1904 Pacific Coast League season

In its second season, the Pacific Coast League became a member of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues. Unlike the runaway that was the 1903 season, this season was much closer. Tacoma won the first half, and was winning the second half, with Los Angeles in second place. With one month left in the PCL season, and the major league season over, Jim Morley, the owner of the Los Angeles team, attempted to lure some major leaguers in a bid to catch Tacoma for the second half title. Morley offered contracts to Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner, Joe McGinnity and Frank Chance. Of those, only Chance ended up signing, and he played hard. Los Angeles ended up 1 game behind Tacoma for the second half title, but League president Eugene Bert ruled in favor of Los Angeles on a pending protest of an August 22nd game against Portland. With the loss thrown out, Tacoma and Los Angeles tied for the second half title. League rules stipulated that Tacoma was the league champion, but Morley wanted a playoff series to determine the champion. The League president declared the season was over, but was in favor of an unsanctioned playoff series between the two teams. The two teams agreed to a 10-game series, with Tacoma playing their home games in San Francisco, due to the early December weather.

Emil Frisk was the hitting star of the league. If there was a Most Valuable Player award at that time, he surely would have won it. Doc Newton lead all pitchers with 39 wins, one of five pitchers to win at least 30 games.

Frank Barber of San Francisco no-hit Oakland on July 13th for the only such game that season.

Final standings

	W	L	Pct.	GB	Manager	Affiliation
Tacoma Tigers	130	94	.580	--	Charlie Graham
Los Angeles Looloos	119	98	.548	7.5	Pop Dillon / Jud Smith / Tim Flood
Seattle Siwashes	115	105	.523	13	Parke Wilson / Russ Hall
Oakland Commuters	115	110	.511	15.5	Pete Lohman
San Francisco Seals	101	117	.463	26	Charlie Irwin
Portland Browns	80	136	.370	46	Bones Ely / Dan Dugdale / Ike Butler

Playoff: Tacoma 5 games, Los Angeles 4, one tie

League Leaders

Batting

• Batting Average Emil Frisk, Seattle, .337
• Runs Scored Emil Frisk, Seattle, 179
• Hits Emil Frisk, Seattle, 272
• Doubles Carlos Smith, Seattle, 52
• Triples Emil Frisk, Seattle, 14
• Home Runs Truck Eagan, Tacoma, 24

Pitching

• Wins Doc Newton, Los Angeles, 39
• Earned Run Average Doc Newton, Los Angeles, 1.73

References

• Dennis Snelling: The Greatest Minor League: A History of the Pacific Coast League, 1903-1957, 2012.

Related Sites

• BR page