Trans-Continental Telegram

[dwolfson20]

Jim Kirst wuz robbed.

[Ungrateful Dead]

10/6/1882

EASTERN ASSOCIATION FEUD HEATS UP

Many newspapermen and barkeepers up and down the Northeast (particularly those with a Beantown accent) will be happy to talk your ear off about the Philadelpha-Boston rivalry that has dominated the Eastern Association for the past several seasons, but until last Sunday there was one place you rarely heard that kind of talk: Philadelphia. Fans and players alike were quick to point out that it wasn't exactly fair to call it a rivalry - rather, for three seasons in a row (two at the hand of the Red Stockings), the Express had been summarily bounced from the playoffs in the first round. To be sure, the regular season matches had always been extremely competitive, with the 7-7 ledger in '82 typical for them, but it hadn't been a contest in October. No more.

It would have been enough just to win, and Boston did that, scoring seven or more runs in each of the first three contests and winning the Association pennant four games to one, but things got personal in the third inning of the clinching game. Down 3-0, in a game they'd eventually come back to win 6-5, second-year shortstop George Jones, younger cousin of injured teammate and two-time All-Star Tom Jones, was caught running from first to second in what looked like an inning-ended double play. Rather than slide into the bag however, the 6'1", 195 pound Maryland native remained standing until the last possible second, barrelling into 143 pound second baseman Ross Barnes as he attempted to make the throw to first base. The slight Philadelphia star was knocked senseless by the collision and didn't come to for more than fifteen minutes, eventually being brought to a hospital by ambulance where he was diagnosed with a severe concussion. His type of injury is fairly common among the working man, especially in construction or mining, where it has been known to cause symptoms that linger for many months, leaving his availability for the start of next season unlikely. It is unknown whether this will effect the team's efforts to re-sign the pending free agent, which have thus far not resulted in a contract agreement.

Barnes was rushed to Pennsylvania Hospital in Center City

In the aftermath, third baseman Lalo Arzate had to be restrained by several Philadelphia players and the umpires considered ejecting Jones from the game before ruling that as no rule strictly prohibited his actions he would be allowed to continue. After the game, shortstop Ned Williamson claimed that the umpires only made the decision because the game was being played in Boston, saying "If it were in Philly, he'd have been run out of the stadium and there'd be a crowd waiting for him outside." Not everyone was quite so fired up, notoriously lackadaisical outfielder George Gore had a different approach, "The way I see it, we got all winter now to drink and dance and then we get back out there and show we're better on the field."

George Lannon has a 85-56 record for the Mustangs, but has only gone 6-7 in the postseason.

It's only halfway home for Boston however - the first round of the playoffs may be their bugaboo, but the team standing between them and immortality is even hungrier. The Oakland Mustangs have been the Western Association champs for four years running but have yet to bring home a championship, falling victim to the dynasties in Baltimore and Philadelphia in every season after breezing through their Association championship round.

Always an offensive powerhouse, the Mustangs just might have the key to victory this year on the other side of the ball as 23-year-old "Smiling Mickey" Welch has taken the league by storm with a league-best 35 victories. The jolly young Midwesterner was Oakland's first-round draft pick in 1879 and was something of a dark horse to actually be on the major-league club this year after missing the entire 1881 season with an arm injury. Offensively, the team has seen a boost from an MVP-caliber season from 25-year-old outfielder Harry Retzlaff and a strong showing at third from rookie Fred Williams, acquired as a minor-leaguer from the team in the other dugout.

Toronto's Tim Keefe is one of many talented young pitchers in the TCBA

Mickey Welch isn't the only hotshot young pitcher in the TCBA - many feel that the league is entering a golden age of pitching with so many of the top hurlers having only recently begun their careers. Tied with Welch for the most victories in the EA another rookie, Toronto's Tim Keefe, and a full eight of the twenty-five pitchers with more than 25 wins in either league are first or second-year players, including Boston's George Derby (31-19), Washington's Jumbo McGinnis (30-18), Toronto's Mike Franks (28-23), and Detroit's Charlie Jeter (25-24) with other promising rookies in Philadelphia's John Ledbetter (24-15), and New Orleans' John Rider (24-21) falling just short of qualifying.

Just slipping in at 26-25 is the only rookie to make the list and still be considered a disappointment: the Gothams' fireballer Alex Alconcel. That is no knock against the Venezuelan's performance; he went 26-25 for a losing team and he set the single-season strikeout record with 316, but it is a testament to the incredible hype that surrounded him as a minor-leaguer. There were scouts that legitimately expected him to strike out 500 batters or win 50 games and while his performance so far does put make him one of the elite, he's hardly lapping the field.

Another name on the list is not without controversy in his young career. While it was quickly drowned out by Alconcelmania, the Brown Stockings' Alexander Dupras (32-18) was the talk of Detroit after his rookie campaign in '81, setting what was then the single-season strikeout record with 300 and being named to the All-Star team. He also walked a league-worst 174 and after his sky-high contract demands alienated him to management he found himself on a train to Chicago where the Browns were willing to pay big for his services and so far appear to be reaping the awards.

[Ungrateful Dead]

8/20/1883

HISTORIC SEASON BREWING?

While proponents of more league parity might not have anything less to bemoan this season (Union Pacific rooters excepted), fans of the sport in general (or one of the traditional powerhouses) have been treated to some of the best displays of baseball prowess in memory during the 1883 season to date.

Ned Williamson has only a .231 career batting average but also ranks third all time with 41 career homers

One of the most hallowed records in the league's history may fall before the season's last pitch is thrown - Philadelphia shortstop Ned Williamson, a defensive stalwart always known for his power if not contact hitting abilities, has 12 longballs so far with 33 games left to play; he would need only two more to break the record of 13 held by Dick Coke and Dan Brouthers. While nobody is handing him the crown yet, the Philadelphia-born local hero has been on fire lately, clubbing eight of those home runs in the last two and a half months, and there are plenty who think he'll not only surpass the number but fly right by it. The possibility can also not be ignored that Williamson could top thirteen but fail to end the season with the record as he's not without competition in that department: current co-record-holder and unquestionably the most dominant hitter in TCBA history Dan Brouthers has ten home runs on the year and the four-time MVP is reknowned for prodigious bursts of power, occasionally going deep several times in a week of play.

Displays of dominance this year have not been limited to the individual level, as spectacular feats already completed and yet to come are plentiful amongst the cream of the TCBA crop. The Philadelphia Red Stockings, losers-made-good success story or evil empire depending how far from the City of Brotherly Love one makes their home, are on the verge of completing another of their trademark comebacks over the Chicago Brown Stockings, following up a traditionally slow start with a torrid pace in the summer heat and only recently completing the most impressive streak of baseball ever played. From July 14th to August 3rd the Red Stockings weren't just proverbially unbeatable - they were unbeaten. Individual game recordkeeping from the league's early years can be spotty, but the 18-game winning streak reeled off by the Reds is almost certainly the longest in TCBA history and has taken the club from nearly nine games back in their division to first place. In the nearly three-week span they outscored their opponents 122 to 38 and finished with a flourish with three straight shutouts before the well finally ran dry in a 7-0 loss to Albany.

That it took such a Herculean effort is a testament to another talented team on the East Side of the Windy City - in fact, regardless of which way the still-tight Baltimore and Ohio race turns out it may result in another league first. Both Philadelphia and Chicago are on currently on pace to win 100 games - if Boston maintains their rate of winning as well that would be the first time either Association featured three clubs reach the century mark, which would also give the second place team in the B&O the dubious honor of being the first team to win 100 games and miss the playoffs entirely.

Streaks of winning haven't just been limited to Philadelphia, or the Eastern Association for that matter, as the continued dominance on both coasts by the Oakland Mustangs and Boston Express have them on the verge of history as well. Boston might as well be printing their playoff tickets already and seem a lock to be the first team to ever win their division five years in a row surpassing Ogden's four-year streak in the league's early years, and if Oakland can hold their lead over their rivals in San Francisco they will also be playoff bound for the fifth consecutive season.

[bulldog55]

After Eclipsing Home-Run Record, Brouthers & Williamson to Square Off for Eastern Association Crown

9/24/1883

Since his debut in 1879, Dan Brouthers has hit at least ten home-runs in every season, four times leading all of the Trans-Continental Base-Ball Association and once placing second. As a rookie he tied Dick Coke's record of thirteen round-trippers that had stood since the birth of the Eastern Association in 1871. He would come close in every subsequent year but never quite reached that total again - until this season. On the heels of a mighty September where he walloped five long-balls, Brouthers broke the mark he'd shared by two, finishing the season with fifteen homers.


Brouthers

It was not until that other-worldly finish that Brouthers even took the home-run lead, and he in fact
was not even the first player to eclipse Coke's record. Short-stop Ned Williamson of the arch-rival Boston club had entered the final month with twelve four-baggers, two ahead of Brouthers. Williamson quickly socked his fourteenth on the fifth day of the month to set the new standard, then did not circle the bases again over his last nineteen contests. The record that seemed so inevitably in his possession was improbably snatched away as one player blossomed and the other wilted.


Williamson

Williamson finished second to Brouthers in home-runs for the second year running, and in 1880, the only year in which Brouthers did not lead the league, Williamson came out on top with one dozen. In three of the past five years, the two players have finished with the most home-runs in all of the TCBA, so it is only fitting that their ball-clubs would be playing for the championship of the Eastern Association for the fourth season in a row. Williamson's Philadelphia club surged past the Chicago Brown Stockings to capture their fourth consecutive Baltimore and Ohio League championship. Brouther's Boston bunch handily took their fifth straight crown. Boston topped Philadelphia last season for the first time, with the winner of the series ultimately winning the last three Trans-Continental Series, all against Commissioner Stanford's Oakland Mustangs.

[Ungrateful Dead]

04/03/1884

TCBA TOP 50 PROSPECTS
1884 SEASON PREVIEW

Players considered for the list are under 26 years of age and have fewer than 150 major-league at-bats or 50 innings pitched

#1 LHP ED MORRIS (NEW YORK)
#2 RHP CHARLIE GETZIEN (NEW YORK)
#3 RF TOM BUTLER (TWIN CITIES)
#4 2B GEORGE GILLMAN (ST. LOUIS)
#5 2B JOHN MCKINNEY (ALBANY)
#6 C DAN HERTZLER (VIRGINIA CITY)
#7 RHP HENRY BOYLE (WASHINGTON)
#8 CF DOC YANCEY (NEW ORLEANS)
#9 2B FRED MILLER (PHILADELPHIA)
#10 1B BILL LUECK (WASHINGTON)
#11 RF JOHN MAINES (CHICAGO-S)
#12 CF RICKARD EXCELL (DETROIT)
#13 C JACK BARKS (BROOKLYN)
#14 RF FRED BYRD (DETROIT)
#15 SS MIKE YOUNGSON (BUFFALO)
#16 LF JOHN WITHEROW (OMAHA)
#17 LHP DUPEE SHAW (WASHINGTON)
#18 RF JOHN GROH (DETROIT)
#19 RF TOMMY TINER (VIRGINIA CITY)
#20 CF JOHN BARRENTINE (BOSTON)
#21 RF NAT LAUVER (NEW ORLEANS)
#22 CF ED TUCCI (OGDEN)
#23 RHP LARRY CORCORAN (CHICAGO-S)
#24 CF JOSE LAYANA (ST. LOUIS)
#25 RF GEORGE VUKOVICH (DETROIT)
#26 3B ALAMAZOO TURNER (BALTIMORE)
#27 RF BILL DILLON (BOSTON)
#28 2B LEN SHEPHERD (PHILADELPHIA)
#29 3B RONNY MELLADO (CHICAGO-B)
#30 RF TOM AVENT (NEW YORK)
#31 3B JIM SCHWERT (OGDEN)
#32 RF JOE CRIMIAN (BROOKLYN)
#33 C FRED CHESSER (PHILADELPHIA)
#34 C JOSE ISIORDIA (TORONTO)
#35 LHP BILL LEE (WASHINGTON
#36 LHP DAN CASEY (BOSTON)
#37 LF BOBBY ALBERTSON (BOSTON)
#38 SS JOHN ARAGON (ST. LOUIS)
#39 CF JOHN GREESON (BROOKLYN)
#40 C LUIS GAIMA (NEW ORLEANS)
#41 3B MANNY FRANCO (CHICAGO-B)
#42 RHP PERRY WERDEN (TWIN CITIES)
#43 SS GEORGE NICKEL (OGDEN)
#44 RF JIM GILES (OGDEN)
#45 LF WILL KELLEY (ALBANY)
#46 1B TOM BALENTINE (BALTIMORE)
#47 RF AL DOWLING (OAKLAND)
#48 C JOHN BROUILLARD (WASHINGTON)
#49 CF DUTCH MAIER (PHILADELPHIA)
#50 SS TONY WUHL (BALTIMORE)

This report is provided for the public by the scouting department of the Philadelphia Red Stockings

[attackemu]

I'm really looking forward to Gillman's development. He'll be starting at first base on Opening Day.

[umwol13]

Whew, talk about pressure. I hope you didn't jinx me by ranking those two 1-2 on the prospect ranking.

[bulldog55]

Our best showing is #47. Harsh but fair. We're in for a rude awakening as this core ages. We are barren down on the farm.

[Ungrateful Dead]

I'm really looking forward to Gillman's development. He'll be starting at first base on Opening Day.

I like the defensive arrangement you ended up with better - if he's anything like Ross Barnes Rochefort should end up making a plus defensive first baseman.

Whew, talk about pressure. I hope you didn't jinx me by ranking those two 1-2 on the prospect ranking.

It was a hard decision, but with how much they (and to a slightly lesser extent Boyle) outstrip the other pitching prospects we've seen it felt like they had to be #1 and #2 to justify putting any other pitchers above the 40s on the list.

Our best showing is #47. Harsh but fair. We're in for a rude awakening as this core ages. We are barren down on the farm.

If it's any consolation, Al Dowling (and Tom Balentine) are the two guys most underrated by star rating that I came across.

[umwol13]

4. Alex Alconcel, RHP
DOB: 10/23/1858 (age 23)
Height/Weight: 6-1/215
Bats/Throws: R/R
Drafted: 2nd round, 1876, Venezuela
1881 Stats: 0.00 ERA (3.2-1-1-5) at Triple-A (3 G)

Year in Review: Similarily to last season, St. Louis didn't allow Alconcel to pitch in many game situations but his scouting sessions throughout the year were things of legend.
Why He's the #1 Prospect: There's never been a pitcher like Alconcel, he throws harder then anybody ever has and his fastball is reportedly not even his best pitch as the young Venezuelan once threw thirty change-ups by Buds' star Jim Plaster in a bullpen session without the career .296 hitter making contact once.
Why He's Not the #1 Prospect: As much hype as there is, it's almost all hype. Alconcel has pitched in four games since dominating Single-A over seventeen starts in 1879 and there is question as to whether he'll be able to maintain his amazing velocity a second or third time through the lineup.
Perfect World Projection: The best pitcher there's ever been, the sky's the limit. The only question is whether he is able to do it for 300+ innings a year as a starter or what has traditionally been closer to 50 for a staff reliever.
Timetable: Alconcel will be welcoming the Buds to New York as he's been slated in to join the newly-christened Gothams rotation in 1881.

I think it's time to revise that year's rankings...

6-0, 58 to 1 K/BB ratio, on pace for 500+ Ks! I think he just reached the sky. Now if he'd only give up fewer longballs...

[umwol13]

Just slipping in at 26-25 is the only rookie to make the list and still be considered a disappointment: the Gothams' fireballer Alex Alconcel. That is no knock against the Venezuelan's performance; he went 26-25 for a losing team and he set the single-season strikeout record with 316, but it is a testament to the incredible hype that surrounded him as a minor-leaguer. There were scouts that legitimately expected him to strike out 500 batters or win 50 games and while his performance so far does put make him one of the elite, he's hardly lapping the field.

Hey, look what I found taped to Alconcel's locker. I think I found his motivation.

[bulldog55]

Yeah, Dowling's getting shafted on stars but I'm still not very sold on him being a legitimate prospect. I've had too many 65 contact corner OFs fizzle out on me, and his defense and gap power are uninspiring. I think he's a platooner in the best case scenario.

Keep an eye on Charlie Bolden, my 2nd round pick this year. He's the second coming of Buttercup with better defense. He'll be a multi-win player at some point.

[magnet]

Tom Butler as the best hitting prospect in the league...too bad he plays here and has a wall of awesome OF to break through.

[bulldog55]

Ausmus signs with Oakland to earn three-hundredth victory

May 18th, 1884

OAKLAND — Only four pitchers have won more games in the history of the Trans-Continental Base Ball Association than Charlie Ausmus. In thirteen seasons with the Grays of Washington, Ausmus emerged victorious two-hundred and ninety-nine times, putting him one short of the exclusive fraternity of three-hundred victories. From 1875 through 1878, his highest earned-run average was a miniscule 1.74 and he was named to the All-Stars Team in each of those four seasons. He was also an All-Star in 1873, giving him five nominations over a string of six seasons.


Charlie Ausmus

Now forty-one years old, the left-hander from Bremen, Georgia, was released by his Washington club and unlike other stars cut loose by their clubs, opted not to sign with an independent minor-league franchise in the hope some major-league club would sign him in pursuit of his elusive mile-stone.

He was finally granted his wish on the thirteenth of May and given the start that day against the rival San Francisco ball-club. Though he completed the game and allowed but three earned-runs, seven Oakland errors contributed to eight more un-earned runs and the Mustangs were vanquished handily by the final score of eleven-to-four. Though poor defense played a role, Ausmus contributed to his own downfall by issuing five bases-on-balls.

Management was committed to him crossing the historic thresh-hold and sent him out again four games later in front of their home crowd against the Comstock Kings of Virginia City. Though he walked no batters in this outing, he was charged with four runs earned, and six more errors by his defense added seven un-earned to the total. And though his batsmen only scored four earned-runs of their own, the Virginia City defenders committed an astonishing seven-teen errors leading to six-teen un-earned runs and Oakland won by nine.

The victory raised Ausmus's career record to 300-242, joining an elite group of just five hurlers to have won that symbolic amount. After the game, he was demoted to Cairo of the AAA Illinois Central League where his career will presumably come to a close. With just seven more victories, he could pass another Oakland great, strike-out king Al Duval, for the fourth-most victories in history, but with the best record in the TCBA, the Mustangs cannot concern themselves with the welfare of a player over that of their team.

Next on the list is Dick Revenig, the forty-one-year-old star pitcher of the Brooklyn Atlantics, who is currently winless against ten losses so far this season with twenty victories left to reach the hallowed mark. Behind him is Bill Kern, aged thirty-five of Philadelphia, needing thirty-nine victories. Clearly it is a special pitcher who reaches three-hundred, and with his single victory this season, Ausmus is assured of his standing in history.

[Tavarin]

I didn't release Ausmus, I just didn't resign him. Definitely glad to see him get to 300 though.

[bulldog55]

Southern Pacific Transportation Company takes effective control of Central Pacific Rail-Road
Central Pacific will maintain control of base ball league
Southern Pacific League declares major league status effective 1886

April 2, 1885

The Southern and Central Pacific companies have been business partners since the birth of the nation's first trans-continental rail-road. The Southern Pacific began building its own loco-motives in 1873, then spent nearly one decade laying tracks across the country, primarily south-ward through California and into the American south-west. On January 12, 1883, the Southern Pacific rail-road met the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway at the Pecos River, forming a second trans-continental line.

Events culminated earlier this year when, on February 17, both companies were combined under a holding company named the Southern Pacific Company. Finally, yesterday, April 1, the Southern Pacific took control of the Central Pacific, effectively ending the existence of the Central Pacific Rail-Road.

As part of the business dealings, the two companies needed to determine the fate of one of its largest assets, the Trans-Continental Base Ball Association and associated minor league, the Southern Pacific League. Since its founding in 1880, the Western Association has been divided into two leagues: the Union and Central Pacific Leagues, named for the two rail-road companies which met at Promontory Point in 1869.

Under the agreement, the Central Pacific will retain control of its base ball league, in fact the only remaining official property of the company. In exchange, the Southern Pacific League, founded in 1876, will shed its subordinate designation and be classified as an independent major league starting in the 1886 season. Additionally, the league will be allowed to expand to cover its entire trackage, bringing professional base ball to Arizona and southern-most California for the first time in history.

Currently the only other officially recognized major league is the Midwestern League, founded in 1872. Though it remains a successful independent league, it lacks anywhere near the financial clout of the TCBA and its affluent owner-ship. The Southern Pacific, which has grown to become one of the most powerful rail-roads in the world, could pose a much greater threat to the exclusivity enjoyed by the TCBA.

Most notably, current TCBA commissioner and Oakland Mustangs owner Leland Stanford was named as chairman of the Southern Pacific, and he plans to step down from his posts to take the helm of the burgeoning league. Deputy TCBA commissioner Collis Potter Huntington will take control of the league and will put his nephew, Henry Huntington, in charge of the Mustangs. It is rumored the younger Huntington might have interest in moving the Mustangs from their lifelong home in northern California to the southern boom-town of Los Angeles where many of his newfound business interests lay.

[Ungrateful Dead]

6/8/1885

HELP FOR THE HOMERLESS

We're well through a third of the '85 baseball season now and if you ask fans anywhere in the country what stands out to them so far they'll tell you the same thing: after the home run explosion of 1884, what has sapped the life from the power bats of the TCBA?

Popular opinion is that '84 was the fluke - and in some respects that point is hard to argue. Both associations combined to clobber 882 balls out of the park, nearly twice the previous season-high if you discount the league's notoriously wild offense in the league's first full season. Indeed, Dan Brouthers record-setting total was more than any team had combined to hit before 1879.

Others point to the unseasonably cold weather around the nation so far - although the warm New Orleans franchise has appeared equally effected so far. Some players have claimed that the balls being used this season are not of the same quality as in seasons past, perhaps due to inattention during the changing of the guard in the commissioner's office, though others argue that low-quality balls would actually cause more scoring as was the case in the TCBA's formative year before commissioner Stanford instituted an official baseball for distribution around the league.

The man who knows more about hitting home runs than anything doesn't know - or if he does, he isn't talking. Tired of being asked question after question about his meager home run total, Big Dan Brouthers has rarely fielded questions from reporters in the last several weeks - his annoyance somewhat justified given that the towering slugger has been having a perfectly respectable season with a .336 batting average and a league-best 12 triples. Still, who can blame fans for being curious why the man who deposited 32 balls out of the yard in 1884 is on pace to go deep only 5 times this season.

He's certainly not the only hitter so afflicted though as the power outage is definitely a league-wide phenomenon. This season's home run leader, Philadelphia shortstop Ned Williamson, is only on pace for 18 four-baggers, and nobody in the Western Association looks like a lock to break double figures.

---

Not everybody is complaining about the league's lack of power - just ask the Washington Grays who are off to their best start in years behind a new-look squad that has a paltry three home runs between them. It's too early to tell, but fans in the nation's capital have to wonder if this is the year they can finally snap Philadelphia's stranglehold on the division, unbroken since the 1879 season.

For starters, the Grays have the only player in either league currently featuring a batting average higher than .400, and no, it's not the one you think. Tommy Sisco is hitting a more than healthy .352 as of this morning, but it's new addition John Longwell with the .405 ledger. Longwell is no stranger to success at the plate with a career average of .311, but that was mostly accumulated in the traditionally higher-scoring Western Association, and many thought he would be no guarantee to continue his high level of play against the murderers' row pitching rotations in the Northeast.

No, run scoring has been no problem for Washington so far with an EA-leading 377 to this point in the season, so questions about whether or not they can sustain their success invariably point to their potentially suspect ability to prevent the opposing team from being just as prolific. Young southpaw Bill Lee appears to be building on a strong rookie debut last year, but Old Hoss Radbourn has a decidedly pedestrian run allowed rate behind his winning record and Jumbo McGinnis has posted a 2-6 win-loss record since being moved back into the rotation following the season-ended injury to Handsome Henry Boyle.

Indeed, injuries have been a problem for the team so far with free-agent acquisition Tom Mahler going down in Spring Training and still at least two months away from joining the club. As luck would have it, they haven't been alone in the division however as they've been able to keep pace with a Philadelphia club that has lost outfielders George Gore and Red Dana for the year, the former one of their core batters and the latter owner of a .346 batting average before fracturing his ankle. There is also some good news on the injury front - former 5th overall draft pick Dupee Shaw, who blew out his elbow after starting his rookie season with a tantalizing 4-0 mark in seven starts, has finally been cleared by team doctors to rejoin the team. The Grays are still a betting man's underdog to remain in first place (they are currently tied with the Red Stockings) down the stretch, but underdogs seem to be the new style around the Association as the New York Gothams broke Boston's long streak of divisional dominance last season and the usually pitiful Albany Great Danes are currently leading the New York Central.

[Smiley McGee]

Express - homeruns = FAIL

[umwol13]

1884- 88-66 (divisional runner-up)

That cracks me up! Love that sense of humor.

[bulldog55]

All-Stars Game is coming-out party for Western Association players
Youngsters trounced by Eastern stars

7/7/1885

The fifteenth annual All-Stars Game took place today at Bisons Ball-Park in Buffalo, and it was a novel experience for much of the Western Association's squad. Of their entire in-field, only Roger Connor had been elected to an All-Stars Team before this season. New to the game were catcher Nat Lasher and first-baseman Luis Zamara of Twin Cities, second-baseman Jack Command of Virginia City, and short-stop Fred Tomko from Ogden. Out-fielder Tommy Tiner, also of the Virginia ball club, likewise made his first appearance. Additionally, the whole of their reserve in-field were debut nominees: catcher Mike Byington of the Chicago Sables, first-baseman Bob Waddy from Virginia City, Fred Olson of Ogden, and Toronto's George Nelson.

The situation was not so in the Eastern Association, whose team was populated by many familiar faces like home-run king Dan Brouthers, the TCBA's uncontested top short-stop King Barnes, all-time hits leader Tommy Sisco, catching wiz Buck Ewing, and old states-man Ross Barnes. In spite of being the junior circuit, the East lays claim to most of the league's best-known stars. Until former commissioner Stanford's Oakland club finally put an end to it, the East had also won four consecutive Trans-Continental Series, but even the Mustangs have lost some of their buck and may well be nearing the end of their dominance.

It came as no surprise, then, when the East beat their elder - and not just beat them, but shut them out, holding them to a meager six singles and three walks. The victors made good on the West's inexperience, capitalizing on three errors including two by Lasher, whose .291 batting average and 50 runs batted-in have overshadowed his notoriously woeful fielding. Of the four runs they scored, only one was earned. To their credit, they also collected ten hits including a second-inning, two-out triple by John Longwell with a runner on, and stole three bases in as many attempts on Lasher's inexperienced arm; even Dan Brouthers swiped a bag, something he has never accomplished in his professional career.


Though they are young and played like it today, make no mistake: many of these players are going to be part of a new breed of young sluggers that will take the place of the aging greats. As they grow more used to the big stage, they will come through under its pressures, and this game doubtlessly represented a major step forward for all of them. And though you may have never seen or heard their names before this highly publicized affair, you will no doubt grow familiar with them in the coming years. The future looks bright for the Western Association.

[bulldog55]

Kelly and Barnes become Kings of TCBA
Exorbitant salaries set new standards to much objection
Boston, New Orleans spend big in hopes of regaining lost glory

4/1/1886

Seven years ago Dan Brouthers plunged the Trans-Continental Base Ball Association into controversy when he signed a three-year contract worth $42,800 which was not only the most lucrative deal ever given to an amateur but the highest annual salary of any player in the league's history. Cap Anson, then 27 years old and at the peak of his reputation, signed a contract of his own that season which paid him five hundred dollars per year less than the previously unknown rookie.

This winter a pair of Kings, catcher Kelly and short-stop Barnes, made pacts with new clubs that so thoroughly dwarf all others that one questions if they are even playing the same game. Barnes first made waves by agreeing to terms with the Boston Express, the same club that signed Brouthers to his controversial contract. He is near-universally regarded as the all-time greatest performer at his position, having been named as an All-Star in seven of his eight seasons and earning five Defenseman of the Year awards; however, he missed the final two months of last season due to torn ankle ligaments and questions abound as to the injury's effect on his trademark speed and fielding range.

The Boston club has always been the leader in setting new benchmarks for player pay-roll, but if Brouthers' salary was unheard of, Barnes' is unfathomable. At over forty-five thousand dollars per season, he will make nearly four times that of his team-mate, whom is three years Barnes' junior and an unquestionably superior batsman. It is some one hundred times as large as the average working man's salary.


Not to be outdone, the New Orleans Pelicans shocked the world by signing Kelly one month later for nearly fifty per-cent more than Barnes. He will make over sixty thousand dollars annually for the next four seasons, plus an additional four thousand for each season he is named Batsman of the Year, an award he has never won but which he came close to taking in 1884 after batting .309 with twenty home-runs. Along with being a former Defenseman of the Year at catcher, the twenty-eight-year-old is also adept in the out-field. Like Barnes, however, Kelly missed significant time due to injury last season, playing in just sixty-four games, and one must wonder to what extent eight years of playing behind the plate has taken its toll on his body.

To put the contracts into greater perspective, Kelly will be earning more than the entire rosters of all but seven clubs. Three will pay the entirety of their players less than Barnes will earn. Can any individual player be worth such sums? It depends whether these acquisitions turn into results on the field. Both clubs have enjoyed past success but have fallen off in recent years. After five successive New York Central League titles and the 1882 Trans-Continental Series championship, Boston has finished as their league's runners-up in consecutive seasons, falling a single victory behind Albany last year. New Orleans is four years removed from their only league crown in team history and in the past two seasons placed one and then five games off of the league lead. Financial filings show both clubs turned sizeable profits as their performances dwindled. These signings represent a very real effort to turn those gate receipts into victories for their loyal fanatics.

But is such an explosion in salaries good for the league as a whole? As two of the largest cities in the Union, the disparity between the haves and have-nots is growing. Many teams could not afford to pay Kelly's salary by itself, let alone field a competitive roster around him. Perhaps the two clubs are flirting with financial ruin, but more likely they are simply unleashing the financial clout their geography allows. Though New Orleans is technically a Western Association club, they are mostly there by virtue of having originally been stationed in Kansas City; few would call New Orleans a truly western city. Do not think for a moment that the western teams are not wary of being spent into oblivion by their eastern superiors. Some suspect that as the Southern Pacific League gains prominence, many of the original advocates for a strong Western Association are now devoting their attention to the fledgling league and leaving the old TCBA to be devoured by the Eastern Association. Leland Stanford resigned his long tenure as owner of the Oakland Mustangs after his successful election as United States Senator for the state of California, and new owner Henry Huntington quickly located them to the boom-town of Los Angeles along the new Southern Pacific line. Though Stanford remains as league commissioner, his allegiance and devotion are highly in doubt.


It would be folly to judge the merits of these signings before the outcomes can be seen, just as Brouthers' detractors were ultimately silenced, but the concerns over the implications and wisdom of such are very real.

[ChipperJones10]

Dear headline writer: New Orleans is very surprised to learn of their "lost glory", would like to know more.

[Shipbuilder]

The Detroit Shipbuilders are giddy with breathing the rarified air above .500, after a 10-game winning streak left them at 19-17, "only" 7.5 games behind Philadelphia, in third place.
There, now I've jinxed myself.
Giddy, I say, gentlemen, as giddy as the day I had a ride in a steam-powered horseless carriage in which we exceeded 12 mph for the better part of five furlongs (it's true, I tell you. The engine was powered by burning kerosene-impregnated coal to heat a boiler. Impeller pumps pushed by the steam then attached to an ingenious crown-and-pinion system which powered the wheels! But enough about hobbies that will never be practical and back to baseball). Maybe now we'll attract enough fans to break even!

[bulldog55]

a steam-powered horseless carriage in which we exceeded 12 mph for the better part of five furlongs (it's true, I tell you. The engine was powered by burning kerosene-impregnated coal to heat a boiler. Impeller pumps pushed by the steam then attached to an ingenious crown-and-pinion system which powered the wheels!

No such contraption exists! He's a witch!!

[bulldog55]

Won't some-body take Frank Ott?

6/21/1886

Frank Ott is indisputably the greatest pitcher in the history of the Trans-Continental Base Ball Association, yet today he sits toiling in the minor leagues, 39 years old, stuck on 422 victories, and convinced he can still compete.


Frank Ott

The reason for his fate? One hundred and fifty-five innings of the worst base ball he has ever pitched. Last season he lost fifteen games against just five successes, while allowing an earned-run average of 3.82, the highest such mark of his career. Yet scouts and players around the league agree that not much has changed for the pitcher who has won more contests by a sizeable margin than any other in history. He does not locate the ball like he once did, though his control is not abhorrent; in 1883 he issued one hundred and forty-six bases on balls, having never topped fifty-two in his career (which he did all the way back in his debut season of 1871). Still, he won thirty games with a 2.01 ERA and the following year was named to the All-Stars Team and finished with 35 victories and a 1.80 ERA.

He started the 1885 season out poorly and was demoted to the Hartford Whalers of the triple-A New York, New Haven and Hartford League where he dazzled with a 1.38 ERA over one hundred and eighty-eight innings, but not even that was enough to earn his return trip to Baltimore. He was sent to another triple-A club this season, the Savannah Yamacraws of the Richmond and Danville League, where his success has continued, a 1.89 ERA in two hundred and four innings.

And though the Lords of Baltimore are far out of contention, losing more than half of their contests and trailing the mighty Philadelphia club by 14.5 games, they cannot allow their legend the dignity of retiring on his own terms. To be fair, they feature a dynamite rotation led by three pitchers aged twenty-seven and younger, and as the Lords seek to regain the remnants of what was once the most dominant franchise in the Association, they must look forward rather than back. History, however, will forever look upon the great Ott and wonder how much more could have been.

Surely there must a club in need of a great starting pitcher who will draw crowds, guide their young players, and topple unheard-of milestones in the confines of their ball-field. Surely Baltimore will accomodate an easy trade in the best interest of a player so responsible for their greatness. Won't some-body take Frank Ott?