Phillies 100 Years Ago: The Phillies Lose The 1915 World Series To Red Sox

October 11, 1915

World Series Game Three

Phillies @ Boston Red Sox

The scene of the grandest contest in professional baseball shifted north to Boston for Game Three, but in an ironic twist the Phillies were the club most familiar with the ballpark.  Due to the demand for World Series tickets, the Boston Braves graciously loaned Braves Field to their American League neighbors.  Fenway Park had a seating capacity of about 27,000 for the 1915, while the newly completely Braves Field was the first baseball stadium to hold more than 40,000 people.  In a second ironic twist, the previous World Series that saw the Braves take on the Philadelphia Athletics was played in Fenway Park while Braves Field was being built.  How about that?!  Well, it was a good thing the Red Sox procured Braves Field because 42,000 fans attended Game Three, the largest crowd ever to watch a baseball game.

Phillies 100 Year Ago: Phillies Make Simple Mistakes In Pitcher's Duel; Boston Evens Series 1-1

October 9, 1915

World Series Game Two

Phillies vs. Boston Red Sox

The National League fans in Philadelphia have always felt that their club was cursed.  From a pre-World Series article in the Evening Ledger: “The Phillies have always been hounded by various species of the genus ‘jinx.’”  There was the case of Charlie Ferguson, the absolute phenom pitcher that was to lead the lowly Phillies to their first pennant in 1888.  Ferguson’s had 24.0 pitching rWAR from 1885 to 1887, including a 10.7 during the 1886 season.  And that was just for pitching.  He also managed 6.1 rWAR at the plate during that stretch.  But, less than two weeks into the 1888 season, Ferguson died from typhoid fever at the age of twenty-five.  Since his death the jinxed Phillies developed a reputation as a club that shoots off to an early season lead only to lose steam towards the finish line before finally blowing the pennant escalating levels of futility. 

Phillies 100 Years Ago: Game One of the 1915 World Series

October 8, 1915

World Series Game 1

Phillies vs. Boston Red Sox

Finally!  Here we are!  Game One of the 1915 World Series!  It was a tough road for the Phillies, but they waded through all of the slumps and sketchy pitching (by everyone except Grover Cleveland Alexander, of course) and stayed atop the league to snatch the first pennant in the club’s history.  The situation wasn’t so certain on September 7 when the Phillies lost three games in a row to the second place Dodgers.  With the league lead trimmed to just one game, the Phillies went on a monumental run to sure up the title.  Starting September 8, Philadelphia ripped off seven wins in a row, sweeping the Giants and taking three of four from Pittsburgh.  In the week following the disaster in Brooklyn, the Phillies extended their lead to five games.  But they didn’t stop there!  Philadelphia won fourteen of their final twenty games, laying down a pace that the other contenders were unable to keep.  On September 28 the rival Dodgers hosted the Phils at Ebbets Field and were defeated, officially eliminating them from the National League race.  The very next day the pseudo-Miracle Braves played host to the NL leaders, needing to sweep the Phillies just to keep their heads above water.  But Alexander was on the mound that day and he would not be beat.  After a quick hour and thirty-five minutes game, Alexander blanked the Braves and the Phillies were National League Champions.

Phillies 100 Years Ago: Wacky Ninth Perfect For Gavvy's Crash

July 1, 1915

Phillies vs. Boston Braves

This morning, in 1863, Major General Henry Heth was ordered to move his division into the nearby town of Gettysburg, not, as the story often goes, to raid a supply of shoes for the Confederate army, but to perform a reconnaissance in force.  Southern forces bumped into what they thought was Pennsylvania militia the previous day but General Robert E. Lee, knowing that the Army of the Potomac was his general vicinity, wanted to make sure his army was not being snuck up on.  Heth’s orders were to determine the strength of the Union forces at Gettysburg but not to engage in a battle.  Well, Heth ran into a full division of Brigadier General John Buford’s dismounted cavalry on the outskirts of town, and before he knew it his division was engaged in the battle Lee hoped to avoid.  Buford’s men, vastly outnumber yet fighting from defenses made in preparation for an assault, held Heth’s division for most of the morning, allowing the I Corps time to reinforce his line.  All morning troops on both sides flooded to the fight and battled in an arch northwest of the town.  The undermanned Union line held on for most of the day, but the right flank proved untenable and broke under pressure from Major General Richard S. Ewell’s Corps.  The retreat through town was panicked, giving the Confederate troops the impression that they had once again routed the Union army, but, unbeknownst to anyone at the time, the fight was to last for two more days.  The fighting had ceased for the most part today and Union troops came into the line all night, forming the famous fishhook formation on Cemetery Ridge.  Today in 1915, Americans would have commemorated the 52^nd anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg with many of the troops that fought still alive.