Centennial Boy: Clarence Sullivan and the birth of the Boston Americans

jksander · 06-23-2024, 08:43 PM

“Centennial Boy”

Time for an additional historical challenge. I’m going to be starting in 1901 with the Boston Americans as the World Series and Deadball Eras begin, following the GM / Mangerial career of Clarence Sullivan, who was born on July 4, 1876 and is just getting his feet wet in the world of professional baseball. I’m playing in default mode with one year recalc and ratings on a 1-100 scale, 100% scouting accuracy, with rookies imported automatically to their teams and automatic import of financial settings (and I intend to keep the reserve clause in effect for now, though I may decide to introduce free agency in the future). I am turning the coaching system off, as well as turning off owner goals, personality / morale and storylines. All injuries are set to “very low” with no delay on any injury diagnosis. Suspensions are off, and fatigue is set to low. I have the AI set to favor current and previous year stats most heavily (35%) with ratings and “stats two years ago” each set to 15%. Initial roster settings include a 25-man active roster, a no-limit reserve roster, and a 40-man expansion in September. I intend to play out my games, as has become my favorite aspect of the game ... so this league will run in tandem with my “Beyond Astrodome” one.

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April 17, 1901: My name is Clarence Sullivan, and I was born on the day of the American Centennial, July 4, 1876. My family has been in Boston for my entire life and the lives of the previous five generations, and my father was a huge fan of the game of baseball, taking me to see as many games as he could while I was growing up. So when I had the opportunity this year to take over the management and day-to-day operations of the Boston Americans at the request of owner Josh Childress, I had to take it. He’s mainly focused on making money -- the more the better -- and if we’re able to put on a team that can stay about dead even in win percentage, he’ll be patient and keep his hands out of the daily team operations. But we already have a great roster of players on the team, so I think we can put a product out there that will pack fans into our ballpark and give them a winning team. With this year playing into the first-ever “World Series” between the winners of the American and National leagues, excitement in the world of baseball has never been higher.

We don’t have an easy road to start the season ... in a week we’ll play our opening day in Baltimore against the Orioles, the first of four games there, followed by four on the road against the Philadelphia Athletics and four against the Washington Senators. We won’t play in front of our home fans until May 8th, when we’ll start a two week stretch of games at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, hosting the Athletics, the Senators and Baltimore for 12 games in a row.

April 23, 1901: Solly “Circus Solly” Hofman has signed a contract to play for us, earning $1,500 this season. Lean and athletic, Hofman hails from St. Louis, Missouri, but came back east to try out for us as he was unhappy with the level of competition in the leagues of the midwest. He’s got a great deal of potential as a third baseman for an 18-year-old, and has the patience and power potential to be a player worth watching long term. We’ve also signed left fielder Harry “Judge” Lumley, age 20, a left-handed hitter with quick hands and good pitch recognition, to a deal worth $470 this season. A solid defender in the outfield, I see him being a long-term contender with us. Both players look to be backups on the active roster this season, but could easily be starters in just a couple years’ time.

We’re still going after a couple additional “big fish” who have expressed interest in playing for teams in our league this year, as well as hunting for players who can give us depth on our reserve roster. In the meantime, here is our opening day roster for tomorrow’s first game in Baltimore:

Lineup
C - Lou Criger
1B - Buck Freeman
2B - Hobe Ferris
3B - Jimmy Collins
SS - Freddy Parent
LF - Tommy Dowd
CF - Chick Stahl
RF - Charlie Hemphill
SP - Cy Young

April 24, 1901: A healthy crowd of 5,510 fans packed Oriole Park’s makeshift stands on a cloudy, cool afternoon to watch us all play. Baltimore started their 24-year-old ace Harry Howell, and a front-loaded lineup that included first baseman Mike Donlin leading off, with John McGraw and Jimmy Williams (at third and second respectively) providing a lot of juice in the three and four spots. At least early on, however, nobody was really finding a lot to hit as both pitchers had their best stuff. But Baltimore got going in the bottom of the third, and center fielder Steve Brodie got a shot into center field that batted in a run, and two more scored off a double by McGraw. Baltimore fielded incredibly well and we weren’t able to get many hits to land, while the Orioles had a lot of luck on that end ... they added two more runs off a double by Wilbert Robinson in the bottom of the sixth, and a sixth run scored thanks to a groundout by Harry Howell. We finally got on the board in the top of the seventh with an RBI double by Lou Criger, sending us into the stretch trailing 6-1. Buck Freeman hit a 435-footer out of right field, a home run that made it a four-run game in the top of the eighth, and Jimmy Collins hit an inside-the-park homer right after to cut the lead to three. With two outs and runners on second and third in the top of the ninth, Chick Stahl hit a run-scoring single to cut the lead to two, but Tommy Dowd grounded out to first and we lost 6-4.

Young finished the game with 10 hits, four walks and two strikeouts in eight innings, allowing six runs, four of which were earned as he started his season out 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA. The Orioles outhit us 10-8, Buck Freeman and Jimmy Collins leading the way for us with two hits, a run and an RBI each.

April 25, 1901: George Cuppy, our 31-year-old starter, pitched today against Baltimore’s Joe McGinley, a 30-year-old with a five pitch arsenal who mostly uses his command and control to make up for below-average “stuff.” We quickly loaded the bases in the top of the first off two hits and a poor throw on a fielder’s choice that counted as an error for Baltimore. Jimmy Collins quickly got a great hit into right and two runs scored off his double. That was all we got out of the deal, leaving two runners stranded, but it was a solid start going up 2-0. Jimmy Williams got them a run back in the bottom of the inning with an RBI double, however, and Bill Keister hit an RBI triple that rolled into the cavernous center-right corner to tie it up. Tommy Dowd put us back in the lead with an RBI single in the top of the second, but they tied it up with an RBI double in the bottom of the third, and with the bases loaded they added another pair off a double by Keister. By the time we got out of the third inning we were in an 8-3 hole and fading fast, with Cuppy’s afternoon looking to be over -- he had the endurance to keep throwing, but the stuff just wasn’t there.

Right hander George Winter came in to pitch for us in the bottom of the fourth, and though he put runners on the corners, nobody scored. Freddy Parent hit a 441-foot blast out of center field to give us a fourth run in the top of the fifth, but they got it back in the bottom of the inning off an RBI double by McGraw that made the score 9-4 Orioles. Chick Stahl batted in a run with a single in the top of the sixth, but again they got it back, this time thanks to an RBI single by Wilbert Robinson. Neither team was fielding well (eight combined errors) but ours continues to struggle at putting hitting streaks together, which made it hard to see us rallying back from a 10-5 deficit heading into the top of the seventh. But Buck Freeman got on base on an error, and then advanced into scoring position on a blown pick-off attempt, and we thought we had a shot when Collins hit a single into right that should have put Freeman on third ... but he got greedy and was picked off trying to make it home. Poor decision making, borne out of frustration at our offensive struggles, and two quick outs drowned the rally attempt.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh we brought out Frank Foreman to pitch, getting the final out and sending us into the top of the eighth still trailing by five. Chick Stahl hit a single into right, driving Frank Foreman around from second to try and take third ... and he wound up scoring thanks to an E9 error that allowed Stahl to move into scoring position. Dowd walked to fill the empty base, and then Buck Freeman hit a hard one into that pesky center-right corner, driving in two with a double ... just like that we were within two, with two outs and a runner in scoring position! Jimmy Collins popped out to right, however, and we’d have to hope for similar luck in the top of the ninth to keep this one going. Frank Freeman got us there without much fuss ... three quick pop-outs ... bringing up Freddy Parent to lead off in the ninth. He loaded the count but popped out to short, as did Charlie Hemphill, who has yet to get a hit in this series. Hobe Ferris grounded out harmlessly to the pitcher, who made the final out at first as we lost this one 10-8.

George Cuppy had a bad night, lasting three innings with 10 hits, eight earned runs, two walks and no strikeouts, giving him a ghastly 24..00 ERA. Winter was solid through 3.2 innings, with three hits, two runs (one earned), three walks and a strikeout, and Foreman got us through the last 1.1 innings without a baserunner. We were outhit 13-9 overall, but Stahl was solid with three hits, two runs and an RBI, and Jimmy Collins hit twice for two RBIs, as Buck Freeman added a hit and two RBIs.

We’ve signed Addie Joss, a 21-year-old reliever with future starting potential, to a $1,500 deal to join our bullpen ... his biting curve should give the California native some real power out of the pen, and if he can keep developing, he’s a likely rotation-leading starter down the road.

April 26, 1901: Cy Young (0-1, 4.50 ERA, 8.0 IP, 2 K’s, 1.75 WHIP) got the start today on a rainy, windy afternoon, facing 25-year-old Orioles starter Jerry Nops, making his season debut. Hobe Ferris got a base hit in the top of the third, the first hit for either team all day, but Ossee Schreckengost hit into a double play and Young grounded out to first so we didn’t get any runs to score. We got a runner onto third in the fourth, and they got one in the bottom of the fifth, but this game was a classic pitcher’s duel, with offense hard to come by. The game was still scoreless heading into the seventh inning stretch, but Baltimore finally broke the stalemate in the bottom of the frame with an RBI double by Wilbert Robinson that gave them a 1-0 lead. The Orioles added an RBI single by McGraw in the bottom of the eighth, and Stahl came up to lead off in the ninth knowing we needed at least a pair to stay alive in this one. He was patient and came up with a base on balls, but Dowd and Collins both popped out to center, and Freeman grounded out to first ... another brutal 2-0 loss for us, as we start the season out 0-3. Tomorrow’s game will determine if we get swept.

Young had a great night, allowing six hits in his eight innings with three strikeouts, no walks and just the two earned runs, improving his ERA to 3.38 as he fell to 0-2. We held them to six hits but only mustered three ourselves, and if we can’t figure out a way to create offense, this is going to be a long year for our pitchers. Stahl had a hit and a walk, making him our only player worth mentioning on offense at all. He’s hitting .385 with a .429 on-base percentage so far in this opening series.

We’ve made one final free-agent signing, bringing in Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, a 24-year-old from Nyesville, Indiana, who will join our starting rotation as a right-handed starter on a $1,500 contract. He has a ton of potential, and should have what our scouts are describing as “truly elite stuff” when he’s fully matured. He’s going to get the start tomorrow afternoon in Baltimore as we try to get out of this series with at least one win.

April 27, 1901: Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown took the mound this afternoon, facing Baltimore’s Ivor Wagner, making his first start of the season. Freddy Powell got us on the board quickly in the top of the first, hitting an RBI single that scored the game’s opening run. Charlie Hemphill then got one right over the head of the shortstop, driving in another with a single, giving us a two-run lead as we went into the bottom of the first inning. Brown was as good as advertised, allowing just a hit and a walk in the first three innings, and we added a run in the top of the fourth as our catcher Lou Criger hit an RBI single into right field. Brown then hit a sac-fly to right, and when they didn’t make a throw, Hobe Farris found his way home from third to make it 4-0 Americans! Baltimore got on the board in the bottom of the seventh off a sac-fly by Cy Seymour, but Chick Stahl got it back for us with an RBI triple in the top of the eighth, with Tommy Dowd batting him home with an RBI triple of his own just minutes later! Buck Freeman made it three in a row with an RBI triple immediately thereafter, and a Jimmy Collins RBI double put us up by seven, all four RBIs coming with two outs! Freddy Parent hit an RBI single, and by the time Brown came back out to pitch we led 9-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth. Brown got us through the final two frames with ease, capping a 9-1 win as we prevented the sweep.

Mordecai Brown got his major league career going on a great foot, starting out 1-0 with a 1.00 ERA thanks to a complete game four-hitter, during which he walked two and struck out two. We outhit the Orioles 12-4, led by Freddy Parent who hit three times and walked twice, scoring a run and batting in a pair. Stahl also was solid with two hits, two runs and an RBI from the leadoff spot.

We have a day off as we take the train up to Philly, where we’ll play four games against the Athletics starting on Monday.

jksander · 06-24-2024, 05:32 PM

April 29, 1901: We’re starting Ted Lewis for our first game against the 2-2 Philadelphia Athletics, giving the 28-year-old his first start of the season. He’ll be facing Eddie Plank (0-1, 1.50 ERA, 6.0 IP, 1 K, 1.67 WHIP). The duel was on from the first pitch, neither hurler wanting to give an inch. In the first five innings Plank didn’t give us a single baserunner, but Lewis only allowed a hit and a walk himself and the score remained blank heading into the top of the sixth. Hobe Ferris walked to break up the perfect game, but Criger hit into a fielder’s choice to take him out at second. Lewis walked to put Criger in scoring position, and Chick Stahl hit into a fielder’s choice where an error at second allowed everyone to stay safe ... bases loaded, still no hits! That’s when Tommy Dowd broke up the no-no, getting a perfect shot into right for an RBI single, giving us a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the inning. Parent committed a pair of costly errors in the bottom of the sixth, putting runners on first and second, and they got a hit off the wall in center by Dave Fultz that put the A’s up 2-1 via triple. At that point the wheels fell off -- Socks Seybold had an RBI single to make it 3-1, Parent committed another error, his third failed catch of the inning, and with the bases loaded and two outs Phil Geier hit an RBI single that scored two more. By the time we FINALLY got out of the inning we’d gone from 1-0 to 1-6, and we had four errors against us -- and Lewis had six runs against him, NONE OF THEM EARNED.

Parent led off with a double in the top of the seventh, staying in because we don’t have a fielding shortstop who’s any better than him, so we have to chalk that inning up to being absolute terrible luck. Lou Criger laid down a hit into deep right, allowing Parent to score a run, but we went into the stretch still trailing by four. But we had a great rally opportunity in the top of the ninth ... with one out, Parent got a line drive single into right, Hemphill hit a line drive single into center, and the two pulled off a double steal, putting two runs in scoring position with Harry Lumley coming in to pinch hit for Ferris. He reached first on an E3 error, loading the bases, and Criger hit into a fielder’s choice, keeping the bases loaded as they threw Parent out at home plate. Lewis then hit a great shot into right, but a sliding catch by Geier in right field shot down our hopes as we lost 6-2.

Lewis had a great night, with eight innings, five hits, two walks and three strikeouts. All six runs were attached to him, but none were earned, so he gets the honor of holding an 0-1 record and an 0.00 ERA, throwing 107 pitches. We each had five hits and two walks, but we out errored them 4-2 and that made the difference. Parent hit twice and scored a run but his three errors were impossible to make up.

April 30, 1901: Cy Young (0-2, 3.38 ERA, 16.0 IP, 5 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) is up to face Chick Fraser (1-0, 3.75 ERA, 12.0 IP, 7 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) in our second of four games agains the A’s of Philly. Nap Lajoie hit a run-scoring double, getting thrown out trying to take third, putting Philadelphia up 1-0 in the bottom of the first, but Young did well to control the damage. Matty McIntyre grounded out to first in the bottom of the second but drove in a run for the A’s, increasing their margin to two, and while we repeatedly got runners into scoring position, we couldn’t get them in to actually, you know, score. Cy Young got two quick outs in the bottom of the fourth, and than after a 15 minute rain delay and a quick beer in the dugout, he came out and got the third, keeping us within a pair. He then bunted a pair of runners over into scoring position with a well placed sacrifice, giving us runners on second and third with one out in the top of the fifth. Chick Stahl loaded the bases with a walk, and Tommy Dowd dropped one into center, tying things up with a two-run single! Buck Freeman batted in another to put us in the lead with a single, Dowd advancing to third when the run scored (which allowed Freeman to take second), and then Jimmy Collins hit one that bounced off the wall in center left, legging out a double that drove in the pair! Collins scored on an E8 error after a base hit by Parent, who took second in the chaos, and we went into the bottom of the fifth leading by a 6-2 margin! Tommy Dowd batted in another run for us in the top of the eighth with a single, and Young stayed completely locked in on his goal to win us this game. In the bottom of the ninth, Lajoie hit a 440-footer out of the park in left, and with one out Phil Grier hit an RBI single to cut our lead to three, pushing Doc Powers into scoring position. We brought George Cuppy in to get the last pair of outs, and he succeeded with two quick flyouts against the bottom of their lineup, saving the game as we won 7-4!

Cy Young pitched 8.1 innings with nine hits, two walks, two strikeouts and four earned runs, giving him a 1-2 record and 3.70 ERA through three starts. Cuppy picked up a save, pitching two thirds of an inning without a hit, improving his ERA to 19.64 through 3.2 innings. Most important, we outhit the A’s 11-9, led by Parent, who hit four times with an RBI, and by Dowd, who added two hits, a run and three RBIs.

May 1, 1901: We’ve made a trade that became final yesterday afternoon, sending reliever George Winter to the Brooklyn Superbas in exchange for right fielder Willie Keeler, who brings excellent contact and defense to the table, both big needs for us. He’s also quick on the basepaths, which is definitely a plus in this day and age. Keeler made the trip by train from New York, got here by lunch, and will be starting for us this afternoon batting after Stahl, moving Dowd into the six spot. Mordecai Brown (1-0, 1.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 2 K’s, 0.67 WHIP) got the start, facing Wiley “Iron Man” Piatt (0-1, 6.35 ERA, 5.2 IP, 1 K, 2.47 WHIP) as we fight to take a lead in the series.

We took a 1-0 lead with two outs in the top of the fourth, when we pulled off the hit and run, Buck Freeman batting in Jimmy Collins from second with a single into right on just our second (and either team’s third) hit of the game. But the Athletics tied it up in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a sac-fly by McIntyre, which scored Harry Davis from third. Chick Stahl walked with one out in the top of the sixth, took second off a groundout by Keeler, and then stole third with the count 1-0 against Jimmy Collins ... but Collins grounded out to first and ended the inning with Stahl stranded. Good hustle though! Stahl hit a one-out triple in the top of the eighth, but we couldn’t get a ball out of the infield, leaving him stranded there for the second time this afternoon as the score remained tied 1-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth, and that’s when their pitcher, Piatt, hit a 380-footer out of the park to give them a 2-1 lead. Billy Freeman led off for us in the top of the ninth, hitting a line drive single to left, and Freddy Parent batted him into scoring position with a well placed single up the middle. Piatt then walked Tommy Dowd, loading the bases for Hobe Ferris, who hit into a fielder’s choice with the out made at home ... bases still loaded, one out. Ossee Schreckengost came in to pinch hit for Criger, and he’ll take over as catcher if this goes to extras. But he too hit into a fielder’s choice, and they made the out at home, keeping the bags loaded for Mordecai Brown. We started warming up Cy Young in case of extra innings, pinch hitting Charlie Hemphill for Brown ... but he hit into a fielder’s choice, third in a row, with the out made this time at second ... what a tough way to lose a game 2-1.

Mordecai Brown fell to 1-1 with a stellar 1.59 ERA, allowing just six hits in the entire game with a walk and two earned runs. We even outhit the A’s 7-6, but couldn’t score even with loaded bases and no outs in the ninth. That should have been a gimme. Buck Freeman hit four times and batted in a run, keeping his average above .300, but he didn’t get a lot of help this afternoon as we fell to 2-5. We’ll have a shot at evening up the series in the final game in Philly tomorrow afternoon.

May 2, 1901: Ted Lewis (0-1, 0.00 ERA, 8.0 IP, 3 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) pitched his second start this afternoon, going up against Philly’s “Strawberry Bill” Bernhard (1-0, 3.60 ERA, 10.0 IP, 2 K’s, 1.20 WHIP). We stranded two on the corners in the top of the inning, and Philly pounced quickly in the bottom, scoring off an RBI double by Nap Lajoie and another RBI double by Harry Davis, going up 2-0 before Davis got their catcher Doc Powers to strike out swinging. We stranded two in scoring position in the top of the second, but loaded the bases in the top of the third, tying things up with an RBI single by Dowd! Hobe Ferris hit a double into center, driving Parent into home with Dowd taking second, and he decided to go for it successfully, scoring and allowing Ferris to take third while we went up 4-2. Criger hit a sac-fly to deep left, allowing Ferris to score our fifth run, and Lewis kept things going with a hit into right, though Stahl ended the inning with a pop-out to the catcher, giving us a 5-2 lead heading into the bottom of the third. Philly got a run back in the bottom of the fourth thanks to an E4 error on a groundball to first, and in the bottom of the fifth Socks Seybold hit a three-run blast out of left, his first of the year, to put the A’s back up 6-5.

Keeler got us tied back up in the top of the sixth with an RBI single, and Freddy Parent loaded the bases thanks to an E6 error, Dowd batting us into the lead with a solid shot into center, and in the top of the seventh Chick Stahl hit an RBI single into right to increase the margin to two runs. With the bases loaded a moment later, Freeman walked in another run, but Freddy Parent batted into a double play, sending us into the stretch leading by a solid 9-6 margin. We brought Frank Foreman in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, and with one out, Nap Lajoie batted in a run with a single that put runners on the corners, but Seybold hit into a double play to get us out of it still leading by a pair. George Cuppy came in to pitch in the ninth, a run scoring on a failed fielder’s choice throw to home with one out, giving them men on the corners, and they tied it up off another fielder’s choice where we DID get the out at second, Jack Hayden taking first. Cuppy settled for the blown save, and this game headed to extra innings, tied up at 9-9. Buck Freeman got a base hit into center with one out in the top of the 10th, but we weren’t able to get anyone in to score. Cuppy stayed out for the bottom of the frame and wound up getting the loss as they walked it off with a one out RBI single by Harry Davis, Dave Fultz coming around to win it 10-9.

Cuppy blew the save and took his second loss of the year, though his ERA improved to 16.20, two of his three runs being unearned. Lewis allowed 12 hits and six runs (five earned) in his seven innings, and Freeman got his first hold of the year as he allowed three hits and a single earned run to keep his ERA at 3.86. We lost this series three games to one and fell to 2-6, getting outhit 10-9 ... Keeler proved to be valuable, hitting four times with a run and an RBI, giving him a .400 average for us in two games while he’s hitting .365 for the season as a whole. The season is long, and we’re playing our first twelve games on the road, so I’m simply hopeful we can recover some ground in Washington before we get to finally play some games in front of Boston fans. We play the Senators tomorrow and Saturday, with an off day Sunday before we play the back two on Monday and Tuesday.

jksander · 06-25-2024, 12:00 AM

May 3, 1901: Today we’re making our first visit to American League Park in Washington, D.C. as we play the 4-4 Senators in the first of four games in a five day stretch. Cy Young (1-2, 3.70 ERA, 24.1 IP, 7 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) started against Case Patton (1-1, 5.40 ERA, 15.0 IP, 5 K’s, 2.47 WHIP. We took a lead in the top of the fourth with an RBI double by Schreckengost that put two in scoring position, but we wound up leaving the bases loaded and only got out of the inning with a 1-0 lead. That made it easier for Washington to battle back, an RBI single by Win Mercer with one out in the bottom of the fifth scoring them a pair of runs to take the lead. Pop Foster hit his first homer of the year to make it a 3-1 lead for the Senators in the bottom of the seventh. In the top of the ninth, Schreckengost led off with a walk, but Cy Young struck out trying to bunt him over to second. Stahl batted him to second with a well placed flyball into center field for a single, but Keeler popped out to the left fielder ... and then with the count 3-2 on him, Jimmy Collins hit a two-run double to tie it up! We couldn’t muster a lead change, but went into the bottom of the inning with Cy Young still going strong on the mound -- three quick outs and he had us headed for extras knotted up 3-3!

From there the game was a nailbiter that just kept paying dividends for people who love good pitching and two offenses that have stalled out completely. In the top of the 13th inning, their starter Case Patten passed the 200-pitch mark and showed no signs of looking for a hook -- with one out in the inning Schreckengost got a hit into right for a single, and Cy Young boosted him to second with a sac bunt, putting the go-ahead run in scoring position. Chick Stahl reached first on an E6 error, and the hometown crowd was getting restless. That’s when Keeler slammed a hard one into right field, the ball rolling into the corner as he legged out a double that drove in two and gave us the lead! Buck Freeman kept it going with another shot into right that kept runners on the corners, an RBI single that made it a three-run lead. Parent walked the bases loaded, but Patten got the final out to get into the bottom of the frame, having thrown a staggering 235 pitches! Young came back out with a three-run lead under his belt, comparably fresh as a daisy at 134 pitches himself. He shut them down efficiently, one, two, three, and we came out of this with a 6-3 victory after a 13-inning marathon.

Young improved to 2-2 on the season with a 13-inning complete game seven hitter, striking out three, walking no one and allowing just three earned runs ... his ERA remains a solid 3.13 through 37.1 innings already this season. We outhit the Senators 17-7, led by Keeler with four hits a run and two RBIs and by Collins with four hits and two RBIs. Schreckengost hit three times and walked once, scoring twice and driving in another as well. That was a hell of a team win, but without Young going six innings without a score to allow the comeback it couldn’t have happened.

The White Sox lost to the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1 this afternoon, dropping to 8-1. They were the last remaining undefeated team in either league.

May 4, 1901: Mordecai Brown (1-1, 1.59 ERA, 17.0 IP, 2 K’s, 0.76 WHIP) started this afternoon against Watty Lee (0-2, 5.40 ERA< 16.2 IP, 3 K’s, 1.32 WHIP). Buck Freeman hit an RBI double that drove in two to give us a quick lead in the top of the first, and with the bases loaded in the top of the second Keeler batted another in with a single. Freeman grounded out to first but drove in a fourth run, giving us two outs, and Stahl scored off a passed ball to make it 5-0! Freddy Parent singled into left, driving in a run and giving us a 6-0 lead heading into the bottom of the second. Collins batted in another in the top of the fourth with a double, scoring from second off an E6 groundball error that let Freddy Parent reach safely to make it 8-0. Sam Dungan got them their first baserunner of the game in the bottom of the fourth, thanks to an E5 groundball error, but he never got into scoring position. They did get runners into position in the bottom of the fifth, breaking up the no-hitter and scoring two runs off an RBI single by lead-off man John Farrell. Collins added a triple and came around to score thanks to a sac-fly by Freeman, however, and we held a 9-2 advantage heading into the bottom of the sixth. The Senators kept fighting, getting another pair to score off a Billy Clingman double in the bottom of the inning, and two more scored just minutes later off a triple by Win Mercer ... but Brown got us the final out and we entered the top of the seventh still leading by three.

Keeler grounded out to first but allowed Criger to score our 10th run of the game, sending us into the seventh inning stretch leading by a 10-6 margin. Reliever Frank Morrissey came out of the bullpen with one out and a man on second in the bottom of the frame, his first appearance of the season, and he got us out of the inning without Brown’s baserunner scoring. Chick Stahl batted in another run with a double in the top of the ninth, giving us a five run lead for Morrissey to defend as he stayed out to finish the game. He pitched around a single baserunner and got us through the remainder to protect the 11-6 victory -- for the first time this year we’ve won back to back games!

Mordecai Brown improved to 2-1, though his ERA dropped to 3.47 thanks to six runs off five hits, four walks and a single strikeout through 6.1 innings. Morrissey held tough to our lead, pitching the remaining 2.2 innings, walking a pair but allowing no hits, giving him an 0.00 ERA through 35 pitches. We outhit them again 17-5, another dominating performance led by Stahl with four hits, a walk, two runs and an RBI. Collins hit three times and walked once, scoring three times and batting in one, and Keeler added three hits, two runs and two RBIs, giving him a .478 average since coming to Boston -- and he hasn’t even gotten to play in Boston yet! He’s batting .400 on the season with three doubles and 10 RBIs.

We get a day off and then will resume the series on Monday!

May 6, 1901: Cy Young said he was ready to go today on three days’ rest, but after his 13 inning affair, I felt it was prudent to stick with the three-man rotation and give him an extra day’s rest. So Ted Lewis (0-1, 3.00 ERA, 15.0 IP, 5 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) got the start, facing Watty Lee (0-3, 7.78 ERA, 19.2 IP, 3 K’s, 1.58 WHIP), who two days ago was pulled after just three innings and 76 pitches. We left the bases loaded in the top of the second, and this game quickly became a pitching duel from there. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth, Keeler made an amazing throw from center right to try and pick the runner off at home, but in a photo finish the umpire determined catcher Boileryard Clarke was out by a hair, giving us the chance to keep it scoreless heading into the top of the sixth. That’s a five-star play if I’ve ever seen one! The game went into the stretch still scoreless, with just six hits between the teams, and the stalemate seemed damned near unbreakable. We went into the top of the ninth still with the score nil-nil, when Jimmy Collins led off with a single, giving us hope that we might find a way to score, but it wasn’t to be ... he was stranded at first and the game continued, or at least it did until Boileryard Clarke got his revenge -- hitting a sac-fly to center left that allowed Pop Foster to score, beating us 1-0. That’s just brutal, folks, absolutely brutal.

Ted Lewis is now 0-2 with a 2.28 ERA, allowing just four hits in a complete game, with five walks, two strikeouts and a single earned run. We outhit Washington 5-4, Collins picking up a pair of hits, but nothing was enough to get a runner around to score. One more game and we can finish this road trip and finally play in front of OUR fans, so let’s put tonight’s game behind us and get our first series win of the year!

May 7, 1901: Cy Young (2-2, 3.13 ERA, 37.1 IP, 10 K’s, 1.02 WHIP) has had four days to rest, more than he would often prefer, and is now up to pitch against Washington’s Win Mercer (1-1, 5.68 ERA, 12.2 IP, 1 K, 1.89 WHIP) as we look to end this road trip on a high note. We took an early lead thanks to a RBI single by Dowd in the top of the second, and Schreckengost hit an RBI single to make it 2-0 as we headed into the bottom of the inning. Washington quickly got one back thanks to a solo homer out of right by Pop Foster batting cleanup, but that’s all Young let them have before we were up to bat again in the top of the third leading by a run. Freddy Parent reached first on an E6 error, loading the bases with one out in the top of the fifth, and Tommy Dowd walked in a run, extending our lead to two. Cy Young picked up his second hit of the game and brought his average up to .200 in the top of the sixth, coming all the way around to score thanks to a Chick Stahl triple that made it 4-1, and an RBI single by Keeler kept it going as we started to pull away. Schreckengost grounded out to first but allowed our sixth run to score in the top of the seventh, and Cy Young stayed red hot, getting a hit perfectly into right field to drive in another with a single, reaching second thanks to the E9 error that allowed Tommy Dowd to go past third. Young scored thanks to an inside the park homer by Stahl, and we went into the stretch with an amazing 9-1 lead. Hobe Ferris hit an RBI single with one out in the top of the eighth, and though the Senators picked up a couple runs in the bottom of the ninth, they’d dug their hole too deep. Young completed the game and we won 10-3, taking our first series win of the year three games to one!

Cy Young improved to 3-2 with a complete game six hitter, walking one, striking out three and allowing three earned runs, keeping his ERA at 3.11. He has completed four of five games this year and has thrown 46.1 innings of work. We decimated them 17-6 off hits, led by Young with three hits two runs and an RBI, while Keeler had three hits and an RBI and Parent added three hits, a walk and a run.

Tomorrow we return to Boston for our three-game home opening series against Philadelphia (6-6), followed by four games against Washington (5-7) over five days and four in five days against Baltimore (8-4). Our record stands at 5-7, just 3.5 games out of first thanks to a 1-4 skid by the White Sox, so it’s still early enough in this season that anything can happen in the standings. In the NL, the Philadelphia Phillies (12-5) lead the way with Chicago’s Orphans (13-7), Brooklyn’s Superbas (11-6) and Pittsburgh’s Pirates (11-7) all right there within a game and a half of each other.

jksander · 06-25-2024, 03:47 AM

May 8, 1901: About 5,300 fans packed into the Huntington Avenue Grounds under clear skies for today’s home opener, creating a celebratory picnic atmosphere as Mordecai Brown (2-1, 3.47 ERA, 23.1 IP, 3 K’s, 0.94 WHIP) started the game against Philly’s “Gettysburg Eddie” Plank (2-1, 1.73 ERA, 26.0 IP, 10 K’s, 1.04 WHIP). Philly drew first blood in the top of the first thanks to a sac-fly to deep right field that allowed Lave Cross to score from third. Tommy Dowd hit an RBI double in the bottom of the fourth after a double steal by Collins and Parent, and Lou Criger hit an RBI single to add another run, putting us up 3-1 heading into the top of the fifth. Keeler scored off a passed ball in the bottom of the fifth, and Freddy Parent batted Freeman home to make it a four run lead! Philly got a pair of runners into scoring position in the top of the seventh, but Brown shut them down quickly and got us into the stretch still leading 5-1. Hobe Ferris added some insurance in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI triple, scoring himself when Criger grounded out to first, extending our lead to six runs and they had no chance against Brown in the final frame as we shut them down quietly to win 7-1.

Mordecai Brown is now 3-1 with a 2.78 ERA, getting through this afternoon with just four hits, five walks and a single earned run. We outhit the Athletics 12-4 as we improved to 6-7, led by Parent who hit three times for a run and an RBI, picking up a steal as well, while Keeler added two hits, a steal and a run. In total we had six different players each steal a base, with only Parent getting caught. Not a bad day!

May 9, 1901: Ted Lewis (0-2, 2.28 ERA, 23.2 IP, 7 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) went up against Chick Fraser (2-2, 5.72 ERA, 28.1 IP, 12 K’s, 1.45 WHIP). We took the lead in the bottom of the second when a groundout by Ferris drove Parent in to score from third. But Jimmy Collins tripled in the top of the third, coming home to tie it up thanks to an RBI single by Lave Cross and an E5 error led to another run crossing the plate, putting Philadelphia into the lead. We loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth, but Criger batted out to center to stifle the rally. Ted Lewis reached first on an E5 error to lead off in the bottom of the seventh, taking second as the ball rolled to the wall, and he advanced to third on a wild pitch, scoring when Stahl reached first on what looked like an error but was later ruled an infield single ... a crazy sequence of events that tied us up at 2-2! Keller advanced him to second with another botched catch by the second baseman (again ruled a hit) and Jimmy Collins walked the bases loaded as Fraser started to look rattled on the mound. Stahl scored on yet another wild pitch, and Freeman walked to load the bases again, and a pair of outs later, Ferris hit an RBI single that drove in another pair of runs to give us a three run lead heading into the top of the eighth, having batted around. Lewis stayed out and completed the game as we held tough to beat them 5-3, guranteeing a series win going into tomorrow’s final game.

We’ve now improved to 7-7 on the young season, thanks to Lewis’s four hitter, striking out two with a walk and two runs (one earned) as he improved to 1-2 with a 1.93 ERA. We outhit the Athletics 9-4, led by Stahl with two hits, a run and an RBI, while Ferris hit once, walked once and batted in three runs.

May 10, 1901: Cy Young (3-2, 3.11 ERA, 46.1 IP, 13 K’s, 0.97 WHIP) is up for his sixth start of the season, facing Wiley Piatt (1-2, 4.43 ERA, 20.1 IP, 5 K’s, 1.67 WHIP) as we try for the series sweep. It’s cloudy with rain in the forecast, and the Athletics wasted no time taking a lead in the top of the first off a triple by Dave Fultz which was immediately followed by the RBI triple off Socks Seybold’s bat. Our outfield can really kill you, but at least Harry Davis grounded out to first and ended the frame without too much early damage. They added on in the top of the third with an RBI single for Seybold, but in the bottom of the third we got a run back off an RBI single by Freddy Parent, getting us back to within a run. We had to stop play in the middle of the top half of the fourth inning for about 15 minutes, but the rain stopped enough to keep playing. Chick Stahl walked in the bottom of the fourth to load the bases, and Keefer got a hit into center, reaching first safely and driving in a pair of runs to put us back in front 3-2. An RBI double for Collins scored two more runs, and Freddy Parent hit an RBI triple to further crush their spirits. Parent scored on an E6 error and we went into the top of the fifth leading big, 7-2! We loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth and Freddy Parent walked in a run to increase the lead, Schreckengost doubling in two more runs as the floodgates unleashed. By the time they came up again in the top of the seventh we led 12-2, and Cy Young struck out the side to keep it that way into the stretch. We loaded the bases AGAIN in the bottom of the eighth but added just one run to the blowout lead, and Young finished them off in the ninth as we exploded offensively in a 13-2 victory.

Cy Young is now 4-2 with a 2.93 ERA, allowing six hits and striking out nine with no walks, just the two earned runs scored against him. We outhit the Athletics 18-6, led by Keeler with four hits, two runs and two RBIs. Through his first 20 games this year he’s hit .427 with three doubles and 13 RBIs and he’s hit .489 since coming to Boston. Jimmy Collins also had a great night, hitting three times and walking once, scoring two and driving in two more. He’s hitting .344 this year with five doubles, a triple and a homer through his first 15 games.

Washington’s Senators (5-10) comes to town tomorrow and will be in town through Wednesday to play four with a day off on Sunday. We’ve climbed into fourth place in the division with an 8-7 record, putting us just half a game back of the Tigers and the Brewers ... Baltimore, at 11-4, has taken the lead in the AL by half a game over the 11-5 White Sox as the league’s competition level heats up. We’re on a four game winning streak, but the Orioles’ six game streak is getting a lot more press since they’ve taken the divisional lead.

jksander · 06-26-2024, 05:48 PM

May 11, 1901: The word is out about our team, and nearly 6,800 fans showed up to pack the grounds this afternoon for a sunny game of baseball against the Senators! Mordecai Brown (3-1, 2.78 ERA, 32.1 IP, 3 K’s, 0.96 WHIP) endeavored to keep our win streak alive against Win Mercer (1-2, 6.98 ERA, 19.1 IP, 1 K, 2.07 WHIP). Collins got us on the board with an RBI triple in the bottom of the third, but Washington’s Sam Dungan hit his first solo homer of the year to tie us up in the top of the fourth, a 440 footer that had kids fighting over the ball once they tracked it down. We loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth, Buck Freeman hitting a bouncing ball into left field to drive in the go-ahead run. Parent hit into a fielder’s choice and they took the out at second, allowing another to score, and we went into the top of the sixth leading 3-1. With the bases again loaded, a sac-fly by Keeler allowed a fourth run to score in the bottom of the sixth, and Mordecai Brown scored a run thanks to a Jimmy Collins single, coming all the way around from second to put us up 5-1 ... look at our pitcher hustle! He’d gotten on base by being hit with the ball, for good measure, making it count. Ferris batted in a run in the bottom of the seventh with a single, and Tommy Dowd batted one in with a single in the bottom of the eighth to add to the carnage. With the bases loaded, Criger hit one into right to drive in another, and Tommy Dowd scored on a balk call ... Chick Stahl batted in two more with a double, and Keeler singled to make it an eleven run lead. It was out of their hands once we got that lead in the fifth, and we smothered them in the end by a 12-1 margin.

Brown improved to 4-1 with a five-hit complete game, walking two and allowing one earned run as he improved his ERA to 2.40. We outhit the Senators 16-5, led by Keeler with three hits, two runs and two RBIs. Collins added three hits and two RBIs, and Ferris put up three hits with two runs and an RBI. Stahl, in the leadoff spot, hit once, walked once and scored two, batting in two as well. It was a well-rounded effort, and whatever problem we had in our earliest games of not being able to keep our foot on the gas has been fixed in a huge way.

May 13, 1901: Ted Lewis (1-2, 1.93 ERA, 32.2 IP, 9 K’s, 1.04 WHIP) has been hot lately, and he’s going up against Case Patten (1-3, 3.19 ERA, 36.2 IP, 14 K’s, 1.91 WHIP) with our five-game winning streak on the line. We took a quick lead in the bottom of the first with a two-RBI triple by Jimmy Collins, and Buck Freeman batted in a third run with a single, giving our large home crowd plenty to cheer about. Stahl tripled with two outs in the bottom of the second, coming home to score thanks to an RBI single by Keeler, who has now hit safely in 10 consecutive games! Jimmy Collins hit an RBI double that pushed Keeler to third, and he decided to go for hit, scoring a run and giving Collins the chance to follow him, safely taking third, sending us into the top of the third with a dominating 5-0 lead. Washington got on the board with a solo bomb by Mike Grady, his third of the year, in the top of the fourth, but they never got a baserunner in the rest of the inning and therefore the damage was minimal. John Farrell hit an RBI single for them in the top of the fifth to cut our lead to three, but Lewis’ strong pitching kept us firmly in control. In the top of the eighth, however, they tightened things up further, Sam Dungan hitting an RBI single that cut our lead to two without an out in the inning, and with one out another run scored on a fielder’s choice when Lewis couldn’t make the throw out at home plate. Addie Joss came in to pitch with one out and men on the corners, our lead at just one run, and Mike Grady scored the tying run on a fielder’s choice where we settled for the out at second. We finally got out of the inning, but the lead was gone -- we were all tied up at 5-5 heading into the bottom of the eighth. Lou Criger got us the lead back with an RBI triple, and a sac-fly by Joss got us another run to build the lead back to two ... and with our mojo back, we picked up back to back infield singles and a walk to load the bases. Buck Freeman then melted this place down completely with the rarest of feats, a GRAND SLAM out of right field, and the rout was on! We had a six run lead with Joss staying out to pitch in the top of the ninth, and though the Senators got a run back off a groundout by Grady, we won this one handily 11-6.

Joss, making his first major league bullpen appearance at the young age of 21, blew the save opportunity but came up with a win, starting his career out 1-0 with a walk and an unearned run in 1.2 innings of work. Lewis was annoyed that he lost out on his win, having gone 7.1 innings with 10 hits, two walks and five strikeouts, but he was tagged with five earned runs and his ERA slipped to 2.70 ... still very, very good. We outhit the Senators 14-10, led by Billy Freeman who hit three times with a run and five RBIs, while Collins added two hits, a walk, two runs and three RBIs. Freeman’s grand slam gives him two homers this season.

May 14, 1901: Cy Young (4-2, 2.93 ERA, 55.1 IP, 22 K’s, 0.92 WHIP) is up to pitch today in game three against the Senators, facing Watty Lee (1-4, 6.47 ERA, 32.0 IP, 5 K’s, 1.44 WHIP) with our winning streak (and their losing streak) at six games. Hobe Ferris got himself a two-out triple in the bottom of the second, and Schreckengost batted him home with a single up the middle to give us an early lead. Stahl led off with a triple in the bottom of the third, scoring on a groundout by Collins, and Freddy Parent batted in another with a two-out double to give us a 3-0 lead heading into the top of the fourth. Dowd led off with a triple in the bottom of the sixth, and Schreckengost batted him home with an RBI single to make it a four run lead, and Cy Young notched his 10th strikeout in the top of the seventh as we kept them scoreless. It remained that way the rest of the afternoon -- Young was on fire and refused to give up an inch, closing out the 4-0 shutout as we increased our winning streak to seven games. We have one game left against them before we get a real challenge with Baltimore coming to town and a chance to truly assert ourselves as a contender in the American League.

Cy Young had his first complete game shutout of the season, allowing just two hits with one walk and 11 strikeouts, by far his most dominating performance of a season that’s just getting started. He has now won five games in a row and is 5-0 with a 2.52 ERA. We picked up nine hits ourselves, led by Schreckengost who had three hits and two RBIs. Keeler did not manage to hit today, ending his hitting streak at 10, but Billy Freeman scored a run, giving him six games in a row with at least a run scored, a streak he shares with Dummy Hoy of Chicago’s White Sox (the longest such streak so far this year for anyone is eight games). Cy Young, meanwhile, hasn’t given up a run in 15 innings, hasn’t given up a hit in eight, and now has 33 K’s this season which ties him for fifth in the majors.

May 15, 1901: Mordecai Brown (4-1, 2.40 ERA, 41.1 IP, 3 K’s, 0.92 WHIP) started today against Bill Carrick (2-1, 1.93 ERA, 23.1 IP, 4 K’s, 1.37 WHIP) in front of a robust midweek crowd that looked close to 6,000 yet again. Buck Freeman hit a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the second, giving us a 1-0 lead and keeping his scoring streak alive, and Hobe Ferris hit an RBI double to make it 2-0. Brown led off with an infield single in the bottom of the fifth, advancing to second with a single by Stahl, and they pulled off a double steal to get into scoring position. Frustrated, Carrick hit Keeler with a pitch, loading the bases, and Jimmy Collins walked in a run to increase our shutout margin. With two outs, Collins scored off an RBI single by Dowd, and we went into the top of the sixth leading big yet again, this time up 5-0. Washington woke up in the top of the seventh, scoring with an RBI double by Bill Coughlin, and adding another with an RBI single by Win Mercer. But despite loading the bases, Brown got us out of the inning and into the stretch with a three-run lead. We brought Frank Foreman in to pitch in the top of the eighth, his third appearance of the season, and though we weren’t able to add any insurance runs, he didn’t wind up needing any, holding on to the 5-2 win without a lot of fuss required. We completed the sweep, and can now set our focus on Baltimore as we look to prove we’re the team to beat in the American League.

Mordecai Brown now has a 5-1 record and a 2.42 ERA since signing with us, lasting seven innings tonight with six hits, two walks, three strikeouts and two earned runs. Foreman picked up his first save, giving us two innings with just a walk, improving his ERA to 2.08 through 28 pitches. We outhit the Senators again 8-6, led by Freeman (one hit, two runs, one RBI) and Hobe Ferris (two hits, one walk, one RBI). We now hold a 12-7 record and an eight game winning streak as Baltimore (14-5) comes to town with a three-game streak in hand, both of us 9-1 in our last ten. We remain perfect at home, but they’re 5-3 on the road so they definitely cannot be taken lightly. With the off day on Sunday in the middle of the four-game set, it’s likely we’ll be able to start Cy Young in games two and four before we start our long road trip to the midwest.

jksander · 07-01-2024, 03:12 PM

May 16, 1901: Ted Lewis (1-2, 2.70 ERA, 40.0 IP, 12 K’s, 1.15 WHIP) started for us today against Ivor Wagner (1-3, 5.91 ERA, 21.1 IP, 7 K’s, 2.20 WHIP). In the bottom of the third we got ourselves on the board with an RBI double by Buck Freeman, but Baltimore answered in the top of the fourth with an RBI triple by John McGraw to tie us up, and they nabbed a second run thanks to a ground-out to first by Bill Keister. They held the 2-1 lead into the seventh inning stretch, and we simply couldn’t seem to get hits strung together. Keeler led off with an outfield hit in the bottom of the eighth, however, and then Jimmy Collins slammed one out of the park to left, putting us into the lead 3-2 out of nowhere! And just like that our bats woke up like they’d been goosed, Tommy Dowd hitting an RBI single to add a little extra insurance as Lewis came out to finish things off in the top of the ninth leading by two runs. He handled things perfectly and we held tough to win 4-2, keeping the winning streak alive!

Lewis improved to 2-2 with a 2.57 ERA, allowing seven hits with three strikeouts and a pair of earned runs. We came back to outhit them 9-7 thanks almost entirely to the eighth inning, led by Freeman who hit twice and walked once, scoring a run and batting in another.

May 17, 1901: Cy Young (5-2, 2.52 ERA, 64.1 IP, 33 K’s, 0.84 WHIP) took the mound today against Joe McGinnity (5-0, 2.27 ERA, 43.2 IP, 8 K’s, 1.05 WHIP). We got ourselves a lead in the bottom of the second with an RBI double by Tommy Dowd, but the Orioles did a great job of keeping us from building that lead up and the score remained at 1-0 Americans into the seventh inning stretch, both pitchers competantly on their game. Cy Young wasn’t giving an inch, however, and though our bats weren’t putting up much themselves, we’d done enough -- all we needed was to keep anything from happening in the top of the ninth, facing the heart of their order: McGraw / Williams / Keister. Young got all three to pop out quietly and we completed the 1-0 shutout to leave the Orioles completely frustrated.

Young improved to 6-2 with the five-hit four strikeout shutout, and though we only had five hits ourselves, Dowd hit and batted in a run while Parent scored the game’s only run on the ground. BuckFreeman also had a hit and a walk but went nowhere, our only player to get on base twice in the game. We have two games left at home against the O’s, with a chance to extend our win-streak to 10 games when we face them again tomorrow afternoon. We’re now tied with them in the standings at 14-7, just a game and a half behind the AL-leading White Sox who are 16-6 thus far.

May 18, 1901: We drew one of our biggest crowds yet, nearly 7,300 fans, as Boston folk packed this place to see if we could keep the win streak going and climb closer to an AL lead against the O’s. Mordecai Brown (5-1, 2.42 ERA, 48.1 IP, 6 K’s, 0.95 WHIP) pitched against the Orioles’ Harry Howell (4-1, 4.95 ERA, 43.2 IP, 18 K’s, 1.42 WHIP). We loaded the bases in the bottom of the first but came up empty as Dowd harmlessly grounded out to first. We had an hour-long stoppage with two outs in the top of the third because of rain, and then in the bottom of the inning we got runners onto the corners but then again came up empty, score knotted up at nil-nil. The field remained slick and muddy thereafter, and the baserunning appropriately chaotic, nobody able to find their way in to break the stalemate. Unfortunately for us, the Orioles loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the seventh thanks to an error at second, and Brown walked in a run to give them the lead before getting three quick outs to safely escape into the stretch only trailing by a run! Brown stayed out there and got us through the eighth without any further damage, and with no outs in the bottom of the inning we took a sudden 2-1 lead thanks to a two-run homer by Keeler, his very first one of the season ... a truly clutch hit from a guy who is quickly making himself a star on this team. Tommy Dowd added an RBI triple to make it a two-run lead and we went into the top of the ninth just needing to hold on. We handled it perfectly, setting their batters down three in a row to hold on to the 3-1 win as we took firm control of second place in the AL with one home game remaining.

Brown had a tough spot in the seventh but stayed in and helped us win this one, improving to 6-1 with a 2.20 ERA, allowing only two hits all night -- he did walk four and only struck out one, which led to the run that scored against him, but we outhit them 7-2 so all was well. Keeler led the way with two hits, a run and two RBIs, while Dowd added three hits and an RBI.

May 20, 1901: This will be Boston fans’ last chance to watch us play until June 7 (unless they want to take a long trip by train!) so 6,600 of them cut school and work to come to the ballpark this afternoon to see Ted Lewis (2-2, 2.57 ERA, 49.0 IP, 15 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) pitch against Jerry Nops (4-1, 1.69 ERA, 44.0 IP, 10 K’s, 1.02 WHIP). And the Orioles came out hitting ... HARD ... as they hoped to snap our streak and send us onto our road trip without momentum on our side. They wound up with a runner stranded on third, however, as we weren’t messing around either. In the bottom of the first, Stahl led off with a triple and Keeler batted him in to score with a single, giving us the 1-0 lead, and the hits kept coming. With the bases loaded and no outs, Parent hit into a fielder’s choice but they took the out at second and allowed a second run to score. A third came home on a deep-in-center flyout, giving us a solid 3-0 lead heading into the top of the second thanks to five quick hits. The Orioles came up empty in the top of the second despite loading the bags, and Buck Freeman hit an RBI triple to extend our lead in the bottom of the third. He scored off a groundout to first by Dowd, giving us a 5-0 lead heading into the fourth inning -- this is a very solid baseball team we’re making look completely overmatched! Sure enough, they came back with a vengeance in the top of the sixth, picking up two runs off a single by Roger Bresnahan, pulling themselves back to within three runs. They still had a chance heading into the bottom of the eighth, but a pair of errors and a wild pitch loaded the bases, and a Freddy Parent sac-fly got our lead back to four runs. Another run scored off an E6 groundball error, sending us into the top of the ninth with a five-run cushion. Ted Lewis stayed out and completed the game, throwing 146 pitches -- a new season high for him -- as we shut the Orioles down and won 7-2!

Lewis allowed nine hits, walked a pair and struck out nobody, but was able to get through the game with only two runs against him (one earned) to improve to 3-2 with a 2.33 ERA. Baltimore outhit us 9-7, but their three errors were critical and we did a better job of making our hits we did get count. Jimmy Collins hit twice and scored three times, and Dowd batted in three runs despite not technically hitting OR walking in the game -- he drove in runs thanks to a sac fly, a groundout and a “reached by error” ... that’s just plain brutal for the O’s!

We head into our long road trip with a 16-7 record and a 10-game winning streak that leaves us just half a game behind the 17-7 White Sox. Our team has packed for the long haul, for on this extended tour of the Midwest, we’ll face the following teams:

5/21-24: Detroit (12-13) -- four games
5/25-29: Cleveland (8-17) -- four games
5/30-6/1: Chicago (17-7) -- four games including a 5/31 doubleheader
6/2-5: Milwaukee (12-12) -- four games

We’ll then spend most of the rest of June playing those same four teams on our field in a similar 16-game stretch.

jksander · 07-01-2024, 07:15 PM

May 21, 1901: Cy Young (6-2, 2.21 ERA, 73.1 IP, 37 K’s, 0.80 WHIP) pitched game one in Detroit against Roscoe Miller (3-2, 2.94 ERA, 49.0 IP, 8 K’s, 1.45 WHIP). We took a quick lead in the top of the first, Buck Freeman hitting a sac-fly to right that scored Keeler from third, and with the bases loaded in the top of the third we added another run off ANOTHER Freeman sac-fly, this one scoring Stahl from third. An E6 error allowed Keeler to score his second run of the game, giving us a solid 3-0 lead heading into the bottom of the third. Pop Dillon picked up a walk in the bottom of the fourth to become the Tigers’ first baserunner of the afternoon, but he got nowhere. They got a hit from Sport McAllister in the bottom of the fifth, and he quickly stole second, but Young got a popout and a pair of strikeouts to get us out of the inning unblemished, though our shut-out luck ran out in the bottom of the sixth -- a Pop Dillon flyout scored a run via Roscoe Miller from third, and the Tigers were on the board. The Tigers got another run back quickly in the bottom of the eighth, thanks to Doc Casey’s RBI single, but we went into the top of the ninth still leading by a run. Keeler made it all the way to third but was stranded by a Parent groundout to first, sending us into the bottom of the ninth needing to hold our one-run lead ... Young was unfazed and shut them down efficiently as we won this one 3-2!

Cy Young improved to 7-2 with a 2.08 ERA, allowing four hits and two runs (one earned) with two walks and eight strikeouts. We hammered them 13-8 from a hits standpoint, but despite that advantage we only managed to outscore them by one. Keeler had an incredible afternoon, hitting five times and scoring twice, keeping his average at .452, and Buck Freeman added a pair of hits and two RBIs, giving him 24 runs batted in this season which remains a team high. Thanks to the win, we now share the AL lead with the 17-7 White Sox, who had the afternoon off.

May 22, 1901: Mordecai Brown (6-1, 2.20 ERA, 57.1 IP, 7 K’s, 0.91 WHIP) got the start this afternoon against Jack Cronin (1-4, 3.22 ERA, 50.1 IP, 10 K’s, 1.55 WHIP). Stahl led off in the top of the first with a triple, and Jimmy Collins batted him home with a one-out RBI single to put us up 1-0. Parent hit a sac-fly to right to drive in another run and giving us a solid 2-0 lead after just half an inning. But the Tigers got going in the bottom of the second, Cronin hitting an RBI single to get them back to the top of their lineup, and with the bases loaded they tied it up on an E6 error. The errors piled up for both teams, making this game a lot more chaotic than usual, and in the bottom of the third the Tigers took the lead on another two-out E6 error, our fifth of the game, sending us into the top of the fourth trailing by a 3-2 margin. But Keeler hit a one-out triple to get us going in the top of the fifth, coming around to score off an RBI single by Collins that tied it up 3-3. The Tigers struck fast in the bottom of the seventh, taking the lead back thanks to an RBI single by Sport McAllister, and they added two more with an RBI single by Jimmy Barrett, putting our win streak in real jeopardy. With two outs in the top of the eighth, Keeler got himself a hit into center, batting in a run with a single to cut the Tigers’ lead to two, and Jimmy Collins got a hit into left that drove in another. George Cuppy came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, getting three outs without adding any damage, giving us one more shot in the top of the ninth to find our way back in. Freddy Parent led off with a single, and Dowd batted him over to third with a single into deep right, giving us a real chance ... and just like that, Hobe Ferris tied it up at 6-6 with a single into right! But Ossee Schreckengost grounded into a double play, and we weren’t able to get Dowd in to score from third. Cuppy loaded the bases, however, in the bottom of the ninth, and we blew this one with an E6 groundball error ... Sport McAllister scored and we lost this one 7-6 in a game during which we committed six errors.

George Cuppy fell to 0-3 with the loss, though his ERA improved slightly to 12.15 ... he had a great eighth inning but even though the run wasn’t technically his fault, the three baserunners he put there were. He finished with three hits, a walk, a strikeout and an unearned run through 1.2 innings. Brown allowed four hits, walking six and striking out one as he gave up six runs (four earned) in a no-decision. We were bound to lose one eventually, but this shouldn’t have been it ... we outhit them 16-7, but we walked six batters (they walked no one) and committed the six errors to their four. The result was as ugly as you’d expect.

The 13-game win streak having come to an end, we’re still in second place in the AL, leading Baltimore by two and a half games. The White Sox (18-7) lead us by a game. Over in the NL, Philadelphia (22-8) has a 3.5-game lead on Pittsburgh (19-12) and a four-game lead over the Brooklyn Superbas (18-12).

May 23, 1901: Ted Lewis (3-2, 2.33 ERA, 58.0 IP, 15 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) started today’s game, facing Detroit’s Emil Frisk (1-4, 4.54 ERA, 33.2 IP, 9 K’s, 1.57 WHIP). Jimmy Collins hit a two-out triple in the top of the first, and Buck Freeman doubled to drive him home, giving him at least a hit in 15 consecutive games! Stahl batted in another run with a single in the top of the second, but they got on the board in the bottom of the inning with an RBI double by Tommy Sheehan that cut our lead to a run, and they tied things up with an RBI single by Frisk just moments later. With the bases loaded, Criger hit one straight to their right fielder and all the runners held their positions, and Lewis struck out swinging, leaving three wasted opportunities stuck on base. The Tigers promptly took advantage, taking a lead with an RBI double by Kid Eberfeld in the bottom of the third with just one out, but we managed to keep them to just that run. Unfortunately they did pick up another in the bottom of the sixth, thanks to an RBI single by Frisk (the pitcher’s second of the game!) with two outs secured. And in this game they were outhitting us, proving it’s incredibly difficult to stay razor sharp on the road. The Tigers, sensing the opportunity, pounced and made sure we had no chance of a comeback by adding three more runs before we could get anyone warmed in the bullpen. Addie Joss came in with two outs and men on second and third, securing the final out with a popup to third but we went into the top of the eighth trailing 7-2 and looking lost offensively. Stahl reached first on an error in the top of the inning, driving in a run from third, but we weren’t able to continue the rally. Jimmy Collins led off in the top of the ninth with a triple, and a Buck Freeman RBI single made it a three-run deficit ... but three quick pop-outs later we left the field on the tail end of a 7-4 loss, giving us back to back losses for only the second time this season.

Ted Lewis (3-3, 3.06 ERA) took the loss, giving up 12 hits and four walks without a strikeout through 6.2 innings, leading to seven earned runs. Addie Joss, in just his second relief appearance this year, held on for 1.1 innings with two hits and a strikeout, keeping his ERA unblemished through three innings’ work. But Detroit outhit us 14-11, and though Freeman hit three times with two RBIs, this was the first time in weeks where I didn’t feel like we were the best team on the field. And if we don’t figure it out tomorrow we risk losing just our third series of the season.

May 24, 1901: Cy Young (7-2, 2.08 ERA, 82.1 IP, 45 K’s, 0.79 WHIP) started our final game in Detroit, facing Ed Siever (4-2, 2.17 ERA, 58.0 IP, 13 K’s, 1.07 WHIP). And with the bases loaded in the top of the second, Chick Stahl hit an RBI triple that scored three runs and put us nicely in front! Young struck out the side in the bottom of the third. Detroit scored a run in the bottom of the sixth off a sac-fly to deep left by Kid Eberfeld, and though we loaded the bases in the top of the seventh we weren’t able to get any insurance runs around to score. It didn’t matter though ... Young didn’t let them even inch the door open, shutting them down efficiently in the final frames to win this one for us 3-1 as we escaped the city of Detroit with a series split.

Cy Young, at 8-2 with a 1.87 ERA, is clearly the pitcher to beat in the American League ... tonight he allowed four hits in yet another complete game, with two walks, six strikeouts and one run against him, unearned. We outhit the Tigers 7-4, led by Stahl who hit once and batted in all three of our runs. Freeman went hitless (though he did make it on base thanks to a hit-by-pitch), so his hit streak is over. We’ll be catching a quick train down to Cleveland (10-19) where we’ll see if we can turn this win into a streak.

jksander · 07-02-2024, 12:37 PM

May 25, 1901: Mordecai Brown (6-1, 2.52 ERA, 64.1 IP, 8 K’s, 0.96 WHIP) pitched in our first game against the Cleveland Blues, facing Bill Hart (4-3, 3.76 ERA, 55.0 IP, 13 K’s, 1.51 WHIP). Lou Criger batted in a run in the top of the second with a single, and with the bases loaded, Stahl hit a shot off the fence in right that drove in three with a triple, putting us quickly up 4-0! We added another run with one out in the top of the sixth thanks to a hit by Ferris, aided by an error on the part of the Cleveland defense, and an E1 groundball error quickly allowed another to score. Mordecai Brown hit a sac-fly that allowed Ferris to score from third, and just like that we led 7-0. But the Blues woke up in the bottom frame, a triple by Jack McCarthy batting in a pair with two outs. Too bad it was too little, too late, and they weren’t able to replicate the hits in the later innings. We held tough and won this one with ease, 7-2 with Brown notching another complete game.

Brown allowed just two hits all day, walking one, striking out two and allowing two unearned runs to score as he improved to 7-1 with a 2.21 ERA. We outhit Cleveland 10-2, led again by Stahl with a hit and three RBIs, while Criger added a hit, a run and two RBIs of his own.

May 27, 1901: Ted Lewis (3-3, 3.06 ERA, 64.2 IP, 15 K’s, 1.24 WHIP) started today against Ed Scott (1-6, 2.24 ERA, 60.1 IP, 7 K’s, 1.18 WHIP). Lou Criger wasted no time getting us on the board, his RBI line-drive double in the top of the second giving us a 1-0 lead. Ted Lewis batted in another run moments later with a single (aided by an E8 throwing error), and we went into the bottom of the inning leading the Blues by two runs. But Cleveland got us back in the bottom of the third, Erve Beck hitting a three-run powerbomb over the Lifebuoy sign in left field, a 432-footer that easily left the park and put them up 3-2. Bill Bradley scored thanks to a hit by George Yeager and an E5 groundball error of our own, and another error, this one a dropped throw E3, allowed a fifth run to score. Lewis completely melted down from there, and we went into the top of the fifth trailing 6-2, with little expectation that he’d be on the mound once we batted through.

Addie Joss came out to pitch in the bottom of the fifth, but it didn’t matter. The Blues extended their lead with an RBI triple by Candy LaChance, and he scored off a deep-to-left sac-fly by Bill Bradley that made it an 8-2 lead for the home team. With the bases loaded in the top of the sixth we got a run back when Chick Stahl beat out an infield hit, but that run was all we managed, leaving three runners stranded. Joss got us through the seventh still trailing the Blues by five runs, and in the top of the eighth Chick Stall hit an RBI single into left that cut into the deficit a little more. Jimmy Collins hit a slow-roller into left field, driving in another pair with a groundball double, and a pair of errors led to another run scoring ... just like that we’d cut the lead to one! Dowd grounded out to first to end the inning but we went into the bottom of the eighth trailing just 8-7. Frank Foreman came in to pitch and he didn’t let Cleveland find anything to hit, so it was up to us in the top of the ninth to keep this one going. But we had nothing left in the tank, our hitters going down in quiet succession as we lost this one 8-7.

Ted Lewis took the loss, falling to 3-4 with a 3.28 ERA, thanks to eight hits, a walk, a strikeout and six runs (three earned) during a four-inning span. Addie Joss kept us in this one with three innings of three-hit baseball, allowing two earned runs with a walk and a strikeout to give him a 3.00 ERA. And Foreman, in his fourth appearance, allowed one walk but got through his inning unscathed, giving him a 1.69 ERA through 5.1 frames. We outhit them 12-11 but came up short when it counted, led by Stahl with his two hits and two RBIs. He’s batted in eight runs in his last three games, suddenly making him our hottest hitter.

May 28, 1901: Cy Young (8-2, 1.87 ERA, 91.1 IP, 51 K’s, 0.78 WHIP) has been about as sure a thing as any team has in their rotation, and he’ll put it on the line against Gus “Cannonball” Weyhing (2-4, 7.04 ERA, 47.1 IP, 13 K’s, 1.86 WHIP). Buck Freeman hit an RBI double to bat in a run in the top of the first, and with the bases loaded we scored off a wild pitch in the top of the fourth to extend our lead to two runs. Chick Stahl batted in another run with a single in the top of the seventh, and the three-run advantage had us feeling pretty good with Cleveland struggling to put anyhing together aginst Young. But the Blues got on the board in the bottom of the inning, George Yeager batting one in with a single, and Frank Scheibeck hit a hard shot into the corner in left, doubling and pushing Yeager over to third. Thankfully, Weyhing popped out safely to right field and got us out of the inning ... but after the way yesterday went, that was dangerously close. And back to back to back errors in the bottom of the eighth had Young definitely feeling some unease from the mound -- though he’d never admit it. He got LaChance to hit into a fielder’s choice, getting the out at home, and then Bill Bradley hit one straight to Collins at third, who tagged Bob Wood out trying to slide in -- another crisis averted. An error and a no-throw put runners on first and second in the bottom of the ninth with one out, and though Young was openly angry about being pulled, we had to send Fred Mitchell in to protect the lead. He came out and calmly sent their next two batters packing and we got the win 3-1.

Though angry he didn’t get to complete his game, Young was solid with 8.1 innings and seven hits, striking out three and allowing just one run to score and that one was unearned ... so he is now 9-2 with a 1.72 ERA through 99.2 innings. Cleveland outhit us 7-6, however, and we couldn’t take risks in the bottom of the ninth after scares in the seventh and eighth -- so Mitchell came in and got two outs in his first relief appearance, taking the save and keeping his ERA unblemished. Stahl hit twice and batted in a run, and Keeler picked up two hits and a run -- though his average has fallen off somewhat, he’s still hitting .396 with four doubles, a triple, a homer and 20 RBIs. This win is huge for us, because we’re now not only 20-10 overall ... we also lead the NL by half a game over the White Sox, who have dropped five of their last ten games! With only one game left in Cleveland before we had to Chicago for a May 30th doubleheader, the chance to leapfrog the Sox couldn’t come at a better time.

May 29, 1901: Mordecai Brown (7-1, 2.21 ERA, 73.1 IP, 10 K’s, 0.89 WHIP) pitched our final game against the Blues in Cleveland, going up against Earl Moore (3-5, 4.87 ERA, 61.0 IP, 20 K’s, 1.41 WHIP). And it’s a shame the team is so poor this year, because otherwise this beautiful ballpark would be a bigger destination for fans ... as it was, “maybe” 1,300 fans showed up to watch as the two pitchers dueled early. Lots of groundball action, not many hard-hit fly balls. But Cleveland drew first blood in the bottom of the third, Erve Beck hitting an RBI single to get them a 1-0 lead. We got them back in the top of the sixth with an RBI single by Parent that drove in a pair to give us a 2-1 lead. We loaded the bases in the top of the seventh but Stahl hit into a double play with outs at home and first ... at which point Willie Keeler got a hit into right, scoring Criger from third before they made the throw to home for the final out -- Mordecai Brown couldn’t resist trying to score himself as well. That sent us into the stretch leading by a pair. Both pitchers stayed locked in from there, and we shut them down in the final frame to hold tough to the 3-1 victory, winning the series and setting us up nicely for our first trip to Chicago.

Brown pitched a complete game four-hitter, walking one and surrendering an earned run as he improved to 8-1 with a 2.08 ERA. We outslugged the Blues 11-4, led by Keeler who hit three times with an RBI, while Parent added a hit and two RBIs. We’ll have no time for resting, however, with two games tomorrow in Chicago and no days off until next Thursday.

jksander · 07-02-2024, 07:06 PM

May 30, 1901: We come into this four-game series in Chicago leading the American League by half a game over the White Sox, with two games to play this afternoon. Ted Lewis (3-4, 3.28 ERA, 68.2 IP, 16 K’s, 1.30 WHIP) got the first start, facing Nixey Callahan (7-1, 1.04 ERA, 69.0 IP, 22 K’s, 0.86 WHIP). Chicago took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second off an RBI single by Frank Shugart, but we got it back in the top of the third thanks to a Buck Freeman double. They answered with a Zaza Harvey RBI single in the bottom of the third, however, and we struggled from there to get runners on base to answer back. Parent and Dowd pulled off a double steal to get both of them into scoring position with one out in the top of the sixth, and a Hobe Ferris sac-fly to deep center drove in the tying run, but we couldn’t muster enough muscle to take the lead. Chick Stahl led off in the top of the seventh by beating out an infield blooper to reach first safely, and Keeler got one to bounce off the wall in right for a double, giving us two in scoring position. And that’s when we finally made our statement, taking the lead with two runs off a Jimmy Collins single that was aided by an E7 error, loading the bases a moment later off another error with just one out against us. Hobe Ferris got a hit up the middle, driving in two more with a single, and we went into the seventh inning stretch leading by four runs! Unable to do any further damage, we went into the bottom of the ninth just needing to keep them from finding momentum, and Lewis made it look easy as we held on to the 6-2 victory!

Ted Lewis improved to 4-4 with a 3.01 ERA, allowing nine hits a walk and a strikeout to go with two runs (only one of which was earned). We outhit Chicago 14-9, most of the hits coming in the top of the seventh when we were able to truly unleash. Buck Freeman led with three hits, a walk, a run and an RBI, while Hobe Ferris hit twice with three RBIs, giving him 15 on the season.

Cy Young said he was ready to go, but on just two days’ rest, there’s no way I was considering it. Frank Foreman (0-0, 1.69 ERA, 5.1 IP, 0 K’s, 0.94 WHIP) got the start out of the bullpen, facing Clark Griffith (3-4, 3.41 ERA, 60.2 IP, 10 K’s, 1.35 WHIP), who I’m told is playing through a day-to-day strained hamstring injury. We took the lead in the top of the third with an RBI double by Keeler that drove in a pair, but the White Sox got on the board in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a sac-fly by Griffith, cutting our lead in half. So Tommy Dowd took his shot and bought us some insurance in the top of the sixth, an RBI single extending our lead, with Hobe Ferris adding another when they botched a fielder’s choice throw to home, allowing him to reach safely. Schreckengost got a hit into left that loaded the bases with just one out, and we went into the bottom of the sixth leadng 4-1 -- the fans here simply couldn’t believe it! Frank Freeman was incredibly efficient with his pitches, giving them little room to fight back into this one until, in the bottom of the seventh, they got back to back hits and put runners on the corners. With arms warming up in the bullpen, a sac-fly by Herm McFarland got them a run closer, but Freeman got out of his jam and we still held a two run lead going into the top of the eighth. Addie Joss came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, getting three outs on just six pitches thanks to weak contact, and with the score unchanged he stayed out for the bottom of the ninth, getting a quick out and then giving up two hits and a wild pitch to put a pair into scoring position. An RBI double by Clark Griffith tied it up ... seriously? ... and we lost the game when Ferris caught a weak infield hit but didn’t make a throw in time ... Chicago wins this one 5-4 and it’s hard not to say this one was just us blowing it. We’d had our chance, but against a tough team we balked and faced the consequences.

Frank Foreman lasted seven innings with four hits, three walks, a strikeout and two earned runs, giving him a 2.19 ERA through 12.1 innings. But Joss came out and simply couldn’t handle his second inning ... he blew his second save of the season and took the loss, falling to 1-1 with a 6.14 ERA thanks to four hits, a walk and three earned runs, all of which came in the ninth with one out. We outhit Chicago 10-8 and had this one well in hand before the collapse, Keeler leading the way with a hit and two RBIs, while Dowd added a pair of hits and an RBI.

May 31, 1901: Cy Young (9-2, 1.72 ERA, 99.2 IP, 54 K’s, 0.78 WHIP) got the start today against Roy Patterson (4-3, 4.26 ERA, 63.1 IP, 24 K’s, 1.33 WHIP). Buck Freeman hit a sac-fly in the top of the first that put us ahead 1-0, and based on how the next couple innings went we were glad we struck while the iron was hot. We had one hit in that inning, and that wound up being the only hit in the game through the first three. In the top of the fifth we added a second run thanks to an RBI single by Chick Stahl, giving us a 2-0 lead we held into the seventh inning stretch. We had runners on the corners in the top of the eighth but left them both stranded, but Young kept the game firmly under his control and we trusted he could handle things. They never stood a chance, as he locked in and shut them down in the eighth and ninth as we won a 2-0 shutout.

Young notched his 10th win of the season, improving to 10-2 with a 1.57 ERA, allowing three hits and a walk while striking out a pair. We outhit the White Sox 7-3 as we took back the series lead, led by Stahl who hit once and batted in a run, while Keeler got two hits and a run himself.

June 1, 1901: Mordecai Brown (8-1, 2.08 ERA, 82.1 IP, 10 K’s, 0.85 WHIP) started our final game in Chicago, facing Zaza Harvey (5-2, 2.84 ERA, 69.2 IP, 17 K’s, 1.22 WHIP). Brown didn’t have great luck in the bottom of the first, loading the bases and walking in a run to give the White Sox an early lead. The game was a real nailbiter from there, neither team wanting to give an inch. The White Sox added a run in the bottom of the fifth of an RBI single by Sam Mertes, and our luck was absolutely nonexistent on offense. Brown got us through the bottom of the seventh with the games still at 2-0, and we were only being outhit 3-2 through the first seven innings. Keeler finally got us on the board with an RBI single in the top of the eighth, and we stunned the crowd silent when Jimmy Collins placed an infield hit perfectly, bouncing three times as it eluded the pitcher and we got a second run across! We then took the lead thanks to a perfectly placed hit into right by Buck Freeman, sending us into the bottom of the eighth with an unexpected 3-2 advantage! Hobe Ferris hit an RBI triple in the top of the ninth that drove in another pair, and Keeler drove him home with an RBI single, sending us into the bottom of the ninth with a four run lead. But we didn’t start smoothly. Frank Shugart hit a single into right, and Zaza Harvey drove him over to second thanks to an E4 error ... we started warming up arms in the bullpen, but “Three Fingers” Brown was going to have to dig out of this hole in the interim. He smartly got Fielder Jones to swing at a fastball, popping it straight to Parent who made the double play, advancing Shugart to third. A wild pitch allowed a run to score, but Brown got the final batter to ground out to first, sealing the 6-3 win and letting us leave Chicago with a 3-1 series win as well.

Brown is now 9-1 with a 2.07 ERA, pitching a five-hitter today and allowing just three runs (two earned) despite five walks and only one strikeout. We out hit the White Sox 9-5, led by Stahl with three hits, a walk, two runs and two RBIs. Keeler added three hits, a run and two RBIs as well, and without those two we’d have had virtually no offense. We head up to Milwaukee holding a 24-11 record and a 2.5 game lead in the AL, ready to face the Brewers who are currently 17-19 and in sixth place. We’re currently 8-4 on our current road trip, which sets us up for an opportunity to start taking control of our league as the summer heats up.

jksander · 07-04-2024, 09:28 PM

June 2, 1901: We took the train up to Milwaukee for the final series of the season against a team we’ve yet to play ... the best thing about playing this far north at this time of year is it’s still nice and cool with the winds coming off the lake, and Ted Lewis (4-4, 3.01 ERA, 77.2 IP, 17 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) was ready to go against Ned Garvin (5-3, 4.40 ERA, 73.2 IP, 30 K’s, 1.24 WHIP). And we didn’t waste a lick of time, taking a two run lead off a single by Buck Freeman in the top of the first. But Milwaukee answered quickly with an RBI single by John Anderson to get on the board in the bottom of the inning, and with the bases loaded Lewis walked in the tying run -- and immediately the game went sideways, with Billy Gilbert hitting a triple that brought three home and ensured this game was going to be a slugfest. We went into the top of the second trailing by four runs, and they added another run in the bottom of that inning, making this one a definite upward climb if we wanted a win. We got one back in the top of the third as Freddy Parent reached first on an E6 error, and Dowd got a slow roller into right that brought another home while putting two in scoring position. Schreckengost got a hit into right to push those two in to score, and just like that we had a ballgame! We loaded the bases in the top of the fourth and then got some nice revenge thanks to Buck Freeman, who hit an RBI triple that scored three runs and put us in the lead 9-7! Hobe Ferris hit a sac-fly to left that scored another, and we went into the bottom of the fourth leading by three. Ted Lewis really settled in from there, and we added a pair of runs in the top of the seventh thanks to an RBI double by Buck Freeman. Dowd batted in another run with a single moments later and we went into the stretch leading 13-7! Willie Keeler hit a 470-footer out of the park to center, scoring us another two in the top of the eighth, his second long-ball of the season, and we added another in the top of the ninth thanks to an E6 error, walked in a run with our next batter, and then Dowd batted in another pair with a double! Lewis stayed out there to finish what he’d started, and we won this one with ease 19-7!

Ted Lewis improved to 5-4 with a 3.22 ERA, allowing 11 hits and seven runs (five earned) with three walks and no strikeouts. We outhit the opposition by a 19-11 margin, however, with Buck Freeman hitting three times for four runs and seven RBIs! Chick Stahl hit four times and walked once, scoring four times, and Willie Keeler added three hits, two walks, five runs and two RBIs! Parent had an incredible four walks to go with his one hit, scoring once and driving in two more. Only Ferris and Lewis didn’t pick up hits today, and at least Ferris did manage to bat in a run thanks to a sac-fly and having reached base on an error.

June 3, 1901: Cy Young (10-2, 1.57 ERA, 108.2 IP, 56 K’s, 0.75 WHIP) pitched today against Pink Hawley (4-4, 3.16 ERA, 77.0 IP, 12 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) in our second of four games against the Brewers. Cy Young batted in a run with a single in the top of the second, and a Dowd sac-fly to center pushed another in. Charlie Hemphill hit a shot into left to give us a third run with an RBI single, quickly making our presence felt -- and the hits kept coming for us. Hemphill added a run scoring single in the top of the fourth, and in the top of the fifth Hobe Ferris scored another off a passed ball, giving us a 5-0 lead heading into the bottom of the inning. Wid Conroy hit a solo bomb out of center in the bottom of the fifth to get the Brewers on the board, but we got it back in the top of the sixth thanks to an RBI single by Hemphill, and we went into the stretch leading by five. Young stayed locked in, and we never gave an inch after the run in the fifth, winning this one 6-1.

Cy Young remains unstoppable, allowing five hits with five strikeouts in the complete game win, improving to 11-2 with a 1.53 ERA. He has only allowed five runs in his last seven starts! We out hit Milwaukee 14-5, led by Charlie Hemphill who hit five times with three runs batted in, in just his 10th appearance this season! The 25-year-old hit .277 last year for the Cleveland Spiders in his rookie season, playing in 55 games, but he is still something of an unknown at age 25 ... I’m thinking “Eagle Eye” has some serious potential!

June 4, 1901: Mordecai Brown (9-1, 2.07 ERA, 91.1 IP, 11 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) pitched today against the Brewers’ Pete Dowling (3-5, 4.23 ERA, 66.0 IP, 31 K’s, 1.58 WHIP). Milwaukee scored first in this one, taking a 1-0 lead thanks to a triple by Irv Waldron in the bottom of the third inning, and a second run scored via a groundout to first by Billy Gilbert. Brown loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth and let a run in via a walk, but he held his ground and didn’t surrender any further runs, sending us into the top of the seventh trailing by three with Joss and Mitchell warmed up in the bullpen. Adddie Joss came out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh, getting two quick outs before giving up an RBI double to Hugh Duffy off a fastball inside. George Cuppy came out in the bottom of the eighth, trailing by four runs, and he melted down almost immediately, even given a low-stakes appareance on the mound -- he loaded the bases and gave up an RBI single to Jimmy Burke, followed by an RBI single by Pete Dowling, making it 6-0 without a single out. Fred Mitchell came out to put out the bases-loaded zero-outs fire, and he got us into the ninth with only one additional run scoring, giving us seven runs required if we were going to fight back in this one at the last minute. Criger hit a slow roller into center with men on first and second, loading the bases with just one out, but we capped off our miserable afternoon by leaving everyone stranded as we lost 7-0, one of the worst games we’ve played as a team all year.

Mordecai Brown fell to 9-2 with a 2.13 ERA, allowing four hits with three walks and a pair of strikeouts, with three runs against him, only two of which were earned, in his six innings of work. The Brewers outhit us 9-5, and by the end it hardly mattered who we had pitching, we’d already lost the game in the third inning. Collins had two hits and a walk and Criger hit twice, but we were simply unable to muster any real energy on the basepaths. We still have a 2-1 lead in the series, and can complete the series win tomorrow with a solid outing, at which point we return home where we’ve yet to lose a game.

I’m going to say it now, George Cuppy is a wasted spot on our roster at this point. He gave up three hits, walked a pair and allowed three runs (two earned) to put his ERA at 14.85 now through five appearances and 6.2 innings. I already think we have too many bullpen arms at this juncture, and may consider trying to trade him to someone who still thinks he can fill a major league role -- his best years are clearly behind him.

June 5, 1901: We’ve made a trade with the Washington Senators, who think Cuppy has potential as a starter for them. They’ll be taking on the remainder of his contract and receiving reserve catcher Jack Slattery, in exchange for 21-year-old third baseman Hunter Hill. It’s not a trade that blows the roof off of things, but it gets us a young player I like, who has potential to develop, and it gets rid of Cuppy, whose frustrations on the mound were starting to bring down team morale. The trade is currently pending waivers. In the meantime we’ve trimmed our active roster down to 21 players for the moment, and we’re going to be working with a three-man rotation (Young / Brown / Lewis) and a leaner bullpen (Frank Foreman and Fred Mitchell in middle relief, Win Kellum and Addie Joss for longer relief appearances or spot starts). Our six man bench of Larry McLean, Ossee Schreckengost, Solly Hoffman, Harry Gleason, Harry Lumley and Charlie Hemphill covers us at all relevant positions and we can pull from our reserve roster if injuries warrant. I’d rather ensure that the players with the ability to do so get to build up some playing time and give us some consistency as we work to pull away with our AL lead.

Ted Lewis (5-4, 3.22 ERA, 86.2 IP, 17 K’s, 1.30 WHIP) started for us in our final of four games against the Brewers in Milwaukee, facing Tully Sparks (4-4, 3.55 ERA, 83.2 IP, 12 K’s, 1.46 WHIP). With rain in the forecast, we just wanted to get through this one and catch our train back to Boston, so we came out with scoring on our minds. Unfortunately, it was Milwaukee who scored early, taking the lead in the bottom of the first with a an RBI double by Wid Conroy, though even with the bases loaded Lewis held them to just the one run, and we tied it up in the top of the second with an RBI single by Hobe Ferris. Buck Freeman hit a sac-fly to deep center in the top of the third, driving in the go-ahead run, and with rain starting to fall in the top of the fifth, Willie Keeler battted Stahl into scoring position with a single into right, both runners advanced off a wild pitch, and we added a run when they couldn’t make the throw out at home in time with a fielder’s choice. We picked up a fourth run thanks to an infield single by Parent, and a fifth scored when Schreckengost singled to drive Jimmy Collins around from second.

We went into the bottom of the fifth leading 5-1, and if the rain was going to bring the game to an early end, we were certainly in prime position to get out of here with the win and catch our train early. Instead, we settled for a 33-minute rain delay in the bottom of the inning and played on from there in sloppy, soggy conditions. And it was at that point Lewis got into trouble, loading the bases and walking in a run, cutting our lead to three runs. With one out, Billy Gilbert got a hit into left that drove in a pair, and suddenly this game was turning into a nailbiter, our lead at 5-4 heading into the top of the sixth. But Lumley and Lewis got themselves into scoring position thanks to back-to-back fielding errors, and Willie Keeler batted in a run with a single to put us up by a pair. Frank Foreman came in to pitch with two outs and no one on in the bottom of the sixth, quietly securing our final out of the inning, and an E7 throwing error at home plate allowed Schreckengost to score off a single by Foreman in the top of the seventh to add to our lead, a Keeler single driving in two more for good measure. We loaded the bases in the top of the eighth thanks to two or our batters being hit by pitches and Schreckengost reaching on balls, adding a run thanks to a groundout by Lumley that made it a six-run lead, and Foreman batted in another pair with a single as the Brewers looked like they wish the game had just been called in the fifth inning. Foreman stayed out and completed the remainder of the game without incident as we crushed the Brewers and left the field a muddy mess, winning 12-4.

Ted Lewis only lasted 5.2 innings, but he held his own, allowing seven hits and four earned runs with three walks and a strikeout ... he’s now 6-4 with a 3.41 ERA, and likely would have stayed out longer except the rain delay threw off his rhythm. Frank Foreman came out and pitched a 3.1 inning save, his second save of the season, allowing four hits but keeping their runners from doing anything. He now has a 1.72 ERA through 15.2 innings over six appearances. We outhit Milwaukee 12-11, outwalked them 4-3 and played an error free game while they allowed four errors. Keeler hit four times with two runs and three RBIs, and Foreman hit twice with a run and three RBIs during his save, giving him a .429 average through seven at-bats this season.

We’re off tomorrow for the train ride back to Boston, and will then open our three-week homestand with four games in five days against these same Brewers.We have a 27-12 record and a 1.5-game lead over the Chicago White Sox, and have a chance to really put some distance between us considering we’ve yet to drop a game at home. Hunter Hill will meet us in Boston, where he’ll join our bench and bring our active roster back up to 22 out of a possible 25 players.

jksander · 07-16-2024, 01:52 PM

June 7, 1901: Cy Young (11-2, 1.53 ERA, 117.2 IP, 61 K’s, 0.74 WHIP) started today against Ned Garvin (5-4, 5.05 ERA, 76.2 IP, 30 K’s, 1.34 WHIP) in front of a home crowd of nearly 6,500 fans, all of whom want to see Young (who leads all triple-crown categories in the AL) dominate from the mound. We took the lead in the bottom of the second inning, an RBI double by Hobe Ferris putting us ahead 1-0. Ferris grounded out to first in the bottom of the fourth but a run by Tommy Dowd scored from third to extend our lead, and the Brewers showed no sign of being able to get much past Young, who was dealing all afternoon. The Brewers committed a trio of errors in the fifth and we piled on, adding three runs to make it 5-0 heading into the top of the sixth. In the top of the seventh they seemed to wake up, and a Will Conroy double drove in a run to put Milwaukee on the board, but Young shut the rally down before it had time to forment, leaving us a four run lead into the seventh inning stretch. Young shut them down efficiently from there, however, and there was no hope of a comeback -- we won this one without much fuss, 5-1.

Cy Young improved to 12-2 with a 1.49 ERA, allowing seven hits and an earned run with eight strikeouts and no one walked. We outhit them 10-7 throughout the afternoon, led by Keeler who hit three times for a run, while Ferris hit twice and batted in a pair.

June 8, 1901: Mordecai Brown (9-2, 2.13 ERA, 97.1 IP, 13 K’s, 0.89 WHIP) pitched in the second game of the series, facing Pink Hawley (4-5, 3.47 ERA, 83.0 IP, 14 K’s, 1.25 WHIP). The Brewers committed a pair of errors in the bottom of the second that helped us load the bases, and though Ferris grounded out to first for our first out, Buck Freeman scored to put us up 1-0. The Braves tied us up 1-1 in the top of the third with two outs thanks to an RBI single by Hugh Duffy, and moments later John Anderson hit a hard one that bounced off the wall in center and allowed three runs to score via an inside-the-park home run, giving them a huge 4-1 advantage. Jimmy Collins hit an RBI triple for us in the bottom of the third, and Buck Freeman hit an RBI single to pull us within a run, sending us into the fourth inning trailing by just one run. Hobe Ferris got himself an RBI triple in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at 4-4, and we went into extra innings from there. Hawley and Brown dueled it out, nobody gaining the upper hand, until with runners on the corners in the bottom of the 11th we pulled off a safety squeeze to win the game 5-4! Criger scored the winning run off a Willie Keeler bunt, and we managed to stay perfect at home!

Mordecai Brown improved to 10-2 with a 1.91 ERA, thanks to an 11-inning six hitter, walking three, striking out four and allowing four runs, though none of them were earned. We outhit Milwaukee 9-6, led by Buck Freeman with two hits, a walk, a run and an RBI, while Ferris added a hiit and two RBIs.

June 10, 1901: After a day off yesterday that served as the midpoint of the series, Ted Lewis (6-4, 3.41 ERA, 92.1 IP, 18 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) pitched in our third game against the Brewers in this four-game affair, facing Pink Hawley (4-6, 3.38 ERA, 93.1 IP, 15 K’s, 1.24 WHIP) who threw 161 pitches just two days ago in the Braves’ extra innings loss. They’re getting desperate, at 18-24, to find their way back into contention and prove they can get a win against us, but they clearly lack the pitching depth to do anything but throw Hawley back out there and pray.

We certainly didn’t start out on a strong note defensively -- Bill Friel led off with a single, stole second and reached third thanks to an E2 error, and then came around to score thanks to an Irv Waldron single, all in the top of the first without an out. But we got out of the top of the inning trailing just 1-0 despite a pair of errors, and there was plenty of time to assert our dominance. We loaded the bases quickly and Freddy Parent tied things up with a hit into a fielder’s choice, where the 6-4 play for the out at second allowed Willie Keeler to score. Milwaukee retook the lead in the top of the third with an RBI double by Hugh Duffy, adding a run via a groundout to first by John Anderson and another with a groundout to first by Bill Hallman. Lewis struggled to get the final out, allowing two more runs to score before he finally accomplished the “feat” and sending us into the bottom of the third trailing by five runs. At home. This was far from expected. Lewis gave up another trio of runs in the top of the fourth, all on two outs, and I had to draw the line -- he was out of the game, Addie Joss coming in out of the pen as any hope of us salvaging the game looked bleak. We got the final out but came up to hit in the bottom of the inning trailing 9-1 as our fans booed heartily.

We loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth, Addie Joss then taking a walk to first with two outs to get us a run back, but that was all we got in the inning and Joss gave the run back in the top of the sixth when Billy Gilbert hit an RBI single into center. In the bottom of the sixth, Chick Stahl hit a three-bagger to score two runs and cut the lead to six, and Willie Keeler hit one into the right field corner, doubling in another run, sending us into the top of the seventh trailing 10-5. We again loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth, again with two outs, and Buck Freeman got a hitt of a very tired Pink Hawley, the ball landing in right field and allowing two more runs to score for us off the RBI single, driving Hawley out of the game after 170 pitches, their reliever getting the final out and sending us into the top of the ninth trailing by three. Joss gave up a solo homer to Billy Gilbert, and we brought in Frank Foreman with one out to try and get us into the bottom of the inning with a semblance of a chance. He got us three quick outs, and it was up to the bottom of our lineup to find a way to win. Tommy Dowd took a leadoff walk and Hobe Ferris followed, giving us a runner in scoring position without an out. A wild pitch with the count 2-1 against Schreckengost put both runners in scoring position, and they walked him too, loading the bases! Foreman bunted, Tommy Dowd scoring from third as we conceded the out at first, and they walked Stahl to reload the bags ... Willie Keeler then hit a run-scoring single into center, cutting our deficit to two runs! Jimmy Collins was hit by a pitch, driving in another run, and our fans were on the verge of apoplexy! A Buck Freeman shot into right field tied it up, and a hard hit into center by Freddy Parent walked it off as we stunned Milwaukee, winning 12-11 after trailing by eight early.

Ted Lewis had a disasterous start, lasting 3.2 innings with ten hits, two walks, a strikeout and nine runs (six earned), blowing his ERA up to 3.84. But Addie Joss kept us in the game, throwing 60 pitches through 4.2 innings, allowing just four hits, two walks and two earned runs. It was Frank Foreman who got the win, improving to 1-0 by getting the final outs. Addie Joss now holds a 5.54 ERA through 13 innings, and Freeman’s improved to 1.65 through 16.1 innings. Each team picked up 14 hits, ours led by Buck Freeman who hit four times and batted in three runs. Willie Keeler added three hits, two runs and two RBIs, and Schreckengost hit twice and walked twice, scoring three runs himself in the comeback win.

We have one game left against the Brewers and we’ve won four games in a row, improving to 30-12 overall and 14-0 here at home. But we only have a 2.5 game lead on the Chicago White Sox (28-15) so it’s far too early to start believing our own press. We’ve got to keep dominating if we want to make it to the first-ever “World Series” this fall.

June 11, 1901: We decided to save Cy Young for our next series, so Frank Foreman (1-0, 1.65 ERA, 16.1 IP, 1 K, 0.98 WHIP) started for the second time this season, facing Tully Sparks (4-5, 3.81 ERA, 89.2 IP, 15 K’s, 1.51 WHIP) in our final game against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers took the lead in the top of the second with an RBI single by Bill Hallman, but Foreman hit himself an RBI double to tie it up in the bottom of the inning. They got the lead back in the top of the third with an RBI triple by Hugh Duffy, John Anderson driving him home with a double into left, and our center fielder missed the cutoff man moments later after a hit by Hallman, allowing a fourth run to score before Foreman got us the final out. Freddy Parent hit an RBI single to cut into that lead in the bottom of the third, however, and an RBI double by Dowd put us within a single run. Hobe Ferris hit a hard shot into center left, tripling himself, and a sac-fly to left by Lou Criger put us right back into the lead 5-4 heading into the top of the fourth. From there the scoring settled for a bit, but we loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth, and with two outs Willie Keeler got a hit into center and an error by their outfielder allowed another pair of runs to score, giving us a 7-4 advantage heading into the sixth. Win Kellum came in to pitch for us in the top of the seventh, and in the top of the ninth, with a runner on third and one out, Fred Mitchell came in to try and finish things off. The runner at third scored thanks to a sac-fly by Tom Leahy, but they grounded out to first, ending the game as a 7-5 win as we kept our home streak alive at 15 in a row!

Frank Foreman improved to 2-0 with a 2.82 ERA, allowing seven hits and four earned runs without a walk or a strikeout. Win Kellum earned his first hold of the year, with one hit, one walk and one earned run through 2.1 innings, giving him a 3.86 ERA in his first relief appearance of the season, and Fred Mitchell got us the outs we needed in his second save of the year -- he now has a perfect ERA through 2.1 innings of work. We outhit the Brewers 11-8, led by Collins, Parent, Dowd and Ferris who each hit twice, combining for five runs and three RBIs between them.

The Detroit Tigers (25-20) will now come to Boston for a four-game series, as they try to climb back in the AL pennant chase (they’re currently in a tie for fourth, seven games behind us). Here are the current MLB standings in both leagues as of June 12, 1901:

American League
1. Boston Americans (31-12)
2. Chicago White Sox (29-15, 2.5 GB)
3. Baltimore Orioles (24-19, 7 GB)
4. Detroit Tigers (25-20, 7 GB)
5. Washington Senators (18-25, 13 GB)
6. Milwaukee Brewers (18-26, 13.5 GB)
7. Cleveland Blues (16-29, 16 GB)
8. Philadelphia Athletics (14-29, 17 GB)

National League
1. Pittsburgh Pirates (31-18)
2. Brooklyn Superbas (30-18, 0.5 GB)
3. Philadelphia Phillies (27-20, 3 GB)
4. St. Louis Cardinals (26-21, 4 GB)
5. Boston Beaneaters (25-21, 4.5 GB)
6. Chicago Orphans (23-28, 9 GB)
7. Cincinnati Reds (21-31, 11.5 GB)
8. New York Giants (11-37, 19.5 GB)

jksander · 07-16-2024, 03:59 PM

June 12, 1901: Cy Young (12-2, 1.49 ERA, 126.2 IP, 69 K’s, 0.74 WHIP) got the first start against Detroit, facing Roscoe Miller (6-4, 2.71 ERA, 86.1 IP, 16 K’s, 1.32 WHIP), a 24-year-old with great movement and control who is working his way into their starting rotation this season after moving up from the minors. Jimmy Barrett hit his first home run of the season for the Tigers in the top of the second, blasting them into an unexpected 2-0 lead with a hard-hit ball that flew right over the Fatima Cigarrettes sign in left field (“Let Fatima smokers tell you ... buy Fatima for QUALITY!”) Young hasn’t had many times this year where he’s had to pitch from behind, but he got us through the fourth without any additional hits, and in the bottom of the inning we got a run on the board thanks to an error that put Tommy Dowd safely on first with a pair of outs. In the bottom of the sixth, Buck Freeman scored the tying run off an RBI single by Tommy Dowd, and Hobe Ferris batted us into the lead with an RBI single and a sac-fly by Young made it a two-run lead heading into the top of the seventh. We never relented from there, holding on to the 4-2 win as Cy Young closed out another complete game win.

Young improved to 13-2 with a 1.53 ERA, allowing just two hits and two earned runs with six batters struck out. But we outhit them 10-2, so the game was never really in doubt ... the homer early on was easy for Young to slough off, as it was so unexpected. Tommy Dowd led the way with two hits, a run and an RBI, while Keeler picked up two hits as well though he found nothing he could do with them once on the basepaths.

June 13, 1901: Mordecai Brown (10-2, 1.91 ERA, 108.1 IP, 17 K’s, 0.89 WHIP) started today’s game, battling Jack Cronin (3-6, 3.55 ERA, 91.1 IP, 22 K’s, 1.49 WHIP). Detroit struck first again, this time with an RBI single by Doc Nance in the top of the first, and an RBI single by Jimmy Barrett added quickly to the damage. Jimmy Collins hit a sac-fly to right that got us on the board in the bottom of the inning, but they did a very good job at preventing runs from there on, and we struggled to find that elusive tying run despite outhitting them by a wide margin. Freeman and Parent picked up back to back hits in the bottom of the eighth, with Freeman making it to third on two outs. With the count 2-1 on Dowd, a wild pitch allowed Freeman time to make his move, and just like that we were tied up 2-2 heading into the top of the ninth. Brown got us into the bottom of the inning still tied, but we weren’t able to make anything happen and this one was headed for extra innings! In the top of the 10th, Pop Dillon scored the go-ahead for Detroit thanks to a wild pitch, and with just one out and a man on second we brought Addie Joss out to pitch. Joss got our second out, but then Doc Casey hit an RBI double into center field, extending their lead to two runs. We had the top of our lineup coming up to the plate in the bottom of the inning, however, so we still had hope of a comeback. With two outs and the game on the line, Jimmy Collins hit a single into center, but Buck Freeman struck out swinging and we’d lost the game 4-2 ... our perfect home record now busted.

Mordecai Brown lasted 9.1 innings with seven hits, a walk and four runs (two earned) against him ... he’s now 10-3 with a 1.91 ERA. Joss got two outs and allowed a hit, giving him a 5.27 ERA through 13.2 innings. We outhit the Tigers 13-8, which makes the loss a little tougher to swallow, though it was bound to happen eventually based on the law of averages. Keeler hit three times but was stranded each time, as were Parent and Ferris. You can’t get away with having eight hits between your best players and not have any of them score if you expect to win a game.

June 14, 1901: Cy Young (13-2, 1.53 ERA, 135.2 IP, 75 K’s, 0.71 WHIP) only threw 99 pitches in our first game against Detroit, so he’s good to go today against Emil Frisk (4-5, 4.05 ERA, 73.1 IP, 21 K’s, 1.53 WHIP) on short rest. Back to back doubles by Stahl and Keeler to start the bottom of the first inning put us up quickly, and a Collins single coupled with an E8 error allowed us to expand it. A sac-fly by Parent added another and we were able to go into the top of the second leading 3-0. Keeler hit an RBI single in the bottom of the second, Collins following it with an RBI single of his own, and this one was looking like a potential rout. Another error allowed us to load the bases with one out, but the Tigers were able to get out of the jam without any additional damage though we led 5-0 heading into the third. The Tigers stopped the bleeding from there, but with Young on the mound there was little hope of them coming back from this. Jimmy Collins hit an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to expand the lead for us, and with two outs and the bases loaded Hobe Ferris hit an RBI single that knocked in two more. In the bottom of the eighth Hobe Ferris hit an RBI double that added a run, and with the bases loaded and two outs, Keeler hit one into right field that scored another. An RBI single by Collins and a passed ball later, Buck Freeman finally got us our final out with a pop fly to right, but we led them by a dozen runs. Young got three quick outs to preserve the shutout as we won this one 12-0.

With the four-hit shutout, Cy Young improved to 14-2 with a 1.43 ERA, with 14 complete games in 16 attempts, this being his fourth complete game shutout this season -- this was his 300th career win as he continues to cement his reputation as baseball’s best pitcher. We outhit Detroit 19-4, led by Jimmy Collins (four hits, one run, four RBIs) and Willie Keeler (four hits, one run, three RBIs). Keeler has hit .421 for the season and .435 since becoming a Cub, with 38 RBIs and 2.9 total WAR, and even that hasn’t been good enough to keep up with Collins, who now has a .342 average to go with 11 doubles, seven triples, two homers and 36 RBIs, good for 3.2 WAR thanks to his excellent defense at third base!

June 15, 1901: Ted Lewis (6-4, 3.84 ERA, 96.0 IP, 19 K’s, 1.41 WHIP) pitched in our final game of the series against the Tigers, facing Ed Siever (6-4, 2.27 ERA, 99.0 IP, 27 K’s, 1.01 WHIP). Lewis pitched around a two-out triple by Kid Elberfeld to get out of the first inning without any Tiger runs against us, and we loaded the bases in the bottom of the first but came up empty. We got on the board in the bottom of the third with a two-run homer by Buck Freeman, his first of the season, and Lewis was doing a great job from the mound -- but we had to pull him from the game after he batted in the bottom of the fifth inning. He swung wrong, apparently, and our trainers believe he strained an intercostal muscle, which means he may be out of the rotation until August. Jimmy Collins hit an RBI double to extend our lead, and a pair of errors eventually led to Collins scoring from third to make it a 4-0 lead as Fred Mitchell came in to pitch in the top of the sixth. The Tigers got a run back in the top of the inning thanks to an RBI single by Ducky Holmes, and an RBI single by Jimmy Barrett pulled them within two as we started warming our bullpen arms. Win Kellum came in to pitch with two outs and the bases loaded, getting the out off a Pop Dillon grounder to first ... that was a tight spot! We loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh but came up empty, and they returned the favor in the top of the eighth, loading the bags and walking in a run. Addie Joss came in with the bases loaded, one out, striking out Fritz Buelow and getting Al Shaw to pinch-hit his way into a fielder’s choice to escape the jam. Joss came back out to pitch in the top of the ninth with the lead at one run, and with runners on the corners he got Doc Nance to ground out safely to first as we closed out the extra-tight 4-3 victory.

Ted Lewis improved to 7-3 with a three-hit, three strikeout effort through five innings before we had to pull him. Mitchell and Kellum (who got his second hold) combined for 2.1 innings of three hit, four walk, two strikeout baseball, and Joss came in for his first save of the year with a hit and a strikeout ... his ERA is now down to 4.70 through 15.1 innings. We outhit the Tigers 10-8, led by Keeler who hit three times and scored a run, while Buck Freeman added two hits, a run and two RBIs. He leads the team with 45 runs batted in so far this season.

We have tomorrow off and then will play four games against the White Sox (31-17, 3.5 GB) and four against Cleveland (19-30, 16 GB)) before our next road trip begins. For now we’re going to keep Frank Foreman in our starting rotation along with Young and Brown, with Addie Joss, Fred Mitchell and Win Kellum as our bullpen arms. We’ve also made an offer to free agent pitcher Harold Cribbins, who would make a stronger third starter ... if we can convince him to come play in Boston, we’ll be able to put Foreman back into the bullpen where he’ll be more comfortable as an everyday stopper.

jksander · 07-16-2024, 08:38 PM

June 17, 1901: Frank Foreman (2-0, 2.82 ERA, 22.1 IP, 1 K, 1.03 WHIP) got his third start of the season today, facing Clark Griffith (6-5, 2.58 ERA, 101.1 IP, 22 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) as the White Sox make their first trip to Boston. Jimmy Collins got us into the lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the first, and with the bases loaded in the bottom of the second we added two more with an RBI single by Foreman, with a fourth run scoring thanks to a Keeler groundout to first. Up by four runs in the top of the third, Foreman had more room to breathe, allowing him to settle into a comfortable groove. Fred Mitchell came in to pitch in the top of the seventh with us still leading 4-0, and in the bottom of the inning we added two more runs with an RBI double by Freddy Parent. Mitchell stayed out to finish the remainder of the game, and we won this one easily as a 6-0 shutout.

Foreman improved to 3-0 with a 2.22 ERA, allowing three hits in six innings with one strikeout. Mitchell came in and pitched a three-inning save, his third of the season, allowing three hits and striking out three to preserve the shutout, keeping his ERA unblemished now through six innings of work. We outhit the White Sox 10-6, led by Parent (two hits, a run, two RBIs) and Keeler (two hits, two runs, one RBI). Foreman also hit once with two RBIs, giving him seven RBIs on the season and a .417 average while pitching.

June 18, 1901: Cy Young (14-2, 1.43 ERA, 144.2 IP, 79 K’s, 0.69 WHIP) pitched against Nixey Callahan (9-3, 2.18 ERA, 99.0 IP, 30 K’s, 1.06 WHIP). The White Sox took the lead in the top of the third with an RBI triple by Sam Mertes, and we struggled to even get a hit off Callahan. A groundout to first by Frank Shugart in the top of the fourth allowed the White Sox to extend their lead, and we didn’t get our first baserunner until the bottom of the fifth, when Buck Freeman reached first on an error. But Parent broke up the no-hitter just minutes later, singling Freeman into scoring position, and Hobe Ferris hit a single into center with one out, driving in Freeman to score our first run before Criger hit into a double play and ended the rally. Young’s pitching kept us in this one, but our bats were having a hard time making anything happen. In the bottom of the ninth, still trailing by a run, Keeler led off by grounding out to first, but Jimmy Collins took a walk. Freeman hit into a fielder’s choice, taking first with Collins out at second, and Freddy Parent struck out swinging -- after winning 14 consecutive games, Young couldn’t pull this one out of his hat and we lost 2-1.

The loss knocked Cy Young down to 14-3, though his ERA improved to 1.35 thanks to neither of his runs being earned. He struck out seven in the game, but we committed three errors that wound up sealing it. That, and they outhit us 6-3, with only Ferris managing to bat in a run, Freeman scoring off an error.

June 19, 1901: Mordecai Brown (10-3, 1.91 ERA, 117.2 IP, 17 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) pitched against Roy “Pat” Patterson (6-5, 3.83 ERA, 96.1 IP, 36 K’s, 1.21 WHIP). This time we took the lead in the bottom of the first with a sac-fly to center by Collins, and we added on with a run scoring in the bottom of the second off a sac-fly by Criger. Hobe Ferris knocked in two runs with a triple in the bottom of the sixth, doubling our lead, and “Three Fingers” didn’t even give up his first hit until the top of the seventh. Of course he immediately gave up a stolen base and a second hit, an RBI double by Dummy Hoy, loading the bases on two outs. With bullpen arms warming, he got the final out to leave all the runners stranded, sending us into the seventh inning stretch still leading 4-1. Addie Joss came in to pitch in the top of the eighth, and he ran into trouble after getting his first out -- Herm McFarland batted in a run with a single, but a double play got us through still leading by a pair. An RBI triple by Parent put us back up by three, and with the bases loaded, Criger hit a weak squib and beat out the throw to first to drive in another run. Joss hit a sac fly that drove in another, and two more scored when Jimmy Collins hit a bouncing single into center. Keeler scored off a Freeman single into right, and we went into the top of the ninth leading by eight. Joss just needed three outs to close the deal, but he went and loaded the bases, an RBI single by Joe Sugdan and a wild pitch pulling them to within six. But Joss got it done, getting his final out by flyball to center field, and we won this one 10-4.

Mordecai Brown improved to 11-3 with a 1.88 ERA, only allowing three hits in seven innings with three walks, one strikeout and a single earned run. Joss picked up a save, his second, allowing five hits with three runs (one earned) and a walk during his two innings. We outhit the White Sox 11-8, led by Jimmy Collins with two hits and three RBIs. Criger hit twice as well, walking once and driving in two.

June 20, 1901: Frank Foreman (3-0, 2.22 ERA, 28.1 IP, 2 K’s, 0.92 WHIP) got our final start against the White Sox, facing Zaza Harvey (8-3, 3.07 ERA, 105.2 IP, 23 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) with a cool rain falling early on. A groundout to first netted them a run as Fielder Jones scored from third in the top of the first, and an E6 error cost us a second run with just one out. Foreman finally got us out of the inning without any further damage, but spotting the road team a 2-0 lead in the first frame is never a smart move on a nasty-weather day like this. And it only got worse from there -- Frank Shugart hit an RBI triple that added a run in the top of the fourth, putting them ahead 3-0. We finally got on the board with an RBI double in the bottom of the fifth, and we brought Fred Mitchell in to pitch at the start of the seventh inning with us still trailing 3-1. He got a pair of outs and then surrendered another run, this time an RBI single off Billy Sullivan’s bat, coupled with an E8 throwing error ... our FIFTH error of the game. But our fortunes changed in the bottom of the seventh -- we loaded the bases with just one out, Willie Keeler walking in a run to cut the lead back to three. Jimmy Collins got a hit into left field, a line drive that drove in two more, and a Buck Freeman single into left drove in the tying run! Mitchell got us through the top of the eighth, and back to back errors for the White Sox gave us Ferris in scoring position with Schreckengost on first, no outs! Chick Stahl hit an RBI single with one out in the bottom of the eighth to push us into the lead, and another run scored off an E4 error by Chicago (THEIR fifth of the game) as we extended our lead. A Buck Freeman triple made it a four-run lead heading into the top of the ninth, with Addie Joss coming in to pitch. He got three quick outs to secure the 9-5 win as we won the series against Chicago three games to one.

Frank Foreman did what he could, lasting six innings with five hits, three walks and three runs, only one of which was earned, giving him a 2.10 ERA through 34.1 innings. Fred Mitchell got the win, giving us two innings with three hits, two runs (one earned), a walk and a strikeout -- he’s now 1-0 with a 1.12 ERA through eight innings over six bullpen appearances. Joss then came out and closed it out in a non-save situation, adding a strikeout to his tally while improving his ERA to 4.42 in his 10th appearance out of the pen. We outhit the White Sox 13-8, led by Chick Stall with three hits, a walk, two runs and two RBIs, while Buck Freeman added two hits and three RBIs.

jksander · 07-16-2024, 11:00 PM

June 21, 1901: Cy Young (14-3, 1.35 ERA, 153.2 IP, 86 K’s, 0.69 WHIP) got the start as Cleveland came to town for the first time, facing up against Ed Scott (4-9, 3.11 ERA, 107.0 IP, 16 K’s, 1.38 WHIP). We took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second thanks to an RBI single by Tommy Dowd with loaded bases and two outs. Buck Freeman hit a two-run single in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 4-0 lead, and Chick Stahl added an RBI double with one out in the bottom of the sixth. Collins hit an RBI triple to drive him home, Freeman drove in a run with a single, and we had a seven run lead heading into the top of the seventh. Young didn’t give them an inch, and we put them away quietly, winning 7-0.

Young improved to 15-3 with a 1.27 ERA, pitching a five-hit shutout with five strikeouts. We picked up 11 hits, led by Jimmy Collins with four hits, three runs and an RBI, while Buck Freman added two hits, two walks and three RBIs.

June 22, 1901: Mordecai Brown (11-3, 1.88 ERA, 124.2 IP, 18 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) pitched against Bill Hart (6-6, 5.10 ERA, 95.1 IP, 18 K’s, 1.68 WHIP) this afternoon in front of a rowdy crowd of nearly 6,700 fans her in Boston. And this one turned into an unexpected pitching duel, both pitchers completely locked in on the task at hand and leaving no room for such a pesky thing as baserunners. The game remained scoreless into the stretch, but we finally got through their defenses in the bottom of the seventh, Lou Criger knocking the go-ahead run in with a double. But Brown got into trouble in the top of the eighth, walking the bases loaded and then hitting Candy LaChance in the shoulder, tying the game up! We left the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, no runs scoring, and when we were unable to come up with a hit in the bottom of the ninth, the game went into extra innings. With the score still tied at 1-1 in the top of the 12th, Addie Joss came in to pitch, and he kept it that way ... but Hart stayed in and remained as locked in as if it was still the fourth or fifth inning, and he kept us from doing much of anything. With two outs in the bottom of the 13th, Lou Criger got to second when Tom Donovan dropped a flyball in right field for an error, but we couldn’t get him around to score. In the top of the 15th inning, Addie Joss gave up a fat fastball to Erve Beck, and he slammed it into right field for an RBI double, putting the Blues up 2-1. That gave Bill Hart the chance for a win, the 35-year-old staying out for the bottom of the 15th despite having thrown more than 215 pitches ... and he held on to pull it off. We lost this one 2-1 in 15 innings, as brutal a loss as I have ever experienced, though our fans at the very least got their 75 cents worth.

Bill Hart was flat-out impossible to stop tonight ... he threw a 15-inning complete game with just eight hits, walking eight and striking out four while allowing just one earned run. On our side of things, Mordecai Brown gave us 11 innings and threw 152 pitches, allowing just three hits, but he walked eight and struck out one while allowing an earned run, his ERA improving to 1.79. Addie Joss came in and threw 37 pitches over four innings, falling to 1-2 with a 4.03 ERA thanks to three hits, a strikeout and a single earned run. We outhit Cleveland 8-6 in the loss, led by Stahl with three hits to nowhere -- only Criger managed to bat in a run with a hit and a walk, Dowd scoring it.

June 24, 1901: With the day off last night, Cy Young (15-3, 1.27 ERA, 162.2 IP, 91 K’s, 0.68 WHIP) had plenty of time to get rest, so he’ll start today against Cleveland’s Ed Scott (4-10, 3.51 ERA, 112.2 IP, 16 K’s, 1.44 WHIP). Keeler opened up things quickly with an RBI triple in the bottom of the first, scoring himself when Buck Freeman reached first with an infield hit. We piled on quickly, and by the time we brought Young back out for his second round, we held a 4-0 lead on Cleveland, vowing there would be no repeat of yesterday’s scoring ineptitude. We added two more in the bottom of the second, driving their starter out before the inning even finished and setting their bullpen up for a rough night. Cleveland got on the board with an RBI double by Bill Bradley in the top of the fifth, and their long reliever Fred Klobedanz handled himself admirably, keeping the game from getting futher out of hand. The Blues picked up an RBI double in the top of the seventh to cut our lead to four, but we still held a 6-2 lead going into the stretch. We got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning, Jimmy Collins scoring off a groundout to first by Tommy Dowd, and Young held them off nicely from there as we won this one 7-2.

Another complete game six-hitter gives Cy Young a 16-3 record and a 1.26 ERA this season -- he struck out three tonight and only allowed two runs (one earned). We outhit the Blues 10-6, led by Buck Freeman with two hits, a run and two RBIs, while Jimmy Collins and Freddy Parent each hit twice as well. We got good news after the game as well, with Harold Cribbins, 28, agreeing to a one year, non-guaranteed contract worth $850 to play for us as our #3 starter ... we’re moving Frank Foreman back into the bullpen.

June 25, 1901: Mordecai Brown (11-3, 1.79 ERA, 135.2 IP, 19 K’s, 0.89 WHIP) is ready to bounce back in our final game against Cleveland, facing Earl “Crossfire” Moore (4-11, 4.92 ERA, 108.0 IP, 37 K’s, 1.54 WHIP). It’s a windy, rainy, nasty day for baseball, and we were hoping our bats could give us just enough to not drag this one out. But the Blues instead got out to the faster start, taking the lead in the top of the second off an RBI single by Frank Scheibeck. Jimmy Collins got to second in the bottom of the fourth off an E6 error, giving us our first baserunner of the afternoon, and with two outs we brought him around to score with an RBI single by Tommy Dowd, tying it up at 1-1 with rain starting to fall. A few minutes later Lou Criger walked the bases loaded, but Brown hit a hard one straight to the center fielder for our final out. Cleveland answered quickly, an RBI double by Erve Beck putting them back up 2-1 in the top of the fifth, but we were quick to reply back, an RBI single by Buck Freeman tying it up again in the bottom of the inning, putting runners in scoring position with one out. Tommy Dowd reached first on an E3 error and took second in the chaos that ensued, allowing two runs to score and putting us up 4-2! Addie Joss came in to pitch in the top of the ninth, with us having failed to add any insurance in the ensuing innings ... and he pulled things off perfectly, shutting down any hopes of a Cleveland rally as we won 4-2!

Mordecai Brown improved to 12-3 with a 1.82 ERA, thanks to eight innings with six hits, three walks, a strikeout and two earned runs. Addie Joss allowed a hit and nothing else, bringing his ERA down to 3.86 thorugh 23.1 innings in his third save of the season. Cleveland outhit us 7-4, but they walked us four times which evened things up. Jimmy Collins scored two runs off errors, while Freeman hit once, scoring a run and batting in another, while Dowd hit and batted in a run as well.

We’ve got a game against Baltimore (32-23, 8 GB) on the road, followed by three at Washington (24-31, 16 GB) which will be followed by five games against Baltimore (two on the road, three at home) through Independence Day. We currently hold a 7.5 game lead in the AL over the Chicago White Sox, who are on a two-game losing streak, having lost seven of their last ten games.

06-23-2024, 08:43 PM	#1
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,628	Centennial Boy: Clarence Sullivan and the birth of the Boston Americans “Centennial Boy” Time for an additional historical challenge. I’m going to be starting in 1901 with the Boston Americans as the World Series and Deadball Eras begin, following the GM / Mangerial career of Clarence Sullivan, who was born on July 4, 1876 and is just getting his feet wet in the world of professional baseball. I’m playing in default mode with one year recalc and ratings on a 1-100 scale, 100% scouting accuracy, with rookies imported automatically to their teams and automatic import of financial settings (and I intend to keep the reserve clause in effect for now, though I may decide to introduce free agency in the future). I am turning the coaching system off, as well as turning off owner goals, personality / morale and storylines. All injuries are set to “very low” with no delay on any injury diagnosis. Suspensions are off, and fatigue is set to low. I have the AI set to favor current and previous year stats most heavily (35%) with ratings and “stats two years ago” each set to 15%. Initial roster settings include a 25-man active roster, a no-limit reserve roster, and a 40-man expansion in September. I intend to play out my games, as has become my favorite aspect of the game ... so this league will run in tandem with my “Beyond Astrodome” one. - - - - - April 17, 1901: My name is Clarence Sullivan, and I was born on the day of the American Centennial, July 4, 1876. My family has been in Boston for my entire life and the lives of the previous five generations, and my father was a huge fan of the game of baseball, taking me to see as many games as he could while I was growing up. So when I had the opportunity this year to take over the management and day-to-day operations of the Boston Americans at the request of owner Josh Childress, I had to take it. He’s mainly focused on making money -- the more the better -- and if we’re able to put on a team that can stay about dead even in win percentage, he’ll be patient and keep his hands out of the daily team operations. But we already have a great roster of players on the team, so I think we can put a product out there that will pack fans into our ballpark and give them a winning team. With this year playing into the first-ever “World Series” between the winners of the American and National leagues, excitement in the world of baseball has never been higher. We don’t have an easy road to start the season ... in a week we’ll play our opening day in Baltimore against the Orioles, the first of four games there, followed by four on the road against the Philadelphia Athletics and four against the Washington Senators. We won’t play in front of our home fans until May 8th, when we’ll start a two week stretch of games at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, hosting the Athletics, the Senators and Baltimore for 12 games in a row. April 23, 1901: Solly “Circus Solly” Hofman has signed a contract to play for us, earning $1,500 this season. Lean and athletic, Hofman hails from St. Louis, Missouri, but came back east to try out for us as he was unhappy with the level of competition in the leagues of the midwest. He’s got a great deal of potential as a third baseman for an 18-year-old, and has the patience and power potential to be a player worth watching long term. We’ve also signed left fielder Harry “Judge” Lumley, age 20, a left-handed hitter with quick hands and good pitch recognition, to a deal worth $470 this season. A solid defender in the outfield, I see him being a long-term contender with us. Both players look to be backups on the active roster this season, but could easily be starters in just a couple years’ time. We’re still going after a couple additional “big fish” who have expressed interest in playing for teams in our league this year, as well as hunting for players who can give us depth on our reserve roster. In the meantime, here is our opening day roster for tomorrow’s first game in Baltimore: Lineup C - Lou Criger 1B - Buck Freeman 2B - Hobe Ferris 3B - Jimmy Collins SS - Freddy Parent LF - Tommy Dowd CF - Chick Stahl RF - Charlie Hemphill SP - Cy Young April 24, 1901: A healthy crowd of 5,510 fans packed Oriole Park’s makeshift stands on a cloudy, cool afternoon to watch us all play. Baltimore started their 24-year-old ace Harry Howell, and a front-loaded lineup that included first baseman Mike Donlin leading off, with John McGraw and Jimmy Williams (at third and second respectively) providing a lot of juice in the three and four spots. At least early on, however, nobody was really finding a lot to hit as both pitchers had their best stuff. But Baltimore got going in the bottom of the third, and center fielder Steve Brodie got a shot into center field that batted in a run, and two more scored off a double by McGraw. Baltimore fielded incredibly well and we weren’t able to get many hits to land, while the Orioles had a lot of luck on that end ... they added two more runs off a double by Wilbert Robinson in the bottom of the sixth, and a sixth run scored thanks to a groundout by Harry Howell. We finally got on the board in the top of the seventh with an RBI double by Lou Criger, sending us into the stretch trailing 6-1. Buck Freeman hit a 435-footer out of right field, a home run that made it a four-run game in the top of the eighth, and Jimmy Collins hit an inside-the-park homer right after to cut the lead to three. With two outs and runners on second and third in the top of the ninth, Chick Stahl hit a run-scoring single to cut the lead to two, but Tommy Dowd grounded out to first and we lost 6-4. Young finished the game with 10 hits, four walks and two strikeouts in eight innings, allowing six runs, four of which were earned as he started his season out 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA. The Orioles outhit us 10-8, Buck Freeman and Jimmy Collins leading the way for us with two hits, a run and an RBI each. April 25, 1901: George Cuppy, our 31-year-old starter, pitched today against Baltimore’s Joe McGinley, a 30-year-old with a five pitch arsenal who mostly uses his command and control to make up for below-average “stuff.” We quickly loaded the bases in the top of the first off two hits and a poor throw on a fielder’s choice that counted as an error for Baltimore. Jimmy Collins quickly got a great hit into right and two runs scored off his double. That was all we got out of the deal, leaving two runners stranded, but it was a solid start going up 2-0. Jimmy Williams got them a run back in the bottom of the inning with an RBI double, however, and Bill Keister hit an RBI triple that rolled into the cavernous center-right corner to tie it up. Tommy Dowd put us back in the lead with an RBI single in the top of the second, but they tied it up with an RBI double in the bottom of the third, and with the bases loaded they added another pair off a double by Keister. By the time we got out of the third inning we were in an 8-3 hole and fading fast, with Cuppy’s afternoon looking to be over -- he had the endurance to keep throwing, but the stuff just wasn’t there. Right hander George Winter came in to pitch for us in the bottom of the fourth, and though he put runners on the corners, nobody scored. Freddy Parent hit a 441-foot blast out of center field to give us a fourth run in the top of the fifth, but they got it back in the bottom of the inning off an RBI double by McGraw that made the score 9-4 Orioles. Chick Stahl batted in a run with a single in the top of the sixth, but again they got it back, this time thanks to an RBI single by Wilbert Robinson. Neither team was fielding well (eight combined errors) but ours continues to struggle at putting hitting streaks together, which made it hard to see us rallying back from a 10-5 deficit heading into the top of the seventh. But Buck Freeman got on base on an error, and then advanced into scoring position on a blown pick-off attempt, and we thought we had a shot when Collins hit a single into right that should have put Freeman on third ... but he got greedy and was picked off trying to make it home. Poor decision making, borne out of frustration at our offensive struggles, and two quick outs drowned the rally attempt. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh we brought out Frank Foreman to pitch, getting the final out and sending us into the top of the eighth still trailing by five. Chick Stahl hit a single into right, driving Frank Foreman around from second to try and take third ... and he wound up scoring thanks to an E9 error that allowed Stahl to move into scoring position. Dowd walked to fill the empty base, and then Buck Freeman hit a hard one into that pesky center-right corner, driving in two with a double ... just like that we were within two, with two outs and a runner in scoring position! Jimmy Collins popped out to right, however, and we’d have to hope for similar luck in the top of the ninth to keep this one going. Frank Freeman got us there without much fuss ... three quick pop-outs ... bringing up Freddy Parent to lead off in the ninth. He loaded the count but popped out to short, as did Charlie Hemphill, who has yet to get a hit in this series. Hobe Ferris grounded out harmlessly to the pitcher, who made the final out at first as we lost this one 10-8. George Cuppy had a bad night, lasting three innings with 10 hits, eight earned runs, two walks and no strikeouts, giving him a ghastly 24..00 ERA. Winter was solid through 3.2 innings, with three hits, two runs (one earned), three walks and a strikeout, and Foreman got us through the last 1.1 innings without a baserunner. We were outhit 13-9 overall, but Stahl was solid with three hits, two runs and an RBI, and Jimmy Collins hit twice for two RBIs, as Buck Freeman added a hit and two RBIs. We’ve signed Addie Joss, a 21-year-old reliever with future starting potential, to a $1,500 deal to join our bullpen ... his biting curve should give the California native some real power out of the pen, and if he can keep developing, he’s a likely rotation-leading starter down the road. April 26, 1901: Cy Young (0-1, 4.50 ERA, 8.0 IP, 2 K’s, 1.75 WHIP) got the start today on a rainy, windy afternoon, facing 25-year-old Orioles starter Jerry Nops, making his season debut. Hobe Ferris got a base hit in the top of the third, the first hit for either team all day, but Ossee Schreckengost hit into a double play and Young grounded out to first so we didn’t get any runs to score. We got a runner onto third in the fourth, and they got one in the bottom of the fifth, but this game was a classic pitcher’s duel, with offense hard to come by. The game was still scoreless heading into the seventh inning stretch, but Baltimore finally broke the stalemate in the bottom of the frame with an RBI double by Wilbert Robinson that gave them a 1-0 lead. The Orioles added an RBI single by McGraw in the bottom of the eighth, and Stahl came up to lead off in the ninth knowing we needed at least a pair to stay alive in this one. He was patient and came up with a base on balls, but Dowd and Collins both popped out to center, and Freeman grounded out to first ... another brutal 2-0 loss for us, as we start the season out 0-3. Tomorrow’s game will determine if we get swept. Young had a great night, allowing six hits in his eight innings with three strikeouts, no walks and just the two earned runs, improving his ERA to 3.38 as he fell to 0-2. We held them to six hits but only mustered three ourselves, and if we can’t figure out a way to create offense, this is going to be a long year for our pitchers. Stahl had a hit and a walk, making him our only player worth mentioning on offense at all. He’s hitting .385 with a .429 on-base percentage so far in this opening series. We’ve made one final free-agent signing, bringing in Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, a 24-year-old from Nyesville, Indiana, who will join our starting rotation as a right-handed starter on a $1,500 contract. He has a ton of potential, and should have what our scouts are describing as “truly elite stuff” when he’s fully matured. He’s going to get the start tomorrow afternoon in Baltimore as we try to get out of this series with at least one win. April 27, 1901: Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown took the mound this afternoon, facing Baltimore’s Ivor Wagner, making his first start of the season. Freddy Powell got us on the board quickly in the top of the first, hitting an RBI single that scored the game’s opening run. Charlie Hemphill then got one right over the head of the shortstop, driving in another with a single, giving us a two-run lead as we went into the bottom of the first inning. Brown was as good as advertised, allowing just a hit and a walk in the first three innings, and we added a run in the top of the fourth as our catcher Lou Criger hit an RBI single into right field. Brown then hit a sac-fly to right, and when they didn’t make a throw, Hobe Farris found his way home from third to make it 4-0 Americans! Baltimore got on the board in the bottom of the seventh off a sac-fly by Cy Seymour, but Chick Stahl got it back for us with an RBI triple in the top of the eighth, with Tommy Dowd batting him home with an RBI triple of his own just minutes later! Buck Freeman made it three in a row with an RBI triple immediately thereafter, and a Jimmy Collins RBI double put us up by seven, all four RBIs coming with two outs! Freddy Parent hit an RBI single, and by the time Brown came back out to pitch we led 9-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth. Brown got us through the final two frames with ease, capping a 9-1 win as we prevented the sweep. Mordecai Brown got his major league career going on a great foot, starting out 1-0 with a 1.00 ERA thanks to a complete game four-hitter, during which he walked two and struck out two. We outhit the Orioles 12-4, led by Freddy Parent who hit three times and walked twice, scoring a run and batting in a pair. Stahl also was solid with two hits, two runs and an RBI from the leadoff spot. We have a day off as we take the train up to Philly, where we’ll play four games against the Athletics starting on Monday. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds) Last edited by jksander; 06-23-2024 at 08:46 PM.

06-24-2024, 05:32 PM	#2
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,628	April 29, 1901: We’re starting Ted Lewis for our first game against the 2-2 Philadelphia Athletics, giving the 28-year-old his first start of the season. He’ll be facing Eddie Plank (0-1, 1.50 ERA, 6.0 IP, 1 K, 1.67 WHIP). The duel was on from the first pitch, neither hurler wanting to give an inch. In the first five innings Plank didn’t give us a single baserunner, but Lewis only allowed a hit and a walk himself and the score remained blank heading into the top of the sixth. Hobe Ferris walked to break up the perfect game, but Criger hit into a fielder’s choice to take him out at second. Lewis walked to put Criger in scoring position, and Chick Stahl hit into a fielder’s choice where an error at second allowed everyone to stay safe ... bases loaded, still no hits! That’s when Tommy Dowd broke up the no-no, getting a perfect shot into right for an RBI single, giving us a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the inning. Parent committed a pair of costly errors in the bottom of the sixth, putting runners on first and second, and they got a hit off the wall in center by Dave Fultz that put the A’s up 2-1 via triple. At that point the wheels fell off -- Socks Seybold had an RBI single to make it 3-1, Parent committed another error, his third failed catch of the inning, and with the bases loaded and two outs Phil Geier hit an RBI single that scored two more. By the time we FINALLY got out of the inning we’d gone from 1-0 to 1-6, and we had four errors against us -- and Lewis had six runs against him, NONE OF THEM EARNED. Parent led off with a double in the top of the seventh, staying in because we don’t have a fielding shortstop who’s any better than him, so we have to chalk that inning up to being absolute terrible luck. Lou Criger laid down a hit into deep right, allowing Parent to score a run, but we went into the stretch still trailing by four. But we had a great rally opportunity in the top of the ninth ... with one out, Parent got a line drive single into right, Hemphill hit a line drive single into center, and the two pulled off a double steal, putting two runs in scoring position with Harry Lumley coming in to pinch hit for Ferris. He reached first on an E3 error, loading the bases, and Criger hit into a fielder’s choice, keeping the bases loaded as they threw Parent out at home plate. Lewis then hit a great shot into right, but a sliding catch by Geier in right field shot down our hopes as we lost 6-2. Lewis had a great night, with eight innings, five hits, two walks and three strikeouts. All six runs were attached to him, but none were earned, so he gets the honor of holding an 0-1 record and an 0.00 ERA, throwing 107 pitches. We each had five hits and two walks, but we out errored them 4-2 and that made the difference. Parent hit twice and scored a run but his three errors were impossible to make up. April 30, 1901: Cy Young (0-2, 3.38 ERA, 16.0 IP, 5 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) is up to face Chick Fraser (1-0, 3.75 ERA, 12.0 IP, 7 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) in our second of four games agains the A’s of Philly. Nap Lajoie hit a run-scoring double, getting thrown out trying to take third, putting Philadelphia up 1-0 in the bottom of the first, but Young did well to control the damage. Matty McIntyre grounded out to first in the bottom of the second but drove in a run for the A’s, increasing their margin to two, and while we repeatedly got runners into scoring position, we couldn’t get them in to actually, you know, score. Cy Young got two quick outs in the bottom of the fourth, and than after a 15 minute rain delay and a quick beer in the dugout, he came out and got the third, keeping us within a pair. He then bunted a pair of runners over into scoring position with a well placed sacrifice, giving us runners on second and third with one out in the top of the fifth. Chick Stahl loaded the bases with a walk, and Tommy Dowd dropped one into center, tying things up with a two-run single! Buck Freeman batted in another to put us in the lead with a single, Dowd advancing to third when the run scored (which allowed Freeman to take second), and then Jimmy Collins hit one that bounced off the wall in center left, legging out a double that drove in the pair! Collins scored on an E8 error after a base hit by Parent, who took second in the chaos, and we went into the bottom of the fifth leading by a 6-2 margin! Tommy Dowd batted in another run for us in the top of the eighth with a single, and Young stayed completely locked in on his goal to win us this game. In the bottom of the ninth, Lajoie hit a 440-footer out of the park in left, and with one out Phil Grier hit an RBI single to cut our lead to three, pushing Doc Powers into scoring position. We brought George Cuppy in to get the last pair of outs, and he succeeded with two quick flyouts against the bottom of their lineup, saving the game as we won 7-4! Cy Young pitched 8.1 innings with nine hits, two walks, two strikeouts and four earned runs, giving him a 1-2 record and 3.70 ERA through three starts. Cuppy picked up a save, pitching two thirds of an inning without a hit, improving his ERA to 19.64 through 3.2 innings. Most important, we outhit the A’s 11-9, led by Parent, who hit four times with an RBI, and by Dowd, who added two hits, a run and three RBIs. May 1, 1901: We’ve made a trade that became final yesterday afternoon, sending reliever George Winter to the Brooklyn Superbas in exchange for right fielder Willie Keeler, who brings excellent contact and defense to the table, both big needs for us. He’s also quick on the basepaths, which is definitely a plus in this day and age. Keeler made the trip by train from New York, got here by lunch, and will be starting for us this afternoon batting after Stahl, moving Dowd into the six spot. Mordecai Brown (1-0, 1.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 2 K’s, 0.67 WHIP) got the start, facing Wiley “Iron Man” Piatt (0-1, 6.35 ERA, 5.2 IP, 1 K, 2.47 WHIP) as we fight to take a lead in the series. We took a 1-0 lead with two outs in the top of the fourth, when we pulled off the hit and run, Buck Freeman batting in Jimmy Collins from second with a single into right on just our second (and either team’s third) hit of the game. But the Athletics tied it up in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a sac-fly by McIntyre, which scored Harry Davis from third. Chick Stahl walked with one out in the top of the sixth, took second off a groundout by Keeler, and then stole third with the count 1-0 against Jimmy Collins ... but Collins grounded out to first and ended the inning with Stahl stranded. Good hustle though! Stahl hit a one-out triple in the top of the eighth, but we couldn’t get a ball out of the infield, leaving him stranded there for the second time this afternoon as the score remained tied 1-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth, and that’s when their pitcher, Piatt, hit a 380-footer out of the park to give them a 2-1 lead. Billy Freeman led off for us in the top of the ninth, hitting a line drive single to left, and Freddy Parent batted him into scoring position with a well placed single up the middle. Piatt then walked Tommy Dowd, loading the bases for Hobe Ferris, who hit into a fielder’s choice with the out made at home ... bases still loaded, one out. Ossee Schreckengost came in to pinch hit for Criger, and he’ll take over as catcher if this goes to extras. But he too hit into a fielder’s choice, and they made the out at home, keeping the bags loaded for Mordecai Brown. We started warming up Cy Young in case of extra innings, pinch hitting Charlie Hemphill for Brown ... but he hit into a fielder’s choice, third in a row, with the out made this time at second ... what a tough way to lose a game 2-1. Mordecai Brown fell to 1-1 with a stellar 1.59 ERA, allowing just six hits in the entire game with a walk and two earned runs. We even outhit the A’s 7-6, but couldn’t score even with loaded bases and no outs in the ninth. That should have been a gimme. Buck Freeman hit four times and batted in a run, keeping his average above .300, but he didn’t get a lot of help this afternoon as we fell to 2-5. We’ll have a shot at evening up the series in the final game in Philly tomorrow afternoon. May 2, 1901: Ted Lewis (0-1, 0.00 ERA, 8.0 IP, 3 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) pitched his second start this afternoon, going up against Philly’s “Strawberry Bill” Bernhard (1-0, 3.60 ERA, 10.0 IP, 2 K’s, 1.20 WHIP). We stranded two on the corners in the top of the inning, and Philly pounced quickly in the bottom, scoring off an RBI double by Nap Lajoie and another RBI double by Harry Davis, going up 2-0 before Davis got their catcher Doc Powers to strike out swinging. We stranded two in scoring position in the top of the second, but loaded the bases in the top of the third, tying things up with an RBI single by Dowd! Hobe Ferris hit a double into center, driving Parent into home with Dowd taking second, and he decided to go for it successfully, scoring and allowing Ferris to take third while we went up 4-2. Criger hit a sac-fly to deep left, allowing Ferris to score our fifth run, and Lewis kept things going with a hit into right, though Stahl ended the inning with a pop-out to the catcher, giving us a 5-2 lead heading into the bottom of the third. Philly got a run back in the bottom of the fourth thanks to an E4 error on a groundball to first, and in the bottom of the fifth Socks Seybold hit a three-run blast out of left, his first of the year, to put the A’s back up 6-5. Keeler got us tied back up in the top of the sixth with an RBI single, and Freddy Parent loaded the bases thanks to an E6 error, Dowd batting us into the lead with a solid shot into center, and in the top of the seventh Chick Stahl hit an RBI single into right to increase the margin to two runs. With the bases loaded a moment later, Freeman walked in another run, but Freddy Parent batted into a double play, sending us into the stretch leading by a solid 9-6 margin. We brought Frank Foreman in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, and with one out, Nap Lajoie batted in a run with a single that put runners on the corners, but Seybold hit into a double play to get us out of it still leading by a pair. George Cuppy came in to pitch in the ninth, a run scoring on a failed fielder’s choice throw to home with one out, giving them men on the corners, and they tied it up off another fielder’s choice where we DID get the out at second, Jack Hayden taking first. Cuppy settled for the blown save, and this game headed to extra innings, tied up at 9-9. Buck Freeman got a base hit into center with one out in the top of the 10th, but we weren’t able to get anyone in to score. Cuppy stayed out for the bottom of the frame and wound up getting the loss as they walked it off with a one out RBI single by Harry Davis, Dave Fultz coming around to win it 10-9. Cuppy blew the save and took his second loss of the year, though his ERA improved to 16.20, two of his three runs being unearned. Lewis allowed 12 hits and six runs (five earned) in his seven innings, and Freeman got his first hold of the year as he allowed three hits and a single earned run to keep his ERA at 3.86. We lost this series three games to one and fell to 2-6, getting outhit 10-9 ... Keeler proved to be valuable, hitting four times with a run and an RBI, giving him a .400 average for us in two games while he’s hitting .365 for the season as a whole. The season is long, and we’re playing our first twelve games on the road, so I’m simply hopeful we can recover some ground in Washington before we get to finally play some games in front of Boston fans. We play the Senators tomorrow and Saturday, with an off day Sunday before we play the back two on Monday and Tuesday. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

06-25-2024, 03:47 AM	#4
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,628	May 8, 1901: About 5,300 fans packed into the Huntington Avenue Grounds under clear skies for today’s home opener, creating a celebratory picnic atmosphere as Mordecai Brown (2-1, 3.47 ERA, 23.1 IP, 3 K’s, 0.94 WHIP) started the game against Philly’s “Gettysburg Eddie” Plank (2-1, 1.73 ERA, 26.0 IP, 10 K’s, 1.04 WHIP). Philly drew first blood in the top of the first thanks to a sac-fly to deep right field that allowed Lave Cross to score from third. Tommy Dowd hit an RBI double in the bottom of the fourth after a double steal by Collins and Parent, and Lou Criger hit an RBI single to add another run, putting us up 3-1 heading into the top of the fifth. Keeler scored off a passed ball in the bottom of the fifth, and Freddy Parent batted Freeman home to make it a four run lead! Philly got a pair of runners into scoring position in the top of the seventh, but Brown shut them down quickly and got us into the stretch still leading 5-1. Hobe Ferris added some insurance in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI triple, scoring himself when Criger grounded out to first, extending our lead to six runs and they had no chance against Brown in the final frame as we shut them down quietly to win 7-1. Mordecai Brown is now 3-1 with a 2.78 ERA, getting through this afternoon with just four hits, five walks and a single earned run. We outhit the Athletics 12-4 as we improved to 6-7, led by Parent who hit three times for a run and an RBI, picking up a steal as well, while Keeler added two hits, a steal and a run. In total we had six different players each steal a base, with only Parent getting caught. Not a bad day! May 9, 1901: Ted Lewis (0-2, 2.28 ERA, 23.2 IP, 7 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) went up against Chick Fraser (2-2, 5.72 ERA, 28.1 IP, 12 K’s, 1.45 WHIP). We took the lead in the bottom of the second when a groundout by Ferris drove Parent in to score from third. But Jimmy Collins tripled in the top of the third, coming home to tie it up thanks to an RBI single by Lave Cross and an E5 error led to another run crossing the plate, putting Philadelphia into the lead. We loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth, but Criger batted out to center to stifle the rally. Ted Lewis reached first on an E5 error to lead off in the bottom of the seventh, taking second as the ball rolled to the wall, and he advanced to third on a wild pitch, scoring when Stahl reached first on what looked like an error but was later ruled an infield single ... a crazy sequence of events that tied us up at 2-2! Keller advanced him to second with another botched catch by the second baseman (again ruled a hit) and Jimmy Collins walked the bases loaded as Fraser started to look rattled on the mound. Stahl scored on yet another wild pitch, and Freeman walked to load the bases again, and a pair of outs later, Ferris hit an RBI single that drove in another pair of runs to give us a three run lead heading into the top of the eighth, having batted around. Lewis stayed out and completed the game as we held tough to beat them 5-3, guranteeing a series win going into tomorrow’s final game. We’ve now improved to 7-7 on the young season, thanks to Lewis’s four hitter, striking out two with a walk and two runs (one earned) as he improved to 1-2 with a 1.93 ERA. We outhit the Athletics 9-4, led by Stahl with two hits, a run and an RBI, while Ferris hit once, walked once and batted in three runs. May 10, 1901: Cy Young (3-2, 3.11 ERA, 46.1 IP, 13 K’s, 0.97 WHIP) is up for his sixth start of the season, facing Wiley Piatt (1-2, 4.43 ERA, 20.1 IP, 5 K’s, 1.67 WHIP) as we try for the series sweep. It’s cloudy with rain in the forecast, and the Athletics wasted no time taking a lead in the top of the first off a triple by Dave Fultz which was immediately followed by the RBI triple off Socks Seybold’s bat. Our outfield can really kill you, but at least Harry Davis grounded out to first and ended the frame without too much early damage. They added on in the top of the third with an RBI single for Seybold, but in the bottom of the third we got a run back off an RBI single by Freddy Parent, getting us back to within a run. We had to stop play in the middle of the top half of the fourth inning for about 15 minutes, but the rain stopped enough to keep playing. Chick Stahl walked in the bottom of the fourth to load the bases, and Keefer got a hit into center, reaching first safely and driving in a pair of runs to put us back in front 3-2. An RBI double for Collins scored two more runs, and Freddy Parent hit an RBI triple to further crush their spirits. Parent scored on an E6 error and we went into the top of the fifth leading big, 7-2! We loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth and Freddy Parent walked in a run to increase the lead, Schreckengost doubling in two more runs as the floodgates unleashed. By the time they came up again in the top of the seventh we led 12-2, and Cy Young struck out the side to keep it that way into the stretch. We loaded the bases AGAIN in the bottom of the eighth but added just one run to the blowout lead, and Young finished them off in the ninth as we exploded offensively in a 13-2 victory. Cy Young is now 4-2 with a 2.93 ERA, allowing six hits and striking out nine with no walks, just the two earned runs scored against him. We outhit the Athletics 18-6, led by Keeler with four hits, two runs and two RBIs. Through his first 20 games this year he’s hit .427 with three doubles and 13 RBIs and he’s hit .489 since coming to Boston. Jimmy Collins also had a great night, hitting three times and walking once, scoring two and driving in two more. He’s hitting .344 this year with five doubles, a triple and a homer through his first 15 games. Washington’s Senators (5-10) comes to town tomorrow and will be in town through Wednesday to play four with a day off on Sunday. We’ve climbed into fourth place in the division with an 8-7 record, putting us just half a game back of the Tigers and the Brewers ... Baltimore, at 11-4, has taken the lead in the AL by half a game over the 11-5 White Sox as the league’s competition level heats up. We’re on a four game winning streak, but the Orioles’ six game streak is getting a lot more press since they’ve taken the divisional lead. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

06-26-2024, 05:48 PM	#5
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,628	May 11, 1901: The word is out about our team, and nearly 6,800 fans showed up to pack the grounds this afternoon for a sunny game of baseball against the Senators! Mordecai Brown (3-1, 2.78 ERA, 32.1 IP, 3 K’s, 0.96 WHIP) endeavored to keep our win streak alive against Win Mercer (1-2, 6.98 ERA, 19.1 IP, 1 K, 2.07 WHIP). Collins got us on the board with an RBI triple in the bottom of the third, but Washington’s Sam Dungan hit his first solo homer of the year to tie us up in the top of the fourth, a 440 footer that had kids fighting over the ball once they tracked it down. We loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth, Buck Freeman hitting a bouncing ball into left field to drive in the go-ahead run. Parent hit into a fielder’s choice and they took the out at second, allowing another to score, and we went into the top of the sixth leading 3-1. With the bases again loaded, a sac-fly by Keeler allowed a fourth run to score in the bottom of the sixth, and Mordecai Brown scored a run thanks to a Jimmy Collins single, coming all the way around from second to put us up 5-1 ... look at our pitcher hustle! He’d gotten on base by being hit with the ball, for good measure, making it count. Ferris batted in a run in the bottom of the seventh with a single, and Tommy Dowd batted one in with a single in the bottom of the eighth to add to the carnage. With the bases loaded, Criger hit one into right to drive in another, and Tommy Dowd scored on a balk call ... Chick Stahl batted in two more with a double, and Keeler singled to make it an eleven run lead. It was out of their hands once we got that lead in the fifth, and we smothered them in the end by a 12-1 margin. Brown improved to 4-1 with a five-hit complete game, walking two and allowing one earned run as he improved his ERA to 2.40. We outhit the Senators 16-5, led by Keeler with three hits, two runs and two RBIs. Collins added three hits and two RBIs, and Ferris put up three hits with two runs and an RBI. Stahl, in the leadoff spot, hit once, walked once and scored two, batting in two as well. It was a well-rounded effort, and whatever problem we had in our earliest games of not being able to keep our foot on the gas has been fixed in a huge way. May 13, 1901: Ted Lewis (1-2, 1.93 ERA, 32.2 IP, 9 K’s, 1.04 WHIP) has been hot lately, and he’s going up against Case Patten (1-3, 3.19 ERA, 36.2 IP, 14 K’s, 1.91 WHIP) with our five-game winning streak on the line. We took a quick lead in the bottom of the first with a two-RBI triple by Jimmy Collins, and Buck Freeman batted in a third run with a single, giving our large home crowd plenty to cheer about. Stahl tripled with two outs in the bottom of the second, coming home to score thanks to an RBI single by Keeler, who has now hit safely in 10 consecutive games! Jimmy Collins hit an RBI double that pushed Keeler to third, and he decided to go for hit, scoring a run and giving Collins the chance to follow him, safely taking third, sending us into the top of the third with a dominating 5-0 lead. Washington got on the board with a solo bomb by Mike Grady, his third of the year, in the top of the fourth, but they never got a baserunner in the rest of the inning and therefore the damage was minimal. John Farrell hit an RBI single for them in the top of the fifth to cut our lead to three, but Lewis’ strong pitching kept us firmly in control. In the top of the eighth, however, they tightened things up further, Sam Dungan hitting an RBI single that cut our lead to two without an out in the inning, and with one out another run scored on a fielder’s choice when Lewis couldn’t make the throw out at home plate. Addie Joss came in to pitch with one out and men on the corners, our lead at just one run, and Mike Grady scored the tying run on a fielder’s choice where we settled for the out at second. We finally got out of the inning, but the lead was gone -- we were all tied up at 5-5 heading into the bottom of the eighth. Lou Criger got us the lead back with an RBI triple, and a sac-fly by Joss got us another run to build the lead back to two ... and with our mojo back, we picked up back to back infield singles and a walk to load the bases. Buck Freeman then melted this place down completely with the rarest of feats, a GRAND SLAM out of right field, and the rout was on! We had a six run lead with Joss staying out to pitch in the top of the ninth, and though the Senators got a run back off a groundout by Grady, we won this one handily 11-6. Joss, making his first major league bullpen appearance at the young age of 21, blew the save opportunity but came up with a win, starting his career out 1-0 with a walk and an unearned run in 1.2 innings of work. Lewis was annoyed that he lost out on his win, having gone 7.1 innings with 10 hits, two walks and five strikeouts, but he was tagged with five earned runs and his ERA slipped to 2.70 ... still very, very good. We outhit the Senators 14-10, led by Billy Freeman who hit three times with a run and five RBIs, while Collins added two hits, a walk, two runs and three RBIs. Freeman’s grand slam gives him two homers this season. May 14, 1901: Cy Young (4-2, 2.93 ERA, 55.1 IP, 22 K’s, 0.92 WHIP) is up to pitch today in game three against the Senators, facing Watty Lee (1-4, 6.47 ERA, 32.0 IP, 5 K’s, 1.44 WHIP) with our winning streak (and their losing streak) at six games. Hobe Ferris got himself a two-out triple in the bottom of the second, and Schreckengost batted him home with a single up the middle to give us an early lead. Stahl led off with a triple in the bottom of the third, scoring on a groundout by Collins, and Freddy Parent batted in another with a two-out double to give us a 3-0 lead heading into the top of the fourth. Dowd led off with a triple in the bottom of the sixth, and Schreckengost batted him home with an RBI single to make it a four run lead, and Cy Young notched his 10th strikeout in the top of the seventh as we kept them scoreless. It remained that way the rest of the afternoon -- Young was on fire and refused to give up an inch, closing out the 4-0 shutout as we increased our winning streak to seven games. We have one game left against them before we get a real challenge with Baltimore coming to town and a chance to truly assert ourselves as a contender in the American League. Cy Young had his first complete game shutout of the season, allowing just two hits with one walk and 11 strikeouts, by far his most dominating performance of a season that’s just getting started. He has now won five games in a row and is 5-0 with a 2.52 ERA. We picked up nine hits ourselves, led by Schreckengost who had three hits and two RBIs. Keeler did not manage to hit today, ending his hitting streak at 10, but Billy Freeman scored a run, giving him six games in a row with at least a run scored, a streak he shares with Dummy Hoy of Chicago’s White Sox (the longest such streak so far this year for anyone is eight games). Cy Young, meanwhile, hasn’t given up a run in 15 innings, hasn’t given up a hit in eight, and now has 33 K’s this season which ties him for fifth in the majors. May 15, 1901: Mordecai Brown (4-1, 2.40 ERA, 41.1 IP, 3 K’s, 0.92 WHIP) started today against Bill Carrick (2-1, 1.93 ERA, 23.1 IP, 4 K’s, 1.37 WHIP) in front of a robust midweek crowd that looked close to 6,000 yet again. Buck Freeman hit a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the second, giving us a 1-0 lead and keeping his scoring streak alive, and Hobe Ferris hit an RBI double to make it 2-0. Brown led off with an infield single in the bottom of the fifth, advancing to second with a single by Stahl, and they pulled off a double steal to get into scoring position. Frustrated, Carrick hit Keeler with a pitch, loading the bases, and Jimmy Collins walked in a run to increase our shutout margin. With two outs, Collins scored off an RBI single by Dowd, and we went into the top of the sixth leading big yet again, this time up 5-0. Washington woke up in the top of the seventh, scoring with an RBI double by Bill Coughlin, and adding another with an RBI single by Win Mercer. But despite loading the bases, Brown got us out of the inning and into the stretch with a three-run lead. We brought Frank Foreman in to pitch in the top of the eighth, his third appearance of the season, and though we weren’t able to add any insurance runs, he didn’t wind up needing any, holding on to the 5-2 win without a lot of fuss required. We completed the sweep, and can now set our focus on Baltimore as we look to prove we’re the team to beat in the American League. Mordecai Brown now has a 5-1 record and a 2.42 ERA since signing with us, lasting seven innings tonight with six hits, two walks, three strikeouts and two earned runs. Foreman picked up his first save, giving us two innings with just a walk, improving his ERA to 2.08 through 28 pitches. We outhit the Senators again 8-6, led by Freeman (one hit, two runs, one RBI) and Hobe Ferris (two hits, one walk, one RBI). We now hold a 12-7 record and an eight game winning streak as Baltimore (14-5) comes to town with a three-game streak in hand, both of us 9-1 in our last ten. We remain perfect at home, but they’re 5-3 on the road so they definitely cannot be taken lightly. With the off day on Sunday in the middle of the four-game set, it’s likely we’ll be able to start Cy Young in games two and four before we start our long road trip to the midwest. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

07-01-2024, 03:12 PM	#6
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,628	May 16, 1901: Ted Lewis (1-2, 2.70 ERA, 40.0 IP, 12 K’s, 1.15 WHIP) started for us today against Ivor Wagner (1-3, 5.91 ERA, 21.1 IP, 7 K’s, 2.20 WHIP). In the bottom of the third we got ourselves on the board with an RBI double by Buck Freeman, but Baltimore answered in the top of the fourth with an RBI triple by John McGraw to tie us up, and they nabbed a second run thanks to a ground-out to first by Bill Keister. They held the 2-1 lead into the seventh inning stretch, and we simply couldn’t seem to get hits strung together. Keeler led off with an outfield hit in the bottom of the eighth, however, and then Jimmy Collins slammed one out of the park to left, putting us into the lead 3-2 out of nowhere! And just like that our bats woke up like they’d been goosed, Tommy Dowd hitting an RBI single to add a little extra insurance as Lewis came out to finish things off in the top of the ninth leading by two runs. He handled things perfectly and we held tough to win 4-2, keeping the winning streak alive! Lewis improved to 2-2 with a 2.57 ERA, allowing seven hits with three strikeouts and a pair of earned runs. We came back to outhit them 9-7 thanks almost entirely to the eighth inning, led by Freeman who hit twice and walked once, scoring a run and batting in another. May 17, 1901: Cy Young (5-2, 2.52 ERA, 64.1 IP, 33 K’s, 0.84 WHIP) took the mound today against Joe McGinnity (5-0, 2.27 ERA, 43.2 IP, 8 K’s, 1.05 WHIP). We got ourselves a lead in the bottom of the second with an RBI double by Tommy Dowd, but the Orioles did a great job of keeping us from building that lead up and the score remained at 1-0 Americans into the seventh inning stretch, both pitchers competantly on their game. Cy Young wasn’t giving an inch, however, and though our bats weren’t putting up much themselves, we’d done enough -- all we needed was to keep anything from happening in the top of the ninth, facing the heart of their order: McGraw / Williams / Keister. Young got all three to pop out quietly and we completed the 1-0 shutout to leave the Orioles completely frustrated. Young improved to 6-2 with the five-hit four strikeout shutout, and though we only had five hits ourselves, Dowd hit and batted in a run while Parent scored the game’s only run on the ground. BuckFreeman also had a hit and a walk but went nowhere, our only player to get on base twice in the game. We have two games left at home against the O’s, with a chance to extend our win-streak to 10 games when we face them again tomorrow afternoon. We’re now tied with them in the standings at 14-7, just a game and a half behind the AL-leading White Sox who are 16-6 thus far. May 18, 1901: We drew one of our biggest crowds yet, nearly 7,300 fans, as Boston folk packed this place to see if we could keep the win streak going and climb closer to an AL lead against the O’s. Mordecai Brown (5-1, 2.42 ERA, 48.1 IP, 6 K’s, 0.95 WHIP) pitched against the Orioles’ Harry Howell (4-1, 4.95 ERA, 43.2 IP, 18 K’s, 1.42 WHIP). We loaded the bases in the bottom of the first but came up empty as Dowd harmlessly grounded out to first. We had an hour-long stoppage with two outs in the top of the third because of rain, and then in the bottom of the inning we got runners onto the corners but then again came up empty, score knotted up at nil-nil. The field remained slick and muddy thereafter, and the baserunning appropriately chaotic, nobody able to find their way in to break the stalemate. Unfortunately for us, the Orioles loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the seventh thanks to an error at second, and Brown walked in a run to give them the lead before getting three quick outs to safely escape into the stretch only trailing by a run! Brown stayed out there and got us through the eighth without any further damage, and with no outs in the bottom of the inning we took a sudden 2-1 lead thanks to a two-run homer by Keeler, his very first one of the season ... a truly clutch hit from a guy who is quickly making himself a star on this team. Tommy Dowd added an RBI triple to make it a two-run lead and we went into the top of the ninth just needing to hold on. We handled it perfectly, setting their batters down three in a row to hold on to the 3-1 win as we took firm control of second place in the AL with one home game remaining. Brown had a tough spot in the seventh but stayed in and helped us win this one, improving to 6-1 with a 2.20 ERA, allowing only two hits all night -- he did walk four and only struck out one, which led to the run that scored against him, but we outhit them 7-2 so all was well. Keeler led the way with two hits, a run and two RBIs, while Dowd added three hits and an RBI. May 20, 1901: This will be Boston fans’ last chance to watch us play until June 7 (unless they want to take a long trip by train!) so 6,600 of them cut school and work to come to the ballpark this afternoon to see Ted Lewis (2-2, 2.57 ERA, 49.0 IP, 15 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) pitch against Jerry Nops (4-1, 1.69 ERA, 44.0 IP, 10 K’s, 1.02 WHIP). And the Orioles came out hitting ... HARD ... as they hoped to snap our streak and send us onto our road trip without momentum on our side. They wound up with a runner stranded on third, however, as we weren’t messing around either. In the bottom of the first, Stahl led off with a triple and Keeler batted him in to score with a single, giving us the 1-0 lead, and the hits kept coming. With the bases loaded and no outs, Parent hit into a fielder’s choice but they took the out at second and allowed a second run to score. A third came home on a deep-in-center flyout, giving us a solid 3-0 lead heading into the top of the second thanks to five quick hits. The Orioles came up empty in the top of the second despite loading the bags, and Buck Freeman hit an RBI triple to extend our lead in the bottom of the third. He scored off a groundout to first by Dowd, giving us a 5-0 lead heading into the fourth inning -- this is a very solid baseball team we’re making look completely overmatched! Sure enough, they came back with a vengeance in the top of the sixth, picking up two runs off a single by Roger Bresnahan, pulling themselves back to within three runs. They still had a chance heading into the bottom of the eighth, but a pair of errors and a wild pitch loaded the bases, and a Freddy Parent sac-fly got our lead back to four runs. Another run scored off an E6 groundball error, sending us into the top of the ninth with a five-run cushion. Ted Lewis stayed out and completed the game, throwing 146 pitches -- a new season high for him -- as we shut the Orioles down and won 7-2! Lewis allowed nine hits, walked a pair and struck out nobody, but was able to get through the game with only two runs against him (one earned) to improve to 3-2 with a 2.33 ERA. Baltimore outhit us 9-7, but their three errors were critical and we did a better job of making our hits we did get count. Jimmy Collins hit twice and scored three times, and Dowd batted in three runs despite not technically hitting OR walking in the game -- he drove in runs thanks to a sac fly, a groundout and a “reached by error” ... that’s just plain brutal for the O’s! We head into our long road trip with a 16-7 record and a 10-game winning streak that leaves us just half a game behind the 17-7 White Sox. Our team has packed for the long haul, for on this extended tour of the Midwest, we’ll face the following teams: 5/21-24: Detroit (12-13) -- four games 5/25-29: Cleveland (8-17) -- four games 5/30-6/1: Chicago (17-7) -- four games including a 5/31 doubleheader 6/2-5: Milwaukee (12-12) -- four games We’ll then spend most of the rest of June playing those same four teams on our field in a similar 16-game stretch. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

06-25-2024, 12:00 AM	#3
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,628	May 3, 1901: Today we’re making our first visit to American League Park in Washington, D.C. as we play the 4-4 Senators in the first of four games in a five day stretch. Cy Young (1-2, 3.70 ERA, 24.1 IP, 7 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) started against Case Patton (1-1, 5.40 ERA, 15.0 IP, 5 K’s, 2.47 WHIP. We took a lead in the top of the fourth with an RBI double by Schreckengost that put two in scoring position, but we wound up leaving the bases loaded and only got out of the inning with a 1-0 lead. That made it easier for Washington to battle back, an RBI single by Win Mercer with one out in the bottom of the fifth scoring them a pair of runs to take the lead. Pop Foster hit his first homer of the year to make it a 3-1 lead for the Senators in the bottom of the seventh. In the top of the ninth, Schreckengost led off with a walk, but Cy Young struck out trying to bunt him over to second. Stahl batted him to second with a well placed flyball into center field for a single, but Keeler popped out to the left fielder ... and then with the count 3-2 on him, Jimmy Collins hit a two-run double to tie it up! We couldn’t muster a lead change, but went into the bottom of the inning with Cy Young still going strong on the mound -- three quick outs and he had us headed for extras knotted up 3-3! From there the game was a nailbiter that just kept paying dividends for people who love good pitching and two offenses that have stalled out completely. In the top of the 13th inning, their starter Case Patten passed the 200-pitch mark and showed no signs of looking for a hook -- with one out in the inning Schreckengost got a hit into right for a single, and Cy Young boosted him to second with a sac bunt, putting the go-ahead run in scoring position. Chick Stahl reached first on an E6 error, and the hometown crowd was getting restless. That’s when Keeler slammed a hard one into right field, the ball rolling into the corner as he legged out a double that drove in two and gave us the lead! Buck Freeman kept it going with another shot into right that kept runners on the corners, an RBI single that made it a three-run lead. Parent walked the bases loaded, but Patten got the final out to get into the bottom of the frame, having thrown a staggering 235 pitches! Young came back out with a three-run lead under his belt, comparably fresh as a daisy at 134 pitches himself. He shut them down efficiently, one, two, three, and we came out of this with a 6-3 victory after a 13-inning marathon. Young improved to 2-2 on the season with a 13-inning complete game seven hitter, striking out three, walking no one and allowing just three earned runs ... his ERA remains a solid 3.13 through 37.1 innings already this season. We outhit the Senators 17-7, led by Keeler with four hits a run and two RBIs and by Collins with four hits and two RBIs. Schreckengost hit three times and walked once, scoring twice and driving in another as well. That was a hell of a team win, but without Young going six innings without a score to allow the comeback it couldn’t have happened. The White Sox lost to the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1 this afternoon, dropping to 8-1. They were the last remaining undefeated team in either league. May 4, 1901: Mordecai Brown (1-1, 1.59 ERA, 17.0 IP, 2 K’s, 0.76 WHIP) started this afternoon against Watty Lee (0-2, 5.40 ERA< 16.2 IP, 3 K’s, 1.32 WHIP). Buck Freeman hit an RBI double that drove in two to give us a quick lead in the top of the first, and with the bases loaded in the top of the second Keeler batted another in with a single. Freeman grounded out to first but drove in a fourth run, giving us two outs, and Stahl scored off a passed ball to make it 5-0! Freddy Parent singled into left, driving in a run and giving us a 6-0 lead heading into the bottom of the second. Collins batted in another in the top of the fourth with a double, scoring from second off an E6 groundball error that let Freddy Parent reach safely to make it 8-0. Sam Dungan got them their first baserunner of the game in the bottom of the fourth, thanks to an E5 groundball error, but he never got into scoring position. They did get runners into position in the bottom of the fifth, breaking up the no-hitter and scoring two runs off an RBI single by lead-off man John Farrell. Collins added a triple and came around to score thanks to a sac-fly by Freeman, however, and we held a 9-2 advantage heading into the bottom of the sixth. The Senators kept fighting, getting another pair to score off a Billy Clingman double in the bottom of the inning, and two more scored just minutes later off a triple by Win Mercer ... but Brown got us the final out and we entered the top of the seventh still leading by three. Keeler grounded out to first but allowed Criger to score our 10th run of the game, sending us into the seventh inning stretch leading by a 10-6 margin. Reliever Frank Morrissey came out of the bullpen with one out and a man on second in the bottom of the frame, his first appearance of the season, and he got us out of the inning without Brown’s baserunner scoring. Chick Stahl batted in another run with a double in the top of the ninth, giving us a five run lead for Morrissey to defend as he stayed out to finish the game. He pitched around a single baserunner and got us through the remainder to protect the 11-6 victory -- for the first time this year we’ve won back to back games! Mordecai Brown improved to 2-1, though his ERA dropped to 3.47 thanks to six runs off five hits, four walks and a single strikeout through 6.1 innings. Morrissey held tough to our lead, pitching the remaining 2.2 innings, walking a pair but allowing no hits, giving him an 0.00 ERA through 35 pitches. We outhit them again 17-5, another dominating performance led by Stahl with four hits, a walk, two runs and an RBI. Collins hit three times and walked once, scoring three times and batting in one, and Keeler added three hits, two runs and two RBIs, giving him a .478 average since coming to Boston -- and he hasn’t even gotten to play in Boston yet! He’s batting .400 on the season with three doubles and 10 RBIs. We get a day off and then will resume the series on Monday! May 6, 1901: Cy Young said he was ready to go today on three days’ rest, but after his 13 inning affair, I felt it was prudent to stick with the three-man rotation and give him an extra day’s rest. So Ted Lewis (0-1, 3.00 ERA, 15.0 IP, 5 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) got the start, facing Watty Lee (0-3, 7.78 ERA, 19.2 IP, 3 K’s, 1.58 WHIP), who two days ago was pulled after just three innings and 76 pitches. We left the bases loaded in the top of the second, and this game quickly became a pitching duel from there. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth, Keeler made an amazing throw from center right to try and pick the runner off at home, but in a photo finish the umpire determined catcher Boileryard Clarke was out by a hair, giving us the chance to keep it scoreless heading into the top of the sixth. That’s a five-star play if I’ve ever seen one! The game went into the stretch still scoreless, with just six hits between the teams, and the stalemate seemed damned near unbreakable. We went into the top of the ninth still with the score nil-nil, when Jimmy Collins led off with a single, giving us hope that we might find a way to score, but it wasn’t to be ... he was stranded at first and the game continued, or at least it did until Boileryard Clarke got his revenge -- hitting a sac-fly to center left that allowed Pop Foster to score, beating us 1-0. That’s just brutal, folks, absolutely brutal. Ted Lewis is now 0-2 with a 2.28 ERA, allowing just four hits in a complete game, with five walks, two strikeouts and a single earned run. We outhit Washington 5-4, Collins picking up a pair of hits, but nothing was enough to get a runner around to score. One more game and we can finish this road trip and finally play in front of OUR fans, so let’s put tonight’s game behind us and get our first series win of the year! May 7, 1901: Cy Young (2-2, 3.13 ERA, 37.1 IP, 10 K’s, 1.02 WHIP) has had four days to rest, more than he would often prefer, and is now up to pitch against Washington’s Win Mercer (1-1, 5.68 ERA, 12.2 IP, 1 K, 1.89 WHIP) as we look to end this road trip on a high note. We took an early lead thanks to a RBI single by Dowd in the top of the second, and Schreckengost hit an RBI single to make it 2-0 as we headed into the bottom of the inning. Washington quickly got one back thanks to a solo homer out of right by Pop Foster batting cleanup, but that’s all Young let them have before we were up to bat again in the top of the third leading by a run. Freddy Parent reached first on an E6 error, loading the bases with one out in the top of the fifth, and Tommy Dowd walked in a run, extending our lead to two. Cy Young picked up his second hit of the game and brought his average up to .200 in the top of the sixth, coming all the way around to score thanks to a Chick Stahl triple that made it 4-1, and an RBI single by Keeler kept it going as we started to pull away. Schreckengost grounded out to first but allowed our sixth run to score in the top of the seventh, and Cy Young stayed red hot, getting a hit perfectly into right field to drive in another with a single, reaching second thanks to the E9 error that allowed Tommy Dowd to go past third. Young scored thanks to an inside the park homer by Stahl, and we went into the stretch with an amazing 9-1 lead. Hobe Ferris hit an RBI single with one out in the top of the eighth, and though the Senators picked up a couple runs in the bottom of the ninth, they’d dug their hole too deep. Young completed the game and we won 10-3, taking our first series win of the year three games to one! Cy Young improved to 3-2 with a complete game six hitter, walking one, striking out three and allowing three earned runs, keeping his ERA at 3.11. He has completed four of five games this year and has thrown 46.1 innings of work. We decimated them 17-6 off hits, led by Young with three hits two runs and an RBI, while Keeler had three hits and an RBI and Parent added three hits, a walk and a run. Tomorrow we return to Boston for our three-game home opening series against Philadelphia (6-6), followed by four games against Washington (5-7) over five days and four in five days against Baltimore (8-4). Our record stands at 5-7, just 3.5 games out of first thanks to a 1-4 skid by the White Sox, so it’s still early enough in this season that anything can happen in the standings. In the NL, the Philadelphia Phillies (12-5) lead the way with Chicago’s Orphans (13-7), Brooklyn’s Superbas (11-6) and Pittsburgh’s Pirates (11-7) all right there within a game and a half of each other. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds) Last edited by jksander; 06-26-2024 at 05:48 PM.

07-01-2024, 07:15 PM	#7
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,628	May 21, 1901: Cy Young (6-2, 2.21 ERA, 73.1 IP, 37 K’s, 0.80 WHIP) pitched game one in Detroit against Roscoe Miller (3-2, 2.94 ERA, 49.0 IP, 8 K’s, 1.45 WHIP). We took a quick lead in the top of the first, Buck Freeman hitting a sac-fly to right that scored Keeler from third, and with the bases loaded in the top of the third we added another run off ANOTHER Freeman sac-fly, this one scoring Stahl from third. An E6 error allowed Keeler to score his second run of the game, giving us a solid 3-0 lead heading into the bottom of the third. Pop Dillon picked up a walk in the bottom of the fourth to become the Tigers’ first baserunner of the afternoon, but he got nowhere. They got a hit from Sport McAllister in the bottom of the fifth, and he quickly stole second, but Young got a popout and a pair of strikeouts to get us out of the inning unblemished, though our shut-out luck ran out in the bottom of the sixth -- a Pop Dillon flyout scored a run via Roscoe Miller from third, and the Tigers were on the board. The Tigers got another run back quickly in the bottom of the eighth, thanks to Doc Casey’s RBI single, but we went into the top of the ninth still leading by a run. Keeler made it all the way to third but was stranded by a Parent groundout to first, sending us into the bottom of the ninth needing to hold our one-run lead ... Young was unfazed and shut them down efficiently as we won this one 3-2! Cy Young improved to 7-2 with a 2.08 ERA, allowing four hits and two runs (one earned) with two walks and eight strikeouts. We hammered them 13-8 from a hits standpoint, but despite that advantage we only managed to outscore them by one. Keeler had an incredible afternoon, hitting five times and scoring twice, keeping his average at .452, and Buck Freeman added a pair of hits and two RBIs, giving him 24 runs batted in this season which remains a team high. Thanks to the win, we now share the AL lead with the 17-7 White Sox, who had the afternoon off. May 22, 1901: Mordecai Brown (6-1, 2.20 ERA, 57.1 IP, 7 K’s, 0.91 WHIP) got the start this afternoon against Jack Cronin (1-4, 3.22 ERA, 50.1 IP, 10 K’s, 1.55 WHIP). Stahl led off in the top of the first with a triple, and Jimmy Collins batted him home with a one-out RBI single to put us up 1-0. Parent hit a sac-fly to right to drive in another run and giving us a solid 2-0 lead after just half an inning. But the Tigers got going in the bottom of the second, Cronin hitting an RBI single to get them back to the top of their lineup, and with the bases loaded they tied it up on an E6 error. The errors piled up for both teams, making this game a lot more chaotic than usual, and in the bottom of the third the Tigers took the lead on another two-out E6 error, our fifth of the game, sending us into the top of the fourth trailing by a 3-2 margin. But Keeler hit a one-out triple to get us going in the top of the fifth, coming around to score off an RBI single by Collins that tied it up 3-3. The Tigers struck fast in the bottom of the seventh, taking the lead back thanks to an RBI single by Sport McAllister, and they added two more with an RBI single by Jimmy Barrett, putting our win streak in real jeopardy. With two outs in the top of the eighth, Keeler got himself a hit into center, batting in a run with a single to cut the Tigers’ lead to two, and Jimmy Collins got a hit into left that drove in another. George Cuppy came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, getting three outs without adding any damage, giving us one more shot in the top of the ninth to find our way back in. Freddy Parent led off with a single, and Dowd batted him over to third with a single into deep right, giving us a real chance ... and just like that, Hobe Ferris tied it up at 6-6 with a single into right! But Ossee Schreckengost grounded into a double play, and we weren’t able to get Dowd in to score from third. Cuppy loaded the bases, however, in the bottom of the ninth, and we blew this one with an E6 groundball error ... Sport McAllister scored and we lost this one 7-6 in a game during which we committed six errors. George Cuppy fell to 0-3 with the loss, though his ERA improved slightly to 12.15 ... he had a great eighth inning but even though the run wasn’t technically his fault, the three baserunners he put there were. He finished with three hits, a walk, a strikeout and an unearned run through 1.2 innings. Brown allowed four hits, walking six and striking out one as he gave up six runs (four earned) in a no-decision. We were bound to lose one eventually, but this shouldn’t have been it ... we outhit them 16-7, but we walked six batters (they walked no one) and committed the six errors to their four. The result was as ugly as you’d expect. The 13-game win streak having come to an end, we’re still in second place in the AL, leading Baltimore by two and a half games. The White Sox (18-7) lead us by a game. Over in the NL, Philadelphia (22-8) has a 3.5-game lead on Pittsburgh (19-12) and a four-game lead over the Brooklyn Superbas (18-12). May 23, 1901: Ted Lewis (3-2, 2.33 ERA, 58.0 IP, 15 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) started today’s game, facing Detroit’s Emil Frisk (1-4, 4.54 ERA, 33.2 IP, 9 K’s, 1.57 WHIP). Jimmy Collins hit a two-out triple in the top of the first, and Buck Freeman doubled to drive him home, giving him at least a hit in 15 consecutive games! Stahl batted in another run with a single in the top of the second, but they got on the board in the bottom of the inning with an RBI double by Tommy Sheehan that cut our lead to a run, and they tied things up with an RBI single by Frisk just moments later. With the bases loaded, Criger hit one straight to their right fielder and all the runners held their positions, and Lewis struck out swinging, leaving three wasted opportunities stuck on base. The Tigers promptly took advantage, taking a lead with an RBI double by Kid Eberfeld in the bottom of the third with just one out, but we managed to keep them to just that run. Unfortunately they did pick up another in the bottom of the sixth, thanks to an RBI single by Frisk (the pitcher’s second of the game!) with two outs secured. And in this game they were outhitting us, proving it’s incredibly difficult to stay razor sharp on the road. The Tigers, sensing the opportunity, pounced and made sure we had no chance of a comeback by adding three more runs before we could get anyone warmed in the bullpen. Addie Joss came in with two outs and men on second and third, securing the final out with a popup to third but we went into the top of the eighth trailing 7-2 and looking lost offensively. Stahl reached first on an error in the top of the inning, driving in a run from third, but we weren’t able to continue the rally. Jimmy Collins led off in the top of the ninth with a triple, and a Buck Freeman RBI single made it a three-run deficit ... but three quick pop-outs later we left the field on the tail end of a 7-4 loss, giving us back to back losses for only the second time this season. Ted Lewis (3-3, 3.06 ERA) took the loss, giving up 12 hits and four walks without a strikeout through 6.2 innings, leading to seven earned runs. Addie Joss, in just his second relief appearance this year, held on for 1.1 innings with two hits and a strikeout, keeping his ERA unblemished through three innings’ work. But Detroit outhit us 14-11, and though Freeman hit three times with two RBIs, this was the first time in weeks where I didn’t feel like we were the best team on the field. And if we don’t figure it out tomorrow we risk losing just our third series of the season. May 24, 1901: Cy Young (7-2, 2.08 ERA, 82.1 IP, 45 K’s, 0.79 WHIP) started our final game in Detroit, facing Ed Siever (4-2, 2.17 ERA, 58.0 IP, 13 K’s, 1.07 WHIP). And with the bases loaded in the top of the second, Chick Stahl hit an RBI triple that scored three runs and put us nicely in front! Young struck out the side in the bottom of the third. Detroit scored a run in the bottom of the sixth off a sac-fly to deep left by Kid Eberfeld, and though we loaded the bases in the top of the seventh we weren’t able to get any insurance runs around to score. It didn’t matter though ... Young didn’t let them even inch the door open, shutting them down efficiently in the final frames to win this one for us 3-1 as we escaped the city of Detroit with a series split. Cy Young, at 8-2 with a 1.87 ERA, is clearly the pitcher to beat in the American League ... tonight he allowed four hits in yet another complete game, with two walks, six strikeouts and one run against him, unearned. We outhit the Tigers 7-4, led by Stahl who hit once and batted in all three of our runs. Freeman went hitless (though he did make it on base thanks to a hit-by-pitch), so his hit streak is over. We’ll be catching a quick train down to Cleveland (10-19) where we’ll see if we can turn this win into a streak. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

07-02-2024, 12:37 PM	#8
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,628	May 25, 1901: Mordecai Brown (6-1, 2.52 ERA, 64.1 IP, 8 K’s, 0.96 WHIP) pitched in our first game against the Cleveland Blues, facing Bill Hart (4-3, 3.76 ERA, 55.0 IP, 13 K’s, 1.51 WHIP). Lou Criger batted in a run in the top of the second with a single, and with the bases loaded, Stahl hit a shot off the fence in right that drove in three with a triple, putting us quickly up 4-0! We added another run with one out in the top of the sixth thanks to a hit by Ferris, aided by an error on the part of the Cleveland defense, and an E1 groundball error quickly allowed another to score. Mordecai Brown hit a sac-fly that allowed Ferris to score from third, and just like that we led 7-0. But the Blues woke up in the bottom frame, a triple by Jack McCarthy batting in a pair with two outs. Too bad it was too little, too late, and they weren’t able to replicate the hits in the later innings. We held tough and won this one with ease, 7-2 with Brown notching another complete game. Brown allowed just two hits all day, walking one, striking out two and allowing two unearned runs to score as he improved to 7-1 with a 2.21 ERA. We outhit Cleveland 10-2, led again by Stahl with a hit and three RBIs, while Criger added a hit, a run and two RBIs of his own. May 27, 1901: Ted Lewis (3-3, 3.06 ERA, 64.2 IP, 15 K’s, 1.24 WHIP) started today against Ed Scott (1-6, 2.24 ERA, 60.1 IP, 7 K’s, 1.18 WHIP). Lou Criger wasted no time getting us on the board, his RBI line-drive double in the top of the second giving us a 1-0 lead. Ted Lewis batted in another run moments later with a single (aided by an E8 throwing error), and we went into the bottom of the inning leading the Blues by two runs. But Cleveland got us back in the bottom of the third, Erve Beck hitting a three-run powerbomb over the Lifebuoy sign in left field, a 432-footer that easily left the park and put them up 3-2. Bill Bradley scored thanks to a hit by George Yeager and an E5 groundball error of our own, and another error, this one a dropped throw E3, allowed a fifth run to score. Lewis completely melted down from there, and we went into the top of the fifth trailing 6-2, with little expectation that he’d be on the mound once we batted through. Addie Joss came out to pitch in the bottom of the fifth, but it didn’t matter. The Blues extended their lead with an RBI triple by Candy LaChance, and he scored off a deep-to-left sac-fly by Bill Bradley that made it an 8-2 lead for the home team. With the bases loaded in the top of the sixth we got a run back when Chick Stahl beat out an infield hit, but that run was all we managed, leaving three runners stranded. Joss got us through the seventh still trailing the Blues by five runs, and in the top of the eighth Chick Stall hit an RBI single into left that cut into the deficit a little more. Jimmy Collins hit a slow-roller into left field, driving in another pair with a groundball double, and a pair of errors led to another run scoring ... just like that we’d cut the lead to one! Dowd grounded out to first to end the inning but we went into the bottom of the eighth trailing just 8-7. Frank Foreman came in to pitch and he didn’t let Cleveland find anything to hit, so it was up to us in the top of the ninth to keep this one going. But we had nothing left in the tank, our hitters going down in quiet succession as we lost this one 8-7. Ted Lewis took the loss, falling to 3-4 with a 3.28 ERA, thanks to eight hits, a walk, a strikeout and six runs (three earned) during a four-inning span. Addie Joss kept us in this one with three innings of three-hit baseball, allowing two earned runs with a walk and a strikeout to give him a 3.00 ERA. And Foreman, in his fourth appearance, allowed one walk but got through his inning unscathed, giving him a 1.69 ERA through 5.1 frames. We outhit them 12-11 but came up short when it counted, led by Stahl with his two hits and two RBIs. He’s batted in eight runs in his last three games, suddenly making him our hottest hitter. May 28, 1901: Cy Young (8-2, 1.87 ERA, 91.1 IP, 51 K’s, 0.78 WHIP) has been about as sure a thing as any team has in their rotation, and he’ll put it on the line against Gus “Cannonball” Weyhing (2-4, 7.04 ERA, 47.1 IP, 13 K’s, 1.86 WHIP). Buck Freeman hit an RBI double to bat in a run in the top of the first, and with the bases loaded we scored off a wild pitch in the top of the fourth to extend our lead to two runs. Chick Stahl batted in another run with a single in the top of the seventh, and the three-run advantage had us feeling pretty good with Cleveland struggling to put anyhing together aginst Young. But the Blues got on the board in the bottom of the inning, George Yeager batting one in with a single, and Frank Scheibeck hit a hard shot into the corner in left, doubling and pushing Yeager over to third. Thankfully, Weyhing popped out safely to right field and got us out of the inning ... but after the way yesterday went, that was dangerously close. And back to back to back errors in the bottom of the eighth had Young definitely feeling some unease from the mound -- though he’d never admit it. He got LaChance to hit into a fielder’s choice, getting the out at home, and then Bill Bradley hit one straight to Collins at third, who tagged Bob Wood out trying to slide in -- another crisis averted. An error and a no-throw put runners on first and second in the bottom of the ninth with one out, and though Young was openly angry about being pulled, we had to send Fred Mitchell in to protect the lead. He came out and calmly sent their next two batters packing and we got the win 3-1. Though angry he didn’t get to complete his game, Young was solid with 8.1 innings and seven hits, striking out three and allowing just one run to score and that one was unearned ... so he is now 9-2 with a 1.72 ERA through 99.2 innings. Cleveland outhit us 7-6, however, and we couldn’t take risks in the bottom of the ninth after scares in the seventh and eighth -- so Mitchell came in and got two outs in his first relief appearance, taking the save and keeping his ERA unblemished. Stahl hit twice and batted in a run, and Keeler picked up two hits and a run -- though his average has fallen off somewhat, he’s still hitting .396 with four doubles, a triple, a homer and 20 RBIs. This win is huge for us, because we’re now not only 20-10 overall ... we also lead the NL by half a game over the White Sox, who have dropped five of their last ten games! With only one game left in Cleveland before we had to Chicago for a May 30th doubleheader, the chance to leapfrog the Sox couldn’t come at a better time. May 29, 1901: Mordecai Brown (7-1, 2.21 ERA, 73.1 IP, 10 K’s, 0.89 WHIP) pitched our final game against the Blues in Cleveland, going up against Earl Moore (3-5, 4.87 ERA, 61.0 IP, 20 K’s, 1.41 WHIP). And it’s a shame the team is so poor this year, because otherwise this beautiful ballpark would be a bigger destination for fans ... as it was, “maybe” 1,300 fans showed up to watch as the two pitchers dueled early. Lots of groundball action, not many hard-hit fly balls. But Cleveland drew first blood in the bottom of the third, Erve Beck hitting an RBI single to get them a 1-0 lead. We got them back in the top of the sixth with an RBI single by Parent that drove in a pair to give us a 2-1 lead. We loaded the bases in the top of the seventh but Stahl hit into a double play with outs at home and first ... at which point Willie Keeler got a hit into right, scoring Criger from third before they made the throw to home for the final out -- Mordecai Brown couldn’t resist trying to score himself as well. That sent us into the stretch leading by a pair. Both pitchers stayed locked in from there, and we shut them down in the final frame to hold tough to the 3-1 victory, winning the series and setting us up nicely for our first trip to Chicago. Brown pitched a complete game four-hitter, walking one and surrendering an earned run as he improved to 8-1 with a 2.08 ERA. We outslugged the Blues 11-4, led by Keeler who hit three times with an RBI, while Parent added a hit and two RBIs. We’ll have no time for resting, however, with two games tomorrow in Chicago and no days off until next Thursday. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

07-02-2024, 07:06 PM	#9
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,628	May 30, 1901: We come into this four-game series in Chicago leading the American League by half a game over the White Sox, with two games to play this afternoon. Ted Lewis (3-4, 3.28 ERA, 68.2 IP, 16 K’s, 1.30 WHIP) got the first start, facing Nixey Callahan (7-1, 1.04 ERA, 69.0 IP, 22 K’s, 0.86 WHIP). Chicago took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second off an RBI single by Frank Shugart, but we got it back in the top of the third thanks to a Buck Freeman double. They answered with a Zaza Harvey RBI single in the bottom of the third, however, and we struggled from there to get runners on base to answer back. Parent and Dowd pulled off a double steal to get both of them into scoring position with one out in the top of the sixth, and a Hobe Ferris sac-fly to deep center drove in the tying run, but we couldn’t muster enough muscle to take the lead. Chick Stahl led off in the top of the seventh by beating out an infield blooper to reach first safely, and Keeler got one to bounce off the wall in right for a double, giving us two in scoring position. And that’s when we finally made our statement, taking the lead with two runs off a Jimmy Collins single that was aided by an E7 error, loading the bases a moment later off another error with just one out against us. Hobe Ferris got a hit up the middle, driving in two more with a single, and we went into the seventh inning stretch leading by four runs! Unable to do any further damage, we went into the bottom of the ninth just needing to keep them from finding momentum, and Lewis made it look easy as we held on to the 6-2 victory! Ted Lewis improved to 4-4 with a 3.01 ERA, allowing nine hits a walk and a strikeout to go with two runs (only one of which was earned). We outhit Chicago 14-9, most of the hits coming in the top of the seventh when we were able to truly unleash. Buck Freeman led with three hits, a walk, a run and an RBI, while Hobe Ferris hit twice with three RBIs, giving him 15 on the season. Cy Young said he was ready to go, but on just two days’ rest, there’s no way I was considering it. Frank Foreman (0-0, 1.69 ERA, 5.1 IP, 0 K’s, 0.94 WHIP) got the start out of the bullpen, facing Clark Griffith (3-4, 3.41 ERA, 60.2 IP, 10 K’s, 1.35 WHIP), who I’m told is playing through a day-to-day strained hamstring injury. We took the lead in the top of the third with an RBI double by Keeler that drove in a pair, but the White Sox got on the board in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a sac-fly by Griffith, cutting our lead in half. So Tommy Dowd took his shot and bought us some insurance in the top of the sixth, an RBI single extending our lead, with Hobe Ferris adding another when they botched a fielder’s choice throw to home, allowing him to reach safely. Schreckengost got a hit into left that loaded the bases with just one out, and we went into the bottom of the sixth leadng 4-1 -- the fans here simply couldn’t believe it! Frank Freeman was incredibly efficient with his pitches, giving them little room to fight back into this one until, in the bottom of the seventh, they got back to back hits and put runners on the corners. With arms warming up in the bullpen, a sac-fly by Herm McFarland got them a run closer, but Freeman got out of his jam and we still held a two run lead going into the top of the eighth. Addie Joss came in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, getting three outs on just six pitches thanks to weak contact, and with the score unchanged he stayed out for the bottom of the ninth, getting a quick out and then giving up two hits and a wild pitch to put a pair into scoring position. An RBI double by Clark Griffith tied it up ... seriously? ... and we lost the game when Ferris caught a weak infield hit but didn’t make a throw in time ... Chicago wins this one 5-4 and it’s hard not to say this one was just us blowing it. We’d had our chance, but against a tough team we balked and faced the consequences. Frank Foreman lasted seven innings with four hits, three walks, a strikeout and two earned runs, giving him a 2.19 ERA through 12.1 innings. But Joss came out and simply couldn’t handle his second inning ... he blew his second save of the season and took the loss, falling to 1-1 with a 6.14 ERA thanks to four hits, a walk and three earned runs, all of which came in the ninth with one out. We outhit Chicago 10-8 and had this one well in hand before the collapse, Keeler leading the way with a hit and two RBIs, while Dowd added a pair of hits and an RBI. May 31, 1901: Cy Young (9-2, 1.72 ERA, 99.2 IP, 54 K’s, 0.78 WHIP) got the start today against Roy Patterson (4-3, 4.26 ERA, 63.1 IP, 24 K’s, 1.33 WHIP). Buck Freeman hit a sac-fly in the top of the first that put us ahead 1-0, and based on how the next couple innings went we were glad we struck while the iron was hot. We had one hit in that inning, and that wound up being the only hit in the game through the first three. In the top of the fifth we added a second run thanks to an RBI single by Chick Stahl, giving us a 2-0 lead we held into the seventh inning stretch. We had runners on the corners in the top of the eighth but left them both stranded, but Young kept the game firmly under his control and we trusted he could handle things. They never stood a chance, as he locked in and shut them down in the eighth and ninth as we won a 2-0 shutout. Young notched his 10th win of the season, improving to 10-2 with a 1.57 ERA, allowing three hits and a walk while striking out a pair. We outhit the White Sox 7-3 as we took back the series lead, led by Stahl who hit once and batted in a run, while Keeler got two hits and a run himself. June 1, 1901: Mordecai Brown (8-1, 2.08 ERA, 82.1 IP, 10 K’s, 0.85 WHIP) started our final game in Chicago, facing Zaza Harvey (5-2, 2.84 ERA, 69.2 IP, 17 K’s, 1.22 WHIP). Brown didn’t have great luck in the bottom of the first, loading the bases and walking in a run to give the White Sox an early lead. The game was a real nailbiter from there, neither team wanting to give an inch. The White Sox added a run in the bottom of the fifth of an RBI single by Sam Mertes, and our luck was absolutely nonexistent on offense. Brown got us through the bottom of the seventh with the games still at 2-0, and we were only being outhit 3-2 through the first seven innings. Keeler finally got us on the board with an RBI single in the top of the eighth, and we stunned the crowd silent when Jimmy Collins placed an infield hit perfectly, bouncing three times as it eluded the pitcher and we got a second run across! We then took the lead thanks to a perfectly placed hit into right by Buck Freeman, sending us into the bottom of the eighth with an unexpected 3-2 advantage! Hobe Ferris hit an RBI triple in the top of the ninth that drove in another pair, and Keeler drove him home with an RBI single, sending us into the bottom of the ninth with a four run lead. But we didn’t start smoothly. Frank Shugart hit a single into right, and Zaza Harvey drove him over to second thanks to an E4 error ... we started warming up arms in the bullpen, but “Three Fingers” Brown was going to have to dig out of this hole in the interim. He smartly got Fielder Jones to swing at a fastball, popping it straight to Parent who made the double play, advancing Shugart to third. A wild pitch allowed a run to score, but Brown got the final batter to ground out to first, sealing the 6-3 win and letting us leave Chicago with a 3-1 series win as well. Brown is now 9-1 with a 2.07 ERA, pitching a five-hitter today and allowing just three runs (two earned) despite five walks and only one strikeout. We out hit the White Sox 9-5, led by Stahl with three hits, a walk, two runs and two RBIs. Keeler added three hits, a run and two RBIs as well, and without those two we’d have had virtually no offense. We head up to Milwaukee holding a 24-11 record and a 2.5 game lead in the AL, ready to face the Brewers who are currently 17-19 and in sixth place. We’re currently 8-4 on our current road trip, which sets us up for an opportunity to start taking control of our league as the summer heats up. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

07-04-2024, 09:28 PM	#10
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,628	June 2, 1901: We took the train up to Milwaukee for the final series of the season against a team we’ve yet to play ... the best thing about playing this far north at this time of year is it’s still nice and cool with the winds coming off the lake, and Ted Lewis (4-4, 3.01 ERA, 77.2 IP, 17 K’s, 1.27 WHIP) was ready to go against Ned Garvin (5-3, 4.40 ERA, 73.2 IP, 30 K’s, 1.24 WHIP). And we didn’t waste a lick of time, taking a two run lead off a single by Buck Freeman in the top of the first. But Milwaukee answered quickly with an RBI single by John Anderson to get on the board in the bottom of the inning, and with the bases loaded Lewis walked in the tying run -- and immediately the game went sideways, with Billy Gilbert hitting a triple that brought three home and ensured this game was going to be a slugfest. We went into the top of the second trailing by four runs, and they added another run in the bottom of that inning, making this one a definite upward climb if we wanted a win. We got one back in the top of the third as Freddy Parent reached first on an E6 error, and Dowd got a slow roller into right that brought another home while putting two in scoring position. Schreckengost got a hit into right to push those two in to score, and just like that we had a ballgame! We loaded the bases in the top of the fourth and then got some nice revenge thanks to Buck Freeman, who hit an RBI triple that scored three runs and put us in the lead 9-7! Hobe Ferris hit a sac-fly to left that scored another, and we went into the bottom of the fourth leading by three. Ted Lewis really settled in from there, and we added a pair of runs in the top of the seventh thanks to an RBI double by Buck Freeman. Dowd batted in another run with a single moments later and we went into the stretch leading 13-7! Willie Keeler hit a 470-footer out of the park to center, scoring us another two in the top of the eighth, his second long-ball of the season, and we added another in the top of the ninth thanks to an E6 error, walked in a run with our next batter, and then Dowd batted in another pair with a double! Lewis stayed out there to finish what he’d started, and we won this one with ease 19-7! Ted Lewis improved to 5-4 with a 3.22 ERA, allowing 11 hits and seven runs (five earned) with three walks and no strikeouts. We outhit the opposition by a 19-11 margin, however, with Buck Freeman hitting three times for four runs and seven RBIs! Chick Stahl hit four times and walked once, scoring four times, and Willie Keeler added three hits, two walks, five runs and two RBIs! Parent had an incredible four walks to go with his one hit, scoring once and driving in two more. Only Ferris and Lewis didn’t pick up hits today, and at least Ferris did manage to bat in a run thanks to a sac-fly and having reached base on an error. June 3, 1901: Cy Young (10-2, 1.57 ERA, 108.2 IP, 56 K’s, 0.75 WHIP) pitched today against Pink Hawley (4-4, 3.16 ERA, 77.0 IP, 12 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) in our second of four games against the Brewers. Cy Young batted in a run with a single in the top of the second, and a Dowd sac-fly to center pushed another in. Charlie Hemphill hit a shot into left to give us a third run with an RBI single, quickly making our presence felt -- and the hits kept coming for us. Hemphill added a run scoring single in the top of the fourth, and in the top of the fifth Hobe Ferris scored another off a passed ball, giving us a 5-0 lead heading into the bottom of the inning. Wid Conroy hit a solo bomb out of center in the bottom of the fifth to get the Brewers on the board, but we got it back in the top of the sixth thanks to an RBI single by Hemphill, and we went into the stretch leading by five. Young stayed locked in, and we never gave an inch after the run in the fifth, winning this one 6-1. Cy Young remains unstoppable, allowing five hits with five strikeouts in the complete game win, improving to 11-2 with a 1.53 ERA. He has only allowed five runs in his last seven starts! We out hit Milwaukee 14-5, led by Charlie Hemphill who hit five times with three runs batted in, in just his 10th appearance this season! The 25-year-old hit .277 last year for the Cleveland Spiders in his rookie season, playing in 55 games, but he is still something of an unknown at age 25 ... I’m thinking “Eagle Eye” has some serious potential! June 4, 1901: Mordecai Brown (9-1, 2.07 ERA, 91.1 IP, 11 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) pitched today against the Brewers’ Pete Dowling (3-5, 4.23 ERA, 66.0 IP, 31 K’s, 1.58 WHIP). Milwaukee scored first in this one, taking a 1-0 lead thanks to a triple by Irv Waldron in the bottom of the third inning, and a second run scored via a groundout to first by Billy Gilbert. Brown loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth and let a run in via a walk, but he held his ground and didn’t surrender any further runs, sending us into the top of the seventh trailing by three with Joss and Mitchell warmed up in the bullpen. Adddie Joss came out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh, getting two quick outs before giving up an RBI double to Hugh Duffy off a fastball inside. George Cuppy came out in the bottom of the eighth, trailing by four runs, and he melted down almost immediately, even given a low-stakes appareance on the mound -- he loaded the bases and gave up an RBI single to Jimmy Burke, followed by an RBI single by Pete Dowling, making it 6-0 without a single out. Fred Mitchell came out to put out the bases-loaded zero-outs fire, and he got us into the ninth with only one additional run scoring, giving us seven runs required if we were going to fight back in this one at the last minute. Criger hit a slow roller into center with men on first and second, loading the bases with just one out, but we capped off our miserable afternoon by leaving everyone stranded as we lost 7-0, one of the worst games we’ve played as a team all year. Mordecai Brown fell to 9-2 with a 2.13 ERA, allowing four hits with three walks and a pair of strikeouts, with three runs against him, only two of which were earned, in his six innings of work. The Brewers outhit us 9-5, and by the end it hardly mattered who we had pitching, we’d already lost the game in the third inning. Collins had two hits and a walk and Criger hit twice, but we were simply unable to muster any real energy on the basepaths. We still have a 2-1 lead in the series, and can complete the series win tomorrow with a solid outing, at which point we return home where we’ve yet to lose a game. I’m going to say it now, George Cuppy is a wasted spot on our roster at this point. He gave up three hits, walked a pair and allowed three runs (two earned) to put his ERA at 14.85 now through five appearances and 6.2 innings. I already think we have too many bullpen arms at this juncture, and may consider trying to trade him to someone who still thinks he can fill a major league role -- his best years are clearly behind him. June 5, 1901: We’ve made a trade with the Washington Senators, who think Cuppy has potential as a starter for them. They’ll be taking on the remainder of his contract and receiving reserve catcher Jack Slattery, in exchange for 21-year-old third baseman Hunter Hill. It’s not a trade that blows the roof off of things, but it gets us a young player I like, who has potential to develop, and it gets rid of Cuppy, whose frustrations on the mound were starting to bring down team morale. The trade is currently pending waivers. In the meantime we’ve trimmed our active roster down to 21 players for the moment, and we’re going to be working with a three-man rotation (Young / Brown / Lewis) and a leaner bullpen (Frank Foreman and Fred Mitchell in middle relief, Win Kellum and Addie Joss for longer relief appearances or spot starts). Our six man bench of Larry McLean, Ossee Schreckengost, Solly Hoffman, Harry Gleason, Harry Lumley and Charlie Hemphill covers us at all relevant positions and we can pull from our reserve roster if injuries warrant. I’d rather ensure that the players with the ability to do so get to build up some playing time and give us some consistency as we work to pull away with our AL lead. Ted Lewis (5-4, 3.22 ERA, 86.2 IP, 17 K’s, 1.30 WHIP) started for us in our final of four games against the Brewers in Milwaukee, facing Tully Sparks (4-4, 3.55 ERA, 83.2 IP, 12 K’s, 1.46 WHIP). With rain in the forecast, we just wanted to get through this one and catch our train back to Boston, so we came out with scoring on our minds. Unfortunately, it was Milwaukee who scored early, taking the lead in the bottom of the first with a an RBI double by Wid Conroy, though even with the bases loaded Lewis held them to just the one run, and we tied it up in the top of the second with an RBI single by Hobe Ferris. Buck Freeman hit a sac-fly to deep center in the top of the third, driving in the go-ahead run, and with rain starting to fall in the top of the fifth, Willie Keeler battted Stahl into scoring position with a single into right, both runners advanced off a wild pitch, and we added a run when they couldn’t make the throw out at home in time with a fielder’s choice. We picked up a fourth run thanks to an infield single by Parent, and a fifth scored when Schreckengost singled to drive Jimmy Collins around from second. We went into the bottom of the fifth leading 5-1, and if the rain was going to bring the game to an early end, we were certainly in prime position to get out of here with the win and catch our train early. Instead, we settled for a 33-minute rain delay in the bottom of the inning and played on from there in sloppy, soggy conditions. And it was at that point Lewis got into trouble, loading the bases and walking in a run, cutting our lead to three runs. With one out, Billy Gilbert got a hit into left that drove in a pair, and suddenly this game was turning into a nailbiter, our lead at 5-4 heading into the top of the sixth. But Lumley and Lewis got themselves into scoring position thanks to back-to-back fielding errors, and Willie Keeler batted in a run with a single to put us up by a pair. Frank Foreman came in to pitch with two outs and no one on in the bottom of the sixth, quietly securing our final out of the inning, and an E7 throwing error at home plate allowed Schreckengost to score off a single by Foreman in the top of the seventh to add to our lead, a Keeler single driving in two more for good measure. We loaded the bases in the top of the eighth thanks to two or our batters being hit by pitches and Schreckengost reaching on balls, adding a run thanks to a groundout by Lumley that made it a six-run lead, and Foreman batted in another pair with a single as the Brewers looked like they wish the game had just been called in the fifth inning. Foreman stayed out and completed the remainder of the game without incident as we crushed the Brewers and left the field a muddy mess, winning 12-4. Ted Lewis only lasted 5.2 innings, but he held his own, allowing seven hits and four earned runs with three walks and a strikeout ... he’s now 6-4 with a 3.41 ERA, and likely would have stayed out longer except the rain delay threw off his rhythm. Frank Foreman came out and pitched a 3.1 inning save, his second save of the season, allowing four hits but keeping their runners from doing anything. He now has a 1.72 ERA through 15.2 innings over six appearances. We outhit Milwaukee 12-11, outwalked them 4-3 and played an error free game while they allowed four errors. Keeler hit four times with two runs and three RBIs, and Foreman hit twice with a run and three RBIs during his save, giving him a .429 average through seven at-bats this season. We’re off tomorrow for the train ride back to Boston, and will then open our three-week homestand with four games in five days against these same Brewers.We have a 27-12 record and a 1.5-game lead over the Chicago White Sox, and have a chance to really put some distance between us considering we’ve yet to drop a game at home. Hunter Hill will meet us in Boston, where he’ll join our bench and bring our active roster back up to 22 out of a possible 25 players. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

07-16-2024, 01:52 PM	#11
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,628	June 7, 1901: Cy Young (11-2, 1.53 ERA, 117.2 IP, 61 K’s, 0.74 WHIP) started today against Ned Garvin (5-4, 5.05 ERA, 76.2 IP, 30 K’s, 1.34 WHIP) in front of a home crowd of nearly 6,500 fans, all of whom want to see Young (who leads all triple-crown categories in the AL) dominate from the mound. We took the lead in the bottom of the second inning, an RBI double by Hobe Ferris putting us ahead 1-0. Ferris grounded out to first in the bottom of the fourth but a run by Tommy Dowd scored from third to extend our lead, and the Brewers showed no sign of being able to get much past Young, who was dealing all afternoon. The Brewers committed a trio of errors in the fifth and we piled on, adding three runs to make it 5-0 heading into the top of the sixth. In the top of the seventh they seemed to wake up, and a Will Conroy double drove in a run to put Milwaukee on the board, but Young shut the rally down before it had time to forment, leaving us a four run lead into the seventh inning stretch. Young shut them down efficiently from there, however, and there was no hope of a comeback -- we won this one without much fuss, 5-1. Cy Young improved to 12-2 with a 1.49 ERA, allowing seven hits and an earned run with eight strikeouts and no one walked. We outhit them 10-7 throughout the afternoon, led by Keeler who hit three times for a run, while Ferris hit twice and batted in a pair. June 8, 1901: Mordecai Brown (9-2, 2.13 ERA, 97.1 IP, 13 K’s, 0.89 WHIP) pitched in the second game of the series, facing Pink Hawley (4-5, 3.47 ERA, 83.0 IP, 14 K’s, 1.25 WHIP). The Brewers committed a pair of errors in the bottom of the second that helped us load the bases, and though Ferris grounded out to first for our first out, Buck Freeman scored to put us up 1-0. The Braves tied us up 1-1 in the top of the third with two outs thanks to an RBI single by Hugh Duffy, and moments later John Anderson hit a hard one that bounced off the wall in center and allowed three runs to score via an inside-the-park home run, giving them a huge 4-1 advantage. Jimmy Collins hit an RBI triple for us in the bottom of the third, and Buck Freeman hit an RBI single to pull us within a run, sending us into the fourth inning trailing by just one run. Hobe Ferris got himself an RBI triple in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at 4-4, and we went into extra innings from there. Hawley and Brown dueled it out, nobody gaining the upper hand, until with runners on the corners in the bottom of the 11th we pulled off a safety squeeze to win the game 5-4! Criger scored the winning run off a Willie Keeler bunt, and we managed to stay perfect at home! Mordecai Brown improved to 10-2 with a 1.91 ERA, thanks to an 11-inning six hitter, walking three, striking out four and allowing four runs, though none of them were earned. We outhit Milwaukee 9-6, led by Buck Freeman with two hits, a walk, a run and an RBI, while Ferris added a hiit and two RBIs. June 10, 1901: After a day off yesterday that served as the midpoint of the series, Ted Lewis (6-4, 3.41 ERA, 92.1 IP, 18 K’s, 1.33 WHIP) pitched in our third game against the Brewers in this four-game affair, facing Pink Hawley (4-6, 3.38 ERA, 93.1 IP, 15 K’s, 1.24 WHIP) who threw 161 pitches just two days ago in the Braves’ extra innings loss. They’re getting desperate, at 18-24, to find their way back into contention and prove they can get a win against us, but they clearly lack the pitching depth to do anything but throw Hawley back out there and pray. We certainly didn’t start out on a strong note defensively -- Bill Friel led off with a single, stole second and reached third thanks to an E2 error, and then came around to score thanks to an Irv Waldron single, all in the top of the first without an out. But we got out of the top of the inning trailing just 1-0 despite a pair of errors, and there was plenty of time to assert our dominance. We loaded the bases quickly and Freddy Parent tied things up with a hit into a fielder’s choice, where the 6-4 play for the out at second allowed Willie Keeler to score. Milwaukee retook the lead in the top of the third with an RBI double by Hugh Duffy, adding a run via a groundout to first by John Anderson and another with a groundout to first by Bill Hallman. Lewis struggled to get the final out, allowing two more runs to score before he finally accomplished the “feat” and sending us into the bottom of the third trailing by five runs. At home. This was far from expected. Lewis gave up another trio of runs in the top of the fourth, all on two outs, and I had to draw the line -- he was out of the game, Addie Joss coming in out of the pen as any hope of us salvaging the game looked bleak. We got the final out but came up to hit in the bottom of the inning trailing 9-1 as our fans booed heartily. We loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth, Addie Joss then taking a walk to first with two outs to get us a run back, but that was all we got in the inning and Joss gave the run back in the top of the sixth when Billy Gilbert hit an RBI single into center. In the bottom of the sixth, Chick Stahl hit a three-bagger to score two runs and cut the lead to six, and Willie Keeler hit one into the right field corner, doubling in another run, sending us into the top of the seventh trailing 10-5. We again loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth, again with two outs, and Buck Freeman got a hitt of a very tired Pink Hawley, the ball landing in right field and allowing two more runs to score for us off the RBI single, driving Hawley out of the game after 170 pitches, their reliever getting the final out and sending us into the top of the ninth trailing by three. Joss gave up a solo homer to Billy Gilbert, and we brought in Frank Foreman with one out to try and get us into the bottom of the inning with a semblance of a chance. He got us three quick outs, and it was up to the bottom of our lineup to find a way to win. Tommy Dowd took a leadoff walk and Hobe Ferris followed, giving us a runner in scoring position without an out. A wild pitch with the count 2-1 against Schreckengost put both runners in scoring position, and they walked him too, loading the bases! Foreman bunted, Tommy Dowd scoring from third as we conceded the out at first, and they walked Stahl to reload the bags ... Willie Keeler then hit a run-scoring single into center, cutting our deficit to two runs! Jimmy Collins was hit by a pitch, driving in another run, and our fans were on the verge of apoplexy! A Buck Freeman shot into right field tied it up, and a hard hit into center by Freddy Parent walked it off as we stunned Milwaukee, winning 12-11 after trailing by eight early. Ted Lewis had a disasterous start, lasting 3.2 innings with ten hits, two walks, a strikeout and nine runs (six earned), blowing his ERA up to 3.84. But Addie Joss kept us in the game, throwing 60 pitches through 4.2 innings, allowing just four hits, two walks and two earned runs. It was Frank Foreman who got the win, improving to 1-0 by getting the final outs. Addie Joss now holds a 5.54 ERA through 13 innings, and Freeman’s improved to 1.65 through 16.1 innings. Each team picked up 14 hits, ours led by Buck Freeman who hit four times and batted in three runs. Willie Keeler added three hits, two runs and two RBIs, and Schreckengost hit twice and walked twice, scoring three runs himself in the comeback win. We have one game left against the Brewers and we’ve won four games in a row, improving to 30-12 overall and 14-0 here at home. But we only have a 2.5 game lead on the Chicago White Sox (28-15) so it’s far too early to start believing our own press. We’ve got to keep dominating if we want to make it to the first-ever “World Series” this fall. June 11, 1901: We decided to save Cy Young for our next series, so Frank Foreman (1-0, 1.65 ERA, 16.1 IP, 1 K, 0.98 WHIP) started for the second time this season, facing Tully Sparks (4-5, 3.81 ERA, 89.2 IP, 15 K’s, 1.51 WHIP) in our final game against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers took the lead in the top of the second with an RBI single by Bill Hallman, but Foreman hit himself an RBI double to tie it up in the bottom of the inning. They got the lead back in the top of the third with an RBI triple by Hugh Duffy, John Anderson driving him home with a double into left, and our center fielder missed the cutoff man moments later after a hit by Hallman, allowing a fourth run to score before Foreman got us the final out. Freddy Parent hit an RBI single to cut into that lead in the bottom of the third, however, and an RBI double by Dowd put us within a single run. Hobe Ferris hit a hard shot into center left, tripling himself, and a sac-fly to left by Lou Criger put us right back into the lead 5-4 heading into the top of the fourth. From there the scoring settled for a bit, but we loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth, and with two outs Willie Keeler got a hit into center and an error by their outfielder allowed another pair of runs to score, giving us a 7-4 advantage heading into the sixth. Win Kellum came in to pitch for us in the top of the seventh, and in the top of the ninth, with a runner on third and one out, Fred Mitchell came in to try and finish things off. The runner at third scored thanks to a sac-fly by Tom Leahy, but they grounded out to first, ending the game as a 7-5 win as we kept our home streak alive at 15 in a row! Frank Foreman improved to 2-0 with a 2.82 ERA, allowing seven hits and four earned runs without a walk or a strikeout. Win Kellum earned his first hold of the year, with one hit, one walk and one earned run through 2.1 innings, giving him a 3.86 ERA in his first relief appearance of the season, and Fred Mitchell got us the outs we needed in his second save of the year -- he now has a perfect ERA through 2.1 innings of work. We outhit the Brewers 11-8, led by Collins, Parent, Dowd and Ferris who each hit twice, combining for five runs and three RBIs between them. The Detroit Tigers (25-20) will now come to Boston for a four-game series, as they try to climb back in the AL pennant chase (they’re currently in a tie for fourth, seven games behind us). Here are the current MLB standings in both leagues as of June 12, 1901: *American League* 1. Boston Americans (31-12) 2. Chicago White Sox (29-15, 2.5 GB) 3. Baltimore Orioles (24-19, 7 GB) 4. Detroit Tigers (25-20, 7 GB) 5. Washington Senators (18-25, 13 GB) 6. Milwaukee Brewers (18-26, 13.5 GB) 7. Cleveland Blues (16-29, 16 GB) 8. Philadelphia Athletics (14-29, 17 GB) *National League* 1. Pittsburgh Pirates (31-18) 2. Brooklyn Superbas (30-18, 0.5 GB) 3. Philadelphia Phillies (27-20, 3 GB) 4. St. Louis Cardinals (26-21, 4 GB) 5. Boston Beaneaters (25-21, 4.5 GB) 6. Chicago Orphans (23-28, 9 GB) 7. Cincinnati Reds (21-31, 11.5 GB) 8. New York Giants (11-37, 19.5 GB) __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

07-16-2024, 03:59 PM	#12
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,628	June 12, 1901: Cy Young (12-2, 1.49 ERA, 126.2 IP, 69 K’s, 0.74 WHIP) got the first start against Detroit, facing Roscoe Miller (6-4, 2.71 ERA, 86.1 IP, 16 K’s, 1.32 WHIP), a 24-year-old with great movement and control who is working his way into their starting rotation this season after moving up from the minors. Jimmy Barrett hit his first home run of the season for the Tigers in the top of the second, blasting them into an unexpected 2-0 lead with a hard-hit ball that flew right over the Fatima Cigarrettes sign in left field (“Let Fatima smokers tell you ... buy Fatima for QUALITY!”) Young hasn’t had many times this year where he’s had to pitch from behind, but he got us through the fourth without any additional hits, and in the bottom of the inning we got a run on the board thanks to an error that put Tommy Dowd safely on first with a pair of outs. In the bottom of the sixth, Buck Freeman scored the tying run off an RBI single by Tommy Dowd, and Hobe Ferris batted us into the lead with an RBI single and a sac-fly by Young made it a two-run lead heading into the top of the seventh. We never relented from there, holding on to the 4-2 win as Cy Young closed out another complete game win. Young improved to 13-2 with a 1.53 ERA, allowing just two hits and two earned runs with six batters struck out. But we outhit them 10-2, so the game was never really in doubt ... the homer early on was easy for Young to slough off, as it was so unexpected. Tommy Dowd led the way with two hits, a run and an RBI, while Keeler picked up two hits as well though he found nothing he could do with them once on the basepaths. June 13, 1901: Mordecai Brown (10-2, 1.91 ERA, 108.1 IP, 17 K’s, 0.89 WHIP) started today’s game, battling Jack Cronin (3-6, 3.55 ERA, 91.1 IP, 22 K’s, 1.49 WHIP). Detroit struck first again, this time with an RBI single by Doc Nance in the top of the first, and an RBI single by Jimmy Barrett added quickly to the damage. Jimmy Collins hit a sac-fly to right that got us on the board in the bottom of the inning, but they did a very good job at preventing runs from there on, and we struggled to find that elusive tying run despite outhitting them by a wide margin. Freeman and Parent picked up back to back hits in the bottom of the eighth, with Freeman making it to third on two outs. With the count 2-1 on Dowd, a wild pitch allowed Freeman time to make his move, and just like that we were tied up 2-2 heading into the top of the ninth. Brown got us into the bottom of the inning still tied, but we weren’t able to make anything happen and this one was headed for extra innings! In the top of the 10th, Pop Dillon scored the go-ahead for Detroit thanks to a wild pitch, and with just one out and a man on second we brought Addie Joss out to pitch. Joss got our second out, but then Doc Casey hit an RBI double into center field, extending their lead to two runs. We had the top of our lineup coming up to the plate in the bottom of the inning, however, so we still had hope of a comeback. With two outs and the game on the line, Jimmy Collins hit a single into center, but Buck Freeman struck out swinging and we’d lost the game 4-2 ... our perfect home record now busted. Mordecai Brown lasted 9.1 innings with seven hits, a walk and four runs (two earned) against him ... he’s now 10-3 with a 1.91 ERA. Joss got two outs and allowed a hit, giving him a 5.27 ERA through 13.2 innings. We outhit the Tigers 13-8, which makes the loss a little tougher to swallow, though it was bound to happen eventually based on the law of averages. Keeler hit three times but was stranded each time, as were Parent and Ferris. You can’t get away with having eight hits between your best players and not have any of them score if you expect to win a game. June 14, 1901: Cy Young (13-2, 1.53 ERA, 135.2 IP, 75 K’s, 0.71 WHIP) only threw 99 pitches in our first game against Detroit, so he’s good to go today against Emil Frisk (4-5, 4.05 ERA, 73.1 IP, 21 K’s, 1.53 WHIP) on short rest. Back to back doubles by Stahl and Keeler to start the bottom of the first inning put us up quickly, and a Collins single coupled with an E8 error allowed us to expand it. A sac-fly by Parent added another and we were able to go into the top of the second leading 3-0. Keeler hit an RBI single in the bottom of the second, Collins following it with an RBI single of his own, and this one was looking like a potential rout. Another error allowed us to load the bases with one out, but the Tigers were able to get out of the jam without any additional damage though we led 5-0 heading into the third. The Tigers stopped the bleeding from there, but with Young on the mound there was little hope of them coming back from this. Jimmy Collins hit an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to expand the lead for us, and with two outs and the bases loaded Hobe Ferris hit an RBI single that knocked in two more. In the bottom of the eighth Hobe Ferris hit an RBI double that added a run, and with the bases loaded and two outs, Keeler hit one into right field that scored another. An RBI single by Collins and a passed ball later, Buck Freeman finally got us our final out with a pop fly to right, but we led them by a dozen runs. Young got three quick outs to preserve the shutout as we won this one 12-0. With the four-hit shutout, Cy Young improved to 14-2 with a 1.43 ERA, with 14 complete games in 16 attempts, this being his fourth complete game shutout this season -- this was his 300th career win as he continues to cement his reputation as baseball’s best pitcher. We outhit Detroit 19-4, led by Jimmy Collins (four hits, one run, four RBIs) and Willie Keeler (four hits, one run, three RBIs). Keeler has hit .421 for the season and .435 since becoming a Cub, with 38 RBIs and 2.9 total WAR, and even that hasn’t been good enough to keep up with Collins, who now has a .342 average to go with 11 doubles, seven triples, two homers and 36 RBIs, good for 3.2 WAR thanks to his excellent defense at third base! June 15, 1901: Ted Lewis (6-4, 3.84 ERA, 96.0 IP, 19 K’s, 1.41 WHIP) pitched in our final game of the series against the Tigers, facing Ed Siever (6-4, 2.27 ERA, 99.0 IP, 27 K’s, 1.01 WHIP). Lewis pitched around a two-out triple by Kid Elberfeld to get out of the first inning without any Tiger runs against us, and we loaded the bases in the bottom of the first but came up empty. We got on the board in the bottom of the third with a two-run homer by Buck Freeman, his first of the season, and Lewis was doing a great job from the mound -- but we had to pull him from the game after he batted in the bottom of the fifth inning. He swung wrong, apparently, and our trainers believe he strained an intercostal muscle, which means he may be out of the rotation until August. Jimmy Collins hit an RBI double to extend our lead, and a pair of errors eventually led to Collins scoring from third to make it a 4-0 lead as Fred Mitchell came in to pitch in the top of the sixth. The Tigers got a run back in the top of the inning thanks to an RBI single by Ducky Holmes, and an RBI single by Jimmy Barrett pulled them within two as we started warming our bullpen arms. Win Kellum came in to pitch with two outs and the bases loaded, getting the out off a Pop Dillon grounder to first ... that was a tight spot! We loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh but came up empty, and they returned the favor in the top of the eighth, loading the bags and walking in a run. Addie Joss came in with the bases loaded, one out, striking out Fritz Buelow and getting Al Shaw to pinch-hit his way into a fielder’s choice to escape the jam. Joss came back out to pitch in the top of the ninth with the lead at one run, and with runners on the corners he got Doc Nance to ground out safely to first as we closed out the extra-tight 4-3 victory. Ted Lewis improved to 7-3 with a three-hit, three strikeout effort through five innings before we had to pull him. Mitchell and Kellum (who got his second hold) combined for 2.1 innings of three hit, four walk, two strikeout baseball, and Joss came in for his first save of the year with a hit and a strikeout ... his ERA is now down to 4.70 through 15.1 innings. We outhit the Tigers 10-8, led by Keeler who hit three times and scored a run, while Buck Freeman added two hits, a run and two RBIs. He leads the team with 45 runs batted in so far this season. We have tomorrow off and then will play four games against the White Sox (31-17, 3.5 GB) and four against Cleveland (19-30, 16 GB)) before our next road trip begins. For now we’re going to keep Frank Foreman in our starting rotation along with Young and Brown, with Addie Joss, Fred Mitchell and Win Kellum as our bullpen arms. We’ve also made an offer to free agent pitcher Harold Cribbins, who would make a stronger third starter ... if we can convince him to come play in Boston, we’ll be able to put Foreman back into the bullpen where he’ll be more comfortable as an everyday stopper. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

07-16-2024, 08:38 PM	#13
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,628	June 17, 1901: Frank Foreman (2-0, 2.82 ERA, 22.1 IP, 1 K, 1.03 WHIP) got his third start of the season today, facing Clark Griffith (6-5, 2.58 ERA, 101.1 IP, 22 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) as the White Sox make their first trip to Boston. Jimmy Collins got us into the lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the first, and with the bases loaded in the bottom of the second we added two more with an RBI single by Foreman, with a fourth run scoring thanks to a Keeler groundout to first. Up by four runs in the top of the third, Foreman had more room to breathe, allowing him to settle into a comfortable groove. Fred Mitchell came in to pitch in the top of the seventh with us still leading 4-0, and in the bottom of the inning we added two more runs with an RBI double by Freddy Parent. Mitchell stayed out to finish the remainder of the game, and we won this one easily as a 6-0 shutout. Foreman improved to 3-0 with a 2.22 ERA, allowing three hits in six innings with one strikeout. Mitchell came in and pitched a three-inning save, his third of the season, allowing three hits and striking out three to preserve the shutout, keeping his ERA unblemished now through six innings of work. We outhit the White Sox 10-6, led by Parent (two hits, a run, two RBIs) and Keeler (two hits, two runs, one RBI). Foreman also hit once with two RBIs, giving him seven RBIs on the season and a .417 average while pitching. June 18, 1901: Cy Young (14-2, 1.43 ERA, 144.2 IP, 79 K’s, 0.69 WHIP) pitched against Nixey Callahan (9-3, 2.18 ERA, 99.0 IP, 30 K’s, 1.06 WHIP). The White Sox took the lead in the top of the third with an RBI triple by Sam Mertes, and we struggled to even get a hit off Callahan. A groundout to first by Frank Shugart in the top of the fourth allowed the White Sox to extend their lead, and we didn’t get our first baserunner until the bottom of the fifth, when Buck Freeman reached first on an error. But Parent broke up the no-hitter just minutes later, singling Freeman into scoring position, and Hobe Ferris hit a single into center with one out, driving in Freeman to score our first run before Criger hit into a double play and ended the rally. Young’s pitching kept us in this one, but our bats were having a hard time making anything happen. In the bottom of the ninth, still trailing by a run, Keeler led off by grounding out to first, but Jimmy Collins took a walk. Freeman hit into a fielder’s choice, taking first with Collins out at second, and Freddy Parent struck out swinging -- after winning 14 consecutive games, Young couldn’t pull this one out of his hat and we lost 2-1. The loss knocked Cy Young down to 14-3, though his ERA improved to 1.35 thanks to neither of his runs being earned. He struck out seven in the game, but we committed three errors that wound up sealing it. That, and they outhit us 6-3, with only Ferris managing to bat in a run, Freeman scoring off an error. June 19, 1901: Mordecai Brown (10-3, 1.91 ERA, 117.2 IP, 17 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) pitched against Roy “Pat” Patterson (6-5, 3.83 ERA, 96.1 IP, 36 K’s, 1.21 WHIP). This time we took the lead in the bottom of the first with a sac-fly to center by Collins, and we added on with a run scoring in the bottom of the second off a sac-fly by Criger. Hobe Ferris knocked in two runs with a triple in the bottom of the sixth, doubling our lead, and “Three Fingers” didn’t even give up his first hit until the top of the seventh. Of course he immediately gave up a stolen base and a second hit, an RBI double by Dummy Hoy, loading the bases on two outs. With bullpen arms warming, he got the final out to leave all the runners stranded, sending us into the seventh inning stretch still leading 4-1. Addie Joss came in to pitch in the top of the eighth, and he ran into trouble after getting his first out -- Herm McFarland batted in a run with a single, but a double play got us through still leading by a pair. An RBI triple by Parent put us back up by three, and with the bases loaded, Criger hit a weak squib and beat out the throw to first to drive in another run. Joss hit a sac fly that drove in another, and two more scored when Jimmy Collins hit a bouncing single into center. Keeler scored off a Freeman single into right, and we went into the top of the ninth leading by eight. Joss just needed three outs to close the deal, but he went and loaded the bases, an RBI single by Joe Sugdan and a wild pitch pulling them to within six. But Joss got it done, getting his final out by flyball to center field, and we won this one 10-4. Mordecai Brown improved to 11-3 with a 1.88 ERA, only allowing three hits in seven innings with three walks, one strikeout and a single earned run. Joss picked up a save, his second, allowing five hits with three runs (one earned) and a walk during his two innings. We outhit the White Sox 11-8, led by Jimmy Collins with two hits and three RBIs. Criger hit twice as well, walking once and driving in two. June 20, 1901: Frank Foreman (3-0, 2.22 ERA, 28.1 IP, 2 K’s, 0.92 WHIP) got our final start against the White Sox, facing Zaza Harvey (8-3, 3.07 ERA, 105.2 IP, 23 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) with a cool rain falling early on. A groundout to first netted them a run as Fielder Jones scored from third in the top of the first, and an E6 error cost us a second run with just one out. Foreman finally got us out of the inning without any further damage, but spotting the road team a 2-0 lead in the first frame is never a smart move on a nasty-weather day like this. And it only got worse from there -- Frank Shugart hit an RBI triple that added a run in the top of the fourth, putting them ahead 3-0. We finally got on the board with an RBI double in the bottom of the fifth, and we brought Fred Mitchell in to pitch at the start of the seventh inning with us still trailing 3-1. He got a pair of outs and then surrendered another run, this time an RBI single off Billy Sullivan’s bat, coupled with an E8 throwing error ... our FIFTH error of the game. But our fortunes changed in the bottom of the seventh -- we loaded the bases with just one out, Willie Keeler walking in a run to cut the lead back to three. Jimmy Collins got a hit into left field, a line drive that drove in two more, and a Buck Freeman single into left drove in the tying run! Mitchell got us through the top of the eighth, and back to back errors for the White Sox gave us Ferris in scoring position with Schreckengost on first, no outs! Chick Stahl hit an RBI single with one out in the bottom of the eighth to push us into the lead, and another run scored off an E4 error by Chicago (THEIR fifth of the game) as we extended our lead. A Buck Freeman triple made it a four-run lead heading into the top of the ninth, with Addie Joss coming in to pitch. He got three quick outs to secure the 9-5 win as we won the series against Chicago three games to one. Frank Foreman did what he could, lasting six innings with five hits, three walks and three runs, only one of which was earned, giving him a 2.10 ERA through 34.1 innings. Fred Mitchell got the win, giving us two innings with three hits, two runs (one earned), a walk and a strikeout -- he’s now 1-0 with a 1.12 ERA through eight innings over six bullpen appearances. Joss then came out and closed it out in a non-save situation, adding a strikeout to his tally while improving his ERA to 4.42 in his 10th appearance out of the pen. We outhit the White Sox 13-8, led by Chick Stall with three hits, a walk, two runs and two RBIs, while Buck Freeman added two hits and three RBIs. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

07-16-2024, 11:00 PM	#14
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,628	June 21, 1901: Cy Young (14-3, 1.35 ERA, 153.2 IP, 86 K’s, 0.69 WHIP) got the start as Cleveland came to town for the first time, facing up against Ed Scott (4-9, 3.11 ERA, 107.0 IP, 16 K’s, 1.38 WHIP). We took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second thanks to an RBI single by Tommy Dowd with loaded bases and two outs. Buck Freeman hit a two-run single in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 4-0 lead, and Chick Stahl added an RBI double with one out in the bottom of the sixth. Collins hit an RBI triple to drive him home, Freeman drove in a run with a single, and we had a seven run lead heading into the top of the seventh. Young didn’t give them an inch, and we put them away quietly, winning 7-0. Young improved to 15-3 with a 1.27 ERA, pitching a five-hit shutout with five strikeouts. We picked up 11 hits, led by Jimmy Collins with four hits, three runs and an RBI, while Buck Freman added two hits, two walks and three RBIs. June 22, 1901: Mordecai Brown (11-3, 1.88 ERA, 124.2 IP, 18 K’s, 0.88 WHIP) pitched against Bill Hart (6-6, 5.10 ERA, 95.1 IP, 18 K’s, 1.68 WHIP) this afternoon in front of a rowdy crowd of nearly 6,700 fans her in Boston. And this one turned into an unexpected pitching duel, both pitchers completely locked in on the task at hand and leaving no room for such a pesky thing as baserunners. The game remained scoreless into the stretch, but we finally got through their defenses in the bottom of the seventh, Lou Criger knocking the go-ahead run in with a double. But Brown got into trouble in the top of the eighth, walking the bases loaded and then hitting Candy LaChance in the shoulder, tying the game up! We left the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, no runs scoring, and when we were unable to come up with a hit in the bottom of the ninth, the game went into extra innings. With the score still tied at 1-1 in the top of the 12th, Addie Joss came in to pitch, and he kept it that way ... but Hart stayed in and remained as locked in as if it was still the fourth or fifth inning, and he kept us from doing much of anything. With two outs in the bottom of the 13th, Lou Criger got to second when Tom Donovan dropped a flyball in right field for an error, but we couldn’t get him around to score. In the top of the 15th inning, Addie Joss gave up a fat fastball to Erve Beck, and he slammed it into right field for an RBI double, putting the Blues up 2-1. That gave Bill Hart the chance for a win, the 35-year-old staying out for the bottom of the 15th despite having thrown more than 215 pitches ... and he held on to pull it off. We lost this one 2-1 in 15 innings, as brutal a loss as I have ever experienced, though our fans at the very least got their 75 cents worth. Bill Hart was flat-out impossible to stop tonight ... he threw a 15-inning complete game with just eight hits, walking eight and striking out four while allowing just one earned run. On our side of things, Mordecai Brown gave us 11 innings and threw 152 pitches, allowing just three hits, but he walked eight and struck out one while allowing an earned run, his ERA improving to 1.79. Addie Joss came in and threw 37 pitches over four innings, falling to 1-2 with a 4.03 ERA thanks to three hits, a strikeout and a single earned run. We outhit Cleveland 8-6 in the loss, led by Stahl with three hits to nowhere -- only Criger managed to bat in a run with a hit and a walk, Dowd scoring it. June 24, 1901: With the day off last night, Cy Young (15-3, 1.27 ERA, 162.2 IP, 91 K’s, 0.68 WHIP) had plenty of time to get rest, so he’ll start today against Cleveland’s Ed Scott (4-10, 3.51 ERA, 112.2 IP, 16 K’s, 1.44 WHIP). Keeler opened up things quickly with an RBI triple in the bottom of the first, scoring himself when Buck Freeman reached first with an infield hit. We piled on quickly, and by the time we brought Young back out for his second round, we held a 4-0 lead on Cleveland, vowing there would be no repeat of yesterday’s scoring ineptitude. We added two more in the bottom of the second, driving their starter out before the inning even finished and setting their bullpen up for a rough night. Cleveland got on the board with an RBI double by Bill Bradley in the top of the fifth, and their long reliever Fred Klobedanz handled himself admirably, keeping the game from getting futher out of hand. The Blues picked up an RBI double in the top of the seventh to cut our lead to four, but we still held a 6-2 lead going into the stretch. We got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning, Jimmy Collins scoring off a groundout to first by Tommy Dowd, and Young held them off nicely from there as we won this one 7-2. Another complete game six-hitter gives Cy Young a 16-3 record and a 1.26 ERA this season -- he struck out three tonight and only allowed two runs (one earned). We outhit the Blues 10-6, led by Buck Freeman with two hits, a run and two RBIs, while Jimmy Collins and Freddy Parent each hit twice as well. We got good news after the game as well, with Harold Cribbins, 28, agreeing to a one year, non-guaranteed contract worth $850 to play for us as our #3 starter ... we’re moving Frank Foreman back into the bullpen. June 25, 1901: Mordecai Brown (11-3, 1.79 ERA, 135.2 IP, 19 K’s, 0.89 WHIP) is ready to bounce back in our final game against Cleveland, facing Earl “Crossfire” Moore (4-11, 4.92 ERA, 108.0 IP, 37 K’s, 1.54 WHIP). It’s a windy, rainy, nasty day for baseball, and we were hoping our bats could give us just enough to not drag this one out. But the Blues instead got out to the faster start, taking the lead in the top of the second off an RBI single by Frank Scheibeck. Jimmy Collins got to second in the bottom of the fourth off an E6 error, giving us our first baserunner of the afternoon, and with two outs we brought him around to score with an RBI single by Tommy Dowd, tying it up at 1-1 with rain starting to fall. A few minutes later Lou Criger walked the bases loaded, but Brown hit a hard one straight to the center fielder for our final out. Cleveland answered quickly, an RBI double by Erve Beck putting them back up 2-1 in the top of the fifth, but we were quick to reply back, an RBI single by Buck Freeman tying it up again in the bottom of the inning, putting runners in scoring position with one out. Tommy Dowd reached first on an E3 error and took second in the chaos that ensued, allowing two runs to score and putting us up 4-2! Addie Joss came in to pitch in the top of the ninth, with us having failed to add any insurance in the ensuing innings ... and he pulled things off perfectly, shutting down any hopes of a Cleveland rally as we won 4-2! Mordecai Brown improved to 12-3 with a 1.82 ERA, thanks to eight innings with six hits, three walks, a strikeout and two earned runs. Addie Joss allowed a hit and nothing else, bringing his ERA down to 3.86 thorugh 23.1 innings in his third save of the season. Cleveland outhit us 7-4, but they walked us four times which evened things up. Jimmy Collins scored two runs off errors, while Freeman hit once, scoring a run and batting in another, while Dowd hit and batted in a run as well. We’ve got a game against Baltimore (32-23, 8 GB) on the road, followed by three at Washington (24-31, 16 GB) which will be followed by five games against Baltimore (two on the road, three at home) through Independence Day. We currently hold a 7.5 game lead in the AL over the Chicago White Sox, who are on a two-game losing streak, having lost seven of their last ten games. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)