1914 World Series
Baseball Magazine cover, 1914
Team (Wins) Managers Season Boston Braves (4) George Stallings 94–59, .614, GA:10+1⁄2 Philadelphia Athletics (0) Connie Mack 99–53, .651, GA:8+1⁄2
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
← 1913 World Series 1915 →

The1914 World Series was thechampionship series ofMajor League Baseball's1914 season. The 11th edition of the World Series, it was played between theAmerican League champion and defending World Series championPhiladelphia Athletics and theNational League championBoston Braves.

The "Miracle Braves" were in last place on July 4, then won theNational League pennant by10+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]: 30Hank Gowdy hit .545 (6 of 11) 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 fieldSouth End Grounds in August 1914, choosing to rent from theBoston Red Sox atFenway Park while awaiting construction ofBraves 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. TheChicago Cubs had defeated theDetroit Tigers four games to none in1907, 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 byBruce 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/ownerConnie Mack and thus did not play hard, and also noting the heavy wagering against Philadelphia placed by entertainerGeorge M. Cohan throughbookmakerSport Sullivan, who was also implicated in the1919 Black Sox scandal.Chief Bender andEddie Plank jumped to the rivalFederal League for the 1915 season. Mack unloaded most of his other high-priced stars soon after and, withintwo years, the A's posted the worst winning percentage in modern history (even worse than the1962 New York Mets and the2024 Chicago White Sox).

Because an AL team had won the last four World Series (the A's had represented the AL in three out of those four), 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^[5] 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?"

NLBoston Braves (4) vs. ALPhiladelphia Athletics (0)

Games 1 and 2: Shibe Park

Hustle-bustle at the Shibe ticket window

Glum A's await their fate in home dugout

Philly's finest, all prepared to ensure order

Boston fans in Philadelphia during Game 1

Games 3 and 4: Fenway Park

Work crews scurry to spiff up Fenway

Fenway, notBraves Field, for Boston games

Grooming the field for the Braves' sweep

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. CatcherHank 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, withButch Schmidt's steal of home the Braves' final run.

In Tom Meany's 1950 bookBaseball'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 LeaguePhillies' deserted home park, Baker Bowl (the NL site ofthe next World Series, which again featured Boston defeating Philadelphia, this time with theRed Sox beating the Phillies four games to one). 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 (with war clouds gathering in Europe asWorld War I was just beginning).

Bill James, Boston's other 26-game winner, hooked up against Philadelphia'sEddie Plank in a classic pitcher's duel. James allowed only three base runners in the first eight innings, picking off two of them in holding Philadelphia scoreless. Plank matched him until the ninth, whenAmos Strunk lostCharlie Deal's fly ball in the sun for a double. Deal then stole third, and scored on a two-out single byLes Mann. James walked two batters in the ninth, but gotEddie Murphy to ground into a game-ending double play to give Boston a 2–0 advantage in the series coming back home to Fenway.

Lefty Tyler of the Braves went up againstBullet Joe Bush in a 12-inning thriller.Frank "Home Run" Baker's two-out single in the tenth plated two runs to give the Athletics a 4–2 lead and a seeming victory to get them back in the series. ButHank Gowdy led off the bottom of the tenth with a home run, and the Braves then tied the game onJoe Connolly's sacrifice fly later in the inning. Game 2 winnerBill James, coming on in relief for Boston in the 11th, earned the win after Gowdy led off the bottom of the 12th with a double and pinch-runnerLes Mann scored when Bush threw wildly to third on Herbie Moran's bunt, giving the Braves a commanding 3–0 series lead.

Johnny Evers' two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the fifth broke a 1–1 tie and the collective backs of the heavily favored Athletics as the "Miracle Braves" completed their improbable sweep. Game 1 winnerDick Rudolph allowed only one base-runner after Evers' tie-breaking hit and struck out seven in notching his second win of the series. The powerful A's were held to a .172 team batting average and no home runs in the series.

1914 World Series(4–0):Boston Braves (N.L.) overPhiladelphia Athletics (A.L.)

• List of World Series sweeps

• Cohen, Richard M.; Neft, David S. (1990).The World Series: Complete Play-By-Play of Every Game, 1903–1989. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 52–56.ISBN 0-312-03960-3.
• Reichler, Joseph (1982).The Baseball Encyclopedia (5th ed.). Macmillan Publishing. p. 2122.ISBN 0-02-579010-2.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to1914 World Series.

• 1914 World Series atWorldSeries.com viaMLB.com
• 1914 World Series atBaseball Almanac
• 1914 World Series atBaseball-Reference.com
• The 1914 Post-Season Games (box scores and play-by-play) atRetrosheet
• History of the World Series - 1914 atThe Sporting News. Archived fromthe original in May 2006.

• 1914 Major League Baseball season
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