July 6, 1904: The New York Giants Forfeit the World Series

John T. Brush: Civil War hero, baseball coward

July 6, 1904: The New York Giants forfeit the World Series. How is this possible, 3 months before the event in question would have begun?

The previous year, as part of the settlement of the "war" between the National League, founded in 1876, and the American League, founded in 1901, an agreement was made to stage a postseason series between each League's "Pennant" winner. This had previously been done between the winners of the Pennants in the NL and the American Association, from 1884 until 1891, after which the AA folded.

That earlier series had been called "the World's Championship Series," even though it involved only teams from the United States, and then no teams eligible for it were any further south than Washington, D.C., or further west than St. Louis. This would remain true in what would be called "Major League Baseball" until the 1950s, when teams began moving west, and then to the South in the 1960s, eventually adding two teams in Canada (but later moving one out).

The 1903 event became known by the shorter name "World Series." It was officials from the teams involved, the Boston Americans in the AL and the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NL, who met and agreed to the rules for the Series, not officials from the Leagues. And there was no agreement to do this after every season.

John T. Brush, owner of the NL's New York Giants, had been opposed to any peace with the AL. He had also used his influence to keep the AL from establishing a team in New York City. Once that failed, he thought he could push them out by convincing landowners to not sell land for a ballpark to the AL's New York Highlanders. This also failed, and he got even more bitter.

In Spring Training 1904, when asked if there would be exhibition games between the Giants and the Highlanders, and a postseason series should each team win its Pennant, he said, "There will never be a series."

On July 6, Sporting Life magazine published an issue with an interview of Brush, who repeated his claim that his team would not play the Highlanders "if each wins the pennant in its respective league." As the Giants ran away with the NL Pennant, their 1st in 15 years, and the Highlanders battled the defending World Champion Boston Americans for the AL Pennant down to the last day of the season, the call for the Giants to stand up and prove, on the field, who the best baseball team in the world really was got louder and louder.

Born in AuSable, New York, 40 miles south of the Canadian border, in 1845, the year the Knickerbocker Club wrote the first rules of baseball, Brush had served in the American Civil War, before becoming a department store tycoon in Indianapolis, and owner of 3 different teams in the NL: He owned the Indianapolis Hoosiers from 1887 to 1889, he bought the Cincinnati Reds in 1891, and then sold the Reds in 1902, in order to buy the Giants. He had proven his courage on the battlefield and in the boardroom. But, in baseball, he was a coward.

One man who had seemingly proven his courage on the ballfield was John McGraw, the Giants' manager, who had been a star 3rd baseman in the previous decade. A short man who tried to make up for it by taking on any man in any contest at any time, including physical fights when he felt like it, he became known as "The Little Napoleon," which he didn't mind. His tendency to fight got him another nickname: "Muggsy." That nickname, he hated.

McGraw was just 31 years old,

but his hair had already begun to go gray.

But as a member of the National League's Baltimore Orioles, he had been a part of 3 straight Pennant winners, in 1894, 1895 and 1896 -- and, each time, they had played the NL's 2nd-place team in a postseason series, for a trophy known as the Temple Cup, In 1894, the Orioles lost -- with retroactive irony, to the New York Giants. In 1895, they lost to the Cleveland Spiders. That the Orioles avenged the 1895 defeat by beating the Spiders for the Cup in 1896, and beat the Pennant-winning Boston Beaneaters for it in 1897, did not change the fact that the 1894 and 1895 losses still burned him up.

So on the issue of playing the AL Champions in a 1904 World Series, McGraw not only backed his boss Brush up, he doubled down: Having previously established a feud with AL co-founder and President Ban Johnson, he frequently belittled the AL. When the Giants beat the Reds, 7-5 at the Polo Grounds, to clinch the Pennant on September 22, 1904, McGraw said that his team was already the World Champions, because they were the champions of the "only real major league."

On October 4, Joseph Gordon, president of the Highlanders, sent Brush a letter by registered mail, so he would know whether it was received, challenging him to a postseason series in the event his team won the as-yet-undecided AL Pennant. There would be 3 games at the Polo Grounds, 3 at the Highlanders' Hilltop Park, and a coin flip would decide the site of a Game 7 should it be necessary. Brush received the letter, and, on October 6, made one more public announcement, refusing to play.

The AL race went down to the wire. The Americans and the Highlanders closed the season on October 10 with a doubleheader at Hilltop Park -- just 6 blocks up the street from the Polo Grounds. The Highlanders had to sweep in order to win the Pennant; otherwise, the Americans would win. The Americans won the opener, and clinched the Pennant. This became known as the Jack Chesbro Game, for which I have an entry.

The Giants claimed the World Championship. So did the Americans, and the public sided with them, because they were willing to prove it, head-to-head, and the Giants were not. There would be no head-to-head matchup between the Giants and the Americans, no pitching duel between the best pitcher in each League, Christy Mathewson and Cy Young.

It never occurred to Brush, McGraw, or anyone else that playing for the championship, and losing, would be more honorable than refusing to play. Then again, given that there would be 4 late-season disasters for the Giants over the next 20 years -- making public victims of Fred Merkle in 1908, Fred Snodgrass in 1912, Heinie Zimmerman in 1917 and Fred Lindstrom in 1924 -- I could be wrong about that.

Humiliated by the massive negative attention he had received, Brush caved in: In February 1905, he drew up rules, and submitted them to Johnson and NL President Harry Pulliam. The Presidents polled their team owners, who found the Brush rules acceptable, and they were adopted. The rules compelled the Pennant winners to participate, and governed the annual determination of sites, dates, ticket prices and division of receipts.

The Giants defended their Pennant in 1905, and made their point by beating the Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series, 4 games to 1. In spite of the successes of the franchises that have been known as the Boston Red Sox since 1908 and the San Francisco Giants since 1958, through the 2022 season, those 2 teams have met in the World Series only once, in 1912, with the Red Sox winning 4 games to 3, with Game 2 ending in a tie, called due to darkness, in the era before outdoor stadiums had permanent lights. John Brush, already in poor health, attended the games of that Series, which probably did him no favors. He died a month later, at the age of 67.

In 1991, Benton Stark published a book about the events, titled The Year They Called Off the World Series. The title became no longer unique in 1994, when Commissioner Bud Selig canceled the postseason, to spite the players' union for their strike.

Today, the Red Sox hang championship flags outside the front entrance of Fenway Park, and have notations for these titles on the press box behind home plate. While they treat 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018 as seasons in which they won "World Championships," they treat 1904 as merely an "American League Championship." If they claimed it was a "World Championship," few people would object. After all, unlike 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018, there was no accusation of cheating for it.

Note the reverse of colors for the 1904 banner.

In contrast, when the Polo Grounds Towers housing complex opened on the site of that ballpark in 1966, a plaque was placed at one of the building entrances, roughly at the location of home plate. It claims that the Giants were World Champions 6 times: 1904, 1905, 1921, 1922, 1933 and 1954. It includes 1904, even though they did not meet the Boston Americans in a World Series.

It does not, however, claim 1888 and 1889, when they did win a postseason series, because those were won before they moved to that plot of land.

*

July 6, 1904 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 12-3 at National League Park (later renamed Baker Bowl) in Philadelphia. Christy Mathewson went 6 shutout innings, but then McGraw put Red Ames in, and he allowed 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th, with the Giants already ahead, 12-0.

* The Brooklyn Superbas beat the Boston Beaneaters, 3-2 at the South End Grounds in Boston. The Superbas became the Dodgers in 1911, and the Beaneaters became the Braves in 1912.

* The New York Highlanders beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 7-1 at Hilltop Park. Tom Hughes outpitched Eddie Plank. Willie Keeler, normally one of the best hitters in the game, went 0-for-2 with a walk. The Highlanders became the Yankees in 1913.

* The Boston Americans beat the Washington Senators, 3-0 at American League Park in Washington. Cy Young pitched a 7-hit shutout.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner went 1-for-4 for the Pirates.

* The St. Louis Cardinals swept a doubleheader from the Cincinnati Reds, 3-0 and 6-3 at Robison Field in St. Louis. Jack Taylor pitched a 3-hit shutout in the opener. Kid Nichols went the distance in the nightcap.

* And the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Naps (who became the Indians in 1915 and the Guardians in 2022), the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Browns (who became the Baltimore Orioles in 1954) were not scheduled.