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MWBA 1903: MINNEAPOLIS’ MIGHT BESTS COLUMBUS’ CRAFTINESS
KELLER HITS .400; EHLE HotY YET AGAIN; KLOCKOW STEALS 100

When it came time for Midwestern baseball’s chattering class to predict what would happen during the 1903 MWBA season, they expected familiar faces at the top of both leagues. In the Eastern League, the Milwaukee Bavarians were picked to win 75-80 times and get the best of Columbus & Indianapolis by a handful of games each. Toledo was expected to finish in 4th as the MWBA’s most improved team, with a predicted 20-win jump from 1902. In the Western League the Minneapolis Lakers were the declared favorites, but a nail-biter of a pennant race was not anticipated this time around. The Lakers were expected to win 75-80 times, like Columbus, and to best Chicago, Kansas City, Lake Michigan, Missouri, & St. Paul all by 7-10 games.

Unlike the APBL, the final MWBA standings weren’t a tight fit to the preseason predictions:

In the Eastern League, Milwaukee failed to live up to expectations and spent almost the rest of the season after May 1st 7-10 games out of the top spot in the standings. Hans Ehle was again the best pitcher in the league, but the other members of the pitching staff faltered significantly and the Bavarians ended up 14th/16 in Runs Allowed. That left the Eastern pennant open for the taking, and the Columbus Capitols grabbed it with both hands. After much of the East hovered around .500 during April, Columbus took over first place on May 3rd and never relinquished it, winning the Eastern League by a record 19 games over Milwaukee, with Cincinnati 22 games back in 3rd place.

The Western League, as predicted, belonged to the Minneapolis Lakers. After some early back-and-forth with division rivals Missouri, the Lakers exited May with a half-game lead and grew it steadily from there even though the Bluebirds were playing excellent baseball themselves. The Lakers finished with the best record of any team in the ABA (92-40) thanks to historically great offense combined with solid pitching. The five-team pileup behind Minneapolis never materialized, as third-place Lake Michigan finished under .500 and no less than 27 games out of first place.

How dominant were the Lakers? Their Run Differential was +259 (796 Runs, 537 Runs Allowed), which translates to them being 1.96 runs per game better than the opposition. They led the league in Runs, Batting Average, On-Base Percentage, Slugging Percentage, OPS, Home Runs, WPA, and WAR, and on top of that their batters struck out less than those of any other MWBA team.

One bright spot to the overall standings: every team won at least 40% of their games, which was a first in the 32-season history of the MWBA.


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The final regular season standings meant there was a newcomer to the Lincoln Memorial Cup series, as Columbus had not only never been there before but had never won the GLBC title before joining the MWBA with Toledo in 1898. On the other side was Minneapolis, now taking part in their third LMC series in four years.

The matchup looked great on paper – Minneapolis’ league-best offense against Columbus’ pitching and speed – and for most of the series it was. The two teams were tied 2-2 after four games, and only a run in the top of the ninth in Columbus put the Lakers up 3-2. However, in Game Six the Lakers’ championship experience took over as a big rally during the middle innings meant they would clinch the cup at home.

Game One in Minneapolis was a deserved Columbus win, as the visitors scored three times each in the 3rd, 5th, & 7th to win 9-5, with 41-year-old Kiefer Hyneman (.246 AVG, .662 OPS, 41 RBI during season) playing the surprise hero by going 3/4 with a pair of RBI. Game Two saw Minneapolis even the series with a 6-4 victory thanks to James Keller’s two-run homer in the bottom of the 7th. Game Three in Columbus was a 5-3 Lakers victory – Minneapolis winning it thanks to a two-run double in the top of the 11th by shortstop Harold Robinson and an extra-inning Complete Game from Abraham Stringer. Game Four saw Columbus even the series as the elder statesman Hyneman again went 3/4 with two RBI and Frank Horton pitched a Complete Game while striking out seven. Game Five was tense, as the teams spent the first five innings canceling out each other’s scoring before the Lakers’ Franklin Etheridge hit an RBI single in the top of the 9th to cap off a 3/5 night with three RBI.

Game Six was all Minneapolis. It was 5-0 by the end of the 4th, 8-0 by the end of the 5th, and after that it was just a matter of finishing up the game and getting to the celebrations. The deciding moment was the deadly bottom of the 4th by the Lakers, in which Keller hit a two-run homer and Robinson came up two batters later to hit a two-run homer of his own. Two home runs in an inning in 1903 is extraordinarily rare, and such a feat demoralized the Columbus squad. Capitols pitcher Theo Hennessey was truly rattled, and after he allowed a two-run triple the next inning there was no coming back.

The Most Valuable Player of the LMC series was James Keller of Minneapolis - no debate needed. He was 12/23 (.522) from the plate, with a pair of doubles & home runs, seven RBI, eight runs, and twenty total bases. He'd managed to follow up his .400 season by hitting ever better when the cup was on the line. In a losing effort, Columbus CF Petter Lund was 10/27 (.370) with three doubles, a homer, three RBI, seven runs, and seven steals.


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The Columbus Capitols were nearly fifteen games better than predicted because numerous players stepped up over the course of the season. Aside from Petter Lund (7.6 WAR) being his usually brilliant self, Gerald Pierotti (.310, 5 HR, 80 RBI) had his best season with the bat as a Columbus player, new signing Benjamin Link (.353, 4 HR, 101 RBI, 60 SB) had his best season since 1900, Ewan King (.331, 12 HR, 91 RBI) led the league in homers and had the best of his fourteen seasons as an ABA player, and 38-year-old Kerwin Barry (.278, 6 HR, 72 RBI) turned back the clock to have his best season as a regular third baseman since 1896. Pitcher Frank Horton went 24-8 and led the league with a 2.46 ERA, and fellow starter Hiram Yeager (21-10, 3.66 ERA) won 20 games for the first time in his career.

The Indianapolis Indians were the league’s most disappointing team. Originally projected to be in contention for the Eastern League pennant, they fell well short of expectations and finished in 6th place with a 61-71 record. It was Indianapolis’ first under-500 season since 1889, before the MWBA expanded from ten teams to fourteen and adopted its two-league format. The main reason for their struggles was their pitching staff, which was among the worst in the MWBA. Expected ace Alfredo Miramontez – 22-15 with Rochester in ’02 – missed half the season with a knee injury and went 6-9 over 140 innings. Claude Jachem, the team’s #1 for the previous eleven seasons, saw a serious fall-off in his ability and went 7-12 with a 4.81 ERA. Also, ’02 Newcomer of the Year Aldous Clifford saw his ERA climb by more than a run (3.03 to 4.19) and his record go from 22-13 to 13-19.

When compared to preseason W/L predictions, it was actually the Chicago Griffons who were the biggest disappointment in the MWBA. The final preseason poll had them going 69-63 and finishing 3rd in the West, but instead they were 55-77 and finished just a pair of games above Omaha for last place. Like their neighbors to the east in Indiana, Chicago’s offense wasn’t a problem but their pitching most definitely was. New signing Henry Danforth (18-18, 2.96 ERA), in from Minneapolis, was a bright spot, but outside of him their pitchers were just as bad Indianapolis’. #2 starter Thomas Call was 13-21 with career highs in ERA (3.99) and WHIP (1.50) in his first Indians season after three years in Baltimore. #3 starter Dave Coombs had a 4.75 ERA and lost 18 games. Four different pitchers occupied the #4 spot in the rotation at times, but none of them were any good.


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James Keller joined the Minneapolis Lakers as part of the most controversial trade of the ’02-03 offseason. The defending APBL Batsman of the Year stepped into the Lakers lineup at first base and proceeded to hit .408, becoming the first MWBA player in five years to break the .400 mark. He also led the league with a .578 Slugging Percentage and 1.017 OPS while finishing near the top in Home Runs with 11 (2nd) and RBI with 92 (6th). The numbers left little doubt as to who the Batsman of the Year would be: Keller, who won his second in a row. Knud van Steen (.383, 1 HR, 97 RBI, 60 SB) of Missouri and Van Kingsbury (.369, 11 HR, 95 RBI, 35 SB) of St. Louis were 2nd and 3rd in the voting, but neither came close.

Hans Ehle did something 1903 that he’d never done before: finish the year with an ERA above 3 (3.30), with his previous high being a 2.74 in 1901. In spite of signs that the 39-year-old’s legendary skills might finally be on the wane, he wasn’t stopped from going 29-9 while also leading the league in Innings Pitched, Complete Games, K/BB Ratio, WPA, and WAR. His 8.9 WAR was a career low, but it was still the 19th season in a row he led the MWBA in Pitching WAR. What it all meant was that Ehle earned Hurler of the Year award number fourteen and Team of the Year nomination number seventeen. Frank Horton (24-8, 2.46 ERA) of Columbus and Jordan Brunet (25-6, 2.99 ERA) of Minneapolis finished 2nd and 3rd, but just like the BotY voting the choice for first place was merely a formality.

Knud van Steen of the Missouri Bluebirds established himself as a quality regular in winning Newcomer of the Year as a 20-year-old in 1898. After three more years of solid play at second base & shortstop, van Steen’s performance took a step up as he was named to his first Team of the Year in 1902 thanks to a .369 average, league-leading 208 hits, and 5.7 WAR. His game took a further leap in 1903, as van Steen’s .383 average was second only to Keller’s, and he posted career highs with 210 hits (led MWBA for 3rd straight year), .924 OPS, 7.7 WAR (led MWBA), and 97 RBI to go with 107 runs and 60 stolen bases. If it hadn’t been for Keller then van Steen would’ve likely been BotY. Instead, he took a nice consolation prize: Most Valuable Player.

There were some good first-year players in the MWBA in 1903, but nowhere near the legendary crop that showed up in the APBL. In the end, the MWBA’s Newcomer of the Year was a curious one: 31-year-old Missouri center fielder Frank Holbrook, who took a long route to the highest levels of baseball. Holbrook signed with the Vermont Green Stockings in the NEBA out of high school in mid-1891 and remained there until the end of 1902, even though he was easily the league’s most talented player. Holbrook was so good in Vermont that in 1900 he put up an NEBA record 9.3 WAR in 111 games (13.6 WAR/162) while winning Batsman of the Year, Most Valuable Player, a Golden Glove (CF), and Ben Franklin Cup MVP.

Why stay for so long? Simple: he was making $3,500 a year – the amount a good APBL/MWBA player typically receives and more than double the typical NEBA star – playing for a small team that received plenty of outside funding. However, after winning his sixth NEBA title in a row in 1902 Holbrook decided that maybe it was time for a new challenge, and when the Missouri front office telegrammed in a five-year contract offer at slightly more than his current salary Holbrook said yes and moved to St. Louis. Holbrook’s first year with Missouri was a very productive one, as he led the MWBA in Plate Appearances (642), At Bats (588), and Runs Scored (120) while putting up a basic line of a .315 AVG, 5 HR, & 70 RBI to go with 51 stolen bases. He was also an above-average center fielder and finished the season with 5.8 WAR, good for 9th in the league.

One notable achievement from someone who didn’t win a major award was the prolific thievery of Cleveland outfielder Russell Klockow. Klockow led the league with 104 Stolen Bases, the third time in four years he’s passed the 100 mark and also the third time in four years he’s led the league. Klockow, who debuted with Davenport in the PL in 1895 as a 19-year-old and stole 71 bases in just 83 games (139 SB/162), has now spent six seasons in the MWBA. Over those six seasons he’s stolen 671 bases, with his career low of merely 87 coming in 1898.