and clinched the pennant with 1/2 of the week to go. The Redbirds' attack was led once again by superstar outfielder Ty Cobb, who led the league with a .388 average but he also received help from Bobby Vaughn and Bobby Veach. New York finished in second place, 1 game behind, thanks to the bat of Fred Kommers, who led the NL in RBI with 99. On the mound, the Giants were led by Sherry Smith, who won 24 games and had a 2.26 ERA and was awarded the NL's Outstanding Pitcher Award. The talk around the league, besides the very tight pennant race, circled around the city of Philadelphia. At the beginning of the season the managerial staff of the Phillies decided that they wanted to take advantage of the bat of pitcher Babe Ruth and gave him the starting spot in left field. Babe Ruth responded by batting .327 with 18 home runs and 94 RBI and was named the league's outstanding hitter. His 18 home runs were more than the TOTAL of the two players who finished second and third, Benny Kauff (8) and Tilly Walker (8).
The World Series played to the seven game limit as the St.Louis Browns had the home field advantage over their crosstown rivals and won the last two games to come from behind and win the series 4 games to 3. The Cardinals took a 3-2 game lead as the Browns started Wilbur Cooper in both games 4 & 5 and he took the loss in both games.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
St.Louis 95 59 .617 -- St.Louis 83 71 .539 --
Boston 92 62 .597 3 New York 82 72 .532 1
Detroit 79 75 .513 16 Brooklyn 80 74 .519 3
Chicago 76 78 .494 19 Cincinnati 79 75 .513 4
New York 74 80 .481 21 Philadelphia 78 76 .506 5
Philadelphia 73 81 .474 22 Boston 77 77 .500 6
Cleveland 72 82 .468 23 Pittsburgh 70 84 .455 13
Washington 55 99 .357 40 Chicago 67 87 .435 16
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
G.Sisler, CLE .336 T.Cobb, STL .388
B.Southworth, STL .330 B.Vaughn, STL .367
E.Roush, PHI .322 A.Strunk, PHI .331
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
H.Felsch, NY 6 B.Ruth, PHI 18
M.Gonzalez, CLE 6 B.Kauff, BRO 8
G.Cravath, NY 5 T.Walker, STL 8
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
J.Tobin, PHI 100 F.Kommers, NY 99
B.Southworth, STL 93 B.Ruth, PHI 94
J.Walsh, CLE 87 B.Veach, STL 90
Runs Scored RS Runs Scored RS
C.Hollocher, STL 92 B.Ruth, PHI 113
G.Sisler, CLE 92 B.Veach, STL 96
W.Pipp, CLE 87 T.Cobb, STL 87
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
G.Neale, CLE 39 T.Cobb, STL 43
G.Sisler, CLE 36 M.McNally, STL 35
T.Shafer, BOS 32 H.Myers, BRO 35
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
W.Cooper, STL 2.03 J.Dygert, NY 2.24
L.Cadore, STL 2.04 S.Smith, NY 2.26
R.Marquard, NY 2.16 U.Shocker, CHI 2.30
Wins W Wins W
W.Cooper, STL 26 S.Smith, NY 24
F.Arellanes, BOS 25 F.Schupp, STL 23
L.Cadore, STL 24 P.Alexander, PIT 22
Saves SV Saves SV
D.Black, CLE 10 E.Eayers, NY 13
J.Scott, DET 8 R.Richter, BOS 11
K.Adams, NY 7 J.Baker, CHI 9
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
D.Leonard, CHI 125 F.Schupp, STL 140
E.Rixey, WAS 109 W.Johnson, BRO 127
J.Pfeffer, PHI 103 P.Alexander, PIT 114
1918 World Series
Game #1
St.Louis (N) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 - 3 7 0
St.Louis (A) 0 0 1 0 0 2 2 0 x - 5 10 0
J.Enzmann and R.Schalk. A.Sothoron and V.Clemons.
WP - A.Sothoron (1-0)
LP - J.Enzmann (0-1)
HR - none
Game #2
St.Louis (N) 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 - 1 8 2
St.Louis (A) 0 2 0 0 1 4 1 0 x - 8 12 0
B.Shawkey and R.Schalk. R.Witherup and V.Clemons.
WP - R.Witherup (1-0)
LP - B.Shawkey (0-1)
HR - none
Game #3
St.Louis (A) 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 - 3 9 0
St.Louis (N) 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 x - 5 12 1
L.Cadore and V.Clemons. B.Steele and R.Schalk.
WP - B.Steele (1-0)
LP - L.Cadore (0-1)
HR - none
Game #4
St.Louis (A) 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 - 4 14 1
St.Louis (N) 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 5 12 0
W.Cooper and V.Clemons, S.O'Neill (10).
H.Keupper, F.Lamline (10) and R.Schalk.
WP - F.Lamline (1-0)
LP - W.Cooper (0-1)
HR - none
Game #5
St.Louis (A) 0 1 0 0 3 0 1 1 0 - 6 7 6
St.Louis (N) 3 2 1 0 1 0 2 0 x - 9 17 3
W.Cooper, P.Carter (7), D.Mails (8) and V.Clemons.
F.Schupp and R.Schalk.
WP - F.Schupp (1-0)
LP - W.Cooper (0-2)
HR - STLA: R.Hornsby (1)
Game #6
St.Louis (N) 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 6 2
St.Louis (A) 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 3 9 1
J.Enzmann, F.Lamline (9), R.Hitt (11) and R.Schalk.
A.Sothoron, D.Mails (11) and V.Clemons.
WP - D.Mails (1-0)
LP - R.Hitt (0-1)
HR - none
Game #7
St.Louis (N) 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 - 3 4 0
St.Louis (A) 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 5 x - 6 9 2
B.Steele and R.Schalk.
H.Vaughn and V.Clemons.
WP - H.Vaughn (1-0)
LP - B.Steele (1-1)
HR - none