Welcome to the World Baseball League

[matttb324]

Beginning in 1901, I hope to document here the newly-formed World Baseball League on a regular basis, as it proceeds from 1901 to 2023 or beyond. As with my previous attempt, I hope to spotlight a player or league event each (in-game) month. I am especially interested in "what if" questions...What if Josh Gibson had an MLB career, what if Babe Ruth had been in a small market, what if Ted Williams did not go into the military and so forth...

I am also hoping to learn more about real MLB players, so I plan to include an interesting fact in each write-up from a player's SABR bio. Before getting into OOTP last year, I had gotten into the habit of reading baseball history here and there. But I find it much more fun to read in tandem with a league like this - a great excuse to learn the players and personalities through the years.



The league has humble origins but hopes to eventually add worldwide franchises. While I've decided to follow each eras' strategies, financials and stat tendencies, I thought it would be most interesting to put the league into a modern setting including:
*162 game seasons starting in 1902
*Free Agency
*Black players joining the league as soon as draft pools allow
*Modern stadiums, a small group of which will include turf

Welcome to the World Baseball League!

[matttb324]

I wanted to go about setting up the league in an organized fashion, so I began by taking a look at the US population data from 1900. The American and National League were competing and placing franchises in cities for that purpose. But for the WBL, I decided to try to award franchises based on city populations from the time. I also divided the leagues into East and West to create plenty of strong rivalries.

In the East, New York got a franchise along with Brooklyn (which had just joined NY as borough). I gave Boston one, not two, as well as Philly, one, not two. Washington and Baltimore received one, Baltimore is especially high on the list. Buffalo was also surprisingly high up on the list in 1900 so they got a franchise. I wanted one very small market, so Providence, which was much higher up on the list in 1900 than it would be now also got a club.
In the West, not limited by travel issues, I gave teams to 2 large cities, L.A. and San Francisco, two truly "west" locations. In addition, clubs went to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis and Cincinnati, cities which would lose population through the century but were quite large comparatively at the time. I ended up giving Chicago one franchise rather than two.
My plan is to take two of the cities that don't perform well financially and on the field and move their franchises in the first couple decades to a place like New Orleans, Milwaukee, Minneapolis or another city deserving of a team.

16 cities ready to compete!

[matttb324]

The nexr step in setting up the league was to adopt team nicknames. I spent a little time on this. Here are the teams:

Eastern:
Boston Battalions - Related to Boston's Revolutionary War history and fans can call them the "Bats"
Philadelphia Keystones - For the Keystone state
Providence Silver Stars - For Providence's silver industry
Buffalo Blizzards - Cold!
Brooklyn Red Devils - After a Civil War battalion from Brooklyn
Baltimore Blue Crabs - Local delicacy
Washington Potomacs - Had the old Pittsburgh Alleghenys (after that nearby river) in mind
New York Highrisers - For skyscrapers and fastballs

Western:
Cleveland Timbers - For the "Forest City"
Cincinnati Moonshots - To honor native Neil Armstrong and a moonshot is a long home run
Pittsburgh Crawfords - To honor the old Negro League team
Chicago Mugsies - Had the old Cleveland Naps in mind. Mugsy McGraw is the team's leader
Detroit Pinstripes - For pinstripes on '50s cars and their uniforms
San Francisco Aftershocks - Earthquakeville
Los Angeles Lobos - A little Spanish alliteration
St. Louis Clydesdales - Chosen by Busch ownership

[matttb324]

Opening Day for the inaugural season is here and the Cleveland Timbers are off to a fast start with Nap Lajoie, Sam Crawford and Kid Elberfeld leading the way. The SS is hitting .375 and the team is 9-2. The Tabasco Kid has a fascinating biography. SABR says he was called "“the dirtiest, scrappiest, most pestiferous, most rantankerous [sic], most rambunctious ball player that ever stood on spikes”

[matttb324]

Buffalo is in first place by a game and a half heading into June in a tight division. 23 year-old Mike Donlin may have a big career ahead of him. In the MLB, Donlin's wild personality led him to underperform. From SABR's bio: "Donlin’s love of the bottle and frequent stints in vaudeville limited him to the equivalent of only seven full seasons." His OOTP photo also doesn't feature the scar running down his left cheek from a knifing,

[matttb324]

The San Francisco Aftershocks have been led by Christy Matthewson on the mount (1.80 ERA) and Jesse Burkett at the plate. The Outfielder is the only .400 hitter in the WBL.

I thought this was pretty funny from SABR's bio: "On and off the field, “The Crab”—as his Cleveland Spiders teammates dubbed him—was cranky and unsociable, prone to challenging opponents with his fists and insulting fans and umpires with strings of expletives so creative that sportswriters of the day could only reprint his repartee by omitting all the bad language, which usually made his harangues incomprehensible. In 1906, one publication rendered a Burkett tirade this way: “Why you blank, blankety blank, do you know what I think of you? I think you are the blankest blank blank that ever came out of the blank blankest town in the blank blank land. You ought to be put in a museum.”

[matttb324]

No suprise really but Nap Lajoie is ahead in batting average, tied in home runs (8), leads in RBI and has his Cleveland Timbers in first place in the Western League. Some player!
From his SABR bio:"In 1905, Nap’s leg nearly had to be amputated after the blue dye in his socks poisoned a spike wound. The leg recovered, but the incident led to a new rule requiring teams to use sanitary white socks."

[matttb324]

In one of the stranger seasons I can remember, Mike O'Neill, who does not have a SABR bio, is 30-6 for the 7th place LA Lobos. Los Angeles is just 56-65. It will be interesting to see if he or Christy Matthewson of SF wins the ACE Award. Big Six has the Western League's best ERA but has not been as fortunate with wins despite being on a better team.
Mike O'Neill only won 36 games in the majors.

[matttb324]

The aging and suspect Buffalo Blizzards win the Eastern League by 1 game. They actually led pretty much all the way, often by between 5 and 10 games but they went to 2-8 in their last 10, lost their final 6 and squeaked by Providence. Buffalo's best player is probably SS George Davis who is in the Hall of Fame but died in obscurity. This from SABR: "Davis vanished from public after that until 1968, when Hall of Fame historian Lee Allen discovered his death certificate. Davis had been admitted to Philadelphia General Hospital in 1934 and three weeks later was transferred to a mental hospital in the city. He died on October 17, 1940, at age 70. The cause was paresis—insanity produced by syphilitic alteration of the brain that leads to dementia and paralysis."

[matttb324]

The Buffalo Blizzards defy the odds and win the first WBL World Series, sweeping what looked like a superior Cleveland team led by Nap Lajoie and Sam Crawford. Mike Donlin wins the World Series MVP, he hit .600 in the short series with 7 RBI.

[matttb324]

Nap Lajoie takes the triple crown despite Cleveland's World Series loss:

[matttb324]

Frank "Piano Mover" Smith could have a big career. He is projected as a 5-star player and is already making an impact two years before he began in MLB. He is 5-2 and leads the league in ERA for St. Louis.



From SABR: "Frank Elmer Smith, known during his playing days as the “Piano Mover” because he used to boast that he could “carry a baby grand up four flights of stairs without a rest,” was a mainstay of the Chicago White Sox pitching staff between 1904 and 1909, winning 104 games for the club during that span."

[matttb324]

The Cleveland Timbers, after being swept in the World Series in 1901, look like the team to beat in 1902. Their lineup, especially the top 5, is very dangerous and includes three Hall of Famers, Nap Lajoie, Ed Delahanty and Sam Crawford. I am interested to see where Delahanty ends up, not having stepped into the Niagara River as he did in real life in 1903. 5th place hitter Dan McGann also had a strange suicide. From SABR:

"On the night of December 13, 1910, McGann was found dead in his room in Besler’s Hotel in Louisville, with a bullet in his chest and a revolver in his hand. The coroner ruled his death a suicide. Indeed, McGann was said to be preoccupied with the tragic deaths of several close family members. In 1909 one of his brothers had taken his own life. The previous New Year’s Eve, another brother had died due to an infection resulting from an accidental shooting. McGann’s sister committed suicide in 1890 following the death of their mother. Despite that unfortunate family history, McGann’s two surviving sisters believed that he’d been murdered. Missing from his hand was a diamond ring worth $800, which witnesses had noticed McGann wearing when he was last seen alive, but a diamond pin, $37 in cash, and a $1,000 promissory note were still on his body when it was found."

[matttb324]

The Boston "Bats" or Battalions are running away with the Eastern League. Providence has won 5 straight and are still down nearly 10 games. A big reason why is Rube Waddell who after an off 1901 (11-18, 3.17) is having a very good 1902 for Boston, 11-3, 2.03 ERA so far.

I was not familiar with the reason for Waddell's premature death. From SABR: "The following winter, Waddell lived with Cantillon at the manager’s farm in Hickman, Kentucky, a small village situated on a bend of the Mississippi River. When flood waters threatened to swallow the town, Rube stood in icy water for hours helping stack sandbags for the levee. As a result, he contracted a severe case of pneumonia. His system weakened, Waddell soon became a victim of tuberculosis."

[matttb324]

The Brooklyn Red Devils may be in last place in the Eastern League but they are putting together quite the rotation. Big Ed Walsh is currently pitching for the club, Addie Joss will be back from an injury in two months and now Chief Bender has been drafted #1 overall. That's three Hall of Famers in one rotation. Seems likely that the Red Devils will add another #1 overall pick for next year as well as they are heading for the worst record in the WBL again.

SABR recalls one hell of a day from Bender: "Near the end of the 1905 season, however, Bender showed he could labor long if given the chance. The Athletics needed to win two games against Washington to all but secure the pennant. Bender won the first game 8-0 and came on as a relief pitcher in the second game to win that one as well. It was an incredible one-day performance. Bender pitched 15 innings, won two games, and struck out 14 Senators. What’s more, he was the hitting hero. A right-handed hitter who posted a lifetime .212 batting average, he made five hits in six official at-bats, including two triples and a two-run double in the fourth inning of the second game that pushed Philadelphia ahead. On the day he drove in seven runs."

[matttb324]

The LA Lobos are one of two California teams in the WBL. The club does not have the most loyal fans but they play in a big market with home games at Global Field. The team sports a gray and white home uniform and a red and gray road uniform.

[matttb324]

After a strong start by Cleveland in the Western League, the Cincinnati Moonshots have taken over the league, now 82-52 heading into September and up 5 and a half over up and coming LA. Deacon Phillippe leads the Western with a 21-12 mark, 2.97. The team also features Ginger Beaumont, Scoops Carey, Jimmy Sheckard and Frank Chance.

SABR's biography outlines the incredible World Series Phillippe had in 1903: "In the eight-game series spread over 13 days, he pitched five complete games, recording all three of his team’s victories. It is unlikely that this performance will be matched any time soon. To show their appreciation, Pittsburgh fans presented him with a diamond horseshoe stickpin and team owner Barney Dreyfuss rewarded him ten shares of stock in the club.'

[matttb324]

The Boston Battalions are world champions for 1902. They defeat Cincinnati 4 games to 1 with 2 victories behind Rube Waddell, series MVP. Waddell defeated Cincy's Deacon Philippe in both games and allowed just 1 run in each. Jimmy Sheckard did set a WBL record with 5 hits in Game 5 for the Moonshots.

Here's a wild deadball story about Sheckard from SABR: "On June 2, 1908, Sheckard nearly lost the use of his left eye as a result of a fistfight with teammate Heinie Zimmerman. During the melee Jimmy threw something at the young infielder. Infuriated, Zimmerman picked up a bottle of ammonia and hurled it at his assailant. The bottle broke as it hit Sheckard between the eyes, spilling ammonia all over his face. Chance ran to Sheckard’s assistance but Zimmerman had the best of the manager, too, until the rest of the team intervened. The Cubs originally tried to cover up the incident, but Sheckard was sidelined for several weeks and the story eventually leaked. ."

[Ajeje Brazorf]

Loving your work Matt!
All the historical insight on the players are super interesting as well, keep it up!

[matttb324]

Thanks, I appreciate it. I find it a really fun way to learn baseball history.