in , the pirates played the boston americans in major league baseball's inaugural world series. wagner, by this point, was an established star and much was expected of him, especially since the pirates' starting rotation was decimated by injury. wagner himself was not at full strength and hit only .222 for the series. the americans, meanwhile, had some fans, called the "royal rooters" who, whenever wagner came to bat, sang "honus, honus, why do you hit so badly?" to the tune of "tessie", a popular song of the day. the rooters, led by boston bartender michael "nuf ced" mcgreevy, even travelled to pittsburgh to continue their heckling. pittsburgh lost in the best-of-nine series, five games to three, to a team led by pitchers cy young and bill dinneen and third baseman–manager jimmy collins. christy mathewson, in his book "pitching in a pinch" wrote: "for some time after "hans" wagner's poor showing in the world's series of 1903 ... it was reported that he was "yellow" (poor in the clutch). this grieved the dutchman deeply, for i don't know a ball player in either league who would assay less quit to the ton than wagner ... this was the real tragedy in wagner's career. notwithstanding his stolid appearance, he is a sensitive player, and this has hurt him more than anything else in his life ever has."