1914 World Series
The 1914 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's 1914 [Major League Baseball season|1914 season]. The 11th edition of the World Series, it was played between the American League champion and defending World Series champion Philadelphia Athletics and the National League champion Boston Braves.
The "Miracle Braves" were in last place on July 4, then won the National League pennant by games. The Braves' relatively unknown starting trio of pitchers, with a combined career record of 285–245, outperformed the Athletics' vaunted rotation in all four games. Hank Gowdy hit.545 with five extra-base hits and also drew five walks for Boston in the series and made the difference in Games 1 and 3.
Adding to their supposed disadvantages, the Braves arguably lacked a notable home-field advantage. They had abandoned their 43-year-old home field South End Grounds in August 1914, choosing to rent from the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park while awaiting construction of Braves Field. Thus their home games in this Series were also at Fenway.
This was the first official four-game sweep in World Series history. The Chicago Cubs had defeated the Detroit Tigers four games to none in, but Game 1 had ended in a tie before the Cubs won the next four in a row.
At least one publication, To Every Thing a Season by Bruce Kuklick, has suggested other factors that might have contributed to the sweep, noting that some of the A's may have been irritated at the penny-pinching ways of their manager/owner Connie Mack and thus did not play hard, and also noting the heavy wagering against Philadelphia placed by entertainer George M. Cohan through bookmaker Sport Sullivan, who was also implicated in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Chief Bender and Eddie Plank jumped to the rival Federal League for the 1915 season. Mack unloaded most of his other high-priced stars soon after and, within 1916 [Philadelphia Athletics season|two years], the A's posted the worst winning percentage in modern history.
Background
Because an AL team had won the last four World Series, the A's were heavily favored. That the Braves had been in last place in July before coming back to win the pennant contributed to the perception that the AL was simply superior to the NL. The A's roster boasted five future Hall of Famers and many agreed they were the better team on paper. A story told about Connie Mack during the 1914 season reflects this attitude among the A's that the Braves would be pushovers. That year, Mack gave star pitcher Chief Bender the week off and told him to scout the Braves personally. Instead, Bender took a vacation. When asked to defend his actions, he replied: "Why should I check out a bunch of bush league hitters?"Matchups
Game 1
After having won 26 games, Dick Rudolph scattered five hits while striking out eight as the Braves won the opener in convincing fashion against the Athletics' ace, Chief Bender. Catcher Hank Gowdy had a single, double and triple as well as a walk in leading Boston's offensive attack. He was also on the back end of a double steal in the eighth inning, with Butch Schmidt's steal of home the Braves' final run.In Tom Meany's 1950 book Baseball's Greatest Teams, with one chapter discussing what the author thought each of the then 16 major league teams' single most outstanding season was, the chapter on the Boston Braves was naturally on their one world championship year, 1914. Meany recalled that manager Stallings and the Braves showed utter contempt for Connie Mack's heavily favored A's by spurning the Shibe Park visiting clubhouse for the one in the National League Phillies' deserted home park, Baker Bowl. Meany may also have been the source for the sensational sidelight that Stallings' motive for this may have been the rumor that the A's may have sabotaged the Shibe Park visiting clubhouse.