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PLAY BALL! THE 1870 NBBO PREVIEW

NORTHEAST USA (May 5, 1869) – The fourteenth season of play in the National Base Ball Organization begins play this afternoon, and it is almost certain that it will be the final season before the sport is split into dueling professional & semi-professional competitions.

This is the last season before a dramatic change to the sport, but expect plenty of exciting baseball in 1870.

WRITERS POOL PREDICTIONS & GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

When asked for other observations about the upcoming season, here were the main talking points offered up by the 48-member N.B.B.O. Writers Pool:

Brooklyn Championship
• Favorite: Kings County (48-22, 620-630 R, 425-435 RA)
• Excelsior 5 GB, Continental 8 GB, Atlantic 11 GB, Bedford 16 GB, Nassau Co. 17 GB, Empire 22 GB, Eckford 23 GB

New York City Championship
• Favorite: Orange (51-19, 590-600 R, 385-395 RA)
• Gotham 5 GB, Knickerbocker 7 GB, Harlem & Union 21 GB, Metropolitan 23 GB, Hilltop & Mutual 24 GB

Upstate New York Championship
• Favorite: Niagara (47-23, 510-520 R, 345-355 RA)
• Flour City 5 GB, Minuteman & Syracuse 7 GB, Victory 14 GB, Utica 18 GB, Eagle 21 GB, Binghamton 22 GB

Coastal Championship
• Favorite: Shamrock (50-20, 505-515 R, 355-365 RA)
• Mass. Bay & Quaker St. 10 GB, American 13 GB, Newark & Trenton Utd. 16 GB, Olympic & Port Jersey 27 GB

Inland Championship
• Favorite: Alleghany (51-19, 595-605 R, 430-440 RA)
• Susquehanna 5 GB, Merrimack & Pioneer 15 GB, Scranton 19 GB, Reading 23 GB, Lake Erie & Sportsman’s 24 GB

New England Championship
• Favorite: St. John’s (47-23, 620-630 R, 425-435 RA)
• Portland 5 GB, S.o.t.O. 8 GB, Quinnipiac 14 GB, Oceanic 15 GB, Cantabrigians & Granite 16 GB, Green Mtn. 21 GB

Tucker-Wheaton Cup favorite: Orange BBC

Four of the six regional favorites are the usual suspects, while the other two – Orange & Niagara – won their regions in 1868 before falling off the pace last season.

Award Favorites:

• NYL Batsman of the Year: Garfield Koonce (1B, K.C.)
• NEL Batsman of the Year: Konrad Jensen (OF, STJ)
• NYL Pitcher of the Year: Jim Creighton (EXC)
• NEL Pitcher of the Year: Tom Ricks (SHA)
• NYL Most Valuable Player: Anthony Mascherino (SS, ORA)
• NEL Most Valuable Player: Royal Altman (OF, ALL)
• NYL Greenhorn of the Year: Fred Bartholomew (OF, F.C.)
• NEL Greenhorn of the Year: William Weeks (P, SPO)

The most talented batsmen in both leagues at each position:

• NYL – C: Everett Schreiber (26 y/o, ORA), 1B: Garfield Koonce (25 y/o, K.C.), 2B: Babe Johnson (24 y/o, GOT), 3B: Isaac Kelly (24 y/o, ECK), SS: Edward Huntley (34 y/o, KNI), OF: Clive Strachan (27 y/o, GOT), CF: Franklin Petty (27 y/o, ORA), OF: Reginald Roper (24 y/o, F.C.)

• NEL – C: Falco v.d. Vaart (25 y/o, M.B.), 1B: William Busby (27 y/o, AME), 2B: Leslie Arnett (31 y/o, M.B.), 3B: Samuel Kessler (33 y/o, ALL), SS: Gerald Strong (24 y/o, ALL), OF: Konrad Jensen (30 y/o, STJ), CF: James Burke (29 y/o, SHA), OF: Nelson Townsend (29 y/o, STJ)

The ten most talented pitchers in the NBBO:

• Jim Creighton (29 y/o, EXC), James Goodman (31 y/o, F.C.), Tom Ricks (31 y/o, SHA), Peadar Daly (34 y/o, KNI), Ross Gill (29 y/o, Q.S.), Earl Quinn (29 y/o, CON), William Weeks* (26 y/o, SPO), Ernest Duncan* (26 y/o, SHA), Monroe Munson (27 y/o, NIA), Grover Wright (36 y/o, CON)

The ten most talented greenhorns in the NBBO:

• William Weeks, Ernest Duncan, Fred Bartholomew, Burton Ellerby (24 y/o SS, GOT), Albert Dyer (27 y/o P, N.C.), John Faulkner (27 y/o P, T.U.), Edward Koch (23 y/o P, UNI), Louis Dyke (25 y/o CF, KNI), William Schumacher (23 y/o SS, SHA), Troy Oberst (23 y/o OF, MET)

The ten most talented reserve squad prospects in the NBBO:

• George Burroughs (21 y/o P, P.J.), Howard Burns (20 y/o P, STJ), Ernest Dugas (22 y/o CF, F.C.), Bret Landreth (20 y/o P, KNI), Richard Suddreth (22 y/o P, SPO), Louis Noble (22 y/o OF, KNI), Henry Tallman (22 y/o P, SHA), Charles Washer (22 y/o OF, M.B.), Jonathan Weeks (22 y/o P, SHA), Alwin Rijneveld (22 y/o 3B, ORA)

Pittsburgh’s Alleghany BC enters the season as the newest club to try to defend their hold on the Tucker-Wheaton Cup, and young SS Gerald Strong appears ready to emerge as the team’s newest star after stellar work in last year’s TWC.

Shamrock responded to last year’s TWC disappointment by letting Anthony Mascherino (ORA), Thomas Smith (STJ), & Walter Williams (ATL) leave. They are pinning their hopes on James Burke sliding over seamlessly to CF and having two highly-regarded greenhorns – P Ernest Duncan & SS William Schumacher – perform to a very high standard.

Orange BBC was the talk of the winter, with the club looking poised to return to their 1868 form as they recruited NEL Batsman of the Year Franklin Petty, 11x Golden Glove winner Mascherino, 3x All-Star INF Albert Brock, and 3x All-Star P William Titus to join a team that already had three other All-Stars on it.

Minuteman looks determined to break their string of poor finishes after bringing in multiple-time All-Stars Walter Driscoll (3x), James Hoyt (4x), & Jerald Peterson (6x) over the winter. Expect them to give Flour City & Niagara a tough challenge in Upstate New York.

Excelsior has brought in 5x All-Star Obelix Tsiaris from Flour City and recruited some talented greenhorns to give Jim Creighton support. If Creighton returns to form this year, Excelsior could easily be back on top.

Flour City is expected to fall back to Earth this year. The team failed to bring in suitable replacements for Tsiaris or 2x All-Star SS Harold Price, who left for Susquehanna, and that should cost them. At the very least, losing those two players' defense means James Goodman won't be the historic version of himself that he was last year.

Quaker St. is projected 2nd in Coastal, which would be their best finish in eight years. They added All-Star Luc Billon to a potent lineup along with two very promising Greenhorns - P Henry Giblin & C Matthew Williams - and 3B William Dickerson has become one of the best corner infielders in the sport.

Portland has been projected to finish just a handful of games behind St. John's, but many fans will be skeptical. Their two best players are 3x All-Star 1B Enda Reed and 40-year-old OF James Heilman, but the team will have expert guidance. 8x All-Star for Portland Joe Feuerstein is their new Bench Coach, career .340 hitter for Shamrock Daragh Adams is their new Hitting Coach, and 2x cup winner with St. John's Simpson Cron is their new Manager.

This past winter saw what is possibly the finest crop of greenhorns to date enter the NBBO’s ranks. There are multiple new pitchers talented enough to contend for the second batch of PotY awards, and a number of the new batsmen look good enough to be All-Stars right away.