1906WorldSeries
After a 116 win season, the Cubs were the favorites to win the world series. They led the league in batting, fielding, and pitching. They finished 20 games ahead of the second place New York Giants in the NL. Their opponents were the AL champions and crosstown rivals, the Chicago White Sox. The Sox had a team batting average of only .230, 32 points below the Cubs. In the series the "hitless wonders" hit only .198, but Cubs pitching gave up 20 earned runs, as the Sox gave up only 10. Sox pitchers also held the Cubs to a .196 batting average, with an ERA less than half of the Cubs ERA. Pitching really does win games.
Game one featured the Cubs' Three Finger Brown vs. Sox's Nick Altrock. Each gave up only 1 earned run and 4 hits, but the Sox won on Brown's error in the 7th inning.
The Cubs took game 2 by a score of 7-1 on a lousy pitching performance by Ed Reulbach. The southsiders took game 3, as Ed Walsh 2 hit the Cubs, striking out 12. The Cubs' Jack Pfiester also had a shutout going, but his only lasted for 8 innings after George Rohe hit a triple with the bases loaded. In game 4, Three Fingers pitched again shutting out the Sox evening it at 2 games apiece. The rest of the series was all White Sox.
In game 5 the Sox had 12 hits and 8 runs. And in game six the Sox gave old Three Fingers the beating he deserved with 14 hits and 8 runs capturing the first world seies title for the best team in baseball history, the Chicago White Sox!!!!!
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