1915 Detroit Tigers

1915 Detroit Tigers / Franchise: Detroit Tigers / BR Team Page

Record: 100-54, Finished 2nd in American League (1915 AL)

Managed by Hughie Jennings

Coaches: Jimmy Burke and Deacon McGuire

Ballpark: Navin Field

History, Comments, Contributions

The 1915 Detroit Tigers won 100 games but ended up in second place behind the Boston Red Sox of Tris Speaker and the young Babe Ruth.

The Tigers had a great April but played under .600 ball in May and June, thus putting them in third place for much of July. They played .767 ball in August, however, and finished fairly strongly in September and October to win 100 games total.

They handily beat every team in the league except for Boston, who won 14 of the 22 match-ups with the Tigers.

Hughie Jennings was the Tigers' manager, a position he had held since from 1907; he had won pennants in his first three seasons at the helm.

The Tigers, playing in a hitters' park, had a typically great performance from Ty Cobb, who won the batting title and the OBP title and finished second in slugging percentage. He led the league in runs, hits, stolen bases and total bases, and was second in walks and doubles and third in RBI.

Sam Crawford and Bobby Veach, the other two outfielders, each had 112 RBI to tie for the league lead. In addition to Cobb, they drove in Ossie Vitt, who had 116 runs scored, and Donie Bush, who had 99 runs scored. Veach led the league in doubles while Crawford led the league in triples. Vitt tied Cobb for second in the league in walks.

Marty Kavanagh was a notable back-up with a 143 Adjusted OPS+.

Among the pitchers, Hooks Dauss went 24-13, Harry Coveleski was 22-13 and Jean Dubuc was 17-12. Big Bill James was 7-3 while starter-reliever Bernie Boland was 13-7 with 16 Games Finished.

The team would not finish as high as second again until 1923.

Standings

American League	W	L	Pct.	GB
Boston Red Sox	101	50	.669	--
Detroit Tigers	100	54	.649	2½
Chicago White Sox	93	61	.604	9½
Washington Senators	85	68	.556	17
New York Yankees	69	83	.454	32½
St. Louis Browns	63	91	.409	39½
Cleveland Indians	57	95	.375	44½
Philadelphia Athletics	43	109	.283	58½