re-start: PBBA gets started

[tarmer]

April, 1870
Dear Mom,
Whew what a week this has been. Spring training went well and I think the manager (who we all call "skip") seems to be a fair man (though a little hard at times)

We made it through spring training and he has placed me at Shortstop (you know the guy between second base and third) anyways it is a big difference here than it was playing with those guys back home.

What has really surprised me is the small turn-out for this, we only have 12 players on our team and most of them are pitchers (guess some will end up playing other positions)

We started off the season here at home against Boston, In our first game it was alot of fun.. Skip had me batting fourth (I went 2 for 5 with 2 rbi's) and helped turn two double plays - We ended up winning 10-1 (not very close)

Our second game out Boston got even as they went on to win 11-9, Skip moved me up to leadoff ( I guess he liked my hitting) where I went 2-4 with two more rbi's

We than got on a train and made the short trip to Baltimore to play the Marylands (they are pretty good from what Skip says) - We opened up with them on Monday and boy wasn't that a surprise we got a good beating 10-4,
I went 2-4 again but skip was plenty mad about that one

On Tuesday we played them again, This time we got the win 6-2. We were able to put up 12 hits on their pitching so we felt pretty good. I was only 1-4 this game but oh what a hit it was in my first at bat with 2 runners on and 1 out, I hit a long drive to the wall (though only a double it sure felt good) We scored a on that hit. Still managing to do pretty well with the glove though as I have yet to make an error

We finished up with Baltimore on Wednesday in what was a very nerve wracking game for us... Both teams seemed to play well but neither could score. We managed to pull that one out 1-0 (I went 0-3)
We left to get home back to Philadelphia.

Detroit came into play us, We seem to have a pretty fair club so far - We took 2-3 from Baltimore. In our first game versus Detroit we won 7-2, Our Pitcher Tom Clemmons (you'd like him) had a whale of a game throwing six strikeouts... That really helped. Skiped moved me back up to leadoff AGAIN, I was able to go 2-5

The next day was not so kind to us as we were once again pretty solidly beaten, Detroit had a really good game and our pitchers were not so good, Our starter Ken Timberlake got hit pretty badly giving up 9 runs in 4 innings, I am sure I did not help - The magic wore off and I had my first error(s) of the season, two of them (it was very discourging) though I am still hitting pretty well (thanks to Dad and his broom handle practice)

On Saturday we played Detroit again, We were both pretty bad on defense, but we managed to pull it out 8-6 - I went 4-6 and was named player of the game

Well that is all for this time, We play Detroit tommorrow then we are off to Chicago to face the White Stockings..

Give my love to all

[tarmer]

http://all-time-baseball.com/PBP/index.html League Pages are here


Standings

National Association Standings

Division 1

Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
Pittsburgh 7 1 .875 - 7-1 0 5-0 2-1 1-0 1-1 22 W4 7-1
New York 6 2 .750 1.0 6-2 0 3-2 3-0 0-0 1-0 - W3 6-2
Baltimore 5 3 .625 2.0 6-2 -1 3-2 2-1 1-1 1-2 - L1 5-3
Philadelphia 5 3 .625 2.0 5-3 0 3-2 2-1 1-0 1-0 - W1 5-3
Boston 3 5 .375 4.0 2-6 1 1-2 2-3 1-0 2-1 - W1 3-5
Detroit 3 5 .375 4.0 3-5 0 2-1 1-4 0-2 1-2 - L1 3-5
Chicago 2 6 .250 5.0 1-7 1 0-3 2-3 0-0 1-0 - L3 2-6
Cleveland 1 7 .125 6.0 1-7 0 1-2 0-5 0-1 0-2 - L4 1-7

[tarmer]

Baseball News


Well here we are at the season’s halfway point and it is starting to look like a one team race. The Alleghenies are starting to flex their muscles and put a little room between them and the rest of the field.
Baltimore is trying to hang in but may not have enough in the end. Let’s review the season to date.

Pittsburgh Alleghenies - Pittsburgh who is the most well rounded of all the teams has had great production from it’s pitching staff, Lead by Nick Howard (5-1 1.44) and Carl Tedford (4-1 2.32) the Alleghenies are in the top 3 in overall league ERA. On the offensive side, Pittsburgh leads the league in hitting with a whopping .339 average and they have scored a league leading 106 runs. Pittsburgh does not hit a ton of homeruns but they put together a lot of hits and leave very few on base, Lead by secondbaseman Lyndon Dunagan (.413 0 14) he is currently eigth in the league in batting, And thirdbaseman Steve Mudd (.391 1 13) five of the top nine starters are in double figures in rbi’s. Defensievly Pittsburgh again leads the league, With a .989 fielding percentage and only 7 errors they do not make many mistakes on this side of the ball either.
With a road trip coming up versus Detroit and Baltimore, Pittsburgh can really put themselves in a very good position to win the title this season - The question is can anyone stop them ?

Baltimore Marylands - Baltimore who actually leads the league in team era at 2.33 have had good outings thus far from Thomas Coleman (4-1 1.40) and Bill Raines (4-1 2.6) who are as good a pair of starters as any in the league, They lack depth at the position which may hurt them in the long run as these two start to tire and they have few options after that. Offensievly the Marylands are second in overall average (.331) Though they lead the league in doubles, They have no homeruns. They are lead by the trio of Shortstop Shane Whisenhunt (.409 0 14), firstbaseman Clete Hickman (.408 0 13) and thirdbaseman Von Lawler (.375 0 11), Though none are a real threat to go deep they do score when given the chance.
On defense Baltimore is a little shakier than Pittsburgh with the glove - Though they have a .981 fielding percentage, They have 13 errors which are distributed evenly through all the infield.
Baltimore has a crucial series coming up against Pittsburgh, The Marylands can still control their own fate but they will have to beat the Alleghenies to have any chance

New York Mutuals - The Mutuals who are third in the league in team era (3.16) are in deep need of some pitching help. They are short in depth and are only holding on due to the arm of Matt Hickman (5-0 2.80). Matt who has been excellent this season has got little help as the rest of the rotation falters. Dennis Walker (3-2 1.60) and Joe Ellis (2-3 5.10) are not going to get the job done. Offensivley, The Mutuals are also third in the league in batting (.323) but as is the pitching, The hitting may have been overachieving. Lead by thirdbaseman Joe McDowell (.418 1 10), firstbaseman Hubert Gallagher (.375 0 12) and outfielder Bill Roop (.375 0 12) the rest of the order is decent but not overpowering. On defense New York’s .978 fielding percentage along with 13 errors are a problem. Their best offensive player McDowell is also their biggest fielding liability with 4 errors at third.
New York has upcoming games against Boston & Philadelphia, These are teams they need to beat in order to try and keep pace. But I think New York is headed the other direction

Chicago White Stockings - Chicago has an abundance of pitchers, But it is all bad, Their team era is 3.70 which is not a true reflection of their pitching woes. The combined staff has only been able to put together four complete games. Russ Dexter (3-2 2.27) is the best of this staff, Followed by Don Harty (2-2 4.29) and Jason Huggins (1-1 4.32). This staff will have to vastly improve to compete in the future. On offense Chicago is sixth in hitting (.287), They have managed to score the second fewest number of runs at 57. Lead by firstbaseman Dave Cline (.467 0 7) and shortstop Dan Turner (.339 1 6) not a single batter has more than 10 rbi’s, They leave a lot of ducks on the pond. They will have to adress this issue as well off-season if they hope to compete. In the field the White Stockings are equally dissapointing. With a .972 fielding percentage and 18 errors they have been plagued with errors at every position.
Chicago is only holding on because the teams below them have been equally poor. They are looking to have many long dissapointing seasons unless they can find a way to fill those holes.

Philadelphia Athletics - The Athletics the preseason favorite to win the title, Has been hurt by the very thing that was supposed to be their strength. Much like Chicago, Philadelphia has a ton of arms but not many have been good. The comined team era is 5.33 with only 7 games, But this number is somewhat decieving in part to the terrible performances by Ken Timberlake (0-4 13.55), Being led by Scott Faber (3-1 1.64) and Burl Redd (2-0 2.61) this staff falls off after that. On offense this club is the fourth best percentage wise (.301) and leads the league in homeruns (4) but have only managed to score 74 runs which means they leave a lot of runners on base. Led by firstbasemen Ernst Braden (.426 0 11), catcher Don Braaten (.367 0 14) and shortstop Tony Armer (.359 1 12). On defense Philadelphia has one of the worst defenses in the league at .968 and 19 errors they have been a liability in the field.

Detroit Pontiacs - The Pontiacs who possess the worst era in the league (6.67) are another one of these teams similar to Chicago & Philadelphia who have tons of pitchers but not many fielders, So many of the pitchers are playing other positions. This being said Detroit’s management may want to change who they are using in the rotation. Detroits staff is led by Kelley Robinson (2-1 4.67), Mike Olson (1-1 4.59) and Ken Harris (2-3 6.61). These are not the kind of numbers that win you many ballgames. Like Philadelphia and Chicago, Detroit needs to fill some positional slots to free up more pitching choices. On offense Detroit ranks fifth (.299) in average scoring 83 runs, Being led by Silver Slugger hopeful, Centerfielder Billy Sager (.522 1 14) the Pontiacs have a fairly potent squad with the bat as leftfielder Rusty Colton (.439 0 19) and catcher George McNaughton (.276 0 4) have put up good numbers thus far. On defense the Pontiacs are at .975 in fourth place defensivly, But are a little clumsy with 15 errors with most of them at the shortstop position.

With the recent injury to McNaughton (fractured Ulna) and the lack of quality pitching, Detroit can only hope to finish out of the cellar and plan for next season

Boston Shamrocks - The Shamrocks continue a running theme for the bottom rung teams.. No depth in the field. The Shamrocks pitching is the second worst in the league, Their team era is 5.41 (second only to Detroit) and with only 3 complete games to their credit it spells trouble. Boston’s best pitcher Russ Gill (2-2 5.40) has an era that spells trouble, The other starters Allen Meader (1-2 4.446) and Freddie Appel (1-2 6.17) are not much help. On offense Boston is seventh in the league in hitting (.265) and runs scored (53). All their offense comes from secondbaseman Alexander Coonrod (.424 0 7) and thirdbaseman Paul Blackwood (.375 0 12) with no homruns and very few rbi’s this team is lucky to be out of the cellar. On defense they are no better with a .968 fielding percentage but they lead the league in errors with 21

With no real hitting and awful pitching Boston will be in a race with Cleveland to finish out of the cellar.

Cleveland Forest City - The Forest City have the worst team in baseball, They cannot pitch, hit and their defense is only marginal. But they have the second highest attendance so fans must be hoping for better. Cleveland with a team era of 5.01 places them fifth in the league, But don’t let that fool you - They have only 1 complete game so they have spread the misery among many. Their starting rotation has 1 win, John Pender (1-4 6.25) was the number one draft pick and has played like the number 200 pick, Fred Rowlett (0-3 3.71) and Chris Sack (0-4 7.03) round out this rotation. The fact that Ernie Cox (0-1 1.23) and Johnson Gray (1-1 3.86) have lower era’s it helps the overall look better. On offense they are just as bad, Batting a league worst .219 with only 37 runs scored. No one has more than 6 rbi’s, Cleveland’s best are Leftfielder Bill Easton (.390 0 5) and firstbaseman Kevin Joyner (.318 0 3). Defensivley, they are fielding at .972 with 16 errors, Five of them belong to Rightfielder Bob Greeson.

Cleveland will probably get the first pick again and should probably use it to help their offense. Though the fans have shown up it will not take many more bad seasons to drive them away.

[tarmer]

league pages here:http://all-time-baseball.com/PBP/index.html

What a difference a week makes…..
This reporter had broken down the races to date and a week later I find that the top is still the top, But the bottom is all changed up. Let’s look at the weekly changes.

Pittsburgh - Last report Pittsburgh was on top and trying to run away, Well this week they are still on top and still hoping for that space between them and Baltimore. Well going 2-0 against Detroit than 0-2 vs Baltimore did not help their cause much. They finished off the week going 2-0 against detroit for a 4-2 run. Nick Fowler picked up a loss and was pulled after 1 inning against Baltimore due to arm stiffness, The hitting star for the Alleghenies this week was leftfielder Pete Rademacher (.477 0 17) who went 9-21 (.428)

Baltimore - The Maryland’s continue to put up a good fight by keeping the race close. Baltimore went 4-2 this week to keep pace with the Alleghenies. Both Thomas Coleman and Bill Raines went 2-0 to pace the Maryland’s. On offense firstbasman Clete Hickman (.387 0 14) went 4-18 (.222)

New York - Another of the top 3 who has managed to put together a good week going 5-1, Despite this reporters prediction of certain collapse. Pitcher Matt Hickman 2 straight wins to bring his record to 7-1 he was joined by Dennis Walker who also went 2-0 on the week. The Mutuals offense was sparked by catcher Joe Confer (.375 0 13) who went 11-19 (.578) with 4 rbi’s

Chicago - The White Stockings also went on a 4-2 run, Beating Baltimore and Detroit along the way. Russ Dexter seemed to get on track going 2-0 and dropping his era to 1.73, Don Harty still struggled going 1-1 (3-3 4.06). From the plate Dave Cline stayed productive (.452 1 11) going 10-20 (.500) while hitting his first homerun.

Philadelphia - The Athletics had a terrible week going 1-5, Their poor pitching only got worse Ken Timberlake (1-4 10.61) got his first win, But the rest of the staff lost all the games they started. Ernst Braden (.422 0 16) managed to keep on pace going 10-25 (.400)

Cleveland - Surprise, Surprise - The Forest City took note of their predicted finish and had an outstanding week, Going 5-1 to move out of the cellar and challenge for fifth place. John Pender (2-4 5.23) went 1-1 but the biggest week went to Johnson Gray (4-1 3.19) who went 3-0. The offense came from leftfielder Bill Easton (.375 0 9) who went 9-25 (.360)

Boston - True to their predicted finish, The Shamrocks have started to drop in the standings. Going 1-5 this week. Allen Meader (1-4 6.17) lost in his two starts and Freddie Appel (1-3 5.88) lost in his only apperance. Secondbaseman Alexander Coonrod (.375 0 10) provided the offense going 7-25 (.280)

Detroit - The Pontiacs took a big fall this week dropping from 6th to 8th. Going 0-6 in this stretch. Kelley Robinson (2-3 4.88) lost both his starts, Mike Olson (1-2 4.31) lost his only apperance and Ken Harris (2-5 5.22) lost his 2 starts. Centerfielder Billy Sager (.444 1 15) who was on fire last week came back to earth going 4-19 (.210)