The raiding stopped and peace came to the baseball world under a new National Agreement between two equal leagues
The Chicago Cubs won their first National League pennant of the modern era by taking the lead at the beginning of June then holding on and clinching the title with 10 games remaining. Johnny Evers (.271-1-68) Johnny Kling (.267-3-75) and Frank Chance (.256-5-63) led the way at the plate. On the mound, the NL's Outstanding Pitcher Frank Glade won 26 games with Carl Lundgren and Bob Wicker winning 22 games each to pace the Cubs. The St.Louis Cardinals finished in second place, 10 games behind, thanks to the hitting of Jimmy Slagle (.333-0-49), Patsy Donovan (.291-0-54) and Jake Beckley (.277-3-73) and the hurling of pitchers Kid Nichols (23-8, 1.48 ERA) and Bob Rhoads (19-11, 2.17 ERA). The Giants rose into third place in the first full year under John McGraw's leadership. Roger Bresnahan swung the stick at a .300-2-63 clip and fellow re-jumper Joe McGinnity won 21 games to lead the Giants.
At the top of the standings, Boston won their first title with less than a week remaining in the season. The AL's Outstanding Pitcher Cy Young (27-7, 1.83 ERA) led the way on the mound and the bats were led by the junior circuit's Outstanding Hitter Buck Freeman (.303-17-97) and George Stone (.313-7-52). The Philadelphia Athletics finished in second place, eight games behind, due to the hitting of Socks Seybold (.268-9-74) and Harry Davis (.268-9-77) and the pitching of 17-game winners Eddie Plank (17-16, 2.53 ERA) and Rube Waddell (17-16, 2.47 ERA).
The two pennant winners became teams of destiny when the owners agreed to pit their clubs against each other in the fall in a nine-game series for the "world's" championship. The agreement between the two magnates set up the first World Series and the first inter-league championship since the 1890 match of the National League and the American Association champs. A lot of people were on hand to witness the first game, a match up between the legendary Cy Young and Cubs starter Jake Weimer, who was the NL's Newcomer of the Year. Young's fastballs were batted around to the tune of single runs in both the third and fourth innings and 2 in the eighth to carry Chicago to a 4-2 win. The Pirates took a commanding 3-games-to-one lead before Boston was able to come back in game #5 to get their second win, a 7-0 drubbing behind the 3-hit pitching of Cy Young. The Pirates won games six and eight to capture the first world's championship, 5-games-to-3. Pitcher Carl Lundgren (2-0) and catcher Johnny Kling (2 HRs) were the stars for the Cubs.
Code:
American League W L PCT GB National League W L PCT GB
Boston 83 57 .593 -- Chicago 96 44 .686 --
Philadelphia 75 65 .536 8 St.Louis 86 54 .614 10
Chicago 74 66 .529 9 New York 79 61 .564 17
Cleveland 73 67 .521 10 Pittsburgh 78 62 .557 18
New York 67 73 .479 16 Cincinnati 66 74 .471 30
St.Louis 66 74 .471 17 Brooklyn 56 84 .400 40
Washington 63 77 .450 20 Philadelphia 54 86 .386 42
Detroit 59 81 .421 24 Boston 45 95 .321 51
Batting AVG AVG Batting AVG AVG
E.Delahanty, WAS .331 J.slagle, STL .333
G.Stone, BOS .313 H.Wagner, PIT .332
N.Lajoie, CLE .306 F.Clarke, PIT .331
Homeruns HR Homeruns HR
B.Freeman, BOS 17 H.Wagner, PIT 10
C.Hickman, CLE 13 C.Seymour, CIN 9
N.Lajoie, CLE 13 B.Keister, PHI 7
Runs Batted In RBI Runs Batted In RBI
B.Freeman, BOS 97 B.Keister, PHI 99
C.Hickman, CLE 81 F.Clarke, PIT 92
H.Davis, PHI 77 H.Wagner, PIT 84
Stolen Bases SB Stolen Bases SB
H.Bay, CLE 62 M.Donlin, CIN 49
C.Hemphill, STL 50 H.Wagner, PIT 42
D.Hoffman, PHI 48 T.McCreery, BRO 40
Earned Run Average ERA Earned Run Average ERA
R.Patterson, CHI 1.46 D.Phillippe, PIT 1.32
D.White, CHI 1.80 K.Nichols, STL 1.48
C.Young, BOS 1.83 F.Glade, CHI 1.58
Wins W Wins W
C.Young, BOS 27 F.Glade, CHI 26
D.White, CHI 23 D.Phillippe, PIT 24
E.Moore, CLE 19 K.Nichols, STL 23
Saves SV Saves SV
A.Orth, WAS 6 B.Duggleby, PHI 7
A.Pearson, CLE 5 M.O'Neill, STL 7
C.Smith, CLE 4 B.Phillips, CIN 5
Strikeouts SO Strikeouts SO
R.Waddell, PHI 290 C.Mathewson, NY 227
E.Plank, PHI 207 F.Glade, CHI 208
C.Bender, PHI 205 J.Weimer, CHI 201
Postseason
Code:
1903 World Series
Game #1
Boston (A) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 - 2 9 0
Chicago (N) 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 x - 4 9 0
WP - J.Weimer (1-0)
LP - C.Young (0-1)
HR - none
Game #2
Boston (A) 4 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 - 8 11 5
Chicago (N) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 7 2
WP - B.Dinneen (1-0)
LP - B.Wicker (0-1)
HR - none
Game #3
Chicago (N) 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 - 3 5 1
Boston (A) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 5 0
WP - F.Glade (1-0)
LP - T.Hughes (0-1)
HR - CHI: J.Kling (1)
Game #4
Chicago (N) 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 - 9 10 2
Boston (A) 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 - 4 6 2
WP - C.Lundgren (1-0)
LP - N.Gibson (0-1)
HR - CHI: J.Dobbs (1), J.Kling (2) BOS: C.Stahl (1)
Game #5
Boston (A) 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 3 0 - 7 6 0
Chicago (N) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 3 3
WP - C.Young (1-1)
LP - J.Weimer (1-1)
HR - BOS: J.Collins (1)
Game #6
Boston (A) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 - 2 8 2
Chicago (N) 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 x - 3 2 0
WP - B.Wicker (1-1)
LP - B.Dinneen (1-1)
HR - none
Game #7
Chicago (N) 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 - 4 8 0
Boston (A) 1 0 1 2 0 2 0 0 x - 6 13 2
WP - T.Hughes (1-1)
LP - F.Glade (1-1)
HR - none
Game #8
Chicago (N) 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 6 3 - 13 16 0
Boston (A) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 - 2 9 6
WP - C.Lundgren (2-0)
LP - N.Gibson (0-2)
HR - none