Wagner won his seventh NL championship in 1909 (he added an eighth and last title two years later), hitting .339. Howie Camnitz and Vic Willis won 25 and 22 games, respectively, for the Pirates and Lefty Leifield posted 19 victories.
Detroit won its third straight AL flag in 1909, paced by the hitting of Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford and the pitching of George Mullin, Ed Willett and Ed Summers. Cobb won his third straight AL batting title with a .377 mark (he finished his career with 11 titles), and Crawford hit .314. Mullin (29), Willett (22) and Summers (19) combined for 70 victories.
None of the Pirates’ “big three” pitchers won a game in the Series, and only one of Detroit’s standouts, Mullin, was victorious. Mullin won twice, 5-0 in Game 4 and 5-4 in Game 6.
While the Tigers solved Camnitz, Willis and Leifield, they couldn’t handle rookie Babe Adams — and that tilted the Series in Pittsburgh’s direction. Adams, who compiled a 12-3 record for the Pirates in 1909, drew the starting assignment in Game 1 and responded with a six-hitter.
Manager Fred Clarke got the Pirates rolling with a game-tying home run in the fourth inning and the Pirates went on to win, 4-1.
Detroit’s three-run outburst in the third inning of Game 2 — an uprising spiced by Cobb’s steal of home — paved the way for a Series-squaring 7-2 Tiger victory. Pittsburgh regained the lead, though, with an 8-6 decision that featured Wagner’s three hits, three RBIs and three stolen bases.
Mullin brought the Tigers back the next day, pitching a five-hit shutout and striking out 10 Pirates.
The victory-swapping pattern continued unabated. In Game 5, Adams allowed only six hits — Crawford touched him for a single, double and home run — and Clarke hammered a tie-breaking three-run homer as Pittsburgh prevailed, 8-4. But the resilient Tigers found themselves back in business the next afternoon when Mullin, after being roughed up for three first-inning runs, surrendered only one more and wound up with a seven-hit victory.
With the Series going down to a climactic seventh game — this was the first fall classic to go the limit — Pittsburgh’s Clarke went with Adams as his pitcher, while Detroit Manager Hugh Jennings decided on Bill Donovan, a complete-game winner in Game 2.
Donovan, known as Wild Bill, was just that. After hitting the first batter, Bobby Byrne, with a pitch, he proceeded to walk six batters in the first two innings. After three innings, Donovan was gone and Adams was holding a 2-0 lead.
Pittsburgh extended its advantage to 4-0 in the fourth when Dots Miller singled with the bases loaded and blew the game open in the sixth when Wagner tripled home two runs and scored on an error. Adams continued to cruise, and he went on to nail down a six-hit, 8-0 victory that gave the Pirates their first World Series championship.
Wagner led the Pirates with a .333 mark and drove in seven runs. He also accounted for six of Pittsburgh’s 18 stolen bases. Clarke, despite batting only .211, also totaled seven RBIs and, in a one-for-the-book performance, drew four walks in Game 7 (he played from start to finish, going O-for-O officially at the plate).
Cobb, appearing in what would be his last Series although he would be an active player through 1928, had his second sub-par classic out of three. He batted only .231 but led Detroit in RBIs with six. Second baseman Jim Delahanty’s .346 average led the Tigers.
This article was originally published on TSN
Game Recaps from Retrosheet
1909 World Series Stories
The 1909 Post-Season Games
World Series: Pittsburgh Pirates (4) defeated Detroit Tigers (3)
World Series Game 1 Played on Friday, October 8, 1909 (D) at Forbes Field
DET A 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 6 4 PIT N 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 x - 4 5 0
BOX+PBP WP: Adams (1-0) LP: Mullin (0-1) HR: Clarke (1)
World Series Game 2 Played on Saturday, October 9, 1909 (D) at Forbes Field
DET A 0 2 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 - 7 9 2 PIT N 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 2 5 1
BOX+PBP WP: Donovan (1-0) LP: Camnitz (0-1)
World Series Game 3 Played on Monday, October 11, 1909 (D) at Bennett Park
PIT N 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 - 8 10 2 DET A 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 2 - 6 11 5
BOX+PBP WP: Maddox (1-0) LP: Summers (0-1)
World Series Game 4 Played on Tuesday, October 12, 1909 (D) at Bennett Park
PIT N 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 5 6 DET A 0 2 0 3 0 0 0 0 x - 5 8 0
BOX+PBP WP: Mullin (1-1) LP: Leifield (0-1)
World Series Game 5 Played on Wednesday, October 13, 1909 (D) at Forbes Field
DET A 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 - 4 6 1 PIT N 1 1 1 0 0 0 4 1 x - 8 10 2
BOX+PBP WP: Adams (2-0) LP: Summers (0-2) HR: D. Jones (1), Crawford (1), Clarke (2)
World Series Game 6 Played on Thursday, October 14, 1909 (D) at Bennett Park
PIT N 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 4 8 1 DET A 1 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 x - 5 10 2
BOX+PBP WP: Mullin (2-1) LP: Willis (0-1)
World Series Game 7 Played on Saturday, October 16, 1909 (D) at Bennett Park
PIT N 0 2 0 2 0 3 0 1 0 - 8 7 0 DET A 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 6 3
BOX+PBP WP: Adams (3-0) LP: Donovan (1-1)
