In the National League, the Pittsburgh Pirates had a tougher time than their final margin of 5 games in winning their first pennant. Pittsburgh took the lead in mid August then held off the St.Louis Cardinals and the Boston Beaneaters during the last two weeks of the season. The Pirates were led on the mound by the NL's Outstanding Pitcher Award winner, Rube Waddell (21 wins, 1.69 era, 314 k), with help from 18-game winner Deacon Phillippe and 17-game winner Jack Chesbro. The Cardinals bounced back from a dismal 1902, after nearly winning it in 1901, to finish in second place thanks to the bat of Dan McGann (.295-6-86) and the arm of 21-game winner Bob Wicker. The Boston Beaneaters ended up in third place, 7 games behind Pittsburgh, in part due to the hitting of Pat Moran, who led the senior circuit with 9 home runs, and the pitching of 21-game winner Jesse Tannehill.
The pennant race in the American League was another story as the Detroit Tigers breezed to their first title, winning by a whopping 16 games. The league's Rookie of the Year Award winner, Doc Gessler, led the way with a .325 average and driving in 87 runs. On the mound, the Tigers were led by Ed Siever, who won a MLB leading 28 games, and Wish Egan (2.21 ERA, 3rd in AL). The Boston Americans, runners up in 1902, were runners up again as they finished in second place, 16 games behind Detroit. Buck Freeman (.290-7-79) and Cy Young (22 wins, 2.49 era, 178 strikeouts) were the major stars of the team. The Cleveland Bronchos ended in third place, 21 games behind Detroit, were led by the bat of Bill Bradley (.318-6-87), the only player on the team with more than one home run, and by pitchers Addie Joss (20 wins, 2.42 era, 187 k) and Earl Moore (19 wins, 2.38 era, 171 k).
The two pennant winners became teams of destiny when their owners made a handshake agreement to face each other in a best of nine series to determine the world's champion. A crowd of over 8,000 were on hand for the first World Series game, a match up between fireballer Rube Waddell and George Mullin. Mullin out pitched Waddell to win 1-0 but the Pirates went on to sweep the next five games to win the "world's championship". The third game of the series, a 3-2 pitcher's duel between Pittsburgh's Jack Chesbro and Detroit's Frank Owen, was spiced up by a home run hit by Jimmy Sebring, the first one in World Series history. (NOTE: He did the same thing in RL! Now that's a coincidence.)
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Detroit 94 46 .671 -- Pittsburgh 80 60 .571 --
Boston 78 62 .557 16 St.Louis 75 65 .536 5
Cleveland 73 67 .521 21 Boston 73 67 .521 7
Philadelphia 72 68 .514 22 Chicago 71 69 .507 9
Chicago 63 77 .450 31 Brooklyn 69 71 .493 11
St.Louis 62 78 .443 32 New York 68 72 .486 12
Washington 61 79 .436 33 Philadelphia 64 76 .457 16
New York 57 83 .407 37 Cincinnati 60 80 .429 20
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
M.Donlin, NY .334 N.Lajoie, BRO .337
F.Clarke, WAS .328 J.Beckley, CIN .306
D.Gessler, DET .325 S.Crawford, CIN .303
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
C.Hickman, CHI 12 P.Moran, BOS 9
H.Davis, PHI 9 L.Criger, NY 8
B.Freeman, BOS 7 N.Lajoie, BRO 7
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
C.Stahl, NY 99 D.McGann, STL 86
B.Bradley, CLE 87 J.Kelley, BRO 80
D.Gessler, DET 87 L.Cross, BOS 77
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
D.Hoffman, PHI 64 H.Bay, CIN 59
D.Holmes, DET 56 J.Sheckard, BRO 49
W.Conroy, STL 46 J.Donaghue, PIT 41
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
E.Plank, PHI 2.01 R.Waddell, PIT 1.69
N.Garvin, STL 2.20 N.Hahn, CIN 2.06
W.Egan, DET 2.21 A.Orth, PHI 2.19
Wins W Wins W
E.Siever, DET 28 J.Tannehil, BOS 21
R.Donahue, WAS 27 R.Waddell, PIT 21
B.Bernhard, PHI 23 B.Wicker, STL 21
Saves SV Saves SV
J.Terry, DET 10 B.Rhoads, CHI 5
B.Pounds, CLE 7 R.Ames, NY 4
B.Phillips, BOS 4 K.Nichols, BOS 4
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
R.Donahue, WAS 240 R.Waddell, PIT 314
C.Patten, WAS 188 C.Mathewson, NY 215
A.Joss, CLE 187 J.Weimer, CHI 176
1903 World Series
Game #1
Pittsburgh 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 3 2
Detroit 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 x - 1 4 3
R.Waddell and C.Zimmer
G.Mullin and H.Bemus
WP - G.Mullin (1-0)
LP - R.Waddell (0-1)
HR - none
Game #2
Pittsburgh 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 - 5 9 0
Detroit 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 2 6 2
D.Phillippe and C.Zimmer, J.Donahue (9)
E.Siever, J.Cronin (9) and H.Bemus
WP - D.Phillippe (1-0)
LP - E.Siever (0-1)
HR - none
Game #3
Detroit 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 - 2 5 2
Pittsburgh 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 x - 3 4 5
F.Owen and H.Bemus
J.Chesbro and C.Zimmer
WP - J.Chesbro (1-0)
LP - F.Owen (0-1)
HR - PIT: J.Sebring (1)
Game #4
Detroit 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 9 2
Pittsburgh 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 x - 4 6 1
W.Egan and H.Bemus
S.Leever and C.Zimmer
WP - S.Leever (1-0)
LP - W.Egan (0-1)
HR - none
Game #5
Pittsburgh 2 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 - 6 10 3
Detroit 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 - 3 7 5
R.Waddell and C.Zimmer
G.Mullin, J.Deering (7) and H.Bemus
WP - R.Waddell (1-1)
LP - G.Mullin (1-1)
HR - none
Game #6
Pittsburgh 2 0 0 0 0 3 2 3 1 - 11 15 4
Detroit 0 0 0 1 0 2 2 1 0 - 6 13 4
D.Phillippe, W.Sudhoff (8) and C.Zimmer
E.Siever, J.Cronin (7), J.Deering (8) and H.Bemus
WP - D.Phillippe (2-0)
LP - E.Siever (0-2)
HR - PIT: H.Jennings (1) DET: D.Gessler (1)