1915 Major League Baseball season

This article is about the 1915 Major League Baseball season only. For information on all of baseball, see 1915 in baseball.

The 1915 major league baseball season began on April 10, 1915. The Federal League regular season ended on October 3, and saw the Chicago Whales winning the Federal League pennant. The regular season for the National League and American League ended on October 7, with the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox as the regular season champions of the National League and American League, respectively. The postseason began with Game 1 of the 12th World Series on October 8 and ended with Game 5 on October 13. The Red Sox defeated the Phillies, four games to one, capturing their third championship in franchise history, since their previous in 1912. Going into the season, the defending World Series champions were the Boston Braves from the 1914 season. The World Series had again featured the cities of Boston and Philadelphia, though this time with their opposite-league counterparts.

1915 MLB season
League	American League (AL) National League (NL) Federal League (FL)
Sport	Baseball
Duration	Regular season: April 14 – October 7, 1915 (AL, NL) April 10 – October 3, 1915 (FL) World Series (AL vs. NL): October 8–13, 1915
Number of games	154
Number of teams	24 (8 per league)
Pennant winners
AL champions	Boston Red Sox
AL runners-up	Detroit Tigers
NL champions	Philadelphia Phillies
NL runners-up	Boston Braves
FL champions	Chicago Whales
FL runners-up	St. Louis Terriers
World Series
Champions	Boston Red Sox (AL)
Runners-up	Philadelphia Phillies (NL)

Red Sox

White Sox  

Indians

Tigers

Athletics

Browns

Yankees

Senators

Locations of teams for the 1915–1922 American League seasons
American League

Braves

Robins

Cubs

Reds

Giants

Phillies

Pirates

Cardinals

Locations of teams for the 1915 National League season
National League

Terrapins

Tip-Tops

Blues

Whales

  Packers

Peppers

Rebels

Terriers

Locations of teams for the 1915 Federal League season
Federal League

The Indianapolis Hoosiers relocated to Newark, New Jersey as the Newark Peppers. The Buffalo Buffeds, Chicago Federals, and Cleveland Naps renamed as the Buffalo Blues, Chicago Whales, and Cleveland Indians, respectively.

The Federal League brought an antitrust lawsuit against the National and American Leagues prior to the 1915 season. The parties eventually reached a settlement and the Federal League disbanded after the season.

The major-league status of the Federal League was confirmed by the Special Baseball Records Committee (as convened by then-Commissioner of Baseball William Eckert) in 1969.^[1]

Schedule

See also: Major League Baseball schedule

The 1915 schedule consisted of 154 games for all teams in the American League, National League, and Federal 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, and which lasted until the 140-game schedule of 1919. Most teams played more than 154 games, due to tie games (called on account of darkness or weather) that had to be replayed;^[2] tie games are excluded from team standings, but the statistics of individual players are included in their season totals.

The Federal League had its Opening Day on April 10, featuring all eight teams.^[3] Opening Day for the American and National Leagues was on April 14, featuring the 16 teams of those two leagues,^[4] as had been scheduled the season prior. The Federal League had the final day of its regular season on October 3.^[5] The final day of the regular season for the National and American Leagues was October 7.^[6] The World Series took place between October 8 and October 13.^[7]

Rule change

The National League established that player-managers would count against the player limit, so the bench manager would be unable to insert himself in any game during the season without forfeiting the right to carry one of the players on his roster. The penalty for violating the rule was forfeiture of the game.^[8]

Teams

An asterisk (*) denotes the ballpark a team played the minority of their home games at

League	Team	City	Stadium	Capacity	Manager[9]
American League	Boston Red Sox	Boston, Massachusetts	Fenway Park	35,000	Bill Carrigan
	Chicago White Sox	Chicago, Illinois	Comiskey Park	28,000	Pants Rowland
	Cleveland Indians	Cleveland, Ohio	League Park	21,414	Joe Birmingham
					Lee Fohl
	Detroit Tigers	Detroit, Michigan	Navin Field	23,000	Hughie Jennings
	New York Yankees	New York, New York	Brush Stadium	34,000	Bill Donovan
	Philadelphia Athletics	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Shibe Park	23,000	Connie Mack
	St. Louis Browns	St. Louis, Missouri	Sportsman's Park	18,000	Branch Rickey
	Washington Senators	Washington, D.C.	Griffith Stadium	27,000	Clark Griffith
National League	Boston Braves	Boston, Massachusetts	Fenway Park	35,000	George Stallings
			Braves Field*	40,000*
	Brooklyn Robins	New York, New York	Ebbets Field	30,000	Wilbert Robinson
	Chicago Cubs	Chicago, Illinois	West Side Park	16,000	Roger Bresnahan
	Cincinnati Reds	Cincinnati, Ohio	Redland Field	20,696	Buck Herzog
	New York Giants	New York, New York	Brush Stadium	34,000	John McGraw
	Philadelphia Phillies	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	National League Park	18,000	Pat Moran
	Pittsburgh Pirates	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	Forbes Field	25,000	Fred Clarke
	St. Louis Cardinals	St. Louis, Missouri	Robison Field	21,000	Miller Huggins
Federal League	Baltimore Terrapins	Baltimore, Maryland	Terrapin Park	16,000	Otto Knabe
	Brooklyn Tip-Tops	New York, New York	Washington Park	18,800	Lee Magee
					John Ganzel
	Buffalo Blues	Buffalo, New York	Federal League Park	20,000	Larry Schlafly
					Walter Blair
					Harry Lord
	Chicago Whales	Chicago, Illinois	Weeghman Park	15,000	Joe Tinker
	Kansas City Packers	Kansas City, Missouri	Gordon and Koppel Field	12,000	George Stovall
	Newark Peppers	Newark, New Jersey	Harrison Park	21,000	Bill Phillips
					Bill McKechnie
	Pittsburgh Rebels	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	Exposition Park	16,000	Rebel Oakes
	St. Louis Terriers	St. Louis, Missouri	Handlan's Park	15,000	Fielder Jones

Standings

American League

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American League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Boston Red Sox	101	50	.669	—	55‍–‍20	46‍–‍30
Detroit Tigers	100	54	.649	2½	51‍–‍26	49‍–‍28
Chicago White Sox	93	61	.604	9½	54‍–‍24	39‍–‍37
Washington Senators	85	68	.556	17	50‍–‍29	35‍–‍39
New York Yankees	69	83	.454	32½	37‍–‍43	32‍–‍40
St. Louis Browns	63	91	.409	39½	35‍–‍38	28‍–‍53
Cleveland Indians	57	95	.375	44½	27‍–‍50	30‍–‍45
Philadelphia Athletics	43	109	.283	58½	19‍–‍53	24‍–‍56

National League

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National League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Philadelphia Phillies	90	62	.592	—	49‍–‍27	41‍–‍35
Boston Braves	83	69	.546	7	49‍–‍27	34‍–‍42
Brooklyn Robins	80	72	.526	10	51‍–‍26	29‍–‍46
Chicago Cubs	73	80	.477	17½	42‍–‍34	31‍–‍46
Pittsburgh Pirates	73	81	.474	18	40‍–‍37	33‍–‍44
St. Louis Cardinals	72	81	.471	18½	42‍–‍36	30‍–‍45
Cincinnati Reds	71	83	.461	20	39‍–‍37	32‍–‍46
New York Giants	69	83	.454	21	37‍–‍38	32‍–‍45

Federal League

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• t
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Federal League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Chicago Whales	86	66	.566	—	44‍–‍32	42‍–‍34
St. Louis Terriers	87	67	.565	—	43‍–‍34	44‍–‍33
Pittsburgh Rebels	86	67	.562	½	45‍–‍31	41‍–‍36
Kansas City Packers	81	72	.529	5½	46‍–‍31	35‍–‍41
Newark Peppers	80	72	.526	6	40‍–‍39	40‍–‍33
Buffalo Blues	74	78	.487	12	37‍–‍40	37‍–‍38
Brooklyn Tip-Tops	70	82	.461	16	34‍–‍40	36‍–‍42
Baltimore Terrapins	47	107	.305	40	24‍–‍51	23‍–‍56

Postseason

The postseason began on October 8 and ended on October 13 with the Boston Red Sox defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1915 World Series in five games. The National and American Leagues refused a postseason against the Federal League.

Bracket

	World Series
	AL	Boston Red Sox	4
	NL	Philadelphia Phillies	1

1915 schedule of the Federal League

Managerial changes

Off-season

Team	Former Manager	New Manager
Brooklyn Tip-Tops	Bill Bradley	Lee Magee
Chicago Cubs	Hank O'Day	Roger Bresnahan
Chicago White Sox	Jimmy Callahan	Pants Rowland
New York Yankees	Roger Peckinpaugh	Bill Donovan
Philadelphia Phillies	Red Dooin	Pat Moran

In-season

Team	Former Manager	New Manager
Brooklyn Tip-Tops	Lee Magee	John Ganzel
Buffalo Blues	Larry Schlafly	Walter Blair
	Walter Blair	Harry Lord
Cleveland Indians	Joe Birmingham	Lee Fohl
Newark Peppers	Bill Phillips	Bill McKechnie

League leaders

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

American League

Hitting leaders^[10]

Stat	Player	Total
AVG	Ty Cobb (DET)	.369
OPS	Ty Cobb (DET)	.973
HR	Braggo Roth (CLE/CWS)	7
RBI	Sam Crawford (DET) Bobby Veach (DET)	112
R	Ty Cobb (DET)	144
H	Ty Cobb (DET)	208
SB	Ty Cobb (DET)	96

Pitching leaders^[11]

Stat	Player	Total
W	Walter Johnson (WSH)	27
L	Weldon Wyckoff (PHA)	22
ERA	Smoky Joe Wood (BRS)	1.49
K	Walter Johnson (WSH)	203
IP	Walter Johnson (WSH)	336.2
SV	Carl Mays (BRS)	7
WHIP	Walter Johnson (WSH)	0.933

National League

Hitting leaders^[12]

Stat	Player	Total
AVG	Larry Doyle (NYG)	.320
OPS	Gavvy Cravath (PHP)	.902
HR	Gavvy Cravath (PHP)	24
RBI	Gavvy Cravath (PHP)	115
R	Gavvy Cravath (PHP)	89
H	Larry Doyle (NYG)	189
SB	Max Carey (PIP)	36

Pitching leaders^[13]

Stat	Player	Total
W	Grover Alexander1 (PHP)	31
L	Dick Rudolph (BSB) Pete Schneider (CIN)	19
ERA	Grover Alexander1 (PHP)	1.22
K	Grover Alexander1 (PHP)	241
IP	Grover Alexander (PHP)	376.1
SV	Tom Hughes (BSB)	9
WHIP	Grover Alexander (PHP)	0.842

¹ National League Triple Crown pitching winner

Federal League

Hitting leaders^[14]

Stat	Player	Total
AVG	Benny Kauff (BTT)	.342
OPS	Benny Kauff (BTT)	.955
HR	Hal Chase (BUF)	17
RBI	Dutch Zwilling (CHW)	94
R	Babe Borton (SLT)	97
H	Jack Tobin (SLT)	184
SB	Benny Kauff (BTT)	55

Pitching leaders^[15]

Stat	Player	Total
W	George McConnell (CHW)	25
L	Jack Quinn (BAL)	22
ERA	Earl Moseley (NWK)	1.91
K	Dave Davenport (SLT)	229
IP	Dave Davenport (SLT)	392.2
SV	Hugh Bedient (BUF)	10
WHIP	Dave Davenport (SLT)	0.991

Home field attendance

Team name	Wins	%±	Home attendance	%±	Per game
Boston Red Sox[16]	101	11.0%	539,885	12.2%	7,104
Chicago White Sox[17]	93	32.9%	539,461	15.0%	6,829
Detroit Tigers[18]	100	25.0%	476,105	14.4%	6,183
Philadelphia Phillies[19]	90	21.6%	449,898	224.9%	5,920
New York Giants[20]	69	-17.9%	391,850	7.6%	5,156
Boston Braves[21]	83	-11.7%	376,283	-1.7%	4,824
Brooklyn Robins[22]	80	6.7%	297,766	142.7%	3,818
New York Yankees[23]	69	-1.4%	256,035	-28.8%	3,122
St. Louis Cardinals[24]	72	-11.1%	252,666	-1.3%	3,119
Pittsburgh Pirates[25]	73	5.8%	225,743	61.7%	2,858
Cincinnati Reds[26]	71	18.3%	218,878	117.2%	2,771
Chicago Cubs[27]	73	-6.4%	217,058	7.2%	2,819
Washington Senators[28]	85	4.9%	167,332	-31.4%	2,092
Cleveland Indians[29]	57	11.8%	159,285	-14.4%	2,069
St. Louis Browns[30]	63	-11.3%	150,358	-38.6%	1,978
Philadelphia Athletics[31]	43	-56.6%	146,223	-57.8%	1,976

Note: Attendance data for Federal League teams is unavailable.

Events

• May 6 – Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox hits the first of his career 714 home runs.^[32]