BASEBALL MONTHLY
July 1879
Analysis; Pitching resides in American League
With the league growing in popularityb in its 8th season there is still a distinctive divide and diffrence between the two sub leagues that make up pro baseball.
In regards to championships the Amercian League leads the waywinning 6 to the National's two. The American side has also won the last four. This is an overall suprize as many thought the National League was much stronger upon the leagues inception with the likes of Chicago and Boston. Of course the biggest diffrence maker has been the Philadelphia Athletics who have won 4 championships and are a class organization from top to bottom, the A's have yet to lose in the World Series.
Playing styles between the two leagues have also taken diffrent directions. The American League by a large margin is a better pitching side and doesnt have the big stars with the bat, in truth most of the big stars in general reside in the National League, names like Anson, Bentely, and Barnes. The American League has an average ERA per season of 2.39. On the contrary the National League ERA resides around 3.15, an exceptional diffrence.
The big hitters in the National League obviously make it the better hitting side. Averages comparing the two leagues show a .253 average in the American League and a .282 in the National.
Overall of course league play has increased greatly and improved as has attendence. The errors are down from the first two seasons considerably ad new talent from the youth of cities is making diffrence, as is better and more refined equipment.
The games future looks very bright indeed.
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White Stockings 11 out
Chicago continues a very disapointing season as they are well behind the division leading Boston Red Caps by 11 games. The Boston side is running away with the division with an 9 game lead going into August.
The big question in Chicago is the contract status of pitcher Al Spalding. Salding is having one of his weakest season's ever (13-16, 2.90) but still remains one of the better pitchers in the game. Mum is the word as Spalding's contract is running out this fall. Many feel with the money spent to resign Cap Anson, the team may not have the rescourses to meet the star pitchers demands. More of course to come on this later.
WHITE STOCKINGS STATS
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League Tidbits The Boston Red Caps made another trade this month to bolster their division leading side. They trades second baseman John Hatfield to the St. Louis Browns along with a minor league player for relief pitcher Joe McDoolan. Hatfield was batting only .209 this season.
Dickie Flowers of the Brooklyn Atlantics is a very unhappy man. The 29 year old short stop wants to play for a winner and wants out of the big city.