Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Babe Adams earns his third win of the World Series

On October 16, 1909, Pittsburgh Pirates 27 year old rookie Babe Adams earns his third win of the World Series. Adams shuts out the Detroit Tigers, 8-0, to give the Pirates the World Championship. Adams also won Games 1 (4-1) and 5 (8-4), Pittsburgh wins its first Fall Classic in franchise history.

Tigers Starter Bill Donovan got off to a miserable start. He hit the first Pirate batter and went on to walk six in the first two innings. He was pulled after three with Adams confidently holding a 2–0 lead. the Pirates were lead by a balanced attack with 5 players collecting an RBI and 6 players scoring runs.

Honus Wagner hit .333, with seven RBI and six stolen bases. On the other side, Ty Cobb did not fare as well. Appearing in what would be his last Series (although he would remain active through 1928), Cobb batted only .231 although he did lead the Tigers, losers of their third Series in three years, with six RBI.

No two professional sports teams from Detroit and Pittsburgh would meet in a postseason game again until Game 1 of the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals between the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins.

It was the first time that one team won the odd-numbered games; the other, the even; it did not happen again until 1997.

Adams went 12-3 with a sparkling 1.11 ERA during the regular season…and he will go on to have several very good seasons for the Pirates and pitch until 1943. He will win 20 games twice and over his career win 58% of his starts with a 2.76 ERA, and a very respectable 118 ERA+.