1909 Chicago Cubs season explained

Chicago Cubs
Season:	1909
League:	National League
Ballpark:	West Side Park
City:	Chicago
Owners:	Charles Murphy
Managers:	Frank Chance

The 1909 Chicago Cubs season was the 38th season of the Chicago Cubs franchise, the 34th in the National League and the 17th at West Side Park. The Cubs won 104 games but finished second in the National League, 6½ games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cubs had won the pennant the previous three years and would win it again in 1910. Of their 104 victories, 97 were wins for a Cubs starting pitcher; this was the most wins in a season by the starting staff of any major league team from 1908 to the present day.^[1] The 104 wins was the most by any team in Major League Baseball history by a team that failed to finish first—a record that would be unbroken for more than a century. The record was equaled by the 1942 Brooklyn Dodgers and eventually broken by the 2021 Dodgers, who won 106 games but finished a game behind the San Francisco Giants in the NL West.^[2]

The legendary infield of Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, Frank Chance, and Harry Steinfeldt was still intact, but it was the pitching staff that excelled. The Cubs pitchers had a collective earned run average of 1.75, a microscopic figure even for the dead-ball era. Three Finger Brown was one of the top two pitchers in the league (with Christy Mathewson) again, going 27–9 with a 1.31 ERA.

Offseason

• February 18, 1909: Doc Marshall was purchased from the Cubs by the Brooklyn Superbas.^[3]

Regular season

Roster

1909 Chicago Cubs
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		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		80	261	60	.230	1	30
1B		93	324	88	.272	0	46
2B		127	463	122	.263	1	24
SS		143	516	132	.256	4	57
3B		151	528	133	.252	2	59
OF		148	525	134	.255	1	43
OF		153	527	150	.285	2	58
OF		140	538	142	.264	4	60

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
	77	246	54	.220	1	23
	69	203	40	.197	1	24
	65	183	50	.273	0	21
	22	52	7	.135	0	2
	20	45	4	.089	0	5
	12	39	8	.205	0	1
	11	37	11	.297	1	9
	13	28	4	.143	0	0
	2	7	1	.143	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
	50	342.2	27	9	1.31	172
	38	285.0	20	11	1.42	205
	35	262.2	19	10	1.78	105
	29	196.2	17	6	2.43	73
	17	120.1	9	4	1.65	51
	1	9.0	1	0	2.00	2
	1	9.0	1	0	0.00	1
	1	2.0	0	1	18.00	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
	13	79.0	4	4	1.82	32
	19	78.0	5	2	2.19	32
	3	14.0	1	1	3.86	3
	2	4.1	0	1	4.15	0

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
	2	0	0	0	2.45	2
	1	0	0	0	0.00	1

Awards and honors

League top five finishers

Mordecai Brown

• NL leader in wins (27)
• #2 in NL in ERA (1.31)
• #4 in NL in strikeouts (172)

Orval Overall

• MLB leader in strikeouts (205)
• #3 in NL in ERA (1.42)

References

• 1909 Chicago Cubs season at Baseball Reference

Notes and References

1. Web site: Pitching Game Finder: From 1908 to 2018, Pitcher Won, as Starter, sorted by greatest Performances matching selected criteria by a Team. Baseball Reference. August 29, 2018.
2. News: October 3, 2021. Trea Turner wins NL batting title, Dodgers beat Brewers 10-3. en-US. Associated Press. October 4, 2021. ESPN.
3. https://www.baseball-reference.com/m/marshdo01.shtml Doc Marshall page at Baseball Reference