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Eugene Church · 07-13-2006, 04:47 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Monday, September 8, 1903

NATIONAL LEAGUE

CARDINALS BREEZE TO NATIONAL LEAGUE PENNANT BY 6 GAMES OVER BUCS

Because of poor pitching, the St. Louis Cardinals (88-66 .275 BA 3.73 ERA) had been slotted for a fifth place finish by the Baseball Writers of American in the preseason poll. However, they didn't pay any attention to that and took over first place in June and never gave it up. The Redbirds completed the last month with a 17-15 mark and were never challenged. The only team in hailing distance was the Giants and they wilted in August with a pathetic 12-21 record and fell 9 games off the pace at season's end. Tony Larussa's club hit everything in sight, 11 points higher than the #2 team, the Phils. What a lineup. Stan Musial (.341-30-117-94) scorched NL hurlers the entire year and finished the season with a 30-game hitting streak still intact. The NL and AAA record is 31 by Pie Traynor in 1901. Stan the Man was backed up by plethora of productive players: Rogers Hornsby (.311-28-95-108), Johnny Mize (.270-27-97-88), Joe Medwick (.286-15-87-68), Frankie Frisch (.304-11-64-116), Chick Hafey (.288-21-69-82) and Walker Cooper (.285-16-64-55). And the Cards had some good pitching to go with it, too. Satchel Paige (19-6 3.26), Matt Morris (13-2 2.76) and John Tudor (16-7 4.05) were Larussa's best with some good outings by Dizzy Dean (11-7 3.85). St. Louis' only weakness was the relief corps. Larussa never found anybody he could depend on in the bullpen. But I guess he didn't need it, did he?

Manager Danny Murtaugh brought the Pittsburgh Pirates (82-72 .254 BA 3.57 ERA) in at the runnerup spot, 6 games behind the winners. A bad June cost the Bucs a chance to contend with St. Louis. They went 15-16 the last month of the year. Murtaugh depended on his starting mound corps of Sam Leever (20-10 3.15), John Candelaria (16-7 3.17) and Deacon Phillippe (13-12 3.67) and his reliable righthander, Roy Face (9-8 2.90 17 saves) in the bullpen. Longball threat Sadaharu Oh (.268-39-110-102) continued to pound the ball. Second year man Koji Yamamoto (.331-16-49-49) may have won the center field slot with a fine second half of the season. Manny Sanguillen (.302-5-46-44) looks like he has taken over as the number one backstop. Roberto Clemente (.265-15-84-68) had a decent season and delivered RBIs when they were needed. The Pirates need to have their top players hit the way they did in the league's first two seasons to move up next year. Too many of them had down years this season.

Heads will probably roll at the Polo Grounds. This was supposed to be the year of the New York Giants (79-75 .248 BA 3.54 ERA). John McGraw expected them to win it all. The BWA thought they would win it all. They didn't...and looked badly doing it...even though they tied for third with the Phillies, 9 games in the rear of St. Louis. The Giants only trailed by 4 games going into the last month, but went belly up with a dismal 12-21 record. McGraw had decent pitching, but not much hitting. Only the hapless Cincinnati Reds hit worse. Only Mel Ott (.276-28-97-88) had a good season. Yet he was the best average they had at only .276. Everybody else was way down. Bill Terry (.243-5-59-42), Willie Mays (.261-26-68-65), Martin Dihigo (.251-18-53-82) and Barry Bonds (.248-35-76-95). And the pitchers weren't much better. Rookie Sal Maglie (13-9 3.62) was the best. Carl Hubbell (10-15 3.53) was not the King Carl of old. Christy Mathewson (11-9 2.34) was outstanding, but didn't get much run support. He also missed 10 starts due to injury. Jeff Tesreau (13-12 3.66) started off great at 11-3, but then faded to 2-9 in the second half of the season. All in all, not a good year in New York.

As bad as it was in New York, it was that good for the Philadelphia Phillies (79-75 .264 BA 3.49 ERA). Previewed to finish last again, they rose from the ashes and had a rebirth. They wrapped up the year with a 16-15 mark and deadlocked New York for third place, 9 games out of first. Skipper Danny Ozark's crew was second to the Redbirds in batting and the National League's best in ERA. The rock solid pitching rotation was led by Pete Alexander (15-10 3.28), Ahiro Bessho (14-11 3.25), Jiro Noguchi (13-13 4.13), Curt Schilling (12-13 3.06) and Rick Wise (8-4 2.81). Ozark had a sensational relief specialist, too. Rookie Turk Farrell (3-6 2.86) appeared in 66 games and had 18 saves, both tied for the league's best with the Cubs' Bruce Sutter. On the batting side of the tally sheet, Lefty O'Doul (.348-13-93-81) won the NL batting crown and had a fine season. Chuck Klein (.281-32-108-82) was still cracking homers and driving in runs. Three other gift packages did exceedingly well: 2B Pinky Whitney (.293-9-56-52), rookie 1B Don Hurst (.247-23-92-70) and the revitalized CF Richie Ashburn (.329-1-34-70) all contributed to the Phils resurgence. New 3B Scott Rolen (.232-14-46-48) didn't hit much for average, but showed power potential and the ability to deliver with men on base. The future looks good for the City of Brotherly Love.

Jolly Cholly Grimm's Chicago Cubs (77-77 .255 BA 3.95 ERA) never did recover from a horrible June (9-21), but did close out the season in style with a sparkling 21-11 mark in August and September. This moved them up to fifth place, 11 games off the pace. RF Turkey Stearnes (.284-45-118-109) had another marvelous season and set a new AAA standard for home runs in a season with 45, breaking Sadaharu Oh's 1902 mark of 44. He also topped the NL with 118 RBIs and finished second with Boston's Pete Hill in runs scored with 109. Cool Papa Bell (.287-14-51-107), Tetsuharu Kawakami (.301-13-84-75) and Ernie Banks (.244-29-82-71) chipped in some good offense, too. Bill Dahlen (.285-15-59-67) was solid at shortstop. On the hill, Moe Brown (16-11 2.97) stood out for the third straight year. Ed Reulbach (14-10 3.66) has his best season. Larry French (10-6 3.81) and Fergie Jenkins (12-14 4.03) helped carry the load as well. In the bullpen Bruce Sutter (6-7 3.21) tied Philly's Turk Farrell for the league lead with 66 appearances and 18 saves. Maybe next year the Chicubs can get out of their rut and move up into the first division.

This was to be the Boston Braves' (75-79 .253 BA 3.88 ERA) year. Bobby Cox had the pitching, he had the hitting and he had the votes of the baseball writers, who rated them to battle the Giants for the NL championship. But games are won on the diamonds, not in the newspapers. The Braves started off poorly, kicked it up in midseason and then fizzled at the end. They finished the last month at 12-19 and slipped to sixth, 13 games behind. Cox's starting rotation was still solid, but the hitters didn't fulfill their part of the bargain. The team batting average fell from .262 and 182 homers in 1902 to .253 and 159 homers this year. Warren Spahn (16-12 3.30), Greg Maddux (16-13 3.00), Phil Niekro (10-7 3.08) and Tommy Glavine (14-13 3.86) lost a few they shouldn't have, if the support had been what it was last year. No reliable relievers also compounded the problem. In spite of the drop in offensive output, several players enjoyed good to excellent seasons. Pete Hill (.304-35-96-109), Buck Leonard (.254-31-107-94), Tommy Holmes (.328-8-60-72) and Chipper Jones (.267-27-88-76) were club leaders.

The Brooklyn Dodgers (72-82 .253 BA 3.82 ERA) were really looking forward to this season. The sportswriters had predicted them to finish fourth, but said it could be anywhere from second to sixth, depending on Dazzy Vance's arm. Well Dazzy recorded his worst season so far...4-24 with a 4.24 ERA...and the Dodgers ended up seventh. Manager Tommy Lasorda didn't get any pitching or any hitting this year and the Bums plunged in the standings. Brooklyn fans had little to cheer about except for Sandy Koufax (20-8 2.16), who had a career year. Even if Vance had approached his 1901 won-lost mark of 19-and-6, the Dodgers would still have had a bad season. One other positive was Eric Gagne (8-3 2.51), who proved himself to be a capable closer with 63 games and 11 saves. None of the Dodgers potent hitters produced. Zach Wheat (.318-8-67-62), Adrian Beltre (.284-20-76-66) and Cristobel Torriente (.288-21-66-76) were the best of the lot.

And finally we come to poor old suffering Sparky Anderson's Cincinnati Reds (64-90 .240 BA 4.00 ERA), who were expected to finish last for the third straight year and sadly they lived up to those expectations. The Reds played 14-19 ball the last month of the season and ended up 24 games out. Only bright spots were the starting rotation, who deserved a better fate. Dolph Luque (13-7 4.05), Pete Donahue (13-16 3.06), Jim Maloney (11-13 3.61) and Kenny Raffensberger (11-9 3.49) usually kept them in the ballgame, but the batters couldn't win it for them. Pete Rose (.276-3-47-65) and Ted Kluszewski (.255-31-86-77) topped the hitters. Frank Robinson (.248-22-58-56) and Johnny Bench (.206-25-60-40) provided a few homers, but not many hits. Rookie Paul O'Neill (.260-15-43-39) put up some pretty good numbers in his 76 starts. Not a very impressive season for Cincy. But "hope always springs eternal " they say. I guess the Redlegs will just have to wait until next year...or maybe the next...or maybe the next.

See League Reports, Stats and Standings here:

http://aaa.allsimbaseball.com/index....tpage&Itemid=1

07-13-2006, 04:47 PM	#499
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 36,205	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Monday, September 8, 1903 NATIONAL LEAGUE *CARDINALS BREEZE TO NATIONAL LEAGUE PENNANT BY 6 GAMES OVER BUCS* Because of poor pitching, the St. Louis Cardinals (88-66 .275 BA 3.73 ERA) had been slotted for a fifth place finish by the Baseball Writers of American in the preseason poll. However, they didn't pay any attention to that and took over first place in June and never gave it up. The Redbirds completed the last month with a 17-15 mark and were never challenged. The only team in hailing distance was the Giants and they wilted in August with a pathetic 12-21 record and fell 9 games off the pace at season's end. Tony Larussa's club hit everything in sight, 11 points higher than the #2 team, the Phils. What a lineup. Stan Musial (.341-30-117-94) scorched NL hurlers the entire year and finished the season with a 30-game hitting streak still intact. The NL and AAA record is 31 by Pie Traynor in 1901. Stan the Man was backed up by plethora of productive players: Rogers Hornsby (.311-28-95-108), Johnny Mize (.270-27-97-88), Joe Medwick (.286-15-87-68), Frankie Frisch (.304-11-64-116), Chick Hafey (.288-21-69-82) and Walker Cooper (.285-16-64-55). And the Cards had some good pitching to go with it, too. Satchel Paige (19-6 3.26), Matt Morris (13-2 2.76) and John Tudor (16-7 4.05) were Larussa's best with some good outings by Dizzy Dean (11-7 3.85). St. Louis' only weakness was the relief corps. Larussa never found anybody he could depend on in the bullpen. But I guess he didn't need it, did he? Manager Danny Murtaugh brought the Pittsburgh Pirates (82-72 .254 BA 3.57 ERA) in at the runnerup spot, 6 games behind the winners. A bad June cost the Bucs a chance to contend with St. Louis. They went 15-16 the last month of the year. Murtaugh depended on his starting mound corps of Sam Leever (20-10 3.15), John Candelaria (16-7 3.17) and Deacon Phillippe (13-12 3.67) and his reliable righthander, Roy Face (9-8 2.90 17 saves) in the bullpen. Longball threat Sadaharu Oh (.268-39-110-102) continued to pound the ball. Second year man Koji Yamamoto (.331-16-49-49) may have won the center field slot with a fine second half of the season. Manny Sanguillen (.302-5-46-44) looks like he has taken over as the number one backstop. Roberto Clemente (.265-15-84-68) had a decent season and delivered RBIs when they were needed. The Pirates need to have their top players hit the way they did in the league's first two seasons to move up next year. Too many of them had down years this season. Heads will probably roll at the Polo Grounds. This was supposed to be the year of the New York Giants (79-75 .248 BA 3.54 ERA). John McGraw expected them to win it all. The BWA thought they would win it all. They didn't...and looked badly doing it...even though they tied for third with the Phillies, 9 games in the rear of St. Louis. The Giants only trailed by 4 games going into the last month, but went belly up with a dismal 12-21 record. McGraw had decent pitching, but not much hitting. Only the hapless Cincinnati Reds hit worse. Only Mel Ott (.276-28-97-88) had a good season. Yet he was the best average they had at only .276. Everybody else was way down. Bill Terry (.243-5-59-42), Willie Mays (.261-26-68-65), Martin Dihigo (.251-18-53-82) and Barry Bonds (.248-35-76-95). And the pitchers weren't much better. Rookie Sal Maglie (13-9 3.62) was the best. Carl Hubbell (10-15 3.53) was not the King Carl of old. Christy Mathewson (11-9 2.34) was outstanding, but didn't get much run support. He also missed 10 starts due to injury. Jeff Tesreau (13-12 3.66) started off great at 11-3, but then faded to 2-9 in the second half of the season. All in all, not a good year in New York. As bad as it was in New York, it was that good for the Philadelphia Phillies (79-75 .264 BA 3.49 ERA). Previewed to finish last again, they rose from the ashes and had a rebirth. They wrapped up the year with a 16-15 mark and deadlocked New York for third place, 9 games out of first. Skipper Danny Ozark's crew was second to the Redbirds in batting and the National League's best in ERA. The rock solid pitching rotation was led by Pete Alexander (15-10 3.28), Ahiro Bessho (14-11 3.25), Jiro Noguchi (13-13 4.13), Curt Schilling (12-13 3.06) and Rick Wise (8-4 2.81). Ozark had a sensational relief specialist, too. Rookie Turk Farrell (3-6 2.86) appeared in 66 games and had 18 saves, both tied for the league's best with the Cubs' Bruce Sutter. On the batting side of the tally sheet, Lefty O'Doul (.348-13-93-81) won the NL batting crown and had a fine season. Chuck Klein (.281-32-108-82) was still cracking homers and driving in runs. Three other gift packages did exceedingly well: 2B Pinky Whitney (.293-9-56-52), rookie 1B Don Hurst (.247-23-92-70) and the revitalized CF Richie Ashburn (.329-1-34-70) all contributed to the Phils resurgence. New 3B Scott Rolen (.232-14-46-48) didn't hit much for average, but showed power potential and the ability to deliver with men on base. The future looks good for the City of Brotherly Love. Jolly Cholly Grimm's Chicago Cubs (77-77 .255 BA 3.95 ERA) never did recover from a horrible June (9-21), but did close out the season in style with a sparkling 21-11 mark in August and September. This moved them up to fifth place, 11 games off the pace. RF Turkey Stearnes (.284-45-118-109) had another marvelous season and set a new AAA standard for home runs in a season with 45, breaking Sadaharu Oh's 1902 mark of 44. He also topped the NL with 118 RBIs and finished second with Boston's Pete Hill in runs scored with 109. Cool Papa Bell (.287-14-51-107), Tetsuharu Kawakami (.301-13-84-75) and Ernie Banks (.244-29-82-71) chipped in some good offense, too. Bill Dahlen (.285-15-59-67) was solid at shortstop. On the hill, Moe Brown (16-11 2.97) stood out for the third straight year. Ed Reulbach (14-10 3.66) has his best season. Larry French (10-6 3.81) and Fergie Jenkins (12-14 4.03) helped carry the load as well. In the bullpen Bruce Sutter (6-7 3.21) tied Philly's Turk Farrell for the league lead with 66 appearances and 18 saves. Maybe next year the Chicubs can get out of their rut and move up into the first division. This was to be the Boston Braves' (75-79 .253 BA 3.88 ERA) year. Bobby Cox had the pitching, he had the hitting and he had the votes of the baseball writers, who rated them to battle the Giants for the NL championship. But games are won on the diamonds, not in the newspapers. The Braves started off poorly, kicked it up in midseason and then fizzled at the end. They finished the last month at 12-19 and slipped to sixth, 13 games behind. Cox's starting rotation was still solid, but the hitters didn't fulfill their part of the bargain. The team batting average fell from .262 and 182 homers in 1902 to .253 and 159 homers this year. Warren Spahn (16-12 3.30), Greg Maddux (16-13 3.00), Phil Niekro (10-7 3.08) and Tommy Glavine (14-13 3.86) lost a few they shouldn't have, if the support had been what it was last year. No reliable relievers also compounded the problem. In spite of the drop in offensive output, several players enjoyed good to excellent seasons. Pete Hill (.304-35-96-109), Buck Leonard (.254-31-107-94), Tommy Holmes (.328-8-60-72) and Chipper Jones (.267-27-88-76) were club leaders. The Brooklyn Dodgers (72-82 .253 BA 3.82 ERA) were really looking forward to this season. The sportswriters had predicted them to finish fourth, but said it could be anywhere from second to sixth, depending on Dazzy Vance's arm. Well Dazzy recorded his worst season so far...4-24 with a 4.24 ERA...and the Dodgers ended up seventh. Manager Tommy Lasorda didn't get any pitching or any hitting this year and the Bums plunged in the standings. Brooklyn fans had little to cheer about except for Sandy Koufax (20-8 2.16), who had a career year. Even if Vance had approached his 1901 won-lost mark of 19-and-6, the Dodgers would still have had a bad season. One other positive was Eric Gagne (8-3 2.51), who proved himself to be a capable closer with 63 games and 11 saves. None of the Dodgers potent hitters produced. Zach Wheat (.318-8-67-62), Adrian Beltre (.284-20-76-66) and Cristobel Torriente (.288-21-66-76) were the best of the lot. And finally we come to poor old suffering Sparky Anderson's Cincinnati Reds (64-90 .240 BA 4.00 ERA), who were expected to finish last for the third straight year and sadly they lived up to those expectations. The Reds played 14-19 ball the last month of the season and ended up 24 games out. Only bright spots were the starting rotation, who deserved a better fate. Dolph Luque (13-7 4.05), Pete Donahue (13-16 3.06), Jim Maloney (11-13 3.61) and Kenny Raffensberger (11-9 3.49) usually kept them in the ballgame, but the batters couldn't win it for them. Pete Rose (.276-3-47-65) and Ted Kluszewski (.255-31-86-77) topped the hitters. Frank Robinson (.248-22-58-56) and Johnny Bench (.206-25-60-40) provided a few homers, but not many hits. Rookie Paul O'Neill (.260-15-43-39) put up some pretty good numbers in his 76 starts. Not a very impressive season for Cincy. But "hope always springs eternal " they say. I guess the Redlegs will just have to wait until next year...or maybe the next...or maybe the next. See League Reports, Stats and Standings here: http://aaa.allsimbaseball.com/index....tpage&Itemid=1 Last edited by Eugene Church; 07-14-2006 at 12:33 PM.