[tm1681]

NBBO 1902: THE TUCKER-WHEATON CUP RETURNS
GARDNER STARS AFTER MOVING FROM NY TO TX; VERMONT WINS 6TH TITLE IN A ROW

For 1902, the National Baseball Organization was in its second year with six member leagues. Thanks to that nice, even number league executives felt the time was right to bring back the Tucker-Wheaton Cup, which had gone on hiatus when the NBBO’s single-competition format ended in 1889. There wouldn’t be a cup playoff as there was before – six teams was considered unwieldy and it meant some teams would have an extra break. Instead, there was a ten-game Round Robin competition held in the various NBBO parks in New York City & Brooklyn to determine who would lift the Tucker-Wheaton Cup for the first time in thirteen years.

In addition to bringing back the TWC, the NBBO saw four new teams enter its ranks in 1902: a pair each in the Great Lakes Baseball Conference and the Prairie League to bring the membership of both to an even dozen:

GLBC EXPANSION TEAMS

PL EXPANSION TEAMS

The GLBC and PL remain without playoffs, but the hope is that after a couple of years of having 12+ teams the league can divide the competition up geographically to lessen travel cost/time, and in the process bring them more in line with the three Northeastern circuits.

The double expansion also means that the Southern League is now the only NBBO member league with less than a dozen teams (10).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the New York League two teams came out clearly on top, as familiar champions Marathon BBC won the Brooklyn Championship by nine games and the Yonkers Hilltoppers were best in the New York City Championship by a full ten. The rest of the competition was, as usual, fairly even, with only one team winning less than 40% of their games. That unfortunate side was the Morrisania Unions, who were 42-70 (.375).

Marathon’s extensive high-pressure experience paid off once again in the New York City Finals as they beat Yonkers, who were five games better during the season (73-39 vs 68-44), in four games to win the NYL title. Thomas Huddleston, who’s led the NYL in wins five teams during his eight-year career, threw two Complete Game victories and was named NYC Finals MVP.

There were no major standout performers in the NYL, but Yonkers’ Carl Wells (.362, 1 HR, 59 RBI, 5.8 WAR) won his third straight batting title in an NBBO league, earning both Batsman of the Year and a Golden Glove at first base. The aforementioned Huddleston (20-8, 2.21 ERA, 125 K's, 6.0 WAR) was Hurler of the Year for the third time, but 21-year-old rising star Dave Penny of Baltic BBC (18-13, 2.19 ERA, 180 K’s, 8.0 WAR) took the pitcher spot in the Team of the Year after leading the league in K’s and Pitching WAR.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The New England Baseball Association had a very familiar look to it, as the Vermont Green Stockings won 70% of their games (81-31) for the third time in four years and raised the Ben Franklin Cup for the sixth year running. However, it took them the full five games to beat Cantabrigians BBC (75-37) in the cup series, and the Green Stockings needed a run-scoring double from Mark Poole, the NEBA leader in RBI (89), in the bottom of the 8th to win Game Five 2-1.

There was one star player who stood out above all others: Cantabrigians’ Cuban ace Manny Sesmas (24-7, 1.72 ERA, 157 K’s), who led the league in Wins, ERA, Complete Games (26), Shutouts (10), WPA (7.0), WAR (7.5) and R9-WAR (12.5). Vermont’s Robert Maples (178) and Worcester’s Peter McHugh (178) both struck out more batters, but otherwise no other NEBA pitcher came close to Sesmas’ accomplishments in 1902.

There were a number of stars who excelled with the bat in the NEBA, and following are the most notable. Richard Bertolucci of Camden (.369, 9 HR, 66 RBI, 6.1 oWAR) won Batsman of the Year after leading the league in Average, Home Runs, On-Base (.470), and OPS (.977). Vermont stalwart Frank Holbrook (.300, 2 HR, 72 RBI, 50 SB, 5.6 WAR) was named league MVP for the second time. Second-year Hartford outfielder James Broadbent (.327, 4 HR, 58 RBI, 59 SB, 6.5 WAR) led all position players in WAR. Finally, 24-year-old Cantabrigians outfielder Severin van der Kooi (.355, 4 HR, 52 RBI, 63 SB, 6.1 oWAR) led the league in WPA (4.6), Triples (15), and Slugging (.534) while finishing in the top five in numerous other offensive categories: Average, On-Base (.434), OPS (.968), Stolen Bases, and WAR (5.5).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 1902 Northeastern League season was a bit of “Something Old, Something New”. In the New York Conference, five-time cup winners Syracuse went 79-35 (.693) even though they lost team legend Emerson Gardner to Houston in the Southern League, with Gardner saying that he wanted a new challenge near the end of his career. Over in the Northeastern Conference, Olympic BBC made it to the Adams Cup final for the second time after keeping Reading a handful of games away at the end of the season.

As dominant as the Syracuse Emeralds were, it was Olympic who lifted the Adams Trophy after scoring three runs in the top of the 7th in the deciding Game Five and holding off a fierce Syracuse rally from there.

There were no truly dominant performers in the NEL this season. Different players led the league in Average (Tom McCarty of Auburn: .362), Home Runs (Lewis Berry of Albany: 10), RBI (Charles Scott of Syracuse: 75), Stolen Bases (Teemu Soininen of Harrisburg: 69), OPS (Charles Reinhart of Elmira: .903), WAR (Vincent Justice of Syracuse: 5.1), ERA (Grover Gannon of Albany: 1.84), Wins (Emmett Hancock of Olympic: 22), and Pitching WAR (Charles Church of Elmira: 8/0).

On the other hand, there was one truly memorable player in the NEL in 1902, and that was rookie Olympic center fielder George Stanton (.340, 4 HR, 72 RBI, 5.5 oWAR). The 24-year was Olympic’s #1 offensive contributor, led the NEL in Total Bases (213), hit nearly .400 during the Adams Cup series (9/23, 5 RBI), and earned two major awards: Batsman of the Year & Newcomer of the Year.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Great Lakes Baseball Conference was mostly a tale of two teams: the Erie Lakers (68-42) and the Saginaw Lumberjacks (67-43). Erie led almost wire-to-wire, while Saginaw stayed within a couple of games for most of the season. With one week of play left the two teams were tied in the standings, but Erie took a one game lead on August 4th and kept the lead at exactly one game for the final six days of the season to win the GLBC title.

Champions Erie had the league’s star batter: 22-year-old outfielder Gabriel Duclos (.341, 13 HR, 92 RBI, 5.9 WAR). He was the only GLBC player to reach double-digits in Home Runs, drove in twenty more runs than any other player, finished second in Batting Average (John Wheelock of Peoria: 350), and led the league in Total Bases (213), OPS (.936), and WAR.

The league’s most exciting batter was Newcomer of the Year Michael Horak of Duluth (.271, 6 HR, 27 RBI, 2.9 WAR), who led the league in Stolen Bases (84, 13 CS) by no less than three dozen and was the only player to reach the century mark in Runs (100).

As Duclos was clearly the league’s best hitter, runners-up Saginaw had the man who was clearly the league’s best pitcher: Andrew Carides (21-7, 1.98 ERA, 120 K’s, 5.6 WAR). Carides led the league in Wins, ERA, Complete Games (26), and R9-WAR (9.4) while finishing top-five in several other pitching categories.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the Prairie League, the Wichita Wranglers (69-41) were much deserved champions after spending nearly the entire season at the top of the standings and ending 1902 five to seven games ahead of three other teams – Des Moines, Dubuque, & Sioux City – in the standings.

There was one undisputed superstar in the Prairie League during the season: Wichita outfielder Charles “Happy” Hairston (.376, 2 HR, 83 RBI, 6.1 oWAR), the former Brooklyn Kings regular. He came up short in the race for the Batting Title (Mike Carlson of Sioux City: .393), but his ability to find the gap left him the league leader in RBI, Slugging (.567), OPS (1.004) by roughly 100 points, Triples (27), WPA (4.58), and Position Player WAR (5.3). It almost goes without saying: he was the PL Batsman of the Year.

Joseph Lilly of Des Moines (20-9, 2.12 ERA, 166 K’s, 6.3 WAR) took Hurler of the Year after leading the league in both Wins and ERA while finishing in the top five in Strikeouts. It was his second HotY in the Prairie League, and he’s been in the voting two other times.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Southern League was another two-team affair, with the Gulf Coast Pelicans & Austin Texans trading first place for much of 1902. With one month left Austin was 52-32 and sitting four games up on Gulf Coast, but the Pelicans finished the season on an extraordinary 23-5 run to take the SL championship by three games, even though Austin themselves played over-500 baseball over the last month.

Much of the excitement in the Southern League came from star outfielders. Austin center fielder Bob Burger* (.344, 1 HR, 62 RBI, 7.1 WAR) had a Stolen Base total (99, 25 CS) nearly double that of the second-best thief (James Casper of New Orleans: 55). That in addition to finishing second in both Average and OPS (.889) earned the 22-year-old Batsman of the Year honors. Center fielder Charles Still of Fort Worth (.314, .4 HR, 76 RBI, 7.2 WAR) only led the league in Triples (18) and Walks (76) but stellar play elsewhere earned him the league lead in WPA (4.60), WAR (7.2), a Golden Glove at CF, and Most Valuable Player honors as a result. In a normal year, Gulf Coast CF Charles Ryan (.347, 8 HR, 77 RBI, 5.6 oWAR) would have won either BotY or MVP since he led the league in Average, Slugging (.507), OPS (.909), Hits (159), and Total Bases (232), but with Burger finishing so close in the batting race the Austin man’s incredible season on the bases put him over the top.

*(Creator's note: Bob Burger was a name generated by the game engine when I created the league. I did not manually name him in tribute to one of my favorite long-running cartoons.)

The best pitcher in the league was an old hand who came in from New York: Houston’s Emerson Gardner (18-11, 1.91 ERA, 161 K’s), who was also the team’s third baseman when he didn’t pitch. His batting WAR (3.2; .328, 5 HR, 46 RBI) was actually higher than any other regular third baseman in the league and award voters talked about putting him at 3B in the Team of the Year in addition to giving him the Hurler of the Year Award, but they decided against it since he only started 60 games at third.

As it was, the six-time Northeastern League HotY, who’d won 349 games while pitching for Syracuse, nearly won the SL’s Pitching Triple Crown, leading the league in Wins and ERA while finishing second in strikeouts (James Gates of Gulf Coast: 180). Gardner’s 7.2 Pitching WAR led the league but was his third-lowest since 1890. At the same time, given his performance in the field and at the plate Gardner just might have had his best overall season.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first Tucker-Wheaton Cup in thirteen years was extremely competitive, with experienced New York champions Marathon BBC coming out on top and no team finishing worse than 4-6:

To the winners went the cup and the Most Valuable Player award, and the MVP was clearly Tom Huddleston. Huddleston followed up his 2-0 performance in the New York City Finals with a 4-0 performance over the ten games of the Tucker Wheaton Cup, throwing four Complete Games while putting up a 1.50 ERA with 18 K’s, making him the first pitcher to win six games in a single postseason.

If the Tucker-Wheaton Cup MVP were to be given to any player instead of one on the winning team, it could easily have gone to Olympic center fielder George Stanton, who followed up his amazing debut campaign in the Northeastern League by hitting .436 (14/39, 1.155 OPS, 232 OPS+) with seven RBI in the cup competition. His Average and OPS were easily #1, with his OPS coming in nearly 135 points higher than the second-place hitter (Frank Holbrook of Vermont: 1.021).