The 1908 Philadelphia Athletics season involved the A's finishing sixth in the American League with a record of 68 wins and 85 losses.

Preseason

1908 Philadelphia City Series The Athletics played four games against the Philadelphia Phillies for the local championship in the pre-season city series. The Athletics defeated the Phillies 3 games to 1.

The A's record against the Phillies was 21–20 all time after the 1908 series.

Regular season Shoeless Joe Jackson made his major league debut with the Athletics at Columbia Park on August 25, 1908 in a 3-2 loss to Cleveland playing centerfield and batting fourth. Jackson had hit .346 in 1908 for the Class-D Carolina Association Greenville Spinners and his appearance was anticipated by the press and fans. Jackson came to bat with one out in the first with Topsy Hartsel on third and Eddie Collins on first to face Cleveland's Heinie Berger. "The youngster was given a kindly welcome by the fans and he acknowledged it by singling past Bradley, scoring Hartsel." Jackson would finish 1 for 4 in the game.

This is the only losing season in Athletics franchise history that was not part of consecutive losing seasons.https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/OAK/

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Roster 1908 Philadelphia Athletics Roster Pitchers Catchers

Infielders Outfielders Manager

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI C Ossee Schreckengost 71 207 46 .222 0 16 1B Harry Davis 147 513 127 .248 5 62 2B Eddie Collins 102 330 90 .273 1 40 SS 150 550 119 .216 4 31 3B Jimmy Collins 115 433 94 .217 0 30 OF Topsy Hartsel 129 460 112 .243 4 29 OF Rube Oldring 116 434 96 .221 1 39 OF Danny Murphy 142 525 139 .265 4 66

Other batters Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI 78 220 56 .255 1 23 Doc Powers 62 172 31 .180 0 7 Jack Barry 40 135 30 .222 0 8 Socks Seybold 48 130 28 .215 0 3 Syd Smith 46 128 26 .203 1 10 Frank Manush 23 77 12 .156 0 0 Herbie Moran 19 59 9 .153 0 4 Scotty Barr 19 56 8 .143 0 1 Jack Lapp 13 35 5 .143 0 1 Amos Strunk 12 34 8 .235 0 0 9 31 9 .290 0 2 Jack Fox 9 30 6 .200 0 0 Shag Shaughnessy 8 29 9 .310 0 1 5 23 3 .130 0 3 Bert Blue 6 18 3 .167 0 1 Ben Egan 2 6 1 .167 0 0

Pitching

Starting pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L ERA SO Rube Vickers 53 317.0 18 19 2.21 156 Eddie Plank 34 244.2 14 16 2.17 135 Jimmy Dygert 41 238.2 11 15 2.87 164 26 153.0 7 5 2.00 80 18 138.2 8 9 1.75 85 Biff Schlitzer 24 131.0 6 8 3.16 57 Al Kellogg 3 17.0 0 2 5.82 8 Doc Martin 1 2.0 0 1 13.50 2

Other pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G IP W L ERA SO 14 60.2 2 5 2.97 17 Jack Flater 5 39.1 1 3 2.06 8 Harry Krause 4 21.0 1 1 2.57 10 Gus Salve 2 15.1 0 1 4.11 6

Relief pitchers Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts Player G W L SV ERA SO Bert Maxwell 4 0 0 0 11.08 7 Eddie Files 2 0 0 0 6.00 6

Notes

References 1908 Philadelphia Athletics team page at Baseball Reference 1908 Philadelphia Athletics team page at www.baseball-almanac.com