World Series Information About Ty Cobb and Detroit Tigers Baseball

While Ty Cobb played for the Detroit Tigers from 1905 through 1926, the team's greatest achievement during the era was from 1907 to 1909, when it won three consecutive American-League Pennants and played in three-consecutive World Series. As might be imagined, Cobb was a huge asset, especially given the fact that he led the American League in hits, batting average and runs batted in during regular season play in 1907. Unfortunately, the Tigers never quite managed to actually win the World Championship. This, however, is what they did do:

• 1907 World Series:

  Both the National League's Chicago Cubs (107-45) and the American League's Detroit Tigers (92-58) dominated during regular season play, but the Chicago Cubs easily took the series, 4 to 0. While Game 1 of the series went to 12 innings, it ended in a 3-3 tie. The Tigers failed to score more than one run a game thereafter, and the Cubs swept the next four games of the series to become the 1907 World Champions.
  
  The Team: The Tigers entered the series with two of the American League's top hitters of the 1907 season: Sam Crawford and 20-year-old Ty Cobb, both of whom would later be inducted into the Hall of Fame. While their contribution wasn't enough to secure the Championship in 1907, they did have some memorable moments, especially in Game 4 when Ty Cobb hit a triple. Claude Rossman and Davy Jones also had a good series with a .474 and .353 batting average respectively.
  
  Pitching: Notable Tigers' pitchers that year included George Joseph Mullin (“Wabash George”) and Bill Donovan (“Wild Bill”).

• 1908 World Series

  The Detroit Tigers earned a rematch against the Chicago Cubs the very next year; but they lost the 1908 World Series after only five games. In fact, Game 5 attracted the smallest crowd in World Series history as only 6210 fans attended.
  
  The Team: The Tigers roster in 1908 again included Ty Cobb (center fielder) and Sam Crawford (right fielder), who had a .368 and .238 batting average respectively during the series.
  
  Pitching: While pitcher Ed Summers won 24 games leading into the series, he let up five runs in the ninth inning of Game 1, effectively turning the tide against the Tigers. Bill Donovan pitched Games 2 & 5, and George Mullin pitched in Game 3 – the only game that went Detroit's way.

• 1909 World Series

  The 1909 World Series marked the third consecutive year that the Tigers won the American League Pennant but failed to earn the World Championship. This time, however, the Tigers lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates. That being said, the Tigers at least made the series interesting by winning Games 2, 4 and 6. Of course, Pirates' pitcher Babe Adams wasn't on the mound during those games.
  
  The Team: The 1909 World Series marked Ty Cobb's last appearance at the Fall Classic. Unfortunately, Pirates' pitcher Babe Adams kept Cobb's batting average down to .231 during the series. In addition to Ty Cobb, the Tigers line up included Davy Jones and Sam Crawford, both of whom hit a home run in Game 5; but it was second-baseman Jim Delahanty who had the highest batting average (.346) of the series.
  
  Pitching The standout Tigers' pitcher during the series was George Mullin, who pitched thirty-two innings of the series and was instrumental in winning Games 4 and 6.

Sources:

Post Season / Baseball-Reference.com

Hall-of-Fame Members / BaseballHall.org

World Series History / Baseball-Almanac.com