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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 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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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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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 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 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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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 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 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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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:
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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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 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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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 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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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 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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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 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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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 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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05-11-2019, 03:19 AM | #31 |
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I've been really enjoying keeping up with this, keep up the great work!!
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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 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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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 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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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 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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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 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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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 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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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 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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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 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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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 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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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 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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