The Philadelphia Athletics and the Chicago Cubs met in the 1910 World Series in a matchup of two teams with more than 100 victories. The Cubs, winners of the 1907 and 1908 World Series, had enjoyed more success than the A’s, winners of the 1905 American League pennant, but the upstart A’s dethroned the Cubs in five games to win their first ever World Series title. Jack Coombs finished the World Series with a 3-0 record, while Danny Murphy led all hitters with a home run and nine RBI for Connie Mack’s men. This series was notable for the secret introduction of the brand-new corked baseball, which was introduced full-time in 1911 and led to vastly increased offensive production across baseball.

     This souvenir program is from Game 5, the final game of the World Series. It took place at the West Side Grounds in Chicago, and saw Jack Coombs and Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown throw dueling complete games, with the A’s emerging as 7-2 victors. Eddie Collins paced the offense, doubling twice and driving in two runs in a game that was 2-1 in favor of the A’s as late as the eighth inning. Gray pencil scored scorecards for both teams are included in this souvenir program.

     The cover of this program shows two bears and an elephant, representing each team. A two-page team photograph of the Cubs is included in this booklet, however one page is half ripped away. A team photograph of the Athletics is located on the page after their scorecard, which has the names of Topsy Hartsell and Jack Lapp handwritten in as late replacements. The program is filled with advertisements for political figures, stores, and products, such as Emile Kinst’s idiosyncratic “Curved Base Ball Bat”. This scorecard is a fantastic treasure from the early days of the World Series!

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