[ArquimedezPozo]

Reverberations from the offseason were felt throughout 1917, in both the Federal League and in MLB.

The Federal League
Unlike in the last two seasons, there was no drama in the Federal League in 1917: the Milwaukee Brewers roared out of the gate with an 18-3 April, and but for a brief moment in late May, never lost their lead. The team ranked first in the Feds in both Runs Scored and Runs Allowed. The team's pitchers were especially dominant, with Bunny Hearn emerging as an ace: the 26 year old hurler went 25-10 with a 1.75 ERA, taking the ERA crown over Walter Johnson (who clocked in at 1.84). John Shackleford, the 32 year old veteran, was 17-17 with a 1.95 ERA, while Lefty Williams, who had pitched a couple years with Detroit before signing on in Milwaukee in 1915, held things down in the bullpen.

Despite the new presence of now-maligned big league star Happy Felsch, the biggest bat in Milwaukee's lineup for most of the season was OF Austin McHenry, at 22 years old the second youngest regular in Milwaukee's lineup (3B Mike Menosky was the youngest). McHenry hit .330/.382/.450 in 102 games, before tearing a ligament in his ankle, which ended his season. But Menosky and Felsch were more than able to keep the bats hot, putting up 7.8 and 5.8 WAR respectively to lead Milwaukee's potent offense.

The Baltimore Terrapins were Milwaukee's biggest competitors on the season, staying in second place most of the way and even eclipsing the Brewers in May, alongside Newark. Newark faded in the back half, though, while Baltimore stayed hot, keeping within 5 games of Milwaukee until mid-September, when the Brewers took 2 of 3 from then in Baltimore. The Brewers went 8-4 to close out the season, while Baltimore hit the skids, positing an exact opposite 4-8 record and ending 11 games back. This was despite another sterling season from star CF Tris Speaker, who hit .353/.463/.486 with an 11.3 WAR and 39 doubles, all FL bests.

Chicago finished barely above .500, however, despite a Walter Johnson season that eclipsed his 1916. Johnson put up a 1.84 ERA identical to his 1916 mark, but in more innings and with an increase to 235 Ks, best in the FL. His 10.9 WAR led the way for pitchers as well, along with his 5.5 K/9.

Maybe the most impressive mark of the year, though, belonged to rookie 1B Edgar Wesley, whose 30 triples shattered the previous record of 21, by Chicago's Les Mann in 1915. The 22 year old Wesley was an easy selection for FL Rookie of the Year, at .285/.382/.444.

The relative lack of season-ending drama in the Federal League also increased calls for some kind of championship series to match that of the World Series; though owners couldn't agree in time during the season, it was clearly to become a priority for 1918.

The American League
It was a tale of two halves in the American League. The first half had belonged to the Detroit Tigers, who held a 32-17 record on June 1, two games up on the A's and 4 above the Boston Red Sox. They were led as always by Ty Cobb, who hit .347/.422/.485 in May. But Cobb hit a rough patch in July, hitting just .250, and as he went so too did Detroit: at the end of the month the Tigers had dropped to 51-52, in 4th place and 14 games back of the league leading Red Sox.

The Red Sox had taken over in June and really never looked back - they lost just a single game in the back half of June to solidify a lead and though they had some rough patches in July and August the second place A's weren't able to capitalize. Then came September, which saw the Red Sox win 18 of 25 including a season-ending 14-1 run against the Yankees, Tigers, White Sox, Indians, Browns, and Senators to lock up the pennant.

1917 was the season of Babe Ruth in the American League: no player had a greater impact than the Red Sox pitcher/slugger, who dominated on both sides of the ball. The 22 year old Ruth led the AL with 23 wins, putting up a 2.39 ERA in 36 starts - 5.1 WAR as a pitcher, to go along with his 7.2 WAR as a hitter. It was on offense that Ruth really dominated, leading the AL and NL combined with 15 home runs and 93 RBI, while batting .306, and posting a .429 OBP and .520 SLG, second in both cases only to NL breakout star Rogers Hornsby. Ruth was the biggest factor leading the Boston Red Sox to an AL title in 1917, as they won 98 games to finish 5 ahead of Connie Mack's A's.

Boston's Ray Collins took the ERA crown for the AL as well, while Dutch Leonard pitched well in limited duty, missing much of the middle of the season to an elbow injury.

The best position player of the season, though, was Philadelphia's Amos Strunk, who on the batting title while putting up an 8.3 WAR, besting Ruth and Cobb. Among pitchers, Reb Russell won 22 with a league-best 7.6 WAR for the surprisingly solid Chicago White Sox, who despite the scandal that had cost them three of their best still managed to finish with a winning record at 80-74.

The bottom of the league belonged to the New York Yankees, whose 58-96 record brought them back to the AL basement after a 1916 of near respectability.

The National League
As their crosstown cousins the Red Sox ripped through the AL, the defending champion Braves were stuck in the mud. On the last day of June, the Braves were just 32-39, in seventh place, with only the lowly Cubs keeping them from the basement. Though the pitching had been strong, with Art Nehf once again leading the way, the bats were anemic; to add to injury the team had lost more than their share of tight ballgames, especially in June (10 losses in one run games, including five extra inning disappointments).

Meanwhile, the state of Pennsylvania saw a see-saw battle for first in the NL, as the Pirates and Phillies traded pole position through April, May, and June. The Pirates, led by young CF Max Carey and a solid if unspectacular pitching staff, had won 44 times by the start of July, with a three game lead over the Phillies. The Philadelphia squad was gifted defensively, and scored the second most runs in the NL despite only C Joe Cobb and veteran RF Gavvy Cravath putting up RC+ over 120. The rest of the lineup was simply good enough, while a rotation anchored by Grover Cleveland, Erskine Mayer, and Eppa Rixley kept opponents off the board.

The Phillies took over in late July, and heading into August they were 59-41, while the Pirates had sunk to third behind a surging Cincinnati club. All through August, the top three in the NL remained set as if in concrete: the Phillies in first, the Reds in second, the Pirates in third. The gaps between them barely wavered.

But something was shifting in the standings, a little further down: the Boston Braves had caught on fire. After a 20-7 August, suddenly the Braves were a winning club, just 4 games out of first at 67-58. While the offense remained fairly anemic, the pitching held: they allowed just 56 runs over 27 August games for a runs per game clip of just over 2. When you factored out their 2-12 defeat to the Pirates on August 7, that number dropped to 44 runs in 26 games - an amazing 1.7 runs per game.

A 2-4 start to September seemed to doom the Braves, though - at the close of play on September 6, they were still in 4th place, a full five games back of the Phillies and Reds. With less than a month left, and three teams to overcome, the task seemed unlikely, if not impossible.

But then Thomas Boman went the distance in a 5-0 shutout of the Robins, while the Phillies and Pirates lost and the Reds took an off day. On September 8, Art Nehf beat the Phillies himself, in a 1-0 shutout, while Rogers Hornsby's Cardinals beat the Reds, and the last place Cubs shut out the Pirates on a Hippo Vaughn three hitter. The Braves ended play that Saturday in third place, just 3.5 back.

They completed a sweep of the Phillies, despite scoring just six runs in the series, taking the last two games by 2-1 and 3-1 scores, then swept the Giants between the 13th and 15th - a series in which Braves pitchers allowed just a single run while the hitters put up 7 despite only one of them - 3B Tony Boeckel - collecting more than a single hit in a game all series. By Saturday September 15, the Braves had moved into a tie with the Phillies, two games back of the Reds in the NL, while the Pirates had faded all the way to 4th, five games back.

The Pirates knocked Boman around in the first game of a three game series the next Monday, breaking the Braves' 7 game win streak. But that just gave Boston a chance to start another and then one: they were perfect over the next 8 games, then swept the Cardinals and took the first two from Cincy, including a very un-Braveslike 9-7 win on September 25. Combined with their recent hot streak, that win helped cement them as the new leaders of the National League, three games up on the Phillies and Pirates, and a stunning 4.5 up on Cincinnati, who went 1-7 over the previous week and a half while the Braves won 8 straight.

It seemed to cap a storybook end for the Braves, but just as they got ready to clinch the pennant they started losing - bad. They were 1-2 to close September, now up by just 2.5. In the final series of the season, they dropped three of four to the Dodgers, getting outscored 12-19, while a final week surge by Pittsburgh brought them... just short. Despite being unable to lock down the last week of games, the Braves finished off the National League with an 86-68 record, just a game over the Pirates, with the Phillies and Reds two and three back respectively.

The team with the best player in the league didn't factor into it at all, but Cardinal Rogers Hornsby's season should be remembered for a long time, as the 21 year old 2B led the NL in everything: his .362 BA was nearly 6 points higher than the next best, while he led the NL with 13 homers. He set NL best marks with 303 TB, a .444 OBP, a .541 SLG, 197 RC+, and an all-time record 13.3 WAR.

The World Series
Once again, a Braves team with a poor offense and a lesser record faced off against a Goliath: last year they'd slain the White Sox. Could they repeat that feat against the 98 win crosstown Red Sox?

The first game didn't bear much promise for the Braves. Art Nehf started on short rest - a questionable decision for a team with relatively deep pitching, but Nehf had been the only starter who hadn't hit a rough patch in the last week. Boston countered with Dutch Leonard, who had come back from injury to start four successful games in September and October. Nehf was good, holding the potent Boston offense to three over his 8 innings of work, but Leonard was better: the Boston ace allowed just a run despite scattering ten hits. The Braves' Sherry Magee and Will Rumler each collected three hits, but it was a costly Braves error in the 8th that opened the door for Boston to score its last two runs and take the first game 3-1.

Game 2 was a relative slugfest. the Braves sent Dick Rudolph to the mound, but the Red Sox weren't impressed, putting up five runs in the first three frames and finally chasing Rudolph with two more in the seventh. 2B Swede Risberg was 2-4 with 2 RBI, and 1B Dick Hoblitzell even better, collecting 4 RBI with a three hit game. Babe Ruth was 2-2 with a key triple, but Ruth's contribution also extended to the mound, where he was good enough to win - he went the distance, and though he allowed six (five earned) his teammates' bats got him a win and the Red Sox a 2-0 series lead.

Game three was a long, desperate affair that saw Boston starter Carl Mays go 11 2/3 while allowing four. Thomas Boman didn't last as long, getting into the 8th while also allowing four, which put the game into extras. Each team used a top starter in relief, with the Braves sending out Bob Steele for 5 2/3 outstanding, 4 hit scoreless innings of work. Boston sent Dutch Leonard out to close out the 12th, which he did effectively, but he only got one out into to the 13th when disaster struck: Red Shannon, who had come in as a pinch hitter earlier in the game, knocked a double off Leonard that followed a Johnny Evers base hit. The 36 year old Evers still had enough speed to him to come around to score, walking the Braves off on their home turf.

It would prove to be the only win the Boston Nationals collected. The Red Sox bounced back strong, with Babe Ruth powering the club to an 8-3 Game 4 win behind Leonard, who bounce back with nine innings of solid work. Hoblitzell went 3-5 with two RBI as well.

Game 5 belonged to Ruth, as had the season that preceded it: the Boston pitcher/OF went the distance, allowing three runs while striking out six, adding a 3-3 performance at the plate to seal a 4-3 Game 5 victory, and the series. Boston carried the cup all the way across town to Fenway, for the first time since 1912.

It was the fourth time in as many years that Boston was represented in the World Series, but the Red Sox came out on top in 1917. Babe Ruth took home the World Series MVP - though he hadn't pitched brilliantly, he won two, and was astounding at the plate, with a .556/.667/.722 line. At 22, he had an incredible future ahead of him - but would the Red Sox pay for him to have that future in Boston? Fans looked with concern at their new owner, Harry Frazee, and feared they knew the answer.

With the World Series at an end, baseball stepped timidly and fearfully into a new era: Free Agency.

Awards
AL Pitcher of the Year: Ray Collins, Boston Red Sox - Once again, two Red Sox hurlers topped the voting. The top spot went to Collins, who led the AL with a 1.86 ERA while winning 18. Ruth came in second, with his AL-best 23 wins.
NL Pitcher of the Year: Boston took both Pitcher Awards in the AL/NL in 1917, with Art Nehf of the Braves taking the hardware. Nehf led the NL with 27 wins, and was just behind Philly's Erskine Mayer with a 1.69 ERA.
FL Pitcher of the Year: Walter Johnson, Chicago Whales - for the third straight season, Johnson topped the Federal League, with 21 wins and a 1.84 ERA.

AL MVP: Babe Ruth, Boston Red Sox - An incredibly easy and unanimous choice, with his batting and pitching lines combining for 12.3 WAR while he led the league in homers.
NL MVP: Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis Cardinals - Ruth dominated the headlines, but another young star is emerging in the NL in Hornsby, who wins his second straight MVP at age 21. Hornsby's .362/.444/.541 line was better than Ruth's, and his 13 homers led the NL, as did his incredible 13.3 WAR, by far the all-time mark in the NL.
FL MVP: Tris Speaker, Baltimore Terrapins - a .353/.463/.486 line with 11.3 WAR didn't match his 1916 line, but was head and shoulders above the competition once again.

Historical Note: not much to note here, except that the previous mistake regarding Black players had an impact above, with Edgar Wesley, a brilliant hitter of the pre- and early-Negro Leagues, has hit stardom in the Federal League. Somehow, whatever I did to try to set up a separate draft system here failed in a strange way, destroying the color line completely despite still having that option checked in the historical league settings. So, given that I can't really go back, I'm just going to imagine that the color line has been obliterated, and see how things unfold from here.