The Pittsburgh Pirates won their second straight pennant this year, winning 103 games. Their offense was tremendous, scoring more than 200 runs more than the league average. The pitching staff was very good, too; it included Jack Chesbro, who led the league in wins. Add it all together, and the Pirates finished a whopping 27 games ahead of the second-place Brooklyn Dodgers.

         Pittsburgh's trio of Chesbro, Deacon Phillippe and Jesse Tannehill was formidable. But I think that the league's best pitcher was clearly Jack Taylor of Chicago (not to be confused with another pitcher of the era named "Brewery Jack Taylor"). This Jack Taylor started his career with five straight wins in 1899; then came three losing seasons. Taylor had the misfortune to join the Cubs when they were a poor team, then left them after next season, just as they were beginning a dynasty. Timing is everything; Taylor retired with a mediocre won-loss record, and is mostly forgotten; but he may have been a better pitcher then Jack Chesbro, who is in the Hall of Fame.
         After Taylor, the best pitcher in the league was Frank Hahn, better known as Noodles. Hahn was a workhorse for Cincinnati who began his career with six straight outstanding seasons. Hahn was a great control pitcher who twice led the league in strikeouts; he completed almost everything he started, and by age 25 had 122 career wins. But his arm gave out soon after that, and he won only 8 more games then rest of his career.
        This was Chesbro's last year in Pittsburgh; he would later gain fame in New York, winning 41 games in a season, and throwing an infamous wild pitch that drowned his team's pennant hopes. I'm not sure that he was really better than his teammates, but I'll give him a slight edge because of the wins and shutouts. Vic Willis also had a fine year for Boston, matching his career high in wins, and setting career highs in complete games, innings, and strikeouts. Willis and his teammate Togie Pittinger were the hardest workers in the league, accounting for more then sixty percent of Boston's innings.