Background
Owing to business rivalry between the two leagues, especially in New York, and to personal animosity between Giants' manager John McGraw and American League President Ban Johnson, the Giants declined to meet the champions of the "junior" or "minor" league. McGraw even said his Giants were already the world champions since they were the champions of the "only real major league."
As early as July 5, 1904, as reported in Sporting Life, Giants' owner John T. Brush had stated publicly, and in defiance of a preseason agreement for a World's Championship Series between the leagues, that his National League club would not play the winner of the American League "if each wins the pennant in its respective league".(The Scrapbook History of Baseball,Bobbs-Merrill,1975,p.57). At that point in the season, the Giants were comfortably on top of the NL standings, and the New York Yankees/Highlanders were just 1 1/2 games behind the Boston Americans. The American League race went down to the wire, and the Highlanders temporarily took over first place on October 7 when they defeated Boston. But Boston won three of their four remaining contests and clinched the AL pennant. The Giants, who had won the NL by a wide margin, stuck to and broadened their plan, refusing to play any AL club, either the champion Boston or the cross-town New York team, in the proposed "exhibition" series (as they considered it).(The Scrapbook History of Baseball,p.58).
Read more about this topic: 1904 World Series
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