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Posted By: Bob

Ted- The Giants and McGraw and Brush hated Ban Johnson and also did not want to give any credence to the Amerian league, particularly a New York AL team. The Pilgrims did edge out the Highlanders when Chesbro's wild pitch let in the winning win (although that same hitter singled on the next pitch and the run would have scored anyway) but all summer and fall long, the spectre of the Highlanders playing in the World Series gave McGraw fits. A week before the season ended, Clark Griffith the HL manager gave an interview which said that "Muggsy" was afraid to play his team in the Series. This was triggered to infuriate McGraw and cause him to demand to play, but it didn't work. The Highlanders probably lost the pennant the week before the season ended when a doubleheader to have been played at Hilltop Park was moved to Boston because the Highlanders had agreed to allow Columbia and Williams College to play a football game there that day. Boston swept both games.
Brush (owner of the Giants) came up with the excuse that he was going to take many of the Giants and play in a world tour series of games (this never happened) and as a result the Giants would be unable to play in any World Series. The Giants' players were infuriated that they were losing out on their bonus money which they would have received had they played in the Series, but the players didn't stand a chance of changing Brush's mind. When Boston won the pennant, the Boston owner went so far as saying that if a World Series took place, the players would split the gate after expenses but that didn't work either. Brush and McGraw had all sorts excuses not to play-one classic was contained in a letter which was printed in the paper that the Giants had no obligation to go around playing "minor league teams from minor leagues." Incredible that they would consider the American League a "minor" league after Boston had beaten Pittsburgh in the WS the year before. Brush and McGraw said there were loads of teams from a lot of different leagues all over the South, Northeast and West that would like to play a series against them but they wouldn't.
Clearly the fear of losing to the Highlanders (and to a lesser extent the Pilgrims) coupled with their hatred of ban Johnson resulted in McGraw ducking the Series.
The league accord was signed in 1903, not 1905, by the way....