A Tale of Clashing Personalities: Why there was no World Series in 1904
All About Baseball with Byron Copley
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Show Notes
This episode examines in a fair amount of detail the reasons why I think that there was no World Series in 1904. The personalities who could have worked out an equitable solution — Byron Bancroft “Ban” Johnson, president of the fledgling American League, John T. Brush, owner of the National League’s New York Giants, and John McGraw, manager of the Giants — were simply too obstinate to negotiate. Instead, they waged a vicious verbal war in the newspapers during the summer and autumn of 1904: firing cocksure word salvos, rife with calumny, covered in vitriol, aimed squarely at their mutual hearts.
It was baseball theater at its finest; a passion performance of three men — who refused to play games to preserve (so they thought) their reputations, their pride, and their principles.
