Photos from the Vault

1915 World Series, Red Sox-Phillies

October 6, 1915

The World Series of 1915 pitted the Boston Red Sox against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Daily Telegram at the time had a funky news service that would provide coverage for national stories. The graphics tended toward at least one disembodied head and big captions. They tell you in journalism school that the headline should not steal the thunder of the lead sentence. It should be a unique piece of writing that invites the reader to take a look at the story. Guess that memo had not been sent yet in 1915.

The advance coverage on page six read (complete with typo):

Brains plus the Arm plus the Punch
These Are the Big Assets of the Phillies for the World Series

By Brown Holmes

Brains, the punch and the arm are three big Phil assets for the world series.
The brains are represented by Pat Moran manager. This is Moran’s first season as leader, but he has proven himself a baseball strategist.
He took a club that had been shot to pieces by Federal League raids, plugged a hole here and there and brought the team out in front where it remained through month after month of campaigning.
The punch is represented by Cactus Cravath, the heavy weight slugger. Cravath it is whc is close to a new record for home runs in a season.
The big fellow hits a ball as hard as Sam Crawford or anybody else in baseball. Many of his drives have fallen into the left field bleachers and over the right field fence of the Phil park and he will be aiming at these spots in the big battles for the world championship.
The arm belongs to Grover Alexander, who has won more games this season than any other pitcher in recent years with the exception of Smoky Joe Wood of the Boston Red Sox, who won thirty four several years ago. Alec is the big mound hope of the Phils against the American League Candidate for world honors.

The Phillies lost the series in five games.
The Federal League was a third competing baseball league that lived for two years. Players enjoyed a rise in salary as owners in the new league tried to hire players from the American and National Leagues. Both Boston and Philadelphia fielded two major league teams at the time. The Boston Braves and Philadelphia Athletics had squared off in the previous World Series. Boston won that series as well.

The Red Sox home games were played at Braves Field even though Fenway Park was open. The bigger gate at the cross town rival’s field made economic sense.

Babe Ruth made his first appearance in the World Series, as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning of the third game, His manager recognized his hitting talent even though at the time he was the youngest of of six pitchers on the staff. He had slugged 4 homers in 92 at bats that year during the regular season. Perhaps the kid has a future in the majors.

Elsewhere on the page, Ford announces cars priced from $390-640 but check the fine print. (No speedometer included in this year’s equipment, otherwise cars are fully equipped.)

My friends at the railroad say the automobile is just a fad. Too noisy and dusty to travel in comfort.