Feature Friday: The 1909 World Series Champions
From 1900 to 1908, the Pittsburgh Pirates had been one of the top teams in not just the National League but in all of Major League Baseball. During those nine seasons, the team had secured four NL Pennants and appeared in the first-ever World Series, where they fell to the Boston Americans five games to three. The one thing that still eluded the organization was a World Series trophy, and they were out to claim that prize during the 1909 season. Many of the same cast of characters returned for the Pirates, including manager and right fielder Fred Clarke and shortstop Honus Wagner. Both players had been a part of the team since that 1900 season and knew a thing or two about how to play winning baseball.
It was a new era of Pirates baseball as owner Barney Dreyfuss had a new ballpark constructed and the Pirates would move into Forbes Field on June 30th, 1909. The pitching staff looked pretty much the same as it had for the past couple of seasons with Vic Willis, Nick Maddox, Lefty Leifield, and Deacon Phillippe all returning to the team's starting rotation. The Pirates would set a new franchise record for wins that season finishing 110-42, good enough for six and a half games better than any other National League team. No matter where the team played they dominated going 56-21 at their home field and 54-21 on the road.
However, for as good as their season ended up, the Pirates got off to a slow start that season. The team went just 2-5 over their first seven games of the season and things weren't looking good from the get-go. However, the Pirates would turn things around for the end of April winning three of their last four games in the month to get their record to a more respectable 5-6 by months end. The offense had trouble getting going throughout the month leading to the Pirates' struggles. Honus Wagner (.333) and Billy Abstein (.304) were the only everyday players who had a batting average higher than .255 as the rest of the team would struggle to get going. Wagner had been consistent for the Pirates over the last ten seasons, but Abstein was a new edition to the team.
1909 was a rookie season of sorts for Abstein, as it was his first full season in a Pirates uniform, but not his first MLB season. He was with the Pirates in 1906, but appeared in just eight games that season and went 4-20 at the plate. He would be out of baseball for the next three seasons, before returning to the Pirates in 1909 as the starting first baseman. He would head to the American League the following season where he played one year for the St. Louis Browns before leaving Major League Baseball following the 1910 season.
However, as the calendar turned to May, the Pirates started heating up and rattled off eight wins in their next ten games to get their record up to 13-7. They would finish May with a winning record and ended up taking six of the eight series they would play during the month. They hit one of their biggest stretches of the month right at the end when they took two of three from the Chicago Cubs and swept a short two-game series with the St. Louis Browns to go 13 games over .500. Leading the team was the ace of the staff, Willis who went a perfect 5-0 during the month of May.
Willis was that veteran presence that the Pirates needed on the mound as he entered his 12th season of Major League Baseball. The 1909 season was the seventh time in his career that Willis had 20 or more wins as he finished 22-11 with a 2.24 ERA in 289.2 innings of work. The 1909 season was Willis's fourth season in a Pirates uniform and was his second-best of his career. After the 1909 season, Willis would play one more season in the Major Leagues before retiring after the 1910 season. He was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 1995 and is immortalized in Cooperstown.
June of 1909 was the Pirate's best month of the year as they went an impressive 19-3, with only one of those losses coming on the road. By the end of the month, the Pirates found themselves 6.5 games ahead of the next closest team with a record of 44-15 and they had all the momentum on their side. The Pirates offense had picked up from their early-season struggles as they now had three of their regular starters above .300. Honus Wagner was atop the leaderboard hitting .398 while manager and left fielder Fred Clarke was right behind him at .313. It was also a month of transition for the Pirates as they moved from Exposition Park to Forbes Field playing the first game on June 30th, 1909.
It was a game against the Chicago Cubs that the Pirates would end up losing 3-2. The Pirates trailed 1-0 right away and the score stayed that way until Dots Miller tied the game with an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh. However, the Cubs would score two runs in the top of the eighth and that was enough to put the Pirates away. Willis threw a complete game giving up the three earned runs on four hits while walking three and striking out five. Miller led the offense driving in both of his team's runs while going 2-4 at the plate.
After the celebration of the opening of Forbes Field, the Pirates got back to business over July and August and almost reached the 90 win mark before September. It was a combination of strong offense and defense that helped the Pirates succeed and the team played together as one. Of the 17 series they played over that two-month stretch, the Pirates won 11 of them and lost just one series while tying in five other series. September was another strong month for the Pirates and they were able yo stay under the forty loss mark until the final two days of September.
It was the New York Giants who eventually got the Pirates to the forty loss mark, as they took four of five from the Bucs in the final five games of September. The Pirates finished the regular season 3-2 against the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds and they were crowned the 1909 Champions of the National League. It was the fourth National League pennant for the Pirates in the decade and the second time that the Pirates would appear in the World Series. This time they would have to face the Champions of the American League the Detroit Tigers, who finished 1909 with a record of 98-64.
Not only was it a battle between the two best teams in the league, but two of the best players in the league as Honus Wagner (PIT) and Ty Cobb (DET) went head to head. Both players won the batting title in their respective leagues and were a big reason that their teams were in the World Series. When deciding who would start Game one for the Pirates, manager Fred Clarke ended up choosing rookie Babe Adams on a hunch. The move ended up working out as he led the team to a game one victory and the Pirates went ahead 1-0. After giving up a run in the first, Adams was perfect for the rest of the game and the Pirates ended up winning 4-1 to go-ahead 1-0.
The Tigers would score a come-from-behind victory in game two and the series would be tied as it shifted to Detroit. The Pirates would use a five-run first-inning offensive attack on their way to an 8-6 win and a 2-1 series lead. Wagner had three hits, three RBI, and there stolen bases in the game leading the offense and helping the Pirates regain the lead in the series. The series would go back and forth throughout, and the series was tied 3-3 as the teams went into Detroit for the final game. Clarke would turn to the man who started it all and had won two games in the series already, Babe Adams.
Detroit starter Hugh Jennings was horrible to start Game seven as he walked six batters in the first two innings and the Pirates were out to a 2-0 lead. That is all Adams would need as he tossed a complete-game six-hitter and the Pirates would win the game 8-0 claiming their first World Series victory. Adams would set the rookie record winning three games in the World Series, a record that still stands to this day. Honus Wagner led the offense hitting .333 with seven RBI and six stolen bases in the series. The 1909 World Series was a historic one and set some odd marks. It was the first World Series where one team one all the even games and the other won all the odd games and would be the only one until the 1997 Fall Classic. The other note was that a professional team from Pittsburgh and Detroit would not meet again in a championship game again until the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The 1909 World Series Championship out a ribbon on what was a great decade for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. It was a decade that saw them win four National League pennants and appear in two World Series, going 1-1. The 1900s were looking up for the team as they had a new ballpark and a championship on their belts. However, that would put a big target on their back as other teams would try to knock them off their perch. Join us next week on Feature Friday as we move to the 1910s to see how the Pirates would grow from their World Series win.
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