1915 World Series
U.S. PresidentWoodrow Wilson throws out theceremonial first pitch, first for a president in a World Series.
Team (Wins) Managers Season Boston Red Sox (4) Bill Carrigan 101–50, .669, GA:2+1⁄2 Philadelphia Phillies (1) Pat Moran 90–62, .592, GA: 7
Dates	October 8–13
Venue(s)	National League Park (Philadelphia) Braves Field (Boston)
Umpires	Bill Klem (NL),Silk O'Loughlin (AL) Cy Rigler (NL),Billy Evans (AL)
Hall of Famers	Umpires: Bill Klem Billy Evans Red Sox: Harry Hooper Herb Pennock (DNP) Babe Ruth Tris Speaker Phillies: Grover Cleveland Alexander Dave Bancroft Eppa Rixey
World Series program
← 1914 World Series 1916 →

The1915World Series was the championship series inMajor League Baseball for the1915 season. The 12th edition of the World Series, it matched theAmerican League championBoston Red Sox against theNational League championPhiladelphia Phillies. The Red Sox won the Series four games to one. It was the last World Series to start on a Friday until the2022 World Series.^[1]

In their only World Series before1950, the Phillies won Game 1 before being swept the rest of the way. It was 65 years before the Phillies won their next Series game. The Red Sox pitching was so strong in the 1915 series that the youngBabe Ruth was not used on the mound and only made a single pinch-hitting appearance.

Arrangements for the Series were made on October 2, 1915, in a meeting of the team owners, league presidents and theNational Commission at theWaldorf-Astoria Hotel in midtown Manhattan, New York City. Red Sox ownerJoseph Lannin lost the coin toss for home field advantage, and Phillies owner William F. Baker chose to have the first two games of the Series in Philadelphia. The league presidents selected the umpires, and it was announced thatJ. G. Taylor Spink would be one of the official scorers.

One controversy surrounded the allocation of tickets to the Red Sox'Royal Rooters fan club. Each visiting team was allocated 200 tickets, but the Red Sox requested an additional 400 on behalf of their supporters. The Phillies' National League Park sat only 20,000, and their above-cited owner,William Baker, refused to allocate additional tickets for visiting fans. The matter was resolved by National Commission chairmanGarry Herrmann, who gave the Red Sox tickets from the Commission's own Series allocation.^[2]

The Phillies won Game 1 3–1, althoughThe New York Times reporterHugh Fullerton wrote of the future 300+ game-winning Hall of Famer, "[Grover Cleveland] Alexander pitched a bad game of ball. He had little or nothing" in his review of the game, headed "Nothing but luck saved the Phillies." TheTimes also reported that a crowd of 10,000 gathered in Manhattan'sTimes Square to view a real-time mechanical recreation of the game on a giant scoreboard sponsored by the newspaper.^[3]

The Phillies would not win another postseason game until1977, nor another World Series game until 1980. The Red Sox swept Games 2–5, all by one run, and by identical scores of 2–1 in Games 2–4.

In Game 2,Woodrow Wilson became the firstU.S. President to attend a World Series game, and first to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

This was the second straight year that a Boston team beat a Philadelphia team in the World Series after theBraves had swept theAthletics the year before.

Unlike the 1913 Series, where the home team won only one of the five games, home field was often very much an advantage in the 1915 October classic.Fenway Park, ironically the Braves' home field in their 1914 Series sweep of the A's whileBraves Field was still being built, had been the home of the Red Sox for four seasons and was fully functional in 1915; yet the Red Sox played their 1915 Series "home" games in the brand-newBraves Field to take advantage of its larger seating capacity. Beyond the added revenue, thelong ball was affected by this arrangement, as follows:

• In the top of the third inning of Game 3 at Boston, with two out, one run in and two runners in scoring position, Phillies' slugger "Cactus"Gavvy Cravath hit a line drive to deep left field which was caught for a harmless inning-ending out in the spacious Braves Field outfield. In Fenway or Philadelphia'sNational League Park, it might have been a home run or at least an extra-base hit which might have turned the Series around.
• The Phillies had packed some extra outfield seats into their already-small bandbox of a ball-field, shortening the distance from home to the outfield wall even more. This proved crucial in the decisive Game 5, in which Boston'sHarry Hooper twice homered over the moved-in center field fence andDuffy Lewis followed suit. In Braves Field, those would have been extra-base hits at best. Both of Hooper's hits, including the eventual game-winner in the top of the ninth, actually bounced over the fence and were home runs by the rules of that era although they would have been onlyground-rule doubles by present-day rules.

ALBoston Red Sox (4) vs. NLPhiladelphia Phillies (1)

Alexander scattered eight hits, winning 3–1, in giving the Phillies their only win of the series and their last until Game 1 of the1980 Series.

Rube Foster pitched a 3-hitter, allowing no walks, and retiring the last 10 Phillies he faced, and helped his own cause with the game-winning RBI single in the top of the ninth.

Dutch Leonard and Grover Cleveland Alexander engaged in a classic pitcher's duel, Leonard retiring the last 20 Phillies to face him, winning 2–1 on an RBI single by Duffy Lewis in the bottom of the 9th.

Ernie Shore held the Phillies scoreless until the eighth inning, winning 2–1, giving the Red Sox a 3–1 series lead.

The Red Sox won on three home runs by two of their outfielders, two cheapies by Harry Hooper (see above) and one by Duffy Lewis. Fred Luderus homered for the Phillies only home run of the series in the bottom of the fourth inning. Those were the only round-trippers in the entire Series, the first four games being pitchers' duels. The Phillies were held to a weak .182 team batting average in the 5-game set.

1915 World Series(4–1):Boston Red Sox (A.L.) overPhiladelphia Phillies (N.L.)

Note: GP=Games played; AB=At bats; R=Runs; H=Hits; 2B=Doubles; 3B=Triples; HR=Home runs; RBI=Runs batted in; BB=Walks; AVG=Batting average; OBP=On base percentage; SLG=Slugging percentage

Note: G=Games Played; GS=Games Started; IP=Innings Pitched; H=Hits; BB=Walks; R=Runs; ER=Earned Runs; SO=Strikeouts; W=Wins; L=Losses; SV=Saves; ERA=Earned Run Average

Note: GP=Games played; AB=At bats; R=Runs; H=Hits; 2B=Doubles; 3B=Triples; HR=Home runs; RBI=Runs batted in; BB=Walks; AVG=Batting average; OBP=On base percentage; SLG=Slugging percentage

Note: G=Games Played; GS=Games Started; IP=Innings Pitched; H=Hits; BB=Walks; R=Runs; ER=Earned Runs; SO=Strikeouts; W=Wins; L=Losses; SV=Saves; ERA=Earned Run Average

• 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. 57–60.ISBN 0-312-03960-3.
• Reichler, Joseph (1982).The Baseball Encyclopedia (5th ed.). Macmillan Publishing. p. 2123.ISBN 0-02-579010-2.

• 1915 World Series atWorldSeries.com viaMLB.com
• 1915 World Series atBaseball Almanac
• 1915 World Series atBaseball-Reference.com
• The 1915 Post-Season Games (box scores and play-by-play) atRetrosheet
• History of the World Series - 1915 atThe Sporting News. Archived fromthe original in May 2006.

• 1915 Major League Baseball season
• Boston Red Sox postseason
• Philadelphia Phillies postseason
• World Series
• Baseball competitions in Boston
• Baseball competitions in Philadelphia
• 1915 in sports in Massachusetts
• 1915 in sports in Pennsylvania
• 1910s in Boston
• 1910s in Philadelphia
• October 1915 sports events in the United States

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