1908 New York Highlanders season

The 1908 New York Highlanders season finished with the team in eighth place in the American League with a record of 51–103. Their home games were played at Hilltop Park.

1908 New York Highlanders
League	American League
Ballpark	Hilltop Park
City	New York, New York
Record	51–103 (.331)
League place	8th
Owners	William Devery and Frank Farrell
Managers	Clark Griffith, Kid Elberfeld
← 1907 1909 →

The Highlanders finished in last place, 17 games out of seventh. It was the second-worst season in club history.^[1] Starting first baseman Hal Chase left the team in September under allegations that he was throwing games. After Clark Griffith's departure, the Highlanders lost 70 of their last 98 games under new manager Kid Elberfeld.^[2]

Regular season

On June 30, Cy Young of the Boston Red Sox threw a no-hitter against the Highlanders. In the game, Young had 3 hits and 4 RBI's.^[3] By now the alternate and equally unofficial nickname "Yankees" was being used frequently to refer to the Highlanders. The New York Times article about Young's no-hitter at "the American League Park" (Hilltop Park's formal name), referred to the club exclusively as "Yankees" throughout the article. Other newspapers continued to use the two nicknames interchangeably.

On September 4, 5 and 7, 1908, Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators shut out the Highlanders in three consecutive games.

Season standings

• 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

Record vs. opponents

1908 American League record v t e Sources:
Team	BOS	CWS	CLE	DET	NYH	PHA	SLB	WSH
Boston	—	6–16–1	10–12	11–11	12–10	10–12	15–7	11–11
Chicago	16–6–1	—	8–14–1	9–13	16–6	13–9	11–10	15–6–2
Cleveland	12–10	14–8–1	—	13–9	16–6	16–6–1	11–11–1	8–14
Detroit	11–11	13–9	9–13	—	15–7	14–8–1	12–10	16–5
New York	10–12	6–16	6–16	7–15	—	8–14–1	5–17	9–13
Philadelphia	12–10	9–13	6–16–1	8–14–1	14–8–1	—	8–13–1	11–11
St. Louis	7–15	10–11	11–11–1	10–12	17–5	13–8–1	—	15–7–1
Washington	11–11	6–15–2	14–8	5–16	13–9	11–11	7–15–1	—

Roster

1908 New York Highlanders
Roster
Pitchers Harry Billiard Jack Chesbro Slow Joe Doyle Fred Glade Bill Hogg Joe Lake Rube Manning Doc Newton Andy O'Connor Al Orth Hippo Vaughn Jack Warhop Pete Wilson		Catchers Walter Blair Red Kleinow Ed Sweeney Infielders Neal Ball Hal Chase Wid Conroy Mike Donovan Kid Elberfeld Earle Gardner Frank LaPorte George Moriarty Harry Niles		Outfielders Birdie Cree Frank Delahanty Charlie Hemphill Willie Keeler Irish McIlveen Jimmy O'Rourke Jake Stahl		Manager Clark Griffith Kid Elberfeld

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Red Kleinow	96	279	47	.168	1	13
1B	Hal Chase	106	405	104	.257	1	36
2B	Harry Niles	95	361	90	.249	4	24
SS	Neal Ball	132	446	110	.247	0	38
3B	Wid Conroy	141	531	126	.237	1	39
OF	Willie Keeler	91	323	85	.263	1	14
OF	Jake Stahl	75	274	70	.255	2	42
OF	Charlie Hemphill	142	505	150	.297	0	44

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
George Moriarty	101	348	82	.236	0	27
Walter Blair	76	211	40	.190	1	13
Irish McIlveen	44	169	36	.213	0	8
Frank LaPorte	39	145	38	.262	1	15
Frank Delahanty	37	125	32	.256	0	10
Jimmy O'Rourke	34	108	25	.231	0	3
Ed Sweeney	32	82	12	.146	0	2
Birdie Cree	21	78	21	.269	0	4
Earle Gardner	20	75	16	.213	0	4
Kid Elberfeld	19	56	11	.196	0	5
Mike Donovan	5	19	5	.263	0	2

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Jack Chesbro	45	288.2	14	20	2.93	124
Joe Lake	38	269.1	9	22	3.17	118
Rube Manning	41	245.0	13	16	2.94	113
Bill Hogg	24	152.1	4	16	3.01	72
Al Orth	21	139.1	2	13	3.42	22
Pete Wilson	6	39.0	3	3	3.46	28
Jack Warhop	5	36.1	1	2	4.46	11
Fred Glade	5	32.0	0	4	4.22	11
Andy O'Connor	1	8.0	0	1	10.13	5

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Doc Newton	23	88.1	4	5	2.95	49
Slow Joe Doyle	12	48.0	1	1	2.63	20

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Harry Billiard	6	0	0	0	2.65	70
Hippo Vaughn	2	0	0	0	3.86	2
Hal Chase	1	0	0	0	0.00	0