1908 National League

1908 in baseball
1908 National League
Japanese baseball
American League
Negro Leagues
<< 1907 1909 >>

The 1908 season of the National League was the thirty-third season of the league.

BR page

Season summary

The 1908 National League season has largely been distilled down to a single play, known colloquially as Merkle's Boner. The play occurred in the 9th inning on September 23rd, in a game between the New York Giants and Chicago Cubs, with the score tied at 1-1. There were runners on first and third base for the Giants in the bottom of the inning, with Moose McCormick on third, the 19-year-old rookie Fred Merkle on first base, and Al Bridwell batting. Bridwell hit a game-winning single into the outfield and the Giants left the field to celebrate as soon as McCormick crossed home plate, with Merkle not bothering to touch second base. This was an important game in a very tight pennant race that also involved a third team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the celebrations were understandably raucous, with fans invading the field. During the mayhem, the Cubs' Johnny Evers managed to recover a ball (no one is sure that it was the actual game ball) and step on the second base bag and appeal to umpire Hank O'Day, who declared Merkle to be out, the inning over and the game a tie since it was now impossible to resume play. National League President Harry Pulliam upheld O'Day's controversial decision. The game was re-played on October 8th, the Cubs won, and this proved to be the difference in their winning the pennant. Poor Merkle, who had done nothing except what every player up to that time had ever done on such a play, was unfairly blamed for the loss.

The dramatic events of September 23rd were set up by an earlier game, this one between the Cubs and Pirates on September 4th. In this game, it was the Pirates who won, in the bottom of the 10th, when Chief Wilson hit the game-winning single, scoring Fred Clarke from third base, with Warren Gill not bothering to touch second base. Evers had tried to get the umpires' attention to the fact Gill had not touched second base, but O'Day, who was also the umpire that day, had ignored him. The Cubs filed a protest, but Pulliam failed to accept it. However, O'Day reflected about the Cubs' argument, found it logical, and vowed to accept such an appeal were such a play to re-occur. And as faith would have it, not only did the play re-occur, but it did in the most dramatic circumstances possible.

The replayed game of October 8th was made necessary by an extraordinary finish, without which Merkle's play would have become only a historical footnote. The Giants were beaten three times in the span of five days down the stretch by the Philadelphia Phillies and rookie pitcher Harry Coveleski, who earned the nickname "The Giant Killer" for his feat. On October 3rd, the Pirates and Cubs faced off in their final game of the season, with the Pirates in position to win the pennant outright had they won the game. But Mordecai Brown earned his 28th win of the season for the Cubbies, defeating the Bucs, 5-2, to go in front by half a game while awaiting the results of a three-game series between the Giants and the Boston Doves. The Giants swept all three games to move into a tie with the Cubs, turning the make-up game into a decisive contest. Christy Mathewson, with 37 wins, faced off against Jack Pfiester in the game, but Pfiester did not make it through the 1st inning, with Brown taking over for him and pitching the remainder of the game. The Cubs ended up on top, 4-2, winning the pennant.

The Cubs went on to face the Detroit Tigers, winners of an equally dramatic pennant race over in the American League, and easily won the World Series, four games to one, which would turn out to be their final championship for over a century, until 2016 to be precise.

Standings

Bold indicates league champion, Italics indicates World Series champion

Rank	Team	G	W	L	T	WPCT	GB	RS (RS/G)	RA (RA/G)	AVG	OBP	SLG	ERA	FPCT
1	Chicago Cubs	158	99	55	4	.627	-.-	624 (3.95)	461 (2.92)	0.249	0.306	0.321	2.14	0.969
2	Pittsburgh Pirates	155	98	56	1	.632	1.0	585 (3.77)	469 (3.03)	0.247	0.304	0.332	2.12	0.964
3	New York Giants	157	98	56	3	.624	1.0	652 (4.15)	456 (2.90)	0.267	0.333	0.333	2.14	0.961
4	Philadelphia Phillies	155	83	71	1	.535	16.0	504 (3.25)	445 (2.87)	0.244	0.291	0.316	2.10	0.963
5	Cincinnati Reds	155	73	81	1	.471	26.0	489 (3.15)	544 (3.51)	0.227	0.282	0.294	2.37	0.959
6	Boston Doves	156	63	91	2	.404	36.0	537 (3.44)	622 (3.99)	0.239	0.296	0.293	2.79	0.962
7	Brooklyn Superbas	154	53	101	0	.344	46.0	377 (2.45)	516 (3.35)	0.213	0.262	0.277	2.47	0.961
8	St. Louis Cardinals	154	49	105	0	.318	50.0	371 (2.41)	626 (4.06)	0.223	0.265	0.283	2.64	0.946

League leaders

Bold indicates league record, Italics indicate all-time record

Batting

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Games Played	Art Devlin Joe Tinker	New York Giants Chicago Cubs	157
At Bats	Eddie Grant	Philadelphia Phillies	598
Runs Scored	Fred Tenney	New York Giants	101
Hits	Honus Wagner	Pittsburgh Pirates	201
Doubles	Honus Wagner	Pittsburgh Pirates	39
Triples	Honus Wagner	Pittsburgh Pirates	19
Home Runs	Tim Jordan	Brooklyn Superbas	12
Total Bases	Honus Wagner	Pittsburgh Pirates	308
Runs Batted In	Honus Wagner	Pittsburgh Pirates	109
Stolen Bases	Honus Wagner	Pittsburgh Pirates	53
Walks	Roger Bresnahan	New York Giants	83
Hit by Pitch	Dan McGann	Boston Doves	19
Sacrifice Hits	Otto Knabe	Philadelphia Phillies	42
Batting Average	Honus Wagner	Pittsburgh Pirates	0.354
On-Base Percentage	Honus Wagner	Pittsburgh Pirates	0.415
Slugging Percentage	Honus Wagner	Pittsburgh Pirates	0.542
On-Base plus Slugging	Honus Wagner	Pittsburgh Pirates	0.957
On-Base plus Slugging Plus	Honus Wagner	Pittsburgh Pirates	205

Pitching

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Wins	Christy Mathewson	New York Giants	37
Losses	Bugs Raymond	St. Louis Cardinals	25
Win-Loss Percentage	Ed Reulbach	Chicago Cubs	0.774
Appearances	Christy Mathewson	New York Giants	56
Games Started	Christy Mathewson	New York Giants	44
Complete Games	Christy Mathewson	New York Giants	34
Shutouts	Christy Mathewson	New York Giants	11
Games Finished	George Ferguson	Boston Doves	16
Saves	Mordecai Brown Christy Mathewson Joe McGinnity	Chicago Cubs New York Giants New York Giants	5
Innings Pitched	Christy Mathewson	New York Giants	390.2
Batters Faced	Christy Mathewson	New York Giants	1499
Hits Allowed	Christy Mathewson	New York Giants	285
Home Runs Allowed	Joe McGinnity	New York Giants	8
Base-on-Balls Allowed	Nap Rucker	Brooklyn Superbas	125
Hit Batsmen	Harry McIntire	Brooklyn Superbas	20
Strikeouts	Christy Mathewson	New York Giants	259
Wild Pitches	Bugs Raymond	St. Louis Cardinals	9
Balks	12 players tied		1
Runs Allowed	Gus Dorner	Boston Doves	120
Earned Runs Allowed	Patsy Flaherty	Boston Doves	88
Earned Run Average	Christy Mathewson	New York Giants	1.43
Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched	Christy Mathewson	New York Giants	0.837

Postseason

In the World Series, the National League champion Chicago Cubs defeated the American League's Detroit Tigers, 4 games to 1.

Umpires

• Bob Emslie
• Jim Johnstone
• Bill Klem
• Hank O'Day
• Brick Owens
• Cy Rigler
• Frank Rudderham

Further Reading

• Dave Anderson: More Than Merkle, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE, 2000.
• G.H. Fleming: The Unforgettable Season, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE, 2006 (originally published in 1981). ISBN 0803269226
• Cait Murphy: Crazy '08: How a cast of cranks, rogues, boneheads and magnates created the greatest year in baseball history, Smithsonian Books, Washington, DC, 2007.
• Tom Ruane: "A Retro-Review of the 1900s (the 1908 edition)", Retrosheet.org [1]
• Steve Steinberg: "1908's Forgotten Team: The Pittsburgh Pirates", Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Vol. 47, Nr. 2 (Fall 2018), pp. 103-111.
• Stew Thornley: "Regular Season Showdowns", Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Vol. 47, Nr. 1 (spring 2018), pp. 85-90.