1907 Philadelphia Athletics season

1907 Philadelphia Athletics
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkColumbia Park
CityPhiladelphia
Record88–57 (.607)
League place2nd
OwnersBenjamin Shibe, Tom Shibe, John Shibe, Connie Mack, Sam Jones, Frank Hough
ManagersConnie Mack

The 1907 Philadelphia Athletics season involved the A's finishing second in the American League with a record of 88 wins and 57 losses.

Preseason

1907 Philadelphia City Series

AL Philadelphia Athletics (0) vs. NL Philadelphia Phillies (4)

Game Date Score Location Time Attendance 
1 April 3, 1907 Philadelphia Phillies – 1, Philadelphia Athletics – 0 Columbia Park 1:15 -[1] 
2 April 4, 1907 Philadelphia Athletics – 1, Philadelphia Phillies – 4 Philadelphia Ball Park 1:43 5,278[2] 
3 April 5, 1907 Philadelphia Phillies – 1, Philadelphia Athletics – 0 Columbia Park 1:40 3,172[3] 
4 April 6, 1907 Philadelphia Athletics – 5, Philadelphia Phillies – 9 Philadelphia Ball Park 1:45 5,145[4] 
5 April 8, 1907 No Game - Wet Grounds Columbia Park - -[5] 
6 April 9, 1907 No Game - Rain Philadelphia Ball Park - -[6]

The Phillies sweep dropped the Athletics to 18–19 against the Phillies all-time in the city series.

Regular season

The Athletics and Detroit Tigers vied for the pennant through the 1907 season. The Tigers came into Philadelphia for a three game series on September 27, 1907 in a virtual tie for first-place. Detroit took the first game 5-4 to move in front of an official attendance of 17,926, exceeding Columbia Park's capacity. Saturday's game was postponed by rain, and Pennsylvania Blue Laws precluded play on Sunday. A double-header was scheduled for Monday. Detroit's Bill Donovan had pitched a complete game in the Friday game and was slated to start both games of the double-header.

With a week left in the season, Athletics fans were eager to see the team capture the pennant. It was estimated that the team could have sold 50,000 tickets to the Monday double-header. With Columbia Park's limited capacity, an overflow crowd spilled into a roped-off area on the outfield grass. The gates were locked 30 minutes before game time with thousands of fans outside unable to gain admittance. Fans stormed the gates and climbed over the outside fence, with more than the official 24,127 seeing the game. The Philadelphia Inquirer would remark on the crowd, "Never before in the history of the national game has so great and remarkable a gathering of its enthusiastic followers been held anywhere." Fans scaled trolley and telegraph poles to watch the game. Local residents charged as much as $1 to $5 a person ($35 to $125 in 2025-dollars) to watch the game from windows. On the Twenty-ninth street side of the park, a fan in the grandstand lowered a rope up which fans scrambled from the street and into the park. Large men charged ten-cents to boost fans over the fence and into the park.[7] Down by six in the fifth, the Tigers came into the ninth down 8-6. Sam Crawford opened the ninth with a single off of future Hall of Fame Rube Waddell bringing 20-year year old Ty Cobb to the plate. Cobb crushed Waddell's pitch, clearing the right-field fence by fifty-feet and onto 29th Street for a game-tying homerun. The teams both scored in the eleventh and would battle to a 9-9 tie in 17-innings before darkness ended the game.[8] The Philadelphia Inquirer would call it "the most remarkable game ever played on the Athletic ground."[9] Reflecting on his career in 1930, Cobb would tell Grantland Rice, "The biggest thrill I ever got came in a game was against the Athletics in 1907 [on September 30]... The Athletics had us beaten, with Rube Waddell pitching. They were two runs ahead in the 9th inning, when I happened to hit a home run that tied the score. This game went 17 innings to a tie, and a few days later, we clinched our first pennant. You can understand what it meant for a 20-year-old country boy to hit a home run off the great Rube, in a pennant-winning game with two outs in the ninth."[10]

Season standings

American League
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Detroit Tigers 92 58 .613 — 50‍–‍27 42‍–‍31
Philadelphia Athletics 88 57 .607 1½ 50‍–‍20 38‍–‍37
Chicago White Sox 87 64 .576 5½ 48‍–‍29 39‍–‍35
Cleveland Naps 85 67 .559 8 46‍–‍31 39‍–‍36
New York Highlanders 70 78 .473 21 32‍–‍41 38‍–‍37
St. Louis Browns 69 83 .454 24 36‍–‍40 33‍–‍43
Boston Americans 59 90 .396 32½ 34‍–‍41 25‍–‍49
Washington Senators 49 102 .325 43½ 26‍–‍48 23‍–‍54

Record vs. opponents

1907 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team BOS CWS CLE DET NYH PHA SLB WSH
Boston — 10–11–3 8–13 6–16 8–12–1 8–14–2 10–12 9–12
Chicago 11–10–3 — 10–11–1 13–9–1 12–10 10–12–1 16–6 15–6
Cleveland 13–8 11–10–1 — 11–11–1 15–7 8–14 12–10–2 15–7–2
Detroit 16–6 9–13–1 11–11–1 — 13–8 11–8–1 14–8 18–4
New York 12–8–1 10–12 7–15 8–13 — 10–9–1 8–14–1 15–7–1
Philadelphia 14–8–2 12–10–1 14–8 8–11–1 9–10–1 — 14–6 17–4
St. Louis 12–10 6–16 10–12–2 8–14 14–8–1 6–14 — 13–9
Washington 12–9 6–15 7–15–2 4–18 7–15–1 4–17 9–13 —

Roster

1907 Philadelphia Athletics
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Ossee Schrecongost 101 356 97 .272 0 38
1B Harry Davis 149 582 155 .266 8 87
2B Danny Murphy 124 469 127 .271 2 57
SS Simon Nicholls 124 460 139 .302 0 23
3B Jimmy Collins 99 364 99 .272 0 35
OF Topsy Hartsel 143 507 142 .280 3 29
OF Rube Oldring 117 441 126 .286 1 40
OF Socks Seybold 147 564 153 .271 5 92

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Monte Cross 77 248 51 .206 0 18
Bris Lord 57 170 31 .182 1 11
Doc Powers 59 159 29 .182 0 9
John Knight 40 139 29 .209 0 12
Eddie Collins 14 23 8 .348 0 2
Claude Berry 8 19 4 .211 0 1

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Eddie Plank 43 343.2 24 16 2.20 183
Rube Waddell 44 284.2 19 13 2.15 232
Jimmy Dygert 42 261.2 21 8 2.34 151
Chief Bender 33 219.1 16 8 2.05 112
Jack Coombs 23 132.2 6 9 3.12 73
Charlie Fritz 1 3.0 0 0 3.00 1

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Bill Bartley 15 56.1 0 1 2.24 16
Rube Vickers 10 50.1 2 2 3.40 21

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
George Craig 2 0 0 0 10.80 0
Bris Lord 1 0 0 0 9.00 0
Sam Hope 1 0 0 0 0.00 0

References

  1. ^ "Phillies Defeat Athletics in First Game of Inter-Club Series". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. April 4, 1907. p. 13.
  2. ^ "Phillies Take Game By 4 to 1". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. April 5, 1907. p. 10.
  3. ^ "Phillies Take to Vickers' Curves". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. April 6, 1907. p. 10.
  4. ^ "Philies with Four Straight Victories Capture Series". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. April 7, 1907. p. 14b.
  5. ^ "Wet Grounds Too Much for Teams". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. April 9, 1907. p. 10.
  6. ^ "Here's Hoping for Fine Weather for the Opening of the Base Ball Season Tomorrow". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. April 10, 1907. p. 10.
  7. ^ "Darkness Stop Grand Struggle; Nearly Twenty-five Thousand Witness the Game From Inside and Thousands of Others Take It In From Neighboring Roofs". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. October 1, 1907. p. 1.
  8. ^ Belleville, Gary. "September 30, 1907: Ty Cobb and Bill Donovan lead Tigers to pivotal 17-inning tie with Athletics". sabr.org. Phoenix, Arizona: Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved November 5, 2025.
  9. ^ "Athletics Foozle it in the Seventh". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. October 1, 1907. p. 11.
  10. ^ "Film from Baseball's Past". Baseballspast.com. March 19, 1930. Retrieved November 8, 2013.
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