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Old 04-29-2019, 12:02 PM   #21
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1889 - Edge of Destruction

After a relatively quiet 1888, the war between the Century League and Border Association heated up again in 1889. The first shot was again fired by the Century League as they (again) pilfered one of the Association's top teams, this time luring the St. Louis Brewers whose original owner (Hans Fuchs) had been James Tice's best friend in baseball. With Hans gone and son George running the team, the Brewers jumped. Ironically, Century League rules prohibited selling alcohol at games, so the Fuchs Brewery-owned Brewers were renamed the Pioneers.

The Bordermen wasted little time in responding, again following a familiar script by placing a new team in a Century League stronghold - this time it was Philadelphia, home of one of the CL's original clubs (the Keystones) and arguably its most popular player (Zebulon Banks). Both circuits were so focused on their own games of brinkmanship that they failed to notice a new threat rising right under their noses, which would change the face of the sport just one year later.

The new club in the Border Association was the Philadelphia Sailors. Along with the New York Stars and Chicago Cougars, the newly-minted Sailors were aimed at directly competing with the Century Leaguers in the nation's three most prominent cities. Meanwhile, the Century League's best team, the Providence Gems, suddenly fell apart due to bad money management (and high salaries). The Gems were bought outright by Chicago owner William Whitney, who promptly grabbed the team's best players (except Peanuts Cronauer) for the Chiefs and sold the ones he didn't want to other teams (like Cronauer, who ended up in Boston). In theory, this made the Chiefs the best team in the league - they even got back manager Edward Wakeham who had started his career as a player-manager for Whitney back in '76.

Things didn't really work out as expected. For the Bordermen, the Sailors played well enough (73-59, 4th place), but didn't draw much. For the Chiefs, former Gem Jim Jones hit well again (.330, good for 5th in the league and tops on the team) but even with their improved roster, they finished third, 12 games back of the pennant-winning St. Louis Pioneers. Yep, that's right, the new guys came over from the Association and promptly won the pennant. The ex-Brewers went 84-49 just ahead of the New York Gothams (82-52). Ike Edwards of the Pioneers won the ERA title (1.83) and was second in wins (30) to help the new team win it. Pete Hood went 32-3 for the Gothams in one of the best seasons yet for a pitcher (he finished second in ERA at 2.53). Fellow Gothamite George Blankenship hit .358 to lead the league in batting and a third New Yorker led the league in steals (Jason Young with 89).

Boston's pitching was improved enough for them to finish fourth (68-64) ahead of Philadelphia (62-68 but winners of the attendance derby with the new Sailors club), Pittsburgh (57-72), Washington (50-76) and again in last place, Buffalo (51-84).

The Border Association pennant-winners were a complete shocker. The Brooklyn Kings flipped their 1888 season on its head, turning a last-place finish in '88 to a pennant in '89 with an 86-44 mark. Cincinnati (79-54) was 2nd and New York (76-55) third. The Stars and Gothams were giving the New York fans a lot of good baseball to watch. Philadelphia (73-59) was 4th in its first season but had a lot of star power to overcome in their fight with the Keystones. Chicago was a disappointing fifth and the last team over .500 - Toronto (62-71) was respectable, but the Syracuse Olympics (44-85) and Montreal Saints (37-96) were not.

Toronto's Sam Mills (.369) won the batting title. The Sailors Alton Davis jumped over from the Keystones and won the ERA (2.20) and strikeout (230) crowns in his first year in the Association. Brooklyn ace Ferd Hawkins went 26-10 to lead the league in wins.

While all this was unfolding on the fields, a group of men bearing grudges against the status quo was meeting in smoke-filled rooms planning something big, that would dominate the baseball news just a few short months later.

Century League
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
St. Louis Pioneers		85	49	.634	-	818	590
New York Gothams		83	52	.615	2½	898	787
Chicago Chiefs			73	63	.537	13	776	637
Boston Minutemen		68	65	.511	16½	717	720
Philadelphia Keystones		63	68	.481	20½	801	775
Pittsburgh Miners		58	72	.446	25	794	895
Washington Eagles		50	77	.394	31½	678	843
Buffalo Buffaloes		51	85	.375	35	689	924
Border Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Brooklyn Kings			93	46	.669	-	1051	741
Cincinnati Monarchs		83	58	.589	11	887	823
New York Stars			80	59	.576	13	872	673
Philadelphia Sailors		77	63	.550	16½	851	770
Chicago Cougars			71	69	.507	22½	846	801
Toronto Provincials		66	75	.468	28	759	803
Syracuse Olympics		49	89	.355	43½	784	1054
Montreal Saints			40	100	.286	53½	660	1045
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Old 04-30-2019, 09:48 AM   #22
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1889-90 - The Peerless Challenge

Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you in ways you may not have anticipated. Such was the case for the Century League (and by extension the Border Association simply by virtue of being in the same business) when the Bigsby brothers returned to the professional baseball scene in the winter of 1889-90.

You may recall that brothers Charles and Miles Bigsby were the de facto kings of baseball in New York when William Whitney launched his Century League in 1876. Charles, as the older (and wealthier) brother, claimed Manhattan as his bailiwick while Miles settled in Brooklyn. The New York Knights fell to the wayside when Charles was sent to prison for crimes committed as part of his Tammany Hall connection. Miles soldiered on with the Brooklyn Kings for a while before attempting - and failing - to oust Whitney and take control of the league itself.

Several years later, Charles was still in Sing Sing, but his 26-year-old son Charles Jr. was now wielding his father's political and financial clout while Miles still had his own connections in Brooklyn's government and business circles. Miles was also still angry with the fallout of his failed coup and looking to get back into baseball. With both the Century League and the Border Association disinterested (and the latter having a club in Brooklyn), Miles decided that the best way to run a league was to create one himself.

So that's what he did. Enlisting his nephew and assorted cronies up and down the East Coast, Bigsby quickly put together a seven-man group with the financial means to both build ballparks and ballclubs. The new league was named the Peerless League (Miles wanted a name that exemplified the concept that his league would be the best baseball league in all ways). The seven initial clubs were in Brooklyn, New York, Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Notably, most of those cities were represented by either the CL or BA (and in a couple of cases - both). Detroit was the furthest west location - Bigsby was keeping things close to his center of operations - and like Baltimore, had already proven to be a suitable location for a club.



New York Imperials of the Peerless League

Miles then pulled off another coup - he stole a team from the Century League. With connections in Buffalo, the Bigsby group convinced that city's club to jump. With eight clubs, Bigsby now concentrated on players and he and his group were willing to pay. Money being what it is, there were plenty of takers. In the course of a couple months, the Peerless League went from being a concept in Bigsby's mind to a full-blown crisis for both the established baseball leagues.

The immediate impact on the established leagues was financial - their operating costs shot through the roof as they scrambled to keep some of their talent. But many big names went to the Bigsbys' league. The Brooklyn club (nicknamed the Bigsbys) copped Jason Young from the Gothams, Joe Johnson from the Keystones, Ira Williams from the Stars and Harry Ford from the Monarchs (and those were just the bigger names - nearly all of the Bigsbys roster came from either the CL or BA). The Gothams were hit particularly hard: Charles Jr made a point of trying to steal as many players from them as possible, and his club (the Imperials) featured an entire starting lineup and two starting pitchers from the Gothams. To add insult to injury, the Gothams were a tenant of the Bigsby Oval, and paid rent to Charles Jr.

The impact on the Border Association was a bit less initially - and then the Century League decided to replace the Buffalo club with a new club in Cincinnati (a token thumb-nosing at James Tice). The Cincinnati Hustlers weren't much of a team, but they hurt the Monarchs' attendance nonetheless. The Bordermen also lost the Syracuse club who simply could not compete with the skyrocketing salaries and folded up their operation. Replacing the Olympics was a new club in Cleveland - the Foresters.
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Old 04-30-2019, 12:12 PM   #23
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1890 - Chaos Reigns

The Peerless League's arrival on the baseball scene exploded the status quo creating a chaotic environment where the club owners had to be even more ruthless than usual. With their rosters gutted by defections to the new, higher-paying, league, both the Century League and Border Association were forced to make raids of their own on the minors (especially the Dixie and Western outfits) and salaries everywhere went up dramatically.

The impact of a third "major" league on the game the fans were paying to watch evolved over the summer. One thing became apparent early - the new guys had the best talent. But loyalty kept some significant portion of the public attending Century and Border games. Still... everyone was losing money. As this was the robber baron era, the owners were not accustomed to bleeding cash, and no business can long survive negative cash flow.

The Century League retained few stars - Zebulon Banks being the primary star remaining (he was simply too stubborn to leave the Keystones... plus they paid him a ridiculous salary to stay on as player-manager). The batting champ was Boston's Charley Taylor, who hit .388 after being promoted from a never-used backup on the Washington Eagles to starting 2B (and he'd go on to have a long and productive career). The second-place guy was someone plucked out of the Dixie League where he had been a .280 hitter: 31-year-old Billy Pittman hit .345 in his CL debut for the Cincinnati Hustlers. This was the trend throughout the Century League - new faces in prominent roles because the guys everyone knew were gone. And like Taylor, some of these guys could really play so some players benefited in more ways than just financially.

St. Louis won the pennant with an 88-52 record, ten games better than the Chicago Chiefs, most of whose lineup had left for the Peerless League's Detroit club. Philadelphia, with Banks still on board (he hit .314 - the guy was nothing if not a reliable .300 hitter) was third at 77-63. Washington (76-64) rounded out the first division. New York managed a 75-65 record with a roster of minor leaguers while Boston was sixth with a respectable 72-68 record. Cincinnati was seventh and in last place was a decimated Pittsburgh Miners roster that bore zero resemblance to the 1889 club and finished a dismal 28-112.

Things weren't any better in the Border Association. The Sailors rode to the pennant by virtue of losing fewer guys than anyone else. Montreal also rose from the basement for similar reasons and finished with their best record in ages. Brooklyn went 80-60, largely on the power of defiance at Miles Bigsby whose club played across Flatbush Avenue from them. The Monarchs were fourth followed by the new guys in Cleveland, and the New York Stars whose attendance benefited from being on the west side, away from Bigsby Oval where the Gothams and Imperials fought for attendance. The Cougars finished seventh and last place was held down by the Toronto Provincials.

The batting crown went to the Sailors' George Smith, who hit .359 after hitting .330 the year before (and - shockingly - for the same club!). Brooklyn's Joe Borden also stayed put and hit .343 to finish second in the batting race. 22-year-old Alex Cole was plucked off a town team in Ohio and led the league in ERA (1.79) and wins (27) for Philadelphia.

The Peerless League had the star power - and they had paid handsomely for it. The pennant winners were the Baltimore Clippers, who went 84-50. They were led by star Gustav Gray, who came over from Montreal and hit .377 to lead the league. Will Welles, a teenage sensation plucked from the clutches of the Atlanta club in the Dixie League, led the league in ERA (1.79), wins (29) and strikeouts (262) for the Clippers. The New York Imperials finished second, with a lineup composed exclusively of members of the 1889 Gothams (including Lynwood Trease who hit .345), and led the league in runs scored. Detroit, who finished third, bore a striking resemblance to the 1889 Chicago Chiefs, and were led by Frank Sobreville (.356 - 2nd in the league). Jim Jenkins, a rare Detroit player who came from somewhere other than Chicago (he came from Cincinnati), topped the league in both home runs (14) and stolen bases - and was the first to hit the century mark in that category with a nice round 100 thefts.

The Philadelphia Maroons were fourth, followed by Brooklyn. The Boston Brahmins finished sixth, but outdrew the Century League's Minutemen as did the Pittsburgh Hornets, who were slightly less terrible than the Miners and outdrew them. The last place team in the new league was, ironically, the one they stole outright from the Century League: the Buffalo Buffaloes, who went 41-93.

The fallout of the 1890 season was immediate and long lasting... More on that to come...

Century League
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
St. Louis Pioneers		88	52	.629	-	781	584
Chicago Chiefs			78	62	.557	10	688	586
Philadelphia Keystones		77	63	.550	11	744	644
Washington Eagles		76	64	.543	12	799	723
New York Gothams		75	65	.536	13	703	631
Boston Minutemen		72	68	.514	16	808	827
Cincinnati Hustlers		66	74	.471	22	776	809
Pittsburgh Miners		28	112	.200	60	545	1040
Border Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Philadelphia Sailors		91	49	.650	-	768	591
Montreal Saints			84	56	.600	7	783	570
Brooklyn Kings			80	60	.571	11	885	657
Cincinnati Monarchs		68	72	.486	23	593	657
Cleveland Foresters		68	72	.486	23	690	774
New York Stars			65	75	.464	26	673	716
Chicago Cougars			64	76	.457	27	625	645
Toronto Provincials		40	100	.286	51	573	980
Peerless League
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Baltimore Clippers		84	50	.627	-	724	624
New York Imperials		83	52	.615	1½	791	609
Detroit Dynamos			77	59	.566	8	773	642
Philadelphia Maroons		73	60	.549	10½	655	591
Brooklyn Bigsbys		65	74	.468	21½	711	725
Boston Brahmins			58	71	.450	23½	688	805
Pittsburgh Hornets		58	80	.420	28	710	772
Buffalo Buffaloes		41	93	.306	43	537	821
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Old 05-02-2019, 02:56 PM   #24
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1891 - Breaking Point

It wasn't just the money. There was a lot of pride involved on all sides following the 1890 season. All three leagues - still working at odds with each other - managed to return the same slate of clubs for the 1891 season, despite mounting financial trouble. In addition to the need for players driving up salaries, the saturation of individual markets with multiple clubs from competing leagues drove attendance down on a per-team level. The men running the three leagues were discovering that yes, it was indeed possible to have too much of a good thing.

Something had to give, and over the course of the 1891 season this became increasingly apparent to all those involved.

The clubs remained largely intact - with all owners now spending far more than they had budgeted on talent, few were willing to shell out extra money to entice players to jump leagues. This meant that things looked stable - even healthy - to those outside the clubs' offices when in reality nearly all of them were bleeding money.

Season two of the Peerless League saw the Boston Brahmins edge the Philadelphia Maroons by one game for the pennant in what was an exciting race with five clubs in the mix up til the final weeks of the season. Brooklyn finished third, four back while New York was five back and Baltimore, eight back. Buffalo rebounded from a poor 1890 season with a 67-73, sixth-place finish while Detroit dropped off significantly and finished in seventh. The last-place Pittsburgh Hornets were far below the pack, 21 games behind Detroit with a 40-100 record. Brooklyn's Joe Johnson claimed the batting title with a .348 average, playing every game and racking up 200 hits (something he had also done two years earlier with the Philly Sailors) as well as leading the league with 98 RBIs. Sam King of the Imperials won both the ERA (1.77) and win titles (29) and finished 2nd in strikeouts to Baltimore's Will Welles (286). The Imperials had the league's best pitching while Boston scored the most runs. Everyone was running as stolen bases skyrocketed with Detroit (326) and Philadelphia (320) each topping 300 steals as a team.

The Border Association season was also a good one - Brooklyn copped the pennant by a single game over Philadelphia with New York five back and Montreal seven back. The Cougars finished an even .500, four games ahead of Cincinnati and Cleveland who were both 66-74. Last place went to Toronto with a 47-93 record. Second-year outfielder Calvin Kidd won his first batting title for the Chicago Cougars with a .352 average. Henry Green of Montreal was second at .340 while third-place went to Matthew Brown of Brooklyn (.333) who also led the league in steals with 75. Montreal's Johnny Williams posted a 2.33 ERA to top the league in that category. His team mate, George Hoosier led in wins (30) and Philadelphia had the top two strikeout artists in Al Austin (206) and Alex Cole (202).

The Century League also put on a good show for the fans with a controversial pennant race that was technically won by Washington (80-57) who won one fewer game than Philadelphia (81-60) by virtue of losing three fewer contests. Chicago was third at 77-60 and St. Louis fourth at 76-62. New York was 66-72 in fifth place just ahead of Cincinnati (64-73) and Boston (64-76) - all three were struggling financially as was last place Pittsburgh, whose 44-92 mark was playing a big role (along with the Peerless League's Pittsburgh Hornets) in keeping Pittsburgh baseball fans away from the ballpark.

The Gothams' George Blankenship led the league in averaege (.346) and home runs (18) and was 3rd in RBIs (93) - he was also making almost twice what star Lynwood Trease had made in 1888 before the Peerless League drove salaries into the stratosphere. Gothams owner Paul Treanor flatly told his colleagues at the league meetings in November that he would be pulling his team out of the league if something wasn't done to fix salaries. Though his was the loudest voice, it was not the only one making that type of statement, nor was the CL the only league seeing that type of talk take place.

Though kept under wraps at the time the CL was on the verge of losing four clubs: New York, Boston, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Things were equally dire for the other two leagues as well. The Bordermen's problems started with the death of Cincinnati owner (and BA President) James Tice in October. His heirs made no secret of the fact that they would be folding the Monarchs. Also in jeopardy were Toronto and Montreal.

The Peerless League had gambled on driving the Century and Border circuits out of business by the end of 1891 and it looked like that gamble had been a loser - none of the Peerless owners knew how badly the other two loops were doing. PL founder Miles Bigsby was bleeding money - his Brooklyn club could not outdraw the Kings who had captured the heart of the Brooklyn baseball faithful. His nephew's New York Imperials, one of the PL's best teams, was ridiculously expensive and losing money despite getting paid rent by the CL's Gothams on the Bigsby Oval. Pittsburgh and Buffalo were also on thin ice. Only Boston and, to a lesser extent, Detroit were doing well financially.

Professional Baseball was in trouble - and founding father William Whitney stepped up to the plate to do something about it.

Century League
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Washington Eagles		80	57	.584	-	732	645
Philadelphia Keystones		81	60	.574	1	759	621
Chicago Chiefs			77	60	.562	3	624	549
St. Louis Pioneers		76	62	.551	4½	764	634
New York Gothams		66	72	.478	14½	742	707
Cincinnati Hustlers		64	73	.467	16	634	657
Boston Minutemen		64	76	.457	17½	675	747
Pittsburgh Miners		44	92	.324	35½	579	949
Border Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Brooklyn Kings			81	59	.579	-	814	645
Philadelphia Sailors		80	60	.571	1	696	595
New York Stars			76	64	.543	5	712	603
Montreal Saints			74	66	.529	7	727	653
Chicago Cougars			70	70	.500	11	727	722
Cincinnati Monarchs		66	74	.471	15	601	629
Cleveland Foresters		66	74	.471	15	682	770
Toronto Provincials		47	93	.336	34	634	976
Peerless League
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Boston Brahmins			82	58	.586	-	737	579
Philadelphia Maroons		81	59	.579	1	703	615
Brooklyn Bigsbys		78	62	.557	4	721	611
New York Imperials		77	63	.550	5	635	530
Baltimore Clippers		74	66	.529	8	636	651
Buffalo Buffaloes		67	73	.479	15	588	643
Detroit Dynamos			61	79	.436	21	664	687
Pittsburgh Hornets		40	100	.286	42	456	824
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Old 05-03-2019, 10:51 AM   #25
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1891-92: Birth of the FABL

Professional baseball was destroying itself. There were 24 teams who considered themselves "major" in quality and they were killing each other, and also killing the "minor" league teams as well because a) there wasn't enough top-tier talent to go around and b) they were all overpaying for the talent that was available.

As was the case in 1876, a man with a vision was needed - and again that man was William Whitney. While Whitney was no longer the Century League's President, he remained the owner of the Chicago Chiefs and did retain a lot of influence. He also was a shrewd businessman and most of the other clubs' owners followed his blueprint in running their own clubs. Some (like the deceased James Tice) felt they knew better, but most knew they didn't.

So in the late fall of 1891, William Whitney called for what he termed a "Baseball Summit" meeting in his adopted hometown of Chicago. He invited all the club owners from the Century and Peerless Leagues and the Border Association as well as representatives of the two minor leagues with which the CL had an agreement (the Dixie League and Western Federation) and several other independent leagues. The goal was to hash out a way for all of them to get back to making money and growing the sport as a business.

The first - and biggest - hurdle was simply the fact that all 24 "major" club owners wanted a piece of the pie. Whitney also knew, through his contacts across baseball, which teams were in trouble and which might be able to stick it out. So he concentrated on consolidation. He also knew that all three leagues had established themselves as entities with their own identities. So his first suggestion was to scrap the existing structure in favor of something completely new and without baggage. He suggested an umbrella organization, run by a commission of five men, elected by the entire group and wanted to call it the Federally Aligned Baseball Leagues (FABL).

Whitney shrewdly began his presentation by being vague about the composition of his FABL organization. There were three leagues - he knew two was the workable number. He also knew he could get there by combining the three old organizations into two 12-team leagues - and that this would be a bad idea. Once he had some grudging by-in from the group on the generalities of his FABL idea, he prepared to hit them with the parts of the plan some would not like.

First, he wanted two eight-team associations to be equal partners under the FABL banner. In his head he envisioned one being based on his own Century League and the other on the Border Association. Though he was being conciliatory, he despised Miles Bigsby and the Peerless Leaguers as upstarts who had turned a good thing into a nightmare. So he suggested a Federal Association as one league and a Continental Association as the other. Neither name had any real ties to the existing circuits. With that out of the way, he laid out his plan for consolidating the clubs:
  • All 1891 player contracts would be honored under a new "reserve clause" that allowed the clubs to reserve their players for the next season with automatic one-year contract renewals, at a salary set by the club. Any player not signing would be off-limits to all clubs under the FABL banner (and Whitney suggested that eventually this should encompass all existing pro leagues of a "respectable" caliber).
  • FABL would sign an agreement with any minor league that wished to be a party to it whereby they would pay a negotiated sum for any player signed by a FABL team from an affiliated minor league.
  • The Pittsburgh clubs would merge, keeping the Miners name and be jointly owned by the current Miners and Hornets owners or by one of them should they agree on a selling price.
  • The Brooklyn clubs would also merge, with Kings owner Sheldon Burton taking control.
  • Miles Bigsby and his nephew Charles Jr. would own a merged club consisting of the Gothams and Imperials, under the Gothams name. Burton would pay Miles a to-be-determined sum for the Brooklyn territory after an audit of the Gotham club was completed.
  • The Philadelphia Maroons would merge with the Keystones with Maroons owner Robert Cramer becoming a minority owner of the Keystones. The Sailors would receive some combination of players and cash as a settlement, and remain as an active club themselves.
  • Three Peerless League clubs: Baltimore, Boston and Detroit would join the new FABL organization.
  • The last Peerless League team, Buffalo would dissolve and ownership paid a flat sum for any players signed by FABL teams.
  • Two Century League clubs: Boston and Cincinnati - would fold and receive the same compensation as Buffalo's ownership.
The Border Association came into the meeting with seven clubs as the Cincinnati Monarchs had folded upon owner James Tice's death.
This left sixteen clubs and they were organized as follows:

Federal Association: Boston Brahmins, Chicago Chiefs, Detroit Dynamos, New York Gothams, Philadelphia Keystones, Pittsburgh Miners, St. Louis Pioneers, Washington Eagles

Continental Association: Baltimore Clippers, Brooklyn Kings, Chicago Cougars, Cleveland Foresters, Montreal Saints, New York Stars, Philadelphia Sailors, Toronto Provincials

There were several protests, but Whitney's spies had him well-informed and he knew whom he could squeeze to get things done. Ultimately, the new organization was approved, the club consolidations went off with only a few hitches and the Dixie and Western circuits agreed to affiliation status.

The groundwork laid out by Whitney that fall would be the basis of baseball for decades to come - there would be evolutionary changes over time, but FABL would still be going strong into the 21st century.
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Old 05-05-2019, 01:18 PM   #26
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1892: A New Era

After a decade of competing leagues, baseball fans were treated to a season without business-related drama in 1892. The first season of the Federally Aligned Baseball Leagues went off largely without a hitch, but was missing one critical element of William Whitney's peace plan: a postseason championship series. The good news was that the fans didn't yet know what they were missing - no one openly spoke about the championship series and there had never before been one, so ignorance was bliss (of a sort). The bad news was that both the rebranded circuits (the new Federal Association was seen - correctly - by fans as the old Century League with a few changes and the Continental Association was similarly seen as a continuation of the Border Association)... well, both had runaway champions and little drama in September's stretch run.

The reason there was no championship series was simply that Whitney had used every ounce of his influence in just getting the FABL up & running and had nothing left over when the other owners couldn't agree on specifics for the championship series. Some wanted a best-of-seven, others a shorter series, and a couple even wanted some kind of "total runs" business. They also bickered over revenue splits - should all the clubs get something? If so, how much? If not, how much did the visiting team get, or was it all to the home team? These questions were never answered and so there was no championship in 1892.

While neither circuit had much of a pennant race, both did have their usual share of excitement. In the Fed, there was the continued excellence of the Keystones' pair of greybeards: 42-year-old Lynwood Trease and 36-year-old Zebulon Banks. Both were "originals" from the first season of the Century League back in '76 and both continued to hit at an elite level. Trease hit .339 and played 120 of his team's 139 games while player-manager Banks hit .308 and played in every game for the third straight season. Their club also won the pennant with a 94-38 mark - thanks to the merger with the Peerless League's Philadelphia Maroons, they now had a stellar centerfielder named Fred Roby who led the league in hitting at .360, played great defense and stole 60 bases. And unlike Trease & Banks, he was a young man at 25 years of age.

The New York Gothams had taken their own infusion of talent from the PL's Imperials and finished second, 14 games back. They probably wished they hadn't traded Trease to Philadelphia before the season started. The Chiefs were third with a 68-66 mark as only three clubs were above .500 on the year. The Eagles (66-68), Dynamos (65-69), Brahmins (59-74), Miners (54-79) and St. Louis (46-86) rounded out the Federal Association standings.

The Continental Association champions were the Chicago Cougars. The club created for spite a few years earlier had grown into a true powerhouse with the best pitcher in baseball. His unlikely name was Allan Allen and his nickname was "Double Al" and though he had gone almost unnoticed outside Chicago in his first two seasons of 1890 & 91, he caught everyone's attention in '92. Allen led both leagues in ERA and victories (1.66 and 32, respectively) and though he didn't strike many out, he didn't walk many either. His philosophy boiled down to getting the hitter to make poor contact where his sure-handed fielders (by the standards of the time) could put them out on the bases. The fact that the Cougars also found another star pitcher - Ohio-born Jack Johnson (30-9, 1.96, league-leading 199 Ks) made them extremely difficult to score against. When coupled with an offense that led FABL in runs scored, this meant the Cougars were not a team anyone wanted to face.

Brooklyn finished second with Jacob Grey coming into his own with a CA-best .352 average. Philadelphia was third - they had one great hitter (Peter Hackett, .332) and an all-around average team otherwise, but that was good enough for the Sailors in 1892. The Stars, who had been third most of the year, took a late tumble into fourth with a 68-62 record. Baltimore (61-72), Montreal (58-73), Toronto (53-74) and Cleveland (44-91) rounded out the Continental standings.

At the League Meetings, Whitney - now a member of the FABL's governing Commission - put forth his proposal for a postseason Championship series between the FA and CA pennant-winners. His proposal was a best-of-seven series, with the pennant-winning teams splitting 90% of the proceeds and the other 10% going in an even split to the non-participating teams. The leagues would alternate "home field advantage" - or the extra home game in monetary terms - but with an even split, the money was secondary. After some back and forth debate, the proposal was accepted and FABL would have it's first World Championship Series the following fall.

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Philadelphia Keystones		94	38	.712	-	759	451
New York Gothams		81	53	.604	14	713	551
Chicago Chiefs			68	66	.507	27	533	525
Washington Eagles		66	68	.493	29	623	646
Detroit Dynamos			65	69	.485	30	563	589
Boston Brahmins			59	74	.444	35½	627	747
Pittsburgh Miners		54	79	.406	40½	610	682
St. Louis Pioneers		46	86	.348	48	506	743
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Chicago Cougars			96	40	.706	-	792	493
Brooklyn Kings			79	57	.581	17	713	578
Philadelphia Sailors		72	62	.537	23	609	595
New York Stars			68	62	.523	25	701	616
Baltimore Clippers		61	72	.459	33½	660	721
Montreal Saints			58	73	.443	35½	523	621
Toronto Provincials		53	74	.417	38½	476	663
Cleveland Foresters		44	91	.326	51½	542	729
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Old 05-07-2019, 12:28 PM   #27
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1893 - The World's Championship

More than a decade after the appearance of a second top-tier baseball league, fans were finally treated to a postseason showdown between the champions of both circuits. They were no longer called the Century League or Border Association, but the champs of the Federal and Continental Associations squared off in a best-of-seven series in early October of 1893 for the title of World Champions.

No one really knew what to expect - each circuit had its own sense of being the best, but aside from a handful of exhibitions in previous years, no one had ever put it to the test. This time there was a trophy, money, and prestige on the line and both clubs went into that series looking to win.

Before they could get to that point, both leagues had their regular season to get through, and unlike the year before, both had legitimate pennant races even if they were both two-horse races.

The Federal Association saw the New York Gothams and Washington Eagles battle it out for the flag with the Gothams taking the title. The New Yorkers were a strong all-around club, good both afield and at the plate. Rightfielder George Blankenship had evolved into one of the game's most fearsome hitters - he hit .333 with a league-best 16 home runs and 110 RBIs. Team mates Joe Carney (.311-6-114) and Marsh Perry (.313-6-115) made the heart of the Gothams order a tough road for opposing pitchers. The pitching was solid as well with the trio of Charlie Wilson (30-18, 3.61), Morris Harris (28-11, 3.55) and Ned Greene (26-14, 3.38) combining to allow the fewest runs in the league.

An almost identical story was written in the Continental Association where the Philadelphia Sailors edged out the Chicago Cougars by three games to claim the pennant with the league's second-most prolific lineup supported by the league's stingiest pitching. Catcher Bill Brady hit .345 with 110 RBIs to pace the offense along with CF Walter Harston (.317-4-110). Pitcher Preston Royal won a league-best 34 games with the CA's third-best ERA (2.44) while team mate Jack Johnson was 2nd in ERA (2.36) and posted a 20-10 record. Even third pitcher Josiah Jackson, who had a losing record at 11-14, posted a strong 2.96 ERA.

Other top performances included a pair of young Cougar hitters topping both leagues in batting: Calvin Kidd, at age 23 and already in his fourth season, hit .388 while rookie team mate Johnny Terrell hit .376 to finish second. The Fed batting title went to another in a long line of solid-hitting Philly Keystones: RF Claude Jones hit .370 with 10 homers. Joining with Zebulon Banks (.342), Frank Garrett (.339) and Fred Roby (.332), he helped the Keystones hit .304 as a team. Despite all that firepower, Philly's pitching was bad and the team finished sixth.

Washington's Don Noftall won the ERA title at 2.35 while going 28-8 for the Eagles. Speedy Frank Jones was playing for his fourth team in five seasons (he was now on the Cougars) but he was still the league's fastest man, leading everybody with 78 stolen bases. St. Louis 3B Joe Glenn hit 17 homers to top that chart while Washington's George Melvin drove in 121 RBIs (with a .350 average) to lead everyone in that category. Strikeouts were trending downward as hitting picked up all over - Charlie Wilson's 160 punch outs led baseball - and he threw 411.2 innings to get there.

The Championship Series between the Gothams and Sailors was a bit of a letdown as New York won the first three games by scores of 7-4, 7-2 and 3-2 and after an 11-2 loss, wrapped up the first World Championship title with an 8-6 win. Joe Carney was the sparkplug for New York - he hit .400 with a pair of home runs and six RBIs for the series - all three of those were the best of anyone in the Series. All five games were also sellouts proving the public was both interested and invested in following the series. It looked like Whitney's idea was a good one.


Preston Royal, Philadelphia (CA)

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
New York Gothams		92	48	.657	-	890	654
Washington Eagles		87	53	.621	5	909	735
Boston Brahmins			76	64	.543	16	796	814
Detroit Dynamos			71	69	.507	21	722	728
Chicago Chiefs			68	72	.486	24	678	679
Philadelphia Keystones		66	74	.471	26	819	834
Pittsburgh Miners		52	88	.371	40	668	829
St. Louis Pioneers		48	92	.343	44	667	876
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Philadelphia Sailors		92	48	.657	-	799	563
Chicago Cougars			89	51	.636	3	829	633
Brooklyn Kings			77	63	.550	15	673	618
Cleveland Foresters		74	66	.529	18	697	652
Baltimore Clippers		69	71	.493	23	715	730
New York Stars			65	75	.464	27	742	815
Montreal Saints			48	92	.343	44	552	723
Toronto Provincials		46	94	.329	46	629	902
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Old 05-08-2019, 11:43 AM   #28
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1894 - Fred, Freeman and the Eagle Eye

Not too long ago pitchers had begun to gain the upper-hand on batters. New pitches - especially the curveball - gave the hurlers an edge, and offense bottomed out in 1892 when the brand-new FABL collectively hit .249 and only five hitters topped the .330 mark, led by a young centerfielder in Philadelphia named Fred Roby, who hit .360 for the Keystones.

The next year, things began swinging the other way and hitters - led by Roby's team mate (catcher Claude Jones who hit .370) brought that league-wide average up twenty points. In 1894, Roby put together the best season by a hitter in the not-quite-two-decade-old history of professional baseball.

Frederick John Roby was born in Cranston, Rhode Island in November of 1866. His father had managed to survive the entirety of the Civil War and mustered out at the start of 1866. He reunited with his young bride and Fred came along shortly thereafter. Always a rambunctious kid, Fred showed skill at base ball and his father, a printer by trade, indulged his son and gave him ample time to play the game. By his 18th birthday, Fred was a regular on the town circuit in Rhode Island and was signed by the Keystones after Zebulon Banks was impressed with him while touring with his barnstorming team after the 1887 season. Fred joined Philadelphia in '88 and hit .282 but soon blossomed into a great hitter, even better than Banks, who was his team mate, manager and mentor.

Roby had twice led the league in hits, once in stolen bases, once in average and once in RBIs - he was an offensive force. In 1894, he put it all together, and led the league in hits (with a record 249), average with a superb .416 mark, home runs with 19, and RBIs with 142 - a Triple Crown season. And all three of those totals were single-season records.

Roby's great season didn't add up to a pennant for Philadelphia - that went to the Boston Brahmins who won a tight four-way race that saw them edge the Keystones and Washington Eagles by a one-game margin. New York, the defending champs, were four back after a three-game skid at the end of the season. Washington's great season was powered by a veteran RF named Freeman Rogers. Freeman, if he were around today, would be called a "professional hitter" - because all he did was show up and hit. He had led the league in doubles three times and his 235 hits in 1894 marked the fourth time he'd topped that margin. He'd only failed to hit .300 once in his nine-year career and at age 34, turned in his best season yet - a .402 average with 39 doubles, 18 triples and 12 home runs. Unfortunately for him, Fred Roby was just a little bit better.

Over in the Continental Association, the pennant - again - went to the Philadelphia Sailors. They had a hard-fought season of their own, edging out the New York Stars by two games and the Brooklyn Kings by four. As with the season before, the Sailors had it all - hitting and pitching. But when it came time for the World Championship Series, they just couldn't quite get it done.

The Brahmins, champions of the Federal Association, had five .300 hitters in their lineup and enough pitching depth to get around some injuries and still win the pennant with an 82-58 record. One of those .300 hitters was a fella by the name of Charles Taylor. Charley - or "Eagle Eye" as the second baseman was known to fans and newsmen, was one of the game's preeminent practitioners of the fine art of drawing walks, something he did 139 times in 1894. In his five years with Boston he had failed to draw 100 walks only once - and that one time he had 99 free passes. He could hit too (he won a batting title as a rookie in 1890) and he brought a .329 lifetime average into 1894 and went out and hit... yep, .329 for the season. He did his thing against the Sailors - in the six-game victory by Boston, he drew five walks, hit .440, struck out only once and scored eight runs. They didn't do it back then, but he would've been awarded the Series MVP if they had one.

Hitters didn't have all the fun in '94 - Don Noftall of the Cougars posted a very solid 2.29 ERA while winning 28 games. Other standout pitchers included Montreal's Johnny Williams (26-23, 2.45) and the Cougars other ace - Allan Allen, who went 24-20 with a 2.70 ERA. New York Stars pitcher and outfielder Elmer Jackson showed you could still be a two-way star, hitting .336 while playing 50 games in the outfield and 48 as a pitcher, where he went 30-15 with a 3.12 ERA.

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Boston Brahmins			82	58	.586	-	941	754
Philadelphia Keystones		81	59	.579	1	942	871
Washington Eagles		81	59	.579	1	869	776
New York Gothams		78	62	.557	4	967	776
Chicago Chiefs			74	66	.529	8	712	670
Detroit Dynamos			61	79	.436	21	696	855
Pittsburgh Miners		58	82	.414	24	758	950
St. Louis Pioneers		45	95	.321	37	636	869
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Philadelphia Sailors		81	59	.579	-	748	627
New York Stars			79	61	.564	2	729	670
Brooklyn Kings			77	63	.550	4	798	684
Chicago Cougars			72	68	.514	9	775	666
Cleveland Foresters		72	68	.514	9	681	669
Montreal Saints			62	78	.443	19	708	795
Toronto Provincials		61	79	.436	20	688	837
Baltimore Clippers		56	84	.400	25	698	877
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Old 05-09-2019, 02:58 PM   #29
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1895 - The Powerhouse

There wasn't a lot of drama to be found in the pennant races in 1895 - the New York Gothams and Chicago Cougars both came out fast, stayed that way, and powered their way to pennants in their respective leagues. There was some excitement to be found outside the standings, however. A pair of hitters who shared a last name but weren't related had terrific seasons. Last season's big story was a story for another reason this time around. And the grand old man of baseball reached a milestone that was hardly acknowledged at the time but has since become known as one of the primary yardsticks by which greatness is measured.

The Gothams were the thousand-pound gorilla of the Federal Association. They became the sport's first 100-game winner as they ran off an incredible 105-35 record. They did it by dominating their opponents at the plate and on the mound, leading all of FABL in runs scored and runs allowed, setting a team record for runs scored (1033) and just generally displaying excellence in every possible facet. The lineup was built around two stellar hitters in John Jones, who hit .420 and drove in an amazing 174 runs (eclipsing the one-year-old record of Fred Roby by more than 30 RBIs) and George Dunlap who hit .394 - they also played next to each in the outfield had a nice friendly rivalry going on. On the pitching side they had the FA's top ace in Charlie Wilson, who won a Triple Crown with 35 wins, 2.81 ERA and 205 strikeouts and Morris Harris who also won 35 games, with a 3.03 ERA and 169 strikeouts. The second-place Washington Eagles were 24 games back.

The Philadelphia Keystones were making some news themselves. They were third, but far back (35 games back to be exact) but had several storylines going on during the 1895 season. First, there was Claude Jones, the young catcher who shared a name with New York's John Jones, and apparently shared his hitting prowess too as he finished second in the batting race with a .393 average. Another was the surprisingly ho-hum season turned in by last year's star. Fred Roby came down to earth in a big way - his average dipped by more than a hundred points, all the way down to .307 - still above average, but nowhere near the stratospheric heights he'd achieved in '94. He still drove in 114 runs, so it wasn't all bad news. The other story, which was mostly ignored at the time, was that Zebulon Banks, the 39-year-old face of the sport, knocked his 3000th hit on August 13th in New York. Banks was a trail blazer - no one had more hits than he did and he was the career leader in nearly every batting category, so the 3000-hit mark was, at the time, not much noted. That number obviously has become a benchmark since, and Banks was the first to get there.

The Continental Association was the playground of the Chicago Cougars - they left the two-time defending CA champion Sailors in their dust, winning the pennant with a 95-45 record, good for an 18-game cushion on Philly and Baltimore. They did it in much the same way as the Gothams did - with all-around excellence. They scored 1002 runs and their pitching was astoundingly good. So good in fact was their pitching, that they had three 30-game winners. Allan Allen, the most talented, led the league in ERA (2.81) and won 30 games. Charles Atkinson went 32-11 (with a somewhat bloated 4.07 ERA) and George Jefferson went 30-13 with a 3.46 ERA. With Calvin Kidd (.366-3-118), Bob Sykes (.331-7-129), Johnny Terrell (.342-4-90) and Virgil Manuel (.343-0-94) in the heart of the order, the Cougars scored plenty.

With the races all but decided before September, the anticipation for the World's Championship Series was extremely high. Both teams were excellent in all facets of the game. In the end, the Series was entertaining, but the Gothams were clearly the superior club. The Cougars grabbed the first game as Allen held the Gotham lineup to just three runs in a 7-3 Chicago victory. New York had game two in control until an eighth-inning rally by Chicago made them sweat - ultimately the Gothams claimed a 4-3 win. That was the first of three straight wins for the Gothams before the Cougars put up a fight in game five to eke out a 9-8 win and stay alive. It was all for naught however - the Gotham bats woke up in a big way in game six and New York claimed the title with a blowout 20-8 victory.

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
New York Gothams		105	35	.750	-	1033	601
Washington Eagles		81	59	.579	24	799	657
Philadelphia Keystones		70	70	.500	35	885	913
Pittsburgh Miners		69	71	.493	36	795	809
Boston Brahmins			66	74	.471	39	765	814
Detroit Dynamos			58	82	.414	47	688	812
St. Louis Pioneers		57	83	.407	48	682	807
Chicago Chiefs			54	86	.386	51	606	840
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Chicago Cougars			95	45	.679	-	1002	658
Baltimore Clippers		77	63	.550	18	835	733
Philadelphia Sailors		77	63	.550	18	751	684
Cleveland Foresters		75	65	.536	20	710	660
Brooklyn Kings			71	69	.507	24	844	851
Montreal Saints			62	78	.443	33	781	914
New York Stars			55	85	.393	40	706	857
Toronto Provincials		48	92	.343	47	711	983
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Old 05-10-2019, 12:10 PM   #30
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1896 - Names the Same

The pennant winners didn't change in 1896 - which wasn't really a surprise given how dominating both the New York Gothams and Chicago Cougars had been in 1895. Both teams did come back to the pack a bit, however, and this was especially true of Chicago which found itself in a bona fide pennant fight with the Philadelphia Sailors. The Sailors gave the Cougars all they could handle throughout September and for a while it looked like they would reclaim the Continental Association crown they had won as recently as 1894.

Ironically, though the Cougars had the best pitching in baseball the season before, they didn't sit still but mixed it up for 1896. And they did it by working with the New York teams, adding 35-game winner Morris Harris from the Gothams and young Jack Perry from the Stars. Allan Allen was still around - and still great (28-17, 2.56) so Harris (33-17, 3.44) and Perry (27-13, 3.52) represented an embarrassing amount of riches. They still had star shortstop Calvin Kidd (.381-8-109), Michael Fuller (.328-7-120) and Bob Sykes (.297-5-108) to pace the offense, so the Cougars were still a powerhouse.

But the Sailors were also a great team with a pitching staff that actually allowed fewer runs than the Cougars, largely thanks to two absolutely stellar pitchers. The first was the incomparable Charlie Wilson who went 37-12 with a 2.14 ERA and 188 strikeouts to capture a Triple Crown. He also notched his 200th win at the ripe old age of 25, so to say his future looked bright would be an understatement of epic proportions. The other guy, Samuel Goode was a 34-year-old journeyman who had spent the past decade in the Western and Dixie circuits before he was signed by Brooklyn for the 1896 season. He stunk it up there to the tune of 0-7, 5.20 and was released. Needing another arm, the Sailors grabbed him and he did a 180-degree turnaround, going 22-11 with a 2.19 ERA over 34 starts with Philadelphia. With those two, it almost didn't matter that Frank Hill came over from Toronto and was mediocre at best with a 16-20, 4.40 effort - except it did matter because the Sailors lost the pennant by two games. Three hitters topped .340 for the Sailors: CF Walter Harston (.346), C Bill Brady (.343) and SS George Gardner (.341).

Baltimore's Thomas Watkins repeated as batting champ in the CA with a .393 average, beating out Chicago's Kidd and Cleveland's Jimmy Massey who tied for 2nd with identical .391 averages. Massey & Kidd also tied for the league lead in steals with 70 apiece. Chicago's Fuller had 120 RBIs to lead in that category. Montreal's Harry Goree posted a 2.68 ERA to finish third behind Wilson and Allen.


Thomas Watkins

Over in the Fed, the Gothams won by 17 games over Detroit for their third pennant in four years. Some of the owners were now grumbling about how the Gothams had benefited from the absorption of the Peerless League back in the '92-93 offseason - but the Bigsbys only smiled in response. Regardless, the Gotham juggernaut posted a 95-45 record, ten wins fewer than the year before, but drew even more fans to the Bigsby Oval than they ever had. The Gothams' lineup was the deepest and best in either league - five hitters topped .350 in batting average and four drove in better than 115 runs. As a team they hit .328 (a new record) and scored 1024 runs - they also stole 412 bases (another record). They only thing they didn't do was hit home runs - their 35 ranked 6th in the FA. The pitching was pretty good too - they allowed the fewest runs in the FA and Jerry Paris (28-12, 3.78), Alexander Elliott (33-12, 3.63) and Price Adams (29-17. 3.41) were a solid trio of starters.

The also-rans were headed up by Detroit, which posted the best record in team history at 78-62, and were 17 games back. Washington was third at 75-65 and had one of the game's best all-around players in Freeman Rogers who collected his 2000th hit in 1896. The Keystones (74-66) were fourth - Zebulon Banks was still going strong at 39, hitting .326 and collecting 184 more hits to push his career total to 3241. He also managed the team and hadn't missed a game since 1889. The Keys also had the league's best hitter - and no, not Fred Roby - but Claude Jones who became the newest member of the .400-club by hitting .408 to claim his 2nd career batting title.

George Dunlap (.397) and Joe Carney (.373) of the Gothams were 2nd & 3rd, respectively in the batting race. Carney's 141 RBIs led the league, with Dunlap (130) second and fellow Gotham John Jones' 125 third. Jones also stole 90 bases, five more than team mate Ossie Julious.

On the pitching side, Henry Burton of the Keystones took the ERA and strikeout titles with a 2.92 ERA and 176 Ks. His 24-17 record, however, left him out of the running for the Triple Crown with Gotham ace Alex Elliott winning 33, team mate Don Noftall winning 30 and Price Adams of NY winning 29.

The World Championship Series was a good one this time around - the Gothams did win, as most expected, but the Cougars gave them a fight, with the New Yorkers needing a 9-7 win at Bigsby Oval in game seven to claim their crown. Pitching wasn't much on display in the series as both offenses tore it up - George Dunlap hit an even .500 with a 13-for-26 series (that included a HR and 6 RBIs). Allan Allen's 3.97 ERA was the best for any pitcher who made more than 1 start (he was 1-2 in his three games). The Gothams won game one (9-7), game four (6-1), game six (5-4) and game seven while the Cougars won game two (10-2), game three (5-4) and game five (4-2).

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
New York Gothams		95	45	.679	-	1024	683
Detroit Dynamos			78	62	.557	17	751	696
Washington Eagles		75	65	.536	20	762	722
Philadelphia Keystones		74	66	.529	21	776	721
Pittsburgh Miners		67	73	.479	28	696	714
Chicago Chiefs			65	75	.464	30	676	735
Boston Brahmins			54	86	.386	41	715	889
St. Louis Pioneers		52	88	.371	43	690	930
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Chicago Cougars			90	50	.643	-	891	669
Philadelphia Sailors		88	52	.629	2	748	568
Cleveland Foresters		74	66	.529	16	812	715
Baltimore Clippers		69	71	.493	21	713	706
Montreal Saints			68	72	.486	22	698	708
Brooklyn Kings			63	77	.450	27	680	809
New York Stars			56	84	.400	34	667	870
Toronto Provincials		52	88	.371	38	715	879
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Old 05-11-2019, 03:19 AM   #31
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Old 05-12-2019, 02:41 PM   #32
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1897 - Moving Up

In 1897 baseball was then, as it is now, a business. And businesses are ultimately concerned with the bottom line. And the New York Gothams, as successful as they had been, were faced with a situation where they had become victims of their own success - their payroll was too high to be maintained. So changes needed to be made. And those changes would alter the landscape of both the Federal and Continental Associations with immediate impact.

Ossie Julious, New York's stellar third sacker, was the first to go. He was dealt with pitcher Samuel Goode to Toronto for the younger, and cheaper, 3B Jack James and P Tommy Dillard. But the Bigsbys weren't done - they dealt center fielder John Jones to Boston for Willie Rice. This deal shook the baseball world - Jones was just 25 years old, had hit .420 in 1895 to win a batting title and followed that with a .365 season. He was considered one of the best in the business. Rice, on the other hand, was about the same age (26) and had a .363 season on his resume from 1895 when he was with the cross-town Stars. He was not really in the same category as Jones.

Those trades had big repercussions on the pennant races in both leagues. The Gothams tumbled all the way to fifth place, posting a losing record at 67-73, their first time under .500 since 1891. Boston, an also-ran the past two seasons after a surprise pennant in 1894, rose into contention thanks to the addition of Jones (.355-5-97) and former Keystone star Martin Thomas (.348-18-134) who teamed with incumbent 1B Jimmie Dunn (.326-11-100) to give the Brahmins the league's most productive offense (824 runs scored, 1st in FA). Still, the pitching for Boston wasn't great and their 80-60 season was only good for fourth-place in a torrid four-way pennant race.

That pennant race was won by Washington (86-54) who had the league's best defense. The pitching was good, but not stellar - what separated the Eagles was their work afield. Washington committed just 237 errors, the fewest in either league. Philadelphia was second at 82-58 and Chicago third (81-59). The Feds had a trio of hitters crack the .400 mark: Claude Jones of Philly hit .425 to win a close race with George Dunlap of the Gothams (.424). John Carney of NY was third at .411 - interestingly, no other FA hitter topped .355 on the season. Chiefs pitcher Sam Reher went 33-13 with a 2.99 ERA to lead in both categories. Philly's Henry Burton went 27-19 with a 3.88 ERA but led the league in strikeouts with 222.

The Toronto Provincials got a major boost from their deal with the Gothams - Julious ended up 5th in batting with a .383 average and also played a key role as a team leader and slick fielder at third base. Tom Lumpkin became the everyday first baseman for Toronto and hit .328 with 14 HRs while scoring 134 runs - the latter two good enough to lead the league. Best of all, the Provincials were in the pennant race up til the end and finished two games back of pennant-winning Philadelphia with an 87-53 record. Previous power Chicago dropped to third and even dealt away Allan Allen late in the season - Allen finished up in Toronto.

The Sailors were back on top with the league's best pitching, headed up by the incomparable Charlie Wilson (32-15, 2.48) and General Champion (26-14, 2.73). Price Adams also did a good job as the third man, going 21-12 with a solid 3.64 ERA. With George Gardner hitting .384 and Elmer Selders driving in 129 runs, the Sailors were a solid all-around club, just as they had been for the past five seasons.

Jimmy Massey of Cleveland had the top average in all of baseball with a .431 mark, followed by Tommy Watkins of Baltimore (.389) and Ben Jameson (.387) of Brooklyn. The New York Stars, last place again, had one bright spot in the play of rookie John Waggoner, a 23-year-old rookie center fielder who hit .344 and led the league with 47 doubles.

The Sailors made a bit of history in the postseason as well - they won the first World Championship for the Continental Association. The first four matchups had all gone to the Feds with the Gothams winning three times and the Brahmins once. This time, the Sailors won the series with the Washington Eagles four games to two. Charlie Wilson was the big star for Philly, winning all three of his games by 6-0, 11-2, and 5-3 margins - and of the five runs scored by Washington against Wilson, only two were earned giving him a 3-0, 0.67 ERA for the series.

In other news, a new minor circuit signed on with the FABL as an affiliated member - the brand-new East Coast Association started play with clubs in Buffalo, Newark, Providence, Rochester, Scranton, Springfield (MA), Syracuse and Wilkes-Barre. Buffalo won the first pennant and Rochester made a splash with long-time star Lynwood Trease as manager.

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Washington Eagles		86	54	.614	-	778	650
Philadelphia Keystones		82	58	.586	4	812	714
Chicago Chiefs			81	59	.579	5	729	671
Boston Brahmins			80	60	.571	6	824	697
New York Gothams		67	73	.479	19	767	718
Pittsburgh Miners		56	84	.400	30	601	795
St. Louis Pioneers		55	85	.393	31	678	804
Detroit Dynamos			53	87	.379	33	769	909
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Philadelphia Sailors		89	51	.636	-	852	622
Toronto Provincials		87	53	.621	2	911	710
Chicago Cougars			78	62	.557	11	775	712
Brooklyn Kings			69	71	.493	20	810	810
Baltimore Clippers		62	78	.443	27	692	746
Cleveland Foresters		61	79	.436	28	789	912
Montreal Saints			61	79	.436	28	734	781
New York Stars			53	87	.379	36	704	974
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Old 05-13-2019, 10:36 AM   #33
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1898 - Photo Finish

The 1898 season was special. The Federal Association had a race for the ages between an up-and-comer and an established power that came down to the last day of the season with the two clubs facing off for the pennant. The Continental Association's race wasn't as close, but it did feature a club completing a rebound in a way that ended up changing the team's name. Add in a tremendous season from some established stars, a great debut or two, some old faces in new places and the you can honestly say that the 1898 season was a special one.

The Fed's race was another great one - four teams in it til the last week or so and the last two standing go toe-to-toe in a season-ending three-game set that decided the pennant. The four teams vying for the flag were three familiar foes who had been doing battle at the top of the Fed charts since FABL was formed back in '92: the New York Gotham, Philadelphia Keystones and Chicago Chiefs. The new kids on the block were the Pittsburgh Miners whose time in the Fed and before that the Century League had seem them finish as high as fourth just once with two last-place finishes and three seventh-place endings in there as well.

The Chiefs came into that final weekend a game back of the first-place Miners The Chiefs knotted it up with a 5-3 win in the series opener. Then the Miners claimed a 5-2 win on Saturday to set up a do-or-die situation for the Chiefs on the final Sunday of the season. And Chicago couldn't quite get it done. The Chiefs did jump out to a quick lead, plating a pair in the first but the Miners came back to knot it at two apiece in the third. Chicago scored two more in the fifth, but in the bottom half, Pittsburgh again answered. The Miners then scored a pair in both the home sixth and home seventh to go up 8-4 and it looked bleak for Chicago. The Chiefs did claw home a pair in the top of the ninth, but couldn't score the tying runs against Al Holden, who notched win number 31 and clinched the pennant for Pittsburgh - the team's second pennant and first since their last season in the old Border Association back in 1886.

The Continental race was won by the Toronto Provincials, completing a franchise turnaround they had begun a season ago. With Allan Allen going 35-12 with a 2.36 ERA, rookie Frank Cobb going 29-14 with a 2.63 ERA and Samuel Goode eking one more good season out of his tired arm (25-16, 3.16) Toronto's pitching was tough. They also went out and traded for veteran LF Thomas Watkins from Baltimore and he hit .367 while driving in 114 runs from the leadoff spot. With Ossie Julious (.332-0-91) and another rookie, Rich Rowley (.367-8-87) providing the punch, the Provincials were, according to a Toronto sportswriter, "like Wolves ravaging their prey." And they did ravage the CA in '98 with a 96-44 record that put them eight games ahead of the tough Philadelphia Sailors and fourteen up on the Chicago Cougars.

One old face that changed places was that of Zebulon Banks. The old Hawkeye who had been a mainstay of the Philadelphia Keystones going back to their first season in 1876 got into a spat with Keystones owner Jefferson Edgerton near the end of the 1897 season. Old Jeff wasn't used to employees giving him guff so despite the fact that Banks had a small ownership stake in the club and was also the manager, Edgerton sold him to Pittsburgh. Banks at first refused to report to the Miners but eventually showed up to manage the team but refused to play. Naturally this ticked off the Miners owners who bought Banks to put fannies in the seats. So during the 1897-98 offseason, Banks was sold off again, this time ending up in Brooklyn. Kings owner Malcolm Presley was a fan of Banks, and stressed this to the proud old warhorse. Banks agreed to play and manage the Kings and even moved to catcher since Brooklyn already had a pretty good first sacker in Ira Williams. At 42, Banks was close to being washed up, but pride and bitterness saw him play 104 games, banging out 113 more hits and finishing the season with a .293 average - the first time he'd failed to hit .300 since 1880. At the end of the season, he retired as a player, but pledged to stay on as manager. He finished his career with an amazing set of statistics: 2501 games, 3423 hits, 485 doubles, 1584 RBIs and 1877 runs scored. He was, of course, the career leader in virtually everything when he retired and many of his records would stand for a long time.


Zebulon Banks

Individual hitting honors went to a trio of Boston Brahmins: John Jones (.376) as batting champ, Jimmie Dunn (13 HRs) and Martin Thomas (107 RBIs) in the Federal; Cleveland's Jimmy Massey hit .388 to lead the Continental with Brooklyn SS Earnest Harris (18 HRs) and Sailors catcher Bill Brady (115 RBIs) also leading the league. Fed pitching honors went to Chicago's Johnny Cross (2.25, ERA champ) and Philadelphia's Henry Burton (33 wins and 192 strikeouts) while the Continental was led in ERA by Charlie Wilson of the Sailors (2.13), in wins by another Sailor: Price Adams (37) and in strikeouts by Cougars pitcher Hank Leitzke (202) who got his first chance as part of a regular rotation and made the most of it.

The postseason showdown saw Allan Allen pitch well in a game one 13-5 win for the Provincials (or Wolves as they were starting to be called). Rookie Frank Cobb did even better in game two for Toronto - a 3-1 win to give the visitors the win in both games in Pittsburgh. Allen came back to pitch game three in Toronto and the Provincials won 6-1 to reach the verge of a World Championship. But Pittsburgh had enough pride to claim game four by an 8-5 margin to keep the series going. That was all they could muster however as old Sam Goode put the shackles on them in game five, a 7-2 decision for Toronto. Ossie Julious (9-for-15, 4 RBIs) was the offensive star, while Allan Allen went 2-0 without allowing an earned run.

The victory gave Toronto fans something to shout about and the team, in the aftermath of the victory, officially changed its name from the Provincials to the Wolves.

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Pittsburgh Miners		83	57	.593	-	647	584
Chicago Chiefs			81	59	.579	2	670	529
Philadelphia Keystones		80	60	.571	3	717	651
New York Gothams		78	62	.557	5	707	671
Boston Brahmins			70	70	.500	13	757	743
Washington Eagles		65	75	.464	18	551	582
St. Louis Pioneers		56	84	.400	27	562	679
Detroit Dynamos			47	93	.336	36	598	770
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Toronto Provincials		96	44	.686	-	812	600
Philadelphia Sailors		88	52	.629	8	760	514
Chicago Cougars			82	58	.586	14	685	558
Brooklyn Kings			62	78	.443	34	707	744
Cleveland Foresters		62	78	.443	34	627	713
Baltimore Clippers		59	81	.421	37	543	726
New York Stars			57	83	.407	39	579	718
Montreal Saints			54	86	.386	42	526	666
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Old 05-14-2019, 12:02 PM   #34
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1899 - Top Cats

The Pittsburgh Miners remained the class of the Federal Association, rolling to a 92-48 record and 12-game cushion over second-place Philadelphia. The Miners featured a roster that was a mix of the guys who had won the flag the year before with a few impact rookies. Among the latter group was a pair of pitchers: Ike Bell (27-17, 2.65) and Aaron Wright (25-14, 3.29) who teamed with returning ace Fred Henry (32-15, 2.55) to give the Miners the league's top pitching. Young centerfielder Dolph Geis made his second season one to remember, leading the club with a .353 average (good for 3rd in the league) while RF Dan Dunn was purchased from Fort Wayne of the Western Federation and hit .343 with 11 homers and 113 runs batted in to help the club lead the league in runs scored as well.


Fred Henry

Other standouts in the Fed included Martin Thomas of Boston who had always been a solid run-producer with a knack for hitting home runs (he had led the league in HRs and RBIs three times apiece), but shortened his stroke to fit the en vogue notion of "inside baseball" in 1899 and hit .361 to lead the league. Charlie Wilson continued to be arguably the best pitcher in baseball - he led the Fed in ERA at 2.46 and posted a 26-23 mark on a Chicago club that finished in seventh place. Second-year pitcher John Burrell finished second to Henry in wins with 30 and rookie Bell led the pitchers in strikeouts with 182. Washington picked up Sam Evans in a trade from the Chicago Cougars and he posted a 2.64 ERA, good for third place behind Wilson and Henry. Dunn's 113 RBIs led the league, and his 11 homers was second to Philly's Joe Glenn who had 12. The speedy Philip Jordan (who had stolen 106 bases in 1897) was traded from the Keystones to the Chiefs and led the league in steals for the third straight season with 72.

The Continental Association didn't have much of a pennant race either, though it was closer than the Fed's. The Chicago Cougars reclaimed the top spot behind their hallmark of top-notch hurlers. With Allan Allen traded to Toronto a few years back, the Cougars had to develop a new complementary pitcher to star Don Noftall (who led the league in wins with 31 this season) and came up with John Bigness who emerged from a spot role to be the league's ERA champ with a 2.27 mark that helped him move into the regular rotation by season's end (he went 15-10). Added to two-way CF/P Ed McCorkel who was 2nd in the league in strikeouts (151) and the Cougars were back in form. The offense was tops too - leading the league in runs scored. Young 3B Gil Hice had matured into a solid hitter, posting a .339 average with 104 RBIs. Bob Sykes (.320-4-79) and Calvin Kidd (.311-4-91) were still around and the Cougars added former Boston standout Jimmie Dunn to the team as well, though his campaign was cut short by injury.

Toronto tumbled to second place, though they still got standout seasons from Thomas Watkins (whose .406 average led all of FABL), Rich Rowley (.392-11-116), Ossie Julious (.380, 74 steals) and Allan Allen (27-16, 3.18). They just didn't get enough from the other guys, especially pitching with Sam Goode having retired and new pickups Henry Lincoln (19-15, 3.55) and Preston Royal (14-6, 3.25) dealing with injuries. New York climbed to third as their shortstop continued his rise to stardom. John Waggoner was in his third season and had improved each year, hitting .385 this season (4th in the league) with 8 homers, 110 RBIs and 59 steals. He was also very strong defensively and at age 25, was already being lauded as the league's best at the shortstop position.

Cleveland's Ben Jameson hit .386 to edge out Waggoner for third place in the batting race behind Watkins & Rowley. Baltimore rookie Frank Robinson led the league with 14 homers and Rowley's 116 RBIs topped the circuit with Waggoner second. Julious' 74 steals were tops in that category. New York's rookie pitcher Bill Temple struck out 204 men to lead the league in that category - his 3.06 ERA was good for third place behind Bigness and Morris Harris (2.76) who had moved over from Boston to the Philadelphia Sailors. Cleveland's Abe Bowman won 28 games to finish 2nd between Noftall and Allen.

In the World Championship Series, the Miners and Cougars split the first two games in Chicago with the home team winning the opener 3-2 and losing the second game 5-1. Chicago then won all three games in Pittsburgh to claim the championship and they did it in strong fashion, winning 5-1, 11-6 and 11-1 on the Miners' home field. Noftall was his usual dominant self, winning twice and posting a 0.75 ERA while RF Frank Tyson sparked the offense with a .348 average and eight RBIs in the five game set.

The Cougars win made it three straight for the Continentals after the Feds had won the first four. As the new century approached, things were looking good. But the 20th century would present new challenges and plenty of excitement.

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Pittsburgh Miners		92	48	.657	-	730	530
Philadelphia Keystones		80	60	.571	12	714	638
Washington Eagles		72	68	.514	20	640	615
St. Louis Pioneers		67	73	.479	25	646	735
New York Gothams		66	74	.471	26	721	723
Boston Brahmins			64	76	.457	28	664	738
Chicago Chiefs			64	76	.457	28	609	601
Detroit Dynamos			55	85	.393	37	590	734
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Chicago Cougars			89	51	.636	-	857	621
Toronto Wolves			82	58	.586	7	813	750
Cleveland Foresters		76	64	.543	13	780	785
New York Stars			76	64	.543	13	786	659
Philadelphia Sailors		68	72	.486	21	678	694
Baltimore Clippers		66	74	.471	23	712	775
Brooklyn Kings			55	85	.393	34	679	798
Montreal Saints			48	92	.343	41	586	809
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Old 05-15-2019, 08:29 AM   #35
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1900 - 25 And Counting

A brief message from our sponsor: Figment is now transitioning to an online league. There is one remaining available franchise: the Baltimore Clippers. You can find more details in this thread.

And now back to our regularly scheduled dynasty post...


Depending on who you'd ask, 1900 was either the first year of the 20th century or the last of the 19th, but either way, it was definitely the 25th season of professional baseball.The Century League might have evolved into FABL's Federal Association but everyone recognized the 25th anniversary and celebrated accordingly.

The results on the field in FABL for 1900 didn't change much from the previous season - the Chicago Cougars and Pittsburgh Miners were still the class of their respective organizations. There were other storylines to be found, including the debut of a kid with great bloodlines who seemed almost predestined for greatness, a former dynasty hitting rock bottom and another on the rise.

The Cougars remained the class of the Continental Association, topping their league in both hitting and pitching. As usual, the pitchers got most of the attention with Don Noftall (30-15, 3.45) and John Bigness (28-11, 3.15) continuing to chug along. The lineup, which scored 759 runs to lead the league and boasted six starters with averages over .300, could play defense as well as they could hit. There really weren't any chinks (at least none that were apparent) in the armor for the Chicagoans.

The New York Stars finished second as they continued to quickly rise after bottoming out with a trio of 7th place and an 8th place finish over the span of 1895-98. The Stars had a pair of outstanding young hitters in SS John Waggoner (.356-6-91 with league-leading totals of 116 runs and 49 doubles) and LF "Wahoo Willie" Craigen who was 3rd in the league in hitting at .367 and led the league in triples (28), HRs (13), RBIs (115) and slugging (.574) and a 23-year-old ace on the rise in Bill Temple (28-20, 2.84). They were looking like they'd be a force to reckon with within the next few seasons.

The Toronto Wolves had dropped to third as only Allan Allen (29-18, 2.94) had a great year pitching and the offense sputtered a bit despite having the league's batting champ in Thomas Watkins (.373) plus other outstanding hitters like 3B Ossie Julious (.338, 63 SB) and Rich Rowley (.353-5-73). SS Virgil Manuel had faded from a good player to someone in need of replacement (.221-1-46) and 1B William Lumpkin (.217-1-41) was even worse. Cleveland, which had also been a team on the rise, finished fourth despite the league's second most prolific offense (733 runs scored) from a lineup that featured both RF Jimmy Massey (.367-7-112) and CF Jack Arabian (.370-6-87) - pitching was their problem. The second-division was comprised of Baltimore (69-71), Brooklyn (63-77), Montreal (55-85) and surprisingly last - the Philadelphia Sailors, not too long ago the league's top club, but now struggling mightily.

The Pittsburgh Miners were clearly still the top club in the Federal Association. They went 93-47 and finished 11 games ahead of Chicago. They had arguably the league's best offensive player in 24-year-old RF Dan Dunn (.356-12-120), speedy and ace defensive CF Dolph Geis (.344-4-87) and three other .300 hitters in a lineup that led the Feds with 802 runs scored. The pitching was pretty solid too, allowing the second-fewest runs in the league (535) with a pair of 30-game winners topping the rotation in Ike Bell (34-13, 2.49) and Fred Henry (31-15, 2.99). Bell led the Feds in both wins and strikeouts (212).

Second-place Chicago was a bounce-back from their uncharacteristically bad 7th-place finish in 1899. Their strength was pitching, which didn't get Charlie Wilson's typically great season (he went a surprising 20-25, 3.25) but did get great seasons from native Chicagoan and rookie Joe Ballman (31-11, 2.40) and Al Hopper (28-18, 2.28) who were 1-2 in ERA and Ballman was tied for 2nd in wins with Pittsburgh's Henry and also 2nd in strikeouts to Bell with 204. Washington surged late to pass New York for third place. Fifth-place Detroit (68-72) featured batting champion George Reid (.364) who was just 22 and in his second season. Sixth-place Philly, another fallen powerhouse, could still hit (755 runs scored, 2nd in FA) but couldn't pitch or catch the ball (7th in runs and defensive efficiency). SS Fred Roby, if you counted his Peerless League totals, had moved into 2nd place in hits with 2442 behind former team mate Zebulon Banks. His official total for CL/FABL play was 2091.

St. Louis finished seventh and Boston eighth.

In the East Coast Association Lynwood Trease's Rochester Rooks unveiled their new first baseman who turned out to be a pretty good pitcher too. His name was Lynwood Trease, Jr., though he'd be better known as Woody Trease. The 19-year-old had a mediocre debut as a hitter, posting a .219 average but he was a sensation as a pitcher, going 19-8 with a 2.24 ERA and striking out 430 batters in 345.1 innings. It was this that brought FABL teams calling that winter.

The World Championship Series was close (sort of). Pittsburgh captured game one at home by 10-4 and then dropped four straight to the Cougars' buzzsaw. Bigness shut them down in game two (8-2), Noftall did it in game three, a tight 2-1 win, and then Bigness did his thing again in a 4-3 win. The fifth and final game was a wild one as the teams combined for eight errors and the final score was 11-10 in favor of the repeat-champion Chicago Cougars. The Cougars won despite a poor series from star SS Calvin Kidd (.182 average) but got a great series from CF Frank Rhinehart (.429) and Bigness (2-0, 2.50).

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Pittsburgh Miners		93	47	.664	-	802	535
Chicago Chiefs			82	58	.586	11	663	533
Washington Eagles		73	67	.521	20	682	616
New York Gothams		70	70	.500	23	695	677
Detroit Dynamos			68	72	.486	25	631	671
Philadelphia Keystones		65	75	.464	28	755	820
St. Louis Pioneers		55	85	.393	38	558	730
Boston Brahmins			54	86	.386	39	668	872
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Chicago Cougars			90	50	.643	-	759	580
New York Stars			82	58	.586	8	713	581
Toronto Wolves			75	65	.536	15	678	651
Cleveland Foresters		73	67	.521	17	733	666
Baltimore Clippers		69	71	.493	21	680	678
Brooklyn Kings			63	77	.450	27	601	684
Montreal Saints			55	85	.393	35	577	717
Philadelphia Sailors		53	87	.379	37	552	736
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Last edited by legendsport; 05-16-2019 at 04:24 PM. Reason: Edited available teams for online league
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Old 05-16-2019, 04:23 PM   #36
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1901 - Fourth Time's the Charm?

The Pittsburgh Miners were clearly the cream of the crop in the Federal Association. Entering the 1901 season they had won three straight pennants... and each time had lost the Championship series to the Continental champs (the first to Toronto and then twice to the Chicago Cougars). But to get to that fourth crack at the Continental champs, the Miners would have to face down a new challenger in their own pennant race.

Before we get into the Federal race, we'll take a look at the Continental which saw a new team rise to the top after many years of being also-rans. The Cleveland Foresters had been getting good production out of Jimmy Massey and Jack Arabian for years, but they finally got some support in 1901 and that helped the Foresters win the first pennant in club history, overtaking the recent powerhouses in Chicago and Toronto to do so. Arabian had the season of his life, hitting .406 with 13 homers and 101 RBIs and Massey was as good as ever (.342-2-84) but three others hit over .300 and one of the few who didn't (1B Morris Ford) drove in 111 runs with some clutch hitting. With Tom Galatis picking up his game on the mound (26-13, 2.77), the Foresters had an ace, but it was the CA's top offense that carried Cleveland in 1901.

Chicago fell back to second place, eight games off the pace as some of their old stalwarts started looking, well, old. Don Noftall was still a rock, going 24-15 with a 2.94 ERA and their front office manager, Jasper Bryant, was still an ace at talent acquisition, grabbing the underperforming Charlie Knoell from Atlanta in the Dixie Association, putting him behind Noftall and getting a 20-14, 2.70 season out of him and a 19-17, 3.21 effort from rookie Al Stevens. Toronto was third as both Thomas Watkins (.349) and Rich Rowley (.329) dropped off from their otherworldly efforts of previous years and though still excellent, Allan Allen (23-18, 2.99) got little run support.

Montreal was fourth with SS Dick Bunney making a big jump in performance to the tune of a .383 average (3rd best in the CA) and New York was fifth with their shortstop - John Waggoner - recording a .384 average as he continued to cement his place as an all-time great and their ace, Bill Temple, winning a pitching Triple Crown with a 28-14 record, 2.21 ERA and 264 strikeouts. The bottom three spots were made up of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Brooklyn.

The Miners road to a fourth-straight pennant saw them facing down a brand-new challenger as the Boston Brahmins made several off-season moves that paid off with their highest win total in team history (85). The biggest addition - and one that would pay dividends for quite a while - was Woody Trease. The erstwhile Rochester Rook and son of Lynwood Trease took the Fed by storm, going 28-9 with a 2.36 ERA in his first year in the big time. With fellow rookie Bill McDaniel (26-12, 2.51) and holdover Jim Dixon (20-12, 2.90), the Brahmins' pitching was solid. The lineup was improved as well - Boston traded for SS Fred Roby from Philadelphia and 2B Jacob Waters from the NY Gothams to vastly improve their middle infield. Former star RF Martin Thomas was part of the Gothams trade and his departure opened up a slot for Jim Underwood, who though 30-years-old, was a newcomer to FABL and did good work at the plate (.305, 15 triples) and in right field (where Thomas was becoming a liability). But the Brahmins finished seven back of the Miners whose 94-43 record was the standard once again.


Woody Trease

Boston did it with the usual suspects: a lineup built around multi-talented Dolph Geis (.356-9-67 & batting champ) and Tobias Sutter (.335-5-70, 2nd in batting) and excellent pitching. Ike Bell - just 22 years old - had won renown for his blazing fastball and he continued to dominate the opposing hitters - his 34-8, 1.44 ERA and 239 strikeouts would have won him a Triple Crown had Boston's Bill McDaniel not struck out seven more hitters. With Aaron Wright (26-11, 2.25) a more than capable #2 and Henry Burton (15-8, 2.56) & Fred Henry (16-13, 3.40) splitting the #3 role, Pittsburgh allowed 450 runs, tops in the circuit (as were the 670 runs they scored on offense).

Washington finished third - the Eagles had the league's third-place hitter in RF Joseph Turner (.329) and may have been more of a factor had Turner been able to play the whole season - he missed 20-plus games to injury. That trio dominated the rest of the league: fourth-place New York was 59-77 and 34.5 games off the pace. St. Louis, Detroit, Detroit and surprisingly, the Chicago Chiefs rounded out the rest of the standings table. The Chiefs had great pitching - Joe Ballman (1.63) and Tom Darr (2.07) were 2nd and 3rd respectively in ERA, but they couldn't hit, finishing dead last in runs scored with just 470 for the season. Only 2B Johnny Cashmere (.270-7-61) had a respectable season for William Whitney's bunch and it was this last-place finish that may have sparked Whitney's decision to turn over the day-to-day operation of the club to his son William Jr. (better known as "Wash") at the conclusion of the season.

The World Championship Series was more of a coronation than a competition. Though the Foresters made a game of it several times, there was a sense that they were happy just to be there which was most certainly not the case for Pittsburgh. The Miners, thrice denied the crown, swept the Foresters to claim their first World Championship - and the first for the Federal Association since the Gothams' win in 1896. With nine Series in the books, the Feds now held a 5-4 edge in championships.

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Pittsburgh Miners		94	43	.686	-	670	450
Boston Brahmins			85	48	.639	7	633	506
Washington Eagles		79	54	.594	13	571	485
New York Gothams		59	77	.434	34½	621	657
St. Louis Pioneers		58	78	.426	35½	566	645
Philadelphia Keystones		56	79	.415	37	565	669
Chicago Chiefs			55	81	.404	38½	490	546
Detroit Dynamos			55	81	.404	38½	605	763
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Cleveland Foresters		85	54	.612	-	763	630
Chicago Cougars			77	62	.554	8	689	618
Toronto Wolves			75	65	.536	10½	668	641
Montreal Saints			73	64	.533	11	693	672
New York Stars			73	67	.521	12½	669	529
Philadelphia Sailors		62	77	.446	23	535	591
Baltimore Clippers		61	77	.442	23½	586	721
Brooklyn Kings			48	88	.353	35½	518	719
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Old 05-18-2019, 05:53 PM   #37
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1902 - Rise of the Minutemen

Several things came together in 1902 for a certain city that had seen its ups & downs over the years. The city was Boston and it had lost two clubs before the current incarnation who had joined FABL from the Peerless League after the 1892 season. This third incarnation had been playing under the "Brahmins" nickname but owner Steve Cunningham decided it was time for a change and to pay homage to the original Boston club, renamed his team the Minutemen.

Cunningham was a pretty shrewd guy and did a couple other things over the time he owned the club that came to fruition in 1902. First, back in 1897 he had signed a catcher named George Theobald to both catch for and manage his club. Theobald had been a middling player and was turning 34 the year Cunningham signed him. But he blossomed in Boston, hitting .321 in 1897 and .331 in 1898 before hanging up his glove for good. Theobald was tall and lean and had earned the nickname "Toothpick" both for his physique and his habit of chewing on toothpicks in the dugout. Theobald's greatest skill as a manager was his calm demeanor, but his greatest value was as an evaluator of talent.


George Theobald

While Theobald put his evaluation skills to work building the roster, Cunningham turned his eye to building the country's best ballpark for his club. Cunningham Field opened in 1902 and was - for its time - a true baseball palace. Constructed of concrete and steel, Cunningham Field was the first of its kind and imitators would soon follow as the age of the wooden ballpark was coming to an end. While the new ballpark was being built, Theobald had gone out and signed pitchers Woody Trease and Bill McDaniel and LF Jim Underwood and traded for 2B Jacob Waters. Trease immediately became the team's ace pitcher and one of the best in the game with McDaniel a solid number two; Underwood its best hitter and Waters a veteran leader. The final piece came in March of 1902 when Theobald pulled the trigger on his biggest coup: he got disgruntled shortstop Charlie Coller from Montreal for a three-player package of backups. Coller fit in immediately, led the Federal Association in hits (183) and average (.333) and helped lead the Minutemen to their first pennant.

Trease went 25-13 with a 2.43 ERA and Underwood 27-14, 2.30 while Underwood hit .319-8-78 and while Waters only hit .265 he was still the team's leader and any offensive slack was picked up by CF Nelson Morris (.313-3-71), C Walter Tuttle (.302-1-71) and 1B Allen Perkins (.294-2-68). Boston led the Feds in runs scored (651) and was second in runs allowed (482), winning the pennant by 4.5 games over a rejuvenated Chicago Chiefs squad (78-59) with Washington (77-59) third and New York fourth at 76-60. Where's Pittsburgh, you ask? They fell all the way to fifth, their run at the top finished with a 66-70 season due largely to the offense collapsing (they were 7th in runs scored). Ike Bell was again tremendous, going 27-16 with a 1.94 ERA but that wasn't enough.

New York's Joe Broege won the ERA title (1.61) and wins title (29) while his team mate George Gapp was second in ERA (1.66). Bell tied for second in wins with Boston's McDaniels, but led the league in strikeouts with 235. Detroit's George Reid finished second to Coller in batting (.332) with Pittsburgh's Les Rowe third (.329). 2B Joe Casey moved to New York and topped the league in homers with 10 - the only player in all of FABL to hit double-figures as pitching began to dominate. Washington's Dave Campsey's 91 RBIs were enough to lead the league with Casey (83) and Underwood (78) taking the second and third spots. Campsey also led the league in steals (54).

The Continenal Association had a different winner as well with the New York Stars reaching the top of the heap with an 82-55 campaign for their first Continental pennant. The Cougars played the bridesmaid role again and the defending champ Clevelanders fell to third at 76-64. Toronto was fourth despite having the league's batting champion (Thomas Watkins, .407) and ERA champion (Allan Allen, 1.82). Baltimore was fifth and just nine games out of first as the top five in the Continental were all over .500 - largely due to the poor play of Montreal (44-92) which fell to last and was dealing with financial issues.

New York's pennant-win was powered by the circuit's best offense led by a pair of outstanding players in LF Bill Craigen who hit .398 with 8 homers and 104 RBIs - tops in the league, except for the average which was 2nd - and SS John Waggoner who was now a bona fide star (.320-4-73). The pitching was 2nd and had one great pitcher in lefty Bill Temple (30-11, 1.87, 271 strikeouts - the wins and strikeouts were tops in either league) and a pair of good hurlers behind him in Morris Harris (20-13, 3.17) and Alvin Hensley (19-19, 2.54).

Game one of the Series was a pitching fan's dream: Bill Temple vs Woody Trease. Temple got the better of Trease in a 4-3 win for New York in Boston. Game two saw Boston explode for 14 runs on Alvin Hensley and Jack Taylor while McDaniel shut down the Stars' bats to the tune of a 14-1 Minuteman victory. The series shifted to New York and the Stars took game three by a 9-3 margin. Game four was a rematch of game one and this time it was Trease who came out the better in a 2-0 shutout win over Temple and the Stars. Gave five continued the seesaw theme as New York won 4-3 to take a 3-2 series edge back to Boston's Cunningham Field.

Though the overfill crowd at Cunningham Field gave the Minutemen all the support they could, the Stars captured the championship with an 8-2 victory behind Morris Harris, who became the only pitcher in the series to win two games (he also went 5-for-7 at the plate). Bill Craigen hit .417 for the Stars, topping Charlie Coller who hit .364 for the Minutemen. The Stars' win evened up the all-time championship tally at five apiece for the Feds and Continentals and was the first for the Stars franchise (Boston had actually won the 2nd World Championship back in 1894 when they were still the Brahmins).

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Boston Minutemen		83	55	.601	-	651	482
Chicago Chiefs			78	59	.569	4½	510	457
Washington Eagles		77	59	.566	5	583	526
New York Gothams		76	60	.559	6	600	497
Pittsburgh Miners		66	70	.485	16	506	571
Philadelphia Keystones		58	77	.430	23½	529	598
Detroit Dynamos			56	78	.418	25	519	579
St. Louis Pioneers		50	86	.368	32	482	670
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
New York Stars			82	55	.599	-	640	518
Chicago Cougars			76	61	.555	6	558	493
Cleveland Foresters		76	64	.543	7½	573	552
Toronto Wolves			72	62	.537	8½	580	535
Baltimore Clippers		73	64	.533	9	522	518
Philadelphia Sailors		64	75	.460	19	490	537
Brooklyn Kings			62	76	.449	20½	551	544
Montreal Saints			44	92	.324	37½	517	734
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Old 05-19-2019, 04:46 PM   #38
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1903 - No Temple, No Problem

One of the biggest open secrets in baseball was that Bill Temple, the young, exceedingly fast and talented left-hander of the New York Stars, was a raging alcoholic. Temple's frequent drunken antics - some of them on the field during games - kept the star pitcher in hot water with Stars management. So it was only a moderate surprise when in January of 1903, New York dealt him to Detroit. Not only did it remove a lingering problem, but it sent that problem to the other Federal Association, where it'd be less likely to come back to bite them someplace uncomfortable.

The Temple deal did shock on one level - he was, along with Ike Bell and Allan Allen, generally considered one of the game's three best pitchers and certainly the best left-handed pitcher. In return for Temple and rookie outfielder Phil Thompson, the Stars received P Frank Whitcomb, 2B Peter Wilbourn and RF George Reid. While none of them approached Temple's singular level of talent, the hitters provided significant upgrades and Whitcomb was a good, young pitcher. The effect on the Stars? Well, they won 11 games more than they had in 1902 and again claimed the pennant. Reid hit .368 - great, but only third on his own team (and the league, as the Stars had the CA's top three hitters) as George Cary hit .419 and Bill Craigen hit .380 while Wilbourn hit just .224, but was a significant upgrade defensively at second base. Whitcomb ended up injured and not pitching, but Gil Purdy came into his own as the team's new ace and ripped off a league-best 34-7 record with a 1.80 ERA and channeled Temple enough to lead the league with 229 strikeouts.

Temple? He went from a contender to an also-ran (Detroit finished fifth with a 65-75 mark) and that impacted his won-lost record more than anything else. He posted a 23-18 record, but had a solid 2.24 ERA and led the Federal Association (and FABL overall) with 325 strikeouts. He also purportedly got into a fight with a bear (which he lost), crashed his brand-new 1903 Cadillac Touring automobile into a bridge abutment, got married - and divorced - and fell down the stairs at Detroit's Thompson Field, twisting his ankle (he pitched anyway), all during the 1903 season.

The Stars finished 12.5 games ahead of second-place Chicago (they were rapidly approaching an unflattering nickname referring to their continual runner-up status). Baltimore, a club on the rise, finished third at 79-59, just ahead of the Toronto Wolves, who were having their own issues with a star pitcher: Allan Allen was frustrated with the club's lack of hitting and reportedly requested to be dealt to a Federal Association contender. Bill Craigen's 99 RBIs led the league as did the 14 homers hit by Brooklyn's Joe Casey (a small positive in an otherwise dismal 45-91 season for the Kings). John Waggoner, the Stars shortstop, swiped 72 bases to lead the league in that category. John Bigness of the Sailors posted a 1.73 ERA to keep Gil Purdy from winning a Triple Crown while Purdy's Stars team mate Jack Taylor finished third in ERA with a 2.03 mark. Allan Allen and Baltimore's Jim Fuller each had 26 wins, tied for second behind Purdy's 34.

Over in the Fed, the Boston Minutemen repeated as champions too with an 89-49 record, 6.5 games ahead of Pittsburgh, which had bounced back from their off-season in 1902. The Minutemen had the league's top hitter in Nelson Morris (.365) and it's third-best hitter as well (Jim Underwood, .338). Pittsburgh's Dan Dunn led the league in homers (11) and RBIs (104) with Morris and Willie Wynder of St. Louis second in HRs (10 each) and Underwood and another Minuteman star (Charles Coller) finishing second and third in RBIs with 101 and 91, respectively. And Jacob Waters led the league in steals with 65 - and yep, he played for Boston, too.

Pitching? Tom Edwards of the Miners was the tops in ERA with a 1.95 mark, slightly ahead of the 1.98 mark posted by Woody Trease, who did lead in wins with 28 with team mate Bill McDaniel second (27) and Ike Bell of Pittsburgh third (26). Temple led the loop in whiffs, with 55 more than Trease's 270. Joe Broege of the Gothams was third with 242 strikeouts. For the sabermatricians out there, Temple posted a ridiculous 12.4 WAR for the fifth-place Dynamos in his first season in Detroit.

Only Boston and Pittsburgh finished over .500 in a bad pennant race in the Fed. The third through seventh place finishers were clumped together just in the 62 to 67 win range. The Gothams finished third - their offense was putrid, but they could pitch and defend. Washington was fourth and just the opposite - they could hit but didn't pitch or field well. Detroit was - with the exception of Temple - mediocre at the plate and on the mound. St. Louis finished sixth and was an intriguing story. They had three hitters top .300 - an increasingly rare event as pitching started dominating the game - and a very solid rookie hurler named Charlie Sis (24-17, 2.51) - but were last in runs allowed. Chicago, which had been good in 1902, was not in 1903 and the once-proud Philadelphia Keystones had fallen into the basement with a 55-79 record. They could console themselves with having at least been better than the bottom two teams in the Continental.

The World Championship Series (now increasingly referred to simply as the World's Series) was a rematch and matched up a team that led its league in both runs and runs allowed (New York) and a team that was 1st in runs and 2nd in runs allowed (Boston). Not surprisingly the series featured close games... but it turned out that there were only four of them and they were all won by the Boston Minutemen. Boston got its revenge on New York for the 1902 loss thanks to two outstanding efforts by Woody Trease - a 4-2 win in game one and series-clinching 3-0 shutout in game four - and enough timely hitting to win game two 5-4 and game three 7-6.

The offseason saw some interesting developments vis-a-vis the minor leagues. The Heartland League, which had been operating as a "bandit" organization poaching low-level players from the "organized" leagues, agreed to sign on to the Federally Aligned Baseball Leagues organization for 1904. And in the distant west, still a long train ride from the bulk of America's population, a new circuit was being formed by none-other than William W. Whitney. The elder Whitney had moved to California to oversee the West Coast portion of his fruit-importation empire and found that he missed baseball. With the Chiefs now run by his son William Washington Whitney Jr (aka Wash Whitney), Whitney gathered a group of businessmen, just as he had in 1876 and created the Great Western League which would start play in 1904 as well - and naturally signed it up with FABL.

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Boston Minutemen		89	49	.645	-	649	517
Pittsburgh Miners		81	54	.600	6½	597	489
New York Gothams		67	69	.493	21	462	519
Washington Eagles		66	71	.482	22½	576	590
Detroit Dynamos			65	75	.464	25	531	572
St. Louis Pioneers		63	76	.453	26½	604	601
Chicago Chiefs			62	75	.453	26½	519	535
Philadelphia Keystones		55	79	.410	32	461	576
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
New York Stars			93	42	.689	-	755	448
Chicago Cougars			82	56	.594	12½	627	484
Baltimore Clippers		79	59	.572	15½	557	467
Toronto Wolves			78	59	.569	16	628	582
Philadelphia Sailors		68	72	.486	27½	526	540
Cleveland Foresters		66	73	.475	29	523	572
Brooklyn Kings			45	91	.331	48½	463	694
Montreal Saints			40	99	.288	55	529	821
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Old 05-20-2019, 12:57 PM   #39
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1904 - Three Straight

Modern fans know what calling a team a "dynasty" denotes. But the first time that term was used in reference to a sports team rather than a list of kings/queens/emperors/etc was when it was used to describe the Boston Minutemen. The Boston club earned the moniker by winning it's third straight World Championship in 1904 - and just like in 1903, they did it in a sweep of the Continental Association champions. But in retrospect, they almost didn't even get to the World Series and if that hadn't happened, they might never been called a dynasty.

1904 was a good year for baseball. For more than a decade the sport had been at relative peace. The reserve clause was firmly entrenched, no new "outlaw" leagues were active or on the horizon, and even the minors were starting to line up to get into the Federation. And on the field, the game was good as well - pitching was dominating, but what we'd call "small ball" today was very much in vogue and speed, defense and moving runners over were the accepted strategies of the time - and the fans were enamored of this more strategic approach to the game with the game's top managers (such as Boston's George Theobald) often as famous as the players themselves.

It was also a good year for Woody Trease. The 24-year-old was now accepted as part of a holy pitching trinity that consisted of himself, Toronto's Allan Allen and Detroit's Bill Temple. All three had good years in '04 but Trease was otherworldly. For one thing, the team had hired his father as a coach - and then activated the 54-year-old Lynwood Trease Sr in July for a weekend set with Detroit, which activated 46-year-old Jim Jones so the old guys could relive past glories. The elder Trease went behind the plate and caught his son in what turned out to be his 15th victory of the season, a 4-3, 10-inning affair. His father played two games that weekend, and went for 3-for-8 before hanging up his bat for good (Jones went 0-for-4 against Woody and though technically on the roster for the remainder of Detroit's season, never appeared in another contest). Woody finished the season with a 28-14 record and 1.87 ERA (for you sabremetricians out there, he also had a ridiculous 14.5 WAR). He then won two games in the World Series, including the game four clincher. Of course, he only led the league in wins (as well as innings pitched, games, WHIP and WAR).

Boston posted a 96-42 record, another stellar year for a great club. They only had one .300 hitter (2B John Cook hit .323) but they did finish 2nd in runs scored (537) - and they allowed a league-low 351 runs with Bill McDaniel (26-9, 1.56) and George Wilson (10-1, 1.08 in an injury-shortened season) also having great years. And yet, they won the pennant with the help of a rainout. The rainout in question shortened the Pittsburgh Miners season by one game - and Pittsburgh finished 95-42. In 1904, the league didn't necessarily make the teams play their entire schedules, so the Miners didn't get a chance to get that 96th win which would have resulted in a one-game playoff where anything could have happened. The Miners were every bit as good as Boston: they had a true ace of their own in Ike Bell (27-11, 1.25) who was overlooked in the Trease-Allen-Temple discussion and was second in runs allowed at 393. They also led the league in runs scored with 572 (even though they too only had one .300 hitter in, yep, their 2B - Henry Clapp who hit .327).

The two horse race didn't leave many wins for the other six Federal Association clubs. Third-place Chicago won 74 games and St. Louis finished at 68-68. Detroit (60-79), Washington (58-82), New York (54-83) and Philadelphia (43-92) rounded out the standings table. Clapp's .327 average topped the league with Cook's .323 second and Washington CF Ed Ault (.309) third. Detroit's Frank Castle hit 10 homers to lead in that category and Dave Dunn of the Miners had 94 RBIs. Bell's 1.25 was the top ERA and his 27 wins 2nd to Trease. Bill Temple still threw (and drank) hard and struck out a league-best 318 batters, 11 more than Trease did.

Over in the Continental the two-horse race was between Toronto (88-51) and New York (81-54). Toronto was powered by Allan Allen, who led the Continental in both wins (31) and ERA (1.45), anchoring the league's stingiest staff. Bob Lewis (.293-4-63), Nelson Bambery (.303-4-68) and Rich Rowley (.288-1-50) powered the league's second-best offense. New York kept the pressure on all season, and led the race for a stretch in mid-summer, but was not quite up to par with the Wolves in '04. They had probably the best offense in baseball with a trio of .300 hitters led by RF George Reid (.343-8-90), shortstop John Waggoner (.335-5-75), and C George Cary (.302-2-39). The Stars scored 616 runs and the pitching, led by Gil Purdy (29-12, 1.81), allowed the 2nd-fewest runs at 431.

Allen Allan made some history on September 8. He shut down the Philadelphia Sailors 4-1 to earn his 400th victory - the first pitcher in history to reach that mark. Allan, now 37 years old, no longer threw with much speed (he had only 156 strikeouts in his league-high 385 innings), but he was a master of putting the ball precisely where he wanted, knew when to "cruise" and conserve his strength and had been around long enough to know the hitters and their weaknesses.

Cleveland (77-61), Baltimore (73-66) and Philadelphia (70-66) all played above .500, finishing ahead of Chicago (68-72) and the cellar dwellers Montreal (48-89) and Brooklyn (46-92). Cleveland's Jack Arabian won the batting title with a .346 average, while Reid won the RBI title (90). Philadelphia's Frank Tyson hit 10 homers to lead in that category. Allen led in both wins and ERA with Purdy leading in strikeouts (245), finishing 2nd in ERA and tied for 2nd in wins (29) with Cougars' ace Jack Long (29-10, 2.05).

The World Series unfolded much as it had in 1903 with only the CA's participant being different. Trease out-dueled Allan in game one, a 2-1 home win for Boston. McDaniel came out and shackled the Wolves in a 5-1 game two victory and George Wilson did the same in game three, also a 5-1 win, this time in Toronto. Game four was a wilder affair, but the outcome was still a Trease-led Boston win in an 11-5 contest. Trease finished the series 2-0 with a 2.16 ERA - Allan was nearly as good, but went 0-2 with a 2.35 ERA. The hitting hero was a surprise - Boston CF John Matyas, who hit just .225 for the season, went 11-for-17 in the Series with 5 RBIs.

Two minor leagues joined the FABL in 1904: the Great Western League, the first West Coast loop to join "organized baseball" and the Heartland League which formed around a pair of disgruntled Western Federation clubs. The GWL's first pennant was won by the San Diego Conquistadors. William Whitney, FABL founder and former Chicago Chiefs owner, was now in Los Angeles and was the organizer of the GWL and the LA club's majority owner (his Los Angeles Excelsiors finished third). The Peoria Bunnies and Cedar Rapids Colts both bolted the Western Federation after the 1903 season. The WF rebranded itself as the Century League, laying claim to the discarded mantle of the first professional league (now known as the Federal Association) and replaced the Peoria and Cedar Rapids clubs with new teams in Columbus (Titans) and Kansas City (Packers). Meanwhile Peoria and Cedar Rapids joined the Heartland League where Cedar Rapids finished 2nd to the Omaha Cowboys and Peoria finished last.

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Boston Minutemen		96	42	.696	-	537	351
Pittsburgh Miners		95	42	.693	½	572	393
Chicago Chiefs			74	60	.552	20	420	408
St. Louis Pioneers		68	68	.500	27	454	464
Detroit Dynamos			60	79	.432	36½	483	477
Washington Eagles		58	82	.414	39	433	559
New York Gothams		54	83	.394	41½	404	498
Philadelphia Keystones		43	92	.319	51½	382	535
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Toronto Wolves			88	51	.633	-	580	424
New York Stars			81	54	.600	5	616	431
Cleveland Foresters		77	61	.558	10½	504	481
Baltimore Clippers		73	66	.525	15	521	497
Philadelphia Sailors		70	66	.515	16½	521	517
Chicago Cougars			68	72	.486	20½	488	520
Montreal Saints			48	89	.350	39	483	675
Brooklyn Kings			46	92	.333	41½	433	601
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Old 05-21-2019, 10:01 AM   #40
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1905: End of the Line

On the surface, the 1905 season didn't really seem that much different from those that came just before it - the Boston Minutemen were cruising towards another pennant in the Federal Association and the Continental Association was shaping up as a two-horse race between New York and Toronto. And everyone assumed that whichever team managed to win the Continental would probably fall quickly to George Theobald's juggernaut in the World Championship Series. And it... almost worked out that way.

One of the ripples that - in hindsight - signaled things were changing took place in the Continental Association. What had been a two-horse race in early June between the aforementioned New York Stars and Toronto Wolves suddenly had a party-crasher: the Baltimore Clippers. Baltimore, like others before them, saw a chance and made a couple of shrewd trades in an attempt to maximize their shot. They made a trade with the Chicago Chiefs to obtain shortstop Calvin Kidd - a solid defensive player who was also pretty solid at the plate. They followed that up with a seemingly minor deal with the Dixie League's Birmingham club in June. They sent their 19-year-old center fielder and $5000 in cash to Birmingham to obtain another 19-year-old centerfielder. His name was Powell Slocum and he'd turn out to be one heck of a pickup. Those two moves along with the purchase of 2B Frank Tyson from Springfield of the East Coast Association and the continuing emergence of young first baseman Jimmy Whipple and the continued veteran presence of LF Ned Vaughn, C Bill Watson and 3B Lew Flagler gave the Clippers the league's best offense. Unfortunately for them, it did nothing for their pitching and though it was good, it wasn't good enough as they finished third in runs allowed and finished six games behind New York - but three ahead of Toronto.


Powell Slocum

The Stars claimed their third pennant in four years with their usual crew of standouts: RF George Reid (.329-1-89), SS John Waggoner (.326-0-78, 58 steals) and LF Bill Craigen (.309-4-54) powering the lineup (3rd in runs scored) and topping the league in pitching with a staff headed by Alvin Hensley (30-18, 2.37 ERA). Toronto got a bit of an off-year from Allan Allen (25-24, 2.60) and not much hitting aside from LF Rich Rowley (.330-0-70) and 2B John Partain (.300-1-67). Cleveland, with an 82-71 record, finished fourth and still had the league's best hitter in 2B Jack Arabian (.367-0-75) and RF Jimmy Massey (.315-0-55) and some capable pitching as well (2nd in runs allowed) headed up by Alex Hollingsworth (21-20, 2.47) and Jim Cathey (22-20, 2.36). Chicago was fifth - with Jack Long (23-20, 2.32) being the biggest standout performer. Brooklyn rose up from their previous last-place finish to claim sixth-place - 3B Jim Gerhart (.326-1-66) improved a ton, but unfortunately their pitching did not (7th in the league). Montreal and Philadelphia brought up the rear, though the Saints could at least boast of the league's ERA champ in Warren Miles (1.64) - unfortunately he continued to show a trend of being fragile and easily injured and Philly had the top two base stealers in Dave Campsey (68 - but he hit only .208) and former Minuteman keystone Jacob Waters (60).


John Waggoner

Over in the Fed, the Minutemen did in fact win their fourth straight pennant with a 96-56 record, six games better than Pittsburgh (88-60). What stood out in Boston's run this time, was that they didn't have any truly outstanding individual performances. New 3B Charlie Campbell was the main reason Jacob Waters was shipped to baseball purgatory in Philadelphia - he hit .272, but was hurt at the end of the season and missed the World Series. Woody Trease posted a lackluster 23-20 record with a 2.46 ERA - an off-year from the game's best young pitcher. George Wilson (26-11, 1.85) was a major factor in their pennant win but they had a cleanup hitter in John Matyas who specialized in hitting the ball hard, but often hit it right at people (.209-19-70). The Minutemen had chinks in their armor, even if they got by on guts and experience.

Pittsburgh, which had been the FA dynasty prior to Boston's was still an excellent club. Ike Bell (27-17, 2.11) and Tom Edwards (28-11, 1.81) were top-flight pitchers and the lineup had successfully navigated some age-related changes and was still very dangerous. C Les Rowe, at 29 a veteran, enjoyed possibly his best season with a team-best .323 average. Young CF Sam Eifler improved over his rookie season with a solid .282-10-84 campaign and 26-year-old third sacker Harry Clapp hit a flat .300 and drove in 64 runs from the leadoff spot. Finishing just behind Pittsburgh was Washington (88-63) who had unearthed a great young ace of their in Bill West. "Big Bad Bill" improved on his 11-14 rookie campaign with a stellar 30-15 record and 1.50 ERA. Neither mark led the league, but he was darn close - and only 24 years old. Detroit finished fourth with a 26-victory improvement over 1904 thanks to the league's best offense, including 1B Joe Herbert, who hit 21 home runs to set a new record. Bill Temple was still throwing hard, until he hurt his arm in his last start, leaving a possible cloud over 1906.

St. Louis was fifth with a solid 80-73 record. They had the best pitcher in the Fed (at least for 1905) in Charlie Sis who went 32-13 and posted a 1.48 - both tops in the league. Sis alone was probably enough to bump them up to their fifth-place finish. The bottom three clubs were all awful - Chicago (58-94), New York (58-95) and Philadelphia (52-97) - the nation's top three cities and all former powerhouses were terrible at the same time. And though New York fans still had the Stars to follow, both Chicago and Philly were (at best) also-rans in both leagues.

The World Series was expected to be another easy win for Boston - but the Stars had other plans. New York claimed the first game in thirteen innings - an 8-7 victory that marked Boston's first loss in the Series in ten games going back to 1902. The Stars followed that up by beating Woody Trease in game two 6-4 . Now the pundits opined that Boston would straighten itself out at home in games three, four and five - and they were almost right. Boston did win, easily, in game three 9-3 and eked out a hard fought 7-6 win in game four. But the pivotal game five saw New York's Gil Purdy out-duel Trease in a 3-2 win that put the Stars on the brink - with the Series shifting back to New York.

Boston drew first blood in game six with a run in the top of the fourth, but that would be all they'd manage to get. New York ran off three runs in the home fourth and home fifth and rookie Nate Drake put up zeroes the rest of the way giving the Stars their second World Series title. 2B Joe Casey was the star of the show - he hit .462 (12-for-26) with three home runs and 10 RBIs. Trease, normally untouchable, allowed 21 hits in 17 innings and posted a 3.71 ERA with an 0-2 record for Boston.

Federal Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
Boston Minutemen		96	56	.632	-	618	445
Pittsburgh Miners		88	60	.595	6	568	468
Washington Eagles		88	63	.583	7½	517	449
Detroit Dynamos			86	68	.558	11	620	484
St. Louis Pioneers		80	73	.523	16½	528	554
Chicago Chiefs			58	94	.382	38	415	574
New York Gothams		58	95	.379	38½	433	571
Philadelphia Keystones		52	97	.349	42½	488	642
Continental Association
Code:
Team				W	L	WPct	GB	R	RA
New York Stars			92	60	.605	-	624	526
Baltimore Clippers		87	67	.565	6	669	543
Toronto Wolves			84	70	.545	9	630	560
Cleveland Foresters		82	71	.536	10½	574	538
Chicago Cougars			75	78	.490	17½	532	570
Brooklyn Kings			70	82	.461	22	567	628
Montreal Saints			66	87	.431	26½	550	655
Philadelphia Sailors		56	97	.366	36½	479	605
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