1871 re-imagined

[RMc]

When the Cup-holders from Fort Wayne and their new rival, the legendary Red Stockings, were placed on opposite ends of the Cup quarterfinals bracket, many fans fancied a rematch, only this time in the semifinals. Only one problem: nobody asked how Altoona and Elizabeth how they felt about this idea.

In the Mountain City for Game 1 of the quarters, Cincy took a 4-2 lead going into the bottom of the seventh. But Altoona struck back with single runs in the seventh and eighth, then won the game in the ninth on a George Price single. Back at the Palace of the Fans, the Red Stox looked to restore order with a crushing 10-3 victory, with Jimmy Hallinan delivering four hits. In the deciding game, reigning PoY and MVP Bill Black held Altoona to only five hits, but poor fielding (including back-to-back errors in the fifth) gave Mountain City a stunning 4-2 win, eliminating the Red Stockings.

Meanwhile, in Waverly, New Jersey, after having split the first two games, the Kekiongas and the Resolutes did battle in the deciding third game. It was no contest, as Elizabeth's Will Calihan held Fort Wayne to five hits in a 7-1 win, as the Keks joined the Reds on the sidelines.

The semifinal matchup wound up going the full five games. The first two games in the Mountain City resembled tennis scores: 6-1, Altoona and 6-0, Elizabeth. In Game 3, Calihan was looking at a shut out, having allowed Altoona no runs in eight frames. But in the ninth, Joe Stanley doubled, then with two out, Jim Tray lined a triple (fittingly), then scored on an error to tie the game. Then in the tenth, Altoona scored twice more and held on, 4-2. In Game 4, though, Mountain City had more errors (5) than hits (3) as Elizabeth forced a fifth game, 5-2.

In Game 5, Altoona scored twice in the top of the sixth to take a 3-1 lead, but the Resolutes struck back with four tallies on only one hit -- and three errors, two walks and a passed ball. Demoralized, Altoona could offer no more resistance and Elizabeth won, 6-3, punching their ticket to their first-ever Centennial Cup Final.

[RMc]

Joining the UA in 1886, the Montreal Royals spent their first four seasons in the bottom half of the league, but by 1891, they finished second and grabbed the Union Cup. In 1892, Montreal was not just in line for a double promotion, but the first to win back-to-back Cups in different leagues.

Short answer: they did, sweeping aside the Worcester Ruby Legs in four straight. (And, no, "Ruby Legs" will never not be funny.)



The Union Cup, meanwhile, was a battle from start to finish. The first two games in Allegheny, Pa., just across from Pittsburgh, were split. Syracuse took the opener, 4-3, despite getting just four hits off John Weyhing; Pittsburgh took Game 2 by a 4-2 count, with Joe Quinn's two-run homer in eighth being the difference. Moving to Newell Park in Syracuse, the Chiefs' Billy Rhines shut out Pittsburgh on three hits in Game 3, winning 2-0; in the third game, Tug Wilson scored two runs and drove in two more in a 6-5 win and a 3-1 series lead.

Pittsburgh wasn't done, though. Despite a regular-season .196 average, Dell Darling (yes, really) emerged as the hero in Game 5, scored three runs and drove in two in a 8-7 Alleghneys win, cutting the Chiefs series lead to 3-2. Back in Pennsylvania for Game 6, Syracuse were three innings away from the Cup as they led 3-2...then Pittsburgh exploded for seven runs in the seventh, including a two-run triple by Darling. The Alleghneys won, 10-3, and forced a seventh game.



In Game 7, Syracuse scored early, plating two runs in the second on RBI singles by Fred Roat and Lonnie Leahy. That was all that Chiefs hurler Billy Rhines needed, as he was well-nigh untouchable, not allowing a single base hit for eight innings. But Pittsburgh, trailing 3-0 going into the ninth, still wouldn't give up. With one out, Leech Maskrey, sent a blast down the left field line...fair! The Alleghneys had their first hit and first run, and threatened further when our man Darling drew a walk and went to second on a passed ball. But Pete Gilbert (who batted a sickly .154 for the Cup Final) grounded out to clinch the Cup for the Chiefs.

[RMc]

Elizabeth, New Jersey, just across the river from the big metropolis, serves as a "bedroom community" for the big metropolis across the river. But small as they are (37,000 people), they're not the smallest city to achieve success in pro ball. Fort Wayne (35,000) are the defending Centennial Cup-holders; Altoona (30,000) made the Cup semis; Rockford, Illinois (23,000) was an original NA member and made six straight Cup playoff appearances from 1875-80; Keokuk, Iowa (14,000) won the American Cup in '89; and even the smallest city, Middletown, Conn. (9,000) won two American Cups, in 1885 and 1890, and are currently in the NA.

In 1892, the Resolute club of Elizabeth, owners of six straight American pennants from 1880-85 and three American Cups (1876, 1883 and 1884) were looking to add a new honour to their trophy case: a Centennial Cup!

The series began in Boston, and the ageless Jim Devlin scattered six hits while Thomas Gorman had four hits and four runs in a 7-3 Tri Mountains win. The next day, Resolute evened things up: trailing 7-5 (after being down 5-0 earlier), Elizabeth delivered four straight singles, followed by a bases-clearing triple by Ed Swartwood for a 9-7 win. The series headed to Waverly Grounds for Game 3, and Tri Mountain had a 5-4 advantage after six; Elizabeth put up another four-spot in the seventh, keyed by Buck Gladmon's two-run single. Boston clawed back two in the eighth on Gorman's two-run single, but could get no closer in an 8-7 defeat.

The Tri Mountains had scored seven runs three times in a row, but didn't feel very lucky, trailing the Cup Final two games to one. In the fourth game, Boston was up against it, trailing 6-4 going into the ninth: a James Snyder single, two walks and an error later, and it was 6-up. In the 11th, 44-year-old legend Harry Galliker singled and later came around to plate seventh, and ultimate winning run. (Boston added another run to make it 8-6.) Series tied!

In the fifth game, John Burns, who had broken in with Elizabeth in 1876 and later played several mediocre seasons in Indianapolis, came to Beantown as a 43-year-old in 1891 and won a career-high 22 games in '92. And on this day in New Jersey, he was untouchable, allowing just one hit, a double by Malachi Kitteridge in the fifth. But Boston still needed a Gorman double and a pair of wild pitches in the eighth to wrap up the game, 2-1. In Game 6, Fred Pfeffer went deep not one but twice, including a three-run blast that sealed a 6-2 victory and a Game 7.



The final game, as it always seems to be, was a classic. Elizabeth jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of first on two hits and two errors, but Tri Mountain came back with four in the bottom of the frame, keyed by George Sanderson's bases-clearing triple, as "Nuf Ced" McGreevy and his Royal Rooters cheered wildly. But single runs in the second, fourth and fifth innings, along with solid mound work from Will Calihan, gave Resolute a 5-4 lead after seven and a half. In the last of the eighth, Boston tied the game on a long single by Jumbo Davis, scoring Charlie Hautz. But a double by Ed Swartwood put Elizabeth back in front, while a single by Pfeffer another Boston error (they would have five on this day) made it 7-5, Elizabeth.

The crowd at Fenway held its breath as Tri Mountain came to bat in the bottom of the ninth. Jim Devlin stepped up and cracked Calihan's first pitch off the wall for a triple, followed by a walk to Andy Summers, putting the game-tying run on base. After Gorman popped up and Hautz hit into a fielder's choice scoring Devlin, up stepped a legend: Henry Charles Galliker, as the potential Cup-winning run. Galliker, who started with amateur Oriental Club in New York as a 21-year-old in 1869, came to Tri Mountain when they joined the National Association two years later. He'd made 2,554 base hits in his career, plus 70 more in Cup play. After a swinging strike, Galliker fouled off three pitches in a row, seemingly determined to exhaust the tiring Calihan, who would toss 144 pitches in the contest. The 144th pitch turned out to be decisive: a slow curve that Galliker slashed directly to second baseman Pfeffer -- giving Elizabeth the Cup!

[RMc]

Jimmy Ryan won the Creighton MVP Award in 1892, edging out Boston's ageless Henry Galliker...



...while Altoona's Charlie Ferguson was acclaimed as the NA's top pitcher.



AA MVP: Hugh Duffy (Jersey City)
AA PoY: Jack Stivetts (Grand Rapids)
UA MVP: Bill Boyd (Kansas City)
UA PoY: Brickyard Kennedy (Detroit)

[RMc]

The Union Club of Morrisania was founded in 1855 and had won the NABBP national championship back in 1867, as well as the Amateur Association crown in 1872. But after the AA (and the club) turned professional, Union struggled, even suffering the indignity of relegation after the 1891 season (and were near the bottom of the UA in '92) -- so, they decided a big change was in order. They built a new ballpark just a bit west of Morrisania (which technically didn't exist anymore, having been absorbed by New York City in 1873), a few blocks from the Harlem River on 164th Street in the Bronx. They dubbed the new ballfield Union Park, and changed the name of the club to the New York Unions.

Not so fast, said the Giants and Mutuals, who claimed that they were the only baseball clubs that had the rights to the name "New York". It wound up in court, and the judge ruled against the Unions. So, the club decided to go even bigger, calling themselves the Greater New York Baseball Club, or GNYBBC. The Giants and Mutuals guffawed, but chose not to challenge the name in court.



From NA to AA: St. Paul, Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets [in place of the Chicago White Stockings]
From AA to NA: Montreal, Worcester, Detroit Wolverines.
From AA to UA: Baltimore Marylands, Paterson, Rockford.
From UA to AA: Pittsburgh Alleghneys, Syracuse, Philadelphia Phillies.

[RMc]

Just before Opening Day, the Baseball Shrine of the Eternals -- the new name came after Jim Creighton stated that "there's too many baseball things named after me, anyway" -- opened in Hoboken, New Jersey. Along with Creighton himself, here are the men enshrined:

[RMc]

Twenty-two years into the National Association, no team from the New York area had won a pennant or a Centennial Cup; the Mutuals came the closest, losing the very first NA pennant back in 1871 in a one-game playoff to...Cleveland, of course. The state of Ohio has been the state of baseball, with 16 National pennants and 12 Cen Cups...and zero and zero for New York.

But nearby Brooklyn has shown ability in the American Association, as both the Eckford (1879) and Atlantic (1882) clubs have taken American Cups; now, both teams from the City of Churches are pennant-winners!



The Atlantics needed a win over second-place Toronto on the last day of the season to clinch the NA pennant, while the Eckfords had two clubs to fight off, winning eight of their last ten to edge out St. Louis and Washington:



And in the Union, the Toledo Blue Sox held off a late charge from the posse from Kansas City to take their first pennant:

[RMc]

When young millionaire Henry Lucas formed the St. Louis Maroons -- and the league in which they would play, the Union Association -- in 1884, he imagined his team would bring glory to the Mound City. But the club has failed to win a pennant or a Cup, although they were promoted to the AA in 1889 and their second-place finish this season guarantees them a spot in the National in 1894. Still, playoff success is what Lucas and the Maroons craved -- and after losing the playoff opener to Indianapolis, 3-2, they were one loss away from elimination. But back to back wins at Lucas Park, 6-3 and 9-1, put them through to the semifinals.

The Maroons met the Providence Grays, who brushed aside the Nationals in two straight. The first four games of the best-of-five were split, with both teams taking a contest home and away, setting up a decisive Game 5 in St. Louis. Leading 5-3, the Maroons seemingly broke open the contest with a five-run seventh, aided by Charles Fisher's bases-clearing triple. But the Grays weren't done: they stormed back with four in the top of the eighth. Providence could get no closer, though, and St. Louis headed to the American Cup Final with a 10-7 triumph.



When Lowell, Mass. started playing "the Massachusetts Game" in the 1860s, the local teams were often given the nickname "Chippies", after businesses involved in "chipping" wood or stone. The Chippies turned pro and joined the Union in 1887, and made their second Cup appearance in 1893 -- but it wasn't easy. The Chips were down (sorry) late in the season, but a five-game winning streak forced a fifth-place tie with Paterson and a one-game playoff, won by Lowell, 6-3, rebounding from a first-inning three-run deficit.

In the Union Cup quarterfinals, the Chippies stunned Kansas City in two straight contests at the Cowboy Bowl, 6-2 and 8-5, while the Buffalo Upstatesmen topped the Reading Actives two in a row: 4-2 in the opener and by an incredible 21-11 count in Game 2, as every Buffalo starter drove in or scored at least a pair of runs.

In the semifinals, Buffalo was confident that they would reach their first Cup Final, but Lowell had other ideas as they took the opener at Chippie Field, 10-4, as Barney McLaughlin had three hits and four RBI. The Upstatesmen looked to even the series in Game 2, taking a 2-1 lead into the seventh behind hurler Dave Williams, but the Chips went ahead on Irv Ray's seeing-eye, two-run single; Lowell held on to win, 3-2. In the third game, the U-Men scored in the opening frame off Lowell's Sadie McMahon, but that was all they could get as McLaughlin had a trio of safeties, including a triple, as Lowell swept the series with a 7-1 victory.

[RMc]

As indicated earlier, baseball clubs from the Buckeye State have been unusually successful, and 1893 continued the trend. Despite a ho-hum fourth place finish, the Red Stockings stormed past the defending Cup-holders from Elizabeth in two straight, crushing Resolute with six late runs in a 7-0 triumph in game 1, then finishing off Elizabeth with three runs in the ninth inning of Game 2 to advance, 3-1. In the other quarterfinal, the Toronto Maple Leafs became the first Canadian team to advance to the semis by brushing past Tri Mountain in two straight, as Amos "The Hoosier Thunderbolt" Rusie scattered eight hits in a 6-1 win, and Mark Baldwin was even better in the second game, shutting out Boston on seven hits, 9-0.

In the semifinals, a sell-out crowd at the Palace of the Fans were stunned as Toronto broke open a 1-1 tie in the fifth -- wide open! The Leafs set a Cup record with ten tallies in the frame, including a bases-clearing triple from Negro star Sol White. Toronto tacked on six more runs in a record-shattering 17-2 victory. "WHAT HOPE HAVE WE?" screamed a Cincinnati Post headline. "The Canucks have humiliated us!"

But everybody knows baseball's biggest cliche: There's always another game tomorrow. And in a best-of-five series, losing one game, however horribly, still puts you in the fight. And the Red Stox were far from being done. The Toronto offense that scored at will in the first game suddenly dried up in Game 2, as the Leafs were held to just two tallies by Edouard Payne in a 3-2 loss...series tied.

With the rest of the series at the scenic Toronto Island Ballpark in Lake Ontario, the Maple Leafs were determined that their run-scoring abilities would change. And they did...it got worse. Rusie and Cincy's Bob Black dueled for eleven innings, each allowing only one run, until Dan Brouthers' double plated a tally in the top of the twelfth to give the Reds a 2-1 victory. The fourth game was little more than a formality, as Cincy scored thrice in the opening frame and Payne -- a fine French mullato from Philadelphia -- shut out Toronto on six hits, propelling the Red Stockings to their eighth Centennial Cup Final, 8-0.

[RMc]

The Union Cup Finals saw the Lowell Chippies take the opener, 6-5, erasing a five-run deficit in front of an unhappy crowd at Maumee Park in Toledo. But the Blue Sox weren't going to let the fans of Cleveland and Cincinnati have all the fun; they wanted their Ohio city to win a Cup, too! The Sox evened up the series as hurler Tom Parrott squawked his way to a seven-hitter in a 5-2 victory.

Then the series went to Lowell, Mass., and the third game was a slugfest with the lead changing hands no less than six times; after nine full, it was a 10-10 deadlock, with a double and a triple (and four RBI) by Chips catcher Mert Hackett. Then in the eleventh, Toledo scored six runs -- all unearned, thanks to three Lowell errors -- to take a 16-10 win and a 2-1 series lead.

As it turned out, the Cup Final would never leave Massachusetts. In Game 4, Parrott gave the Chippies the bird by holding them to six hits in a 5-3 decision. Toledo's big bats were truly unleashed in the fifth contest, a game that featured 29 runs, 34 hits and a painful-to-watch thirteen errors. The Blue Sox rolled up 14 runs in the first seven innings, but the Chips made it interesting by scoring six times in the eighth to make it 14-13. But the Sox -- who had at least one run and one hit by every man in the lineup, including last-minute pitcher John Blue -- scored twice more in the ninth and held on for a 16-13 win and the Union Cup!



Henry Eckford was a famous shipbuilder and entrepreneur in the early part of the 19th century, building ships that were used in the War of 1812. Such was his fame that many things were named for Eckford, including boats, streets, buildings...and baseball teams, the best-known being the Eckford Club of Brooklyn, founded in 1855, which was one of the founding members of the then-Amateur Association in 1871.

In 1893, Eckford was battling for its second American Cup (winning its first in '82), against Henry Lucas and his St. Louis Maroons -- who had never won any trophy in its existence. The series was a corker, as the teams split the first two games in Brooklyn: St. Louis holding off Eckford, 3-2, on the Maroons' Bob Emslie's four-hitter in Game 1, and Brooklyn pounding out fourteen hits (including four by AA batting champ Jack Clements) in a 9-2 slaughter.

The Cup Final headed for the Mound City and Brooklyn took the advantage in Game 3 as their bats continued to boom: Clements had four more hits, Eckford had nineteen in a 14-3 victory. But the Maroons were not going to lie down in front of their home fans. St. Louis starter Edgar "EE" Smith (a nickname that no one, including Smith himself, has any idea as to its origin) shut out the Brooklyn batters through seven as the Maroons built a 4-0 lead. Brooklyn scored thrice in the eighth...but so did St. Louis, and the Maroons held on a 7-4 win to knot up the Cup Final again. The next day at Lucas Park, St. Louis took a 3-2 series lead as Charlie Berry socked a three-run homer among his three hits as the Maroons took a 11-7 decision.

Back in Brooklyn, and Eckford was up against it: they needed not one win but two against the red-hot Maroons. In Game 6, the two clubs battled to a 5-5 tied going into the last of the eighth, but Eckford put the game away with six runs, including a bases-clearing triple by Clements...so, there would be a Game 7.



Win or lose, the finale would be the last-ever game at Manor House Grounds: the Eckfords would move into their new, all-concrete park in Flatbush in 1894. The Brooklyn ballclub ensured it would be a fond farewell for their fans: they scored five times in the opening frame, and pitcher Ed Dugan did the rest, holding the Maroons to two runs on eight hits in a 11-2 beating, giving the Eckford club the American Cup.



It was an unhappy day for Henry Lucas in more than one way: after the game, the now-former millionaire announced he was broke, and was selling the club to St. Louis investors. Subsequent news reports indicated that Lucas had purchased the Vandalia Railroad in rural Illinois, but in fact he was working as a lowly rail clerk just to make ends meet. He died of blood poisoning, penniless, in 1910.

[RMc]

On June 14, 1870, the most famous game in the history of baseball -- then, or, arguably, now -- was played when the mighty Red Stockings of Cincinnati, owners of a 71-game winning streak, met the Atlantic club at the Capitoline Grounds in Brooklyn. The contest went back and forth, with the Atlantics tying the score in the eighth, 5–5 -- and that is where it stood after nine full innings. The rules of the era did not dictate extra innings unless one captain wished the game to continue. Harry Wright could well have taken the tie, and kept the unbeaten string alive, but bade the game go on. Cincy scored twice in the top of the eleventh to seemingly have the game in hand, but Brooklyn scored twice and had two men and one out when George Hall, the Atlantics’ center fielder, bounced a ball to shortstop George Wright: a sure double play, but Wright’s throw went awry. Brooklyn won, 8-7, and the Reds streak was over.

The expense of keeping a professional nine was so much that the Red Stockings' board of directors seriously considered disbanding the club: there even rumours that Wright and other top players would form a new version of the Reds in Boston. Fortunately for fans in the Queen City, this did not happen, and (after a shaky start), the Red Stockings would win eight pennants and five Centennial Cups (including four double-doubles between 1882-86) and, along with Forest City of Cleveland, were America's premiere ball club.

But, a generation later, there were those who still remembered that remarkable day in June of 1870, and when the Atlantics qualified for their first-ever Centennial Cup Final, there were many in Cincinnati who swore revenge!

The first game, held at the very same Capitoline Grounds that hosted the two clubs 23 years earlier (it would be abandoned after the series with the Atlantics joining the Eckfords at a new grounds in Flatbush in 1894), the Red Stox wasted no time, scoring four runs in the opening inning off Brooklyn starter Hugh O'Neill, then added three more in the second, In all, Cincy would mash twenty hits in a 15-9 slugfest. But the Atlantic club would not be steamrolled, as Harry Salisbury allowed ten hits but only two runs (while making a pair of hits himself) to even the Cup Final, 8-3.

Back at the Palace of the Fans -- where the club's loss to Fort Wayne in the Cup Final two years earlier has also not been forgotten -- Dan Brouthers had two hits (including a homer), two runs and three RBI to give the Reds a 9-6 win. In Game 4, Atlantic took a 4-1 lead into the last of the fifth, with "Parisian Bob" Caruthers lining a two-run double.* But the Reds crushed Brooklyn with a six-run fifth inning, keyed by a three-run shot from Brouthers. Cincy plated six more in the closing innings in a 13-6 rout, and a 3-1 series lead.

[*Editor's note: For some reason, Caruthers was stuck on the Atlantics reserve team for the entire 1890 and 1891 seasons. He returned as strictly an outfielder in 1892. I have no idea why the game did this; he was an excellent hitter and pitcher, but suddenly he couldn't get off the bench for two prime years of his career. Really, I can't be bothered coming up with an in-universe explanation for this; can you think of one...?]

Atlantic desperately needed a win to send the Cup Final back to Brooklyn -- but thanks to mulatto star Edouard Payne, they wouldn't get one. Payne had two hits and drove in three runs -- and held Atlantic to just one tally and five hits in a 11-1 destruction. Hail, Red Stockings! You're champions again...!

[RMc]

Despite winning another Centennial Cup, Cincinnati dodn't have a single player near the top of the Creighton MVP or Pitcher of the Year election list. Instead, Harry Stovey, playing in la belle province, edging out the 45-year-old legend Henry C Galliker of Boston to claim the MVP trophy. Galliker retires after an incredible 25 year career, 23 of them with the Tri Mountain club and an all-time record 2,703 base hits.



Meanwhile, back up north, Mark Baldwin was a unanimous choice for PoY honours...



AA MVP: Jesse Burkett (Dayton)
AA PoY: Jack Stivetts (Grand Rapids) -- Happy Jack's third PoY in a row!

UA MVP: Emil Gross (Rockford)
UA PoY: Jack Memefee (Lowell)

[RMc]

As indicated earlier, the two Brooklyn teams, Atlantic and Eckford, will be moving into the brand new Flatbush Field on Bedford Avenue, just a few blocks east of Prospect Park. The 23,000-seat all-concrete park is already considered one of the finest ballparks in the country.

Also, the schedule has been expanded from 120 to 140 games, and the new season begins on April 15th, moved up from May 1st.

From NA to AA: Minneapolis, New York Giants, Troy [in place of the Chicago White Stockings; Charlie Hilsey sent from Chicago to Troy as compensation].

From AA to NA: Brooklyn Eckfords, St. Louis Maroons, Washington Nationals.

From AA to UA: Pittsburgh Alleghneys, Albany, Jersey City.

From UA to AA: Toledo, Kansas City, Buffalo.

[RMc]

Inducted into the Shrine of the Eternals at Hoboken was Mutuals star first basemen Joe Start and "Slammin' Sam" Woolverton, legendary shortstop of the Tri Mountain club. Both were among the original players in the National Association's first year in 1871.

Start's ballplaying began way back in 1859, as a sixteen-year-old with the amateur Enterprise club in Brooklyn; he would play twelve years in the old NABBP and sixteen more seasons with Mutual, for an incredible 28 years in uniform!

Woolverton, a near-unanimous selection, started playing with the National club of Albany in 1866 as a thirteen-year-old prodigy; after "retiring" for a season (in reality, he went back to school), Sam played three more years in Albany before joining the Tri Mountains, for whom he was the immovable object at shortstop for eighteen years. [Editor's note: Woolverton was one of the "extra" players I pulled out of the NABBP who never really played in the NA; I should've made him at least a few years older, but it's too late now!]

[RMc]

How much had hitting advanced in 1894? Well, Chief Roseman of the Nationals batted an even .400, an impressive achievement -- and no better than eighth in the NA, which was led by Emil Gross' .440 figure. The Montreal catcher, who had jumped from Rockford in the UA over the winter, thus compiled the highest batting average in over twenty years, since Davy Force hit .445 in 1873. The league batting average was a whopping .310, highest since the .337 in that chaotic first year of 1871.

The pennant races were strange, too. The Ruby Legs of Worcester, Mass. (population 110,000) grabbed the pennant behind Billy Nash and Hub Collins, as well as pitcher Emerson "Pink" Hawley, whose 3.37 ERA would've been mediocre in most years -- but was enough to take the ERA crown in '94!

But the biggest shocks of the season occurred in O-hi-o. The Red Stockings struggled at mid-table in midseason, and for a while it seemed they miss the Centennial Cup playoffs for the first time in the twenty-year history of the event. But Cincy pulled it together and managed their second straight fourth-place finish: the first time the Reds had back-to-back seasons outside of the top three since the early 1870s.

The real stunner was farther north. The Forest City club of Cleveland, perennial contenders (and nine time champions), have made the Cup playoffs just once in the decade since Jim Creighton retired as a player in 1885. Big Jim spent five years as manager, leading Cleveland to a fourth-place finish in 1890 before moving to the front office as team president. But 1894 was a disaster, as they flirted with the relegation zone all season, finishing 16th with a .429 winning percentage -- worst in club history. Normally, the club would be safe from relegation, but the New York Mutuals (18th) and Chicago White Sox (19th) used their exemptions, so the last-place Maroons would be sent down, along with the 17th-place Mansfields -- and Cleveland.

Fans were outraged -- and not just in Cleveland -- that the legendary Forest City club would be asked to ply their trade in the lower-ranked American Association. But Creighton announced he would accept the demotion -- along with New York 2B Frank Bonner and Chicago pitcher Frank Griffith as compensation. And then Big Jim stunned the baseball world again, when he announced on November 18 that he would stand down as Forest City president to accept "a new job at the league office".



Offense was up in the AA, too, as Indianapolis won its first pennant since its double-double year in 1887:



Meanwhile, the Union Association focused on pitching and defense -- nahh, runs were crossing the plate at a fever pitch, there, too, as Fall River's Pete O'Brien won the Triple Crown, with an astounding .442 average , along with a pro baseball-record 49 home runs and a mind-blowing 223 RBI. (The rest of the Marksmen were meh, so the club finished mid-table.) The grandly-named Greater New York Baseball Club drew reasonably well in their new ballpark, but were still awarded the wooden spoon for their trouble.

[RMc]

The Dayton Veterans have slowly climbed the baseball ladder after joining the Union Association in 1887. After three years near the bottom, the Vets moved up to mid-table in 1890 then won a surprise Union pennant in '91. In 1894, Dayton finished third in the AA, giving them a shot at promotion to the National in '95. In the Union Cup playoffs, the Vets pushed past Grand Rapids two games to one, as reiging AA MVP Jesse Burkett's three RBI was the difference in a 8-5 triumph in Game 3. In the other quarterfinal, Rochester pounded Minneapolis in Game 1, 14-4, but the Millers came back when Pop Swett's two-run double game Minny a 9-7 win in Game 2. In the decider, Ernie Hickman held the Red Wings to five hits in a 3-1 win, and the Millers advanced.

In the semifinals, the Millers stayed hot: Dooley McDoolan fired a five-hitter as the Minnesotans crushed the Vets, 9-1 and hurler Fred Dwyer had four hits and three RBI, while scattering twelve hits in a 13-6 win. All Minneapolis had to do was win one game in Dayton, and they were off to the American Cup Final.

They never got it. Like a mighty army, the Veterans rolled over Millers' pitching, scoring 34 runs in three games. Burkett and Bill Hassamaer each drove in a trio of runs in a 11-1 slaughter in Game 3; Hassamaer and Dude Easterbrook each had three hits in a 10-1 laugher in Game 4; and, although the Millers did get some offense going in Game 5, it wasn't enough as Dayton erased a 8-0 deficit with eight in the seventh (including a grand slam from Hassamaer), then added five more in the eighth for a stunning 13-8 win, and the series.



The Milwaukee Brewers edged out the Baltimore Marylands by a single game to gain the final Union Cup playoff spot, and they made the best of it, defeating Jersey City, two games to one in the quarterfinals; after losing the first game, the Brews won 12-2 to force a third game, only to trail 4-2 after eight innings. With the bases filled, up stepped 20-year-old rookie John Anderson, who batted .361 on the season; Anderson sent a Harry Arundel pitch over the wall to give Milwaukee a 6-4 lead, winning the series. In the other quarterfinal, Reading actively put out first-time Cup participant Louisville in three games, as Bert Abbey scattered seven hits in a 8-2 win in the deciding match.

In the semifinal, Milwaukee won the first two games in Wisconsin at Borchert Field. In the opener, they were trailing the Actives, 3-1, in the seventh when they blew the game open with eight tallies, five of them unearned thanks to three Reading errors; in the second game, the Brewers stormed to an 8-3 lead but the Actives kept chipping away, scoring twice in the ninth until Henry Jones popped up with two out and a man on third: final score, 8-7.

At Lauer's Park in Reading, the Actives pulled one back, 8-4, as Scotsman Hugh Nicol and Irishman Tim O'Rourke each drove in two runs. But the next day, the Brewers punched their ticket to the Union Cup Final as starter George Rettger got his second win of the series, shutting down the (In-)Actives on seven hits in a 5-1 triumph.

[RMc]

After nearly not making the postseason party at all, the Cincinnatis took on the team that beat them in the Cup Final just two years earlier, and got their revenge by beat Fort Wayne in two straight. Bob Black tossed a four-hitter in the Reds' 6-1 win in Game 1, and Dan Brouthers had three hits, including a double and a homer, in a 11-3 victory. In the other quarterfinal, the Nationals' Bob Ehret tossed a seven-hit shutout at Altoona in Game 1, but Mountain City solved Washington pitching in the next two games -- and how! In the second game, Altoona had a pair of six-run frames in a 14-2 victory, then mashed out a dozen hits in Game 3, giving Mountain City a 12-3 and a spot in the semifinal.

In the semifinal, Red Stockings batters were firing on all cylinders. In the opener, pitcher Bob Black was placed on both the mound and the clean-up spot, and although Altoona touched him for seven runs on ten hits, he made up for it with a home run and three RBI (his battery-mate Jim O'Rourke drove in four) as the Reds won, 14-10. In Game 2, the Red Stox spotted Altoona a pair of runs before roaring back with three in the third and four more in the fifth. Mountain City scored three in the ninth to cut the deficit to 8-6, but Marty Sullivan flew out to right, leaving the bases loaded

Game 3 in Altoona, Black made things bright for the Reds, allowing only one earned run in a 9-3 victory, sending the Red Stockings to their tenth Centennial Cup Final.

[RMc]

The 1894 American and Union Cup Finals weren't exactly the most exciting baseball ever played; both series ended in four-game sweeps. In the American, pennant-winning Indianapolis must've gotten lazy waiting for their opponents, third-place Dayton, because they barely showed up for the championship series, being outscored 43 to 10. First, Bill Hassamaer, playing his first full season at the age of 30, tripled and drove in three as Dayton took the opener, 7-1; then, Hassamaer drove in four in a 11-6 win in Game 2.

The next two games, in Dayton, were even bigger slaughters for the Vets: Frank Bishop had three RBI in an 8-1 rout, and then the cherry on the cake in the fourth game saw Dayton knock 23 hits (yes, that's right, twenty-three) in a 17-2 humiliation -- to say more would doubtlessly violate obscenity laws. But anyway, congratulations, Dayton: the fourth Ohio city to win a Cup!



The Union Cup Final was a bit more competitive, but only just. The Lowell Chippies took the opener at home, 8-3, as 35-game winner Jock Menefee allowed Milwaukee 14 hits but only three runs, while contributing two hits himself. In the second game, the Brewers opened up a 7-2 lead in the fifth, only to see Lowell chip (sorry) away, finally taking the lead in the eighth when Mike Hines scored on Milwaukee pitcher George Rettger's throwing error; Lowell held on to win, 8-7, to take a 2-0 lead in the series.

The Brew Crew hoped they could make up some ground back in Wisconsin, but the Chippies had other ideas. In Game 3, Lowell went double nickels on the dime, registering a five-spot in both the fourth and fifth innings in a 10-5 win. Finally, in the fourth game, the Union's best offense blew open a 5-3 game with a half-dozen in the eighth, keyed by Hines' bases-clearing double; the game ended 11-4, and the Lowell Chippies had won the Union Cup!

[RMc]

At first, it looked as though the 1894 Centennial Cup Final was going to be just like the other Cup Finals: a total snooze-fest. In the opener at Worcester Driving Park, the Red Stockings spotted the Ruby Legs a 2-1 lead before scoring five times in the sixth, keyed by Joe Ellick's two-run double; Cincy would go on to win, 10-3. In Game 2, Worcester led 3-0 behind 26-game winner Martin Duke before the Reds offense got to work, putting up another five-spot, this time in the seventh inning; both teams added a single ducat and the game ended, 6-4, favour Cincinnati.

Ho-hum...with two quick wins on the road, all the legendary Red Stockings would have to do is win twice at their equally-legendary ballpark, the Palace of the Fans. With Cincy scoring two quick tallies in the opening stanza, it looked like ball fans would have to get out yet another broom.

But the pennant-winning Ruby Legs had other ideas; they mauled Reds starter Scott Stratton for six runs in the third followed by five more in the fourth, and by the time the dust cleared, Worcester had a 12-5 win in front of a stunned crowd. The crowd stayed stunned in Game 4, as the Ruby Legs' hurler Martin Duke matched pitches with Bob Black; the Cincy ace held Worcester to three runs, but Duke tossed a four-hit shutout, evening the Cup Final at two games apiece. And in the fifth game, Red Stockings fans had barely taken their seats when the Rubies' Tim Shinnick led off the game with a home run, which led to Worcester scoring five times before the home team even got to bat. Joe Flynn and John Goodman each had three hits, and the impossible had happened: Worcester had not only beaten Cincinnati in their own park, but had swept them out, now needing only one win back in Massachusetts to claim the Cup.

Back in Worcester, the Ruby Legs were just four outs away from the Cup after taking a 6-3 lead in the sixth game, with Ruby Legs' starter "Pink" Hawley getting two quick outs in the eighth. But a walk, three quick singles and a costly throwing error later, the Reds had even the count at six, and the game went to extra innings. In the twelfth, three errors, including two by 1B Goodman (who also went 0-for-5 on the day) led to two Cincy runs, and an 8-6 win...and a Game 7.



There had never been a Cup Final in which the home team lost every game, so the Worcester fans were certainly concerned when the finale began. Could the Ruby Legs break this crazy curse? The Red Stockings jumped in front, 4-1, until Joe Flynn slammed a three-run homer to tie it in the fifth. But Cincy struck back with three of their own in the top of the sixth, including a two-run double by Dan Brouthers, then added another in the seventh. Worcester pulled one back in the eighth to make it 8-5, but the Ruby Legs came up lame after that, giving the Red Stockings their eighth Cup title and second in a row! Hail, Red Stockings!

[RMc]

Ed Delahanty had been a fixture in the outfield of the Olympic club for five years, but hadn't really made a big splash: in fact, in those five years he had hit a total of nine dingers, and in 1892 he could only manage a poor .220 average. But the following year, "Big Ed" finally put it all together for Washington, batting .343 with 15 homers, and in 1894, he socked the horsehide to the tune of a .411 average, 30 round-trippers, a league-leading 165 RBI...and a Creighton Award!



Emerson Hawley was born in tiny Beaver Dam, Wisconsin in 1872. He had a twin brother, Elmer. The nurse who assisted in their birth put a pink ribbon on Emerson and a blue ribbon on Elmer, leading to them being called Pink and Blue. Growing up in Beaver Dam, the twins played baseball together, with Pink as the pitcher and Blue as the catcher.

Tragically, Blue died of pneumonia in 1891. The following year Pink joined the Worcester Ruby Legs and promptly led the AA with 28 wins. In 1894, Pink won 32 games, led the NA in ERA, and grabbed the Pitcher of the Year Award.



AA MVP: Denny Lyons (Pittsburgh Yellow Jackets)
AA PoY: Jack Stivetts (Grand Rapids) -- his fourth consecutive PoY award! (When asked if he thought his Grand Rapids would break through and win promotion to the National Association someday, Stivetts said, "I hope so. I think this Shamrocks team can take on the world!")

UA MVP (and Triple Crown winner): Pete O'Brien (Fall River)
UA PoY: Jim Devlin (Jersey City)