The “godfather” of Philadelphia baseball, on the field anyway, was
Zebulon “Hawkeye” Banks (1876-97). He is the all-time Philadelphia Centennials/Keystones leader in several counting statistical categories: games played (2,397), at-bats (10,032), runs (1,837), hits (3,307), total bases (4,300), singles (2,626), doubles (464), runs batted in (1,531), walks (852), times hit by pitch (119), and WAR (66.7). Banks had a career year in 1888, where he led the league in each “slash line” metric: batting average (.363), on-base percentage (.424), slugging percentage (.514), which also meant a league-leading OPS (.938). It was one of his two 200-hit seasons (207), and he established career marks in triples (18), stolen bases (46), total bases (293), and WAR (7.1).
If the Keystones franchise had a Mount Rushmore, the four faces carved in granite would belong to Banks,
George McDermott,
Fred Roby, and
Claude Jones.
McDermott (1907-18) was known not necessarily for his bat, as he only hit .255 in 1,555 games for the Keystones. It was his wizardry with the glove and his fleet feet that made him one of the names synonymous with Keystones baseball. McDermott played over 100 games at shortstop in all but one of his 12 seasons in Philadelphia and set the standard with a composite Ultimate Zone Rating of +276.3, topping out at +40.7 in 1912. His 1913 fielding season, by any measure, was an all-time season: 151 games, 840 total chances, 14 errors, .983 fielding percentage, 5.58 range factor, +36.6 UZR, and an efficiency score of 1.147. McDermott also stole 588 bases in his Keystones career, which is still a record by a large margin (124 over Roby).
Roby (1888-89, 1892-1903), nicknamed “The Rhode Island Ripper”, had a first five seasons in a Keystones uniform unlike any other hitter in team history. Between 1888-1894, excluding the two seasons he crossed over into the Peerless League to play for the Philadelphia Maroons, Roby hit .348 and led the league in hitting twice, including a .416 average in 1894 that still stands as the tenth-highest single-season batting average in FABL history. In the season he hit .416, he posted league-leading totals in hits (249), home runs (19), runs batted in (142), slugging percentage (.617), OPS (1.097), WAR (10.3). Roby does not hold any career Keystones batting records, but holds several single-season records: OPS, WAR, RBI, runs scored (148), and total bases (369), which were all set in his career year in 1894. Roby also had the Keystones career home run record during the dead-ball era and was just surpassed in 1925 by Hal Eason. Roby had 101 home runs and Eason passed him late last season and stands at 104 heading into 1926.
Jones (1890-1901) gets the honorable mention for best hitter in franchise history behind Banks. Jones played his entire career for the Keystones, the only player out of the top hitters in team history to do so. He set a team record in 1897 for hits in a season with 251 and a .425 batting average. Jones predominantly played both at catcher (549) and centerfield (278 games) in his eight full seasons and parts of four other seasons with Philadelphia. Jones owns most of the rate statistics in team history, including batting average (.349), on-base percentage (.418), and OPS (.896). His 1897 season was his best, setting career highs in hits and batting average, but also doubles (42), triples (21), stolen bases (77), and WAR (8.1). Jones has four of the top-six all-time highest Keystones batting averages in a single season, which are all .370 or above, and his OPS numbers in a four-year stretch, 1894-97, were at .973 or higher every year.
The franchise has had more accomplished hitters than pitchers over its first 50 seasons, as only two of the top ten pitchers in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) had earned run averages below 3.00,
Tom “Topsy” McCarthy (1903-10) and
Eddie Jordan (1884-87, ‘96). Half of those pitchers had losing records and only two, Eddie Jordan and Charlie Johnson (1889-93) had winning percentages above .600.
John Burrell (1898-1906) is on neither of those lists, but he holds most of the career pitching records for the first 50 years of the Keystones franchise. “Big John” was a 30-game winner in 1899 against only 15 losses with a 3.39 ERA, but his Keystones career mark was 20 games below .500. The 168 wins and 188 losses lead all Keystone hurlers. His longevity is recognized in the record books, as Burrell owns franchise records in games pitched (402), games started (379), complete games (281), shutouts (19, tied for record), innings pitched (3,270.1), strikeouts (1,062), and WAR (44.5).
McCarthy’s nickname was “Topsy”, but he ended up more turvy than topsy in his Keystone career. McCarthy won 134 against 178 losses with a 2.96 ERA. However, that low ERA could be attributed to the era in which McCarthy played. On some terrible teams that only hit over .250 once in his eight seasons in Philadelphia, he had low run support as he led the league in losses in 1905 (31) and 1906 (27), but when the Keystones played well and finished at or above .500, McCarthy turned in solid campaigns. McCarthy won 27 games and pitched to a 2.19 ERA and 1.10 WHIP in 1907. Two years later, the Keystones won 85 games and he won 20 of his 38 decisions with a 2.76 ERA. In the franchise record book, McCarthy is second to Burrell in most counting statistical categories, including wins (134), losses (178), WAR (41.1), games started (327), complete games (248), and inning pitched (2,803.2), but tied Burrell for most shutouts with 19. McCarthy is one of two Keystones pitchers to reach the 1,000-strikeout mark (1,027).
Jordan was a shooting star in Keystones history. He did not stay with the Keystones for very long, pitching only three-and-a-half seasons in his age-22 to age-25 seasons and a five-game swan song in 1896 before hanging up the spikes at the age of 35. But, in those seasons, Jordan had a sub-3.00 ERA in three of those four years, including his career year in 1886, in which he went 28-13 with a 1.87 ERA and led the league with a 0.97 WHIP, 385 innings pitched, and a WAR of 13.1. Jordan had the best earned run average of any starting pitcher in team history at 2.41 and the best walks-plus-hits-per inning (WHIP) of any pitcher in team history at 1.13. He also stands fourth in Keystones history in winning percentage (.611) and WAR (30.1).
Will Bullock (1880-85) would complete the “pitching” Mount Rushmore for the Keystones. Bullock peaked in his first three years after a brilliant rookie year in 1880 at the age of 21 years old in which Bullock won 22 games and set career highs in ERA (2.12), WHIP (0.94), strikeouts (239), and WAR (8.0). His 8.4 strikeouts per nine innings led the league. In Bullock’s first three years, he was 81-33 (.711 winning percentage) and also led the league in strikeouts in 1882 with 187 punch-outs. In both of these seasons – 1880 and 1882 – Philadelphia won the Century League championship. Overall, Bullock stands third through the “pre-play” era in Keystones franchise history in wins (128), strikeouts (873), complete games (177), and WAR (32.4).