1906 Philadelphia Athletics

1906 Philadelphia Athletics / Franchise: Oakland Athletics / BR Team Page

Record: 78-67, Finished 4th in American League (1906 AL)

Managed by Connie Mack

Ballpark: Columbia Park

History, Comments, Contributions

The 1906 Philadelphia Athletics made a run for the pennant during the first half of the season - until their excellent starting pitching completely collapsed. In early August, they were still in the middle of a tight four-team race as their top three starters, Rube Waddell, Chief Bender and Eddie Plank had combined to go 43-18. They only won a total of 6 games between them the rest of the wat, dooming the A's. Waddell injured the thumb on his pitching hand in July, Plank went down with a sore arm in August, and Bender was felled by rheumatism. If that wasn't enough, their four best hitters - Harry Davis, Topsy Hartsel, Danny Murphy and Socks Seybold all went into a slump during the final two months, with Murphy abandoning the team in early September. As a result, the A's scored the fewest runs in the league over the last two months. On September 22nd, they started a streak of 48 innings without scoring a run, finally breaking it on September 28th. It was the longest such streak in the majors until the 1968 Chicago Cubs went 49 1/3 innings without scoring a run.

Standings

American League	W	L	T	GB	Pct.
Chicago White Sox	93	58	3	--	.616
New York Highlanders	90	61	4	3	.596
Cleveland Naps	89	64	4	5	.582
Philadelphia Athletics	78	67	4	12	.538
St. Louis Browns	76	73	5	16	.510
Detroit Tigers	71	78	2	21	.477
Washington Senators	55	95	1	37½	.367
Boston Americans	49	105	1	45½	.318