Birmingham Faces Dayton in 1901 Circuit Series!

[Cooleyvol]

For the third season in a row, the Birmingham Black Stockings have won the Western Alliance of the Professional Circuit and will face the Dayton Gems, champions of the Eastern Federation for the 1901 Circuit Series Championship.

Dayton outlasted Eastern juggernaut, the Harrisburg Rubes and won the East by 3 games while Birmingham had a much easier road and pulled away from Kansas City's Clarions to win the Western flag by 6 games.

Birmingham is led once again by SP Anthony Hopper. Hopper, now 26 years old, just finished a 27-10 campaign with an ERA of 3.21 and 270 strikeouts. Hopper now sits at 13th in career wins with 97 and has many years left to grace the mound of Jefferson Memorial Stadium. Hopper is joined in the three man rotation by Babe Green, the 4th round initial draft pick of the Birmingham nine in 1895. Green has done nothing in 7 seasons but win 117 games (5th all time). His 1901 numbers are 25-13 with a 4.00 ERA in 362 IP. The third man to take the hill will be Jumbo Shaw. Shaw given up by Des Moines in the '00 Protection draft was scooped up by Birmingham and responded with a 15-11 season, sporting a 5.13 ERA.
Pitching isnt all the Black Stockings have to come at you with. CF Gardner Kingston sets the plate out of the leadoff spot to the tune of a .411 OBP. Frankie Berry hit .358 out of the two spot and 1B Pig Morgan follows him with a .378 BA for the season. As if that weren't enough, here comes more. 1897 first overall pick, Michael Carey hits .342 in cleanup and Japp Clark had 10 dingers this season while hitting .296. The lower part of the order consists of 3B Louis Post (.277), catching specialist Charles Hamilton and hitting ninth is RF Samuel Butt (.306).

Dayton's Gems, a part of the International Conference in 1900 when the PC bought and absorbed the league, has won the Eastern flag in only their second year in the league. This club was brought over in tact along with Des Moines in 1900.
Dayton's prowess is hitting as the club hit .299 as a group this season, second in the Circuit.
SS Jackson Boon leads it off with a .360 BA and .454 OBP. CF Jack Davis hit .344 on the year and follows Boon. Leonard Gore and Jack Noon follow and bring the power. Gore (.335) with 12 dingers and Noon (.370)with 11. C Napoleon Easterbrook (.267), Norman Kruse (.296), and 2B Willie Camp (.288) round out the lineup for the Gems.
But that's not all in Dayton! SP Andrew Cary has won 40 games since the club joined the Professional Circuit and looks to be the starter in Game 1 of the 9 game series.

Its the classic struggle of good pitching vs good hitting.............
It'll be a good one to watch, so here's to a competitive series and 9 games of fun!

[canadiancreed]

as the owner of the Dayton Gems, i'm amazed that we were able to get past Harrisburg, that team is scary.

I'm REALLY impressed with Jackson Boon. He's pulled a hole that we've had on this team and done much more than I coudl ever expect. Combined with career years from Davis, Gore, Noon, Cary, and good performances from Easterbrook, Kruse and Camp and i'm liking how this team is comign together.