Postseason championships in 1884–1903
Fred Lieb, in the second number of SABR’s Baseball Research Journal, in 1973, wrote: “Ernest John (Ernie) Lanigan, early historian of the Hall of Fame, who was king of baseball figures, statistics, records, names and birth-places of players, events and incidents, both ordinary and extraordinary. He was born in Chicago on January 4, 1873, and died in Philadelphia on February 6, 1962. SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research, may well consider the beloved Ernie Lanigan as its patron saint or guardian angel. No man, living or dead, did as much for baseball research as the diligent, untiring, ever-searching Ol’ Ernie.”
I never knew him, but we are brothers. He is credited with publishing baseball’s first encyclopedia, in 1922, which he updated annually through 1933. He compiled RBI statistics for 1907–19 and Caught Stealing data for 1912–19 at a time when no was else was doing so; Pete Palmer and I incorporated his data in Total Baseball. From 1946 until his retirement in 1959, Lanigan served as the curator of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and later as its historian.
Below, from his neglected classic, Baseball Cyclopedia: A Compact but Comprehensive Review of the History of the National Game (1922).
For Glory — and for Lucre
Series for the championship of the baseball world date back to 1884, according to most of the authorities. Two years previously, however, Chicago, winner of the National League championship, and Cincinnati, finishing first in the American Association’s pennant pursuit, met in the fall in a couple of combats and those two games may have constituted the first World’s Series. The National League didn’t recognize the Association then and the Association had no use for the National and the games probably only had the sanction of the club presidents and no world’s title was involved. A person still in the land of the living who saw these games and who covered them is Ren Mulford, for years one of the best baseball writers of Cincinnati and now associated with the Thompson-Koch Co. advertising agency of that city. The Reds won one of these games, the White Sox the other. A job for some baseball archaeologist is to procure these scores from the files of some Cincinnati paper, for both games were played in the Queen City.
From 1884 to 1890, inclusive, the National League and American Association flag winners met annually to determine which club had the right to the title of world’s champions. Twice the issue was not settled, the series of 1885 between the Chicago National and the St. Louis Association teams ending in a tie and and a scrap and the series of 1890, with Brooklyn representing the senior league and Louisville the junior organization, winding up with each team possessed of three victories and with the public not a bit interested who won or lost. So the parties responsible for the series called said series off and announced it would be resumed in the spring of 1891. It never was, for then the two organizations were at war.
Early Series Pretentious
Some of the early series for the championship of the universe was pretentious — one of them, that of 1887, decidedly so. The Detroit Wolverines, managed by William Watkins and captained by Ned Hanlon, played 15 games with the St. Louis Browns, whose manager and captain was Charles A. Comiskey. Fans of cities other than St. Louis and Detroit were able to see the two champion combinations in action, for contests were played in Pittsburgh. Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Washington and Chicago.
The National Leaguers won this series, 10 games to five, and it is the longest on record. The shortest was the set between the Providence Nationals and the Metropolitans of New York and of the American Association in 1884. That set consisted of three games, with the Grays winning all three.
Some tabloid information regarding the seven series between the National League and the American Association for the world’s honors :
1884 — Providence captured the World’s Championship for the National League by defeating the Metropolitans of the American Association in three straight games, the scores being 6 to 0, 3 to 1 and 12 to 2. Charles Radbourne officiated in all three contests for the winners. Said contests all were played at the Polo Grounds and little interest was manifested in the series, which was informal, the attendance averaging 2000 daily. The clubs seemed in no hurry to start the games, the dates on which they were played being October 23rd, 24th and 25th.
1885 — There was no World’s Champion, the series of seven games between the Chicago National League and St. Louis American Association teams resulting in three victories for each, with one contest a draw. The St. Louis’ victories were by scores of 7 to 4, 3 to 2. and 13 to 4 and Chicago’s 5 to 4 and 9 to 2 (twice). Besides playing in St. Louis and Chicago, the teams visited Pittsburgh and Cincinnati for games, both cities then being on the American Association circuit. The first of the games was played on October 14th and the last on October 24th.
1886 — Charley Comiskey’s St. Louis Browns, of the American Association, won from Anson’s Chicago National Leaguers in a six game series, taking four contests by scores of 12 to 0, 8 to 5, 10 to 3, and 4 to 3. Chicago’s victories, both pitched by John Clarkson, were by scores of 6 to 0 and 11 to 4. The first three contests were played in Chicago and the last three in St Louis, the series starting on October 18th and ending on October 23rd. The Windy City team won two out of the three games played on its home lot. but lost all three run off at Sportsman’s Park in St Louis, a passed ball by Mike Kelly losing Chicago a chance to tie the series in the final game, which went ten innings and in which the slabmen were Caruthers and Clarkson.
1887 — Detroit wrested from St. Louis the World’s Championship by winning 10 out of 15 games in the most ambitious series that ever was arranged between two pennant winning teams. The series began on October 10th and lasted until October 26th, and games were played in St. Louis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia (one on the League grounds and one on the Association green), Boston, Baltimore, Washington and Chicago. The St. Louis’ victories were all twirled by “Parisian Bob” Caruthers and were by scores of 6 to 1, 5 to 2, 16 to 4, 5 to 1 and 9 to 2. Detroit won in this fashion : 5 to 3, 2 to 1(13 innings), 8 to 0, 9 to 0, 3 to 1, 9 to 2, 4 to 2, 13 to 3, 6 to 3 and 4 to 3. Two things that tended to give the Michiganders the series in such a decisive manner were the pitching of Charles (Lady) Baldwin, a left-hander, who trimmed the Browns in six out of seven games, and the throwing of Charley Bennett. The Detroit backstop flagged nearly all the Comiskeyites who attempted to steal and made them hug their bases closely. The 15 games were attended by 51,455 spectators, Brooklyn furnishing the largest turnout, 6,796. Conditions have changed since then.
1888 — The New York National League Club fought for the honors of the universe for the first time and won six out of 10 games from Comiskey’s St. Louis aggregation, which had again finished first in the American Association race. The series started on October 16th and was completed on October 27th, four games being played in New York and St. Louis and one each in Brooklyn and in Philadelphia. The Giants won five out of the first six games and made little effort to subdue the Browns in the contests that were fought in the Mound City. New York’s triumphs were by scores of 2 to 1, 4 to 2, 6 to 3, 6 to 4 (10 innings), 12 to 5 and 11 to 3, while St. Louis won by scores of 3 to 0, 7 to 5, 14 to 11 and 18 to 7. Buck Ewing took Charley Bennett’s place as a backstop able to stop the Browns on the bases and Tim Keefe was even more effective than Baldwin had been the previous year, beating the Missourians all four times he faced them. The one shutout of the series was twirled by Elton Chamberlain, who won over Mickey Welch, 3 to 0.
1889 — The Giants and Brooklyns were winners in their respective organizations and met in a series of nine games, which were played between October 18th and 29th, New York winning six and losing three. The games were confined to the Metropolitan district, five being played in New York and four in Brooklyn. Brooklyn won three of the first four games and then New York took the next five. Brooklyn’s triumphs were by scores of 12 to 10, 8 to 7 and 10 to 7, while the New York successes were on the basis of 6 to 2, 11 to 3. 2 to 1 (11 innings), 11 to 7, 16 to 7 and 3 to 2. Hank O’Day, National League umpire now, was the most effective of the New York pitchers, winning both his games and figuring in the one excess-round affair of the set.
1890 — Really the best club in America during the year of the Brotherhood’s existence was the Boston Players’ League team. Being outside the pale of the National Agreement, it could not compete for the World’s Championship, for which honor the Brooklyns of the National League and the Louisvilles of the American Association contended. There was no result to the seven-game series, which was played between October I7th and 28th, one of the contests being a 7 to 7 draw. Four contests were played in the Falls City and three in Brooklyn and there was no mad rush on the part of the populace to be present, the country having had more exhibitions of the national pastime than it could possibly digest. Brooklyn won by scores of 9 to 0, 5 to 3. and 7 to 2 ; Louisville by scores of 5 to 4, 9 to 8 and 6 to 2. Red Ehret twirled in all three of the Kentuckians’ wins.
War On — No Series
The National League and American Association were at war in 1891 and there was no series, and when the two organizations consolidated that fall naturally the games for the championship of the world automatically went into the discard, for the champion team of the world would be the team that finished first in the pennant race of the National League and American Association of Professional Baseball Clubs, as the new organization termed itself.
In the first year (1892) of the consolidated organization it had a split season, with Boston winning in the first half and Cleveland in the second and with Boston on top for the year. Boston was averse to playing off for the supremacy, but the League solons insisted that they do so. The first game between the clans of Selee and Tebeau was an 11-inning runless draw and then the Seleeities showed their class by winning five contests in a row. the scores of these being 4 to 3. 3 to 2, 4 to 0, 12 to 7 and 8 to 3.
The National League’s one year trial of the split season was enough for it and in 1893 there was a return to the old system of a campaign that went right through till fall.
In 1894 W. C. Temple, a wealthy Pittsburgh sportsman and one time president of the organization of which Barney Dreyfuss is now the head, donated to the National League a silver trophy called the Temple Cup, which was to be annually battled for by the teams finishing first and second.
There were four series for the Temple Cup and after the fourth the National League returned the trophy to its donor.
There was a lot of interest in the first two series, very little in the last two, the public tiring of these games after some of the contestants agreed to split their shares no matter how the contests resulted. Baltimore was in four of the series, Cleveland in two. New York in one and Boston in one.
Only once did a pennant winning team win a Temple Cup series, the Orioles turning the trick on their third attempt.
A short history of the series for the Temple Cup, these series not being for the championship of the world, which previously had been settled by the National League pennant pursuit:
Temple Cup Series
1894 — New York defeated the pennant winning Baltimores in four straight games, three played in Baltimore, one in New York. The series started October 4th and ended October 8th. The scores were 4 to 1 (twice), 9 to 6 and 16 to 3. Amos Rusie and Jouett Meekin did all the pitching for the Giants, each man winning two games. Baltimore was able to score only twice on the Hoosier Thunderbolt, regarded as one of the speediest pitchers ever in baseball.
1895 — The Orioles again missed the trophy, this time bowing to Pat Tebeau’s Cleveland Spiders, who took four out of the five games, four being played in Cleveland and one in Baltimore. The contests were played between October 2nd and 8th and Cleveland won by scores of 5 to 4, 7 to 2, 7 to 1 and 5 to 2. Cy Young won three games for the Ohioans, George (Nig) Cuppy one. Charles Esper, a left-hander, won the only game for the champion Birds, turning in a 5 to 0 effort.
1896 — Baltimore took revenge on the Clevelands, this time capturing four in a row from Tebeau’s men between October 2nd and 8th. Scores of the games: 7 to 1, 7 to 2, 6 to 2 and 5 to 0. The first three contests were played in Baltimore, the last combat was staged in Cleveland. Baltimore’s pitching was divided by Bill Hoffer and Joe Corbett, while the Cleveland hurling was looked after by George Cuppy (two games), and Cy Young and Rhody Wallace (each one game).
1897 — Hanlon’s Hustlers won the trophy for the second successive time in what was destined to be the last Temple Cup series, the defeated team being Boston. The Orioles lost the first contest, which was played in Baltimore on October 4th, by a score of 13 to 12, and then won the next four games, played in Boston on October 5, 6, 9 and 11, by scores of 13 to 11, 8 to 3, 12 to 11 and 9 to 3. Jerry Nops, Joe Corbett and Bill Hoffer did the pitching for the Marylanders, Charley Nichols. Charley Hickman and Fred Klobedanz for the Massachusetts combination….
In the fall of 1900 the pennant winning Brooklyns and the second place Pittsburghs played a three game series for a cup offered by a Smoky City newspaper, but the scribes did not turn out in droves for this set of combats and neither did the populace.
The National League and American League were bitter enemies in 1901 and 1902 and the question as to which of the pennant winners was the best remained undecided these two seasons.
In 1903 Boston, representing the American League, and Pittsburgh, representing the National, met to determine the championship of the world, the series being under the jurisdiction of the two clubs interested more than the two leagues interested. Eight contests were played — five in the Hub, three in Stogieville — between October 1st and 12th. The Red Sox, managed by Jimmy Collins, generally conceded to be the best third baseman of all time and now a resident of Buffalo and president of an amateur league there, took the Pirates into camp, five games to three. The Pennsylvanians won three of the first four engagements, but the Plymouth Rocks recovered their nerve and took the last four, shutting out Barney’s Buccaneers in the final frolic, when Big Bill Dinneen (William Henry Dinneen, American League umpire now) opposed Charles Louis Phillippe on the rubber.
In this series Deacon Phillippe was the mainstay of the National Leaguers, being on the rubber in all three of their victories and conquering Cy Young once, Tom Hughes 1, once, and Bill Dinneen once. Dinneen won three games for the Red Sox and Young two, the present American League umpire scoring a pair of shutouts. The scores of the Pittsburgh victories were 7 to 3, 4 to 2 and 7 to 4, while Boston won by margins of 3 to 0, 11 to 2, 6 to 3, 7 to 3 and 3 to 0. Pittsburgh, in a final effort to save the day, pitted Phillippe against Dinneen in what turned out to be the final game of the series. Dinneen outpitched Phillippe, confining the Pirates to four safeties and winding up the game by fanning Hans Wagner, another player who deserves a place on the greatest team of all time….
There was no World’s Series in 1904, when the Giants and Red Sox won the pennant of their respective leagues, owner John T. Brush of the New York National League club insisting that such a series should be under National Commission rules and drawing up a set of rules later.
These rules still obtain. Naturally there have been changes in them, but the main scheme of the World’s Series today remains John T. Brush’s.
Interest Becomes General
Once the World’s Series came under the jurisdiction of the National Commission, interest in the games became general and these games became fashionable, attracting people who only previously knew of the pastime by reading of it. In some ways the series has become a little too fashionable, for the fan who goes regularly to championship games has quite a time obtaining tickets to the classical contests.
The Original World Series was originally published in Our Game on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.