[Nick Soulis]

BASEBALL MONTHLY

April 1879

Cubs 8-5 Start; Spalding Wins 200

The Chicago White Stockings and their new look opened the season in the thick of the competition, pacing themselves to an 8-5 record good enough for second place in the National League.

The talk of the league however are the Cincinnati Reds and their star hitter George Gore. The Reds are finally living up to some potential and have an 11-2 start. Gore has been dominating the league in hitting in his second season. "Piano Legs" may not be the fastest man in the league but he is great with the bat. Gore has 30 hits in 56 atbats and is hitting .536. The White Stockings and the rest of the national league may have a long season with this 21 year old center fielder, who is already a star.

How dominant of an April have the Reds had? As a team are batting an incredible .339 as a team and have scored 85 runs, 40 better then what they have allowed.



With the Whites only three games back, their was a nice moment early in the month as Al Spalding became the second pitcher in baseball history to win 200 games. Spalding who has started the most games and thrown the most innings in league history, earned his historic win on April 9th in a 9-4 win over Brooklyn.
Although quite an ackmomplishment, there is no dounbt that the motivating factor for the 28 year old pitcher is to finally win a championship, something he hasnt achieved yet in his 8 seasons.

Other players that have stepped up this month for the Whites include Mike Morgan who had a 21 game hitting streak broken dating back to last season. Also Cherokee Fisher has rekindled his glory days with a good month on the mound starting 4 games and compliling a 1.08 ERA. Jim Devlin is also batting .362 for the month.
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American League Standings
	W	L	PCT	GB
Baltimore Orioles	8	5	.615	-
Cleveland Blues	6	7	.462	2.0
Philadelphia Athletics	6	7	.462	2.0
St. Louis Brown Stockings	6	7	.462	2.0

National League Standings
	W	L	PCT	GB
Cincinnati Reds	11	2	.846	-
Chicago White Stockings	8	5	.615	3.0
Brooklyn Atlantics	4	9	.308	7.0
Boston Red Caps	3	10	.231	8.0

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League Tidbits

• The defending National League pennant winners have started out of the gate with a thud going 3-10. Paul Hines their new center fielder is only batting .136.
• Despite their rough month, the Red Caps did sign one of their players to a long term deal. Count Gedney their left fielder signed a 4 year contract that is said to be worth around $5692 dollars.
• The Only Nolan of the Baltimore Orioles pitched a 4 hit shutout against the St. Louis Browns on April 16th. Nolan did this despite showing obvious discomfort on the mound. Team representatives are saying the player was suffering from back spasms, but many wonder if this was the truth, or if Nolan had a blood alcohol issue. Regardless he was sharp again.