Winning the 1907 and 1908 World Series made the Chicago Cubs the first team to win two of the Fall Classics.
In capturing the 2007 World Series, the Boston Red Sox became the first team to win two of the Fall Classics in the 21st century. Many of today's baseball observers would be astounded to know that the first team to win two of those championships in the 20th century was the current symbol of title-deprivation, the Chicago Cubs. Their chronic frustration constitutes one of baseball's great ironies.
The 1908 World Series, a rematch of the 1907 champion Cubs and the revenge-seeking Detroit Tigers, would make more history than any fan could imagine at the time. But its lack of palpable drama would see an all-time record low attendance of 6,210 by the fifth and final game in the Motor City.
With 99 victories in the regular season, the Cubs gained their third consecutive National League pennant. Lacking any conspicuous power in that dead-ball era, the Chicago club featured two twenty-game winners, Mordecai "Three Fingers" Brown (a career-high 29) and Ed Reulbach, and the fabled double-play combination of Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers (their only .300 hitter) , and player-manager Frank Chance.
The Tigers, by contrast, squeaked into their second straight American League title on the last day of the season with 90 wins. Their lineup included two .300 hitters in outfielders Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford, and a pitching staff headed by 24-game winner Ed summers and 18-game winner Bill Donovan. They were determined to improve on their 1907 efforts which had brought one tie game and four losses.
Early indications were that the Detroit club would achieve that goal. With Summers on the mound, they led by a run with one out in the ninth inning of the first game. But the Cubs came up with five runs on six consecutive hits to win, 10-6. Brown was the winner in relief.
Game 2 saw a fine pitching performance by Donovan frustrated by more Cub late-inning heroics. His bid for a shutout was buried under a home run by Tinker, the only one of the Series, which began a six-run rally.
The Tigers finally broke through in Game 3. George Mullin, a 17-game winner during the regular season, pitched a complete game seven-hitter to beat the Cubs, 8-3. But any hope that this first win in either of the Series would spark a comeback was quickly dashed. Future charter Hall of Famer Cobb's .368 batting was not enough to help his team score any more runs in the final two games.
It was Brown shutting the Tigers out, 3-0, on four hits and Orval Overall topping him with a 2-0 three-hitter to close out the Series. Frank chance was the Cubs' hitting leader with a .421 average.
With two victorious appearances in three consecutive World Series and the still-intact record for most regular-season wins (116 in 1906) to boot, the Chicago club had an indisputable claim to being the first baseball dynasty of the 20th century. That they would go at least the next 99 years without another world championship remains one of baseball's greatest ironies.
References:
Baseball-Almanac.com
Baseball-Reference.com
