1908 Philadelphia Athletics season

1908 Philadelphia Athletics
League	American League
Ballpark	Columbia Park
City	Philadelphia
Record	68–85 (.444)
League place	6th
Owners	Benjamin Shibe, Tom Shibe, John Shibe, Connie Mack, Sam Jones, Frank Hough
Managers	Connie Mack

The 1908 Philadelphia Athletics season involved the A's finishing sixth in the American League with a record of 68 wins and 85 losses.

Preseason

1908 Philadelphia City Series

The Athletics played four games against the Philadelphia Phillies for the local championship in the pre-season city series. The Athletics defeated the Phillies 3 games to 1.

AL Philadelphia Athletics (3) vs. NL Philadelphia Phillies (1)

Game	Date	Score	Location	Time	Attendance
1	April 3, 1908	No Game - Cold	Philadelphia Ball Park	-	-
2	April 4, 1908	No Game - Cold	Columbia Park	-	-
3	April 6, 1908	Philadelphia Athletics – 5, Philadelphia Phillies – 0	Philadelphia Ball Park	1:45	9,108
4	April 7, 1908	Philadelphia Phillies – 6, Philadelphia Athletics – 7	Columbia Park	1:47	-
5	April 8, 1908	No Game - Rain	Philadelphia Ball Park	-	-
6	April 9, 1908	Philadelphia Phillies – 2, Philadelphia Athletics – 0	Columbia Park	1:42	5,246
7	April 10, 1908	No Game - Rain	Philadelphia Ball Park	-	-
8	April 11, 1908	Philadelphia Athletics – 5, Philadelphia Phillies – 0	Philadelphia Ball Park	1:45	10,953

The A's record against the Phillies was 21–20 all time after the 1908 series.

Regular season

Shoeless Joe Jackson made his major league debut with the Athletics at Columbia Park on August 25, 1908 in a 3-2 loss to Cleveland playing centerfield and batting fourth. Jackson had hit .346 in 1908 for the Class-D Carolina Association Greenville Spinners and his appearance was anticipated by the press and fans. Jackson came to bat with one out in the first with Topsy Hartsel on third and Eddie Collins on first to face Cleveland's Heinie Berger. "The youngster was given a kindly welcome by the fans and he acknowledged it by singling past Bradley, scoring Hartsel." Jackson would finish 1 for 4 in the game.

This is the only losing season in Athletics franchise history that was not part of consecutive losing seasons.

Season standings

American League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Detroit Tigers	90	63	.588	—	44‍–‍33	46‍–‍30
Cleveland Naps	90	64	.584	½	51‍–‍26	39‍–‍38
Chicago White Sox	88	64	.579	1½	51‍–‍25	37‍–‍39
St. Louis Browns	83	69	.546	6½	46‍–‍31	37‍–‍38
Boston Red Sox	75	79	.487	15½	37‍–‍40	38‍–‍39
Philadelphia Athletics	68	85	.444	22	46‍–‍30	22‍–‍55
Washington Senators	67	85	.441	22½	43‍–‍32	24‍–‍53
New York Highlanders	51	103	.331	39½	30‍–‍47	21‍–‍56

Record vs. opponents

1908 American League record Sources:
Team	BOS	CWS	CLE	DET	NYH	PHA	SLB	WSH
Boston	—	6–16–1	10–12	11–11	12–10	10–12	15–7	11–11
Chicago	16–6–1	—	8–14–1	9–13	16–6	13–9	11–10	15–6–2
Cleveland	12–10	14–8–1	—	13–9	16–6	16–6–1	11–11–1	8–14
Detroit	11–11	13–9	9–13	—	15–7	14–8–1	12–10	16–5
New York	10–12	6–16	6–16	7–15	—	8–14–1	5–17	9–13
Philadelphia	12–10	9–13	6–16–1	8–14–1	14–8–1	—	8–13–1	11–11
St. Louis	7–15	10–11	11–11–1	10–12	17–5	13–8–1	—	15–7–1
Washington	11–11	6–15–2	14–8	5–16	13–9	11–11	7–15–1	—

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 Schreckengost	71	207	46	.222	0	16
1B	Harry Davis	147	513	127	.248	5	62
2B	Eddie Collins	102	330	90	.273	1	40
SS	Simon Nicholls	150	550	119	.216	4	31
3B	Jimmy Collins	115	433	94	.217	0	30
OF	Topsy Hartsel	129	460	112	.243	4	29
OF	Rube Oldring	116	434	96	.221	1	39
OF	Danny Murphy	142	525	139	.265	4	66

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
Jack Coombs	78	220	56	.255	1	23
Doc Powers	62	172	31	.180	0	7
Jack Barry	40	135	30	.222	0	8
Socks Seybold	48	130	28	.215	0	3
Syd Smith	46	128	26	.203	1	10
Frank Manush	23	77	12	.156	0	0
Herbie Moran	19	59	9	.153	0	4
Scotty Barr	19	56	8	.143	0	1
Jack Lapp	13	35	5	.143	0	1
Amos Strunk	12	34	8	.235	0	0
Frank Baker	9	31	9	.290	0	2
Jack Fox	9	30	6	.200	0	0
Shag Shaughnessy	8	29	9	.310	0	1
Joe Jackson	5	23	3	.130	0	3
Bert Blue	6	18	3	.167	0	1
Ben Egan	2	6	1	.167	0	0

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
Rube Vickers	53	317.0	18	19	2.21	156
Eddie Plank	34	244.2	14	16	2.17	135
Jimmy Dygert	41	238.2	11	15	2.87	164
Jack Coombs	26	153.0	7	5	2.00	80
Chief Bender	18	138.2	8	9	1.75	85
Biff Schlitzer	24	131.0	6	8	3.16	57
Al Kellogg	3	17.0	0	2	5.82	8
Doc Martin	1	2.0	0	1	13.50	2

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
Nick Carter	14	60.2	2	5	2.97	17
Jack Flater	5	39.1	1	3	2.06	8
Harry Krause	4	21.0	1	1	2.57	10
Gus Salve	2	15.1	0	1	4.11	6

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
Bert Maxwell	4	0	0	0	11.08	7
Eddie Files	2	0	0	0	6.00	6

References

• 1908 Philadelphia Athletics team page at Baseball Reference
• 1908 Philadelphia Athletics team page at www.baseball-almanac.com