The Giants and Phillies had almost all of the best pitchers in the league
this year. New York's ace was still Mathewson; Philadelphia had a pretty
good ace of their own, in Pete Alexander. This year, Mathewson reached his
peak as a control pitcher, averaging only 0.62 walks per 9 innings. Matty also
led the league in ERA, was among the leaders in just about everything else,
and is a clear choice for the Cy Young Award. In the Chalmers Award voting,
Matty led all pitchers in votes.
Mathewson was 33 this year; this was his last
great season. But the future still looked bright for the Giants; they had some
outstanding young pitchers, including Rube Marquard, Jeff Tesreau and Al Demaree.
Tesreau's sophomore season was a great one; he was tough as nails to hit. Marquard
also had a fine follow-up to his legendary 1912 season, when he won 19 consecutive
games. Tesreau was only 24, Marquard was 23; however, both pitchers saw their
fortunes quickly nosedive; Marquard was dealt a couple of years later; Tesreau had
a big 1914 season, but declined sharply afterwards.
The Giants went into a slump for a short time,
until John McGraw could build them back into champions. That allowed the
Phillies to win a pennant in 1916, their only pennant in the first half of
the century. Alexander, of course, was the key to their success; but they
might have been even better had they been able to keep Ad Brennan and Tom
Seaton. Seaton, in particular, had a big season, and was just a sophomore.
But in 1914, both Brennan and Seaton jumped to the new Federal League. Seaton
won 25 games in his first year in the FL, then blew his arm out, and never
pitched well again.
