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1872
With the beginning of the 1872 season, James decided he was going to spend more time at the office and home, with less time on the road. Some sportswriters had tried their hand at predicting the outcome of the season. The overall view of most of the reporters who were following collegiate baseball was that Yale would again win the New England Region. The Northeast Region favorite to repeat was defending champion Princeton. Many people felt Syracuse would again be the wild card entry of the playoffs. The big change appeared to be in the Atlantic Region, where Lafayette College was picked to unseat Villanova University.
James looked over the team reports that had come in to him from the association teams. The season started on March 19th and ten games had been played by the end of the month. Yale was in first place, as predicted, but only held a one game lead over their region with a 6-4 record. With Jake Hurd lost to graduation, the team was looking to second baseman Cole Park as their leader. Princeton had surged to an 8-2 record and built a three game lead over Fordham and Syracuse. Pitcher Jon Richmond is 4-0, but has only started five games for the Tigers, suffering from a stiff back which kept him sidelined for a week. Villanova is also 8-2, leading Lafayette by one game. Ryan Kovar is back from last year's injury for the Wildcats and won back his starting job. Kovar has a record of 7-1. Second baseman John Kegley is out for two weeks with a strained hamstring. As for Lafayette, starting pitcher Tom Drummond is 7-0 in ten starts. But the bigger surprise is the performance of lead off hitter and right fielder Tim Jensen, who is hitting .469!!
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