The 1902 World Series

Yes, there was one — sort of

The 1902 World Series

There was an American League - National League postseason meeting at the end of the 1902 season.

I’m not kidding. Yes, it really did happen. Let’s dive right on in.

The earliest mention of a postseason series in 1902 comes from the beginning of September, from what I’ve been able to gather:

From The Baltimore Sun, September 2, 1902, page 6

I haven’t been able to find earlier sources indicating that a potential World Series might have been in the works. There certainly is more room for research on this subject.

Within a week, at least one Pittsburgh newspaper reported that the series was a sure thing:

From The Pittsburgh Press, September 7, 1902, page 20

Note that the Pirates had already clinched the National League pennant. They clinched the title on September 2nd, which remains to this day the earliest date a pennant was clinched.

Some books, such as Ronald T. Waldo’s book on the 1902 Pirates, mention this postseason series. To my understanding, most sources that mention the series take their information from Sporting Life, which picked up on the story and made it front page news around this time.

From Sporting Life, September 13, 1902, page 1

The initial plan was for a best-of-seven series. At some point in time this changed to a best-of-five series, with 4 games guaranteed to be played: two in Pittsburgh and two in Cleveland. A potential 5th game was planned for Cleveland.

From The Pittsburgh Post, October 1, 1902, page 8

The Pirates, of course, predicted that they wouldn’t need a fifth game.

From The Pittsburgh Post, October 5, 1902, page 12

These games were actually a really big deal in the Pittsburgh press. They’ve been ignored largely because baseball researchers have by and large not looked into day-by-day newspaper accounts, preferring instead to put their trust in the weekly papers like The Sporting News and Sporting Life — if they used original newspaper sources at all, that is.

From The Pittsburgh Post, October 7, 1902, page 8

The first game was played on October 7.

From The Pittsburgh Press, October 8, 1902, page 16

As you can see, the Pittsburgh press largely ignored what the American League did at bat. For contrast, here’s an account of the same game from Cleveland:

From The Plain Dealer, October 8, 1902, page 8

Game 2 was another tight one — and the Pirates prevailed again, leading to this headline in The Pittsburgh Gazette:

From The Pittsburgh Gazette, October 9, 1902, page 16

From The Pittsburgh Press, October 9, 1902, page 16

When the Pirates headed to Cleveland, they were apparently accompanied by a group of fans, though it’s not clear how many there were:

From The Pittsburgh Press, October 10, 1902, page 24

And the third game was an all time classic.

From The Pittsburgh Gazette, October 11, 1902, page 10

This 0-0 draw technically gave the Pirates a series win. The game would not be made up, as the American League All Stars had a strict barnstorming schedule to adhere to.

Game 4, in the end, was a bit anti-climactic.

From The Pittsburgh press, October 12, 1902, page 18

From The Plain Dealer, October 12, 1902, page 15

Interestingly, the press sentiment seemed to be that the Pirates were better off playing an all-star team than the Philadelphia Athletics:

From The Pittsburgh Press, October 13, 1902, page 10

There are a few other tidbits here that can help us in the “greatest team of all time” discussion:

• The Pirates won this series with only 2 pitchers. Tannehill had been released right before the series started, and Chesbro was released between games 2 and 3. Both played for the New York Highlanders in 1903.

• The Pirates only used 11 players in the 4 games — a feat that beats the postseason performances of the 1976 Cincinnati Reds and the 1905 New York Giants. Pittsburgh only used 2 pitchers and 2 catchers in addition to the other 7 regular starters. There is good reason to suspect that the Pirates simply had nobody else on the bench.

• The All-Americans only managed to score 4 runs in 4 games, 3 of which came in the top of the 9th of the first game.

• The All-Americans only had 23 hits in 4 games. Again, this is even more remarkable when you consider that the All-Americans were an all-star team that faced only 2 pitchers.