From: jwc@netxcom.netx.com (Jeff Comer)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: 1904 world series, or lack thereof
Date: 30 Sep 92 17:53:13 GMT
Organization: The Chaos Bobs

RVESTERM@vma.cc.nd.edu writes:
|i've been continuing playing with my franklin baseball encyclopedia.  one
|of the features that it has is the result of all the world series.  so i
|go to the first world series, 1903, and it says, "RED SOX (AL) DEFEATED
|PIRATES (NL), 5-3".  i then hit the "next" key to bring it to 1904, and
|it says, "GIANTS (NL) REFUSED TO PLAY RED SOX (NL)".
|
|what's the scoop?

At the turn of the century, the AL was an upstart league trying to gain 
recognition from the established powers, namely the NL. AL president Byron 
Johnson aspired to return to a dual-league structure, with the AL being a 
partner to the NL. But the NL would have none of it. So Johnson, attempting 
to pre-empt the NL, started warring with the NL by drafting some of its 
players, a task made easy when the NL contracted to 8 clubs in 1899.

Johnson, and accomplices Connie Mack and Charles Comiskey, snapped up the
surplus players. Comiskey moved to Chicago, where he went head-to-head
with the Cubs. With the White Stockings' success in the young AL, Johnson
proclaimed the AL to be a major league, which only further antagonised the
NL. So began the American League war, with AL teams moving into cities
recently vacated by the contracting NL. The teams were made up mostly of
former NL players, over 100 of them in 1901 alone. Among them were Cy
Young and Clark Griffith. 

Meanwhile, over in the NL, they were operating without a president. There
was an embittered battle over the choice of president, which ended in a
draw. In 1902 the NL created a temporary Control Commission to run the
show. NY Giants owner Freedman sold his interests in the club, on the
condition that one of his cronies be allowed to start a NY AL franchise
in 1903.

So it's not surprising that there was a lot of distrust between the two
leagues. The dispute was finally settled when the war-weary NL decided to
sure the upstart and highly successful AL for peace. Thus was created the
National Agreement of 1903, which decreed that the AL and NL would operate
as separate but equal leagues, bound by common rules, defined by mutually
exclusive franchise territories and playing contracts. As part of this
agreement, the Baltimore Orioles were moved to New York to become the
Highlanders and later the Yankees.

It was not the first challenge to the National League, nor would it be the
last, but it was certainly the most successful.

The first WS was born out of a challenge by Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss 
to the Boston Pilgrims, not the Red Sox. Cy Young went 2-1 in the series 
and posted an ERA of 1.85 in 34 innings. The following year, the Giants' 
manager, John McGraw, still weary from the interleague war, refused to 
play the AL champion of that year, again the Pilgrims. He felt that the 
Boston club were not worthy opponents. After that year, the WS had become 
incorporated into the National Agreement.

Most of this account has been adapted from Total Baseball, the History of
Major League Baseball, by David Q Voight. Sorry to go on for so long, but
on researching this, it's surprising to find how so very little things have
changed!

-JC