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GAME ONE (Olneyville Field in Providence, R.I.)

AME 1-6 StJ – Nelson Townsend (RF, StJ) 3/4 (all 1B), 1 R, 2 RBI, SB, OF AST
St. John’s leads series 1-0

Game One was pretty simple: St. John’s scored four times in the bottom of the first and that was pretty much it.

After American opened the scoring almost immediately when 3B Werner Verstegen doubled in 1B William Busby, St. John’s responded by plating four runs in the bottom of the 1st on a Townsend Single, a Tarmo Kuopio (1B) Triple, and a two-run Single by 2B John Baddley to make the score 4-1 to the hosts.

That was all St. John’s needed as Howard Burns pitched a fantastic game, allowing six Hits and no Earned Runs while taming the APBL’s #1 offense.

GAME TWO (Olneyville Field in Providence, R.I.)

AME 5-8 StJ – Nelson Townsend (RF, StJ) 2/4, 2B, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 SB
St. John’s leads series 2-0

Game Two was a case of “too little, too late” for American.

St. John’s scored five runs over the first three innings and had a 7-0 lead after the end of the 6th. American’s offense woke after that, but by then it was too late for them to claw their way back into the game.

The key inning was the 2nd. After American went down 1-2-3 St. John’s came to the plate and scored three times on three separate run-scoring Singles from C Peter Caliguri, CF Rudolph Decker, & Townsend, who displayed his fantastic range of talents for the second game in a row.

Single runs in five other innings (1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th) gave St. John’s the runs they needed to take a 2-0 lead in the series before it was American’s turn to play the host.

GAME THREE (Glenwood Field in Philadelphia)

StJ 7-15 AME – Franklin Petty (CF, AME) 5/5, 2B, 4 R, 2 RBI, SB
St. John’s leads series 2-1

One might take a look at the score and think that this was finally the game where the American offense woke up and put in a complete performance. For seven innings that was not the case.

A run in the 1st and four more in the 2nd gave St. John’s an early 5-1 lead, and while American took a couple of runs back St. John’s canceled those out and the score was 7-3 going into the bottom of the 8th. Then, the American attack uncorked a twelve-run rally to flip the game completely on its head:

• B1: PH Sidney Crowder – Double to LF
• B2: CF Franklin Petty – 1-run Single past SS (Error by CF, Petty to 2B)
• B3: LF Willie Davis – Single past SS off (Petty to 3B)
• B4: 1B William Busby – 2-run Single past 2B (Error by CF, Busby to 2B)
• B5: 3B Werner Verstegen – 1-run Single past SS (Error by CF, Verstegen to 2B)
• B6: 2B Peter Boyce – Bases on Balls by H. Burns
• B7: C Howard LeBouf – Fielder’s Choice at 2B (Verstegen to 3B)
• B8: PH Ralph Callahan – 1-run Error by 3B (LeBouf to 3B)
• B9: SS Louis Marcel – Wild Pitch; 2-run Single past 2B (Marcel to 2B)
• B10: PH Sidney Crowder – Error by 2B (Marcel to 3B)
• B11: CF Franklin Petty – 1-run Single to RF (Crowder to 2B)
• B12: LF Willie Davis – 2-run Triple to RCF
• B13: 1B William Busby – 1-run Ground Out to SS
• B14: 3B Werner Verstegen – Error by 3B
• B15: 2B Peter Boyce – Error by 1B (Verstegen to 3B)
• B16: C Howard LeBouf – 1-run Single to LF (Boyce to 2B)
• B17: PH Ralph Callahan – Fly Out to LF
• TOTAL: 12 Runs, 9 Hits (1 2B, 1 3B), 7 Errors, 1 Wild Pitch

Nobody knows what in the world happened to Rudolph Decker at the start of the inning, but the three Errors in quick succession from the fine-fielding CF got the rally rolling, and until it finally ended with Callahan’s lazy fly ball to LF nobody was sure when it would end. It was easily the strangest inning of the year for the APBL’s best defense.

This much was certain: American had taken a likely 3-0 deficit and turned it into a competitive series.

GAME FOUR (Glenwood Field in Philadelphia)

StJ 1-6 AME – Louis Marcel (SS, AME) 2/4, 2B, 1 R, 4 RBI
Series tied 2-2

There was no high strangeness in Game Four – just a defensive contest that American put away late to tie the series.

This was a Pitchers’ Duel for much of the game. Single runs by American in the 2nd & 3rd were responded to by St. John’s with one run in the 4th, and the score remained 2-1 until the bottom of the 8th. Then, with the bases loaded the light-hitting Marcel (.251, .556 OPS) hit a Double that brought home three, and after a Willie Davis (LF) Single the score was 6-1, the result was no longer in question, and the series was tied 2-2.

GAME FIVE (Glenwood Field in Philadelphia)

StJ 8-1 AME – Howard Burns (P, StJ) CG, 7 HA, 1 ER, 2/4 (both 1B), 1 R, 1 RBI
St. John’s leads series 3-2

The previous two games saw the series evened up, but it seemed as if American had the momentum going into Game Five. St. John’s proved that wasn’t the case.

There was no standout in the St. John’s attack, but five Stolen Bases over the early innings helped them run up a 7-1 lead by the end of the 5th, and from there they were held steady by Burns, who had a fine game both with the ball and with the bat.

The series would now go back to Providence, and the indomitable St. John’s was one game away from yet another title.

GAME SIX (Olneyville Field in Providence, R.I.)

AME 9-2 StJ – William Busby 3/4, 2B, 3B, 2 R, 2 RBI, BB, 2 SB
Series tied 3-3

St. John’s won in a rout at American to take the series lead, so American returned the favor in Providence to take the Founders’ Cup all the way to Game Seven.

Both Busby and Willie Davis had three Hits for American, but Busby was the star of the show. Busby didn’t hit one of his trademark Home Runs, but a Double, Triple, and two Stolen Bases that doubled his season total of one was absolutely sufficient as his team took the lead in the top of the 1st and never looked back.

There would now be a Winner Take All game for the APBL Championship at Olneyville Field in 24 hours’ time.

GAME SEVEN (Olneyville Field in Providence, R.I.)

AME 10-2 StJ – John Brown (P, AME) CG, 4 HA, 1 ER, 2 K
American wins Founders’ Cup II 4-3

And just as there was a stunner in the NBBO playoffs, American pulled off a stunner of their own and avenged the city of Philadelphia’s baseball honor by clobbering St. John’s at the almost mythical Olneyville Field to take a Founders’ Cup that just about everyone figured would be lifted by Providence’s finest when they took the 3-2 series lead.

This was never a close game. American had a 6-2 lead after three innings and they gradually tacked on four more runs to make sure the most successful club in baseball history couldn’t get so much as a whiff of hope.

Four American batsmen had two Hits – 2B Peter Boyce, C Howard LeBouf, CF Franklin Petty, & 3B Werner Verstegen – and two had three Hits – LF Willie Davis & RF Johnnie Sands. However, Player of the Game honors went to pitcher John Brown, as the “Steel Driving Man” delivered a masterful performance in which he held St. John’s to four Hits and held Konrad Jensen & Nelson Townsend to a combined 1/6. This was the biggest performance of his life.

The cup would be going to American, a team which was only in the postseason for the second time in club history and one which was in the bottom half of the Metropolitan Conference standings halfway through the season. They would also be claiming the first top-level title for the city of Philadelphia, and no doubt that would do wonders for the sport of baseball in America’s second-largest city.

FOUNDERS’ CUP MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

Werner Verstegen (3B, AME) – .364 (12/33), .758 OPS, 8 R, 1 2B, 8 RBI, 1 BB, 3 SB, 0.68 WPA, 0.2 WAR

Just as American was an unlikely cup winner, they had an unlikely cup MVP in Verstegen.

During the season, Verstegen hit .295 (.681 OPS) with 22 Extra-Base Hits and just 1.0 WAR, a far cry from the stellar 1871 campaign in which he hit .353 (.839 OPS) with 30 Extra-Base Hits and 3.5 WAR. However, he had a career high of 85 RBI during 1872 and in the cup final his timely hitting drove in eight more runs, which led to him having the highest WPA of any player. The Writers Pool thought that should win out over the trio of American players who hit .367 (Busby, Davis, Petty) with a higher OPS than Verstegen.

The best player for cup runners-up St. John’s was Nelson Townsend:

Nelson Townsend (RF, StJ) – .370 (10/27), 1.007 OPS, 8 R, 1 2B, 2 3B, 4 RBI, 3 BB, 7 SB, 0.31 WPA, 0.5 WAR

Truth be told Townsend was the best player in the series, but the MVP of a cup final is almost never going to be awarded to the star of a losing team unless he is orders of magnitude better than everyone else. Townsend was Player of the Game in both Game One and Game Two, but unfortunately the one time he slipped up was the all-important Game Seven.