1903 RECAP - BASEBALL
NCAA
1903 saw some terrific conference races. Michigan State (79-47) claimed it's second Big Ten title in 3 years by just two games over Purdue and 3 on Michigan. Arizona State won it's final 8 games but fell 3 short of catching slumping Oregon State for the Pac 10 crown. A 3 game losing streak to end the season cost Arkansas the Southwest Conference title to Texas Tech and Dartmouth held off Columbia by a single game in the Ivy League. The tightest race by far was the battle for the SEC crown. All ten teams finished with 8 games of first place and 6 of them were within two games. When the regular season came to an end we had a three-way tie for first place with Alabama, Tennessee and Auburn all at 66-60 and Ole Miss and Florida just 1 game back. Alabama beat Tennessee 2-1 and then blanked Auburn 1-0 to earn it's first conference title and the only post-season berth for the conference this season.
Arizona slugger Jason Sawyer (.326,47,95) saw his numbers dip in his junior year but he still put up totals 99% of NCAA players would gladly accept. One exception was Syracuse senior outfielder Eddie Banuelos, who recorded the first triple crown in NCAA history, batting a record .405 while hitting 55 homers and driving in 140 runs, one shy of Sawyer's 1901 rbi mark. Banuelos led the Orangemen to the Big East title and destroyed his previous career highs in all 3 triple crown categories.
THE TOURNAMENT
The brackets for the 1903 NCAA Tournament were as follows:
Code:
EAST REGION
ACC champ Duke Blue Devils 80-46
IVY champ Dartmouth Indians 78-48
At Large 8 Colorado Buffaloes 72-54
At Large 1 Purdue Boilermakers 77-49
SOUTH REGION
SEC champ Alabama Crimson Tide 68-60
Big East champ Syracuse Orangemen 79-47
At Large 4 Arizona State Sun Devils 75-51
At Large 5 Oregon Ducks 73-53
MIDWEST REGION
Big10 champ Michigan State Spartans 79-47
Big 8 champ Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks 76-50
At Large 2 Columbia Lions 77-49
At Large 7 Wisconsin Badgers 73-53
WEST REGION
PAC10 champ Oregon State Beavers 78-48
SWC champ Texas Tech Red Raiders 72-54
At Large 3 Michigan Wolverines 76-50
At Large 6 Cornell University Big Red 73-53
Banuelos hit .458 with 2 homers and 7 rbi's in the South Regional but it wasn't enough as the Orangemen went 2-4 and were quickly eliminated from the College World Series playoffs. Alabama and Oregon came out of the South while Purdue and Dartmouth advanced from the East. Texas Tech and Michigan were the West winners while, in a clear indication of the parity that 1903 has given us, all 4 teams in the Midwest Region finished with 3-3 records. It went down to run differential which allowed Michigan State and Columbia to advance.
Three of the four Elite Eight series were 2-0 sweeps with Oregon, Alabama and Texas Tech moving on. They were joined by Michigan, which dropped the opener to Columbia only to win the next two.
Alabama improved to 8-2 in the tournament with a sweep of Oregon in the final four while Michigan swept Texas Tech behind a great outing from sophomore ace Andy Green (23-12, 2.11), who pitched 12 shutout innings in a 1-0 victory to open the series.
The College World Series finals won't have much for major league scouts - at least not in this years draft but there are a couple of future talents to watch. Alabama, which has arguably the worst offense out of the 16 playoff teams, does have an outstanding pitcher in sophomore Bryan Kleeman (21-11, 2.14), who is a projected first round pick in 1905. Michigan counters with the previously mentioned Green, also a likely high 1905 draft pick, and a much better offense led by senior outfielder Steve McWhinney (.300,21,67)
Game One of the best of five saw Michigan score three times in the bottom of the ninth inning to pull out a 3-2 victory and make a winner of Andy Green, who allowed 2 runs (1 earned) in going the distance. After a 2-0 win in Game Two, the Wolverines completed the sweep with another 3-2 victory as McWhinney's 3-run homer in the second accounted for all of the Michigan scoring.
THE DRAFT
Three of the first four picks were middle infielders led by Washington shortstop Gabe Simpson, who went #1 overall to the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 3 seasons with the Huskies, Simpson batted .335 with 100 homeruns at the college level. The first pitcher selected was Dave Collins of Florida by the New York Giants with the fifth pick. Collins won a career best 24 games a year ago but missed several starts this year and finished with a 16-5 mark. His career era of 1.94 ranks him in the top twenty.
Rice was the only school to have two players selected in the first round as leftfielder Chris Plata went 8th to Cleveland and centerfielder Joe Melton was taken 12th by the Phillies. Steve McWhinney, of the College World Series champion Michigan Wolverines was a supplemental first round pick, selected 16th overall by the Yankees. Syracuse slugger Eddie Banuelos, who won the triple crown, was taken 13th by the Boston Braves.
MAJOR LEAGUE SEASON
After losing in the World Series last season the Boston Braves were on a mission in 1903, winning a record 107 games and finishing 26 games ahead of second place Cincinnati atop the National League. The Braves had the NL batting champ in 29 year old Josh Downing (.291,1,89) as well as Mathew Eiden (.322,46,144), who led the majors in homers and rbi's. Add in David Ingram (.315,34,130), Dan Perkins (.338,25,88) and John Macomber (.317,38,123) and it is easy to see why Boston led the majors in nearly every offensive category. Pitching wasn't bad either as Dale Coats (24-8, 2.28) had a breakout year at age 35, while fellow starters Ralph Mason (16-6, 2.87), Mark DeRidder (15-9, 2.85) and Chris Unrein (18-6, 3.70) rounded out a solid rotation.
The St Louis Browns repeated as American League champs thanks in a big way to another great season from Jason Barr. The 28 year old outfielder led the American League in batting average (.354) and rbi's (136) and finished second with 39 homeruns to Boston Red Sox star Craig Hill (.314,40,101). Nate Wood (.285,21,118) and Cody Garcia (.323,20,100) were other key offensive pieces while the Browns also had the only 20 game winners in the American League in Seth Houser (25-7, 2.09) and Jon Kleiner (22-6, 2.53).
WORLD SERIES
Game One was a matchup featuring the most winningest pitcher from each league and the Braves Coats prevailed taking a 4-3 decision over Houser and the Browns. St Louis evened the series with a 10-8 win in Game Two as Jason Barr went 4-for-4 with a homer, a double and 3 rbi's while David Layne hit a grand slam for the Browns.
Shifting to St Louis for Game Three it was the visitors who's bats came alive with Boston winning 7-4 thanks to two-run homers from both Macomber and Eiden. Game Four was all Boston as the Braves scored all of their runs in the 6th inning of a 9-2 win. Matthew Eiden drove in 3 more runs to give him 9 rbi's in the season and his Braves a 3 games to one lead.
Even the right arm of St Louis ace Seth Houser could not slow down the Boston offense as the Braves chased him with 5 runs in 5 innings en route to a series clinching 7-1 victory. Dale Coats left after 5 innings with a sore shoulder but still earned his second win of the series for Boston.
Despite Matthew Eiden's 2 homers and 9 rbi's to go with a .286 batting average he lost out on Series MVP honours to Jason Barr of the losing Browns. Barr was amazing in the series as the 28 year old outfielder hit .591 (13-for-22) with 2 homers and 6 rbi's. He had at least 2 hits in every game of the series.
OTHER NOTES
For the first time both rookie of the year award winners were former college players. Pat Pettyjohn, a second baseman taken 8th overall in 1901 out of Kentucky by Cleveland, won the American League top newcomer award after hitting .294 with 6 homers and 62 rbi's in 150 games with the Tribe. The National League winner was also a second baseman as former Florida State star Mario Gaona (.339,7,53) earned the nod. Brooklyn selected Gaona 4th overall in the 1902 draft.
A minor league single season homerun record was set by Joe Harken of Augusta. The 22 year old, who was taken 19th overall by Detroit in 1902 out of Virginia Tech, slugged 54 homers and drove in 150 runs in 124 games for the Sally League Tigers. Harken earned a late season promotion to AA Dallas, where he hit 3 more homers in 14 games with the Rebels.
The Texas League had a .400 hitter as outfielder Shawn Reamer batted .405 with 32 homers and 101 rbi's. The 23 year old White Sox prospect was selected in the second round of the 1902 draft out of Penn. First overall pick in 1901, Jake Lemieux denied Reamer a triple crown by leading the Texas League in homers (39) and rbi's (118) while playing for Pittsburgh's farm team in Tulsa.
It was a third straight Mexican League crown for the Tampico Alijadores. Tampico finished the season with a 94-46 record, good for a 5 game lead on the second place Monterrey Industriales. They then beat Monterrey in a 7 game Mexican Series that saw former Kansas State first baseman Edwin Garcia win the Series MVP award with a .481 batting average and 11 homeruns. The Canadian Series also went the full seven games with the Western Canada League champion Winnipeg Buffaloes prevailing over the St Hyacinthe Saints.
Minor league champions were as follows:
Code:
LEAGUE CHAMPION PARENT CLUB
American Association Milwaukee Brewers Bos Braves
International League Toronto Maple Leafs Phi Athletics
Pacific Coast League Sacramento Solons Washington
Southern Association Memphis Chickasaws Cincinnati
Texas League Beaumont Exporters NY Yankees
Eastern League Wilkes-Barre Barons Cleveland
SALLY League Columbus Cardinals StL Cardinals
Three I League Quincy Gems Independent
Interstate League York White Roses Pittsburgh
West Texas-New Mex L Clovis Pioneers Independent