A Tale of Clashing Personalities: Why there was no World Series in 1904

All About Baseball with Byron Copley · Feb 12, 2026 · 34m

This episode examines in a fair amount of detail the reasons why I think that there was no World Series in 1904. The personalities who could have worked out an equitable solution -- Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson, president of the fledgling American League, John T. Brush, owner of the National League's New York Giants, and John McGraw, manager of the Giants -- were simply too obstinate to negotiate. Instead, they waged a vicious verbal war in the newspapers during the summer and autumn of 1904: firing cocksure word salvos, rife with calumny, covered in vitriol, aimed squarely at their mutual…