The Liberty League

[Questdog]

William Hulbert and his friend James Glazer dined at Chapin & Gore's on Monroe Street in Chicago on Tuesday evening, September 14, 1875. They were old classmates at Beloit College in the late 40's and had kept in touch over the years. Whenever one of the two found himself in the city of the other, he would call on his friend and they would spend an evening together, usually reminiscing of their college days. However, on this night Hulbert was in an excitable mood and all he wanted to talk about was his idea for a new league of professional baseball teams. He told Glazer that he was fed up with the way the big Eastern ball clubs in the National Association were treating the Western clubs like his own Chicago White Stockings and that he had a plan to do something about it. He was going to form his own circuit of teams and run the show himself, insuring that all the clubs were treated fairly. The players would be under tight contracts, he said, and the various clubs would not be allowed to raid one another's rosters for players. "There are no teams, really, in the National Association," claimed Hulbert, "It's just a big mob of players that hops onto whatever roster it feels like at the moment. I aim to change that." Glazer was excited by the idea himself and wished he had thought of it. After the meal, the two friends rose from the table and Hulbert grasped Glazer's hand and shook it. "It's been real good to see you again, Jim," he said. Then he grabbed at his chest and fell to the floor. Before Glazer could kneel down to check on him, Hulbert was dead. And so was his idea of the National League. But the next day, as Glazer was riding the train back to his native city of Philadelphia, he pondered his friend's idea and soon found himself resolved to make it his own. Thus, the Liberty League was born.

After a whirlwind tour of the country speaking to potential investors and owners, Murphy accepted applications for franchises. The following were the gentlemen who ponied up the application fee of $25 and supplied Murphy with a financial plan for funding their potential baseball club:

Walter Amzden of Portland, Oregon
Lemuel Andrews of Chicago
Anton Barbe of Springfield
Jasper Carl of Indianapolis
Joseph Clark of New York
Hardy Crane of Providence
James Dunn of Williamsport
Bid Edwards of Boston
Abe Garrett of St. Louis
Steve Gifford of Canton
Hercules Horne of Detroit
Lou Helt of Meadville
Chris Lowe of New Orleans
Tom McKay of Washington
Patrick Mix of Cleveland
John Moore of Philadelphia
Patrick Moore of Boston
Robert Moore of Baltimore
Phil Connelly of Baltimore
George Nolen of Nashville
Joseph Norton of Grand Rapids
Frank Reese of Troy
Jake Smith of Pittsburgh
Martin Stevens of New York

Mr. Amzden explained his application in an enclosed letter. He said that he did not expect Portland, Oregon, to be awarded a franchise, but he wanted to be a part of the process and learn what he could about the organization of such a league. He contemplated creating a similar organization for the Western states sometime in the future if Mr. Glazer's enterprise proved successful.

Glazer's first official act as President of the Liberty League was to grant a franchise to himself and the city of Philadelphia. He then hired an official league accountant and had him decipher the financial documents of the applicants. The accountant and his assistants approved the following applications:

Lemuel Andrews of Chicago
Joseph Clark of New York
Hardy Crane of Providence
Abe Garrett of St. Louis
Hercules Horne of Detroit
Tom McKay of Washington
Patrick Moore of Boston
Robert Moore of Baltimore
George Nolen of Nashville
Frank Reese of Troy
Jake Smith of Pittsburgh
Martin Stevens of New York

After due consideration and debate, the final roster of ball clubs for the initial season of the Liberty League was settled on by Glazer:

Baltimore - Robert Moore
Boston - Patrick Moore
Detroit - Hercules Horne
New York - Joseph Clark
Philadelphia - James Glazer
St. Louis - Abe Garrett
Troy - Frank Reese
Washington - Tom McKay

On Wednesday, February 2, 1876, the eight club owners met at New York's Grand Central Hotel and ratified a constitution (written jointly by James Glazer and his manager/pitcher Dave Watford). They also agreed to follow the schedule of games devised by Watford that called for 70 games to be played by each member club beginning on Monday, April 3. After each owner paid his annual Dues of $100 and signed the constitution, the Liberty League was officially established.

[Questdog]

Welcome to the Liberty League, my latest, greatest and final fictional baseball universe. I plan on playing this league the rest of my life. Of course, I've had that plan before and we'll see how it goes.....

The premise of the Liberty League is for it to be a fictionalized mirror of professional baseball from 1876 through 1972, with a few major differences. In 1973, the designated hitter will not be adopted and from then on the Liberty League will begin to follow a more and more independent course. At some point, I will adopt a team as my permanent charge and play every game out, but until then I will sometimes take over a team and play games out and sometimes sit back as commissioner and sim through the season.

One of the main precepts of the Liberty League is that there will always be a minor league structure consisting of two elements. The first element will be a AAA level wholly owned and operated by the major leagues. Each major league team will have one AAA affiliate. The second element of the minor league structure will be a AA level that is fully independent of the major leagues. The AA level will be responsible for bringing new players into the universe via an amateur draft. The major leagues will procure their players by drafting them from the AA level. No levels lower than AA will be represented in the universe, except in abstraction. In the Liberty League, we call the AAA level A Ball and the AA level B Ball. I will try to use real leagues as the basis for this setup, but in the early years there were not always enough real leagues preserved by history to accommodate this. Whenever there are not enough real minor league teams to accommodate all that we need, we will have a league called the "Independent Team Alliance" or ITA that will house the teams. We will never report on this league as if it truly exists, however.

Since history has preserved no minor leagues for us in 1876, all 16 B Ball teams will be in the ITA and won't get mentioned in the dynasty report, except when we report on the stats of players in the Liberty League's draft of B Ball players in October. For A Ball, we will have the International Association begin play a year earlier than it actually did and all Liberty League teams will have an affiliated member team.

For 1876, each Liberty League team has a 15 man active roster and their International Association affiliate has a 20 man active roster. All 35 players are considered on the "secondary" roster. No trading is allowed (the first MLB trade did not happen until 1886). There are no minor league options or waivers or free agency (reserve rules are in effect).

Since I have no desire to try to make dollar amounts historically accurate or deal in millions of them, the value of a dollar will remain constant throughout the life of the Liberty League and for salary purposes, $20,000 will be approximately equal to $20 million at today's wage rates for major league ballplayers.

Each team will play 70 games for 1876 beginning on Monday April 3. There will always be a game on Saturday and there will always be at least one day off between games, so that teams will usually play 3 games a week and never on Sunday. The team with the most wins will be crowned the Champion on September 21, unless there is a tie. There is no post-season.

For 1876, I will be playing the role of Riley Barlow, who has been hired by Frank Reese to manage the Troy Haymakers. Then we'll play it by ear from there.

Hope you enjoy the ride!

[Questdog]

The first thing we'll do is post the Opening Day rosters of the eight Liberty League teams and their International Association affiliates. The statistics provided are the players' records from last year in the old National Association.

Editor's Note - You may notice that we have some player/managers. All manager hirings and firings are maintained outside of OOTP as are the owners and the death rolls.

[Questdog]

[Questdog]

[Questdog]

[Questdog]

[Questdog]

[Questdog]

[Questdog]

[Questdog]

[Questdog]

My name is Riley Barlow. I'll be 34 years old in a couple of months and Mr. Reese hired me this past winter to put together a ball club to represent Troy, New York, in the new Liberty League. I was born out in Portland, Oregon, but I've lived in and around Troy and Albany most of my life. When I played I was a fair pitcher, but I'm not good enough to pitch in this new league. But I am good enough to build a team and lead them to some victories. I like to think I am an acute judge of talent and I know how to lead a group of men. I'm not overly educated and no one would pick me as the smartest fella in the room, but I can usually figure stuff out eventually since I don't mind working hard at it. I'm extremely loyal to those who earn my trust and I never turn my back on a friend. I love the game of baseball and really enjoy the teamwork required to be a successful club. Playing the game well is more important to me than winning or losing.

Since Troy is almost the smallest city to have a team in the Liberty League, Mr. Reese set me a fairly low budget to spend on acquiring players. This was a bit of a handicap, but I am pretty happy with the players I managed to sign.

Editor's Note - There was an inaugural draft held to pick the 35 players for each team with the largest cities getting first pick in each round. The order of the draft with market size in parentheses: 1. New York (10), 2. Philadelphia (9), 3. Boston (9), 4. St. Louis (6), 5. Baltimore (4), 6. Washington (4), 7. Troy (3) and 8. Detroit (3). Market sizes are set such that the league average is 6 and no team is higher than 10. Population of the current metropolitan area in 1876 was used as the base.

I had 35 players to pick a team from when we began our Spring Workouts.

Editor's Note - Another difference between major league baseball in 1876 and the Liberty League is that the Liberty League will always play 6 weeks of Spring Training Games (36). I play stats only with 'Other' ratings on a 1 to 10 scale with ratings higher than 10 shown. I need the Spring games so I can evaluate my talent.

I thought I had my starting nine all picked out before we started any training, but the practice games really made me question who our best nine were. I was pretty certain that Dan Melvin was going to be in the box for the Haymakers when our first game that counted came around. I gave him the highest contract of any of the players I signed. But Abe Lowe out-pitched him in the practice games and will be our pitcher against Detroit when we open the season at Putnam Grounds in Troy on April 3.

I also signed Marty Rodgers as my shortstop because I was dazzled by his fielding work in the Association. But he did not play the position very well this Spring and didn't hit a lick (.174). Both Emil Moore and Enoch Polm outplayed him. Moore was the better fielder and Polm was the better hitter, but both looked better at everything than Rodgers. I finally decided to start Polm because he was fielding pretty well and just knocking the cover off the ball (.375) and keep Moore on the squad as a replacement player. I was planning on sending Rodgers to our Rochester farm team in the International Association to figure his game out. But fate intervened and both Moore and Polm got hurt, so Rodgers will being starting after all. At least for a few weeks until Polm is ready to play. Moore is going to miss most of the season and won't be available until August at the earliest.

Frank Scarborough also played himself out of a job in centerfield. Ed Tomlinson will get the initial assignment there, but the question is still open about who will be the permanent resident.

The Haymakers starting nine for the opening game with their fielding percentage in the Spring games:
p Abe Lowe - .857
c Deacon Stone - .885 and threw out 7 of 12 base stealers
1b Willard DeVaux - .944
2b Dan Owens - .905
ss Marty Rodgers - .821
3b Joe Lees - .946
lf Dick Carver - .906
cf Ed Tomlinson - .923
rf Porter Thorpe - .897

We have three really top flight hitters in the middle of our lineup with 2b Dan Owens, rf Porter Thorpe and 1b Willard DeVaux. Thorpe had an especially good Spring, leading all Liberty League hitters with 21 RBI and batting over .400 most of the way until finally settling down to .360.

I really think we have a chance to win the Championship this year, though New York and Philadelphia look very strong. And Boston was right there with them all Spring. We went 19-17 in our practice games, but I was not especially trying to win anyone them, being more interested in evaluating my players.

Editor's Note - Just where is it that you can look up a player's fielding percentage in Spring Training games in OOTP? The answer is nowhere. I kept score manually to figure them. With defense being at such a premium in 1876 I wanted to know exactly how well my players were performing so I could decide who to play. No matter what era I play in I want good defenders starting for me, but when the league fielding percentage is .866, it is even more important to have plus fielders in the lineup!

[English_Ray]

Looks good Questdog, I'll be following along.

[Questdog]

Monday April 3 vs. Detroit Wolverines (16-20 in the Spring)
Jack Trammel plays rightfield and manages Detroit. I'm not near as smart as him and I can't figure out his logic in picking his starting pitcher. He tried four of them out in the Spring. 36 year old Chappy Goodwin got 5 starts and didn't win any of them. In his best outing he gave up 7 runs in 7 innings. 24 year old Charlie Charles got 8 starts and won one of them. The win was a pretty good outing: he gave up only 1 unearned run in 7 innings against Baltimore. But he gave up at least 7 runs in the rest of his starts. He started once against us and we beat them 8 to 3. 40 year old George McCormick got 8 starts and won 2 of them. The Wolverines lost all 6 of the starts he did not win. 26 year old John Walker got 15 starts. Detroit went 11-4 when he started. He faced us 4 times and the Wolverines beat us every time. Last season, Walker put up better numbers than any of the other current Detroit hurlers in the National Association. It seems a no-brainer to me to give the job to Walker, but that's not what Trammel thought. For the first game of the year he gave the ball to 40 year old George McCormick.

George McCormick, Det. (40 L 23-36 2.70 last year in the NA) vs. Abe Lowe, Troy (27 R 6-4 1.79 last year in NA).

For the first two innings, Trammel looked like a genius. McCormick set us down in order in the first inning and Porter Thorpe, our best hitter in the Spring games, led off the second inning by striking out. In the third, the floodgates opened, however. Deacon Stone and Abe Lowe led off with singles and after Tomlinson and Carver flied out, Dan Owens tripled to give us the first runs of the game. Thorpe followed with a double and Willard DeVaux singled to put us up 4 to 0. We scored 4 more in the 4th and the rout was on. Lowe only gave the Wolverine 6 hits on the day and we

Won: 10 to 1

Now, there is supposed to be a rule in our league that you have to finish the game with the same nine that you started with, unless someone gets injured. And even then, you're only supposed to be allowed to put in a substitute for the injured player if the opposing team agrees that the injury is severe enough to warrant it. So, in the 8th inning when McCormick's time at bat comes up, Trammel sends Jack McGuire to bat for him. "McCormick's tweaked his knee," he says. We're already up 10 to 1, so I don't argue it, but in the bottom of the inning, McGuire is not sent out to the box to pitch, instead it's John Walker. "What happened to McGuire?," I ask. "His wife is up in the stands. She had a case of the flutters and he needed to go attend to her," says Trammel. They just need to get rid of the rule; I'm the only one who follows it.

Other doin's:
Philadelphia (1) at Boston (4): Monk Cunningham allowed ony 1 unearned run to the Centennials in 6 innings of work and then hurt his hip sliding on the basepaths and had to come out of the game. Joe Phelps came in for Boston and shut Philadelphia out for the final 3 innings. Second baseman George Lucas had 3 hits and a double for the Red Caps. Paul Skinner pitched and lost for Philadelphia.

Baltimore (7) at Washington (4): Youngster Steve Sedam did not allow an earned run to Washington in the winning effort for Baltimore. Pete Tyson was the loser. Centerfielder Malachi Valiente had 2 doubles and scored 3 times for the Canaries. Baltimore won despite making 8 errors to Washington's 4.

New York (17) at St. Louis (2): Harry Mays beat Dick Dixon. Mutual Third baseman Danny Nelson had 4 hits including a double and scored 3 times while knocking in 5 runs. Centerfielder Billy Simpson also had 4 hits including 2 doubles. New York out-hit St. Louis 20 to 8. The Brown Stockings made 12 errors, 5 of them by shortstop Bob Rene.

[Questdog]

Wednesday April 5 vs. St. Louis Brown Stockings (0-1 Lost 17 to 2 at home against New York)
Manager Jim Griffin has moved Bob Rene to second base after he made 5 errors at shortstop in the first game. Veteran Jim Huth takes his place. Larry Jenks moves from second to third and Ike Duncan who had 2 hits but made 2 errors at third base moves to the bench.

Dick Dixon, St. L. (31 R 0-1 7.20 Last year in the NA he was 13-18 with a 2.92 ERA) vs. Abe Lowe, Troy (27 R 1-0 0.00)

Down 5 to 4 in the bottom of the 9th, Dan Owens reached on an error by second baseman Rene and Thorpe singled. But Willard DeVaux and Joe Lees both failed to plate a run and that brought up our worst hitter in shortstop Marty Rodgers with 2 outs. Now every other manager in this league would have claimed some sort of ailment to Rodgers to get a different hitter up there, but I did not and Rodgers singled to tie the game. Catcher Stone singled next, but for some reason Thorpe did not try to score from second base with 2 outs and the pitcher Abe Lowe coming up next. It would have been a close play, but I wished he'd a tried it. Lowe flied out to center to send the game into extra innings. In the 10th inning, the Brown Stockings scored twice on a single by Buck Freeman, a triple by Bill Goldberg and another single by Levi Marsala. In the bottom of the inning, with 2 on and 2 out, DeVaux doubled to score one, but Owens held up at third base and I again wished he would have tried to make it home. Up next, Joe Lees hit the ball well but leftfielder Bill Hummel ran it down to end the game and we

Lost: 7 to 6 in 10 innings.

We lost despite out-hitting St. Louis 15 to 10 and despite committing half the errors they did (5 to 10). Ed Tomlinson, Willard DeVaux, Marty Rodgers and Deacon Stone each had 3 hits for us.

Other doin's:
Boston (5) at Baltimore (6): Youngster Steve Sedam improved to 2-0 by beating Monk Cunningham (1-1). Shortstop Fred Clapp had 3 hits and 2 RBIs for Baltimore.

Philadelphia (11) at New York (5): Paul Skinner won his first game (1-1 against Harry Mays (1-1). Only one of the 10 runs Mays allowed was earned as the Mutuals committed 10 errors behind their manager/pitcher. Shortstop Robert Dykeman had 4 hits and 2 RBIs for Philly.

Washington (7) at Detroit (6): Pete Tyson (1-1) beat George McCormick (0-2). Centerfielder Amos Martin had 3 hits including the first ever home run in the Liberty League for Washington. Leftfielder Roger Stewart made 4 errors for Detroit.

[Questdog]

Saturday April 8 at Philadelphia Centennials (1-1)

Abe Lowe, Troy (27 R 1-1 0.95) vs. Paul Skinner, Phi1. (25 L 1-1 3.18 He was 20-25 with a 2.21 ERA last year in the NA)

The Centennials set the all-time record (so far) with only 1 error in the game and when a team does that they are going to win. So, we

Lost: 8 to 2

Third baseman Joe Carter and left fielder Dave Bigelow each had 3 hits for Philadelphia. Carter scored 3 times. Our left fielder Dick Carver twinged his back making an awesome diving catch and had to come out of the game. He'll be hurting for 5 days or so.

Other doin's:
Detroit (4) at Baltimore (2): Oldster George McCormick (1-2) got his first win and youngster Steve Sedam (2-1) took his first loss. Detroit center fielder Henry Theroux had as many hits himself as the whole Baltimore team had (3) including a triple. His close friends call him David.

New York (8) at Boston (4): Harry Mays (2-1) over Monk Cunningham (1-2). Second baseman Tom McDonald had 3 hits for New York.

St. Louis (4) at Washington (6): Pete Tyson (2-1) beat Dave Dixon (1-2). Right fielder Levi Marsala had 4 hits in a losing cause. Bob Rene was back at shortstop for St. Louis and made 3 more errors. He now has 10 all told in the first 3 games.

Rochester beat Pittsburgh in the International Association to improve to 3-0 on the season and now sits all alone in first place.

[Questdog]

Monday April 10 vs. New York Mutuals (2-1 tied for 1st place)

Abe Lowe is still my main pitcher, but after losing 2 in a row I am going to give Dan Melvin a shot today. Pete Castelli will get the start in left for the injured Dick Carver.

Harry Mays, N. Y. (34 L 2-1 1.82) vs. Dan Melvin (27 R 0-0 -- He was 27-29 with a 2.53 ERA last year in the NA)

Melvin gave up a hit in the first inning, but struck out the Mutuals cleanup hitter, rf Mort Connell to end the threat. Center fielder Ed Tomlinson led off our half of the first with a home run! He ended up with 3 hits on the day and scored twice. However, he later twisted his back making a running catch and will miss the next 3 weeks. We matched Philadelphia's accomplishment of only making one error on the day (by shortstop Marty Rodgers). When you do that, you win and we

Won: 6 to 0

Dan Melvin allowed only 6 hits to the mighty New York attack that had averaged 10 runs a game in their first 3 outings. Right now, Abe Lowe is still my number one guy, but it's nice to know I have two fellas that can get the job done.
After the game I put Ed Tomlinson on the disabled list and sent word to Henry Torrey at Rochester to put Joe Marks on a train to Troy. Marks has started off hotter than hot in the International Association going 9 for his first 16 with 4 doubles!

Other doin's:
Boston (9) at Detroit (8): Monk Cunningham (2-2) over George McCormick (1-3). Boston was down 6 to 1, but 4 runs in the 7th and 4 more in the 8th changed that. 2b George Lucas had 3 hits for Boston and scored twice.

Philadelphia (5) at Washington (2): Manager Dave Watford took his first turn in the box and beat Mike Waggener (0-1). Watford also had a pair of hits.

Baltimore (1) at St. Louis (12): Al Byrne (1-0) over Miller Bullock (0-1). St. Louis made 29 errors in their first 3 games but did not make any in this game, the first Liberty League team to accomplish that feat. Baltimore made 12 miscues.

[progen]

Will be following! Good luck with Troy, but living 45 minutes outside of Philly, I'll be rooting for the Centennials!

[Questdog]

Okay, I am home sick as a dog and I am going to play OOTP all day and probably all weekend non-stop, but I don't feel much like writing, so I'm just gonna post the scores and maybe a comment or two. And don't give me any sympathy posts; it's just a cold and everybody gets 'em every once in a while. I very rarely do, but this weather we've had going from 80 to 40 has gotten the better of me.

Thursday April 13 at Boston Red Caps (2-2)

Joe Marks takes the center field job today and Len Cardillo starts in left.

Abe Lowe, Troy (27 R 1-2 2.00) vs. Monk Cunningham, Bos. (33 L 2-2 3.60)

Won: 11 to 3

3b Joe Lees had 4 RBIs on 2 triples. Boston out-hit us 13 to 11, but made 9 errors to our 3. Another outfielder got hurt for us, Len Cardillo. He'll miss the next two weeks. We put him on the DL and called up IF/OF Joe Wells who is not much of a hitter but is a versatile fielder.

Other doin's:
Philadelphia (8) at Baltimore (4): Paul Skinner (3-1) over Steve Sedam (2-2). cf Jim Kruppa had a double and a triple, scoring twice and knocking in a pair for Philly. The Centennials again only made a single error.

Washington (6) at New York (7): Harry Mays (3-2) over Pete Tyson (2-2). lf Carney Kelly had 3 hits. c Ed Slater won the game with a 2-out single in the bottom of the 9th.

St. Louis (8) at Detroit (5): Dick Dixson (2-2) beat George McCormick (1-4). Dixon only allowed 5 hits. 3b Ike Duncan had 3 hits and a double, knocking in 2 and c Freeman Rose had 2 hits, including a 2-run home run for St. Louis.

[Questdog]

Saturday April 15 at Washington Olympics (2-3)

Dick Carver is well enough to go again in left.

Abe Lowe, Troy (27 R 2-2 1.75) vs. Pete Tyson, Wash. (28 L 2-2 3.03)

Lost: 8 to 0

Washington only made 2 errors and we hit into 3 double plays.

Other doin's:
Detroit (8) at Philadelphia (6): John Walker (1-0) finally gets his first start and beats Paul Skinner (3-2). c Bert Boyum had 3 hits and a double for Detroit.

New York (8) at Baltimore (2): John Kyle (1-0) in his first start bests Steve Sedam (2-3). lf Warren Ware at 2 hits and scored 3 times for New York.

Boston (13) at St. Louis (5): Monk Cunningham (3-3) beat Dick Dixson (2-3). Cunningham only allowed 7 hits. 2b John Westbrook and lf Jimmy Tolle each had 3 hits for Boston. Westbrook scored twice and Tolle knocked in 2.