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Chicago Tribune
April , 1903
The White Sox and Cubs rounded out the first-ever City Series between each other to find out who is king of our great city. The fifteen-game affair was bitterly fought on the field, but overall good faith between the teams (and leagues) won here at the conclusion of these matches. It sparked the excitement of what will come at the end of this year’s championship season, as pennant winners of both leagues for the first time will compete in a “World’s Series.” Both of our city’s squads finished in the first division last year: the Northsiders 10 games out and the Southsiders a mere 2 games behind Cleveland. What expectations are being held this year?
Our cranks got an early first-hand account, as the two teams battled it out in a close and thrilling series. In the first game, the Cubs struck early as newly acquired, ex-Pirate, California reacquisition Fred Clarke started things off with a single against new White Sox ace Addie Joss. Clarke scampered home as favorite Chance doubled, who later scored when stealing third, an errant throw sailed into left field. That’s all Ham Iburg needed to take the first game. A bit of grumbling from the Southsiders about the new-to-the-American-League foul-strike rule was evident throughout the game.
Cub Jock Menefee took game two by a whirlwind as he only allowed two hits and won 2-0. The White Sox were clearly kicking themselves at this point, and got redemption in game 3 with two runs in the bottom of the eighth against strong lefty Ed Siever.
But the victory did not last long as the White Sox lost three straight to the key play of Chance and the continued strong pitching of Iburg and Menefee. In game 7, Roy Patterson picked up his 2nd win against the Cubs, demonstrating that he is the meat behind any claim the Sox have for this year’s pennant. But another strong day on Sunday by Frank Chance gave the Cubs a 6-2 series lead. However, as fate would have it, that was the last victory the Northsiders would see until the last but meaningless game of the series.
The White Sox came back to form with six straight wins, the Cubs defense falling apart. [Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance was in fact Tinker-to-Evers-to-Kling, Chance is at catcher; Johnny “Noisy” Kling had rabbit ears all series with the catcalls, going 4 for 58.] Cubs had 10 costly errors in those games while the White Sox, despite having 8 in a two-game span, found the ways to win, led by manager Fielder Jones’ timely hitting and shortstop’s Bill Keister’s demoralizing homerun on Saturday.
In the final game, the Cubs resurrected any pride they may have had left by finally outlasting star pitcher Patterson and Keister’s four hits with a 5-3 win, aided by a sloppy 3-error defense by the White Sox. But in the end, what a great series, the Southsiders prevailed and are crowned City Champions, 8 games to 7!
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