The very first World Series was played this year. The two major leagues were still rivals, but they agreed to play a Best-of-Nine championship between the two pennant winners. The National League was represented by Pittsburgh, and they were confident; the NL was still the senior league, and the Pirates had won three straight pennants. But the Series was an upset; the Pirates fell to the Boston Pilgrims in eight games, though bad luck may have been part of their downfall.

         The Pirates had the best offense in the league, as well as a fine pitching staff. Their best pitchers were the reliable Deacon Phillippe, and Sam Leever (who was also nicknamed "Deacon"), who had his first big year. I've mentioned before that Phillippe's career was very similar to that of a former teammate, Jesse Tannehill; well, you can throw Leever into that mix as well. Phillippe and Leever had very similar careers, winning and losing almost the same numbers of games (Phillippe was 189-109, Leever 194-100), and posting similar ERAs in a similar number of innings pitched, over the same number of seasons. This was Leever's best year, and Phillippe was only a notch behind him.
         Disaster struck the Pirates in the World Series. First, superstar shortstop Honus Wagner was injured. Then, Leever was injured; he made only two starts, and lost both of them. A third pitcher, Ed Doheny, had a quality year for the Bucs, winning 16 games. But he suffered a nervous breakdown(!) before the Series, and never pitched again. That left Phillippe; the Deacon started five games, and completed all of them, a record in World Series play. Phillippe battled hard; he won three games, but lost two, and the Pirates lost the Series.
         As good as Leever and Phillippe were, I don't think they were the best pitchers in the league. In 1902, the New York Giants finished in last place; this year they were second, only six games behind the Pirates. Midway through the disastrous 1902 season, the Giants hired John J. McGraw as their manager; McGraw would remain the Giants' skipper until 1933, winning ten pennants and three World Series during his reign. McGraw had previously managed Baltimore in the American League; when he joined the Giants, he brought pitcher Joe "Iron Man" McGinnity with him. McGinnity threw underhand, and was one of the most durable pitchers in baseball history. This was one of his best seasons, and he led the NL in wins.
        And yet, even McGinnity was not the best pitcher in the league. The Giants had a 23-year-old kid named Christy Mathewson, whom they had stolen from Cincinnati a couple of years earlier. Mathewson pitched well in his first two seasons, then exploded on the scene with his first great season, the first of four times he would win 30+ games in his career.
         Mathewson would become one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history; he would also have an epic career that ranged from glory days with the Giants, to heartbreaking defeats in 1908 and 1912, to the trenches of Europe in WWI, to the game-fixing scandals (including the Black Sox in 1919) that ended the dead-ball era. He was also a writer, and was considered the greatest gentleman of his era; and he was the best pitcher in the league this year.