BASEBALL MONTHLY
March 1899
Chicago Returns To Work With Same Goal
The Reserve clause system made for a more calm and quiet winter and in many people's eyes much more stability. Teams could only deal with a minimum amount of free agents and trades to revamp their rosters. With this the new reality, good teams like the Chicago Orphans are more likely to stay near or at the top of the standings. All of that is however of little significance for the Orphans who lost their third straight championship last fall and have felt the constant pressure of getting over the hump and winning it all.
A new manager in charge in the biggest change for the team. Gone is Hall of Fame personality and tactician Al Spalding as he did not renew his contract to come back for another year. Spalding leaves as one of the most successful manager's in all of baseball having won over 60% of his games, but his inability to win a championship lingered over his head. Many have said that Spalding left so that his sporting good buisiness would not suffer under the moniker of him being kn known as a loser.
An original star of the franchise is the new man at the helm, and his name is not Cap Anson. Many thought Anson would be the choice to come back and manage the team that he starred for so long with. However it is Steve King that gets the call as the new man. King played 9 seasons with the old White Stockings and is a .300 career hitter with 119 stolen bases. King also won the MVP award in 1872 and won a championship with the Baltimore Orioles.
"There will be no pressure" said King upon his appointment, "we will play our game and need to continue to believe that we will win becuase we deserve to."
A huge part of things will be remaining healthy as Charlie Geggus and Fred Clarke are back and ready to compete again. The team also traded for 32 year old short stop Herman Long who brings among other things experiance in winning, Long won multiple championships with the Beaneaters.
Chicago tries to become only the third team in history to win four pennants in a row. In other news long time infielder Germany Smith retires after not being able to fully recover from injury, Smith was a great infielder and a .243 career hitter.
The Orpahans 1899 lineup:
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Other League Notes
Brooklyn will not be known as the Superbas while St. Louis will be known as the Perfectos.
The Detroit Tigers will miss one of their best starters as Ned Garvin will miss up to 5 months with a bad elbow. Garvin won 21 games last season and had a great partnership with Cy Young.
Danny Green, a 22 year old left fielder for Brooklyn is the top prospect in all the land according to the latest reports. Green batted .338 in 33 games in the big leagues last season.