The Big Bang: A Larger Baseball Universe Starting From Nothing in 1857

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DURAND PERFECT AGAINST 1ST-PLACE ST. JOHN’S
MASS. BAY LF HAS FIVE HITS AS BASEMENT DWELLERS SURPRISE COLONIAL LEADERS

BOSTON (July 3, 1877) - Colonial Conference leaders St. John’s was expected to open Week Ten of A.P.B.L. play with a victory in Boston against last-place Massachusetts Bay. However, that didn’t happen:

St. John’s got on the board first on a run-scoring Ground Out during the opening inning, but after that the lowly hosts took control with a pair of runs in B2, two more in B3, and a four-run rally in the bottom of the fourth – the big moment a two-run Single by LF Harold Durand – that guaranteed the victory.

For Durand, his run-scoring base hit in the fourth was part of an outstanding afternoon:

• B2: Leadoff single to LCF off H. Burns (R)
• B3: Single to CF off H. Burns (R)
• B4: 2-run Single past 2B off H. Burns (R)
• B6: Single past 2B off H. Burns
• B8: Double past 1B off T. Smith
• TOTAL: 5/5 (2B, 6 TB), 3 R, 2 RBI, 75 GMSC

Through 55 games of his second A.P.B.L. season, Durand is batting .326 (.812 OPS) with sixteen Extra-base Hits (10 2B, 5 3B, 1 HR), 24 Runs Batted In, and 0.9 Batsman WAR. Aside from RBI, Durand is on pace to have better season than he had in his debut year of 1876.

St. John’s still sits atop the Colonial Conference in spite of the loss, with a 34-21 record that is 2.5 games better than Flour City. However, Flour City has won its last eleven games and could soon overtake St. John’s if current form continues. Mass. Bay remains in last place at 22-33, a dozen games behind St. John’s.

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OVERBROOK PUTS PENN TO THE SWORD IN PHILLY
LOCHHEAD & MAXWELL STAR AS HOSTS TAKE SPECTACULAR VICTORY

PHILADELPHIA (July 6, 1877) - Penn B.C. & Overbrook were just a game apart in the West Philadelphia standings going into their game on Friday afternoon, but it sure didn’t look that way on the field of play:

Visiting Penn actually scored the first runs of the game thanks to a run-scoring Single by 1B Charlie Smith in T2 that was followed by an error, but Overbrook scored sixteen times before Penn could make it back onto the scoreboard, and the rout was on as the hosts won by 21.

Overbrook was helped plenty by Penn’s absurd TWENTY-THREE ERRORS in the field (LG AVG: 7.8 E/G), but they had two bonafide star performances from their lineup during the game.

The first big afternoon came from C Walter Lochhead…

• OVER #6 Walter Lochhead (C): 4/6 (4 1B), 3 R, 5 RBI

…but he was easily outshone by Overbrook’s middle-of-the-lineup 2B, Oscar Maxwell:

• B2: Leadoff Single past 2B off F. Buchanan (SB, R)
• B3: Reached via Error by 1B C. Smith (R)
• B4: Single past 3B off F. Buchanan (R)
• B4: 1-run Single past SS off A. McCray
• B5: 2-run Single to CF off A. McCray (R)
• B6: 1-run Sac Fly to CF off W. Satterfield
• B8: 2-RUN HOME RUN TO RF off W. Satterfield
• TOTAL: 5/6 (HR, 8 TB), 5 R, 6 RBI, SB, 118 GMSC (season high)

Maxwell’s day with the bat was easily the best of the P.C.B.L. season when going by Game Score, and it’s not at all difficult to see why given that he was the first player this season with five Hits and a Home Run in the same game, and that’s before adding in his five Runs and six RBI.

The result left both Overbrook & Penn 21-22, part of a three-way tie for fourth place in West Philadelphia eleven games behind leaders Philadelphia Baseball & Cricket Club.

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THREE MUTUAL PLAYERS CLUB FIVE HITS IN LOSS
WOLF, TERRIEN, & McCARTY GIVE THEIR ALL, BUT HARLEM STILL COMES OUT ON TOP

NEW YORK CITY (July 8, 1877) - Harlem & Mutual ended their N.B.B.O. Week Nine series on Sunday afternoon, and the game at the Union Armory Grounds was an exciting affair that the visitors won by three:

Harlem broke out to a big early lead, with three separate rallies over the opening innings granting them a 14-4 lead by the end of the third. Mutual gradually chipped away at the lead, but three more Harlem runs during the fifth proved to be too much to overcome as the visitors eventually won 17-14.

That’s not to say Mutual didn’t do everything it could to come back against Harlem on Sunday. In particular, the three men in the middle of the Mutual lineup finished the game with five Hits each:

• MUT #3 Robert Wolf (RF): 5/6 (2 2B, 7 TB), 5 R, 1 RBI, SB
• MUT #4 Ellis Terrien (3B): 5/6 (2B, 3B, 8 TB), 5 R, 3 RBI
• MUT #5 Lynn McCarty (2B): 5/6 (2 2B, 2 3B, 11 TB), 1 R, 5 RBI
• MUT #3-5 TOTAL: 15/18 (.833), 5 2B, 3 3B, 11 R, 9 RBI, 1 SB

All totaled, the trio gathered fifteen of Mutual’s 23 Hits, scored eleven of their fourteen Runs, and was responsible for nine of the team’s thirteen Runs Batted In.

It was the first time in N.B.B.O. history that three players from the same team had 5+ Hits in a loss, and for Mutual such an achievement will surely be a source of embarrassment when considering that Harlem’s record entering the game was 15-29.

The result kept the two teams in their current places, with Mutual at sixth place in New York City (19-26, 15 GB) and Harlem in seventh (16-29, 18 GB). Hilltop of Yonkers is in last place (14-31, 20 GB).

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BURNS PENS 2ND SHUTOUT OF 1877 AT NIAGARA
ALL-STAR PITCHER CONFOUNDS HOSTS AS ST. JOHN’S WINS BY A DOZEN

BUFFALO, N.Y. (July 12, 1877) - St. John’s lost both of their first two games of the series at Niagara by a lone run: 11-10 on Tuesday and 7-6 on Wednesday in eleven innings. They made sure there was no chance of such an outcome on Thursday:

St. John’s broke out to a big early lead thanks to half a dozen runs over the first two innings. The scoring came from a number of sources: a Double by CF Rudolph Decker, a Single by 2B Cletus Cannon, a Single by RF Nelson Townsend, a Single by Konrad Jensen, a double by LF Joseph Evans, and another Single by Decker.

That early barrage proved to be far more than what St. John’s needed for the win, as #1 P Howard Burns was in total control in Buffalo:

• STJ P Howard Burns: CG SHO (19-8, 3.67), 8 HA, 0 BB, 3 K

The St. John’s defense helped Burns a lot, committing just one Error, turning one Double Play, and throwing out the only Niagara player who tried to steal a base.

St. John’s had three players with multiple Hits at Niagara, and they were led by Cannon:

• STJ #5 Cletus Cannon (2B/SS): 3/5 (2B, 4 TB), 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 SB

The Shutout brought Burns’ record to 19-8, with a 3.67 Earned Run Average, 72 Strikeouts, and 4.9 Pitching WAR over 255.0 innings so far in 1877. Cannon’s fine afternoon raised his Average to .292 (.714 OPS), with 22 Extra-Base Hits (14 2B, 8 3B) and 57 Runs Batted In through 63 games.

St. John’s exited the series at Niagara with a 40-23 record, best in the A.P.B.L. by two games. They are 7.5 games clear atop the Colonial Conference standings, and 9.5 games ahead of fourth-place Niagara.

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SIZEMORE SLAMS SIX HITS IN WIN AT PT. RICHMOND
STAR OUTFIELDER ALSO HAS SIX RBI AS SPARTAN STAYS FIVE GAMES BEHIND EAST LEADERS

PHILADELPHIA (July 6, 1877) - Penn B.C. & Overbrook were just a game apart in the West Philadelphia standings going into their game on Friday afternoon, but it sure didn’t look that way on the field of play:

The game was even 1-1 after two innings, but Spartan scored six times in the third and never looked back, growing their lead to 16-1 before Pt. Richmond put a pair of consolation runs across the plate during the bottom of the ninth.

Spartan’s Catcher had himself an excellent afternoon…

• SPA #5 Richard Gantner (C): 3/5 (3B, 5 TB), 2 R, 3 RBI, 1 BB

…but star RF Joseph Sizemore was spectacular against Pt. Richmond:

• T1: 1-run Single past 2B off B. Casagrande
• T3: 3-run Double to CF off B. Casagrande (R)
• T4: Single to LCF off B. Casagrande
• T6: 1-run Double to LCF off B. Casagrande (R)
• T7: 1-run Single to RF off W. Paul (R)
• T8: Single to CF off W. Paul
• TOTAL: 6/6 (2 2B, 8 TB), 3 R, 6 RBI, 111 GMSC

It was Sizemore’s Double with the bases full in the top of the third that effectively sealed the result for Spartan, although they were happy to pile on the runs from there.

Sizemore’s afternoon was the first six-hit game in the P.C.B.L. this season, and his 111 Game Score was the second-highest in the league in 1877, a performance bested only by Overbrook 2B Oscar Maxwell eight days ago (5/6, HR, 5 R, 6 RBI, SB, 118 GMSC) against Penn.

The result left both victorious Spartan and defeated Pt. Richmond 26-23 and two parts of a three-way tie for third place in East Philadelphia, with the duo and Minerva five games behind leaders Frankford Arsenal.

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TWO FIVE-HIT GAMES IN THE APBL ON WEDNESDAY
ALEXANDER & SCHUMACHER EXCEL; KC HAS QUARTET OF FOUR-HIT PERFORMERS VS ORANGE

NORTHEAST U.S.A. (July 18, 1877) - There were the usual six games across the American Professional Baseball League on Wednesday, with two of those games featuring outstanding performances by individual batsmen and a third featuring a fantastic team attack.

First, we go to New York City where Gotham and Knickerbocker continued the oldest rivalry in baseball at the Elysian Fields. Knickerbocker took an 11-6 win against a visiting Gotham team that has fallen apart, and the man who was clearly the game’s most outstanding player was Knick 1B Cormack Alexander:

• B1: 1-run Double to RF off J. Dressman (R)
• B3: Single past SS off J. Dressman (R)
• B5: Double to LF off J. Dressman
• B7: Double to LCF off J. Dressman (R)
• B8: Double to RCF off J. Smith (R)
• TOTAL: 5/5 (4 2B, 9 TB), 4 R, 1 RBI, 75 GMSC

Alexander has driven in roughly a run per game this season (68 G, 67 RBI), but here it was his four Doubles that gave those below him in the batting order ample opportunity to generate runs while his lone RBI came in the opening inning, when he his Double saw Knick Louis Dyke cross the plate.

Alexander is currently having the best season out of his six in the A.P.B.L. Through 68 games, he’s batting .367 (.884 OPS) with 20 Extra-base Hits (15 2B, 4 3B, 1 HR), 67 Runs Batted In, and 3.5 Batsman WAR. The win kept Knickerbocker & Excelsior tied – AGAIN – atop the Metropolitan at 42-26, with the two teams being tied for 13/18 days in July. Gotham is 22-46, and on pace for its worst season ever.

Next it’s off to Boston, where Niagara & Massachusetts Bay contested the game of the day at Oceanside Park.
The game was a thriller, with plenty of scoring early and Mass. Bay exiting the fourth inning ahead 11-8. Niagara provided consistent offense late – three runs in the 6th, two in the 7th, & two more in the 8th – to take a 15-13 lead, but a six-run rally by Mass. Bay in the bottom of the eighth gave them a 19-15 victory.

Mass. Bay had four players – RF Kevin Duke, 2B Arthur Fisher, C Lane Garvin, & 3B Albert Stoffers – collect 3+ Hits, and while Niagara LF Charles Barrett was 4/6 it was SS William Schumacher who outdid everyone on the field with five Hits:

• T1: 2-run Double to LCF off D. Hobbelink (R)
• T3: Infield Single to SS off D. Hobbelnk (SB, R)
• T4: Sac Bunt to P (2 out)
• T6: 1-run Single to CF off H. Cundiff (R)
• T7: 2-run Single past 1B off H. Cundiff
• T9: Leadoff Single past 3B off J. Desautels
• TOTAL: 5/5 (2B, 6 TB), 3 R, 5 RBI, SB, SAC BUNT, 96 GMSC

Schumacher’s 96 Game Score in a losing effort tied the season high, which is shared by Excelsior C Edgar Pridgen’s performance at Kings Co. six days ago (4/5, 4 R, 5 RBI, 1 BB). The 31-year-old has a .271 Average (.637 OPS) and forty Runs Batted In through 68 games of his fourth season as Niagara’s everyday Shortstop.

The result left Niagara 35-33, third place in the Colonial Conference and nine games behind leaders St. John’s, while it pulled Mass. Bay up into a tie for last place (28-40, 16 GB) with Boston rivals Shamrock.

The final notable event took place in Brooklyn, where Kings County juiced Orange by the score of 21-5 at Washington Park. The hosts were behind 4-2 at the middle of the third inning, but three runs in B3 and six more in B4 gave them an 11-4 lead and sent them on their way to an easy home victory.

Kings Co. used 23 Hits to score their 21 Runs, and as part of that outburst four of their batsmen had four Hits each:

• KC #1 Herman Stanley (2B): 4/6 (2B, 5 TB), 5 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB
• KC #3 Garfield Koonce (1B): 4/6 (all 1B), 3 R, 4 RBI
• KC #4 Fred Bartholomew (LF): 4/5 (2B, 5 TB), 4 R, 4 RBI, 1 BB, SB, 89 GMSC
• KC #5 Carl Nevers (C): 4/6 (2B, 5 TB), 3 R, 3 RBI

The afternoon left both Koonce (.350, .861 OPS, 55 RBI) & Bartholomew (.367, .911 OPS, 61 RBI) batting .350+ while Nevers hit .300 (.656 OPS, 45 RBI) after the halfway point of the A.P.B.L. season for the first time. Stanley’s 4/6 raised his Average to .341 (.810 OPS, 52 RBI), and since he’s been overshadowed by fellow Philadelphian import Joseph Evans he’s quietly put together a fine debut season in the A.P.B.L.

One other matter of note from the game: Kings Co. 3B Alfred Williams pulled off a rare feat in that he had three successful Sacrifices against Orange, with a pair of Sacrifice Bunts and one Sacrifice Fly.

Wednesday offered up plenty of action in the A.P.B.L., with the batsmen taking starring roles on the afternoon and the fans being on the receiving end of plenty of excitement.[B]

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1877 NATIONAL BASE BALL ORGANIZATION ALL-STAR GAME
GAME PLAYED AT HOME OF DEFENDING CHAMPS MINUTEMAN; SUSQUEHANNA TOPS NOM’S AGAIN

ALBANY, N.Y. (July 23, 1877) – With three weeks left to play in the season, it’s time for the annual N.B.B.O. All-Star Game! Rules were the same as always:

• Places 1-6 in each team’s roster will go to the best pitchers in each league.
• The remaining 24 roster spots will consist of three players for every other position.

The game was given a new home this year. Since it was the New York League’s turn to host the proceedings the Executive Committee felt it only natural that Minuteman, who won their first Tucker-Wheaton Cup last year and has a venue that seats over six thousand, should be the host for the 1877 edition.

The N.Y.L. rosters were evenly stocked, with a few teams sending three players and only one – Atlantic – sending four. For the second year in a row, Susquehanna, which is scoring eleven times per game, brought an N.E.L. and game-high five players to Upstate New York, a number that would have been six had .413-hitting Walter Braden not gone down with a hip injury at the end of June. Surprise Coastal leaders Newark sent four, including certain N.E.L. Pitcher of the Year John Ratican.

There were eighteen first-time nominees in this year’s All-Star Game, with nine from each league and a total well below last year’s 27 first-timers. Similarly, there were only two Greenhorns – one from each league – at the All-Star Game, well below the nine who went to last year’s game in Philadelphia.

Yet again, Victory SS Henry Nabors was the only player in the double digits in A.S.G. appearances – N.B.B.O. or A.P.B.L. – present, making his eleventh appearance. The oldest player at the game was the ageless Carl Bancroft, who at age 42 was making his seventh total All-Star Game cameo. The player everyone wanted to see: Star B.B.C.’s Julius Tierney, who entered the game batting .421, nearly thirty points better than any player not currently injured.

Rosters for the 1877 NBBO All-Star Game were as follows, with starters marked in red:

So, how did this year's All-Star Game turn out?

For the third year in a row the Northeastern League reigned supreme thanks to their work during the early innings.

The N.E.L. scored twice off Charles Rhodes in the first thanks to Singles by Ned Morganti & Thomas Fetterman. After a N.Y.L. run in the second they would add two more runs in the fourth via Error & Ground Out to go ahead 4-1, and that would be enough for the win thanks to excellent team pitching & defense.

The All-Star Game Most Valuable Player was Cantabrigians LF, and former A.P.B.L. regular, William McCrory:

• NEL SUB William McCrory (LF): 2/2, 1 R, 1 RBI, 2 SB

McCrory entered during the top of the fifth, and was excellent during his time in the All-Star Game to help the N.E.L. secure their third straight victory.

The only other player in the game with two Hits was starting N.Y.L. 2B Chester Alexander:

• NYL #4 Chester Alexander (2B): 2/3, 1 R, 0 RBI

Alexander, who is having a fantastic season, stayed in the game until the eighth inning, when he was replaced by William Snyder as the N.Y.L. tried to mount a comeback.

Weather was perfect – 75 degrees and sunny with winds of about ten miles per hour – and a crowd of 6,234 got to experience Albany’s first time hosting the N.B.B.O. All-Star Game. For the locals, their attention will now turn back to Minuteman as they try to make up a four-game deficit in the Upstate New York Championship over the season’s final three weeks.

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LAYMAN SLAMS FIVE HITS IN CG WIN OVER HARLEM
VETERAN PITCHER DOES IT ALL DURING DOUBLE-DIGIT HOME WIN BY METROPOLITAN

NEW YORK CITY (July 25, 1877) - Even .500 Metropolitan opened their home series against Harlem on Wednesday on the edge of elimination from playoff contention. They proceeded to keep their season alive with an eleven-run victory:

The key to Metro’s big win was a ten-run rally in the bottom of the second inning, during which a pair of three-run Hits, a Home Run by 2B William Hurt and a Double by C Mark Lehmann, did much of the damage.

Still, that wasn’t what the 2,300 in attendance left the game talking about. Instead, what had people most amazed was the performance of veteran P and 1872 N.Y.L. Most Valuable Player George Layman, who had some issues with the ball but more than made up for it with the bat:

• MET P George Layman: CG (17-13, 2.96), 15 HA, 5 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
• MET #9 George Layman (P): 5/5 (all 1B), 1 R, 3 RBI

Layman was fortunate in that visiting Harlem managed to turn fifteen base hits into only five Runs, but he needed no such luck when he was at the plate as three of Layman’s five base hits were of the Line Drive variety.

Layman is better than the average P with the bat, but going into the game was on a pace to finish 1877 with career lows in Batting Average (.226), OPS (.479), and RBI (8; would be 10 over 70 G). Layman’s 5/5 performance left him a bit closer to his career norms (.299 AVG, .635 OPS), although his run production remains roughly half of what it typically has been during the 40-50 games he pitches in over the course of a season.

The victory kept Metropolitan in the playoff chase, but with one more loss or one more N.Y.A.C. win all Metro playoff hopes come to an end. Harlem has long since stopped entertaining any playoff dreams, and their record is 21-35 (22 GB) with nearly three weeks left to play.

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BUBBA MACK WINS PITCHER’S DUEL IN CAMBRIDGE
CANTABRIGIANS ALL-STAR COMES OUT ON TOP OF GAME FEATURING ONE RUN

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (July 28, 1877) - For the Cantabrigians to have any hopes of catching Portland for the New England pennant, they’re going to have win some difficult games over the final three weeks of play. On Saturday at St. Peter’s Field in Cambridge, they did just that against visiting Quinnipiac:

In the end, this game had the rarest scoreline of all the single-digit finals the N.B.B.O. sees: a 1-0 final that went the way of the home team.

The game featured outstanding pitching and arguably even better defense, with the teams totaling just nine Hits (QUI: 5, CAN: 4) and just three Errors (QUI: 2, CAN: 1, N.E.L. AVG: 6.9 E/G). The only Run of the contest occurred during the bottom of the sixth, when a Wild Pitch by Quinnipiac’s Tom Hauser allowed opposing P Bubba Mack to score. After that it was all zeroes on the scoreboard, and the Cantabrigians earned a tense & hard-fought victory.

Here was how the two pitchers of record, Hauser & Mack, fared in Cambridge:

• QUI P Tom Hauser: L (12-11, 2.81), 8.0 IP, 4 HA, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
• CAN P Bubba Mack: CG SHO W (21-7, 3.04), 5 HA, 0 BB, 4 K

There were more than 2,550 in attendance, and what the fans saw was perhaps the most tense game of the season for their side, but they were thrilled that the Cantabrigians came out on top.

The victory kept the Cantabrigians six games behind New England Leaders Portland with eleven left to play, and they are the only two teams with a chance to grab the New England pennant. Quinnipiac currently sits seventh in New England (23-36, 22 GB), but with good baseball over the final 2+ weeks they could finish fourth.