The New York Giants coasted to the 1904 National League pennant. They finished 105-46, which put them 13 games ahead of the second-place Chicago Cubs.

But in July, Giants manager John McGraw and owner John T. Brush announced that under no circumstances would they play the winner of the upstart American League in a postseason series. As there was no governing body for all of baseball and no commission­er, there was no one who could punish the Giants for refusing to participate.

McGraw hated American League President Ban Johnson going back to 1901 when John was manager of the Baltimore Orioles in Johnson's new league. Johnson suspended McGraw indefinitely for umpire baiting. Brush also had not forgotten how the American League had raided his roster. The Giants owner proclaimed, "There is nothing in the consti­tution or playing rules of the National League which requires its victorious club to submit its championship honors to a contest with a victorious club in a minor league."

The press accused the Giants of cowardice, claiming that the real reason they were will­ing to give up the extra paycheck and gate receipts the Series provided was fear of losing to the Boston Americans, who won the AL crown for the second year in a row.

The Giants players were unhappy with the decision of their owner and manager. They had looked forward to the extra money they would earn from the proceeds of the first four games of the Series. Brush tried to assuage them by providing $5,000 as a personal gift to be split among the players, who insisted they would have split a much bigger pot if the series with Boston had been played.

The 1905 Giants were never really threatened in their drive to another pennant, outpa­cing the Pittsburg Pirates by nine games. This time there would be no thumbing their noses at the American League winners. A committee consisting of the two league presidents plus Garry Herrmann, owner of the Cincinnati Reds, had agreed on arrangements for a four-of-seven-games format for the postseason series. The winners of each league were required to play each other.

Stung by both the accusations of cowardice the year before and their own players' un­happiness at losing out on a lucrative paycheck, McGraw and Brush embraced the Series this time.

McGraw wrote this in his 1923 autobiography: "Of all the World's Series in which I have taken part, I think the picture of that one [1905] stands out most vividly in my memory.

"To begin with, we decided to do the thing right. We had special uniforms made for the Giants.

"I will never forget the impression created in Philadelphia and the thrill that I got person­ally when the Giants suddenly trotted out from their dugout clad in uniforms of black flan­nel trimmed with white. The letters across the breast were in white. ...

"The psychological effect of being togged out in snappy uniforms was immediately notice­able upon the players. The Athletics in their regular-season uniforms appeared dull along­side our champions. ..."

The Giants probably didn't need the psychological boost the new uniforms provided. Be­hind the superb pitching of Christy Mathewson, who twirled three shutouts in six days, the Giants dispatched Connie Mack's Philadelphia club in five games.