Baseball Premier League

[NYY #23]

Bees Sweep Miami
October 11, 1918



Antonio Ramos won the series MVP after pitching 17 2/3 shutout innings, winning both the opening game and final game of the series, each by a 5-0 margin. Compared to the 10-0 margin in games Ramos pitched, the Bees won the other two games of the series by a 17-13 margin.

Shortstop Travis Kirman hit .529 for the series with Sherry Magee driving in 8 runs for Salt Lake.

[NYY #23]

Bees Edge Atlantics for Third Championship
October 22, 1918



The seven game series between the Bees and Atlantics would feature three highly anticipated pitching matchups between Charlie Smith of the Bees and Ed Walsh of the Atlantics in games 1, 4, and 7, but the results wouldn't live up to the hype. Charlie Smith won two of the three games though as the Bees edged the Atlantics four games to three.

Smith would go 2-1 with a 4.56 ERA in 25 2/3 innings, while Walsh was 1-2 with a 4.23 ERA in 27 2/3 innings. That was not really the results either team was expecting.



Antonio Ramos would continue his postseason success for the Bees though, going 1-0 with an 0.95 ERA in 19 innings to finish the playoffs with a 3-0 record and 0.49 ERA. Ramos improved to 6-3 with a 1.17 ERA in 11 playoff starts. By comparison he's 38-55 with a 3.16 ERA during the regular season.

Jayson Stewart would win the World Series MVP after hitting .400 with 6 RBI.

[NYY #23]

Walsh Wins Fourth Straight Pitcher of the Year Award
November 3, 1918



After going 16-7 with 5 saves and a 1.99 ERA Ed Walsh of the Baltimore Atlantics captured his fourth straight, and eighth overall Pitcher of the Year Award in the Northeast League. Walsh struck out 188 batters in 208 1/3 innings this year and accumulated 7.2 WAR while winning the pitching Triple Crown.

In addition to his eight Pitcher of the Year Award Walsh won his third MVP Award this year, edging Wally Endres of the Detroit Giants who led the league with a .381 batting average, driving in 40 runs and stealing 17 bases.

[NYY #23]

Smith Wins Fourth Straight Pitcher of the Year Award
November 4, 1918



Like his counterpart in the Northeast League, Charlie Smith of the Salt Lake City Bees continued his run of success with his fourth straight Pitcher of the Year Award after going 17-6 with a 2.18 ERA. Smith struck out 125 batters in 202 1/3 innings with a 4.4 WAR.

Smith finished second in the MVP voting, losing to Tris Speaker of the Los Angeles Bombers, who won his fourth straight MVP Award after leading the league with a .342 batting average while hitting 6 home runs, 22 doubles, 8 triples and driving in 36 runs..

[NYY #23]

It's probably more than a little ironic that I spent so much time planning this dynasty and it has been one of the messiest ones that I've done. Promotion and relegation is long gone, yet I've kept the Premier League going despite not really matching the original concept of the league. I've had multiple leagues going, and gone through a period of massive contraction to shrink things down to a normal size league, complete with minor leagues. I've experimented with different schedule lengths, from 16 games per year, to more than 162 games to the current weekend only 76 game schedule.

I keep plugging away though, and maybe the strange thing is I'm still having a lot of fun with the league despite the mess. And I guess having fun is really all that matters. But there are a couple of things that are currently bothering me.

The first is the number of games per season, which effects things like milestones, and just doesn't feel right. For some reason in my brain it was fun to play 16 games per year, but playing 76 per year feels wrong. The second that's bothering me really is more of me being conflicted. I enjoy seeing someone like Charley Smith dominate, and I can point back to his 66-87 record in real life, and enjoy seeing how he's exceeded expectations. It's also fun for me to watch a pitcher like Ed Walsh dominate, who seems to be getting better with age.

But I also enjoy watching fictional players. I guess that really started with my Any Given Sunday dynasty, watching players like Aaron Jackson, Matt Kelley, or Cameron Cotter. I even gave some of those guys a second chance, per se, but it didn't work out too well for many of them. That's ok though, because a couple new guys jump out, like Wally Endres or John Solorzano.

I always find the balance between real and fictional players tough though when they are interspersed within the same league. It's been a long time since I've imported any real players (10 years?), but the real players are still dominating to this day, making up 9 of the top 10 pitchers in the league. Hitters seem to be doing a little bit better, but it's taken a long time for that to happen.

So after saying all that I've decided that it's time for the Premier League to enter its final phase, so the next chapter can begin - "Real vs. Fictional". That will require some changes, although 14 of the 24 teams won't be effected, and the other 10 will require a name change. It will also require about 10 years to let the existing real players career play out, give or take a couple of years. The schedule will also be moving to the standard 162 games. I'll be finalizing the details and doing some testing to see how things go while the Premier League winds down. And even though the next chapter will be different the teams and players will carry over to the next dynasty.

[NYY #23]

Let's take a look at the changes for the 1919 season:

• Boston Pilgrims changed to Massachusetts Generals
• Washington Generals changed to Washington Maroons
• Baltimore Atlantics changed to Louisville Kings
• New York Titans changed to Hartford Gold

[NYY #23]

Let's take a look at the changes for the 1919 season:

• Detroit Giants changed to Minot Mallards
• Chicago Blues changed to Columbus Explorers

[NYY #23]

Let's take a look at the changes for the 1919 season:

• Los Angeles Bombers changed to Seattle Aviators
• San Francisco Legion changed to Portland Sea Dogs

[NYY #23]

Let's take a look at the changes for the 1919 season:

• Texas Longhorns changed to Austin Senators
• Dallas Tycoons changed to Charlotte Hornets

[NYY #23]

I made it through the 1919 season, and actually have a few posts ready to post. The big story of the season was Tony McClain of the Massachusetts Generals vs. Jon MacLean of the Boise Cutthroats. McClain caught my attention after hitting for the cycle, and then going on a 40 game hitting streak. The day McClain's hitting streak ended at 40, MacLean reached 40 straight games.

The day McClain hit safely in 41 games he let the game with an injury, his season over, leaving his hitting streak in limbo.

Ed Walsh, formerly of the Baltimore Atlantics, renamed to the Louisville Kings lived up to their name, with Walsh winning another Pitcher of the Year, and a World Series MVP as the Kings finally won it all. And then...

Sometimes you shouldn't try and get too fancy, and it was late and I did something stupid. I made a copy of the league to go back to, made some changes, and moved forward, but I did something wrong, went back to the backup, and I can't load the backup.

So I went back a year and moved forward again to present time, but realized I made a mistake, and went back for a third time, and I screwed up again. At that point I threw in the towel.

While things are salvageable, I've already gone so far away from my original concept, it's probably better to start fresh anyway. The idea of a completely fictional league is appealing, which was partially where I was heading.

So this will serve as a wrap-up, and I should also apologize because I was all over the place. This concept died and resurrected several times, which made me go all over the place. Thanks for reading along during my experiments.