1915 Red Sox Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:
1915 Boston Red Sox pitching Staff with Babe Ruth.
Check out this neat photo of the 1915 Red Sox pitching staff. See if you can get any names (besides Babe Ruth!) before looking at the player identifications below.
The 1915 Red Sox, managed by Bill Carrigan, won the American League pennant, finishing 101-50, (. 669), 2 1/2 games ahead of the Tigers. The Phillies, managed by Pat Moran, won the National League pennant going 90-62 (.592). Babe Ruth went 18-8 in 1915, with a 2.44 ERA. He also hit .315 in 92 at-bats, with 4 home runs and a .596 slugging percentage.
The Red Sox won the World Series, played from October 8-13, four games to one. They dropped the first game, and then swept the Phillies in the next four games. The Red Sox pitching was so strong in the 1915 series that the young Babe Ruth was not used on the mound and only made a single pinch-hitting appearance. The Phillies did not win another postseason game until 1977, nor another World Series game until 1980. In Game 2, Woodrow Wilson became the first U.S. President to attend a World Series game. Arrangements for the Series were made on October 2, 1915 in a meeting of the team owners, league presidents and the so-called National Commission at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in midtown Manhattan, New York City. Red Sox owner Joseph Lannin lost the coin toss for home field advantage, and Phillies owner William F. Baker chose to have the first two games of the Series in Philadelphia. The league presidents selected the umpires, and it was announced that J. G. Taylor Spink would be one of the official scorers.
The following year, 1916, Ruth went 23-12 and led the league with a 1.75 ERA, as the Red Sox won another pennant. He had a victory in the World Series and the Red Sox were again the World Champions, this time defeating the Brooklyn Robins.
Player Identifications:
L-R: Unidentified, Vean Gregg, Dutch Leonard, Carl Mays, Babe Ruth, Rube Foster, Smoky Joe Wood, Ernie Shore, Ray Collins, Ralph Comstock, Everett “Deacon” Scott.
Carl Mays was the pitcher who threw the ball that killed Ray Chapman in 1920. “Deacon” Scott on the far right was not a pitcher, he was the team’s shortstop.
Umpires: Bill Klem (NL), Silk O’Loughlin(AL), Cy Rigler (NL), Billy Evans(NL)
Hall –of-Famers in the 1915 World Series: Red Sox Harry Hooper, Herb Pennock, Babe Ruth, Tris Speaker; Phillies Grover Cleveland Alexander, Dave Bancroft, Eppa Rixey. Umpires Bill Klem and Billy Evans.
-Gary Livacari
Photo Credits: Colorizations by Don Stokes: https://www.facebook.com/Don-Stokes-Old-Time-Baseball-Colorizations-923346241033508/photos. All others from Google search
Information: Excerpts edited from the 1915 World Series Wikipedia page
Subscribe to my blog for automatic updates and Free Bonus Reports: “Memorable World Series Moments” and “Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide.”