1908 Major League Baseball season

This article is about the 1908 Major League Baseball season only. For information on all of baseball, see 1908 in baseball.

The 1908 major league baseball season began on April 14, 1908. The regular season ended on October 8, with the Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers as regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. In a rematch of the prior year's postseason, the postseason began with Game 1 of the fifth modern World Series on October 10 and ended with Game 5 on October 14. In the second iteration of this World Series matchup (and a rematch of the previous year), The Cubs defeated the Tigers, four games to one, capturing their second championship in franchise history, and the first team to win back-to-back World Series.

1908 MLB season
League	American League (AL) National League (NL)
Sport	Baseball
Duration	Regular season: April 14 – October 8, 1908 World Series: October 10–14, 1908
Number of games	154
Number of teams	16 (8 per league)
Pennant winners
AL champions	Detroit Tigers
AL runners-up	Cleveland Naps
NL champions	Chicago Cubs
NL runners-up	New York Giants
World Series
Champions	Chicago Cubs
Runners-up	Detroit Tigers

Red Sox

White Sox

Naps

Tigers

Athletics

Browns

Highlanders

Senators

Locations of teams for the 1908 American League season
American League

Doves

Superbas

Cubs

Reds

Giants

Phillies

Pirates

Cardinals

Locations of teams for the 1907–1908 National League seasons
National League

The Boston Americans renamed as the Boston Red Sox.

Schedule

See also: Major League Baseball schedule

The 1908 schedule consisted of 154 games for all teams in the American League and National League, each of which had eight teams. Each team was scheduled to play 22 games against the other seven teams of their respective league. This continued the format put in place for the 1904 season. This format would last until 1919.

Opening Day took place on April 14 with all but the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals playing. The final day of the regular season was on October 8. The World Series took place between October 10 and October 14.

Rule changes

The 1908 season saw the following rule changes:

• The American League made the following rule changes:^[1]
  • Language on postponed games was adopted, stating "All postponed games of the first series shall be played on the first or succeeding days of the second series; all postponed games of the second and third series shall be played on the next day or succeeding day of the same series."
  • A rule stating "restricts the practice of acquiring a player by refusing waiver on him and then immediately turning him over to a club outside the league."
• On February 27, 1908, the three organizations of the National Commission of Baseball Clubs, National League, and American League announced several rule changes, effective immediately.^[2]
  • The act of rubbing the ball on the ground, clothing, shoes, or dropping the ball and picking it up with a handful of gravel or dirt by the pitcher was prohibited.
  • The sacrifice fly rule is adopted. No time at bat is charged if a run scores after the catch of a fly ball. The rule would eventually be repealed in 1931, then reinstated (or changed) several times before gaining permanent acceptance in 1954.
  • The trend of each team playing 22 games with every other in-league team was written into the Major League Baseball Constitution, with rules for playing makeup games at the originally scheduled ballpark in the event of tie games, rain delays, and other game-preventing situations being put in place. If the series of all scheduled games has ended with makeup games remaining, if possible, the remaining game(s) can be made up on the opposite team's ballpark, with a date agreed by the two teams.

Teams

League	Team	City	Stadium	Capacity	Manager[3]
American League	Boston Red Sox	Boston, Massachusetts	Huntington Avenue Grounds	11,500	Deacon McGuire
					Fred Lake
	Chicago White Sox	Chicago, Illinois	South Side Park	15,000	Fielder Jones
	Cleveland Naps	Cleveland, Ohio	League Park (Cleveland)	9,000	Nap Lajoie
	Detroit Tigers	Detroit, Michigan	Bennett Park	8,500	Hughie Jennings
	New York Highlanders	New York, New York	Hilltop Park	16,000	Clark Griffith
					Kid Elberfeld
	Philadelphia Athletics	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Columbia Park	13,600	Connie Mack
	St. Louis Browns	St. Louis, Missouri	Sportsman's Park	8,000	Jimmy McAleer
	Washington Senators	Washington, D.C.	National Park	9,000	Joe Cantillon
National League	Boston Doves	Boston, Massachusetts	South End Grounds	9,800	Joe Kelley
	Brooklyn Superbas	New York, New York	Washington Park	14,000	Patsy Donovan
	Chicago Cubs	Chicago, Illinois	West Side Park	16,000	Frank Chance
	Cincinnati Reds	Cincinnati, Ohio	Palace of the Fans	12,000	John Ganzel
	New York Giants	New York, New York	Polo Grounds	16,000	John McGraw
	Philadelphia Phillies	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	National League Park	18,000	Billy Murray
	Pittsburgh Pirates	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	Exposition Park	16,000	Fred Clarke
	St. Louis Cardinals	St. Louis, Missouri	League Park (St. Louis)	15,200	John McCloskey

Standings

American League

• v
• t
• e

American League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Detroit Tigers	90	63	.588	—	44‍–‍33	46‍–‍30
Cleveland Naps	90	64	.584	½	51‍–‍26	39‍–‍38
Chicago White Sox	88	64	.579	1½	51‍–‍25	37‍–‍39
St. Louis Browns	83	69	.546	6½	46‍–‍31	37‍–‍38
Boston Red Sox	75	79	.487	15½	37‍–‍40	38‍–‍39
Philadelphia Athletics	68	85	.444	22	46‍–‍30	22‍–‍55
Washington Senators	67	85	.441	22½	43‍–‍32	24‍–‍53
New York Highlanders	51	103	.331	39½	30‍–‍47	21‍–‍56

National League

• v
• t
• e

National League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Chicago Cubs	99	55	.643	—	47‍–‍30	52‍–‍25
New York Giants	98	56	.636	1	52‍–‍25	46‍–‍31
Pittsburgh Pirates	98	56	.636	1	42‍–‍35	56‍–‍21
Philadelphia Phillies	83	71	.539	16	43‍–‍34	40‍–‍37
Cincinnati Reds	73	81	.474	26	40‍–‍37	33‍–‍44
Boston Doves	63	91	.409	36	35‍–‍42	28‍–‍49
Brooklyn Superbas	53	101	.344	46	27‍–‍50	26‍–‍51
St. Louis Cardinals	49	105	.318	50	28‍–‍49	21‍–‍56

Postseason

The postseason began on October 10 and ended on October 14 with the Chicago Cubs defeating the Detroit Tigers in the 1908 World Series in five games.

Bracket

	World Series
	AL	Detroit Tigers	1
	NL	Chicago Cubs	4

Managerial changes

Off-season

Team	Former Manager	New Manager
Boston Doves	Fred Tenney	Joe Kelley
Cincinnati Reds	Ned Hanlon	John Ganzel

In-season

Team	Former Manager	New Manager
Boston Red Sox	Deacon McGuire	Fred Lake
New York Highlanders	Clark Griffith	Kid Elberfeld

League leaders

Any team shown in small text indicates a previous team a player was on during the season.

American League

Hitting leaders^[4]

Stat	Player	Total
AVG	Ty Cobb (DET)	.324
OPS	Ty Cobb (DET)	.844
HR	Sam Crawford (DET)	7
RBI	Ty Cobb (DET)	108
R	Matty McIntyre (DET)	105
H	Ty Cobb (DET)	188
SB	Patsy Dougherty (CWS)	47

Pitching leaders^[5]

Stat	Player	Total
W	Ed Walsh (CWS)	40
L	Joe Lake (NYH)	22
ERA	Addie Joss (CLE)	1.16
K	Ed Walsh (CWS)	269
IP	Ed Walsh1 (CWS)	464.0
SV	Ed Walsh (CWS)	6
WHIP	Addie Joss (CLE)	0.806

¹ Modern (1901–present) single-season innings pitched record

National League

Hitting leaders^[6]

Stat	Player	Total
AVG	Honus Wagner (PIT)	.354
OPS	Honus Wagner (PIT)	.957
HR	Tim Jordan (BKN)	12
RBI	Honus Wagner (PIT)	109
R	Fred Tenney (NYG)	101
H	Honus Wagner (PIT)	201
SB	Honus Wagner (PIT)	53

Pitching leaders^[7]

Stat	Player	Total
W	Christy Mathewson2 (NYG)	37
L	Bugs Raymond (STL)	25
ERA	Christy Mathewson2 (NYG)	1.43
K	Christy Mathewson2 (NYG)	259
IP	Christy Mathewson (NYG)	390.2
SV	Mordecai Brown (CHC) Christy Mathewson (NYG) Joe McGinnity (NYG)	5
WHIP	Christy Mathewson (NYG)	0.827

² National League Triple Crown pitching winner

Home field attendance

Team name	Wins	%±	Home attendance	%±	Per game
New York Giants[8]	98	19.5%	910,000	69.0%	11,375
Chicago Cubs[9]	99	−7.5%	665,325	57.5%	8,530
Chicago White Sox[10]	88	1.1%	636,096	−4.5%	8,155
St. Louis Browns[11]	83	20.3%	618,947	47.7%	7,935
Boston Red Sox[12]	75	27.1%	473,048	8.3%	6,143
Philadelphia Athletics[13]	68	−22.7%	455,062	−27.3%	5,834
Detroit Tigers[14]	90	−2.2%	436,199	46.8%	5,592
Cleveland Naps[15]	90	5.9%	422,262	10.5%	5,414
Philadelphia Phillies[16]	83	0.0%	420,660	23.3%	5,393
Cincinnati Reds[17]	73	10.6%	399,200	25.7%	5,184
Pittsburgh Pirates[18]	98	7.7%	382,444	19.7%	4,967
New York Highlanders[19]	51	−27.1%	305,500	−12.7%	3,968
Brooklyn Superbas[20]	53	−18.5%	275,600	−11.8%	3,579
Washington Senators[21]	67	36.7%	264,252	19.1%	3,388
Boston Doves[22]	63	8.6%	253,750	24.9%	3,253
St. Louis Cardinals[23]	49	−5.8%	205,129	10.7%	2,664

Events

• June 30 – Cy Young pitches the third, and final, no-hitter of his career as the Boston Red Sox defeat the New York Highlanders, 8–0.
• July 4 – One batter away from a perfect game, New York Giants pitcher Hooks Wiltse hits George McQuillan with two outs in the ninth inning. Wiltse continues to pitch and tosses a no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Giants win, 1–0, in 10 innings.
• August 4 – In a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Brooklyn Superbas only one baseball was used for the entire game. Brooklyn wins, 3–0.
• September 5 – Nap Rucker pitches a no-hitter as the Brooklyn Superbas defeat the Boston Doves, 6–0.
• September 18 – Cleveland Naps pitcher Bob Rhoads tosses a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox, Cleveland wins, 2–1.
• September 20 – Frank Smith of the Chicago White Sox throws a no-hitter against the Philadelphia Athletics, the White Sox win, 1–0. It is the second no-hitter of Smith's career.
• September 23 – The Chicago Cubs and New York Giants, involved in a tight pennant race, (also involving the Pittsburgh Pirates) were tied in the bottom of the ninth inning at the Polo Grounds in New York. The Giants had runners on first and third and two outs when Al Bridwell hit a single to center field, scoring Moose McCormick from third with the Giants' apparent winning run, but the runner on first base, rookie Fred Merkle, thinking the game was over, went halfway to second and then sprinted to the clubhouse after McCormick touched home plate. As fans swarmed the field, Cub infielder Johnny Evers retrieved the ball and touched second. A forceout was called at second base, nullifying the single, and because there were 2 outs when the play started, the run was also nullified and the inning ended. The game was declared a tie and would be made up at the end of the season if the Cubs and Giants were tied for first place. The incident became known as the "Merkle Boner".
• September 26 – Ed Reulbach of the Chicago Cubs pitches two shutouts in a doubleheader against the Brooklyn Superbas, winning both games 5–0 and 3–0.^[24]
• October 2 – In a game involving the Cleveland Naps and the Chicago White Sox, Ed Walsh struck out 15 Naps and walked one batter, pitching a complete game, but it was not enough as Addie Joss pitched a perfect game, and the Naps beat the White Sox, 1–0, during the heat of a pennant race. Cleveland center fielder Joe Birmingham scored the game's only run. It is perhaps the finest pitching duel in baseball history.
• October 6 – The Detroit Tigers defeat the Chicago White Sox, 7–0, to win the American League pennant on the last day of the season.
• October 8 – The Chicago Cubs defeat the New York Giants, 4–2, in the make-up of the "Merkle Boner" game, giving the Cubs the National League pennant.
• October 14 – The Chicago Cubs defeat the Detroit Tigers, 2–0, in Game 5 of the World Series to win the series four games to one. It is the second consecutive World Championship for the Cubs and the second year in a row they defeated the Tigers in the World Series. The Cubs would not win another World Series until 2016.
• The St. Louis Cardinals set a Major League record which stills stands for the fewest runs scored in a full season, with only 372.^[25]