The 1908

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 World Series, 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The ...

was the championship series in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

for the 1908 season. The fifth edition of the World Series, it matched the defending

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

champion

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

against the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

champion

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

in a rematch of the 1907 Series. In this first-ever rematch of this young event, the Cubs won in five games for their second straight World Series title. The 1908 World Series was significant for being the last World Series championship the Cubs would win until (108 years later). That became the longest World Series victory drought in MLB history. Before the 2016 series, the team would go on to appear in seven World Series; in , , , , , , and , losing each time. The Cubs had been one of baseball's most dominant teams in the early 1900s. This was the year of the infamous "

Merkle's Boner Merkle's Boner refers to the notorious base-running mistake committed by rookie Fred Merkle of the New York Giants in a game against the Chicago Cubs on September 23, 1908. Merkle's failure to advance to second base on what should have been a g ...

" play that allowed the Chicago Cubs to reach the

after beating the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...

(now the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

) in a one-game "playoff", actually the makeup game for the tie that the Merkle play had caused. The Series was anticlimactic after tight pennant races in both leagues.

Ty Cobb Tyrus Raymond Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed "the Georgia Peach", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) center fielder. He was born in rural Narrows, Georgia. Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the la ...

had a much better World Series than in the previous year, as did the rest of his team. The final two games, held in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, were shutouts. This was also the most poorly attended World Series in history, with the final game drawing a record-low 6,210 fans. Attendance in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

was harmed by a ticket-scalping scheme that fans accused the club's owner of participating in, and the World Series was boycotted to some degree. For the first time, four umpires were used in the series, in alternating two-man teams. Games 1, 4, and 5 were played in Detroit, while Games 2 and 3 were played in Chicago. Had the series continued, Game 6 would have been played in Chicago, and the home team for Game 7 would have been decided randomly, "by lot".

Summary

Matchups

Game 1

The Tigers struck first in Game 1 when Matty McIntyre singled to lead off the bottom of the first off of

Ed Reulbach Edward Marvin "Big Ed" Reulbach (December 1, 1882 – July 17, 1961) was a Major League Baseball pitcher for the Chicago Cubs during their glory years of the early 1900s. Career Reulbach played college baseball at the University of Notre Dame ...

, stole second and scored on

's two-out single, but the Cubs responded in the third off of Ed Killian when after a leadoff double and single,

Frank Schulte Frank M. "Wildfire" Schulte (September 17, 1882 – October 2, 1949) was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, and Washington Senators from 1904 to 1918. ...

's RBI single tied the game. After a bunt groundout, Harry Steinfeldt's RBI single put Chicago up 2–1. After a walk, Ed Summers relieved Killian and allowed an RBI groundout to Joe Tinker and Johnny Kling reached on an error that allowed another run to score. The Cubs added another run in the seventh on Steinfedlt's sacrifice fly. In the bottom of the inning, with runners on second and third,

Boss Schmidt Charles "Boss" Schmidt (September 12, 1880 – November 14, 1932) was an American baseball catcher for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB) A native of Arkansas, Schmidt played professional baseball from 1901 to 1926, including six ...

's groundout,

Red Downs Jerome Willis "Red" Downs (August 23, 1883 – October 19, 1939), was a Major League Baseball player, who gained notoriety later in life as an armed robber during the Great Depression. Early life and MLB career Downs was born and raised in Neo ...

's ground-rule double, and Summers's single scored a run each. Next inning, Claude Rossman's two-run single off of Mordecai Brown put the Tigers up 6–5. In the top of the ninth, three straight one-out singles loaded the bases before

Solly Hofman Arthur Frederick "Solly" Hofman (October 29, 1882 – March 10, 1956) was an American Major League Baseball player from 1903 to 1916. He played the majority of his 1,194 games in the outfield. His nickname was "Circus Solly". Some attribute this ...

's single scored two and Joe Tinker's bunt single scored another. After a double steal,

Johnny King Johnny Cecil King (born 2 July 1942) is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. He was a winger with the St. George Dragons for the last seven years of their eleven consecutive premiership-winning run from 1956 to 1966. He wa ...

's two-run single put the Cubs up 10–6. Brown pitched a scoreless bottom of the ninth despite allowing a single and walk as the Cubs went up 1–0 in the series.

Game 2

A scoreless tie in the bottom of the eighth came to an end when Joe Tinker's two-run homer launched a six-run Cub outburst. After a ground-rule double and groundout, RBI singles by Jimmy Sheckard and Johnny Evers and an RBI triple by

(the last two hits coming off after stolen bases) scored a run each. A wild pitch to Frank Chance scored the Cubs' last run. The Tigers avoided a shutout in the ninth when Davy Jones drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a groundout and scored on

's single.

Orval Overall Orval Overall (February 2, 1881 – July 14, 1947) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball. He was a member of the Chicago Cubs dynasty of the early 1900s, making eight appearances for the Cubs in the World Series, including five as t ...

's complete-game win took just 90 minutes.

Game 3

It was in this game that Ty Cobb enjoyed the finest World Series outing he ever had. The 21-year-old Georgian rapped three singles and a double in five at-bats, and stole two bases. In the top of the ninth, he singled and promptly stole second and third, but then the hyped-up boy wonder pressed his luck and was thrown out trying to steal home. This was the only Tiger win in their back-to-back first two World Series losses to the Cubs. Detroit struck first in the top of the first when Charley O'Leary hit a one-out single, moved to second on a groundout and scored on

's single. The Cubs responded in the fourth on Frank Chance's RBI single. After stealing second, an error on Harry Steinfeldt's ground ball and

's triple scored a run each. In the top of the sixth, after a single and walk, singles by Sam Crawford,

, and Claude Rossman scored a run each. After a double play, Ira Thomas's RBI double made it 6–3 Tigers. They added two more runs in the eighth on

Bill Coughlin William Paul Coughlin (July 12, 1878 – May 7, 1943), was a Major League Baseball third baseman for the Washington Senators (1901–1904) and Detroit Tigers (1904–1908). Coughlin spent his entire adult life (1899–1943) playing and coaching ...

's bases loaded sacrifice fly followed by

George Mullin George Mullin may refer to: * George Mullin (baseball) (1880–1944), American baseball pitcher * George Mullin (VC) George Harry Mullin (15 August 1891 – 5 April 1963) was an American-Canadian soldier in the Canadian army. Mullin was a rec ...

's RBI single.

Game 4

This one was over in 95 minutes. RBI singles by Harry Steinfeldt and

in the third inning after two walks gave Mordecai Brown all the support he'd need. Brown allowed only four hits and walked none. The Cubs added another run in the ninth when Frank Chance reached on an error with two on.

Game 5

The attendance during this last game of the 1908 World Series was the smallest crowd in Series history, at 6,210. In the first inning, Overall registered four strikeouts, as Claude Rossman reached on an

uncaught third strike In baseball and softball, an uncaught third strike (sometimes referred to as dropped third strike or non-caught third strike) occurs when the catcher fails to cleanly catch a pitch for the third strike of a plate appearance. In Major League Ba ...

. This was the first, and to date only, instance of a four-strikeout inning in a World Series game. Overall allowed only three hits, walking four and striking out 10 for his second win of the series. In innings pitched during the series, he allowed only seven hits and two runs for an ERA of 0.98. The Cubs scored the game's first run in the first on three straight one-out singles, the last of which to Frank Chance scoring a run, then added another run in the fifth on Johnny Evers's double after two walks.

, who made the last out of the 1907 Series with a popup to short, also made the last out of this Series with a feeble catcher-to-first groundout. This was also the first World Series game in which neither team committed an

error An error (from the Latin ''error'', meaning "wandering") is an action which is inaccurate or incorrect. In some usages, an error is synonymous with a mistake. The etymology derives from the Latin term 'errare', meaning 'to stray'. In statistic ...

. The Cubs did not win another World Series title until finally reclaiming the crown in , a drought of 108 years, which remains the longest in MLB history.

Composite line score

1908 World Series (4–1):

(N.L.) over

(A.L.)

Sources

References

External links

{{Detroit Tigers

Detroit Tigers postseason Chicago Cubs postseason World Series

1900s in Chicago

Sports competitions in Detroit Sports competitions in Chicago