| 1914 World Series | ||||||||||
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 Baseball Magazine cover, 1914 | ||||||||||
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| Dates | October 9–13 | |||||||||
| Venue(s) | Shibe Park (Philadelphia) Fenway Park (Boston) | |||||||||
| Umpires | Bill Dinneen (AL), Bill Klem (NL), George Hildebrand (AL), Lord Byron (NL) | |||||||||
| Hall of Famers | Umpire: Bill Klem Braves: Johnny Evers Rabbit Maranville Athletics: Connie Mack (mgr.) Frank Baker Chief Bender Eddie Collins Herb Pennock Eddie Plank | |||||||||
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The 1914 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's 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 10+1⁄2 games.[1][2]: 84 The Braves' relatively unknown starting trio of pitchers, with a combined career record of 285–245, outperformed the Athletics vaunted rotation (929–654) in all four games.[3]: 30 Hank Gowdy hit .545 (6 of 11) with five extra-base hits and also drew five walks for Boston in the series and was the difference maker 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 (1915). Thus their home games in this Series were also at Fenway.
This was the first official four-game sweep in World Series history. The Cubs had defeated the Tigers four games to none in 1907, 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,[4] 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 two years, the A's posted the worst winning percentage in modern history (even worse than the 1962 New York Mets or the 2003 Detroit Tigers).
- ^ "Baseball History 1914: The Miracle Braves". ThisGreatGame.com. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
- ^ Overfield, Joseph M. (May 1961). "How Losing an Exhibition Sparked Miracle Braves". Baseball Digest. 20 (4). Evanston: Lakeside Publishing Company: 83–85. ISSN 0005-609X.
- ^ Vass, George (September 2001). "Down To The Wire; Six Greatest Stretch Runs For The Pennant". Baseball Digest. 60 (9). Evanston: Lakeside Publishing Company: 26–35. ISSN 0005-609X.
- ^ To Every Thing A Season. Princeton University Press. January 11, 1993. ISBN 9780691021041. Retrieved May 15, 2012.