The Third Major League - a fictional history of the Federal League

[Tiger Fan]

THE THIRD MAJOR LEAGUE

This is the story of the 'Third Major League' and how a groundbreaking decision made in 1914 changed the complexion of the sport, literally. The Federal League started as a rival to the American and National League's in 1914 and suffered through a marginally attended season that was almost completely ignored by newspapers and fans alike.

Faced with mounting financial losses and a difficulty in attracting fans to watch second tier players, the Federal League made a groundbreaking decision at a meeting in Brooklyn on December 4, 1914. By a 6-2 margin the league owners voted to allow players of color on their fields. The league would immediately garner attention, although certainly not all positive, but the controversy caused people to take notice and eventually the quality of play would be on par with that of the original 2 leagues.

Of course I am getting well ahead of the story as we must go back to the beginning for a complete history of baseball. Back to 1871 when the American and National Leagues declared themselves to be professional baseball leagues and would dominate the sport for the next 45 years. There were other leagues that would prop up through the years but, unlike the Federal League which looked for a truly national footprint, these other leagues would be much more regionalized and never a serious threat the "Original Two".

It is the arrival of the Federal League that will be most anticipated in this dynasty. Who knows? Oscar Charleston and Ty Cobb could end up teammates on a Federal League championship squad? Will the Federal League grow large enough to challenge the World Series champion for bragging rights? Or will the Federal League find competition from both the major leagues and Negro Leagues for players too difficult to survive and fade away during the Great Depression? Only time will tell.



--------------------------------
So that is the premise of my OOTP18 dynasty.

Now that I have spent some time tinkering with the game and run a couple of longterm sims I want to focus more on a historical league and sim at a slower pace. I am starting in 1871 with complete minors enabled and will add some other minor leagues along the way as I sim forward but the main focus will be on having the Federal League declare itself a major league in 1915 and allow Negro League players to perform in the league. As a result, I will sim farily quickly until the Federal League makes it's groundbreaking decision.


I am disabling the amateur draft so rookies will be free to sign where they choose. Other than that I am using pretty much default settings for everything except instead of using recalculate ratings I am going to base ratings on a players entire career but let the OOTP talent development engine take over. This will likely result in a number of players who only had a very limited minor league career becoming superstars in my MLB and some real-life MLB stars doing little in this league, but that is fine with me as I like the unpredictability the development engine adds, making it almost a fictional replay.

Like virtually of all of the universe's I run, I will act as league commissioner only and not run a team. I am an observer - or reporter- of the league history and will play no role in shaping it.

So let's begin.

I decided to start in 1871 even though the game is more or less fictional until 1901 as there are an American and a National League with 4 teams each. I could have tinkered with things and moved teams each year to mimic the multiple major leagues of the time but this is a semi-fictional universe so I will just go with it and keep the 4 team AL and NL setup until the game manually expands those leagues. Once there are enough players built up in the free agent pool I will add some other leagues to the universe.

We begin with an Inagural Player draft and the first 6 players chosen in the opening round are all pitchers, beginning with the Philadelphia Athletics selection of 20 year old Al Spalding.

[Tiger Fan]

1871

Professional baseball begins with a 30 game season and the St Louis Brown Stockings and Chicago White Stockings prove to be the class of their respective leagues. St Louis is led by the major league's top pitcher as George Zettlein leads both leagues in wins, era and innings pitched.

In the first World Series, Chicago takes the opener on the road as the White Stockings claim a 10-7 victory which came in a large part because St Louis committed 10 errors in the contest.

St Louis evens the series two days later with a 7-6 victory thanks to a 3-run 9th inning. The best of three affair would need a final game to declare a winner at it would be Chicago as Cherokee Fisher pitched a gem in a 3-2 White Stockings victory.

			1871 STANDINGS
AMERICAN LG	 W  L     GB	NATIONAL LG	 W  L    GB
St Louis	23  7   -	Chicago		22  8    -
Baltimore 	14 16   9.0	Boston		16 14   6.0
Philadelphia	12 18  11.0	Brooklyn	16 14   6.0
Cleveland	11 19  12.0	Cincinnati	 6 24  16.0

			BATTING AVG
Fergy Malone	BAL	.429	Steve King	CHI	.420
Ezra Sutton	StL	.397	Levi Meyerle	BKN	.419
Cal McVey	CLE	.387	Lip Pike	BKN	.411

			HOME RUNS
Ezra Sutton	StL	 5	Levi Meyerle	BKN	6
Tom York	PHI	 3	Gat Stires	BKN	4

		       RUNS BATTED IN
Ezra Sutton	StL	36	George Wright	BOS	35
Fred Waterman	BAL	34	Deacon White	BOS	34
John Bass	PHI	30	Art Allison	BOS	31

			EARNED RUN AVERAGE
George Zettlein StL	2.60	Cherokee Fisher CHI	2.73
Asa Brainard    BAL	3.26	Bobby Mathews	BOS	3.35
Al Spalding	PHI	3.77	Bill Stearns	BKN	3.55	

			     WINS
George Zettlein StL    23-7	Cherokee Fisher	CHI	22-8
Asa Brainard    BAL    13-16	Bill Stearns	BKN	15-13
Dick McBride	CLE    11-18	Bobby Mathews   BOS     14-11

[Tiger Fan]

1872

The St Louis Brown Stockings dominated the American League to win their second straight pennant. Pitcher George Zettlein (36-11, 1.95) was again the top hurler in either league and a key reason for the Brown Stockings success.

The National League race went right down to the wire and the Brooklyn Atlantics needed a win over Cincinnati on the seasons final day to force a tie with Chicago for first place. Alas, the Atlantics fell to the Reds and finished tied with Cincinnati, one game back of the repeat champion White Stockings.

The story of the league was Brooklyn outfielder Levi Meyerle, who hit at an amazing .496 clip and also led the majors in homeruns with 6 and tied for the RBI lead with 54, making him the first triple crown winner in history. Meyerle also had a 33 game hit streak during the season but that total was surpassed by Chicago's Steve King, who hit safely in 35 consecutive games.

			1872 STANDINGS
AMERICAN LG	 W  L     GB	NATIONAL LG	 W  L    GB
St Louis	39 11   -	Chicago		29 21    -
Philadelphia	24 26  15.0	Brooklyn	28 22   1.0
Cleveland	22 28  17.0	Boston		28 22   1.0
Baltimore 	15 35  24.0	Cincinnati	15 35  14.0

			BATTING AVG
Cal McVey 	CLE    .354	Levi Meyerle	BKN	.496
Cap Anson	PHI    .342	Steve King	CHI	.420
Ezra Sutton	StL    .332	George Wright	BOS	.409	

			HOME RUNS
Fred Treacey	StL	 5	Levi Meyerle	BKN	6
John Bass	PHI	 4	Lip Pike	BKN	4

		       RUNS BATTED IN
John Bass	PHI	42	Levi Meyerle	BKN	54
Jimmy Wood	StL	42	Lip Pike	BKN	54
Dickie Flowers	StL	36	Jim O'Rourke	BKN	50

			EARNED RUN AVERAGE
George Zettlein StL	1.95	Bobby Mathews	BOS	2.45
Cy Bentley	CLE	2.60	Cherokee Fisher CHI	3.10
Al Spalding	PHI	2.64	Bill Stearns	BKN	3.74	

			     WINS
George Zettlein StL    36-11	Bobby Mathews   BOS     28-21
Al Spalding	PHI    23-23	Cherokee Fisher	CHI	27-17
Dick McBride	CLE    21-24	Jim Britt	BKN	17-12

1872 WORLD SERIES
For the second year in row the World Series would match St Louis against Chicago. The White Stockings took the opener 8-3 as Cherokee Fisher outpitched George Zettlein while his batterymate Bill Craver had a pair of hits and 3 rbi's for the winners.

Chicago completed the sweep and claimed it's second straight World Championship with a 12-8 win in Game Two. Fisher, who allowed just 2 earned runs in the 2 victories, was named the seried MVP for the second year in a row. In World Series action the 27 year old is 4-1 with a 1.40 era.

In real life Cherokee Fisher pitched from about 1867 until his retirement in 1978. He holds the distinction of surrendering the first homerun in National League history, on May 2, 1876 while he was pitching for Cincinnati against Chicago's Ross Barnes. He would compile a record of just 4-20 that season and would pitch only 1 more major league game. He made his way throguh a number of teams and was rumoured to love the bottle more than he loved baseball.

[Tiger Fan]

1873

The Chicago White Stockings continued their dominance of the National League with a third straight title as they finished 3 games ahead of Brooklyn and 4 up on Boston. Cherokee Fisher won 27 games for Chicago while the offensive leadership came from Wes Fisler (.381,1,37) and slugging first baseman Tim Murnane (.292,5,35). The big story in the National League offensively was once again Brooklyn Atlantic Levi Meyerle. The 23 year old smashed 12 homeruns and led the majors in batting for the second straight year, hitting at a .408 clip.

The American League had a new champion as St Louis' 2 year run was ended by Cap Anson and the Philadelphia Athletics. Al Spalding won a league high 30 games for the Athletics but it was their offense led by Anson (.380,0,29), Frank McCarton (.391,0,39) and John Bass (.277,2,48) that led the team to the top of the league.


Cincinnati second baseman Ross Barnes established a new major league record by getting 7 hits in a game against Boston on September 16th. The 23 year old Barnes, who was the Reds first pick in the 1871 inagural draft, singled in all 7 of his at bats in a 22-7 victory.

			1873 STANDINGS
AMERICAN LG	 W  L    GB	NATIONAL LG	 W  L    GB
Philadelphia	34 16    -	Chicago		30 20    -
St Louis	23 27  11.0	Brooklyn	27 23   3.0
Cleveland	22 28  12.0	Boston		26 24   4.0
Baltimore 	21 29  13.0	Cincinnati	17 33  13.0

			BATTING AVG
Fred McCarton	PHI    .391	Levi Meyerle	BKN	.408
Cap Anson	PHI    .380	Wes Fisler	CHI	.381
Jim Foran	CLE    .361	Ross Barnes	CIN	.374	

			HOME RUNS
Jim Foran	CLE      3	Levi Meyerle	BKN	12
several tied with	 2	Tim Murnane	CHI	 5

		       RUNS BATTED IN
John Bass	PHI	48	Deacon White	BOS	55
Jim Foran	CLE	43	Levi Meyerle	BKN	54
Fred Waterman	BAL	42	Jim O'Rourke	BKN	54

			EARNED RUN AVERAGE
Al Spalding	PHI	2.62	Jim Britt	BKN	2.19
George Zettlein StL	2.71	Cherokee Fisher CHI	2.49
Asa Brainard	BAL	2.89	Bobby Mathews	BOS	2.99

			     WINS
Al Spalding	PHI    30-16	Cherokee Fisher	CHI	27-15
Dick McBride	CLE    21-21	Bobby Mathews   BOS     23-22
George Zettlein StL    21-24	Jim Britt	BKN	22-19

1873 WORLD SERIES

The Chicago White Stockings took the opening game of the 1873 series but the Philadelphia Athletics dethroned the two-time defending World Series champs by winning games two and three. A's pitcher Al Spalding was named the Series MVP after outduelling Cherokee Fisher of the White Stockings.

In real life Al Spalding is best known as the co-founder of the sporting goods chain that bears his name but he also was a pitcher who fashioned a lifetime record of 252-65, a manager and a team owner. Spalding is also said to be one of the first players to wear a glove in the field.

[JaBurns]

Thank you for all your dynasties. Your leagues along with the guys over in the historical forum give me ideas that I slowly put into practice with my leagues. Wonder how many iterations it is going to take me to get it "perfect", hopefully a long time because I have as much fun setting up leagues as I do playing the league.

[Tiger Fan]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

Thank you for all your dynasties. Your leagues along with the guys over in the historical forum give me ideas that I slowly put into practice with my leagues. Wonder how many iterations it is going to take me to get it "perfect", hopefully a long time because I have as much fun setting up leagues as I do playing the league.

Thanks. I, like you, have as much fun deciding on a concept and setting up a league as I do playing it out. I am sure many of us suffer from the same challenge and every time we find the perfect league idea we come up with something extra to do for the next one.

[Tiger Fan]

1874

After 3 straight years of looking up at the Chicago White Stockings, the Brooklyn Atlantics finally finished ahead of their rivals and they did so with a dramatic finish. The schedule makers set up a dramatic conclusion to the year by scheduling the two sides to meet in the final 3 games of the season. Entering that 3 game set the Atlantics had a record of 32-25, 2 games back of the White Stockings.

Brooklyn would set the tone for the series right away with a 5-run first inning which propelled the Atlantics to a 16-5 victory in the series opener. Game Two saw the the Atlantics win 9-4 to pull even with the White Stockings heading into the final day of the regular season. Jim Britt, who would win 31 games on the year, was the star of the deciding game as he allowed just 5 Chicago hits. The Atlantics did commit 8 errors, compared to 4 miscues by Chicago, but the Brooklyn side took the pennant with a 9-5 victory.

In the American League the St Louis Brown Stockings reclaimed the title after a one year absence. St Louis won the pennant in each of the first two seasons before finishing second behind Philadelphia a year ago.

			1874 STANDINGS
AMERICAN LG	 W  L    GB	NATIONAL LG	 W  L    GB
St Louis	39 21    -	Brooklyn	35 25    -
Cleveland	32 28   7.0	Chicago		34 26   1.0
Philadelphia	30 30   9.0	Boston		28 32   7.0
Baltimore 	19 41  20.0	Cincinnati	23 37  12.0

			BATTING AVG
George Hall	StL	.377	Levi Meyerle	BKN	.442
Cal McVey	CLE	.366	Jim Clinton	BKN	.375
Joe Start	StL	.359	Deacon White	BOS	.354	

			HOME RUNS
John Bass	PHI      3	Levi Meyerle	BKN	3
Ezra Sutton	StL	 3	Art Allison	BOS	3
				Lip Pike	BKN	3

		       RUNS BATTED IN
Ezra Sutton	StL	47	Deacon White	BOS	50
Dick Higham	StL	38	Lip Pike	BKN	46
Cap Anson	PHI	36	Levi Meyerle	BKN	45

			EARNED RUN AVERAGE
George Zettlein StL	2.18	Jim Britt	BKN	2.18
Dick McBride	CLE	2.27	Bobby Mathews	BOS	2.21
Al Spalding	PHI	2.46	Cherokee Fisher CHI	2.65

			     WINS
George Zettlein StL    36-19	Cherokee Fisher	CHI	34-24
Dick McBride	CLE    31-27	Jim Britt	BKN	31-21	
Al Spalding	PHI    30-29	Joe McDermott	CIN	22-36

1874 WORLD SERIES

St Louis was making it's third appearance in the World Series but still looking for it's first title while the Brooklyn Atlantics were getting their first taste of post-season action in this series.

Game One went to St Louis as Brown Stockings shortstop Ezra Sutton pounded out 4 hits in a 9-4 victory that saw George Zettlein outpitch Jim Britt.

Game Two would be much the same as St Louis claimed the title with an 8-6 victory behind another solid outing from Zettlein.

[Tiger Fan]

1875

The 1875 season gave us the first tie in major league history as the St Louis Brown Stockings and Cleveland Blues finished with idential 35-25 records atop the American League. It was actually a 3-team race as Philadelphia finished just a game back at 34-26. St Louis would advance to their 4th World Series in 5 years with a 4-2 victory over the Blues in the tiebreaker.

In the National League the Brooklyn Atlantics repeated as champion with a 6 game margin over the Cincinnati Reds. It was a big season for the Reds as the club had previously finished last in the 4 team league for each of the first 4 seasons. The key to the Reds success was 19 year old rookie pitcher Sam Weaver, who won 33 games, along with star infielder Ross Barnes.

After losing to the Brown Stockings the previous October, the Brooklyn Atlantics got revenge this time as they swept the World Series 2 games to none.

[Tiger Fan]

1876

The big story in 1876 continued to be the incredible hitting exploits of Brooklyn Atlantics third baseman Levi Meyerle. The 26 year old won his fifth straight National League batting title and has a lifetime average of .434 through six seasons. His lifetime mark is nearly 100 points higher than Brooklyn teammate Jim O'Rourke, who is number two all-time with a .346 lifetime batting average.

This season Meyerle hit .423 and led the Atlantics to their third straight National League pennant. In the American League the Philadelphia Athletics finished first, 3 games up on St Louis. The Athletics got a big season from 28 year old catcher John Bass, who led the league in rbi's for the fourth time in his career plus he hit 11 homeruns, which was one shy of Meyerle's 1873 record.

1876 WORLD SERIES

Brooklyn makes it's third straight World Series appearance and will play the Athletics for the first time. Philadelphia won the 1873 World Series over Chicago in the Athletics only other trip to the Fall Classic.

The series opened in Brooklyn with the visiting Philadelphians trouncing the homeside by a 10-2 score. Cap Anson led the Athletics offense with 3 hits and 3 rbi's while Al Spalding had a strong game on the mound.

Brooklyn evened the series with a 6-4 win in Philadelphia two days later as Jim Britt recovered from a shaky opening game. The Atlantics won despite the fact that hitting star Levi Meyerle had just 1 hit this game after going hitless in the opener.

The series needed a deciding Game Three and it was all Brooklyn as the Atlantics blanked the hometown Athletics 8-0. Jim Britt allowed just 5 hits for the shutout and, while Meyerle again went hitless, Lip Pike and John Morrill picked up the slack offensively for Brooklyn as they combined for 6 hits and 7 rbi's.


The series MVP award went to Brooklyn centerfielder Lip Pike, who was 6 for 12 in the series including a 3 hit performance in the deciding game.

[Tiger Fan]

1877

Cap Anson and the Philadelphia Athletics claimed their second straight American League pennant while the National League saw a first-time winner in the Cincinnati Reds.

The A's were led by Anson (.335,2,45) and Tom York (.273,0,42) along with rookie pitcher Will White (39-20), who replaced Al Spalding as the team's starting pitcher. Spalding was relegated to relief duty despite the fact he was 159-130 over the previous 6 seasons for the Athletics.

Pitching was a key reason for the Reds success, as third year pro Sam Weaver (34-23) surpassed the 30 victory mark for the third straight year. Cincinnati's middle infielder combo of Ross Barnes (.347,0,31) and John Peters (.343,0,26) led the team offensively.

Brooklyn finished second in the National League as the Atlantics offense struggled. At the age of 27 Levi Meyerle had his worst season as a pro, failing to win his 6th straight batting title but he did finish with a .327 batting average.

1877 WORLD SERIES
The Reds took the opener on the road by a 7-2 score as John Peters had 3 hits and drove in a pair of runs while Sam Weaver allowed just 6 Philadelphia hits in going the distance.

Cincinnati earned the title 2 days later with an 8-7 victory at home to complete the two game sweep. Ross Barnes had 3 hits and scored a pair of runs while Peters had 2 more hits and scored twice in the win but the series MVP award went to Reds pitcher Sam Weaver.

[Tiger Fan]

1878

The 1878 season featured two outstanding pennant races and the worst performance by a team in the history of professional baseball.

Let's get the bad out of the way first and the bad is everything about the 1878 Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles finished dead last in virtually every category while winning just 10 of 60 games. Starting pitcher Asa Brainard lost a record 48 games to run his record over the past 8 seasons to 116-288. His 288 losses are well over 100 more than any other pitcher has endured.

As for the good there were a pair of great pennant races that each went to the final day of the season. Philadelphia prevailed over Cleveland in the American League by 1 game after the Athletics beat Baltimore on the final day while the Blues lost in St Louis.

Like the American League there was a tie for top spot in the National League entering the final day of the season. The Chicago White Stockings nipped Boston 2-1 but the Brooklyn Atlantics failed to keep pace as they fell 5-4 at home to Cincinnati after the Reds scored in the top of the ninth to end Brooklyn's season.

Brooklyn third baseman Levi Meyerle failed to hit .400 but he did win the National League batting title for the 6th time in the last seven years with a .367 average. Prior to hitting .327 a year ago, Meyerle had 5 straight seasons batting .400 or better.

1878 WORLD SERIES
The Philadelphia Athletics and Chicago White Stockings each make their fourth trip to the World Series and it will be the second time they met. Philadelphia won their only World Series in 1873 when they beat Chicago, ending a 2 year run by the White Stockings as World Series champs.

Chicago took the opener 12-5 as the Athletics committed 7 errors in Game One. Philadelphia made 9 more miscues in Game Two but their offense was strong enough to overcome it as Frank McCarton had 4 hits and 2 rbi's to pace the Athletics to an 11-10 victory evening the series.

The deciding game went to the visitors as Chicago claimed it's 3rd World Title with a 4-2 victory. White Stockings shortstop Lou Say was named the playoff MBP after going 6 for 12 with 6 rbi's in the series including 3 in the deciding game.

Did not find a lot in real life about Lou Say but I did discover he holds the distinction of being the only player to record more than 100 errors in a season while playing fewer than 100 games. In the sim he is a gold glover, 6 times actually as he has been the top defensive shortstop in the National League for the past 6 years. This season he had 22 errors in 60 games, which is quite good by the standards of this era.

[Tiger Fan]

1879

The season is expanded to 84 games and teams now have the need for a second starting pitcher. As a result the Cleveland Blues dominate the American League thanks to a pair of 28 game winners in Monte Ward and Jim McCormick. Of course, having the best offense in either league certainly helped the Blues cause.

The National League was dominated by the Brooklyn Atlantics as Jim Britt was his usual strong self as the number one starter while rookie lefthander Curry Foley had a solid debut, winning 23 games and leading the National League in ERA.

1879 WORLD SERIES
Cleveland makes it's first trip to the Fall Classic while the Blues opponents from Brooklyn return for the fourth time. The Atlantics won back to back series titles in 1875-1876. This will also mark the final year the World Series is a best of three affair as it will go to a seven game series beginning in 1880.

Cleveland takes the opener at home by a 7-3 score as 19 year old Blues pitcher Monte Ward dominates the game not just on the mound but at the plate as well. Ward has 3 hits and a rbi to help the Cleveland offense while pitching the full 9 innings for the victory.

Ward comes back on two days rest to pitch game two and helps his Cleveland side to an 8-5 victory. The teenage hurler tosses a complete game, allowing 9 hits but no earned runs in the win. First baseman Ed Cogswell had the hot bat for the Blues in Game Two, going 4-for-6 with 2 runs scored.

Monte Ward was named the series MVP. In real life he was an infielder and pitcher who some credit for developing the first curveball. In 1880 he pitched the second perfect game in baseball history, defeating hall of famer Pud Galvin 5-0 in the contest. An injury ended his pitching career but he switched to center field and is said to have taught himself to throw left-handed while his right arm healed so he could play in the outfield for the remainder of the 1884 season. He later would graduate from Columbia Law School and led the players in forming the first sports labor union. After retirement he continued to practice law and later would act as an official in the Federal League. He would die at the age of 65 in 1925 was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the veterans committee in 1964.

[Tiger Fan]

1880

With all teams using multiple starting pitchers the game is starting to shift as batting averages are dropping and with it the number of runs scored drops substantially as well. Fielding continues to be a major difference maker as errors are plentiful.

For the first time the American League did not have a single player bat over .300 and the National League had just two - rookie Cincinnati infielder Roger Connor who led the majors with a .326 average and Levi Meyerle - the greatest hitter in the first decade of the game - who hit .305 for Brooklyn.

Cleveland easily repeated as champion of the American League while the Boston Red Caps became the 7th franchise to win a pennant when they claimed their first National League title. Only the woeful Baltimore Orioles, with a lifetime .296 franchise winning percentage, have failed to win a league title. There is hope for the Orioles going forward as they have added two great young pitchers in Tim Keefe and Mickey Welch, but the youngsters struggled this year with Keefe going 15-26 and Welch posting a 13-29 record.

1880 WORLD SERIES
We switch from a best of three format to a best of seven with the 1880 World Series. The Cleveland Blues successfully defended their World Series title by sweeping the Boston Red Caps in 4 games but the series was much closer than a sweep would indicate.

Each of the first 3 games were decided by a single run including a pair that went into extra innings and the third game was ended with a walk-off single in the ninth inning. Only the final game, an 8-2 rout, was one that Boston did not have a chance to win. Blues pitcher Monte Ward, who allowed just 2 earned runs in 19 innings of work and won both his starts, was named the series MVP for the second year in a row.

[Tiger Fan]

1881

The St Louis Brown Stockings and Brooklyn Atlantics paths have crossed a few times already and will do so once again in the 1881 World Series after the clubs each won their fifth pennant. The Brown Stockings rode a great year from 23 year old rookie pitcher Grasshopper Jim Whitney (24-17, 1.51) to finish 2 games ahead of both Cleveland and Philadelphia in the American League.

The Atlantics ended up with a 3 game cushion on the Chicago White Stockings atop the National League. Veteran Jim Britt (21-19, 2.92) and 21 year old Frank Pearce (23-12, 2.26) gave Brooklyn two very good starting pitchers while outfielders Ed Swartwood (.342,2,49) and Charley Jones (.341,1,37) led the offense.

1881 WORLD SERIES
St Louis and Brooklyn met twice before in the series with the Brown Stockings prevailing in 1874 and Brooklyn claiming the title the following year.

The visiting Brown Stockings won the first two games in Brooklyn by scores of 5-3 and 4-3 before the Atlantics responded with a road win of their own in the third game, winning 3-2. St Louis would take a 3 games to one lead with a 5-4 victory in Game Four only to see Brooklyn hammer the Brown Stockings 11-0 in the fifth game. Brooklyn's luck would run out at home two days later as St Louis won the series with a 3-1 victory in Game Six.

Outfielder John Clapp was the hero of the final game, getting 3 hits and scoring all 3 runs. The 30 year old 10 year veteran had a fantastic series, batting .481 (13-for-27) and was named the World Series MVP.

The real life John Clapp was primarily a catcher, playing 12 seasons with a number of teams including a 2 year stint with the St Louis Brown Stockings. He was a player-manager for several years as well.

[JaBurns]

How can a pitcher from the Louisville Eclipse win the best pitcher award when I cannot find the team in the standings? Unless St Louis is moving to Louisville next year.

[Tiger Fan]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

How can a pitcher from the Louisville Eclipse win the best pitcher award when I cannot find the team in the standings? Unless St Louis is moving to Louisville next year.

That is exactly it. The game does the importing of new minor leagues and franchise moves before it announces the award winners so that puts him on the Eclipse instead of Brown Stockings in the news article.

[Tiger Fan]

1882

Both leagues double in size as 8 new teams are added. In the American League the St Louis franchise moves to Louisville where it will be known as the Eclipse. New teams are added in Chicago (White Sox), Boston (Americans), Washington (Nationals) and Detroit (Wolverines)

The National League gets new franchises in Pittsburgh (Alleghenys), Philadelphia (Quakers), New York (Gothams) as well as a new franchise is placed in St Louis and will be known as the Brown Stockings just like it's predecessor from the American League.

The Philadelphia Athletics win the American League pennant for the fifth time in franchise history as they finish with a 6 game cushion on the transplanted St Louis club which is now known as the Louisville Eclipse. The addition of the 4 expansion clubs allows the lowly Baltimore Orioles to finish with their first winning record in team history. The Orioles still finish 4th for the 11th straight season but at least this year there are now 4 teams below them. The Orioles should be a team to watch if they can just get some offense as pitchers Tim Keefe (23-17, 1.63) and Mickey Welch (24-17, 1.75) are among the best tandem of starters in the league.

The first place Athletics led the league in runs and batting average thanks in no small part to Cap Anson (.308,7,57), Fred Dunlap (.336,5,55) and Pete Hotaling (.321,2,65).

The National League also had a clear divide between the 4 established teams and the 4 newcomers, none of whom finished with anything even close to resembling a winning record. At 30-54 the New York Gothams were the top of the heap from the newcomers. Must have been a real shock for fans in St Louis who lost their American League Brown Stockings to Louisville only to inherit a band of misfits who won just 16 of 84 games.

The Chicago White Stockings claimed the National League pennnat by finishing 2 games ahead of both Brooklyn and Cincinnati. It was the fifth pennant for the White Stockings and ended a 2 year streak of finishing second.

1882 WORLD SERIES
The 1882 World Series marks the 3rd time the Philadelphia Athletics and Chicago White Stockings meet in the Fall Classic. The Athletics prevailed in 1873 while the White Stockings got their revenge in 1878. This will be the fifth World Series appearance for each team with the White Stocking having 3 championships while the Athletics just the one.

The Athletics won the first two games at home by scores of 5-4 and 4-1 with Game Two being a real pitching gem from Larry Corcoran (32-9, 1.88) as he went the distance allowing just 3 hits.

Chicago got back into the series a couple of days later with a 7-6 win in 11 innings on their home field to cut the Philadelphia lead to 2 games to one. The Athletics would wrap up the series with 2 more strong pitching performances : Old Hoss Radbourn in a 6-2 win in Game Four and then Corcoran threw another masterful game in a series clinching 2-1 victory in Game Five.

The Series MVP award went to Philadelphia second baseman Fred Dunlap, who hit .364 in the series with 4 rbi's including a pair of game winners in addition to playing error-free defense for the series.

[Tiger Fan]

1883

Both the Philadelphia Athletics and Chicago White Stockings repeated as pennant winners in 1883 but the White Stockings needed an extra game. The schedule expanded this season to 98 games but that was not enough to settle the National League crown as both the White Stockings and Brooklyn Atlantics finished atop the table with identical 66-32 records.

The 1 game playoff - the first in National League history - was held in Brooklyn but it was the visitors from Chicago who emerged with a 3-1 victory in the tiebreaking game. Tony Mullane went the distance for Chicago, scattering 6 hits, for his 31st victory of the season. Mullane also had 2 hits in the contest including an rbi double in the second inning that provided the game's first run.

The star packed Philadelphia Athletics dominated the American League as the club finished first in just about every offensive and pitching category in the league and coasted home with a 9 game margin on second place Louisville.

Philadelphia had the league's two winningest pitchers in Larry Corcoran (38-10) and Old Hoss Radbourn (26-10) as well as the top 3 batters in the league in Cap Anson (.380,0,65), Fred Dunlap (.365,10,93) and Pete Hotaling (.354,2,67).

1883 WORLD SERIES
The Athletics and White Stockings split the first two games in Chicago to start the series. Larry Corcoran pitched an 8-hit complete game to lead Phialdelphia to a 4-2 win in the opener before the White Stockings evened the series with a 9-5 win in Game Two. Chicago centerfielder Harry Stovey was the star of that game with 4 hits, including a home run, 3 rbi's and 2 runs scored.

The series shifted to Philadelphia for Game Three but the change in venue did nothing to cool off the Chicago bats as the White Stockings pounded Corcoran and the Athletics 7-1. Stovey had 2 more hits and scored a pair of runs while Chicago pitcher "The Only" Nolan tossed a 4-hitter.

Game Four was a defensive mess for the hometown Athletics as they committed 11 errors in an 8-5 loss to fall behind 3 games to one in the series.

Philadelphia first baseman Cap Anson was the Game Five hero as he kept his club alive in the series by driving in the game winning run in the bottom of the 9th to give the Athletics a 5-4 victory.

The comeback fell short as the White Stockings wrapped up the series on their homefield by winning a slugfest 15-11 in Game Six. Harry Stovey had a 4 hit game for the winners and was named Series MVP after finishing with a .423 batting average.

In real life Harry Stovey was the first major leaguer to reach 100 career homeruns. He played 14 seasons in the major leagues and was known as both a prolific home run hitter and base-stealer, leading the league in both categories multiple times. Born in Philadelphia he spent much of his carer with the Athletics. In 2011, SABR named Stovey the Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend of the year as he is not yet inducted into the Hall of Fame.

[Tiger Fan]

1884

MINOR LEAGUES
At the end of the 1883 season my league free agent total jumped from around 100 to over 700 free agents. As a result I am now able to start adding other leagues into this universe.

The first new league to appear is the Western League. The league will run with a budget about 15% of that which the MLB teams have so I expect very few name players will sign there but the MLB teams do have the option to purchase players from the Western League should they so desire.

The Western League will have 8 teams for its inaugural year, all based in the US midwest.

The top team in the regular season was the Kansas City Cowboys, who finished with a 65-47 record, 2 games ahead of the Toledo Blue Stockings. The first real star of the Western League was Frank Meinke, who took the baseball world by storm as he slugged 18 homers in 91 games for the St Paul Apostles before his contract was purchased by the American League's Detroit Wolverines. His success in St Paul did not translate well in the majors as Meinke went just 2-for-18 with no homeruns in his 6 games to end the season in a Detroit uniform.

In real life Meinke began his baseball career in 1883 with Grand Rapids of the Northwestern League before making his major league debut with the Detroit Wolverines in 1884. He was a pitcher for the Wolverines that year, going 8-23 but he also played some infield. He would return to Detroit in 1885 but play in only 2 more major league games before spending the next few seasons in the minor leagues with stops in Chattanooga and Denver among other places. A native of Chicago, Meinke passed away in that city in 1931 at the age of 68.

It remains to be seen if the simulation Frank Meinke can outperform the real-life one.

In the Western League playoff, second place Toledo swept regular season champion Kansas City 3 straight. Despite losing the series, Kansas City catcher Jerry Moore was named series MVP after going 7-for-14 with 9 rbi's in the 3 games. In the sim this was the first season of action for the 29 year old Moore, who hit .319 in 93 games for the Cowboys during the season. In real-life the native of Windsor, Ontario played just a handful of major league games.

1884 MAJOR LEAGUES

1884 featured a pair of pennant races that went right down to the wire. In the American League the Philadelphia Athletics finished the season with a 69-43 record but had to wait a day to see if they won their third straight pennant because the 68-43 Cleveland Blues had to make up a rained out game with Louisville. The Eclipse put an end to the Blues season with a 9-5 victory in that final game.

Meanwhile on the same day the National League needed a 1-game playoff to determine a pennant winner as both Brooklyn and Chicago were tied at 74-38. The White Stockings two year run as league champions came to an end as Brooklyn pulled out a 6-4 victory behind a 3-hit, 3 run performance from outfielder Pete Browning.

The victory moved the Atlantics back to the World Series after a two year absence.

1884 WORLD SERIES
The Philadelphia Athletics make a record 7th World Series appearance in the 14 year history of the major leagues. Meanwhile the Brooklyn Atlantics are back in the Fall Classic for the 6th time. Each club has won the World Series on 2 occasions. The only previous meeting between the two clubs came in 1876 when the Atlantics prevailed.

The '84 series opened in Philadelphia and the visiting side drew first blood with a 4-3 victory. Brooklyn first baseman Dan Brouthers delivered the winning run with a solo homerun in the top of the 8th inning. Philadelphia evened the series with a 5-3 win in Game Two as Cap Anson went 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored for the Athletics.

After a split of games three and four the Atlantics followed up with wins in games 5 and 6 to take the series. 25 year old Brooklyn third baseman Jerry Denny (.264,6,51), who was acquired from Cincinnati in the off-season, was named series MVP. Denny went 10-for-22 in the series including back to back 3-hit games in the final two games of the series. In Game Six he set a World Series record by becoming the first player ever to hit 2 homeruns in a single World Series game. Quite an accomplishment considering he only hit 6 round-trippers in 111 regular season games.

[Tiger Fan]

1885

They may have a new name but it was the same result for the National League's Brooklyn franchise. Now known as the Grays instead of the Atlantics - a moniker they carried since the league began in 1871 - Brooklyn repeated as league champs by finishing 2 games ahead of Cincinnati.

There was also a new nickname for the Louisville franchise in the American League. After 3 years known as the Eclipse, the team is now the Louisville Colonels. Unfortunately, it was once again close but not quite good enough for Louisville as they finished second in the American League, 7 games back of the Cleveland Blues. Three-time defending champion Philadelphia ended up third.

The Blues won their first pennant since 1880 and were led by a pair of rookie pitchers in 21 year old Toad Ramsey (39-17, 1.64) and 18 year old Mickey Hughes (39-14, 2.22). Ramsay was especially dominant as the Indianapolis native fanned a major league record 373 hitters.

1885 WORLD SERIES
This marks the 7th World Series appearance for Brooklyn while the Blues are making their third trip to the series. Cleveland won both of it's previous World Series including 1879 when they beat the Atlantics, as Brooklyn was formerly known.

This series would also be dominated by Cleveland as the Blues won in 5 games thanks to strong pitching from Hughes and Ramsey. Hughes won both of his starts while allowing just 2 earned runs in 17 innings to earn the series MVP honours. Ramsey also won a pair of games and fanned 13 Brooklyn batters in 21 innings of work.

In real life Ramsey pitched for 5 years in the American Association and is sometimes credited as the inventor of the knuckleball. An injury in his youth had severed the tendon of the index finger on his pitching hand leaving him with a natural knuckleball motion to his pitches. Mickey Hughes had a very short major league career, but his rookie season he earned 25 victories for the Brooklyn Bridegrooms. In all he would win just 39 games over 3 seasons. His younger brother Jay Hughes was also a major league pitcher who threw a no-hitter in 1898.

1885 WESTERN LEAGUE
The Western League's second season featured an incredibly tight race as all 8 teams finished within 5 games of each other. In the end the same two clubs as last season made the playoffs but this time Toledo was first and Kansas City was second. A year ago the second place Blue Stockings upended the Cowboys in the Western Series but this time Kansas City turned the tables by beating the league champs 3 games to one.

Adding this extra league to give some of the fringe players a place to play is already paying dividends as I see that former American League star Al Spalding has found a home in Kansas City after his career seemed washed up in the major leagues. Spalding was the first overall pick in the 1871 startup draft by the Philadelphia Athletics and won 162 games in the major leagues along with 2 pitcher of the year awards and a world championship. He lost his starting job in 1877 and bounced around the majors for the next 8 years, spending most of his time on reserve rosters, before finding a home in Kansas City this season.