[CT Wolverine]

Metaphysical League Baseball (MLB)
1905 Season


The 1904 draft leading into the 1905 season was the most promising to date, with prospects such as Johnny Bench, Stephen Strasburg, Frank Tanana, Reggie Sanders, Max Carey, Pascual Perez, Chris Chambliss, Lou Whitaaker, Carl Crawford and Willie Davis.
The top 4 selections were:
• #1 SP Stephen Strasburg – Detroit Tigers
• #2 C Johnny Bench – New York Giants
• #3 LF Max Carey – Boston Beaneaters
• #4 SP Pascual Perez – Boston Americans

Beginning this season, the New York Giants will be profiled. The Giants were the first-ever MLB World Champions (1901), led by MVP CF Benny Kauff. The following season they finished in third place, as Kauff began a pattern of being injured often. In 1903 and 1904, the Giants really hit bottom, finishing dead last, with their 60-94 record in 1904 being their worst.

The 1904-1905 offseason began as a major rebuilding project: as the Giants:
• Fired Manager Joe Brown and replaced him with Ricky Hicks
• Selected Johnny Bench with the 2nd pick of the draft
• In Round 2, selected SP Monte Ward
• In Round 3, selected SP Gary Ryerson
• All would play a huge part in the 1905 Giants team.
• Traded the aging Benny Kauff (4-48-.256 in 1904) was traded for SS/2B Alexi Casilla and SS Doug Flynn. This allowed the move of Jimmy Wynn from SS to his natural position of LF and improved their infield defense tremendously.
• Traded 2B Joe Sewell and SP Dennis Tankersley to the St.Louis Browns for CF Dusty Cooke.

This left the Giants with an Opening Day lineup mixed with youth and veterans and a youthful but developing pitching staff:

C: Johnny Bench – 18 SP: Monte Ward – 22
1B: Babe Young – 21 SP: Early Wynn – 20
2B: Felix Milan – 31 SP: Jack Neagle – 22
3B: Al E Smith – 32 SP: Gary Ryerson – 22 (SP: Ernie Shore – 25 in AAA)
SS: Alexi Casilla – 28 MR: Rod Scurry – 24
LF: Jim Wynn – 20 MR: Clay Smith – 25
CF: Don Lock – 30
RF: Dusty Cooke – 29

The revitalized Giants started faster than anyone expected. By the end of May, they were 24-14, only 3 games behind the league-leading Phillies. Mote Ward was named the Rookie of the Month for May with a 6-1, 1.59 ERA in 7 starts, and stood 4th in the league in ERA at 1.68, while Gary Ryerson led the league with a 0.82 ERA.

By the end of June, the Giants were 41-23, and pulled with 1 ½ games of Philadelphia. Every starting pitcher had at least 10 wins, led by Ward with 14. Ward led the league in K’s and Ryerson continued to lead the league in ERA.

Spurred by their great start, the Giants engineered two deals early in July:
• Obtained SP/RP George Dumont – 18 (1-1-2, 2.00) from St.LN in return for Randy Elliott, Rob Nelson and Red NonnenKamp
• Obtained 3B/1B Scott Livingstone – 33 (0-14-.387 in 93 AB) from Cleveland in return for Jake Kafora and Justin Ruggiano

Shortly after the Dumont trade, Ryerson went on the DL for 15 days with elbow soreness and Dumont filled his rotation slot.

July saw the Giants slip back a bit, going 11-15, but their 56-40 record left them still only
4 ½ games back.

In August, the defending World Champion Pirates made a run and the Giants fell into 3rd, finishing the month at 71-49, still within striking distance, 5 games behind the league-leading Pirates.

The wheels finally came off in September. The Giants dropped 8 of the first 10 and fell 9 ½ games behind. Ernie Shore replaced Ryerson in the rotation. Then on 9/11, Johnny Bench fractured a finger and was lost for the remainder of the year. Bench’s first year stat line:
2-67-.254 in 481 AB, not bad for an 18-year-old! Finally, on 9/29, with 8 days remaining, SS Alexi Casilla (3-60-.279, 20 SB) tore an oblique and the Giants faded home.

The Giants finished 8 ½ games back in the end, at 85-69, but all-in-all the season was a success for a team that nobody thought would contend at all, let alone through the end of August. The club’s first three draft picks showed that they have promising futures in the majors, and each of the Giants trades paid dividends. The Giants finished second in the league in 4 offensive categories, which is something to build upon. Their pitching however, faded, finishing 5th in ERA, and the defense was 5th as well, so these areas need to be improved further if the Giants are to continue to move up.

As for the pennant races, the stretch runs in both leagues were tremendously exciting. The new real-time simulation feature was terrific to watch the final days unfold.

In the NL, as mentioned, the defending-champion Pirates overtook the Phillies in late August. The Phillies, however, fought back and caught Pittsburgh with 2 weeks remaining. After see-sawing back and forth, the teams were again tied with 3 games remaining. By way of schedule, Philadelphia went ½ game up with a victory, then both teams lost 2 in a row, allowing Philadelphila to clinch a tie with Pittsburgh to play 1 last game. The Pirates came through on a 4-0 win over the Reds and a 1-game playoff was scheduled for Philadelphia.

Neither club had their best pitchers available due to the stretch run. Pittsburgh threw Buddy Napier (18-18, 2.22), while Philadelphia countered with Nellie King (6-6, 2.25). Pittsburgh had won 14 of 22 during the season, but this day belonged to King and the Phillies. Taking an early lead on great hitting by Jack Heinzman (4-3-3, SB, scored all 3 runs), the Phillies held on for a 3-2 victory behind King (8-8-1-0-0-3) and the pen to dethrone the champs and move to the World Series for the first time).


In the American League, the defending-champion Chicago White Sox were never a factor. The St. Louis Browns jumped out to an early lead and were ahead by 6 games at the Al-Star break. By the middle of August, however, the Philadelphia Athletics had overtaken the Browns by 1 game. Again the Browns fought back, and the teams were tied with 3 games remaining. Philadelphia traveled to Washington where they lost their next two games, while St. Louis defeated their rival White Sox in their next game to clinch a tie for the title. With their backs to the wall, the Phillies won their final game over the Senators, but starting 2 hours later, the Browns easily finished off the White Sox, 9-2 to win their first AL title.

Five times in five years there would be new franchises in the World Series!
It was anyone’s guess who would win this one. The Browns (94-60) were given a slight advantage given their home-field advantage and an extra day’s rest due to the Phillies (94-61) one-game playoff for the NL title. The Phillies had the stronger offense and the Browns the better pitching:
• Game 1: St. Louis bats won the game, 5-4, for rookie SP John Skopec (22-15, 2.24), led by Harold Baines, 2-4, 2-run HR; Adolpho Phillips 4-4, RBI; Mickey Cochrane 3-3
• Game 2: St. Louis won 4-3 (12 inn). An exciting battle. Dennis Tankersley (19-6, 1.91) kept St. Louis in it for 11 solid innings. Then in the bottom of the 12th, star-of-the-game Adolpho Phillips (3-6, 2 3B, 2 R, RBI) smashed a 1-out 3B, and Hal Warnock grounded a game-winning single up the middle for the victory.
• Game 3: Philadelphia 3, St. Louis 0. Nellie King (7-6-1, 2.11) who came up big in the 1-game playoff vs the Pirates does it again with an 8-hit shutout.
• Game 4: St. Louis 3, Philadelphia as Skopec wins his 2nd and Phillips continues his hit hitting, going 2-5, RBI, R
• Game 5: St. Louis 7, Philadelphia 0. Tankersley with a masterful 6-hit shutout for his 2nd win and the World Series victory. Harold Baines went 2-4, HR, RBI, R
• Series MVP was Adolpho Phillips: 12-23-.522, 2B, 2 3B, 3 SB, 5 R, 3 RBi

Two major regular-season highlights to mention:
• Steve B Dunn (Phil A) set the MLB record consecutive-game hitting streak at 39 games!
• Bob Horner (22) (Cin) shattered his own single-season HR record (previously 11, set at the age of 19), by clobbering 14 HRs.

Other 1905 Single Season Records:

• Hits: Steve B Dunn, PhilA, 223
• Total Bases: Steve B Dunn, PhilA, 278
• Singles, Steve B Dunn, PhilA, 176
• Doubles: Steve B Dunn, PhilA, 41
• Saves: Rick Steirer, BosA, 10
• Games: Rick Steirer, BosA, 58
• Strikeouts: Juan Pizarro, St.L Cardinals, 327
• Opp Avg: Anibal Sanchez, Pit, .196
• Opp SLG: Anibal Sanchez, Pit, .259


League Awards

Outstanding Pitcher
• AL: Jim Scott, PhilA, 25-13, 2.11, 346 IP, 191 K
• NL: Ray Collins, Pit, 26-13, 1.86, 362.1 IP, 188 K, MLB record 16 consecutive wins

Outstanding Hitter
• AL: Cupid Childs, NY Highlanders, 3-87-.325, 197 H, .403 OBP, 107 Runs
• NL: Dustin Ackley, Phil Phillies, 3-97-.309, 182 H, 24 2B, 27 3B, .353 OBP, 78 Runs

Batting Leaders
AL: HR: Travis Hafner, St.L, 10; RBI: Lefty Marr, St.L, 92; Avg: Steve B Dunn, PhilA, .355;
SB Steve B Dunn, PhilA, 108
NL: HR: Bob Horner, Cin, 14; RBI: Dustin Ackley, PhilN, 97: Avg: Pete Browning, Cin, .342:
SB: Ward Miller, PhilN, 81

Pitching Leaders
AL: Wins: Jim Scott, PhilA, 25; Sv: Rick Steirer, BosA, 10; ERA: Chick Robitaille, PhilA, 1.84;
K: Frank Tanana, Cle, 206
NL: Wins: Ray Collins, Pit, Monte ward, NYG, 26; Sv: Brian Shouse, PhilN, 6; ERA, Gary Ryerson, NYG, 1.73;
K: Monte Ward, NYG, 239