IN THE NEWS: The Browns and Tigers finish the season with a doubleheader split in St. Louis as the Cleveland Indians refuse to make the trip for the Labor Day doubleheader. In Game 2, Ty Cobb pitches two innings against the Browns while the Browns' George Sisler pitches one scoreless inning. The Browns win, 6–2, and Sisler hits a double off of Cobb. Detroit wins the opener, 7-2.
IN THE NEWS: Brooklyn ends the abbreviated season by splitting a doubleheader with the Phils, losing the 1st game 4–2 before taking the nitecap, 5–3.
In Washington, the Senators end the year on a light note, by splitting with the A's. Philadelphia wins the opener and the Nats take the nitecap, 8–3. The 2nd game is Washington's traditional year-end laugher, and 43-year-old coach Nick Altrock finishes in relief, one of his five appearance in 1918. Altrock bats in the bottom of the 8th and Wickey McAvoy, a catcher playing first for the day, comes in to throw. Altrock finally lines one of his lobs into the outfield, rambles around the bases and—according to Al Kermisch's description—neglects 2B and 3B. Ump Billy Evans calls Altrock safe at home for the only homer by a Senator hit at home this season. For Altrock, it's been 14 years since his last round tripper. The game ends with General March throwing out the last ball; he'll toss out the first next year.
IN THE NEWS: In order to cut down on the use of trains, the first three games of the World Series are played in Chicago, the next three in Boston. The Cubs switch their home games to Comiskey Park with its larger seating capacity. Babe Ruth, having completed 13 scoreless innings in his first World Series two years ago, adds nine more in edging Hippo Vaughn 1–0 in the opener. Also, when 2B Dave Shean bats for Boston, he becomes the oldest player (40 years, three months, 18 days) to play in the World Series, a mark other graybeards will top.
During the 7th-inning stretch, a military band plays "The Star Spangled Banner" and Fred Thomas, on leave from the Navy, snaps to attention. From then on, the song is played at every World Series game, every season opener, and whenever a band is present to play it, though it is not yet adopted as the national anthem. The custom of playing it before every game will begin during WW II, when the installation of public address systems makes it practical. The first time it is recorded that the song was played at a ball game was on May 15, 1862, at the Union Grounds in Brooklyn. The base ball game was led off by a band concert.
IN THE NEWS: In game 2, Lefty Tyler drives in two runs in the Cubs' 3-run second. The Red Sox get one in the 9th and that's all the scoring for the day, with George Tyler beating Joe Bush. The game also features fights between Heinie Wagner and Hippo Vaughn and another involving Lester Mann and Joe Bush.
IN THE NEWS: On one day's rest, Hippo Vaughn gives up only seven hits, but Carl Mays wins a 2–1 duel. Wally Schang has two hits for Boston. Game three ends with the Cubs' Charlie Pick caught in a rundown between 3B and home while trying to score on a passed ball.
IN THE NEWS: In game 4, Ruth bats in two runs on a triple in the 4th and pitches seven scoreless innings before the Cubs tie it in the 8th, ending Ruth's World Series record of 29 2/3 scoreless innings. Shufflin' Phil Douglas relieves Lefty Tyler for Chicago in the last of the 8th and throws away the game, first by a wild pitch, then with an error. Ruth is the winning pitcher, but Mays relieves with two on and no out in the 9th.
Finners Quinlan, an OF who last played in 1915, is wounded fighting in a battle at Argonne Wood, France. He loses an eye and his right leg.
IN THE NEWS: Players on both sides threaten to strike unless they are guaranteed $2,500 to the winners and $1,000 each for the losers. They back off, however, when told they will appear greedy while their countrymen are fighting a war. There are no fines, but no World Series rings or mementos are given out this year. On the field, Hippo Vaughn comes back with two days of rest and blanks the Red Sox 3–0 on five hits in game 5.
IN THE NEWS: The Red Sox win the World Series in game six on Carl Mays's 2nd victory, a 2–1 three–hitter. With two on and two out in the 3rd, utility OF George Whiteman lines a hard drive to RF. Max Flack drops it, allowing the only runs off Lefty Tyler. Righty Claude Hendrix, 20–7 during the year, finally makes an appearance, tossing a final inning for the Cubs. Cubs pitchers compile a 1.04 ERA, while Boston's .186 BA is the lowest ever for a World Series winner, but they compensate by making just one error, a record not beaten this century in a 6-game World Series. The Red Sox will realize $1,102 each, the Cubs $671, the smallest winner's share ever earned. The inning by inning results of the game were relayed to Fort Devans, 58 miles away, via homing nine pigeons.
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