7th October 1878
The fans of the Athletics are unhappy that their team gave up their AL pennant. What pleased them was it wasn't given up without a fight as they pushed the winning Orioles as hard as they could after the poor start to the season they had. They finished the season poorly which meant they finished 6 games behind the winners. The fans are hoping that the team can get over this pennant loss and play next season with the form they had during the second half of this season.
The final four games of the season saw the team give up the title without a fight as they lost 4-5 against the Baltimore Orioles followed by being swept 0-3 by the St Louis Brown Stockings 4-9, 2-5 and 2-3
The batting was the best in the AL during the whole season. This can be seen by the way that 7 year veteran Second Baseman Paul Hines played during the year. His season had 60 game starts that saw him walk to the plate 266 times. During these plate appearances he hit the ball 88 times for 42 runs and 34 RBI's. His average for the season was .331 which is his second best year of his career after the .338 from last season. What was a surprise to him and also to all Philadelphia Athletics fans was that his form saw him not just win the batting crown for the AL but also pick up the batting triple crown as he also led the home run, 2 scored, and RBI numbers as well.
George Bradley's third season as starter was his worst with the ball since he became starter. This though can be tempered by the fact that most pitchers would love to have a bad season like he had. In the 57 games he started he pitched 472.1 innings while giving up 464 hits and 133 earned runs for an ERA of 2.53
Full pitching stats for the season
Full batting stats for the season
The fans are hoping that the First Year Draft will bring the missing pieces. We will let you know how the team gets on once this draft is complete.