1871 re-imagined

[RMc]

The Newark Eurekas needed to beat Elizabeth in a one-game playoff just to make the Cup playoffs, but rolled into The Grand Duchess in Fort Wayne like a team on a mission. After spotting Kekionga a three-spot in the opening inning of Game 1, Newark chipped away to get within 4-3 after eight innings. In the ninth, Jake Virtue, Mox McQueary and Adonis Terry each knocked RBI singles to give Eureka a 6-4 win. The second game was a wild one, with Fort Wayne scoring three runs in the ninth to force extras, then both teams scoring thrice in the tenth inning to make it a 6-6 game. In the tenth, John Richter slammed a two-run double to make it a 8-6 contest. Fort Wayne loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the inning, but Duff Cooley grounded into a double play to hand Newark the win and a 2-0 series lead...with the series headed to New Jersey.

The third game at The Ironbound on Newark was another slugfest, as Virtue's two-run double in the last of the eighth to make it a 6-6 game. Cooley made up for his gaffe in Game 2 with an RBI single to give Fort Wayne the lead; they eventually won, 9-6, as Chris Rickley drove in four runs. In Game 4, Jerry Nops, Kekionga's 35-game winner, took command by allowing four hits an no earned runs in a 7-1 victory, scoring a half-dozen in the third. The Cup Final was now all even -- with the road team winning all four games.

Newark desperately needed a win in Game 5, but found themselves trailing 3-0 in the first four innings. But pinch-hitter Bernie Graham came through with a two-run double to even the game 3-3 in the fourth, and Eureka kept pounding Fort Wayne starter Milo Lockwood from there en route to a 8-4 win, putting Newark one win from the Cup.

Back in Indiana, the Keks spotted Newark two runs in the first two frames of the sixth game before Ginger Beaumont's two-run blast keyed a four-run third inning for Fort Wayne. Thanks to hurler Joe Corbett, Eureka would not score again as Kekionga won, 5-2, and forced a Game 7.

[RMc]

The deciding game of the 25th annual Centennial Cup drew an overflow crowd to The Grand Duchess -- a crowd that went quiet quickly when Eureka scored four runs in the very first inning, thanks to two Keks errors. But after that, Fort Wayne pitcher Jerry Nops buckled down, and the Kekionga batters got rolling against Newark starter Charley Rabourn. (The 45-year-old "Old Hoss", winner of 367 games, had already announced it would be his final game.) Trailing 4-1, Beaumont and Rickley each slashed doubles to tie the game at four. lave Cross, who had four hits on the day, notched an RBI single in the sixth to put Fort Wayne ahead, while Eureka batters could do next to nothing against Nops, who would allow only eight hits only one earned run. When Fort Wayne scored another trio of runs in the eighth, the matter was sealed, and the Kekionga club of Fort Wayne had won its first Cup since 1891!




The next day, there was a parade with seemingly the entire town of forty-five thousand present, shouting the name "Kekionga!" and celebrating the club's second Centennial Cup.

They would never win another.

[RMc]

At the NABU awards banquet, there were rumours of "big changes" in the air, with possible realignment or even some clubs quitting the circuit altogether. Many of the clubs in smaller cities were losing "disastrous" amounts of money, and were being forced to sell their stars: Nap Lajoie, 25-year-old second baseman who batted .371 for Reading last year, was sent to the New York Mutuals for an undisclosed sum, while the GNYBC picked up legendary stars Emil Gross and Dave Orr from Montreal and Fall River, respectively. Buck Ewing also wound in New York, heading from Elizabeth to the Giants.

In the Eastern Conference, Pete O'Brien of Fall River took the Creighton MVP Award...



...while teammate Cozy Dolan grabbed Pitcher of the Year. (Both players were rumoured to be moving to big-money contracts in Chicago or Philadelphia.)



Out West, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania grabbed both of the big awards as the Crawfords' Jimmy Williams edged out Jerry Denny of Minneapolis to take the MVP...



...and Ned Garvis of the Centennials grabbed Pitcher of the Year:

[RMc]

In Hoboken, four new inductees were elected to the Shrine of the Eternals, including long-time Washington Olympics stars Jim Britt and George Hall, as well as Boston's 478-game winner Jim Devlin. The Tri Mountain legend was feted by Boston owner William Hulbert, who handed Devlin a fifty-dollar bill. "Jim, that's what I think of you personally," said Hulbert, "You would never sell a game; you are honest and this Baseball Union is better for it!" Also inducted was Ezra Sutton, a key man in Cleveland's seven Cup victories.

[RMc]

When Baseball Commissioner Jim Creighton read the numbers, he was shocked by how grim they were. Even after selling off their best players, many of the small-market teams -- not just the Middletowns and Keokuks of the world, but clubs that had actually been successful on the field, like Wilmington, Lowell, Altoona, Fall River and even the Cup-holders from Fort Wayne -- were facing extinction. This was what Creighton and the owners tried to hold off with The Big Fix three years previous, only to step back when cranks complained. Now, if something wasn't done, perhaps half the NABU would either be forever noncompetitive -- or history.

So, a meeting was called of the executives of the clubs in cities of less than 200,000 people -- 28 in all -- and a plan was formulated. Rather than let the teams fold, the "bottom 28" (plus four new clubs), with an average population of about 90,000, would act as "reserve clubs" for the "Top 32" (average population 752,000):



Creighton expected the fans, and owners, would explode like they did in 1897 -- and in some places they did, especially in Fort Wayne. (The club claimed that, as Cup-holders, they deserved the right to be in the top circuit; undermining this argument was the fact that Kekionga suffered severe financial losses in 1899, and that their ballpark, The Grand Duchess, was badly in need of repair.) Other towns, like Fall River and Altoona, were grateful to still be operating. Becoming a reserve club -- with the top club paying most of their expenses -- was better than going out of business entirely.

Needing a two-thirds vote, Big Jim hinted that the clubs that would now "be bound in servitude" (as one angry fan in Paterson, NJ, put it) could rejoin the "big league" at some point in the future, "when conditions are more promising". The Millenium Plan passed by a 21-6 vote, with Fort Wayne abstaining.

[RMc]

Both the NABU and the Reserve League set their schedules at 154 games, with Opening Day pushed back to April 1. All 32 teams in the NABU would be put in a single division for 1900 only, with a massive 16-team Centennial Cup tournament to follow. Then, in 1901, the NABU would break into two leagues, as the names National League and American Association would be revived, with the Top 16 in the NL and the rest in the AA -- with promotion and relegation, three teams moving up and down. Many predicted poor attendance, protests or even rioting at the new Reserve League parks, but mostly crowds were neutral or even enthusiastic: especially in Fort Wayne, where a full house (in a newly-refurbished Grand Duchess) watched as the Centennial Cup banner was raised on the flagpole.

The standings on May 1:

[RMc]

The Pittsburgh Crawfords, led by Charlie Ferguson's all-time record 44 wins, won an astonishing 109 games in 1900, but they weren't the top team in the NABU -- in fact, they weren't even the top team in Pittsburgh. That would be the Yellow Jackets, who scored over a thousand runs and featured 41 wins from Jesse Tannehill.




In the Reserve League, Altoona and Fall River won their divisions. Mountain City was led by Jack Taylor, who had a Creighton-esque season by winning a batting title with a .390 while winning 38 games. The Marksmen were led by George Carrisch won 35 games before being brought up to Eckford.

[RMc]

With an unprecedented 16 teams in the Cup playoffs -- for this year only, after which the Top 16 will form the new National League in 1901 -- the opening round, a best-of-five affair, featured these matchups:

The pennant-winning Yellow Jackets swept out Forest City:

Pitt Y Jackets 9, Cleveland 4 (PYJ: Tannehill 6-hitter)
Pitt Y Jackets 7, Cleveland 6 (PYJ: Daly HR in 10th)
Pitt Y Jackets 4, Cleveland 3 (PYJ: Daly RBI single in 9th)

The Greater New York Baseball Club, playing out of the Bronx, needed four games to topple the Olympics:

GNYBC 4, Was Olympics 2 (GNY: Mason 5-hitter)
Was Olympics 4, GNYBC 3 (WSO: Corcoran go-ahead 2 RBI single in 7th)
GNYBC 7, Was Olympics 6 (GNY: 7 runs on 5 hits; WSO: 4 errors)
GNYBC 9, Was Olympics 8 (GNY: Gross HR, Beckley 3 RBI)

The Brown Stockings piled up 17 runs in eight innings in Game 1 -- then didn't score again for the next 27 frames, as the Millers' Gus Weyhing tossed a pair of shutouts:

St Louis Browns 17, Minneapolis 7 (SLB: 18 hits; Leever, Wheelock HR)
Minneapolis 2, St Louis Browns 0 (MIN: Weyhing 4-hit shutout)
Minneapolis 1, St Louis Browns 0 (MIN: Griffith 2-hit shutout)
Minneapolis 3, St Louis Browns 0 (MIN: Weyhing 2-hit shutout)

The Phillies swept out the Upstatesmen:

Phi Phillies 6, Buffalo 5 (PHI: Lee RBI single in 11th)
Phi Phillies 5, Buffalo 0 (PHI: Mars 4-hit shutout)
Phi Phillies 8, Buffalo 4 (PHI: Donlin 4 RBI)

In a battle of legendary franchises, the Red Stockings broomed Tri Mountain. Nuf said!

Cincinnati 5, Bos Tri Mts 0 (CIN: Young 6-hit shutout)
Cincinnati 9, Bos Tri Mts 2 (CIN: Black 4 hits, 3 runs)
Cincinnati 14, Bos Tri Mts 7 (CIN: Black 3 doubles, 4 RBI)

In the only First Round series to go the full five games, the Giants won twice up north, only to swept by the Maple Leafs in Manhattan:

NY Giants 9, Toronto 3 (NYG: Mann 3 hits; TOR: 5 errors)
NY Giants 4, Toronto 3 (NYG: Phillips RBI single in 11th)
Toronto 8, NY Giants 7 (TOR: Zimmer RBI triple in 10th)
Toronto 5, NY Giants 0 (TOR: Baldwin 7-hit shutout)
Toronto 16, NY Giants 3 (TOR: White 3 hits, 5 RBI)

Brooklyn proved that Philadelphia made no sense, er, Cents, as the Atlantics won going away:

Bkn Atlantics 7, Phil Cents 4 (BKA: Farrell 2 hits, 2B, 2 RBI)
Bkn Atlantics 5, Phil Cents 2 (BKA: Tenney 2-run HR)
Bkn Atlantics 7, Phil Cents 4 (BKA: Caruthers 2 hits, 2 RBI)

And in an epic Pennsylvania battle, the Crawfords joined the Yellow Jackets in the quarterfinals as Bill Dahlen batted .500 against the Athletics:

Pit Crawfords 9, Philly A’s 1 (PTC: Dahlen 3-run HR)
Pit Crawfords 12, Philly A’s 3 (PTC: Dahlen bases-loaded 3B)
Philly A’s 6, Pit Crawfords 4 (PHA: Say 3 hits, go-ahead RBI single in 10th)
Pit Crawfords 12, Philly A’s 3 (PTC: Ferguson 6-hitter)

[RMc]

The quarterfinal series were all exciting affairs, each of them going the maximum five games. The Steel City duo survived to the semis, but none of the other teams in top ten qualified.

The Yellow Jackets moved to the final four after edging past a pesky Greater New York club. Wolf proved he was no Chicken by batting .600 (12-for-20) for the series.

GNYBC 13, Pitt Yellow Jackets 7 (GNY: Farrell 5-for-5, 4 runs)
Pitt Yellow Jackets 7, GNYBC 1 (PYJ: Hutchinson 1 unER, 4 hits)
Pitt Yellow Jackets 5, GNYBC 4 (PYJ: Farrell 2B, 3 RBI)
GNYBC 3, Pitt Yellow Jackets 2 (GNY: Duffy HR)
Pitt Yellow Jackets 7, GNYBC 4 (PYJ: Wolf 4 hits, 2 triples, 3 RBI)

The Phillies became the second Pennsylvania team to make the semis by besting Minneapolis. “Turkey Mike” Donlin slammed two homers and batted .348, while Herman Long took MVP honours with a .478 mark.

Phil Phillies 11, Minneapolis 3 (PHI: Werrick 3 hits, 4 RBI)
Minneapolis 3, Phil Phillies 2 (MIN: 2 unER on bases-loaded walks in the 8th)
Phil Phillies 6, Minneapolis 4 (PHI: 3 runs in 9th, Donlin 2 RBI single)
Minneapolis 3, Phil Phillies 2 (MIN: 3 runs in 9th, Denny walk-off 2 RBI single)
Phil Phillies 7, Minneapolis 0 (PHI: Mars 2-hit shutout)

The Maple Leafs marched to the semifinals by stopping the legendary Red Stockings. Mark Baldwin allowed 24 hits and eight walks in his two starts, but only seven earned runs, winning them both.

Cincinnati 7, Toronto 1 (CIN: Ely triple, 3 RBI)
Toronto 8, Cincinnati 7 (TOR: Baldwin triple, win)
Toronto 4, Cincinnati 3 (TOR: Bushong double, 2 RBI)
Cincinnati 5, Toronto 4 (CIN: Scott walk-off single in 12th)
Toronto 8, Cincinnati 4 (TOR: 4 runs in 8th, including bases-clearing double by White)

The Pittsburgh Crawfords finished second-best in the pennant race, and it looked like they were going to finish second-best to Atlantic when they dropped the first two games of the series in Pittsburgh. But the Craws battled back with two wins in Brooklyn, then took the deciding game at home on Charlie Ferguson’s five hitter – his 47th win of the season.

Bkn Atlantics 5, Pitt Crawfords 3 (BKA: Drew 3 hits, 2 runs)
Bkn Atlantics 8, Pitt Crawfords 3 (BKA: Caruthers HR, 2 RBI)
Pitt Crawfords 6, Bkn Atlantics 5 (PTC: Dahlen HR in 10th)
Pitt Crawfords 7, Bkn Atlantics 5 (PTC: J. Williams 2 HR, 4 RBI)
Pitt Crawfords 6, Bkn Atlantics 1 (PTC: Ferguson 5-hitter)

So, the two Pittsburgh clubs would take on 11th-place Toronto and the 13th-ranked Phillies...and would presumably be heavy favourites. (But in the Cup playoffs...you never know!)

[RMc]

Another all-Pennsylvania battle in the semifinals saw the Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets dust off the Phillies in five games. Pittsburgh’s Emmett Seery won MVP honours as he had 12 hits and five RBI while the Phillies’ Mike Donlin clubbed three homers in a losing effort.

Pitt Yellow Jackets 11, Phil Phillies 10 (PYJ: Daly walk-off single in 14th)
Phil Phillies 2, Pitt Yellow Jackets 1 (PHI: Cook RBI single in 12th)
Pitt Yellow Jackets 8, Phil Phillies 3 (PYJ: six players with two hits each)
Pitt Yellow Jackets 9, Phil Phillies 1 (PYJ: Tannehill allows 13 hits but only one run)
Pitt Yellow Jackets 9, Phil Phillies 4 (PYJ: five runs in the 10th)

For the first time ever, a Centennial Cup Final will feature two teams from the same city, as the Crawfords held off the Maple Leafs in six games. Al McCauley won the MVP by hitting .471, while Honus Wagner drove in six runs.

Pitt Crawfords 2, Toronto 1 (PTC: Shaffer walk-off single in 11th)
Toronto 7, Pitt Crawfords 4 (TOR: 3 runs in 9th)
Pitt Crawfords 5, Toronto 4 (PTC: Walker go-ahead single in 10th)
Pitt Crawfords 12, Toronto 10 (PTC: Wagner 4 RBI; Reitz pinch-hit 3 RBI double)
Toronto 7, Pitt Crawfords 3 (TOR: Sowders five-hitter)
Pitt Crawfords 11, Toronto 1 (PTC: Ramsey six-hitter)

[RMc]

Yellow Jackets Field and Crawford Park are only a few miles apart in the Steel City, but they hosted every game of the 1900 Centennial Cup Finals. In the opener, the Craws surged to a 5-0 lead at the seventh-inning stretch at YJF, thanks to three hits and two RBI from Bill Dahlen. But the Jackets exploded with a single run in the seventh and five more in the eighth, keyed by Pop Corkhill’s grand slam. The Crawfords tied the game in the top of ninth on pinch-hitter Wally Andrews’ single, but the Yellow Jackets stung the Craws on Tom Daley’s RBI single in the bottom of the inning. In Game 2, the Jackets were two outs away from a 2-0 series lead with a 3-1 advantage in the ninth, but after a pair of single, a walk and an error, John McGraw drove in two runs with a single and Honus Wagner followed with a two-RBI double. Series even, 1-1.

Moving to Crawford Park, the teams were tied, 3-3, after five innings. In the bottom of the sixth, the Craws went ahead on pinch-hitter Wally Andrews’ RBI single to make a 4-3 game. Charlie Ferguson held on to win, 5-4, to give him his 49th win (including Cup play). In Game 4, the Crawfords closed to within one win of the Cup with another 5-4 victory; Marty Sullivan’s two-run HR in the sixth put the Crawfords ahead, giving Toad Ramsey the win. But the Yellow Jackets stayed alive with a wild 12-7 victory in Game 5, thanks to a seven-run sixth, keyed by Al Myers’ bases-clearing double.

Back at Yellow Jacket Field, when the Crawfords scored a quick quartet of runs before the Jackets could even get together, the home side’s fan feared it would be a quick, painful day for them. It proved to be anything but, as the contest went a Cup-record nineteen innings and took nearly six hours, with 146 at-bats, 37 hits, 13 errors, nearly 600 pitches, and more than one chance for the Jackets to force a seventh game. A five-run seventh gave the Yellows a 6-4 lead, but twice the Crawfords came back to force extra innings, 7-7.

Lots and lots of extra innings.

Finally in the 19th, with two on and two out, Joe Stanley and Honus Wagner hit back-to-back RBI singles to put the Craws ahead, 9-7. Relief pitcher Jay Hughes – who replaced Charlie Ferguson in the 18th, thus denying Ferguson his 50th win of the season – put down the Yellow Jackets in order to bring the Centennial Cup to the Steel City for the first time!

[RMc]

Jack Taylor had an incredible season as a pitcher/first baseman for Altoona Mountain City: a Reserve League-leading .390 average, 35 homers, 125 RBI and a 9.3 WAR -- but that was nothing compared to what he did on the mound: 38-9, 152 ERA+ and an astounding 15.2 WAR. No wonder Altoona won their division and qualified for the revived American Cup Finals, which Altoona won in five games over Fall River. And Taylor, naturally, was the series MVP, win two wins on the mound and four home runs!



Doubtless, dear reader, you might wonder why a Creighton-esque talent like Taylor was never called up to the NABU this season. Well, because Altoona is an affiliate of the Centennial Cup-winning Pittsburgh Crawfords, who did just fine without him, winning 109 games (and 14 more in the playoffs). But expect to see this rising star in the big leagues soon!

[RMc]

The Pittsburgh Crawfords won their first Centennial Cup in 1900, but came up second in the pennant race -- and also in the MVP and Pitcher of the Year races, as GNYBBC's Emil Gross won another MVP, edging out Pittsburgh's Honus Wagner:



An even bigger surprise came when the Craws' Charlie Ferguson, winner of a record-shattering 49 games in 1900 (including five in Cup play), lost out in the PoY balloting to Ned Garvin of the Centennials:



And in Hoboken, two more names were etched into the Shrine of the Eternals: Andy Leonard of the Mutuals and Atlantic star Tom York:

[RMc]

As had been announced, the NABU split into two divisions in 1901, with the Top 16 (or National League) eligible to play for the Centennial Cup, while the Bottom 16 (or American Association) play for a chance to join the NL in 1902:



And promotion/relegation is back, with the bottom three NL teams being replaced by the top three AA clubs. (There will be no "big city" exemptions, at least for now.)

Oh, and one other thing: the NABU is no longer the NABU. The lengthy "National American Baseball Union" monicker proved to be too much of a mouthful for fans and newspapermen alike: one poll showed that a majority thought that "Nabu" was the name of a Hindu mystic. So, the top level of baseball on this continent shall be known as...the League Association!