The Simplest Beginnings: From Amateurism in 1857, to Pro Ball (1870), Int'l Ball, & More

tm1681 · 04-22-2023, 02:50 PM

I started the following fictional baseball universe for OOTP 23 (1st attempt was for OOTP 21-22) and have brought over the save file to OOTP 24.

This is the story of a pair of leagues that began with logos I was making during down time when I was doing remote work. They are analogues to the 1850s National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP), the concurrent National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP), and their resulting split in real life in 1871.

Details of how I decided on names and logos are in this thread. in the Mods forum.

THE NATIONAL BASE BALL ORGANIZATION IS FORMED

On January 22, 1857 in Manhattan's St. Nicholas Hotel, executives from various baseball clubs in New York City, Brooklyn, and elsewhere in the northeastern United States met to form the first group of organized baseball clubs: the National Base Ball Organization. In that meeting, guidelines for the first formal competition involving the sport of baseball were established:

Starting in May of 1857, 48 clubs from the northeastern United States would form six "championship" divisions where each club would play the others in their division ten times over separate two five-game series - mimicking cricket test matches - over the course of the season. This would make for a total of 70 games played by each club.
The six divisions were further separated into two leagues: the New York League, with two dozen clubs based in the state of New York, and the Northeastern League, with two dozen clubs based elsewhere in the Northeastern United States and New England.
The winners of each of the three divisions would go to the playoffs, with the team having the best record in each league automatically moving on to the League Championship Series and the other two teams playing a best-of-five series to go to the LCS.
The two league champions would compete for the Tucker-Wheaton Cup, named for the two men who wrote the Knickerbocker Rules for baseball (as in real life): William Tucker and William Wheaton

The original 48 teams were as follows:

The men who ran and played a sport seen as a hobby for the well-to-do to spectate weren't sure what would come of their efforts, but at least there was now a concrete plan for well-run amateur clubs to regularly play one another instead of scheduling games on an ad hoc basis and doing almost everything very informally.

Surely this would make the sport of "base ball" better, and couldn't that only be a good thing both the short, and long, term?

tm1681 · 04-22-2023, 03:21 PM

THE INAUGURAL SEASON

The first season of the NBBO was an exciting one, but the style of baseball played would have looked alien to those who watch it in the 21st Century. Fields were enormous, there were no called balls and strikes, fielders had no gloves, home runs were almost always inside-the-parkers, pitchers could only deliver the ball underhanded, and baserunners could be ruled out by being hit with a throw from a fielder. This meant that the game was all action – stolen bases were high, errors were astronomical, and batting averages more than made up for any lack of power or walks. In the end, this meant that the weakest offensive teams in the NBBO scored 6+ runs per game, with the best hovering around ten.

Having offensive output that high could lead one to conclude that the competition was heavily lopsided in 1857, but that was not the case. Nearly every one of the NBBO’s six city and regional championships were decided in the final week of the 70-game season, and first six teams to make it to the NBBO playoffs were:

NEW YORK LEAGUE

NORTHEASTERN LEAGUE

With the regular season having close competitions, many close to the new sport presumed that the inaugural NBBO playoffs would feature similarly close best-of-five series. However, that did not happen. While Eckford of Greenpoint and Sportsman’s waited to see who they would play, the Orange Club beat Utica in four games in the NYL semi-final while Sons of the Ocean swept Port Jersey in the NEL semi-final. After that, both League Championship Series featured upsets, with Orange beating Eckford in five games to win the NYL championship and Sons of the Ocean taking down Sportsman’s in four to win the NEL half of the bracket.

If nothing else, the first Tucker Wheaton Cup figured to have plenty of excitement as Orange and Sons of the Ocean were two of the top three scorers in the 48-team NBBO. However, the anticipated high-drama affair never came to fruition as Massachusetts-based SotO were dominant and won the cup in four games:

Game One: Sons of the Ocean 10-7 @ Orange – Samuel Kessler (SotO) PotG (3/5, 3 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI)
Game Two: Sons of the Ocean 6-2 @ Orange – Adolphus Cole (SotO) PotG (CG, 5 H, 2 RA, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 109 pitches)
Game Three: Orange 13-5 @ Sons of the Ocean – Lester Simon (ORA) PotG (3/5, 3 R, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 1 SB, 1 BB)
Game Four: Sons of the Ocean 16-13 vs. Orange – Ralph Wingate (SotO) PotG (3/6, 2 R, 1 2B, 4 RBI)

NBBO Playoffs MVP: Samuel Kessler (SotO) – 11 G, .473 AVG (26/55), 1.155 OPS (260 OPS+), 14 R, 5 2B, 3 3B, 12 RBI, 5 SB

Awards were given to the best players in both NBBO leagues after the end of the season, and the inaugural NBBO award winners were:

BATSMEN OF THE YEAR

NYL: Lake Heilman (Continental) – 70 G, .372 AVG, .839 OPS (152 OPS+), 123 H, 24 2B, 76 RBI, 4.50 WPA, 2.3 WAR
NEL: Alexander Etheridge (Green Mountain) – 70 G, .408 AVG, .988 OPS (210 OPS+), 81 R, 133 H, 14 3B, 58 RBI, 34 SB, 3.32 WPA, 3.6 WAR

HURLERS OF THE YEAR

NYL: Clyde Chappelle (Victory) – 287 IP, 23-8, 3.38 ERA (101 ERA+), 34 BB, 29 K, 1.37 WHIP, 3.8 WAR
NEL: Frederick Hadden (Massachusetts Bay) – 287 IP, 22-11, 2.35 ERA (132 ERA+), 9 BB, 21 K, 1.07 WHIP, 4.3 WAR

NEW YORK LEAGUE TEAM OF THE YEAR

P: Clyde Chappelle (Victory) – 287 IP, 23-8, 3.38 ERA (101 ERA+), 34 BB, 29 K, 1.37 WHIP, 3.8 WAR
C: Tiberius Voit (Minuteman) – 67 G, .312 AVG, .800 OPS (138 OPS+), 14 3B, 54 RBI, 2.28 WPA, 1.7 WAR
1B: Lake Heilman (Continental) – 70 G, .372 AVG, .839 OPS (152 OPS+), 123 H, 24 2B, 76 RBI, 4.50 WPA, 2.3 WAR, Batsman of the Year
2B: George Van Meter (Utica) – 70 G, .329 AVG, .823 OPS (146 OPS+), 70 R, 108 H, 14 3B, 55 RBI, 2.69 WPA, 2.3 WAR
3B: Lars Hartmann (Eckford) – 70 G, .296 AVG, .704 OPS (111 OPS+), 80 R, 10 3B, 64 RBI, 2.59 WPA, 1.7 WAR
SS: Maxwell Brock (Flour City) – 70 G, .329 AVG, .777 OPS (133 OPS+), 106 H, 20 2B, 69 RBI, 3.20 WPA, 1.8 WAR
LF: Robert Kelsey (Nassau County) – 67 G, .379 AVG, .852 OPS (156 OPS+), 75 R, 121 H, 55 RBI, 22 SB, 4.39 WPA, 2.7 WAR
CF: Anastagio Torriano (Eckford) – 70 G, .342 AVG, .820 OPS (145 OPS+), 95 R, 117 H, 20 2B, 12 3B, 71 RBI, 57 SB, 4.46 WPA, 3.0 WAR
RF: Ollie Asplund (Atlantic) – 70 G, .334 AVG, 829 OPS (148 OPS+), 71 R, 112 H, 26 2B, 11 3B, 70 RBI, 24 SB, 3.67 WPA, 2.8 WAR

NORTHEASTERN LEAGUE TEAM OF THE YEAR

P: Frederick Hadden (Massachusetts Bay) – 287 IP, 22-11, 2.35 ERA (132 ERA+), 9 BB, 21 K, 1.07 WHIP, 4.3 WAR
C: Guy Dixon (Alleghany) – 66 G, .209 AVG, .715 OPS (124 OPS+), 43 RBI, 1.55 WPA, 2.4 WAR, Gold Glove
1B: Truman Paganini (Sons of the Ocean) – 69 G, .340 AVG, .827 OPS (159 OPS+), 102 H, 25 2B, 71 RBI, 1.92 WPA, 2.0 WAR
2B: Benjamin Chin (Granite) – 68 G, .314 AVG, .763 OPS (139 OPS+), 77 R, 51 SB, 5.08 WPA, 2.2 WAR
3B: Samuel Kessler (Sons of the Ocean) – 70 G, .353 AVG, .870 OPS (172 OPS+), 79 R, 116 H, 15 3B, 60 RBI, 3.40 WPA, 3.0 WAR
SS: Curtis Watt (Quinnipiac) – 70 G, .318 AVG, .753 OPS (136 OPS+), 84 R, 110 H, 45 RBI, 57 SB, 3.55 WPA, 3.6 WAR
LF: Tristan Pedersen (Shamrock) – 70 G, .358 AVG, .850 OPS (166 OPS+), 118 H, 22 2B, 68 RBI, 3.76 WPA, 2.4 WAR
CF: Edward Newkirk (Oceanic) – 70 G, .332 AVG, .845 OPS (163 OPS+), 86 R, 111 H, 22 2B, 16 3B, 60 RBI, 30 SB, 2.62 WPA, 3.0 WAR
RF: Alexander Etheridge (Green Mountain) – 70 G, .408 AVG, .988 OPS (210 OPS+), 81 R, 133 H, 14 3B, 58 RBI, 34 SB, 3.32 WPA, 3.6 WAR, Batsman of the Year

The first season of organized, competitive baseball was a successful experiment, and it was hoped that there would be many more to come.

tm1681 · 04-22-2023, 05:03 PM

THE EARLY YEARS

In the early years of the NBBO, even though the oldest clubs were from New York City and Brooklyn it was the clubs outside of New York who proved better, with Northeastern League members winning six of the first ten Tucker-Wheaton Cups. Their champions were varied, with Sons of the Ocean (New Bedford, MA) winning the inaugural Tucker Wheaton Cup in 1857. NEL champions would take the next three, with Granite (Manchester, NH), St. John's (Providence, RI), and Quinnipac (New Haven, CT) winning in '58, '59, & '60. Soon after, the Green Mountain club of Burlington, VT took control of the NEL, winning it three times in five years and taking the cup in 1863 & 1865.

Over on the New York side, it was all about one team: the Willem von Orange Baseball Club. Even though it didn't have the resources and venue size of the Gotham Club or the Knickerbocker club, the Orange Club won the New York City championship in each of its first nine seasons, going on to win the New York League championship in seven of those nine. However, they could rarely take the final step, only winning the Tucker Wheaton Cup in 1861 & 1864.

In the latter half of the 1860s, fissures began to appear in the NBBO. While most players were given an expense per-diem of $1 or $2 per week during training, star players were given under-the-table payments of as much as $500 per year, essentially making them full-time professionals. Not long after "shamateurism" began, the Orange Club's dominance of the New York League was upended and they went five years without winning the New York City Championship, with the Knickerbocker club winning it four out of the five.

Also, smaller Northeastern League clubs subsidized by rich owners continued get the best of their NYL counterparts in direct competition, with NEL teams taking the Tucker Wheaton Cup in 1867 (Reading v. Excelsior), '68 (Newark v. Gotham), and '69 (Sons of the Ocean v. Atlantic). There were larger clubs in the NEL - Alleghany (Pittsburgh), Shamrock (Boston), Quaker State (Philadelphia) to name a few - but it was these smaller clubs funded either by rich owners or well-to-do patrons and supporters that always managed to frustrate their bigger-city brethren.

On a lighter note: given how many clubs and players there were in the NBBO, competition organizers thought it would be fun to have an “All Stars” game with roughly two weeks to go in the season; an exhibition featuring the best 45-50 players in the country that would surely bring in a nice set of gate receipts (NOTE: something kind of like this did actually happen in real life in 1858). There would be 23 each from the NYL and NEL – two for each non-pitcher position (#1-16), a third catcher (#17), and six pitchers (#18-23). Once clubs began using three starting pitchers instead of two, the number of pitchers increased from six to eight.

And thus, along with the inaugural seasons of organized baseball came the inaugural “All Stars Game”.

As far as the players go, even though the NBBO was comprised of 48 teams shortly after its foundation a clear set of stars emerged. Some of the players of note:

NEW YORK LEAGUE

Thomas Maloney (Orange) won three of the first six Batsman of the Year awards (1858, 59, 62) and three Most Valuable Player awards. He also appeared in eight All-Star games and five Teams of the Year over the first decade. He was the first player to hit .400 twice (.401 in 1858, .426 in 1859), and he was the first to put up a 1.000 OPS in a season (1.071 in 1859).
Edward Huntley (Orange) didn’t play in 1857, but after joining the NBBO as a 22-year-old in 1858 he made all thirteen All-Star games that were played before the formation of professional baseball. He also won two Batsman of the Year awards (1863, 66), three Most Valuable Player awards, six Golden Gloves at third base, and was in the Team of the Year nine times.
Carl Bancroft (Orange) won three of the first six NYL Pitcher of the Year awards (1858, 60, 62) and won no less than 280 games as an amateur pitcher for the Orange Club thanks to a decade’s worth of 20-win seasons. He would go on to become the first pitcher ever to win 300+ games.
Raymond Staten (Victory, Flour City) started the 1860s by winning eight straight Golden Gloves (nine in total) as the New York League’s, and the NBBO’s, best defensive catcher. This only earned him one TotY and two All-Star nominations, but his work at the most physically demanding position on the field made him arguably the most respected player in the league.
Delbert “Mr. Do-it-All” Hodges (Kings County) made four All-Star games and won five Golden Gloves (all at P), but he was far more famous for his versatility. He was an accomplished pitcher, second baseman, third baseman, shortstop, and outfielder, and his ability to comfortably play so many positions in addition to being a starting pitcher made him a fan favorite. By the end of his twenty-year career, he won 294 games between amateur & pro ball, amassed 1,330 hits on a .310 batting average, and earned 101.4 WAR between his pitching, batting, and fielding work.

NORTHEASTERN LEAGUE

Samuel “The Shark” Kessler (Sons of the Ocean, Newark, Niagara) entered the first year of the NBBO as a 21-year-old and immediately showed himself to be the best-hitting third baseman in the league. He won Batsman of the Year three times (1859, 64, 68), made thirteen All-Star Games, and was named in the Team of the Year seven times. He would also become one of the original stars of professional baseball for Buffalo.
Anthony Mascherino (Green Mountain) was just out of high school when the NBBO began play, but he established himself as the league’s best defensive shortstop while he was still a teenager. He would break in his 20s by winning seven straight Golden Gloves, and on top of that he made Team of the Year five times and was an eleven-time All-Star. His career would end up lasting a full quarter-century, long enough to essentially have one career in the NBBO and another one after the start of professional baseball before retiring at the age of 43.
Alexander Etheridge (various clubs) was an Englishman in his 30s who bounced around from club to club, but while he was nomadic he was still the NBBO’s first .400 hitter, had an OPS+ of 210 in the NEL’s inaugural season, was the NEL’s first Batsman of the Year, was a three-time Team of the Year member, made multiple All-Star games, and helped developed the sport in England along with fellow NEL player Percy Wilkinson after his retirement.
Benjamin Chin (various clubs) would later play for other clubs, but it was during his time in New Hampshire with the Granite Club in which Chin was voted the best second baseman in the league (TotY) during four of the NEL’s first six seasons. He made 4-5 All-Star games, and in his prime he could hit .350+ and steal 50 bases in a season.

There were other major stars who would develop (ex: Konrad Jensen) or join (ex: Herman Ferris) the NBBO in the 1860s, but the above were examples of players who made their mark starting in year one or two.

tm1681 · 04-23-2023, 02:12 PM

THE NBBO'S "SHAMATEURISM" PROBLEM

By the beginning of the 1870 season, "Shamateurism" brought the NBBO into a full-blown crisis. Over the course of the organization's previous thirteen seasons crowds and gate receipts slowly but steadily increased, and as a result clubs started paying talented players cash under the table to secure their services. As hinted at previously it meant there was a clear-cut class of marquee players in the competition who could spend more time working on their skills, but on the whole the NBBO remained somewhat balanced.

However, by the start of the 1870 season it was made clear that the usual order of the six championship divisions of the NBBO - mostly tight competitions at the top that sometimes had to be decided with one-game playoffs - had been completely upended by clubs that were now hoarding quality players with these under-the-table payments. In particular, Kings County raised eyebrows as they managed to recruit seven-time All Star 2B James Rousey, eight-time All Star CF Herman Farris, and thirteen-time Orange Club All Star 3B/SS Edward Huntley in a matter of weeks. Kings County GM Alfred Carraway managed to add the trio even though he already had a team containing multiple-time All-Stars George Drew (OF), Frederick Madsen (C), and Delbert Hodges (3B & SP). A club with half a dozen All Stars in a 24-team league looked mighty suspicious, and other clubs who employed the "under-the-table" method were fuming at the brazenness of it while fans of baseball were left wondering if Kings County had bigger plans for the sport itself.

In their Brooklyn Championship, Kings County went 49-21 and were about half a dozen games ahead of any other team. In New York City, the Knickerbocker Club finished 52-18 & Orange went 48-22 while Harlem finished in last place with the reverse of Orange's record: 22-48. In the Upstate New York Championship, the Victory Club won 47 of 70 games while last-place Binghamton won only 20 of 70.

The Northeastern League was more of the same. In the frequently cutthroat Coastal championship, Shamrock went 47-23 while the Olympic Club was a shocking 10-60 - the worst record in the history of the NBBO. Over in the Inland championship, Reading was 53-17 - a full eight games better than 2nd place - while last-place Pioneer was 21-49. Finally, in the New England championship Green Mountain was four games in the clear at 44-26.

To bring things back to the club at the center of the cash payment and talent hoarding issues, Kings County's semi-open flouting of the NBBO's rules did exactly what it was intended to do. After a classic five-game New York League Championship Series win over Knickerbocker, Kings County swept Green Mountain in the Tucker Wheaton Cup. The final scores were 24-10, 9-3, and 10-3, with "The Mighty K.C." putting up what was easily the most dominant cup series performance to date.

Meanwhile, the Excelsior Club had a Shamateurism issue of its own that was raising eyebrows: that of superstar Konrad Jensen. Providence native Jensen had been recruited by the Brooklyn-based Excelsior Club in 1858 straight out of high school and was perfectly happy to remain with them, even though there were other NYC-area clubs with better facilities and Providence-based St. John's offered the same. In the 1870 season, Jensen was busy doing just what he'd done in each of the previous three seasons: leading the 48-team NBBO in batting average (.422), on-base percentage (.458), slugging percentage (.649), OPS (1.107), OPS+ (222), and total bases (209). He'd become so dominant in his late-20s that fans wondered if he was too good for the league itself.

The real issue with regards to Jensen was an open secret among the other clubs in the NBBO: as Jensen became ever more talented in his mid-to-late 20s, Excelsior owner Jeremiah Nelson Tappan secured the funds to pay him no less than $780 in cash each season to stay with the Excelsior Club. This meant that Jensen could focus full-time on honing his already considerable batting skills, and as he became unstoppable his under-the-table pay rose to well over $800 for just three months of baseball each year. Manual laborers averaged a bit over $500 for an entire year's work at the time, so Jensen could easily spend the rest of the nice-weather months perfecting his craft and then work a bit during the winter for some extra spending money.

There was now a clear split between the under-the-table, pay-for-play teams and those who either stuck to amateurism or didn't have the means to slide cash to high quality players. Something had to give, and it did about six weeks after the end of the season.

tm1681 · 04-23-2023, 02:36 PM

OCTOBER 1870: A "GANG OF SEVEN" PAVES THE WAY FOR A PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE

At the start of the NBBO's Fall Meetings at the Astor House Hotel in New York City on October 4th, executives from a group of seven clubs, along with some star players including the aforementioned Konrad Jensen, met to propose what would finally be the end of the era of secret cash deals and fake amateurism with a fully professional league. The seven clubs: Flour City, Kings County, Knickerbocker, Newark, Orange, Quaker State, and Shamrock.

The "Gang of Seven" had most of the same things in common: in-division success, post-season success ranging from appearances to championships, and large enough venues to be able to go professional without needing frequent injections of cash. However, they were hoping for a ten-team league and needed to find three other clubs with somewhat similar attributes willing to make the jump. The candidates they considered:

CUP WINNERS

Sons of the Ocean (New Bedford, MA) - SotO were the 1st NBBO champions and took the Tucker Wheaton Cup again in 1869. They spent a decade employing the best-hitting 3B in the sport, the now 13-time All Star Samuel Kessler. They were also able to develop other multiple-time All-Stars such as Andrew Boss (2B), Corey Burnett (3B/RF), and Anthony Gardner (SP). However, the club's two cup runs came in their only two playoff appearances, while the club had a small fanbase and a stadium that only seated a bit more than 2,000 people.

Green Mountain B.C. (Burlington, VT) - From the same division as SotO (New England), Green Mountain looked like much the same club on paper. They had two Tucker Wheaton Cups, long-employed the sport's best player at one position (11-time All-Star SS Anthony Mascherino), and they developed other multiple-time All-Stars (LF Raymond Ginn, 1B Howard Barbour, SP Franklin Squires). Their venue also had the same problem in that it sat only around 2,000. However, they had one big advantage on SotO in that they'd won the New England Championship seven times instead of two.

Reading Athletic Club (Reading, PA) - Reading took the cup in 1867, had won the Inland championship five times, and had never finished lower than 3rd in Inland since 1858. They also boasted a fantastic all-time winning percentage of .624 and finished with a 53-17 record in 1870. That 1870 team featured numerous All-Stars and Golden Glove winners. However, their stadium was roughly the same size as that of SotO and Green Mountain, and their ability to recruit players came thanks to cash from rich members of the athletic club that the team was part of. That wouldn't necessarily work in a league where everyone had to be paid a full-time rate.

St. John's B.C. (Providence, RI) - St. John's looked the part of a club that belonged going pro. They had good facilities in a big city, some quality players, a good competitive record (.560 winning percentage all time, 12 straight winning seasons) and a stadium that seated about 10,500. They also won the Tucker Wheaton Cup in 1859. However, they'd only won the New England championship once since then - a division their inherent advantages should have allowed them to dominate.

Victory B.B.C. (Troy, NY) - The Gang of Seven was looking to add a second club from upstate New York, and had it been five years earlier the Victory Club would have been included with no questions asked. From 1859-63 they won the Upstate New York championship all five times, and they took the Tucker Wheaton Cup in 1862. However, Victory fell off and frequently hovered around .500 since then, only to bounce back at the perfect time with a 47-23 1870 season that saw them take the Upstate championship again. Problem: they had a small-ish venue (~4,000) that would put them at an income-based disadvantage compared to the other clubs.

SUCCESSFUL CLUBS

Excelsior B.B.C. (Brooklyn, NY) - The Excelsior club had three big things going for it: five 1st-place finishes in the tough Brooklyn Championship, an all-time winning percentage of .586 (51-19 in 1867), and baseball's best player, Konrad Jensen, as the face of the team. However, they had one small issue and one big issue. Their venue at Carroll Park only sat about 4,000, making it much smaller than the clubs already committed to going pro. They were also based in Brooklyn, and the Gang of Seven was wary of having four NYC-area clubs in the inaugural season of a ten-team league, as they felt having too many clubs from one city would hurt legitimacy. But...if the sport's best player really didn't want to leave the seasonal baseball club he'd been with for thirteen years, why not just bring the whole organization kicking and screaming into the pros?

Atlantic B.B.C. (Brooklyn, NY) - Atlantic was a well-run club that had won the Brooklyn Championship four times, the New York League championship twice, and boasted a .563 all-time winning percentage. However, they'd never had any major stars and they had the same issue as Excelsior in that they'd be a fourth NYC-area club.

Minuteman B.C. (Albany, NY) - Minuteman had won the Upstate NY championship three times and had a decent-sized venue (6,000+), which made them a good candidate for the second upstate New York club. However, their year-to-year form had a tendency to fluctuate and they'd recently made a big mistake in letting 11-time All Star SS Anthony Mascherino leave for Quaker State after two seasons, depriving them of a superstar player that the Gang of Seven wanted in a pro league.

BIG CLUBS

Alleghany B.C. (Pittsburgh, PA) - The Alleghany club had been decent (.552 win percentage) but never dominant in an Inland Championship they should have been able to take more often but had only won two times. However, in 1868 Pittsburgh Recreation Park was expanded to seat over 17,000. Also, the team had performed quite well over the past two seasons (40-30, 45-25). While on-field success was mostly lacking, the size of their fanbase was extremely attractive.

American B.C. (Philadelphia, PA) - American had the weakest playing record of any club considered, with a .519 all-time winning percentage and just one playoff appearance. However, in that lone playoff appearance they won the Northeastern League championship and they'd spent their fourteen NBBO seasons in the hellish Coastal Championship - the year they won it was so competitive they needed just a 41-29 record to take first place. That said, they had been markedly over .500 in three of the previous four seasons, Glenwood Field sat nearly 15,000, and given the city's size the Gang of Seven didn't have any issues adding a second Philadelphia club.

Gotham B.B.C. (New York, NY) - Gotham club executives were among the NBBO's founders and the club itself easily predated the organization, with its foundation going back to 1852. The Red House at the St. George Cricket Grounds was a fine venue that held nearly 8,000 and the club had first-class facilities, but on-field success wasn't there. They spent most of the Orange Club's dominance of the New York City Championship during the NBBO's first decade languishing below .500, and while they did take top spot with a 46-24 mark in 1868 their record dipped to 40-30 in '69 and then crashed to 28-42 in 1870. They easily had the resources to go pro, but did they have the competence? And again, was a fourth NYC-area club wanted?

Massachusetts Bay B.C. (Boston, MA) - Adding Massachusetts Bay would have meant a second Boston club, but given Boston's size at the time it wouldn't have been a major issue. MB could boast of quality facilities and a stadium that seated just under 9,500. They'd also finished 44-26 in 1870. However, before that they were under .500 as often as they were over it and had won the Coastal Championship once.

Niagara B.B.C. (Buffalo, NY) - Niagara was an odd club. They had never won the Upstate NY championship but had finished 2nd or 3rd no less than eight times in the NBBO's fourteen seasons of existence. They had a cumulative winning percentage of about .550, with only one losing season to their name. They were almost always "kinda good", and they played in a venue that sat over 11,000. One big point in their favor: ahead of the 1870 season they'd brought in the aforementioned Samuel Kessler after three seasons with Newark.

THE DECISION

In the end, the Gang of Seven decided to add the three clubs from outside Brooklyn and New York City that offered not only some big names, but the best chances of professional stability: Alleghany because of their big venue and market size in western Pennsylvania, American because of their venue and recent upturn in on-field form, and Niagara due to their being the one club in upstate New York that had a major star. The Gang of Seven became a group of ten, and the ten became the American Professional Baseball League.

luckymann · 04-23-2023, 09:30 PM

Great stuff - subscribed!

tm1681 · 04-24-2023, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luckymann

Great stuff - subscribed!

Hey thanks!

It's kind of funny how ideas get in your head sometimes. I mentioned at the top of the first post how I came up with the team logos, but turning the logos into leagues themselves is a bit stranger.

My daughter was born in October 2020 with an issue keeping down her feedings that was bad enough to need medical intervention. In the meantime I stayed up during the night to supplement her feedings for about six months - thank god for project-based remote work - and during these nights I had to come with stuff to fill the time.

One of the things was getting into Japanese media and culture after the Japanese baseball season was over (was streaming live games) and another was seeing how I could turn these things I was working on in my free time into functional OOTP leagues. There was test simulations and spreadsheets and research and experimentation with OOTP settings and so on.

Hence....this!

P.S. - A fascinating source for things pertaining to the history of pre-professional baseball is https://protoball.org/

luckymann · 04-24-2023, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tm1681

Hey thanks!

It's kind of funny how ideas get in your head sometimes. I mentioned at the top of the first post how I came up with the team logos, but turning the logos into leagues themselves is a bit stranger.

My daughter was born in October 2020 with an issue keeping down her feedings that was bad enough to need medical intervention. In the meantime I stayed up during the night to supplement her feedings for about six months - thank god for project-based remote work - and during these nights I had to come with stuff to fill the time.

One of the things was getting into Japanese media and culture after the Japanese baseball season was over (was streaming live games) and another was seeing how I could turn these things I was working on in my free time into functional OOTP leagues. There was test simulations and spreadsheets and research and experimentation with OOTP settings and so on.

Hence....this!

P.S. - A fascinating source for things pertaining to the history of pre-professional baseball is https://protoball.org/

Way to turn lemons into lemonade, brother - kudos to you!

G

tm1681 · 04-24-2023, 07:29 PM

THE AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE

With ten clubs ready to go pro, it was now time to figure out what the United States' first professional baseball league - the APBL - would look like. It was quickly decided that the schedule would be like the NBBO schedule in that each team would play every other team ten times. This would make for a 90-game schedule. Also, since there were only ten teams in a single competition, record alone would determine a champion and there would be no playoffs. As in the NBBO, in the case of two (or more) teams tying for 1st only then would there be a playoff, and it would only be one game.

Discussions on rosters and pay became a bit more involved. Continuing with senior-level rosters of 20 wasn't much of an issue, but club executives wanted ways to keep their reserve players sharp. The NBBO allowed clubs to have a dozen players as "reserves", but the ABPL raised that limit to a full 22 so clubs could sign young players and give them the development time that they needed before joining the professional team.

On the issue of pay, at the end of a day of discussion it was agreed that, during the season, players should be paid at least as much as manual laborers were typically given at the time: about $10 a week. Adding three weeks of preseason training to the 90-game schedule meant a 21-week schedule, so the minimum pay for the 1870 season was set at $210. From there, clubs could pay their players whatever they wished, with the only stipulation that it all had to be legitimate and above-board now.

Finally, the issue of freedom of player/staff movement had to be resolved. First, club owners and executives agreed that the amount of time players had spent playing in the NBBO wouldn't count because this was a brand-new league with different standards. Second, it was decided that each player could sign for whoever they wanted after playing in the APBL for four years, just like the length of most apprenticeships. This meant that none of the players starting out in the APBL would have their "Freedom of Agency" until after the 1874 season, but at the same time players were told, in writing, that they could receive contracts up to four years in length based on the quality of their play.

The newly professional clubs also decided, on a bit of a whim, to do something that they thought would help market their teams: adding formal nicknames. The clubs already had informal nicknames given to them by fans or local journalists, so they were merely taking the monikers and making them official. Thus, all ten APBL teams were rebranded...

Along with the new names came new ticket prices. Instead of charging a nickel for amateur games, the clubs figured that fans would be willing to pay a dime to go see professionals that would presumably play the game at a higher standard. Those who wanted to go see the reserves play would get in for free.

All that was left was to see how the NBBO would respond.

tm1681 · 04-24-2023, 07:35 PM

THE NATIONAL BASE BALL ORGANIZATION REACTS QUICKLY

On the face of it, one would think that losing ten clubs might be devastating for the NBBO. However, given developments in recent seasons the organization was nothing but happy to see a professional league develop so they could go back to focusing on what they did best: developing regional, amateur baseball. They also hoped that the exit of ten economically powerful clubs would put a damper on the illicit cash arms race that had turned the NBBO's six championships into lop-sided affairs during the 1870 season.

The NBBO's Fall Meetings went on at the same time the Gang of Seven chose three other clubs and started the APBL, so executives were quick to invite ten replacement clubs. They were well-known amateur clubs from the coastal and northeastern United States, and they were happy to accept the invitations and take the step up to the highest level of the amateur ranks:

Members of the ten clubs were granted NBBO seniority based on the amount of time they'd been with their clubs in order to make things fair, and the ten were direct replacements for the departures in their respective regional championships.

Brooklyn: Star BBC (for Kings County)
New York City: Baltic BBC (for Orange), New York Athletic Club (for Knickerbocker)
Upstate NY: Auburn BBC (for Niagara), Frontier BBC (for Flour City)
Coastal: Diamond State BC (for Newark), Maryland BC (for Shamrock), National BC (for American), Philadelphia Tigers Social Club (for Quaker St.)
Inland: Lancastra Britannia BC (for Alleghany)

From there, the NBBO had one major decision left at the time: what to do about Konrad Jensen, who was still registered to the Excelsior club that was not offered a place in the APBL. In the end, Jensen was given a choice between going pro and joining an APBL club or going home to Providence and playing for St. John's, with no cash changing hands should he remain in the NBBO. No longer would he be paid a New York judge's or doctor's going rate to play baseball as a supposed amateur. Jensen made the obvious choice and went pro, joining the newly rebranded Manhattan Orangemen and immediately becoming the APBL's highest-paid player at just north of $1,300 a season. Corner outfield was a particularly deep spot among the APBL's ten founding clubs but Manhattan just happened to have a hole at RF, where Timothy Bates was a fine defender but a mediocre batsman.

In addition, the NBBO passed a resolution barring APBL players from re-joining the competition via the reasoning that it was highly unlikely a full-time professional would go back to unpaid amateur baseball unless there were under-the-table payments going on.

With everything decided, it was now just a matter of moving on to the baseball itself.

tm1681 · 04-24-2023, 07:49 PM

PRE-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL (1857-70) IN REVIEW

NBBO FINALISTS & CHAMPIONS – New York League (NYL), Northeastern League (NEL), Tucker-Wheaton Cup (TWC)

1857: NYL – Orange BBC (43-27 NYC), NEL – Sons of the Ocean (46-24 NE), TWC – Sons of the Ocean 3-1
1858: NYL – Orange BBC (51-19 NYC), NEL – Granite BC (44-26 NE), TWC – Granite BC 3-0
1859: NYL – Atlantic BBC (45-25 BRK), NEL – St. John’s BC (44-26 NE), TWC – St. John’s 3-0
1860: NYL – Orange BBC (56-14 NYC), NEL – Quinnipiac BC (45-25 NE), TWC – Quinnipiac BC 3-2
1861: NYL – Orange BBC (46-24 NYC), NEL – Green Mountain BC (50-20 NE), TWC – Orange BBC 3-0
1862: NYL – Victory BBC (46-24 UNY), NEL – Quaker State BC (46-24 COA), TWC – Victory BBC 3-1
1863: NYL – Orange BBC (56-14 NYC), NEL – Green Mountain BC (47-23 NE), TWC – Green Mountain BC 3-1
1864: NYL – Orange BBC (42-29 NYC), NEL – American BC (41-29 COA), TWC – Orange BBC 3-2 (2nd title)
1865: NYL – Orange BBC (45-25 NYC), NEL – Green Mountain BC (42-29 NE), TWC – Green Mountain 3-0 (2nd title)
1866: NYL – Flour City BBC (45-25 UNY), NEL – Newark BC (41-29 COA), TWC – Flour City 3-0
1867: NYL – Excelsior BBC (51-19 BRK), NEL – Reading Athletic Club (47-23 INL), TWC – Reading Athletic Club 3-2
1868: NYL – Gotham BBC (46-24 NYC), NEL – Newark BC (47-23 COA), TWC – Newark BC 3-1
1869: NYL – Atlantic BBC (43-27 BRK), NEL – Sons of the Ocean (48-22 NE), TWC – Sons of the Ocean 3-0 (2nd title)
1870: NYL – Kings County BBC (49-21 BRK), NEL – Green Mountain BC (44-26 NE), TWC – Kings County 3-0

Orange BBC absolutely dominated the New York League during the league’s first decade of existence. However, they couldn’t translate that into championships as New England clubs kept finding ways to spoil a presumed Orange victory party at the Tucker-Wheaton Cup.

#1 TEAM OF PRE-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL

Orange Base Ball Club (New York City Championship)

1857: 43-27, NYC & NYL champs, lost Tucker-Wheaton Cup
1858: 51-19, NYC & NYL champs, lost Tucker-Wheaton Cup
1859: 45-25, NYC champs
1860: 56-14, NYC & NYL champs, lost Tucker-Wheaton Cup
1861: 46-24, NYC & NYL champs, won Tucker-Wheaton Cup
1862: 48-22, NYC champs
1863: 56-14, NYC & NYL champs, lost Tucker-Wheaton Cup
1864: 42-29, NYC & NYL champs, won Tucker-Wheaton Cup (2nd time)
1865: 45-25, NYC & NYL champs, lost Tucker-Wheaton Cup
1866: 43-27, 2nd place in NYC Championship by 1 game
1867: 41-29, 2nd place in NYC Championship by 8 games
1868: 44-26, 2nd place in NYC Championship by 2 games
1869: 47-23, 2nd place in NYC Championship by 4 games
1870: 48-22, 2nd place in NYC Championship by 4 games

PRE-PRO: 655-326 record (.678 WIN%), 9 NYC Championships (5x runners-up), 7 New York League Championships, 2 Tucker-Wheaton Cups (5x runners-up)

Orange BBC was both the most successful and most snake-bitten team of the pre-split NBBO. They won the first nine New York City championships and then finished second in each of the next five. However, 4/5 second-place finishes were close and the team had horrible times in the Tucker-Wheaton Cup as well, winning just two out of the seven they went to. With better luck this could have been a team that won no less than 13/14 New York City championships and half (or more) of the awarded Tucker-Wheaton Cups in a 48-team league before the APBL was created. They could have been THE club in early American baseball, but it just wasn’t to be.

TOP BATSMAN OF PRE-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL

Samuel Kessler – Sons of the Ocean (57-66), Newark (67-69), Niagara (70)

980 G, 1,114 H, .353 AVG, .894 OPS, 169 OPS+, 240 2B, 239 3B, 2,362 TB, 867 RBI, 48.87 WPA (8.07 per 162), 40.2 WAR (6.6 per 162)

2x Tucker-Wheaton Cup winner (1857, 68)
3x Northeastern League Batsman of the Year (1859, 64, 68)
1x Northeastern League Most Valuable Player (1864)
1x Northeastern League Batting Champion (1864: .418)
13x National Base Ball Organization All-Star (1857-61, 63-70)
7x Northeastern League Team of the Year (57-59, 63-65, 68)
6x Northeastern League leader in total bases (1858, 59, 63, 64, 68, 69)
6x Northeastern League leader in triples (1858, 62-65, 68)
5x Northeastern League leader in extra-base hits (1858, 63, 64, 68, 69)
3x Northeastern League leader in OPS (1859, 63, 64)
1x Northeastern League leader in RBIs (1866: 71)
1x Northeastern League leader in runs (1864: 102)

1864: 70 G, .418 AVG (220 OPS+), 102 R, 138 H, 41 XBH, 70 RBI, 206 TB, 29 SB, 4.85 WPA (11.22 per 162), 4.2 WAR (9.7 per 162)

Kessler barely got the nod over Konrad Jensen. Why? Because Jensen was mostly a good-to-very-good hitter until he absolutely took off from 1867-70. Kessler’s consistency, 13 All-Star nods, and pair of Tucker-Wheaton Cups put him over the top. He was one of the driving forces – along with Anthony Mascherino – that put New England baseball on the map when everyone in New York just assumed that the best baseball was played there.

Thomas Maloney of Orange won a pair of MVPs and three Batsman of the Year awards before Kessler had won his second or Jensen his first, but his production in the middle of the 1860s dipped until his OPS was below .800 for a whole season. He still ended up on 10 All-Star teams and 6 editions of the NYL Team of the Year, but his overall numbers ultimately didn’t stack up with the other two.

TOP HURLER OF PRE-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL

Carl Bancroft – Orange BBC (1857-70)

280-130 record, 3.44 ERA (103 ERA+), 3,649.2 IP, 274 CG, 134 BB, 464 K, 57.5 WAR (3.5 per 225 IP)

2x Tucker-Wheaton Cup winner (1861, 64)
3x New York League Hurler of the Year (1858, 60, 62)
10x 20-game winner (1858-63, 65, 66, 69, 70)
9x National Base Ball Organization All-Star (1859-61, 64-66, 67, 69)
4x New York League leader in pitcher WAR (1858, 62, 63, 64)
3x New York League leader in shutouts (1859, 66, 69)
2x New York League leader in strikeouts (1858, 1863)
2x New York League leader in complete games (1858, 60)
1x New York League leader in innings (1862)

1862: 26-6, 3.56 ERA (98 ERA+), 291.0 IP, 23 CG, 14 BB, 38 K, 1.28 WHIP, 4.8 WAR (3.7 per 225 IP)

There’s really no debate: Carl Bancroft was the best pitcher in pre-professional baseball. He went on to win another Hurler of the Year award in the initial seasons in the APBL and retired as the first pitcher ever to win 300+ games (332). Nobody came remotely close to his win total of 280 in the 1857-70 timespan – Josiah Rayburn and Teddy Brinkley are next up at 209 and 208 respectively. If Orange BBC had thought him an ace right from the start of his career, Bancroft could have conceivably won 300+ in the pre-pro days as he didn’t start a single game as a 22-year-old in the NBBO’s inaugural season of 1857.

TOP PLAYER OF PRE-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL

Edward Huntley – Orange BBC (1858-69) & Kings County (1870)

903 G, 1,480 H, 401 XBH, 1,064 R, .353 AVG, .855 OPS, 152 OPS+, 840 RBI, 543 SB, +238.4 ZR (3B/SS), 50.44 WPA (9.04 per 162), 49.7 WAR (8.9 per 162)

2x Tucker-Wheaton Cup winner (1861, 64)
3x New York League Most Valuable Player (1860, 63, 65)
2x New York League Batsman of the Year (1863, 66)
13x National Base Ball Organization All-Star (1858-70)
9x New York League Team of the Year at 3B or SS (1859-63, 66, 67, 69, 70)
6x New York League Golden Glove at 3B (1858-62, 64)
1x New York League Batting Champion (1865: .392)
7x New York League leader in non-pitcher WAR (1860-63, 65, 66, 69)
3x New York League leader in runs (1863, 65, 66)

1860 (Orange): 70 G, .381 AVG, .895 OPS (166 OPS+), 88 R, 123 H, 75 RBI, 164 TB, 57 SB (5 CS), +30.0 ZR at 3B, 4.74 WPA (10.96 per 162), 4.8 WAR (11.1 per 162)

Huntley was the most well-rounded player in the league, and its most popular given that he was the face of Orange BBC. He played gold-glove third base perennially and switched seamlessly over to shortstop in 1867 after Orange’s starter at the position was signed away. He could do anything and do it well: hit, run, field, steal, move runners, find the gap, cover in the field. He was one of two players to be named league MVP three times (Konrad Jensen) and he’s also notable because he was part of Kings County’s haul of All-Stars before the 1870 season that got a group of clubs to think that maybe it was time for an above-board professional league.

There’s a persuasive argument to be made for Anthony Mascherino, who had more Golden Gloves (8), as many Tucker-Wheaton Cups, (2), and higher overall WAR (51.6) than Huntley, but he did that specializing in one position (SS) while playing for a team that wasn’t as prominent, and his fame was mostly linked to his extraordinary defense (30+ ZR at SS five times in seasons of 70 games, won 6 more Gold Gloves in the APBL for a career total of 14).

BEST INDIVIDUAL SEASON OF PRE-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL

Konrad Jensen (RF) of Excelsior BBC in 1867

70 G, .451 AVG, 1.127 OPS (222 OPS+), 109 R, 152 H, 49 XBH, 90 RBI, 218 TB, 40 SB (8 CS), 8.05 WPA (18.63 per 162), 4.9 WAR (11.3 per 162)

NBBO All-Star
NYL Batsman of the Year
NYL Most Valuable Player
NYL Team of the Year
NYL Batting Champion
3x NYL Batter of the Month
Led NYL in PA, AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, H, TB, 2B, RBI, R, BB, and non-pitcher WAR

This was the season where Jensen went from consistent young star to legend. Average: up 119 (.332 to .451) points from the year before. OPS: up 278 (.849 to 1.127). RBI: up 33 (58 to 90). Stolen bases: up by about half (26 to 40). This would be the first of four straight seasons in which he led the New York League in AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and WPA. He hit over .400 in three of those four seasons, and in the other one he hit .395 with an OPS over 1.000 and more than 6.1 WPA in 70 games.

ALL PRE-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL TEAM

C: James Starrett – four clubs (1857-70) – 8x All-Star, 4x Team of the Year, 21.9 WAR (4.0/162)

1B: DeVos Springer – Reading AC (60-68), Atlantic (69-70) – 7x Team of the Year, 6x All-Star, 1x Batsman of the Year, 21.6 WAR (4.6/162)

2B: Benjamin Chin – five clubs (1857-70) – 4x All-Star, 4x Team of the Year, 26.2 WAR (4.4/162)

3B: Samuel Kessler – SotO (57-66), Newark (67-69), Niagara (70) – 13x All-Star, 7x Team of the Year, 3x Batsman of the Year, 1x MVP, 40.2 WAR (6.6/162)

SS: Anthony Mascherino – Green Mountain (57-68), Minuteman (69-70) – 11x All-Star, 8x Golden Glove, 5x Team of the Year, 1x Batsman of the Year, 1x MVP, 51.6 WAR (9.4/162)

LF: Thomas Maloney – Orange (57-70) – 10x All-Star, 6x Team of the Year, 3x Batsman of the Year, 2x MVP, 2x Golden Glove, 34.4 WAR (5.8/162)

CF: Herman Ferris – St. Johns (60-65), Mutual (66-69), Kings County (70) – 8x All-Star, 5x Team of the Year, 1x MVP, 1x Golden Glove 31.3 WAR (6.6/162)

RF: Konrad Jensen – Excelsior (57-70) – 9x All-Star, 7x Team of the Year, 4x Batsman of the Year, 3x MVP, 3x Golden Glove, 37.0 WAR (7.1/162)

UT: Edward Huntley – Orange (57-69) & Brooklyn (70) – 3B/SS – 13x All-Star 9x Team of the Year, 6x Golden Glove, 3x MVP, 2x Batsman of the Year (all NYL), 49.7 WAR (8.9/162)

SP: Carl Bancroft – Orange (57-69) – 280-130, 3.44 ERA (103 ERA+), 9x All-Star, 3x Hurler of the Year, 57.5 WAR (3.5/225 IP)

SP: Theodore Brinkley – Niagara (57-63, 68-70), Minuteman (64-65), American (66-67) – 208-176, 3.00 ERA (115 ERA+), 3x All-Star, 1x Hurler of the Year, 52.2 WAR (3.4/225 IP)

SP: Jonathan Ramsey – Minuteman (60-63), Mutual (64-67), Knickerbocker (68-70) – 198-135, 3.17 ERA (112 ERA+), 5x All-Star, 40.1 WAR (3.1/225 IP)

tm1681 · 04-25-2023, 07:36 PM

THE INAUGURAL SEASON OF PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL

On the first Friday of May in 1871, the first games of professional baseball in the United States were played – the start of a new era for the sport. In the meantime, the ten clubs that formed the American Professional Baseball League were hoping that the first season of their new product would prove popular with the fans. Indeed, the first year of pro ball was a success. Attendance for nearly every club was even or higher even though ticket prices had doubled, and top-to-bottom the league was very competitive. In the end, it took until the final day of the season to decide a champion, with the Pennsylvania Quakers walking away crowned the first kings of the APBL.

The final standings:

Pennsylvania Quakers 55-35
Manhattan Orangemen 54-36 (1 GB)
Boston Shamrocks 47-43 (8 GB)
Brooklyn Kings 47-43 (8 GB)
N.Y. Knickerbockers 46-44 (9 GB)
N.J. Clippers 44-46 (11 GB)
Buffalo Blues 42-48 (13 GB)
Rochester Millers 40-50 (15 GB)
Pittsburgh Industrials 38-52 (17 GB)
Philadelphia Patriots 37-53 (18 GB)

The ten teams were quite close in standard. Pennsylvania’s win percentage was .611 and cross-city rivals Philadelphia sat exactly 20% lower (.411), with such win-loss spreads usually larger in the eight-team NBBO divisions. The best offense in the APBL (PENN) scored 7.3 runs per game while the weakest offense (PHI) was only about a run per game worse at 6.1. Similarly, the Quakers’ league-best batting average was .304 and the Patriots’ league-worst average was .275. Advanced metrics, such as Pythagorean Wins showed the league even tighter – just 13 Expected Wins between Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. This was a highly balanced league at the start of its lifespan.

As with the inaugural season of the NBBO, the inaugural season of the APBL ended with a set of inaugural award winners. Here they were:

BATSMAN OF THE YEAR

Edward Huntley – SS, Brooklyn Kings
90 G, .391 AVG, .959/176 OPS/OPS+, 88 R, 156 H, 21 2B, 19 3B, 58 RBI, 26 SB, 4.58 WPA (8.2/162), 5.2 WAR (9.4/162)

HURLER OF THE YEAR

Clarence Bowden – Manhattan Orangemen
359.1 IP, 45 GS, 27 CG, 27-17, 3.18 ERA, 23 BB, 70 K, 1.31 WHIP, 3.0 K/BB, 8.3 WAR (5.2/225 IP)

MOST VAULABLE PLAYER

Robert Loomis – OF, Buffalo Blues
90 G, .364 AVG, .854/146 OPS/OPS+, 66 R, 141 H, 71 RBI, 186 TB, 37 SB, 4.69 WPA (8.4/162)

GOLDEN GLOVES

P: Delbert Hodges (Brooklyn) – 350.2 I, 82 TC, 3 E, +8.7 ZR, 1.266 EFF
C: Silvio de Graaf (Manhattan) – 792.2 I, 267 TC, 103 PB, 22 E, +11.5 ZR, 1.023 EFF, 43.1 RTO%, 3.27 CERA
1B: Darragh Kelly (Buffalo) – 769.1 I, 957 TC, 25 E, 16 DP, + 5.1 ZR, 1.054 EFF
2B: Luhan McReady (Boston) – 794.2 I, 557 TC, 20 E, 322 A, 22 DP, 6.08 RNG, +16.9 ZR, 1.116 EFF
3B: James Harrington (Knick’s) – 774 I, 326 TC, 47 E, 226 A, 3.24 ENG, +16.4 ZR, 1.144 EFF
SS: Anthony Mascherino (Penn.) – 804.2 I, 559 TC, 56 E, 348 A, 22 DP, 5.63 RNG, +25.2 ZR, 1.143 EFF
OF: Thomas Maloney (Manhattan) – 784.1 I, 261 TC, 18 E, 8 A, 2.79, 1 DP, 2.79 RNG, +5.7 ZR, 1.059 EFF
OF: George Reese (Boston) – 792.2 I, 389 TC, 38 E, 12 A, 2 DP, 3.99 RNG, +12.8 ZR, 1.071 EFF
OF: Roger Sotheby (Rochester) – 772.1 I, 278 TC, 11 E, 17 A, 3.13 RNG, +4.7 ZR, 1.051 EFF

TEAM OF THE YEAR

P: Clarence Bowden (Manhattan) - 359.1 IP, 27-17, 3.18 ERA, 23 BB, 70 K, 1.31 WHIP, 3.0 K/BB, 8.3 WAR (5.2/225 IP), HotY
C: George Bell (Penns.) – .359 AVG, .828/139 OPS/OPS+, 71 R, 134 H, 32 XBH, 79 RBI, 172 TB, 3.27 CERA, 2.16 WPA, 2.1 WAR (3.9/162)
1B: Jens Kristensen (Boston) – .286 AVG, .725/108 OPS/OPS+, 69 R, 117 H, 31 XBH, 52 RBI, 169 TB, +6.5 ZR, 2.76 WPA, 0.9 WAR (1.6/162)
2B: James McDonald (Pitt.) – .314 AVG, .775/122 OPS/OPS+, 78 R, 130 H, 36 XBH, 61 RBI, 187 TB, 2.49 WPA, 0.6 WAR (1.1/162)
3B: James Findley (Boston) – .338 AVG, .896/150 OPS/OPS+, 87 R, 133 H, 49 XBH, 85 RBI, 22 SB, 3.50 WPA, 3.7 WAR (6.7/162)
SS: Edward Huntley (Brooklyn) – .391 AVG, .959/176 OPS/OPS+, 88 R, 156 H, 41 XBH, 58 RBI, 218 TB, 26 SB, 4.58 WPA, 5.2 WAR (9.4/162)
OF: Robert Loomis (Buffalo) – .364 AVG, .854/146 OPS/OPS+, 66 R, 141 H, 32 XBH, 71 RBI, 37 SB, 4.69 WPA, 1.7 WAR (3.1/162)
OF: Thomas Thompson (Penn.) – .336 AVG, .824/137 OPS/OPS+, 86 R, 131 H, 35 XBH, 73 RBI, 43 SB, 2.47 WPA, 3.0 WAR (5.4/162)
OF: Konrad Jensen (Manhattan) - .388 AVG, .905/162 OPS/OPS+, 83 R, 151 H, 29 XBH, 60 RBI, 33 SB, 3.65 WPA, 3.2 WAR (5.8/162)

tm1681 · 04-25-2023, 07:38 PM

THE FIRST DECADE OF THE APBL, AND THE NBBO CONTINUES ON

As mentioned, the APBL succeeded in creating both a more competitive and higher level of baseball, with less than twenty games separating the ten teams in the standings after the final day of the inaugural season.

The highly competitive baseball kept up for the first eight seasons, as six of the league's ten teams won at least one title and two of the remaining four finished in the top three at least once. In only two of eight seasons did the champion finish 5+ games ahead of second place. In 1874 the title was decided via a one-game playoff. In 1876 the top four teams in the standings finished only three games apart from each other, with champion Brooklyn going 55-35 and 4th-place New York finishing 52-38.

The first eight champions of the APBL:

1871: Pennsylvania Quakers (55-35, 1 game ahead)
1872: Manhattan Orangemen (61-29, 7 games ahead)
1873: Boston Shamrocks (61-29, 3 games ahead)
1874: Boston Shamrocks (53-38, won via one-game playoff v. MNH)
1875: Buffalo Blues (60-30, 9 games ahead)
1876: Brooklyn Kings (55-35, 2 games ahead)
1877: New York Knickerbockers (56-34, 3 games ahead)
1878: New York Knickerbockers (64-26, 3 games ahead)

After 1878, the league had two issues: last-place teams were increasingly non-competitive and fanbases were opining that, while they most certainly enjoyed the professional standard of baseball they missed the playoff atmosphere that was present at the end of the best teams' seasons in the NBBO.

With that in mind, the APBL decided to split the league into two groups and have the top team from each group play for the newly-created "President's Cup" to crown the APBL champion. However, executives decided that six-team groups would work better than five-team groups, and they looked for two clubs to join the pro ranks.

On that front, the decisions were easy as there were two NBBO clubs clearly a cut above the rest. The Excelsior club, which had been turned away at the founding of the APBL and lost Konrad Jensen as a result, didn't respond by wilting but instead became rampant in the Brooklyn Championship. They won it in 1872, and then five straight times from 1874-78, also winning the Tucker-Wheaton Cup three times during that five-year span. Meanwhile, over in Boston the Massachusetts Bay club responded to the reconfigured Coastal Championship by finishing in the top three eight years in a row, winning it each season from 1875-78 while putting up nearly a .700 winning percentage during that time.

Choosing those two clubs meant more concentration of pro baseball in major markets, but given Excelsior's and Massachusetts Bay's success there weren't any other clubs to realistically consider.

Massachusetts Bay kept their core intact upon moving up to pro baseball, supplementing their roster with pro castoffs. On the other hand, Excelsior completed pro baseball's first trade, sending NBBO All-Star Zenos Diakogeorgiou and $4,000 - enough to sign two five-star players or four good enough to have a chance to make Team of the Year with a good season - to Philadelphia to bring back prodigal son Konrad Jensen.

The two new groups were composed as such:

Colonial Conference: Buffalo, Boston, Massachusetts Bay, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Rochester
Metropolitan Conference: Brooklyn, Excelsior, Manhattan, New York, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

The first two seasons of the new format brought some competitive balance back, with no team winning more than 2/3 of their games and no team losing more than 2/3. However, the result was the same both seasons as Brooklyn won the first two President's Cup trophies, first over Rochester in 1879 and then over Boston in 1880.

In the NBBO, the baseball ended up being largely dominated by two teams. While the Northeastern League had a mix of six clubs compete for the Tucker-Wheaton Cup during the 1870s, the New York League wound up being controlled by Excelsior and the New York Athletic club after three other clubs won the NYL title in the first three years of the decade. Excelsior won the NYL title and the cup in 1874, '75, and '78 before moving to the APBL, while NYAC won the NYL in 1877, '79, and '80 while winning the cup twice.

In 1879, as mentioned, the APBL offered Excelsior and Massachusetts Bay the chance to join the league, which both took immediately. The NBBO responded by adding two clubs from the regional ranks: the Marathon club of Brooklyn and the Scarlets of Salem, Massachusetts...

During the decade the NBBO ran into a problem: after telling players that those who went pro were banned from returning to their league, so many players were signing with agents in the hopes of full-time paydays that average NBBO teams found themselves having difficulty filling out their basic 20-man rosters.

So, in 1877 the NBBO converted from an amateur-only model to a semi-professional model and allowed APBL washouts to return. The roster issues that the NBBO was having almost immediately resolved themselves, and teams ended up not spending much more money than they previously were when they were paying players illicitly, since the best players in the sport were now dedicated pros and NBBO clubs no longer had to worry about pushing around bags filled with hundreds of dollars of cash under the tables to to secure player services.

tm1681 · 04-25-2023, 07:44 PM

THE 1870s IN REVIEW

THE CHAMPIONS

AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE

1871: Pennsylvania Quakers (55-35, no playoffs)
1872: Manhattan Orangemen (61-29, no playoffs)
1873: Boston Shamrocks (61-29, no playoffs)
1874: Boston Shamrocks (53-38, no playoffs)
1875: Buffalo Blues (60-30, no playoffs)
1876: Brooklyn Kings (55-35, no playoffs)
1877: New York Knickerbockers (56-34, no playoffs)
1878: New York Knickerbockers (64-26, no playoffs)
1879: Brooklyn Kings (60-30, President’s Cup 4-0 over Rochester)

Champions were varied in the APBL’s first nine seasons, with six different teams winning the title. Brooklyn were the first champions after the league instituted divisions and a playoff in order to cater to fan demands for a climactic series.

NBBO FINALISTS & CHAMPIONS – Tucker-Wheaton Cup winners in italics

1870: NYL – Kings County BBC (49-21 BRK), NEL – Green Mountain BC (44-26 NE)
1871: NYL – Atlantic BBC (53-17 BRK), NEL – Cantabrigians BC (46-24 NE)
1872: NYL – Mutual BBC (47-23 NYC), NEL – Reading Athletic Club (47-23 INL)
1873: NYL – Victory BBC (49-21 UNY), NEL – Philadelphia Tigers Social Club (45-26 COA)
1874: NYL – Excelsior BBC (43-27 BRK), NEL – Cantabrigians BC (50-20 NE)
1875: NYL – Excelsior BBC (51-19 BRK), NEL – Massachusetts Bay BC (50-20 COA)
1876: NYL – Frontier BBC (52-18 UNY), NEL – Wilkes-Barre Coal Barons (45-25 INL)
1877: NYL – NYAC Athletics (44-26 NYC), NEL – Sons of the Ocean (53-17 NE)
1878: NYL – Excelsior Knights (47-23), NEL – Massachusetts Bay Pilgrims (55-15 COA)
1879: NYL – NYAC Athletics (46-24 NYC), NEL – Reading Athletics (44-26 INL)

Excelsior was so dominant over a five-year stretch (1874-78) that the APBL came calling and they got Konrad Jensen back. However, they weren’t the only team to win more than one Tucker-Wheaton Cup as Reading did it twice.

TEAM OF THE DECADE

Brooklyn Kings (American Professional Baseball Association)

1870 NBBO: 49-21, Brooklyn & NYL champs, Tucker-Wheaton Cup winners
1871 APBL: 47-43, 3rd place
1872 APBL: 53-37, 3rd place
1873 APBL: 47-43, 5th place
1874 APBL: 47-43, 5th place
1875 APBL: 51-39, 2nd place
1876 APBL: 55-35, champions
1877 APBL: 53-37, 2nd place
1878 APBL: 61-29, 2nd place
1879 APBL: 60-30, 1st in Metropolitan, won President’s Cup 4-0 over Rochester

1870s: 523-357 (.594), 2x APBL champs, 1x NBBO champs, five top-three finishes

There were other teams to win a pair of APBL titles during the 1870s (Boston, Knickerbockers), but only Brooklyn added a Tucker-Wheaton Cup in their final year in the NBBO to take three titles in the 1870s. That, combined with their consistency, put them over the top.

BATSMAN & PLAYER OF THE DECADE

Konrad Jensen – Manhattan Orangemen (1871-74), Buffalo Blues (75-76), Phi. Patriots (77-78), Excelsior Knights (79)

800 G, 1,354 H, .394 AVG, .957 OPS (173 OPS+), 1,354 H, 299 XBH, 1,779 TB, 542 RBI, 301 SB, 38.52 WPA (7.80 per 162), 33.7 WAR (6.9 per 162)

2x APBL champion (1872, 75)
5x APBL Batsman of the Year (1874-77, 79)
7x APBL Team of the Year at OF (1873-77, 79)
4x APBL Batting Champion (1874, 76, 77, 79)
7x APBL leader in walks (1871-75, 77, 78, runner up 2x)
7x APBL leader in on-base percentage (1871-74, 76, 77, 79)
4x APBL leader in OPS (1874, 76, 77, 79, runner up once)
4x APBL leader in home runs (1874, 76-78)
3x APBL leader in hits (1874-76)
3x APBL leader in runs (1872-74)
2x APBL leader in non-pitcher WAR (1874, 77, runner up once)
1x APBL leader in total bases (1874: 236, runner up 3x)
1x APBL leader in runs batted in (1874: 78)

1874 (MNH): 91 G, .416 AVG, 1.046 OPS (200 OPS+), 111 R, 169 H, 44 XBH, 78 RBI, 236 TB, 28 SB (4 CS), 5.61 WPA (9.98 per 162), 5.2 WAR (9.2 per 162)

There is simply no debate: Konrad Jensen was both the best hitter and best overall player of the 1870s. He won five APBL Batsman of the Year awards in six seasons, received 6/7 APBL Team of the Year nods in the outfield to end the decade, had an average as high as .448, finished multiple seasons with an OPS over 1.000, and he did this even though he ended the decade by turning 40. Also, in 1976 he successfully stole 92 times in 90 games just to prove to everyone he could steal bunches of bases if he felt like it. He started the decade with the Orangemen after Excelsior didn’t make the APBL cut and moved a couple of times after that, but he ended the decade back home after his old club proved too dominant for the NBBO.

As with the NBBO-only days, there could be an argument for Anthony Mascherino as the legendary shortstop won four titles plus six gold gloves to bring his career total an incredible 14, and he had slightly higher WAR (34.4). However, Jensen’s superior haul of major awards (7x TotY, 5x BotY, 4x batting champ) put him on the throne.

HURLER OF THE DECADE

Fred Peacock – Penn. Quakers (1871-73, 75), Pitt. Industrials (74), NY Knickerbockers (76-77), Brooklyn Kings (78-79)

198-116 record, 3.44 ERA (120 ERA+), 2,866.2 IP, 214 CG, 12 SHO, 233 BB, 430 K, 54.5 WAR (4.3 per 225 IP)

3x APBL champ (1871, 77, 78)
1x APBL Hurler of the Year (1878)
1st-ever pitcher with 30+ wins in a season (1878: 32)
3x APBL leader in wins (1871, 76, 78)
2x APBL leader in WHIP (1872, 78)
2x APBL leader in K/9 (1877, 79)
1x APBL leader in ERA (1878: 2.44)
1x APBL leader in strikeouts (1879: 68)
1x APBL leader in K/BB: (1879: 2.19/1)

1878 (BRK): 32-11, 2.44 ERA (153 ERA+), 369.0 IP, 29 CG, 3 SHO, 43 BB, 69 K, 1.19 WHIP, 6.6 WAR (4.0 per 225 IP)

There was no singularly dominant pitcher over the first nine seasons of the APBL. James Maxwell and Clarence Bowden won two Hurler of the Year Awards each, but Maxwell’s career effectively lasted three seasons due to injury and Bowden had some mediocre years after leaving the Orangemen in 1875. Peacock had more wins than any other pro pitcher in the 1870s and adding his historic 1878 on top of that made him the Hurler of the Decade. Peacock would go on to retire after the 1882 season with more combined NBBO & APBL wins than any other pitcher (369 – 234 in the APBL & 135 in the NBBO), and a career pitching WAR of 92.1.

ALL-DECADE TEAM

C: Bruce Fine – Knick's (71-75), Boston (76-79) – 4x Team of the Year, 2x Golden Glove, 19.4 WAR (4.3/162)
1B: Jens Kristensen – four teams – 2x Team of the Year, 2x Golden Glove, 9.5 WAR (2.0/162)
2B: James McDonald – Pitt. (71-74, Brooklyn (75-77), Rochester (78-79) – 1x champ, 4x Team of the Year, 12.2 WAR (2.4/162)
3B: James Findley – Boston (71-76), Buffalo (77-78) – 2x champ, 1x Batsman of the Year, 3x Team of the Year, 3x RBI leader, 14.5 WAR (3.9/162)
SS: Anthony Mascherino – Penn. (71-74), Brooklyn (75-76), Knick's (77-79) – 4x champ, 6x Golden Glove, 3x Team of the Year, 34.4 WAR (6.9/162)
OF: Charles Brophy – Knick's (74-79) – 2x champ, 2x MVP, 1x BotY, 1x Batting champ, 5x TofY, 26.63 WPA (9.84/162), 20.9 WAR (7.7/162)
OF: Tommy Thompson – Penn. (71-79) – 1x champ, 4x Team of the Year, 7x Golden Glove, 21.07 WPA (4.75/162), 21.8 WAR (4.9/162)
OF: Konrad Jensen – four teams – 2x champ, 5x Batsman of the Year, 4x Batting champ, 7x Team of the Year, 33.7 WAR (6.9/162)
SP: Fred Peacock – four teams – 3x champ, 1x Hurler of the Year, 3x win leader, 30-win season, 198-116, 3.44 ERA, 54.5 WAR (4.3/225 IP)
SP: Clarence Bowden – four teams – 1x champ, 2x Hurler of the Year, 178-135, 3.18 ERA, 54.8 WAR (4.2/225 IP)
SP: Leland Thurston – N.J. (71-74), Pitt. (75-76), Phila. (77-79) – 1x champ, 3x K leader, 2x CG leader, 181-178, 3.54 ERA, 54.5 WAR (3.6/225 IP)

There was a lot of player movement over the first decade of professional baseball, and a lot of the NBBO greats retired during the decade. Because of that, some of the positions on the all-decade team (1B, 2B, SP) look weak. Brophy made it even though he played only five full years, because once he settled in with the Knickerbockers after a brief stint in 1874 he became a superstar at the age of 21 (.996 OPS, 171 OPS+).

tm1681 · 04-29-2023, 06:29 PM

THE MANHATTAN ORANGEMEN EXIT PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL, AND ANOTHER NEW YORK CLUB RISES IN THEIR PLACE

The Manhattan Orangemen were the most successful club of pre-professional baseball, following nine consecutive first-place finishes in the New York City Championship at the start of the National Base Ball Organization with five second-place finishes before becoming one of the founding members of the American Professional Baseball League. Going into the inaugural season of the APBL they had nearly everything: first-class coaching, executives, facilities, recruitment, scouting, and a new owner who was happy to let the baseball people do their work.

The only thing possibly not in Manhattan’s favor was the capacity of the Upper Manhattan Base Ball Grounds, which was one of two APBL venues that sat under 10,000 at 7,412. Before the days of mass media and extensive merchandising, this put them at an income disadvantage compared to the other APBL clubs. Nonetheless, it was figured that the Orangemen would be a solid professional outfit because of how well their organization was run. Indeed, this proved to be the case at the start of the APBL.

Over the first four seasons of the nascent life of pro ball, Manhattan’s finishes in the APBL were 2nd, 1st, 2nd, and 2nd, with their second-place finish in 1874 coming via a one-game playoff after being even with Boston at the end of the 90-game season. However, soon after Manhattan would experience the same problem that they ran into during the latter half of their stay in the NBBO: the competition caught up.

Beginning in 1875, Manhattan fell into the bottom half of the standings and failed to recover, never finishing better than a dozen games out of first place over the next six seasons. In the four seasons before the APBL was split into two conferences, they finished 7th out of ten in 1875 (19 GB), 9th in ’76 (15 GB), 6th in ’77 (12 GB), and 8th in ’78 (30 GB). After the split they didn’t fare any better, finishing last out of six in the Metropolitan Conference in 1879 (25 GB) and 5th in 1880 (15 GB).

The issue was the same one that hit Manhattan in amateur baseball: their competence kept them ahead at the start, but once the clubs with more money figured things out and began to flex their financial muscles the Orangemen were caught and passed. The big problem with having that happen in the APBL was that almost every club had more money than Manhattan, and they went from turning a profit of nearly $24,000 in 1871 to barely breaking even by the end of the decade as more and more money was being was being spent on players.

Seeing the proverbial writing on the wall, at the 1880 year-end executives’ meetings Lloyd Richmond, who’d owned the Manhattan club since 1871, along with his front office men, informed the rest of the league’s executives that they felt no choice but to move back to the NBBO in order to save the club from financial ruin. Manhattan’s exit was met with much sadness, as they were the preeminent club of organized baseball over its first twenty years.

At the same time, the APBL now had a one-team hole to fill but filling that was very easy. Another New York club, the baseball team representing the New York Athletic Club, had crushed Manhattan’s old New York City Championship in recent years. Their record over the previous four seasons:

1877: 44-26 (1st by 5 games) – Tucker-Wheaton Cup winners
1878: 44-26 (1st by 2 games) – lost New York League semi-final
1879: 46-24 (1st by 2 games) – lost Tucker-Wheaton Cup
1880: 51-19 (1st by 12 games) – Tucker-Wheaton Cup winners

They were easily the best big-market club in the NBBO now that Excelsior had left, and both the invitation and acceptance to join the pro ranks happened almost immediately. The rechristened New York Athletics were good enough with their mostly-NBBO roster that they finished second in the Metropolitan in their debut season. They then finished 1st, 2nd, and 2nd over the next three seasons.

With the Athletics joining the pro ranks it was the Knickerbocker club that took up the mantle of Manhattan baseball, which was an easy decision given they were based there. Before the Orangemen’s exit they were known as the New York Knickerbockers, and afterward they were the Manhattan Knickerbockers. It is perhaps no coincidence that by the end of the decade they were baseball’s dominant team.

As painful as it was, the return to what was now semi-professional baseball proved to be exactly what the Orangemen needed, as the first season of their return to the NBBO ended with a 49-21 record, a Tucker-Wheaton Cup, and about $11,000 in profits. That path of success would remain steady for Manhattan for many years.

tm1681 · 04-29-2023, 06:52 PM

1882: THREE NEW LEAGUES BRING BASEBALL TO THE MIDWEST!

With baseball spreading across the United States, whose population was rapidly spreading itself, three new leagues popped up in the Midwestern US in 1882.

First up was the Midwestern Baseball Association (MWBA):

The MWBA was to be the Midwest's answer to the American Professional Baseball League, and similarly it was made up of the best existing amateur clubs from large Midwestern metropolitan areas. Like the initial seasons of the APBL, the teams would play each other ten times for a 90-game season and the champion would be decided based on regular season record – no playoffs. Roster rules & regulations were identical to those in the APBL, but there was a difference on the financial side. The members of the league would make, on average, about 80% of those playing in the established professional league, with superstar-level pay closer to the 75% mark.

The inaugural season was a competitive affair, with three teams - St. Louis, Louisville, & Lake Michigan - in the title hunt until the final week. In the end St. Louis won the first MWBA championship with a 55-35 record. The final standings:

Offense was notable in the inaugural season of the MWBA in that it was much higher scoring than the first run of the APBL – MWBA teams scored 7.7 runs per game to 6.7 for the maiden APBL teams in 1871. There was also a larger variance in offense from top to bottom, with Louisville leading the league by scoring 8.7 runs per game and Chicago bringing up the rear with 6.5 per game.

The various teams were well-represented in the inaugural MWBA awards, with nine of the ten clubs having at least one player receiving something – only ninth-place Indianapolis missing out. The award winners:

BATSMAN OF THE YEAR

Jacob Milburn – LF, St. Louis Saints
90 G, .418/.456/.621, 1.077 OPS (201 OPS+), 173 H, 29 3B, 55 XBH, 257 TB, 99 RBI, 97 R, 26 SB, 5.46 WPA (9.82/162), 3.1 WAR (5.6/162)

HURLER OF THE YEAR

Charlie Higgins – St. Louis Saints
345.2 IP, 45 GS, 25 CG, 27-9, 3.91 ERA, 58 BB, 37 K, 1.48 WHIP, 7.5 WAR (4.9/225 IP)

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

Obelix Papatamelis – LF, Louisville Sluggers
90 G, .375/.446/.552, .998 OPS (180 OPS+), 464 PA, 130 R, 50 BB, 149 H, 46 XBH, 72 RBI, 34 SB, 6.30 WPA (11.34/162), 4.0 WAR (7.2/162)

GOLDEN GLOVES

P: Lyman Benson (MIL) – 337 I, 86 TC, 51 A, 11 E, +7.8 ZR
C: Earl Shook (LM) – 711.2 I, 5 E, 62 PB, 43.4 RTO%, 3.71 CERA, +11.3 ZR, 1.146 EFF
1B: Ben Hennessy (MIL) – 629.1 I, 833 TC, 37 E, 53 A, +6.1 ZR, 1.087 EFF
2B: Joseph Spencer (DET) – 750 I, 559 TC, 273 A, 46 DP, 48 E, 6.13 RNG, +16.1 ZR, 1.147 EFF
3B: Franklin Rader (MIS) – 765.1 I, 327 TC, 214 A, 10 DP, 63 E, 3.10 RNG, +12.0 ZR, 1.126 EFF
SS: Harold Behrens (STL) – 780.1 I, 529 TC, 364 A, 43 DP, 41 E, 5.63 RNG, +37.7 ZR, 1.258 EFF
OF: Alex Hayden (CLE) – 772 I, 287 TC, 11 A, 4 DP, 27 E, 3.03 RNG, +5.8 ZR, 1.034 EFF
OF: Jonathan Campbell (CIN) – 784 I, 423 TC, 25 A, 4 DP, 25 E, 4.57 RNG, +5.6 ZR, 1.015 EFF
OF: Truman Elliott (CHI) – 730.2 I, 288 TC, 14 A, 5 DP, 19 E, 3.30 RNG, +10.3 ZR, 1.092 EFF

TEAM OF THE YEAR

P: Charlie Higgins (STL) – 345.2 IP, 27-9, 3.91 ERA, 25 CG, 58 BB, 37 K, 7.5 WAR (4.9/225 IP), champion
C: Tobias Nielsen (LOU) - .312 AVG, .769 OPS (116 OPS+), 62 RBI, 43.2% CS, 3.06 CERA, 1.7 WAR (3.5/162)
1B: Julian Gregory (CHI) - .344 AVG, .864 OPS (142 OPS+), 34 XBH, 54 RBI, 73 R, 3.17 WPA, 2.5 WAR (4.6/162)
2B: Bryan Lawson (STL) - .359 AVG, .847 OPS (138 OPS+), 28 XBH, 90 RBI, 82 R, 1.1 WAR (2.0/162), champion
3B: Franklin Rader (MIS) - .362 AVG, .849 OPS (139 OPS+), 27 XBH, 69 RBI, 74 R, 175 TB, 3.1 WAR (5.6/162), GG
SS: George Shay (CIN) - .332 AVG, .801 OPS (125 OPS+), 30 XBH, 68 RBI, 100 R, +26.2 ZR at SS, 4.4 WAR (7.9/162)
OF: Obelix Papatamelis (LOU) - .375 AVG, .998 OPS (180 OPS+), 46 XBH, 72 RBI, 130 R, 50 BB, 219 TB, 6.30 WPA, 4.0 WAR (7.2/162)
OF: Burl Chance (LM) - .329 AVG, .826 OPS (131 OPS+), 30 XBH, 70 RBI, 81 R, 3.50 WPA, 1.7 WAR (3.3/162)
OF: Jacob Milburn (STL) – .418 AVG, 1.077 OPS (201 OPS+), 173 H, 29 3B, 55 XBH, 99 RBI, 257 TB, 5.46 WPA, 3.1 WAR (5.6/162), BotY, champion

In addition to the MWBA, there were two semi-professional leagues that also began play…

tm1681 · 04-29-2023, 06:56 PM

The second league to set up shop was the Great Lakes Baseball Conference (GLBC):

The GLBC didn't cast as wide of a geographical net as the MWBA at the start, limiting itself to Midwestern states that bordered the Great Lakes and cities within those states that were as close as possible to the lakes themselves. The league was nowhere near ambitious as the long-established NBBO, having just 10 teams compared to their 48.

In the GLBC's inaugural season, Saginaw was the clear #1 as they had the league title wrapped up with a week to spare. From there they coasted to a 58-32 record and held the top spot by three games over Toledo. At the other end of the spectrum, the Wolves of Grand Rapids had a very regrettable pro debut, finishing in last place by ten full games at 28-62.

Thomas Mack of Toledo (.365 AVG, .902 OPS, 79 RBI, 199 TB in 90 games) was the league’s first Batsman of the Year, while Robert Beeson (27-15, 24 CG, 24 BB, 55 K, 9.0 WAR), also of Toledo, was the GLBC’s inaugural Pitcher of the Year. Duluth RF George Wise (6.37 WPA in 88 games) was the competition’s first MVP.

tm1681 · 04-29-2023, 06:59 PM

The other semi-pro circuit was the Baseball League of the American Prairie, commonly shortened to the Prairie League (PL):

The PL covered a larger area than the other two leagues, allowing applicants from the Dakotas and Kansas all the way east to southern Illinois. However, in the end the initial ten clubs were largely confined to four states as Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska combined to have nine of the ten.

During the first year of the Prairie League, it was St. Paul as the frontrunner and nine other teams fighting for second place. The North Stars finished an incredible 64-26, winning the title by no less than ten games. The rest of the league was a bit of a palindrome, with records ranging from 54-36 to (Omaha) to 36-54 (Des Moines).

The Prairie League’s first Batsman of the Year was Kansas City second baseman Henry Garvin (.387 AVG, 1.070 OPS, 114 R, 158 R, 257 TB, 86 RBI all lead the PL), while old hand Duane Foster of St. Paul (39 y/o, 31-13, 48 GS, 390.2 IP, 29 CG, 5.4 WAR) was its first Pitcher of the Year. Garvin doubled up on the major awards as he was also the league’s inaugural MVP (7.90 WPA in 90 games).

tm1681 · 05-01-2023, 08:36 PM

KING KONRAD PUTS DOWN HIS BAT

After the APBL’s 1883 season, Konrad Jensen, now a 43-year-old, 26-year veteran of both pre-professional and professional baseball, decided it was time to call an end to his extraordinary career. He hadn’t declined significantly - .362/.411/.581 for a .992 OPS in his final season – but he felt after slightly more than a quarter century’s worth of summers playing the game regularly it was time to do something else. He immediately signed a lucrative contract to become the Hitting Coach of the Excelsior Knights.

How good was his career? Well, take a look…

NOTE: For some reason, along the way I had to restore a backup and in the process I lost all the Black/Gray ink prior to the 1881 season, thus the highlighting is gone.

The honors he racked up during his career?

1st player to reach 3,000 career hits (3,311 for career)
1st non-pitcher to cross 80 WAR (81.9 for career)
16x Team of the Year (Silver Slugger) at OF (7x NYL, 9x APBL)
10x Batsman of the Year (MVP) (4x NYL, 6x APBL)
10x Batting Champion (5x NYL, 5x APBL)
9x New York League (NBBO) All-Star (1860-64, 67-70)
2x APBL championship winner (1872, 1875)
3x New York League (NBBO) Most Valuable Player (Custom – based on WPA) (1867, 68, 70)
2x New York League (NBBO) Triple Crown winner (1869, 1870)

15x League leader in OBP (5x NYL, 10x APBL)
12x League leader in Walks (3x NYL, 9x APBL – never led league in IBB)
11x League leader in Runs Created (5x NYL, 6x APBL)
10x League leader in OPS (4x NYL, 6x APBL)
5x League leader in AVG, OBP, and SLG simultaneously (4x NYL, 1x APBL)
4x League leader in RBI (2x NYL, 2x APBL)
4x League leader in position player WAR (2x NBBO, 2x APBL)

1867 (Excelsior, NYL): .451 AVG, 1.127 OPS (222 OPS+), 49 XBH, 90 RBI, 109 R, 8.05 WPA in 70 games
1867-70 (Excelsior, NYL): .428 AVG, 1.081 OPS (215 OPS+), 324 RBI, 395 R, 18.6 WAR in 280 games
1871-83 (3 teams, APBL): .390 AVG, .442 OBP, .528 SLG, .970 OPS (170 OPS+), 55.59 WPA, 45.0 WAR in 1,157 games
1876 (Buffalo, APBL): .448 AVG, .498 OBP, .546 SLG, 1.044 OPS (197 OPS+), 201 TB in 90 games

Here’s how good he still was at the age of thirty-nine:

And here’s how good the game engine still had him at the age of 39:

NOTE: I had hitting batter aging speed set to .850 so players would start to fall off around age 35 because of the shorter seasons, so this was still a large deviation. I also had the amateur draft ticked off, and with the different way the game engine generates random free agents instead of amateur draft pool players, it would seem on the face of it that outlier players like this are more likely to appear…

As a columnist from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle put it, “Of all the men and women in all of human history who have ever tried their hand at anything, a scarce few have been better at their selected field of work than Konrad Jensen was at the game of base ball.”

tm1681 · 05-01-2023, 08:41 PM

THE RISE OF THE MIDWESTERN BASEBALL ASSOCIATION

When the Midwestern Baseball Association began play in 1882, it was not intended to be a thorn in the side of the already established professional league, the APBL. It was created to give the Midwestern United States its own professional baseball league, with standards to match and salaries that came close to that of the “Grand Circuit”.

Things were calm for the first four years of the two leagues’ co-existence, as there was relatively little player movement during the four-year countdown before the first MWBA free agent class took place. It was assumed that APBL front offices would see their junior upstarts as inferior and unworthy of attention, but in the winter of 1885 that changed quickly as notable MWBA stars entering their first taste of free agency were snapped up by APBL clubs offering better salaries:

Halvard Westegren, 1885 Team of the Year at C, moved from St. Louis to the New York Athletics
George Shay, SS of the year all four MWBA seasons, moved from Cincinnati to the Athletics
Henry Oliver, 2x 20-game winner, moved from Lake Michigan to New Jersey
Charles Fried, Indianapolis’ best hitter and key infielder, signed with Excelsior
Frank O’Meara, 1885 20-game winner, moved from Milwaukee to Manhattan
Charles Beals, Detroit’s ace, was signed by APBL champions Brooklyn
Key Cincinnati starter Joseph Bryant signed for New Jersey

This all caught the collective MWBA brass completely off-guard. APBL front offices saw the MWBA product as inferior, so surely they saw the players as inferior too? At the annual end-of-season meetings in October of 1886, a plan of action was discussed. There were two courses the league could have taken: take steps to keep players from moving to the other league or get revenge on the APBL by bringing in some of their best players. The MWBA chose the latter, and how!

Just two weeks after the meetings were over, Detroit shocked the eastern baseball establishment by signing professional baseball’s now most famous player, Alva Burgess, from the Boston Shamrocks by offering a 33% raise from what the dominant team of the APBL was paying him. In Burgess’ 11 years with Boston he’d won three APBL pennants, two Batsman of the Year awards, two MVPs, eight Team of the Year nods, and was widely seen as the best overall player in the league.

One week later, Boston was poached a second time when Louisville swooped in and offered 31-game-winner Frank Singleton a whopping 60% raise on his Shamrocks pay packet. Singleton was a seven-year vet who’d split his time between Brooklyn and Boston, and in that short time had won 163 games - 23 per season - opposed to just 81 losses. He’d led the APBL in wins three straight seasons, won multiple titles, and was the ace of Boston’s feared pitching staff.

And just like that, the APBL’s best pitcher and best hitter had switched leagues before winter had even set in. The events were an embarrassment for the APBL due to not only the nature of having lost both their Batsman and Pitcher of the Year in the space of a week, but Boston was the league’s marquee team, having finished 1886 with a record of 88-24 while easily earning a place in the President’s Cup. The era of open competition between the two leagues for talent was now on.

Not only was the competition for talent on, but now that the MWBA showed they could compete financially people were beginning to think that maybe the baseball talent in the Midwest was just as good. Indeed, the MWBA’s marquee players were as good as anything the APBL put on the field.

At the start of the MWBA, rumors told of an incredibly talented 22-year-old from Rushville, IL named Jacob Milburn who was supposedly every bit as talented as Konrad Jensen…

He joined the amateur St. Louis Baseball Club out of high school in 1878, and over the rest of the 1880s he proceeded to do this to the MWBA:

If you’re keeping track, that’s Milburn leading the MWBA in hits, average, OBP, slugging, and obviously OPS in all the league’s first seven seasons. Not surprisingly, he was Batsman of the Year all seven times as well. Milburn was a credible fielder on top of that, but not as good as Jensen.

A closer look at him reveals that he’s another one of the outliers generated by the game engine that happens when you tick the amateur draft off.

As the MWBA had a marquee batter, they quickly found out they had a marquee pitcher as well: German-born Hans Ehle, better known as “Der Kaiser”…

Ehle was not an MWBA original. He started 1882 in the GLBC with the Columbus Capitols, having joined them right as he was graduating high school. He was regarded as a pitcher with impressive potential and looked decent in his first season. However, as he transitioned into adulthood and his frame filled out, his pitching gained velocity (1882: 84-86, 1884: 90-92) and as the rules of baseball allowed pitchers to start throwing overhanded in 1884 (Note: the same year it happened in real life baseball) he really took off:

That ridiculous third season led to him being purchased by Milwaukee – where else would a German go but Wisconsin – for $4,000. As pitchers worked to maximize the effect of the new rules removing restraints on pitching styles, it led to an immediate spike in strikeouts and Ehle’s dominance went from noticeable to terrifying:

As you can see, he’s probably another 1800s outlier generated by the game…

With young men like the above on the MWBL’s side, it was no longer 100% certain that the APBL had the best players in baseball, and that could only make things more interesting going into the 1890s.

04-22-2023, 03:21 PM	#2
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	THE INAUGURAL SEASON The first season of the NBBO was an exciting one, but the style of baseball played would have looked alien to those who watch it in the 21st Century. Fields were enormous, there were no called balls and strikes, fielders had no gloves, home runs were almost always inside-the-parkers, pitchers could only deliver the ball underhanded, and baserunners could be ruled out by being hit with a throw from a fielder. This meant that the game was all action – stolen bases were high, errors were astronomical, and batting averages more than made up for any lack of power or walks. In the end, this meant that the weakest offensive teams in the NBBO scored 6+ runs per game, with the best hovering around ten. Having offensive output that high could lead one to conclude that the competition was heavily lopsided in 1857, but that was not the case. Nearly every one of the NBBO’s six city and regional championships were decided in the final week of the 70-game season, and first six teams to make it to the NBBO playoffs were: NEW YORK LEAGUE NORTHEASTERN LEAGUE With the regular season having close competitions, many close to the new sport presumed that the inaugural NBBO playoffs would feature similarly close best-of-five series. However, that did not happen. While Eckford of Greenpoint and Sportsman’s waited to see who they would play, the Orange Club beat Utica in four games in the NYL semi-final while Sons of the Ocean swept Port Jersey in the NEL semi-final. After that, both League Championship Series featured upsets, with Orange beating Eckford in five games to win the NYL championship and Sons of the Ocean taking down Sportsman’s in four to win the NEL half of the bracket. If nothing else, the first Tucker Wheaton Cup figured to have plenty of excitement as Orange and Sons of the Ocean were two of the top three scorers in the 48-team NBBO. However, the anticipated high-drama affair never came to fruition as Massachusetts-based SotO were dominant and won the cup in four games: Game One: Sons of the Ocean 10-7 @ Orange – Samuel Kessler (SotO) PotG (3/5, 3 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI) Game Two: Sons of the Ocean 6-2 @ Orange – Adolphus Cole (SotO) PotG (CG, 5 H, 2 RA, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 109 pitches) Game Three: Orange 13-5 @ Sons of the Ocean – Lester Simon (ORA) PotG (3/5, 3 R, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 1 SB, 1 BB) Game Four: Sons of the Ocean 16-13 vs. Orange – Ralph Wingate (SotO) PotG (3/6, 2 R, 1 2B, 4 RBI) NBBO Playoffs MVP: Samuel Kessler (SotO) – 11 G, .473 AVG (26/55), 1.155 OPS (260 OPS+), 14 R, 5 2B, 3 3B, 12 RBI, 5 SB Awards were given to the best players in both NBBO leagues after the end of the season, and the inaugural NBBO award winners were: BATSMEN OF THE YEAR NYL: Lake Heilman (Continental) – 70 G, .372 AVG, .839 OPS (152 OPS+), 123 H, 24 2B, 76 RBI, 4.50 WPA, 2.3 WAR NEL: Alexander Etheridge (Green Mountain) – 70 G, .408 AVG, .988 OPS (210 OPS+), 81 R, 133 H, 14 3B, 58 RBI, 34 SB, 3.32 WPA, 3.6 WAR HURLERS OF THE YEAR NYL: Clyde Chappelle (Victory) – 287 IP, 23-8, 3.38 ERA (101 ERA+), 34 BB, 29 K, 1.37 WHIP, 3.8 WAR NEL: Frederick Hadden (Massachusetts Bay) – 287 IP, 22-11, 2.35 ERA (132 ERA+), 9 BB, 21 K, 1.07 WHIP, 4.3 WAR NEW YORK LEAGUE TEAM OF THE YEAR P: Clyde Chappelle (Victory) – 287 IP, 23-8, 3.38 ERA (101 ERA+), 34 BB, 29 K, 1.37 WHIP, 3.8 WAR C: Tiberius Voit (Minuteman) – 67 G, .312 AVG, .800 OPS (138 OPS+), 14 3B, 54 RBI, 2.28 WPA, 1.7 WAR 1B: Lake Heilman (Continental) – 70 G, .372 AVG, .839 OPS (152 OPS+), 123 H, 24 2B, 76 RBI, 4.50 WPA, 2.3 WAR, Batsman of the Year 2B: George Van Meter (Utica) – 70 G, .329 AVG, .823 OPS (146 OPS+), 70 R, 108 H, 14 3B, 55 RBI, 2.69 WPA, 2.3 WAR 3B: Lars Hartmann (Eckford) – 70 G, .296 AVG, .704 OPS (111 OPS+), 80 R, 10 3B, 64 RBI, 2.59 WPA, 1.7 WAR SS: Maxwell Brock (Flour City) – 70 G, .329 AVG, .777 OPS (133 OPS+), 106 H, 20 2B, 69 RBI, 3.20 WPA, 1.8 WAR LF: Robert Kelsey (Nassau County) – 67 G, .379 AVG, .852 OPS (156 OPS+), 75 R, 121 H, 55 RBI, 22 SB, 4.39 WPA, 2.7 WAR CF: Anastagio Torriano (Eckford) – 70 G, .342 AVG, .820 OPS (145 OPS+), 95 R, 117 H, 20 2B, 12 3B, 71 RBI, 57 SB, 4.46 WPA, 3.0 WAR RF: Ollie Asplund (Atlantic) – 70 G, .334 AVG, 829 OPS (148 OPS+), 71 R, 112 H, 26 2B, 11 3B, 70 RBI, 24 SB, 3.67 WPA, 2.8 WAR NORTHEASTERN LEAGUE TEAM OF THE YEAR P: Frederick Hadden (Massachusetts Bay) – 287 IP, 22-11, 2.35 ERA (132 ERA+), 9 BB, 21 K, 1.07 WHIP, 4.3 WAR C: Guy Dixon (Alleghany) – 66 G, .209 AVG, .715 OPS (124 OPS+), 43 RBI, 1.55 WPA, 2.4 WAR, Gold Glove 1B: Truman Paganini (Sons of the Ocean) – 69 G, .340 AVG, .827 OPS (159 OPS+), 102 H, 25 2B, 71 RBI, 1.92 WPA, 2.0 WAR 2B: Benjamin Chin (Granite) – 68 G, .314 AVG, .763 OPS (139 OPS+), 77 R, 51 SB, 5.08 WPA, 2.2 WAR 3B: Samuel Kessler (Sons of the Ocean) – 70 G, .353 AVG, .870 OPS (172 OPS+), 79 R, 116 H, 15 3B, 60 RBI, 3.40 WPA, 3.0 WAR SS: Curtis Watt (Quinnipiac) – 70 G, .318 AVG, .753 OPS (136 OPS+), 84 R, 110 H, 45 RBI, 57 SB, 3.55 WPA, 3.6 WAR LF: Tristan Pedersen (Shamrock) – 70 G, .358 AVG, .850 OPS (166 OPS+), 118 H, 22 2B, 68 RBI, 3.76 WPA, 2.4 WAR CF: Edward Newkirk (Oceanic) – 70 G, .332 AVG, .845 OPS (163 OPS+), 86 R, 111 H, 22 2B, 16 3B, 60 RBI, 30 SB, 2.62 WPA, 3.0 WAR RF: Alexander Etheridge (Green Mountain) – 70 G, .408 AVG, .988 OPS (210 OPS+), 81 R, 133 H, 14 3B, 58 RBI, 34 SB, 3.32 WPA, 3.6 WAR, Batsman of the Year The first season of organized, competitive baseball was a successful experiment, and it was hoped that there would be many more to come. Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:16 PM.

04-22-2023, 05:03 PM	#3
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	THE EARLY YEARS In the early years of the NBBO, even though the oldest clubs were from New York City and Brooklyn it was the clubs outside of New York who proved better, with Northeastern League members winning six of the first ten Tucker-Wheaton Cups. Their champions were varied, with Sons of the Ocean (New Bedford, MA) winning the inaugural Tucker Wheaton Cup in 1857. NEL champions would take the next three, with Granite (Manchester, NH), St. John's (Providence, RI), and Quinnipac (New Haven, CT) winning in '58, '59, & '60. Soon after, the Green Mountain club of Burlington, VT took control of the NEL, winning it three times in five years and taking the cup in 1863 & 1865. Over on the New York side, it was all about one team: the Willem von Orange Baseball Club. Even though it didn't have the resources and venue size of the Gotham Club or the Knickerbocker club, the Orange Club won the New York City championship in each of its first nine seasons, going on to win the New York League championship in seven of those nine. However, they could rarely take the final step, only winning the Tucker Wheaton Cup in 1861 & 1864. In the latter half of the 1860s, fissures began to appear in the NBBO. While most players were given an expense per-diem of $1 or $2 per week during training, star players were given under-the-table payments of as much as $500 per year, essentially making them full-time professionals. Not long after "shamateurism" began, the Orange Club's dominance of the New York League was upended and they went five years without winning the New York City Championship, with the Knickerbocker club winning it four out of the five. Also, smaller Northeastern League clubs subsidized by rich owners continued get the best of their NYL counterparts in direct competition, with NEL teams taking the Tucker Wheaton Cup in 1867 (Reading v. Excelsior), '68 (Newark v. Gotham), and '69 (Sons of the Ocean v. Atlantic). There were larger clubs in the NEL - Alleghany (Pittsburgh), Shamrock (Boston), Quaker State (Philadelphia) to name a few - but it was these smaller clubs funded either by rich owners or well-to-do patrons and supporters that always managed to frustrate their bigger-city brethren. On a lighter note: given how many clubs and players there were in the NBBO, competition organizers thought it would be fun to have an “All Stars” game with roughly two weeks to go in the season; an exhibition featuring the best 45-50 players in the country that would surely bring in a nice set of gate receipts (NOTE: something kind of like this did actually happen in real life in 1858). There would be 23 each from the NYL and NEL – two for each non-pitcher position (#1-16), a third catcher (#17), and six pitchers (#18-23). Once clubs began using three starting pitchers instead of two, the number of pitchers increased from six to eight. And thus, along with the inaugural seasons of organized baseball came the inaugural “All Stars Game”. As far as the players go, even though the NBBO was comprised of 48 teams shortly after its foundation a clear set of stars emerged. Some of the players of note: NEW YORK LEAGUE Thomas Maloney (Orange) won three of the first six Batsman of the Year awards (1858, 59, 62) and three Most Valuable Player awards. He also appeared in eight All-Star games and five Teams of the Year over the first decade. He was the first player to hit .400 twice (.401 in 1858, .426 in 1859), and he was the first to put up a 1.000 OPS in a season (1.071 in 1859). Edward Huntley (Orange) didn’t play in 1857, but after joining the NBBO as a 22-year-old in 1858 he made all thirteen All-Star games that were played before the formation of professional baseball. He also won two Batsman of the Year awards (1863, 66), three Most Valuable Player awards, six Golden Gloves at third base, and was in the Team of the Year nine times. Carl Bancroft (Orange) won three of the first six NYL Pitcher of the Year awards (1858, 60, 62) and won no less than 280 games as an amateur pitcher for the Orange Club thanks to a decade’s worth of 20-win seasons. He would go on to become the first pitcher ever to win 300+ games. Raymond Staten (Victory, Flour City) started the 1860s by winning eight straight Golden Gloves (nine in total) as the New York League’s, and the NBBO’s, best defensive catcher. This only earned him one TotY and two All-Star nominations, but his work at the most physically demanding position on the field made him arguably the most respected player in the league. Delbert “Mr. Do-it-All” Hodges (Kings County) made four All-Star games and won five Golden Gloves (all at P), but he was far more famous for his versatility. He was an accomplished pitcher, second baseman, third baseman, shortstop, and outfielder, and his ability to comfortably play so many positions in addition to being a starting pitcher made him a fan favorite. By the end of his twenty-year career, he won 294 games between amateur & pro ball, amassed 1,330 hits on a .310 batting average, and earned 101.4 WAR between his pitching, batting, and fielding work. NORTHEASTERN LEAGUE Samuel “The Shark” Kessler (Sons of the Ocean, Newark, Niagara) entered the first year of the NBBO as a 21-year-old and immediately showed himself to be the best-hitting third baseman in the league. He won Batsman of the Year three times (1859, 64, 68), made thirteen All-Star Games, and was named in the Team of the Year seven times. He would also become one of the original stars of professional baseball for Buffalo. Anthony Mascherino (Green Mountain) was just out of high school when the NBBO began play, but he established himself as the league’s best defensive shortstop while he was still a teenager. He would break in his 20s by winning seven straight Golden Gloves, and on top of that he made Team of the Year five times and was an eleven-time All-Star. His career would end up lasting a full quarter-century, long enough to essentially have one career in the NBBO and another one after the start of professional baseball before retiring at the age of 43. Alexander Etheridge (various clubs) was an Englishman in his 30s who bounced around from club to club, but while he was nomadic he was still the NBBO’s first .400 hitter, had an OPS+ of 210 in the NEL’s inaugural season, was the NEL’s first Batsman of the Year, was a three-time Team of the Year member, made multiple All-Star games, and helped developed the sport in England along with fellow NEL player Percy Wilkinson after his retirement. Benjamin Chin (various clubs) would later play for other clubs, but it was during his time in New Hampshire with the Granite Club in which Chin was voted the best second baseman in the league (TotY) during four of the NEL’s first six seasons. He made 4-5 All-Star games, and in his prime he could hit .350+ and steal 50 bases in a season. There were other major stars who would develop (ex: Konrad Jensen) or join (ex: Herman Ferris) the NBBO in the 1860s, but the above were examples of players who made their mark starting in year one or two. Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:21 PM.

04-23-2023, 02:12 PM	#4
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	THE NBBO'S "SHAMATEURISM" PROBLEM By the beginning of the 1870 season, "Shamateurism" brought the NBBO into a full-blown crisis. Over the course of the organization's previous thirteen seasons crowds and gate receipts slowly but steadily increased, and as a result clubs started paying talented players cash under the table to secure their services. As hinted at previously it meant there was a clear-cut class of marquee players in the competition who could spend more time working on their skills, but on the whole the NBBO remained somewhat balanced. However, by the start of the 1870 season it was made clear that the usual order of the six championship divisions of the NBBO - mostly tight competitions at the top that sometimes had to be decided with one-game playoffs - had been completely upended by clubs that were now hoarding quality players with these under-the-table payments. In particular, Kings County raised eyebrows as they managed to recruit seven-time All Star 2B James Rousey, eight-time All Star CF Herman Farris, and thirteen-time Orange Club All Star 3B/SS Edward Huntley in a matter of weeks. Kings County GM Alfred Carraway managed to add the trio even though he already had a team containing multiple-time All-Stars George Drew (OF), Frederick Madsen (C), and Delbert Hodges (3B & SP). A club with half a dozen All Stars in a 24-team league looked mighty suspicious, and other clubs who employed the "under-the-table" method were fuming at the brazenness of it while fans of baseball were left wondering if Kings County had bigger plans for the sport itself. In their Brooklyn Championship, Kings County went 49-21 and were about half a dozen games ahead of any other team. In New York City, the Knickerbocker Club finished 52-18 & Orange went 48-22 while Harlem finished in last place with the reverse of Orange's record: 22-48. In the Upstate New York Championship, the Victory Club won 47 of 70 games while last-place Binghamton won only 20 of 70. The Northeastern League was more of the same. In the frequently cutthroat Coastal championship, Shamrock went 47-23 while the Olympic Club was a shocking 10-60 - the worst record in the history of the NBBO. Over in the Inland championship, Reading was 53-17 - a full eight games better than 2nd place - while last-place Pioneer was 21-49. Finally, in the New England championship Green Mountain was four games in the clear at 44-26. To bring things back to the club at the center of the cash payment and talent hoarding issues, Kings County's semi-open flouting of the NBBO's rules did exactly what it was intended to do. After a classic five-game New York League Championship Series win over Knickerbocker, Kings County swept Green Mountain in the Tucker Wheaton Cup. The final scores were 24-10, 9-3, and 10-3, with "The Mighty K.C." putting up what was easily the most dominant cup series performance to date. Meanwhile, the Excelsior Club had a Shamateurism issue of its own that was raising eyebrows: that of superstar Konrad Jensen. Providence native Jensen had been recruited by the Brooklyn-based Excelsior Club in 1858 straight out of high school and was perfectly happy to remain with them, even though there were other NYC-area clubs with better facilities and Providence-based St. John's offered the same. In the 1870 season, Jensen was busy doing just what he'd done in each of the previous three seasons: leading the 48-team NBBO in batting average (.422), on-base percentage (.458), slugging percentage (.649), OPS (1.107), OPS+ (222), and total bases (209). He'd become so dominant in his late-20s that fans wondered if he was too good for the league itself. The real issue with regards to Jensen was an open secret among the other clubs in the NBBO: as Jensen became ever more talented in his mid-to-late 20s, Excelsior owner Jeremiah Nelson Tappan secured the funds to pay him no less than $780 in cash each season to stay with the Excelsior Club. This meant that Jensen could focus full-time on honing his already considerable batting skills, and as he became unstoppable his under-the-table pay rose to well over $800 for just three months of baseball each year. Manual laborers averaged a bit over $500 for an entire year's work at the time, so Jensen could easily spend the rest of the nice-weather months perfecting his craft and then work a bit during the winter for some extra spending money. There was now a clear split between the under-the-table, pay-for-play teams and those who either stuck to amateurism or didn't have the means to slide cash to high quality players. Something had to give, and it did about six weeks after the end of the season. Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:22 PM.

04-23-2023, 02:36 PM	#5
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	OCTOBER 1870: A "GANG OF SEVEN" PAVES THE WAY FOR A PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE At the start of the NBBO's Fall Meetings at the Astor House Hotel in New York City on October 4th, executives from a group of seven clubs, along with some star players including the aforementioned Konrad Jensen, met to propose what would finally be the end of the era of secret cash deals and fake amateurism with a fully professional league. The seven clubs: Flour City, Kings County, Knickerbocker, Newark, Orange, Quaker State, and Shamrock. The "Gang of Seven" had most of the same things in common: in-division success, post-season success ranging from appearances to championships, and large enough venues to be able to go professional without needing frequent injections of cash. However, they were hoping for a ten-team league and needed to find three other clubs with somewhat similar attributes willing to make the jump. The candidates they considered: CUP WINNERS Sons of the Ocean (New Bedford, MA) - SotO were the 1st NBBO champions and took the Tucker Wheaton Cup again in 1869. They spent a decade employing the best-hitting 3B in the sport, the now 13-time All Star Samuel Kessler. They were also able to develop other multiple-time All-Stars such as Andrew Boss (2B), Corey Burnett (3B/RF), and Anthony Gardner (SP). However, the club's two cup runs came in their only two playoff appearances, while the club had a small fanbase and a stadium that only seated a bit more than 2,000 people. Green Mountain B.C. (Burlington, VT) - From the same division as SotO (New England), Green Mountain looked like much the same club on paper. They had two Tucker Wheaton Cups, long-employed the sport's best player at one position (11-time All-Star SS Anthony Mascherino), and they developed other multiple-time All-Stars (LF Raymond Ginn, 1B Howard Barbour, SP Franklin Squires). Their venue also had the same problem in that it sat only around 2,000. However, they had one big advantage on SotO in that they'd won the New England Championship seven times instead of two. Reading Athletic Club (Reading, PA) - Reading took the cup in 1867, had won the Inland championship five times, and had never finished lower than 3rd in Inland since 1858. They also boasted a fantastic all-time winning percentage of .624 and finished with a 53-17 record in 1870. That 1870 team featured numerous All-Stars and Golden Glove winners. However, their stadium was roughly the same size as that of SotO and Green Mountain, and their ability to recruit players came thanks to cash from rich members of the athletic club that the team was part of. That wouldn't necessarily work in a league where everyone had to be paid a full-time rate. St. John's B.C. (Providence, RI) - St. John's looked the part of a club that belonged going pro. They had good facilities in a big city, some quality players, a good competitive record (.560 winning percentage all time, 12 straight winning seasons) and a stadium that seated about 10,500. They also won the Tucker Wheaton Cup in 1859. However, they'd only won the New England championship once since then - a division their inherent advantages should have allowed them to dominate. Victory B.B.C. (Troy, NY) - The Gang of Seven was looking to add a second club from upstate New York, and had it been five years earlier the Victory Club would have been included with no questions asked. From 1859-63 they won the Upstate New York championship all five times, and they took the Tucker Wheaton Cup in 1862. However, Victory fell off and frequently hovered around .500 since then, only to bounce back at the perfect time with a 47-23 1870 season that saw them take the Upstate championship again. Problem: they had a small-ish venue (~4,000) that would put them at an income-based disadvantage compared to the other clubs. SUCCESSFUL CLUBS Excelsior B.B.C. (Brooklyn, NY) - The Excelsior club had three big things going for it: five 1st-place finishes in the tough Brooklyn Championship, an all-time winning percentage of .586 (51-19 in 1867), and baseball's best player, Konrad Jensen, as the face of the team. However, they had one small issue and one big issue. Their venue at Carroll Park only sat about 4,000, making it much smaller than the clubs already committed to going pro. They were also based in Brooklyn, and the Gang of Seven was wary of having four NYC-area clubs in the inaugural season of a ten-team league, as they felt having too many clubs from one city would hurt legitimacy. But...if the sport's best player really didn't want to leave the seasonal baseball club he'd been with for thirteen years, why not just bring the whole organization kicking and screaming into the pros? Atlantic B.B.C. (Brooklyn, NY) - Atlantic was a well-run club that had won the Brooklyn Championship four times, the New York League championship twice, and boasted a .563 all-time winning percentage. However, they'd never had any major stars and they had the same issue as Excelsior in that they'd be a fourth NYC-area club. Minuteman B.C. (Albany, NY) - Minuteman had won the Upstate NY championship three times and had a decent-sized venue (6,000+), which made them a good candidate for the second upstate New York club. However, their year-to-year form had a tendency to fluctuate and they'd recently made a big mistake in letting 11-time All Star SS Anthony Mascherino leave for Quaker State after two seasons, depriving them of a superstar player that the Gang of Seven wanted in a pro league. BIG CLUBS Alleghany B.C. (Pittsburgh, PA) - The Alleghany club had been decent (.552 win percentage) but never dominant in an Inland Championship they should have been able to take more often but had only won two times. However, in 1868 Pittsburgh Recreation Park was expanded to seat over 17,000. Also, the team had performed quite well over the past two seasons (40-30, 45-25). While on-field success was mostly lacking, the size of their fanbase was extremely attractive. American B.C. (Philadelphia, PA) - American had the weakest playing record of any club considered, with a .519 all-time winning percentage and just one playoff appearance. However, in that lone playoff appearance they won the Northeastern League championship and they'd spent their fourteen NBBO seasons in the hellish Coastal Championship - the year they won it was so competitive they needed just a 41-29 record to take first place. That said, they had been markedly over .500 in three of the previous four seasons, Glenwood Field sat nearly 15,000, and given the city's size the Gang of Seven didn't have any issues adding a second Philadelphia club. Gotham B.B.C. (New York, NY) - Gotham club executives were among the NBBO's founders and the club itself easily predated the organization, with its foundation going back to 1852. The Red House at the St. George Cricket Grounds was a fine venue that held nearly 8,000 and the club had first-class facilities, but on-field success wasn't there. They spent most of the Orange Club's dominance of the New York City Championship during the NBBO's first decade languishing below .500, and while they did take top spot with a 46-24 mark in 1868 their record dipped to 40-30 in '69 and then crashed to 28-42 in 1870. They easily had the resources to go pro, but did they have the competence? And again, was a fourth NYC-area club wanted? Massachusetts Bay B.C. (Boston, MA) - Adding Massachusetts Bay would have meant a second Boston club, but given Boston's size at the time it wouldn't have been a major issue. MB could boast of quality facilities and a stadium that seated just under 9,500. They'd also finished 44-26 in 1870. However, before that they were under .500 as often as they were over it and had won the Coastal Championship once. Niagara B.B.C. (Buffalo, NY) - Niagara was an odd club. They had never won the Upstate NY championship but had finished 2nd or 3rd no less than eight times in the NBBO's fourteen seasons of existence. They had a cumulative winning percentage of about .550, with only one losing season to their name. They were almost always "kinda good", and they played in a venue that sat over 11,000. One big point in their favor: ahead of the 1870 season they'd brought in the aforementioned Samuel Kessler after three seasons with Newark. THE DECISION In the end, the Gang of Seven decided to add the three clubs from outside Brooklyn and New York City that offered not only some big names, but the best chances of professional stability: Alleghany because of their big venue and market size in western Pennsylvania, American because of their venue and recent upturn in on-field form, and Niagara due to their being the one club in upstate New York that had a major star. The Gang of Seven became a group of ten, and the ten became the *American Professional Baseball League. Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:27 PM.*

04-23-2023, 09:30 PM	#6
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04-22-2023, 02:50 PM	#1
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	The Simplest Beginnings: From Amateurism in 1857, to Pro Ball (1870), Int'l Ball, & More I started the following fictional baseball universe for OOTP 23 (1st attempt was for OOTP 21-22) and have brought over the save file to OOTP 24. This is the story of a pair of leagues that began with logos I was making during down time when I was doing remote work. They are analogues to the 1850s National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP), the concurrent National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP), and their resulting split in real life in 1871. Details of how I decided on names and logos are in this thread. in the Mods forum. THE NATIONAL BASE BALL ORGANIZATION IS FORMED On January 22, 1857 in Manhattan's St. Nicholas Hotel, executives from various baseball clubs in New York City, Brooklyn, and elsewhere in the northeastern United States met to form the first group of organized baseball clubs: the National Base Ball Organization. In that meeting, guidelines for the first formal competition involving the sport of baseball were established: Starting in May of 1857, 48 clubs from the northeastern United States would form six "championship" divisions where each club would play the others in their division ten times over separate two five-game series - mimicking cricket test matches - over the course of the season. This would make for a total of 70 games played by each club. The six divisions were further separated into two leagues: the New York League, with two dozen clubs based in the state of New York, and the Northeastern League, with two dozen clubs based elsewhere in the Northeastern United States and New England. The winners of each of the three divisions would go to the playoffs, with the team having the best record in each league automatically moving on to the League Championship Series and the other two teams playing a best-of-five series to go to the LCS. The two league champions would compete for the Tucker-Wheaton Cup, named for the two men who wrote the Knickerbocker Rules for baseball (as in real life): William Tucker and William Wheaton The original 48 teams were as follows: The men who ran and played a sport seen as a hobby for the well-to-do to spectate weren't sure what would come of their efforts, but at least there was now a concrete plan for well-run amateur clubs to regularly play one another instead of scheduling games on an ad hoc basis and doing almost everything very informally. Surely this would make the sport of "base ball" better, and couldn't that only be a good thing both the short, and long, term? Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:15 PM.

04-24-2023, 07:29 PM	#9
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	THE AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE With ten clubs ready to go pro, it was now time to figure out what the United States' first professional baseball league - the APBL - would look like. It was quickly decided that the schedule would be like the NBBO schedule in that each team would play every other team ten times. This would make for a 90-game schedule. Also, since there were only ten teams in a single competition, record alone would determine a champion and there would be no playoffs. As in the NBBO, in the case of two (or more) teams tying for 1st only then would there be a playoff, and it would only be one game. Discussions on rosters and pay became a bit more involved. Continuing with senior-level rosters of 20 wasn't much of an issue, but club executives wanted ways to keep their reserve players sharp. The NBBO allowed clubs to have a dozen players as "reserves", but the ABPL raised that limit to a full 22 so clubs could sign young players and give them the development time that they needed before joining the professional team. On the issue of pay, at the end of a day of discussion it was agreed that, during the season, players should be paid at least as much as manual laborers were typically given at the time: about $10 a week. Adding three weeks of preseason training to the 90-game schedule meant a 21-week schedule, so the minimum pay for the 1870 season was set at $210. From there, clubs could pay their players whatever they wished, with the only stipulation that it all had to be legitimate and above-board now. Finally, the issue of freedom of player/staff movement had to be resolved. First, club owners and executives agreed that the amount of time players had spent playing in the NBBO wouldn't count because this was a brand-new league with different standards. Second, it was decided that each player could sign for whoever they wanted after playing in the APBL for four years, just like the length of most apprenticeships. This meant that none of the players starting out in the APBL would have their "Freedom of Agency" until after the 1874 season, but at the same time players were told, in writing, that they could receive contracts up to four years in length based on the quality of their play. The newly professional clubs also decided, on a bit of a whim, to do something that they thought would help market their teams: adding formal nicknames. The clubs already had informal nicknames given to them by fans or local journalists, so they were merely taking the monikers and making them official. Thus, all ten APBL teams were rebranded... Along with the new names came new ticket prices. Instead of charging a nickel for amateur games, the clubs figured that fans would be willing to pay a dime to go see professionals that would presumably play the game at a higher standard. Those who wanted to go see the reserves play would get in for free. All that was left was to see how the NBBO would respond. Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:29 PM.

04-24-2023, 07:35 PM	#10
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	THE NATIONAL BASE BALL ORGANIZATION REACTS QUICKLY On the face of it, one would think that losing ten clubs might be devastating for the NBBO. However, given developments in recent seasons the organization was nothing but happy to see a professional league develop so they could go back to focusing on what they did best: developing regional, amateur baseball. They also hoped that the exit of ten economically powerful clubs would put a damper on the illicit cash arms race that had turned the NBBO's six championships into lop-sided affairs during the 1870 season. The NBBO's Fall Meetings went on at the same time the Gang of Seven chose three other clubs and started the APBL, so executives were quick to invite ten replacement clubs. They were well-known amateur clubs from the coastal and northeastern United States, and they were happy to accept the invitations and take the step up to the highest level of the amateur ranks: Members of the ten clubs were granted NBBO seniority based on the amount of time they'd been with their clubs in order to make things fair, and the ten were direct replacements for the departures in their respective regional championships. Brooklyn: Star BBC (for Kings County) New York City: Baltic BBC (for Orange), New York Athletic Club (for Knickerbocker) Upstate NY: Auburn BBC (for Niagara), Frontier BBC (for Flour City) Coastal: Diamond State BC (for Newark), Maryland BC (for Shamrock), National BC (for American), Philadelphia Tigers Social Club (for Quaker St.) Inland: Lancastra Britannia BC (for Alleghany) From there, the NBBO had one major decision left at the time: what to do about Konrad Jensen, who was still registered to the Excelsior club that was not offered a place in the APBL. In the end, Jensen was given a choice between going pro and joining an APBL club or going home to Providence and playing for St. John's, with no cash changing hands should he remain in the NBBO. No longer would he be paid a New York judge's or doctor's going rate to play baseball as a supposed amateur. Jensen made the obvious choice and went pro, joining the newly rebranded Manhattan Orangemen and immediately becoming the APBL's highest-paid player at just north of $1,300 a season. Corner outfield was a particularly deep spot among the APBL's ten founding clubs but Manhattan just happened to have a hole at RF, where Timothy Bates was a fine defender but a mediocre batsman. In addition, the NBBO passed a resolution barring APBL players from re-joining the competition via the reasoning that it was highly unlikely a full-time professional would go back to unpaid amateur baseball unless there were under-the-table payments going on. With everything decided, it was now just a matter of moving on to the baseball itself. Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:31 PM.

04-24-2023, 07:49 PM	#11
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	PRE-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL (1857-70) IN REVIEW NBBO FINALISTS & CHAMPIONS – New York League (NYL), Northeastern League (NEL), Tucker-Wheaton Cup (TWC) 1857: NYL – Orange BBC (43-27 NYC), NEL – Sons of the Ocean (46-24 NE), TWC – Sons of the Ocean 3-1 1858: NYL – Orange BBC (51-19 NYC), NEL – Granite BC (44-26 NE), TWC – Granite BC 3-0 1859: NYL – Atlantic BBC (45-25 BRK), NEL – St. John’s BC (44-26 NE), TWC – St. John’s 3-0 1860: NYL – Orange BBC (56-14 NYC), NEL – Quinnipiac BC (45-25 NE), TWC – Quinnipiac BC 3-2 1861: NYL – Orange BBC (46-24 NYC), NEL – Green Mountain BC (50-20 NE), TWC – Orange BBC 3-0 1862: NYL – Victory BBC (46-24 UNY), NEL – Quaker State BC (46-24 COA), TWC – Victory BBC 3-1 1863: NYL – Orange BBC (56-14 NYC), NEL – Green Mountain BC (47-23 NE), TWC – Green Mountain BC 3-1 1864: NYL – Orange BBC (42-29 NYC), NEL – American BC (41-29 COA), TWC – Orange BBC 3-2 (2nd title) 1865: NYL – Orange BBC (45-25 NYC), NEL – Green Mountain BC (42-29 NE), TWC – Green Mountain 3-0 (2nd title) 1866: NYL – Flour City BBC (45-25 UNY), NEL – Newark BC (41-29 COA), TWC – Flour City 3-0 1867: NYL – Excelsior BBC (51-19 BRK), NEL – Reading Athletic Club (47-23 INL), TWC – Reading Athletic Club 3-2 1868: NYL – Gotham BBC (46-24 NYC), NEL – Newark BC (47-23 COA), TWC – Newark BC 3-1 1869: NYL – Atlantic BBC (43-27 BRK), NEL – Sons of the Ocean (48-22 NE), TWC – Sons of the Ocean 3-0 (2nd title) 1870: NYL – Kings County BBC (49-21 BRK), NEL – Green Mountain BC (44-26 NE), TWC – Kings County 3-0 Orange BBC absolutely dominated the New York League during the league’s first decade of existence. However, they couldn’t translate that into championships as New England clubs kept finding ways to spoil a presumed Orange victory party at the Tucker-Wheaton Cup. #1 TEAM OF PRE-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL Orange Base Ball Club (New York City Championship) 1857: 43-27, NYC & NYL champs, lost Tucker-Wheaton Cup 1858: 51-19, NYC & NYL champs, lost Tucker-Wheaton Cup 1859: 45-25, NYC champs 1860: 56-14, NYC & NYL champs, lost Tucker-Wheaton Cup 1861: 46-24, NYC & NYL champs, won Tucker-Wheaton Cup 1862: 48-22, NYC champs 1863: 56-14, NYC & NYL champs, lost Tucker-Wheaton Cup 1864: 42-29, NYC & NYL champs, won Tucker-Wheaton Cup (2nd time) 1865: 45-25, NYC & NYL champs, lost Tucker-Wheaton Cup 1866: 43-27, 2nd place in NYC Championship by 1 game 1867: 41-29, 2nd place in NYC Championship by 8 games 1868: 44-26, 2nd place in NYC Championship by 2 games 1869: 47-23, 2nd place in NYC Championship by 4 games 1870: 48-22, 2nd place in NYC Championship by 4 games PRE-PRO: 655-326 record (.678 WIN%), 9 NYC Championships (5x runners-up), 7 New York League Championships, 2 Tucker-Wheaton Cups (5x runners-up) Orange BBC was both the most successful and most snake-bitten team of the pre-split NBBO. They won the first nine New York City championships and then finished second in each of the next five. However, 4/5 second-place finishes were close and the team had horrible times in the Tucker-Wheaton Cup as well, winning just two out of the seven they went to. With better luck this could have been a team that won no less than 13/14 New York City championships and half (or more) of the awarded Tucker-Wheaton Cups in a 48-team league before the APBL was created. They could have been THE club in early American baseball, but it just wasn’t to be. TOP BATSMAN OF PRE-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL Samuel Kessler – Sons of the Ocean (57-66), Newark (67-69), Niagara (70) 980 G, 1,114 H, .353 AVG, .894 OPS, 169 OPS+, 240 2B, 239 3B, 2,362 TB, 867 RBI, 48.87 WPA (8.07 per 162), 40.2 WAR (6.6 per 162) 2x Tucker-Wheaton Cup winner (1857, 68) 3x Northeastern League Batsman of the Year (1859, 64, 68) 1x Northeastern League Most Valuable Player (1864) 1x Northeastern League Batting Champion (1864: .418) 13x National Base Ball Organization All-Star (1857-61, 63-70) 7x Northeastern League Team of the Year (57-59, 63-65, 68) 6x Northeastern League leader in total bases (1858, 59, 63, 64, 68, 69) 6x Northeastern League leader in triples (1858, 62-65, 68) 5x Northeastern League leader in extra-base hits (1858, 63, 64, 68, 69) 3x Northeastern League leader in OPS (1859, 63, 64) 1x Northeastern League leader in RBIs (1866: 71) 1x Northeastern League leader in runs (1864: 102) 1864: 70 G, .418 AVG (220 OPS+), 102 R, 138 H, 41 XBH, 70 RBI, 206 TB, 29 SB, 4.85 WPA (11.22 per 162), 4.2 WAR (9.7 per 162) Kessler barely got the nod over Konrad Jensen. Why? Because Jensen was mostly a good-to-very-good hitter until he absolutely took off from 1867-70. Kessler’s consistency, 13 All-Star nods, and pair of Tucker-Wheaton Cups put him over the top. He was one of the driving forces – along with Anthony Mascherino – that put New England baseball on the map when everyone in New York just assumed that the best baseball was played there. Thomas Maloney of Orange won a pair of MVPs and three Batsman of the Year awards before Kessler had won his second or Jensen his first, but his production in the middle of the 1860s dipped until his OPS was below .800 for a whole season. He still ended up on 10 All-Star teams and 6 editions of the NYL Team of the Year, but his overall numbers ultimately didn’t stack up with the other two. TOP HURLER OF PRE-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL Carl Bancroft – Orange BBC (1857-70) 280-130 record, 3.44 ERA (103 ERA+), 3,649.2 IP, 274 CG, 134 BB, 464 K, 57.5 WAR (3.5 per 225 IP) 2x Tucker-Wheaton Cup winner (1861, 64) 3x New York League Hurler of the Year (1858, 60, 62) 10x 20-game winner (1858-63, 65, 66, 69, 70) 9x National Base Ball Organization All-Star (1859-61, 64-66, 67, 69) 4x New York League leader in pitcher WAR (1858, 62, 63, 64) 3x New York League leader in shutouts (1859, 66, 69) 2x New York League leader in strikeouts (1858, 1863) 2x New York League leader in complete games (1858, 60) 1x New York League leader in innings (1862) 1862: 26-6, 3.56 ERA (98 ERA+), 291.0 IP, 23 CG, 14 BB, 38 K, 1.28 WHIP, 4.8 WAR (3.7 per 225 IP) There’s really no debate: Carl Bancroft was the best pitcher in pre-professional baseball. He went on to win another Hurler of the Year award in the initial seasons in the APBL and retired as the first pitcher ever to win 300+ games (332). Nobody came remotely close to his win total of 280 in the 1857-70 timespan – Josiah Rayburn and Teddy Brinkley are next up at 209 and 208 respectively. If Orange BBC had thought him an ace right from the start of his career, Bancroft could have conceivably won 300+ in the pre-pro days as he didn’t start a single game as a 22-year-old in the NBBO’s inaugural season of 1857. TOP PLAYER OF PRE-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL Edward Huntley – Orange BBC (1858-69) & Kings County (1870) 903 G, 1,480 H, 401 XBH, 1,064 R, .353 AVG, .855 OPS, 152 OPS+, 840 RBI, 543 SB, +238.4 ZR (3B/SS), 50.44 WPA (9.04 per 162), 49.7 WAR (8.9 per 162) 2x Tucker-Wheaton Cup winner (1861, 64) 3x New York League Most Valuable Player (1860, 63, 65) 2x New York League Batsman of the Year (1863, 66) 13x National Base Ball Organization All-Star (1858-70) 9x New York League Team of the Year at 3B or SS (1859-63, 66, 67, 69, 70) 6x New York League Golden Glove at 3B (1858-62, 64) 1x New York League Batting Champion (1865: .392) 7x New York League leader in non-pitcher WAR (1860-63, 65, 66, 69) 3x New York League leader in runs (1863, 65, 66) 1860 (Orange): 70 G, .381 AVG, .895 OPS (166 OPS+), 88 R, 123 H, 75 RBI, 164 TB, 57 SB (5 CS), +30.0 ZR at 3B, 4.74 WPA (10.96 per 162), 4.8 WAR (11.1 per 162) Huntley was the most well-rounded player in the league, and its most popular given that he was the face of Orange BBC. He played gold-glove third base perennially and switched seamlessly over to shortstop in 1867 after Orange’s starter at the position was signed away. He could do anything and do it well: hit, run, field, steal, move runners, find the gap, cover in the field. He was one of two players to be named league MVP three times (Konrad Jensen) and he’s also notable because he was part of Kings County’s haul of All-Stars before the 1870 season that got a group of clubs to think that maybe it was time for an above-board professional league. There’s a persuasive argument to be made for Anthony Mascherino, who had more Golden Gloves (8), as many Tucker-Wheaton Cups, (2), and higher overall WAR (51.6) than Huntley, but he did that specializing in one position (SS) while playing for a team that wasn’t as prominent, and his fame was mostly linked to his extraordinary defense (30+ ZR at SS five times in seasons of 70 games, won 6 more Gold Gloves in the APBL for a career total of 14). BEST INDIVIDUAL SEASON OF PRE-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL Konrad Jensen (RF) of Excelsior BBC in 1867 70 G, .451 AVG, 1.127 OPS (222 OPS+), 109 R, 152 H, 49 XBH, 90 RBI, 218 TB, 40 SB (8 CS), 8.05 WPA (18.63 per 162), 4.9 WAR (11.3 per 162) NBBO All-Star NYL Batsman of the Year NYL Most Valuable Player NYL Team of the Year NYL Batting Champion 3x NYL Batter of the Month Led NYL in PA, AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, H, TB, 2B, RBI, R, BB, and non-pitcher WAR This was the season where Jensen went from consistent young star to legend. Average: up 119 (.332 to .451) points from the year before. OPS: up 278 (.849 to 1.127). RBI: up 33 (58 to 90). Stolen bases: up by about half (26 to 40). This would be the first of four straight seasons in which he led the New York League in AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and WPA. He hit over .400 in three of those four seasons, and in the other one he hit .395 with an OPS over 1.000 and more than 6.1 WPA in 70 games. ALL PRE-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL TEAM C: James Starrett – four clubs (1857-70) – 8x All-Star, 4x Team of the Year, 21.9 WAR (4.0/162) 1B: DeVos Springer – Reading AC (60-68), Atlantic (69-70) – 7x Team of the Year, 6x All-Star, 1x Batsman of the Year, 21.6 WAR (4.6/162) 2B: Benjamin Chin – five clubs (1857-70) – 4x All-Star, 4x Team of the Year, 26.2 WAR (4.4/162) 3B: Samuel Kessler – SotO (57-66), Newark (67-69), Niagara (70) – 13x All-Star, 7x Team of the Year, 3x Batsman of the Year, 1x MVP, 40.2 WAR (6.6/162) SS: Anthony Mascherino – Green Mountain (57-68), Minuteman (69-70) – 11x All-Star, 8x Golden Glove, 5x Team of the Year, 1x Batsman of the Year, 1x MVP, 51.6 WAR (9.4/162) LF: Thomas Maloney – Orange (57-70) – 10x All-Star, 6x Team of the Year, 3x Batsman of the Year, 2x MVP, 2x Golden Glove, 34.4 WAR (5.8/162) CF: Herman Ferris – St. Johns (60-65), Mutual (66-69), Kings County (70) – 8x All-Star, 5x Team of the Year, 1x MVP, 1x Golden Glove 31.3 WAR (6.6/162) RF: Konrad Jensen – Excelsior (57-70) – 9x All-Star, 7x Team of the Year, 4x Batsman of the Year, 3x MVP, 3x Golden Glove, 37.0 WAR (7.1/162) UT: Edward Huntley – Orange (57-69) & Brooklyn (70) – 3B/SS – 13x All-Star 9x Team of the Year, 6x Golden Glove, 3x MVP, 2x Batsman of the Year (all NYL), 49.7 WAR (8.9/162) SP: Carl Bancroft – Orange (57-69) – 280-130, 3.44 ERA (103 ERA+), 9x All-Star, 3x Hurler of the Year, 57.5 WAR (3.5/225 IP) SP: Theodore Brinkley – Niagara (57-63, 68-70), Minuteman (64-65), American (66-67) – 208-176, 3.00 ERA (115 ERA+), 3x All-Star, 1x Hurler of the Year, 52.2 WAR (3.4/225 IP) SP: Jonathan Ramsey – Minuteman (60-63), Mutual (64-67), Knickerbocker (68-70) – 198-135, 3.17 ERA (112 ERA+), 5x All-Star, 40.1 WAR (3.1/225 IP) Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:33 PM.

04-25-2023, 07:36 PM	#12
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	THE INAUGURAL SEASON OF PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL On the first Friday of May in 1871, the first games of professional baseball in the United States were played – the start of a new era for the sport. In the meantime, the ten clubs that formed the American Professional Baseball League were hoping that the first season of their new product would prove popular with the fans. Indeed, the first year of pro ball was a success. Attendance for nearly every club was even or higher even though ticket prices had doubled, and top-to-bottom the league was very competitive. In the end, it took until the final day of the season to decide a champion, with the Pennsylvania Quakers walking away crowned the first kings of the APBL. The final standings: Pennsylvania Quakers 55-35 Manhattan Orangemen 54-36 (1 GB) Boston Shamrocks 47-43 (8 GB) Brooklyn Kings 47-43 (8 GB) N.Y. Knickerbockers 46-44 (9 GB) N.J. Clippers 44-46 (11 GB) Buffalo Blues 42-48 (13 GB) Rochester Millers 40-50 (15 GB) Pittsburgh Industrials 38-52 (17 GB) Philadelphia Patriots 37-53 (18 GB) The ten teams were quite close in standard. Pennsylvania’s win percentage was .611 and cross-city rivals Philadelphia sat exactly 20% lower (.411), with such win-loss spreads usually larger in the eight-team NBBO divisions. The best offense in the APBL (PENN) scored 7.3 runs per game while the weakest offense (PHI) was only about a run per game worse at 6.1. Similarly, the Quakers’ league-best batting average was .304 and the Patriots’ league-worst average was .275. Advanced metrics, such as Pythagorean Wins showed the league even tighter – just 13 Expected Wins between Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. This was a highly balanced league at the start of its lifespan. As with the inaugural season of the NBBO, the inaugural season of the APBL ended with a set of inaugural award winners. Here they were: BATSMAN OF THE YEAR Edward Huntley – SS, Brooklyn Kings 90 G, .391 AVG, .959/176 OPS/OPS+, 88 R, 156 H, 21 2B, 19 3B, 58 RBI, 26 SB, 4.58 WPA (8.2/162), 5.2 WAR (9.4/162) HURLER OF THE YEAR Clarence Bowden – Manhattan Orangemen 359.1 IP, 45 GS, 27 CG, 27-17, 3.18 ERA, 23 BB, 70 K, 1.31 WHIP, 3.0 K/BB, 8.3 WAR (5.2/225 IP) MOST VAULABLE PLAYER Robert Loomis – OF, Buffalo Blues 90 G, .364 AVG, .854/146 OPS/OPS+, 66 R, 141 H, 71 RBI, 186 TB, 37 SB, 4.69 WPA (8.4/162) GOLDEN GLOVES P: Delbert Hodges (Brooklyn) – 350.2 I, 82 TC, 3 E, +8.7 ZR, 1.266 EFF C: Silvio de Graaf (Manhattan) – 792.2 I, 267 TC, 103 PB, 22 E, +11.5 ZR, 1.023 EFF, 43.1 RTO%, 3.27 CERA 1B: Darragh Kelly (Buffalo) – 769.1 I, 957 TC, 25 E, 16 DP, + 5.1 ZR, 1.054 EFF 2B: Luhan McReady (Boston) – 794.2 I, 557 TC, 20 E, 322 A, 22 DP, 6.08 RNG, +16.9 ZR, 1.116 EFF 3B: James Harrington (Knick’s) – 774 I, 326 TC, 47 E, 226 A, 3.24 ENG, +16.4 ZR, 1.144 EFF SS: Anthony Mascherino (Penn.) – 804.2 I, 559 TC, 56 E, 348 A, 22 DP, 5.63 RNG, +25.2 ZR, 1.143 EFF OF: Thomas Maloney (Manhattan) – 784.1 I, 261 TC, 18 E, 8 A, 2.79, 1 DP, 2.79 RNG, +5.7 ZR, 1.059 EFF OF: George Reese (Boston) – 792.2 I, 389 TC, 38 E, 12 A, 2 DP, 3.99 RNG, +12.8 ZR, 1.071 EFF OF: Roger Sotheby (Rochester) – 772.1 I, 278 TC, 11 E, 17 A, 3.13 RNG, +4.7 ZR, 1.051 EFF TEAM OF THE YEAR P: Clarence Bowden (Manhattan) - 359.1 IP, 27-17, 3.18 ERA, 23 BB, 70 K, 1.31 WHIP, 3.0 K/BB, 8.3 WAR (5.2/225 IP), HotY C: George Bell (Penns.) – .359 AVG, .828/139 OPS/OPS+, 71 R, 134 H, 32 XBH, 79 RBI, 172 TB, 3.27 CERA, 2.16 WPA, 2.1 WAR (3.9/162) 1B: Jens Kristensen (Boston) – .286 AVG, .725/108 OPS/OPS+, 69 R, 117 H, 31 XBH, 52 RBI, 169 TB, +6.5 ZR, 2.76 WPA, 0.9 WAR (1.6/162) 2B: James McDonald (Pitt.) – .314 AVG, .775/122 OPS/OPS+, 78 R, 130 H, 36 XBH, 61 RBI, 187 TB, 2.49 WPA, 0.6 WAR (1.1/162) 3B: James Findley (Boston) – .338 AVG, .896/150 OPS/OPS+, 87 R, 133 H, 49 XBH, 85 RBI, 22 SB, 3.50 WPA, 3.7 WAR (6.7/162) SS: Edward Huntley (Brooklyn) – .391 AVG, .959/176 OPS/OPS+, 88 R, 156 H, 41 XBH, 58 RBI, 218 TB, 26 SB, 4.58 WPA, 5.2 WAR (9.4/162) OF: Robert Loomis (Buffalo) – .364 AVG, .854/146 OPS/OPS+, 66 R, 141 H, 32 XBH, 71 RBI, 37 SB, 4.69 WPA, 1.7 WAR (3.1/162) OF: Thomas Thompson (Penn.) – .336 AVG, .824/137 OPS/OPS+, 86 R, 131 H, 35 XBH, 73 RBI, 43 SB, 2.47 WPA, 3.0 WAR (5.4/162) OF: Konrad Jensen (Manhattan) - .388 AVG, .905/162 OPS/OPS+, 83 R, 151 H, 29 XBH, 60 RBI, 33 SB, 3.65 WPA, 3.2 WAR (5.8/162) Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:38 PM.

04-25-2023, 07:38 PM	#13
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	THE FIRST DECADE OF THE APBL, AND THE NBBO CONTINUES ON As mentioned, the APBL succeeded in creating both a more competitive and higher level of baseball, with less than twenty games separating the ten teams in the standings after the final day of the inaugural season. The highly competitive baseball kept up for the first eight seasons, as six of the league's ten teams won at least one title and two of the remaining four finished in the top three at least once. In only two of eight seasons did the champion finish 5+ games ahead of second place. In 1874 the title was decided via a one-game playoff. In 1876 the top four teams in the standings finished only three games apart from each other, with champion Brooklyn going 55-35 and 4th-place New York finishing 52-38. The first eight champions of the APBL: 1871: Pennsylvania Quakers (55-35, 1 game ahead) 1872: Manhattan Orangemen (61-29, 7 games ahead) 1873: Boston Shamrocks (61-29, 3 games ahead) 1874: Boston Shamrocks (53-38, won via one-game playoff v. MNH) 1875: Buffalo Blues (60-30, 9 games ahead) 1876: Brooklyn Kings (55-35, 2 games ahead) 1877: New York Knickerbockers (56-34, 3 games ahead) 1878: New York Knickerbockers (64-26, 3 games ahead) After 1878, the league had two issues: last-place teams were increasingly non-competitive and fanbases were opining that, while they most certainly enjoyed the professional standard of baseball they missed the playoff atmosphere that was present at the end of the best teams' seasons in the NBBO. With that in mind, the APBL decided to split the league into two groups and have the top team from each group play for the newly-created "President's Cup" to crown the APBL champion. However, executives decided that six-team groups would work better than five-team groups, and they looked for two clubs to join the pro ranks. On that front, the decisions were easy as there were two NBBO clubs clearly a cut above the rest. The Excelsior club, which had been turned away at the founding of the APBL and lost Konrad Jensen as a result, didn't respond by wilting but instead became rampant in the Brooklyn Championship. They won it in 1872, and then five straight times from 1874-78, also winning the Tucker-Wheaton Cup three times during that five-year span. Meanwhile, over in Boston the Massachusetts Bay club responded to the reconfigured Coastal Championship by finishing in the top three eight years in a row, winning it each season from 1875-78 while putting up nearly a .700 winning percentage during that time. Choosing those two clubs meant more concentration of pro baseball in major markets, but given Excelsior's and Massachusetts Bay's success there weren't any other clubs to realistically consider. Massachusetts Bay kept their core intact upon moving up to pro baseball, supplementing their roster with pro castoffs. On the other hand, Excelsior completed pro baseball's first trade, sending NBBO All-Star Zenos Diakogeorgiou and $4,000 - enough to sign two five-star players or four good enough to have a chance to make Team of the Year with a good season - to Philadelphia to bring back prodigal son Konrad Jensen. The two new groups were composed as such: Colonial Conference: Buffalo, Boston, Massachusetts Bay, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Rochester Metropolitan Conference: Brooklyn, Excelsior, Manhattan, New York, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia The first two seasons of the new format brought some competitive balance back, with no team winning more than 2/3 of their games and no team losing more than 2/3. However, the result was the same both seasons as Brooklyn won the first two President's Cup trophies, first over Rochester in 1879 and then over Boston in 1880. In the NBBO, the baseball ended up being largely dominated by two teams. While the Northeastern League had a mix of six clubs compete for the Tucker-Wheaton Cup during the 1870s, the New York League wound up being controlled by Excelsior and the New York Athletic club after three other clubs won the NYL title in the first three years of the decade. Excelsior won the NYL title and the cup in 1874, '75, and '78 before moving to the APBL, while NYAC won the NYL in 1877, '79, and '80 while winning the cup twice. In 1879, as mentioned, the APBL offered Excelsior and Massachusetts Bay the chance to join the league, which both took immediately. The NBBO responded by adding two clubs from the regional ranks: the Marathon club of Brooklyn and the Scarlets of Salem, Massachusetts... During the decade the NBBO ran into a problem: after telling players that those who went pro were banned from returning to their league, so many players were signing with agents in the hopes of full-time paydays that average NBBO teams found themselves having difficulty filling out their basic 20-man rosters. So, in 1877 the NBBO converted from an amateur-only model to a semi-professional model and allowed APBL washouts to return. The roster issues that the NBBO was having almost immediately resolved themselves, and teams ended up not spending much more money than they previously were when they were paying players illicitly, since the best players in the sport were now dedicated pros and NBBO clubs no longer had to worry about pushing around bags filled with hundreds of dollars of cash under the tables to to secure player services. Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:42 PM.

04-25-2023, 07:44 PM	#14
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	THE 1870s IN REVIEW THE CHAMPIONS AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE 1871: Pennsylvania Quakers (55-35, no playoffs) 1872: Manhattan Orangemen (61-29, no playoffs) 1873: Boston Shamrocks (61-29, no playoffs) 1874: Boston Shamrocks (53-38, no playoffs) 1875: Buffalo Blues (60-30, no playoffs) 1876: Brooklyn Kings (55-35, no playoffs) 1877: New York Knickerbockers (56-34, no playoffs) 1878: New York Knickerbockers (64-26, no playoffs) 1879: Brooklyn Kings (60-30, President’s Cup 4-0 over Rochester) Champions were varied in the APBL’s first nine seasons, with six different teams winning the title. Brooklyn were the first champions after the league instituted divisions and a playoff in order to cater to fan demands for a climactic series. NBBO FINALISTS & CHAMPIONS – Tucker-Wheaton Cup winners in italics 1870: NYL – Kings County BBC (49-21 BRK), NEL – Green Mountain BC (44-26 NE) 1871: NYL – Atlantic BBC (53-17 BRK), NEL – Cantabrigians BC (46-24 NE) 1872: NYL – Mutual BBC (47-23 NYC), NEL – Reading Athletic Club (47-23 INL) 1873: NYL – Victory BBC (49-21 UNY), NEL – Philadelphia Tigers Social Club (45-26 COA) 1874: NYL – Excelsior BBC (43-27 BRK), NEL – Cantabrigians BC (50-20 NE) 1875: NYL – Excelsior BBC (51-19 BRK), NEL – Massachusetts Bay BC (50-20 COA) 1876: NYL – Frontier BBC (52-18 UNY), NEL – Wilkes-Barre Coal Barons (45-25 INL) 1877: NYL – NYAC Athletics (44-26 NYC), NEL – Sons of the Ocean (53-17 NE) 1878: NYL – Excelsior Knights (47-23), NEL – Massachusetts Bay Pilgrims (55-15 COA) 1879: NYL – NYAC Athletics (46-24 NYC), NEL – Reading Athletics (44-26 INL) Excelsior was so dominant over a five-year stretch (1874-78) that the APBL came calling and they got Konrad Jensen back. However, they weren’t the only team to win more than one Tucker-Wheaton Cup as Reading did it twice. TEAM OF THE DECADE Brooklyn Kings (American Professional Baseball Association) 1870 NBBO: 49-21, Brooklyn & NYL champs, Tucker-Wheaton Cup winners 1871 APBL: 47-43, 3rd place 1872 APBL: 53-37, 3rd place 1873 APBL: 47-43, 5th place 1874 APBL: 47-43, 5th place 1875 APBL: 51-39, 2nd place 1876 APBL: 55-35, champions 1877 APBL: 53-37, 2nd place 1878 APBL: 61-29, 2nd place 1879 APBL: 60-30, 1st in Metropolitan, won President’s Cup 4-0 over Rochester 1870s: 523-357 (.594), 2x APBL champs, 1x NBBO champs, five top-three finishes There were other teams to win a pair of APBL titles during the 1870s (Boston, Knickerbockers), but only Brooklyn added a Tucker-Wheaton Cup in their final year in the NBBO to take three titles in the 1870s. That, combined with their consistency, put them over the top. BATSMAN & PLAYER OF THE DECADE Konrad Jensen – Manhattan Orangemen (1871-74), Buffalo Blues (75-76), Phi. Patriots (77-78), Excelsior Knights (79) 800 G, 1,354 H, .394 AVG, .957 OPS (173 OPS+), 1,354 H, 299 XBH, 1,779 TB, 542 RBI, 301 SB, 38.52 WPA (7.80 per 162), 33.7 WAR (6.9 per 162) 2x APBL champion (1872, 75) 5x APBL Batsman of the Year (1874-77, 79) 7x APBL Team of the Year at OF (1873-77, 79) 4x APBL Batting Champion (1874, 76, 77, 79) 7x APBL leader in walks (1871-75, 77, 78, runner up 2x) 7x APBL leader in on-base percentage (1871-74, 76, 77, 79) 4x APBL leader in OPS (1874, 76, 77, 79, runner up once) 4x APBL leader in home runs (1874, 76-78) 3x APBL leader in hits (1874-76) 3x APBL leader in runs (1872-74) 2x APBL leader in non-pitcher WAR (1874, 77, runner up once) 1x APBL leader in total bases (1874: 236, runner up 3x) 1x APBL leader in runs batted in (1874: 78) 1874 (MNH): 91 G, .416 AVG, 1.046 OPS (200 OPS+), 111 R, 169 H, 44 XBH, 78 RBI, 236 TB, 28 SB (4 CS), 5.61 WPA (9.98 per 162), 5.2 WAR (9.2 per 162) There is simply no debate: Konrad Jensen was both the best hitter and best overall player of the 1870s. He won five APBL Batsman of the Year awards in six seasons, received 6/7 APBL Team of the Year nods in the outfield to end the decade, had an average as high as .448, finished multiple seasons with an OPS over 1.000, and he did this even though he ended the decade by turning 40. Also, in 1976 he successfully stole 92 times in 90 games just to prove to everyone he could steal bunches of bases if he felt like it. He started the decade with the Orangemen after Excelsior didn’t make the APBL cut and moved a couple of times after that, but he ended the decade back home after his old club proved too dominant for the NBBO. As with the NBBO-only days, there could be an argument for Anthony Mascherino as the legendary shortstop won four titles plus six gold gloves to bring his career total an incredible 14, and he had slightly higher WAR (34.4). However, Jensen’s superior haul of major awards (7x TotY, 5x BotY, 4x batting champ) put him on the throne. HURLER OF THE DECADE Fred Peacock – Penn. Quakers (1871-73, 75), Pitt. Industrials (74), NY Knickerbockers (76-77), Brooklyn Kings (78-79) 198-116 record, 3.44 ERA (120 ERA+), 2,866.2 IP, 214 CG, 12 SHO, 233 BB, 430 K, 54.5 WAR (4.3 per 225 IP) 3x APBL champ (1871, 77, 78) 1x APBL Hurler of the Year (1878) 1st-ever pitcher with 30+ wins in a season (1878: 32) 3x APBL leader in wins (1871, 76, 78) 2x APBL leader in WHIP (1872, 78) 2x APBL leader in K/9 (1877, 79) 1x APBL leader in ERA (1878: 2.44) 1x APBL leader in strikeouts (1879: 68) 1x APBL leader in K/BB: (1879: 2.19/1) 1878 (BRK): 32-11, 2.44 ERA (153 ERA+), 369.0 IP, 29 CG, 3 SHO, 43 BB, 69 K, 1.19 WHIP, 6.6 WAR (4.0 per 225 IP) There was no singularly dominant pitcher over the first nine seasons of the APBL. James Maxwell and Clarence Bowden won two Hurler of the Year Awards each, but Maxwell’s career effectively lasted three seasons due to injury and Bowden had some mediocre years after leaving the Orangemen in 1875. Peacock had more wins than any other pro pitcher in the 1870s and adding his historic 1878 on top of that made him the Hurler of the Decade. Peacock would go on to retire after the 1882 season with more combined NBBO & APBL wins than any other pitcher (369 – 234 in the APBL & 135 in the NBBO), and a career pitching WAR of 92.1. ALL-DECADE TEAM C: Bruce Fine – Knick's (71-75), Boston (76-79) – 4x Team of the Year, 2x Golden Glove, 19.4 WAR (4.3/162) 1B: Jens Kristensen – four teams – 2x Team of the Year, 2x Golden Glove, 9.5 WAR (2.0/162) 2B: James McDonald – Pitt. (71-74, Brooklyn (75-77), Rochester (78-79) – 1x champ, 4x Team of the Year, 12.2 WAR (2.4/162) 3B: James Findley – Boston (71-76), Buffalo (77-78) – 2x champ, 1x Batsman of the Year, 3x Team of the Year, 3x RBI leader, 14.5 WAR (3.9/162) SS: Anthony Mascherino – Penn. (71-74), Brooklyn (75-76), Knick's (77-79) – 4x champ, 6x Golden Glove, 3x Team of the Year, 34.4 WAR (6.9/162) OF: Charles Brophy – Knick's (74-79) – 2x champ, 2x MVP, 1x BotY, 1x Batting champ, 5x TofY, 26.63 WPA (9.84/162), 20.9 WAR (7.7/162) OF: Tommy Thompson – Penn. (71-79) – 1x champ, 4x Team of the Year, 7x Golden Glove, 21.07 WPA (4.75/162), 21.8 WAR (4.9/162) OF: Konrad Jensen – four teams – 2x champ, 5x Batsman of the Year, 4x Batting champ, 7x Team of the Year, 33.7 WAR (6.9/162) SP: Fred Peacock – four teams – 3x champ, 1x Hurler of the Year, 3x win leader, 30-win season, 198-116, 3.44 ERA, 54.5 WAR (4.3/225 IP) SP: Clarence Bowden – four teams – 1x champ, 2x Hurler of the Year, 178-135, 3.18 ERA, 54.8 WAR (4.2/225 IP) SP: Leland Thurston – N.J. (71-74), Pitt. (75-76), Phila. (77-79) – 1x champ, 3x K leader, 2x CG leader, 181-178, 3.54 ERA, 54.5 WAR (3.6/225 IP) There was a lot of player movement over the first decade of professional baseball, and a lot of the NBBO greats retired during the decade. Because of that, some of the positions on the all-decade team (1B, 2B, SP) look weak. Brophy made it even though he played only five full years, because once he settled in with the Knickerbockers after a brief stint in 1874 he became a superstar at the age of 21 (.996 OPS, 171 OPS+). Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:42 PM.

04-29-2023, 06:29 PM	#15
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	THE MANHATTAN ORANGEMEN EXIT PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL, AND ANOTHER NEW YORK CLUB RISES IN THEIR PLACE The Manhattan Orangemen were the most successful club of pre-professional baseball, following nine consecutive first-place finishes in the New York City Championship at the start of the National Base Ball Organization with five second-place finishes before becoming one of the founding members of the American Professional Baseball League. Going into the inaugural season of the APBL they had nearly everything: first-class coaching, executives, facilities, recruitment, scouting, and a new owner who was happy to let the baseball people do their work. The only thing possibly not in Manhattan’s favor was the capacity of the Upper Manhattan Base Ball Grounds, which was one of two APBL venues that sat under 10,000 at 7,412. Before the days of mass media and extensive merchandising, this put them at an income disadvantage compared to the other APBL clubs. Nonetheless, it was figured that the Orangemen would be a solid professional outfit because of how well their organization was run. Indeed, this proved to be the case at the start of the APBL. Over the first four seasons of the nascent life of pro ball, Manhattan’s finishes in the APBL were 2nd, 1st, 2nd, and 2nd, with their second-place finish in 1874 coming via a one-game playoff after being even with Boston at the end of the 90-game season. However, soon after Manhattan would experience the same problem that they ran into during the latter half of their stay in the NBBO: the competition caught up. Beginning in 1875, Manhattan fell into the bottom half of the standings and failed to recover, never finishing better than a dozen games out of first place over the next six seasons. In the four seasons before the APBL was split into two conferences, they finished 7th out of ten in 1875 (19 GB), 9th in ’76 (15 GB), 6th in ’77 (12 GB), and 8th in ’78 (30 GB). After the split they didn’t fare any better, finishing last out of six in the Metropolitan Conference in 1879 (25 GB) and 5th in 1880 (15 GB). The issue was the same one that hit Manhattan in amateur baseball: their competence kept them ahead at the start, but once the clubs with more money figured things out and began to flex their financial muscles the Orangemen were caught and passed. The big problem with having that happen in the APBL was that almost every club had more money than Manhattan, and they went from turning a profit of nearly $24,000 in 1871 to barely breaking even by the end of the decade as more and more money was being was being spent on players. Seeing the proverbial writing on the wall, at the 1880 year-end executives’ meetings Lloyd Richmond, who’d owned the Manhattan club since 1871, along with his front office men, informed the rest of the league’s executives that they felt no choice but to move back to the NBBO in order to save the club from financial ruin. Manhattan’s exit was met with much sadness, as they were the preeminent club of organized baseball over its first twenty years. At the same time, the APBL now had a one-team hole to fill but filling that was very easy. Another New York club, the baseball team representing the New York Athletic Club, had crushed Manhattan’s old New York City Championship in recent years. Their record over the previous four seasons: 1877: 44-26 (1st by 5 games) – Tucker-Wheaton Cup winners 1878: 44-26 (1st by 2 games) – lost New York League semi-final 1879: 46-24 (1st by 2 games) – lost Tucker-Wheaton Cup 1880: 51-19 (1st by 12 games) – Tucker-Wheaton Cup winners They were easily the best big-market club in the NBBO now that Excelsior had left, and both the invitation and acceptance to join the pro ranks happened almost immediately. The rechristened New York Athletics were good enough with their mostly-NBBO roster that they finished second in the Metropolitan in their debut season. They then finished 1st, 2nd, and 2nd over the next three seasons. With the Athletics joining the pro ranks it was the Knickerbocker club that took up the mantle of Manhattan baseball, which was an easy decision given they were based there. Before the Orangemen’s exit they were known as the New York Knickerbockers, and afterward they were the Manhattan Knickerbockers. It is perhaps no coincidence that by the end of the decade they were baseball’s dominant team. As painful as it was, the return to what was now semi-professional baseball proved to be exactly what the Orangemen needed, as the first season of their return to the NBBO ended with a 49-21 record, a Tucker-Wheaton Cup, and about $11,000 in profits. That path of success would remain steady for Manhattan for many years. Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:46 PM.

04-29-2023, 06:52 PM	#16
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	1882: THREE NEW LEAGUES BRING BASEBALL TO THE MIDWEST! With baseball spreading across the United States, whose population was rapidly spreading itself, three new leagues popped up in the Midwestern US in 1882. First up was the Midwestern Baseball Association (MWBA): The MWBA was to be the Midwest's answer to the American Professional Baseball League, and similarly it was made up of the best existing amateur clubs from large Midwestern metropolitan areas. Like the initial seasons of the APBL, the teams would play each other ten times for a 90-game season and the champion would be decided based on regular season record – no playoffs. Roster rules & regulations were identical to those in the APBL, but there was a difference on the financial side. The members of the league would make, on average, about 80% of those playing in the established professional league, with superstar-level pay closer to the 75% mark. The inaugural season was a competitive affair, with three teams - St. Louis, Louisville, & Lake Michigan - in the title hunt until the final week. In the end St. Louis won the first MWBA championship with a 55-35 record. The final standings: Offense was notable in the inaugural season of the MWBA in that it was much higher scoring than the first run of the APBL – MWBA teams scored 7.7 runs per game to 6.7 for the maiden APBL teams in 1871. There was also a larger variance in offense from top to bottom, with Louisville leading the league by scoring 8.7 runs per game and Chicago bringing up the rear with 6.5 per game. The various teams were well-represented in the inaugural MWBA awards, with nine of the ten clubs having at least one player receiving something – only ninth-place Indianapolis missing out. The award winners: BATSMAN OF THE YEAR Jacob Milburn – LF, St. Louis Saints 90 G, .418/.456/.621, 1.077 OPS (201 OPS+), 173 H, 29 3B, 55 XBH, 257 TB, 99 RBI, 97 R, 26 SB, 5.46 WPA (9.82/162), 3.1 WAR (5.6/162) HURLER OF THE YEAR Charlie Higgins – St. Louis Saints 345.2 IP, 45 GS, 25 CG, 27-9, 3.91 ERA, 58 BB, 37 K, 1.48 WHIP, 7.5 WAR (4.9/225 IP) MOST VALUABLE PLAYER Obelix Papatamelis – LF, Louisville Sluggers 90 G, .375/.446/.552, .998 OPS (180 OPS+), 464 PA, 130 R, 50 BB, 149 H, 46 XBH, 72 RBI, 34 SB, 6.30 WPA (11.34/162), 4.0 WAR (7.2/162) GOLDEN GLOVES P: Lyman Benson (MIL) – 337 I, 86 TC, 51 A, 11 E, +7.8 ZR C: Earl Shook (LM) – 711.2 I, 5 E, 62 PB, 43.4 RTO%, 3.71 CERA, +11.3 ZR, 1.146 EFF 1B: Ben Hennessy (MIL) – 629.1 I, 833 TC, 37 E, 53 A, +6.1 ZR, 1.087 EFF 2B: Joseph Spencer (DET) – 750 I, 559 TC, 273 A, 46 DP, 48 E, 6.13 RNG, +16.1 ZR, 1.147 EFF 3B: Franklin Rader (MIS) – 765.1 I, 327 TC, 214 A, 10 DP, 63 E, 3.10 RNG, +12.0 ZR, 1.126 EFF SS: Harold Behrens (STL) – 780.1 I, 529 TC, 364 A, 43 DP, 41 E, 5.63 RNG, +37.7 ZR, 1.258 EFF OF: Alex Hayden (CLE) – 772 I, 287 TC, 11 A, 4 DP, 27 E, 3.03 RNG, +5.8 ZR, 1.034 EFF OF: Jonathan Campbell (CIN) – 784 I, 423 TC, 25 A, 4 DP, 25 E, 4.57 RNG, +5.6 ZR, 1.015 EFF OF: Truman Elliott (CHI) – 730.2 I, 288 TC, 14 A, 5 DP, 19 E, 3.30 RNG, +10.3 ZR, 1.092 EFF TEAM OF THE YEAR P: Charlie Higgins (STL) – 345.2 IP, 27-9, 3.91 ERA, 25 CG, 58 BB, 37 K, 7.5 WAR (4.9/225 IP), champion C: Tobias Nielsen (LOU) - .312 AVG, .769 OPS (116 OPS+), 62 RBI, 43.2% CS, 3.06 CERA, 1.7 WAR (3.5/162) 1B: Julian Gregory (CHI) - .344 AVG, .864 OPS (142 OPS+), 34 XBH, 54 RBI, 73 R, 3.17 WPA, 2.5 WAR (4.6/162) 2B: Bryan Lawson (STL) - .359 AVG, .847 OPS (138 OPS+), 28 XBH, 90 RBI, 82 R, 1.1 WAR (2.0/162), champion 3B: Franklin Rader (MIS) - .362 AVG, .849 OPS (139 OPS+), 27 XBH, 69 RBI, 74 R, 175 TB, 3.1 WAR (5.6/162), GG SS: George Shay (CIN) - .332 AVG, .801 OPS (125 OPS+), 30 XBH, 68 RBI, 100 R, +26.2 ZR at SS, 4.4 WAR (7.9/162) OF: Obelix Papatamelis (LOU) - .375 AVG, .998 OPS (180 OPS+), 46 XBH, 72 RBI, 130 R, 50 BB, 219 TB, 6.30 WPA, 4.0 WAR (7.2/162) OF: Burl Chance (LM) - .329 AVG, .826 OPS (131 OPS+), 30 XBH, 70 RBI, 81 R, 3.50 WPA, 1.7 WAR (3.3/162) OF: Jacob Milburn (STL) – .418 AVG, 1.077 OPS (201 OPS+), 173 H, 29 3B, 55 XBH, 99 RBI, 257 TB, 5.46 WPA, 3.1 WAR (5.6/162), BotY, champion In addition to the MWBA, there were two semi-professional leagues that also began play… Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:49 PM.

04-29-2023, 06:56 PM	#17
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	The second league to set up shop was the Great Lakes Baseball Conference (GLBC): The GLBC didn't cast as wide of a geographical net as the MWBA at the start, limiting itself to Midwestern states that bordered the Great Lakes and cities within those states that were as close as possible to the lakes themselves. The league was nowhere near ambitious as the long-established NBBO, having just 10 teams compared to their 48. In the GLBC's inaugural season, Saginaw was the clear #1 as they had the league title wrapped up with a week to spare. From there they coasted to a 58-32 record and held the top spot by three games over Toledo. At the other end of the spectrum, the Wolves of Grand Rapids had a very regrettable pro debut, finishing in last place by ten full games at 28-62. Thomas Mack of Toledo (.365 AVG, .902 OPS, 79 RBI, 199 TB in 90 games) was the league’s first Batsman of the Year, while Robert Beeson (27-15, 24 CG, 24 BB, 55 K, 9.0 WAR), also of Toledo, was the GLBC’s inaugural Pitcher of the Year. Duluth RF George Wise (6.37 WPA in 88 games) was the competition’s first MVP.

04-29-2023, 06:59 PM	#18
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	The other semi-pro circuit was the Baseball League of the American Prairie, commonly shortened to the Prairie League (PL): The PL covered a larger area than the other two leagues, allowing applicants from the Dakotas and Kansas all the way east to southern Illinois. However, in the end the initial ten clubs were largely confined to four states as Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska combined to have nine of the ten. During the first year of the Prairie League, it was St. Paul as the frontrunner and nine other teams fighting for second place. The North Stars finished an incredible 64-26, winning the title by no less than ten games. The rest of the league was a bit of a palindrome, with records ranging from 54-36 to (Omaha) to 36-54 (Des Moines). The Prairie League’s first Batsman of the Year was Kansas City second baseman Henry Garvin (.387 AVG, 1.070 OPS, 114 R, 158 R, 257 TB, 86 RBI all lead the PL), while old hand Duane Foster of St. Paul (39 y/o, 31-13, 48 GS, 390.2 IP, 29 CG, 5.4 WAR) was its first Pitcher of the Year. Garvin doubled up on the major awards as he was also the league’s inaugural MVP (7.90 WPA in 90 games).

05-01-2023, 08:36 PM	#19
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	KING KONRAD PUTS DOWN HIS BAT After the APBL’s 1883 season, Konrad Jensen, now a 43-year-old, 26-year veteran of both pre-professional and professional baseball, decided it was time to call an end to his extraordinary career. He hadn’t declined significantly - .362/.411/.581 for a .992 OPS in his final season – but he felt after slightly more than a quarter century’s worth of summers playing the game regularly it was time to do something else. He immediately signed a lucrative contract to become the Hitting Coach of the Excelsior Knights. How good was his career? Well, take a look… NOTE: For some reason, along the way I had to restore a backup and in the process I lost all the Black/Gray ink prior to the 1881 season, thus the highlighting is gone. The honors he racked up during his career? 1st player to reach 3,000 career hits (3,311 for career) 1st non-pitcher to cross 80 WAR (81.9 for career) 16x Team of the Year (Silver Slugger) at OF (7x NYL, 9x APBL) 10x Batsman of the Year (MVP) (4x NYL, 6x APBL) 10x Batting Champion (5x NYL, 5x APBL) 9x New York League (NBBO) All-Star (1860-64, 67-70) 2x APBL championship winner (1872, 1875) 3x New York League (NBBO) Most Valuable Player (Custom – based on WPA) (1867, 68, 70) 2x New York League (NBBO) Triple Crown winner (1869, 1870) 15x League leader in OBP (5x NYL, 10x APBL) 12x League leader in Walks (3x NYL, 9x APBL – never led league in IBB) 11x League leader in Runs Created (5x NYL, 6x APBL) 10x League leader in OPS (4x NYL, 6x APBL) 5x League leader in AVG, OBP, and SLG simultaneously (4x NYL, 1x APBL) 4x League leader in RBI (2x NYL, 2x APBL) 4x League leader in position player WAR (2x NBBO, 2x APBL) 1867 (Excelsior, NYL): .451 AVG, 1.127 OPS (222 OPS+), 49 XBH, 90 RBI, 109 R, 8.05 WPA in 70 games 1867-70 (Excelsior, NYL): .428 AVG, 1.081 OPS (215 OPS+), 324 RBI, 395 R, 18.6 WAR in 280 games 1871-83 (3 teams, APBL): .390 AVG, .442 OBP, .528 SLG, .970 OPS (170 OPS+), 55.59 WPA, 45.0 WAR in 1,157 games 1876 (Buffalo, APBL): .448 AVG, .498 OBP, .546 SLG, 1.044 OPS (197 OPS+), 201 TB in 90 games Here’s how good he still was at the age of thirty-nine: And here’s how good the game engine still had him at the age of 39: NOTE: I had hitting batter aging speed set to .850 so players would start to fall off around age 35 because of the shorter seasons, so this was still a large deviation. I also had the amateur draft ticked off, and with the different way the game engine generates random free agents instead of amateur draft pool players, it would seem on the face of it that outlier players like this are more likely to appear… As a columnist from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle put it, “Of all the men and women in all of human history who have ever tried their hand at anything, a scarce few have been better at their selected field of work than Konrad Jensen was at the game of base ball.” Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:49 PM.

05-01-2023, 08:41 PM	#20
tm1681 All Star Reserve Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 572	THE RISE OF THE MIDWESTERN BASEBALL ASSOCIATION When the Midwestern Baseball Association began play in 1882, it was not intended to be a thorn in the side of the already established professional league, the APBL. It was created to give the Midwestern United States its own professional baseball league, with standards to match and salaries that came close to that of the “Grand Circuit”. Things were calm for the first four years of the two leagues’ co-existence, as there was relatively little player movement during the four-year countdown before the first MWBA free agent class took place. It was assumed that APBL front offices would see their junior upstarts as inferior and unworthy of attention, but in the winter of 1885 that changed quickly as notable MWBA stars entering their first taste of free agency were snapped up by APBL clubs offering better salaries: Halvard Westegren, 1885 Team of the Year at C, moved from St. Louis to the New York Athletics George Shay, SS of the year all four MWBA seasons, moved from Cincinnati to the Athletics Henry Oliver, 2x 20-game winner, moved from Lake Michigan to New Jersey Charles Fried, Indianapolis’ best hitter and key infielder, signed with Excelsior Frank O’Meara, 1885 20-game winner, moved from Milwaukee to Manhattan Charles Beals, Detroit’s ace, was signed by APBL champions Brooklyn Key Cincinnati starter Joseph Bryant signed for New Jersey This all caught the collective MWBA brass completely off-guard. APBL front offices saw the MWBA product as inferior, so surely they saw the players as inferior too? At the annual end-of-season meetings in October of 1886, a plan of action was discussed. There were two courses the league could have taken: take steps to keep players from moving to the other league or get revenge on the APBL by bringing in some of their best players. The MWBA chose the latter, and how! Just two weeks after the meetings were over, Detroit shocked the eastern baseball establishment by signing professional baseball’s now most famous player, Alva Burgess, from the Boston Shamrocks by offering a 33% raise from what the dominant team of the APBL was paying him. In Burgess’ 11 years with Boston he’d won three APBL pennants, two Batsman of the Year awards, two MVPs, eight Team of the Year nods, and was widely seen as the best overall player in the league. One week later, Boston was poached a second time when Louisville swooped in and offered 31-game-winner Frank Singleton a whopping 60% raise on his Shamrocks pay packet. Singleton was a seven-year vet who’d split his time between Brooklyn and Boston, and in that short time had won 163 games - 23 per season - opposed to just 81 losses. He’d led the APBL in wins three straight seasons, won multiple titles, and was the ace of Boston’s feared pitching staff. And just like that, the APBL’s best pitcher and best hitter had switched leagues before winter had even set in. The events were an embarrassment for the APBL due to not only the nature of having lost both their Batsman and Pitcher of the Year in the space of a week, but Boston was the league’s marquee team, having finished 1886 with a record of 88-24 while easily earning a place in the President’s Cup. The era of open competition between the two leagues for talent was now on. Not only was the competition for talent on, but now that the MWBA showed they could compete financially people were beginning to think that maybe the baseball talent in the Midwest was just as good. Indeed, the MWBA’s marquee players were as good as anything the APBL put on the field. At the start of the MWBA, rumors told of an incredibly talented 22-year-old from Rushville, IL named Jacob Milburn who was supposedly every bit as talented as Konrad Jensen… He joined the amateur St. Louis Baseball Club out of high school in 1878, and over the rest of the 1880s he proceeded to do this to the MWBA: If you’re keeping track, that’s Milburn leading the MWBA in hits, average, OBP, slugging, and obviously OPS in all the league’s first seven seasons. Not surprisingly, he was Batsman of the Year all seven times as well. Milburn was a credible fielder on top of that, but not as good as Jensen. A closer look at him reveals that he’s another one of the outliers generated by the game engine that happens when you tick the amateur draft off. As the MWBA had a marquee batter, they quickly found out they had a marquee pitcher as well: German-born Hans Ehle, better known as “Der Kaiser”… Ehle was not an MWBA original. He started 1882 in the GLBC with the Columbus Capitols, having joined them right as he was graduating high school. He was regarded as a pitcher with impressive potential and looked decent in his first season. However, as he transitioned into adulthood and his frame filled out, his pitching gained velocity (1882: 84-86, 1884: 90-92) and as the rules of baseball allowed pitchers to start throwing overhanded in 1884 (Note: the same year it happened in real life baseball) he really took off: That ridiculous third season led to him being purchased by Milwaukee – where else would a German go but Wisconsin – for $4,000. As pitchers worked to maximize the effect of the new rules removing restraints on pitching styles, it led to an immediate spike in strikeouts and Ehle’s dominance went from noticeable to terrifying: As you can see, he’s probably another 1800s outlier generated by the game… With young men like the above on the MWBL’s side, it was no longer 100% certain that the APBL had the best players in baseball, and that could only make things more interesting going into the 1890s. Last edited by tm1681; 06-21-2023 at 11:56 PM.