IN THE NEWS: Ed Reulbach shuts out the Reds for a 60 Cubs win, and Reulbach's 4th straight shutout, tying a mark set by Three Finger Brown earlier in the year. Big Ed will complete 44 consecutive scoreless innings, an National League record until Carl Hubbell's 46 in 1933, and the four straight shutouts will not be tied until another Cub, Bill Lee, does it in 1938.
With one days' rest, Christy Mathewson pitches the first of two game, outlasting Frank Corridon, 43. Matty is peppered for 10 hits, but allows no runs after the 5th. It is Mathewson's 37th win of the year. The Phils take the 2nd game 62, but New York is still in 1st place.
IN THE NEWS: In a great pitching duel, Ed Walsh is almost perfect, giving up four hits and striking out 15 in eight innings, but Cleveland's Addie Joss is perfect, setting down 27 straight White Sox for a 10 victory. The only run scores on a passed ball by Ossee Schreckengost. It is the high point of Joss's career. He will finish 2412 with a 1.16 ERA.
In Detroit, the Tigers score two runs in the 9th to edge the Browns, 76. Ty Cobb scores the winning run , but is practically carried across the plate by Hugh Jennings. Cobb had been held at 3B by the umpire who believed Rossman's double had gone into the crowd. Cobb argued that it had not, and Jennings later reminded Cobb to, "score first, argue later." The Tigers remain in first by a half-game.
The Pirates take over first by a half game by sweeping the Cardinals in St; Louis. Lefty Leifield wins the opener 74 and Howie Camnitz wins the nitecap 21 on homers by Honus Wagner and George Gibson. Only two points separate New York, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, as each team takes a turn on top during the final week.
IN THE NEWS: The incident of September 23rd would have become just another odd event in baseball if the Giants had been able to handle the 4th-place Phillies. But rookie lefthander Harry Coveleski, just up from the minor leagues, earns the nickname "Giant Killer" by beating them 32, for the 3rd time in five days. Christy Mathewson takes the loss.
At a hearing on the September 23rd incident, Pulliam does not call Merkle or any other players as witnesses, saying he was at the game and saw the events himself. He affirms his earlier decision. Two days later, National League directors meet in Cincinnati and order the game replayed on October 8th.
The Tigers roll to their 10th straight win when Wild Bill Donovan shuts out the Browns, 60 while Cleveland loses, 32, to the White Sox. Detroit leads the American League by one 1/2 games.
In the finale at Philadelphia's Columbia Park, the A's split with Boston, losing 87, but winning the nitecap, 50, in six innings. Wood allows just a single to Coombs.
IN THE NEWS: The Cubs and Pirates play their last game of the year before 30,247, the largest crowd ever at Chicago's West Side Grounds. The Cubs win, 52, behind Three Finger Brown to eliminate the Pirates. Chicago ends the year at 98-55 while the Pirates finish at 98-56. Then they await the results of the three Giants games with Boston. Back in Pittsburgh, 50,000 people watch the progress of the Cub's game on temporary scoreboards. Fans fill New York's Polo Grounds to watch the action in the same way. Men with megaphones announce each pitch.
On Chicago's South Side, 22,000 fans jam the grounds for the showdown between the Tigers and the White Sox. The Sox manage to score three runs in the 1st inning without a hit, and tally just a lone single, in the 4th inning, off Ed Killian to win, 31. Frank Smith is the winning pitcher.
In St. Louis, Cleveland ends up with a frustrating 33 tie with the Browns when umpire Jack Egan makes a controversial out call against the Naps at 1B. Most observers thought that Hinchman beat the 9th inning throw, but Egan's call results in a tie game.
IN THE NEWS: Ed Walsh of the White Sox tops Detroit 61 for his 40th victory and forces the American League pennant race to the final day. Detroit's 24-game winner Eddie Summers takes the loss. Walsh leads the league in games (66), IP (464), K's (269), complete games (42), saves (6), shutouts (11), and winning percentage (.727). His ERA is 1.42.
The Browns end the Naps' pennant hopes with a 31 win the opener of two. Cleveland takes the 2nd game, 53, to end the season with a 9064 record. If the Tigers win tomorrow, their 9063 will top Cleveland, whereas if the White Sox win, their 89-63 record will be four points ahead of the Naps.
Boston's King Brady makes his only AL appearance a good one, shutting out the Highlanders. 40. King had fashioned 11 records for both the Phillies and Pirates in the National League, and will go back to the NL with Boston over the winter.
IN THE NEWS: Having been in 13 of the last 16 games, Ed Walsh does not start the White Sox finale against Detroit. Doc White is hit hard in the 70 loss that gives the pennant to the Tigers. Bill Donovan pitches a two hitter.
Detroit OF Sam Crawford leads the American League with seven home runs. Having led the National League with 16 in 1901, he becomes the first player to lead both leagues in that department. The Cardinals have scored 372 runs, the lowest season's total ever.
IN THE NEWS: The Giants complete a 3-game sweep in Boston, winning the final, 72, with two wins going to Red Ames and a victory to Joe McGinnity. The season ends with New York and the Cubs each 9855, and Pittsburgh 9856. The Giants sweep Boston in all three games, New York ends tied with Chicago: a playoff game will be held tomorrow.
The last-place New York Highlanders close out the season losing 10 in 11 innings to Walter Johnson and the Senators. Johnson, who missed 10 weeks , ends up at 1414, with a 1.65 ERA.
IN THE NEWS: According to published reports, nearly 250,000 fans show up at the Polo Grounds to watch the disputed replay of the September 23 game between the Cubs and Giants. The gates were closed at 1:30 for the 3:00 game, but still fans tried to storm the gates. Fireman with high pressure hoses knocked down fans who tried to scale the walls. Nearly 40,000 fans watched from Coogan's Bluff, telephone poles and other vantage points. Two fans are killed when they fall from a pillar on the elevated subway platform. Later admitting he had nothing on the ball, Christy Mathewson loses, 42, to the Cubs, giving way to Hooks Wiltse in the 8th.: Three Finger Brown, relieving Jack Pfiester in the first, gets the win. The Giants played to a record 910,000 in attendance for the year, a figure that will be unmatched until 1920.
IN THE NEWS: In the World Series Opener, Ed Reulbach, coasting with a 51 lead, tires in the 7th. Brown is unable to stop the Tigers from taking a 65 lead in the last of the 8th. But the Cubs jump on reliever Ed Summers, a 24-game winner, for six straight hits and five runs in the 9th, and Brown gets the win 106. For umpire Bill Klem, it is the first of 15 World Series he will officiate. Detroit's Ira Thomas, batting for Charley O'Leary, hits the first World Series pinch hit when he singles in the 9th. There had been 12 previous pinch-hit attempts in World Series play, including the batter before Thomas.
IN THE NEWS: In Chicago for game 2, Orval Overall doles out four hits, and the Cubs break a scoreless deadlock with six in the 8th off Bill Donovan for a 61 win.
IN THE NEWS: Before the smallest crowd in World Series history6,210the host Tigers are tamed on three hits by Overall, who fans 10 in a 20 win. The Cubs win the series in five games.
Upset over seating arrangements at the World Series, sports reporters form a professional group that will become the Baseball Writers Association of America.
IN THE NEWS: Four days after the finish of the World Series, the two teams meet again in Chicago for an exhibition game (as noted by historian Al Kermisch). The game outdraws the last series game in Detroit, as 6,864 watch the Tigers win, 72. In a pregame field day, Ty Cobb wins all three sprint events: he bunts and runs to 1B in 3.2 seconds, beating Evers, Mordecai Brown, and Del Howard. He circles the bases in 13.8 seconds and, clad in uniform, wins the 100-yard dash in 10.4 seconds, beating Jones and Solly Hofman in the latter. Hofman wins the long throw with a toss of 338 feet, besting Sam Crawford.
IN THE NEWS: Singing sensation Billy Murray hits the charts with "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," the 2nd, and most popular, of three versions to be released within a five-week period. Ironically, Murray's 1903 hit, "Tessie," is quickly adopted by Boston's Royal Rooters as their official theme song, much to the chagrin of Red Sox' opponents.