Spalding's Baseball Guide And Official League Book For 1889 Part 4

Of those who played in one hundred games and over in the League campaign, the following are the first seven in fielding averages:

FIELDERS. POSITION. CLUB. Games. Fielding Per cent.

Average. of Base Hits.

----------+--------------+---------+------+--------+---------- Anson First Baseman Chicago 134 .985 .343 Richardson Second Baseman New York 135 .942 .226 Nash Third Baseman Boston. 104 .913 .283 Gla.s.sc.o.c.k Short Stop Ind'polis 109 .900 .269 Hornung Left Fielder Boston 107 .947 .239 Slattery Center Fielder New York 103 .917 .245 Tiernan Right Fielder New York 113 .959 .293

Of the pitchers who took part in 50 games and over, the following led in fielding averages:

No pitcher or catcher played in 100 games.

PITCHERS. CLUB. Games. Fielding Per cent.

Average. of Base Hits.

---------+---------+------+--------+---------- Keefe New York 51 .785 .127 Galvin Pittsburg 50 .758 .143 Morris Pittsburg 54 .732 .102 Clarkson Boston 54 .678 .195

Of the catchers who took part in 60 games and over, the following led in fielding averages:

CATCHERS. CLUB. Games. Fielding Per cent.

Average. of Base Hits.

---------+------------+------+--------+---------- Bennett Detroit 72 .941 .263 Daly Chicago 62 .880 .191 Clements Philadelphia 84 .874 .247 Ewing New York 78 .861 .306 Mack Was.h.i.+ngton 79 .843 .186 Miller Pittsburg 68 .805 .277 Kelly Boston 74 .796 .318

THE BASE RUNNING RECORD.

Those of the League champions.h.i.+p players who are credited with not less than 50 stolen bases in the pennant race, are as follows:

BASERUNNERS. CLUB. Games. Stolen Bases.

------------+------------+------+----------- Hoy Was.h.i.+ngton 136 82 Seery Indianapolis 133 80 Sunday Pittsburg 119 71 Pfeffer Chicago 136 64 Ryan Chicago 130 60 Fogarty Philadelphia 120 58 Kelly Boston 105 56 Ewing New York 103 53 Tiernan New York 113 52

The above are the leaders in seven of the eight League clubs. Hanlon led in the Detroit team, but he only scored 38 stolen bases in 108 games. The Detroit team was singularly weak in this respect.

Mr. R.M. Larner of Was.h.i.+ngton has made up an interesting table from the figures of the League averages, which presents some very interesting statistics of the base running in the League during the champions.h.i.+p season of 1888. Mr. Larner says:

"The official averages of League players contain the number of bases stolen by each player during the season, but furnish no means of comparison between the clubs in that most important department of the game. A glance, however, shows that the three tail-end clubs possess the three most successful base-runners in the League, in Hoy of the Was.h.i.+ngtons, Seery of Indianapolis, and Sunday of Pittsburgh, the latter of whom would probably have finished first had an accident not prevented him from playing during the last two weeks of the season."

The following table includes in its first column all those methods of reaching first base, except the force-outs, which cannot be ascertained, and would not materially affect the record, in this comparison.

Indianapolis and Was.h.i.+ngton still lead, Pittsburgh comes well to the front, pus.h.i.+ng the next three clubs down a peg each, and the Phillies and Detroits keep their places at the foot:

CLUBS. Reached 1st Base. Stolen Bases. Percentages.

------------+-----------------+-------------+----------- Indianapolis 1,589 350 .220 Was.h.i.+ngton 1,515 331 .218 Pittsburg 1,474 282 .191 New York 1,772 315 .178 Boston 1,719 292 .170 Chicago 1,720 285 .166 Philadelphia 1,569 246 .157 Detroit 1,843 193 .105

Mr. Larner says. "The simple total of bases stolen is misleading as to a club's proficiency in base running, since the strong batting clubs having more men who reach first base have more chances to steal, and hence excel in totals, while in percentages they fall below clubs which are weaker in batting. The true measure is the relation between the number of bases stolen and the number of chances offered for the attempt, which is the whole number of those who reach first base, whether on hits, b.a.l.l.s, errors, hits by pitcher, illegal delivery, or force-outs."

THE CLUB RECORD OF STOLEN BASES.

The record in stolen bases in champions.h.i.+p games, showing the first man of each club in base stealing for 1888 is appended.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON. PITTSBURG.

Stolen Stolen PLAYERS. Games. Bases. PLAYERS. Games. Bases.

-+--------+------+------++-+--------+------+------- 1 Hoy 136 82 1 Sunday 119 71 2 Wilmot 119 46 2 Smith 130 32 3 Donnelly 117 44 3 Dunlap 81 24 4 Daily 110 44 4 Mider 103 27 5 Mack 85 31 5 Beckley 71 20 6 Schock 90 23 6 Carroll 96 18 7 Myers 132 20 7 Kuehne 137 17 8 Irwin 37 15 8 Coleman 115 15 9 O'Brien 133 10 9 Fields 44 9 -+--------+------+------++-+--------+------+------- Total 315 Total 228

NEW YORK. PHILADELPHIA.

Stolen Stolen PLAYERS. Games. Bases. PLAYERS. Games. Bases.

-+----------+------+------++-+-------=-+------+------- 1 Ewing 105 53 1 Fogart 120 58 2 Tiernan 113 52 2 Delahanty 74 38 3 Ward 122 38 3 Andrews 123 35 4 Richardson 135 35 4 Farrar 130 21 5 Connor 134 27 5 Wood 105 20 6 Slattery 103 26 6 Irwin 124 19 7 O'Rourke 107 25 7 Mulvey 99 18 8 Gore 64 9 8 Sanders 57 13 9 Whitney 90 8 9 Bastian 80 12 -+----------+------+------++-+---------+------+------- Total 280 Total 234

Taking the total bases stolen by each club nine as the criterion, Indianapolis takes the lead, with Was.h.i.+ngton second and New York third, followed by Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Detroit in regular order, the latter club being the weakest of the eight League teams in base running. Here is the record in full:

INDIANAPOLIS. BOSTON.

Stolen Stolen PLAYERS. Games. Bases. PLAYERS. Games. Bases.

-+----------+------+------++-+---------+------+------- 1 Seery 133 80 1 Kelly 105 56 2 McGeachy 118 49 2 Brown 107 46 3 Gla.s.sc.o.c.k 112 48 3 Johnston 135 35 4 Denny 126 32 4 Wise 104 33 5 Hines 132 31 5 Hornung 107 29 6 Myers 66 28 6 Morrill 134 21 7 Bossett 128 24 7 Nash 135 20 8 Daily 57 15 8 Quinn 38 12 9 Esterbrook 64 11 9 Sutton 28 10 -+----------+------+------++-+---------+------+------- Total 318 Total 263

CHICAGO. DETROIT.

Stolen Stolen PLAYERS. Games. Bases. PLAYERS. Games. Bases.

-+-----------+------+------++-+----------+------+------- 1 Pfeffer 136 64 1 Hanlon 108 38 2 Ryan 130 60 2 Brouthers 129 34 3 Burns 134 34 3 Campau 70 27 4 Anson 134 28 4 Twitch.e.l.l 130 14 5 Williamson 132 25 5 Richardson 57 13 6 Van Haltren 81 21 6 White 125 12 7 Duffy 71 13 7 Ganzell 93 12 8 Daly 65 10 8 Rowe 105 10 9 Sullivan 75 9 9 Getzein 45 6 -+-----------+------+------++-+----------+------+------- Total 264 Total 166

The following table is for immediate reference. It shows the winning club for each season from 1871 to 1888 inclusive; as also the manager of each of the champion clubs of each year:

Year. WINNING CLUB. MANAGER. Victories. Defeats. Games Played.

-----+-------------+---------+----------+--------+------- 1871 Athletic Hayhurst 22 7 29 1872 Boston H. Wright 39 8 47 1873 Boston H. Wright 43 16 59 1874 Boston H. Wright 52 18 70 1875 Boston H. Wright 71 8 79 1876 Chicago Spalding 52 14 66 1877 Boston H. Wright 31 17 48 1878 Boston H. Wright 41 19 60 1879 Providence G. Wright 55 23 78 1880 Chicago Anson 67 18 84 1881 Chicago Anson 56 28 84 1882 Chicago Anson 55 29 84 1883 Boston H. Wright 63 35 98 1884 Providence Bancroft 84 28 112 1885 Chicago Anson 87 25 112 1886 Chicago Anson 90 34 124 1887 Detroit Watkins 79 45 124 1888 NewYork Mutrie 84 47 131

It will be seen that in the old Professional a.s.sociation the Boston club won the pennant four times, and the Athletics once, while in the League the Chicago Club won it six times, the Boston Club three times, the Providence Club twice, and the Detroit and New York once each. The best percentage of victories was made by the Boston Club in 1875, that being the best on record in professional club history.

THE CHAMPION LEAGUE TEAM OF 1888.

Though the New York Club's team for 1888 included over twenty different players, only seven of them took part in one hundred champions.h.i.+p matches and over, and these were Richardson, 135; Connor, 134; Ward, 122; Tiernan, 113; O'Rourke, 107; Ewing, 103, and Slattery, 103. Whitney took part in 90; Gore in 64; Keefe in 51; Welch in 47; Foster in 37; Murphy in 28; Hatfield in 27; t.i.tcomb in 23; Brown in 17, and Crane in but 11. All the others played in less than ten games. The first nine were Keefe p, Ewing c, Connor 1b, Richardson 2b, Whitney 3b, Ward ss, O'Rourke lf, Slattery cf, and Tiernan, rf, these playing the nine positions respectively. The appended table presents an interesting epitome of the work done on the field by the New York team in the champions.h.i.+p contests of the past season:

NEW YORK. vs.

P I h n i d W l P i a a i a s C d D t n h h e B e t a i T i l o t s p n o c p s r b o g t a h t o u l t a g i o i r i o l o a n t g s n s . . . . . . . .

--------------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---++--- Victories 8 14 12 11 10 14 15 84 Defeats 11 5 8 7 7 5 4 47 Drawn Games 1 1 0 2 2 0 1 7 Series Won 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 5 Series Lost 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Series Unfinished 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 6 Victories by Forfeit 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 "Chicago" Victories 2 1 1 2 4 3 6 19 "Chicago" Defeats 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 3 Single Figure 5 12 10 11 8 11 14 71 Victories Single Figure 11 4 8 5 7 5 4 44 Defeats Double Figure 3 2 2 0 1 3 2 13 Victories Double Figure 0 1 0 2 0 0 1 4 Defeats Extra Inning Games 1 2 3 1 1 0 1 9 Victories at Home 4 8 5 5 6 7 8 43 Defeats at Home 5 1 5 3 4 2 3 23 Victories Abroad 4 6 7 5 4 7 7 40 Defeats Abroad 6 4 3 4 3 3 1 24

THE PITCHING RECORD.

The pitching record of the champion team of 1888 is worthy of note in regard to the figures showing the victories won and defeats sustained by each pitcher in his games with the seven opposing clubs. Here is the record in full, the names being given in the order of percentage of victories. Despite this method of estimating the pitching strength there is no questioning the fact of the superiority of Keefe, Welch and t.i.tcomb according to the record each made against the clubs they were opposed to:

[Ill.u.s.tration: NEW YORK TEAM.

1 t.i.tCOMB 2 KEIFE* 3 WHITNEY 4 * 5 WARD 6 RICHARDSON 7 FOSTER 8 WELCH 9 MUIRIL * 10 CRANE 11 GEORGE 12 EWING 13 CONNOR 14 HATFIELD.

15 GORE 16 O'ROURKE 17 TIERNAN 18 MURPHY 19 BROWN]

[**Proofreaders note: In some cases the caption identifying the players was indecipherable. These are marked with an *]

P I P h n e i d W r l P i a V a i a s c i C d D t n h e c h e B e t a i T n t i l o t s p n o t o c p s r b o g t . r a h t o u l t a i g i o i r i o l o e o a n t g s n s f s . . . . . . . . .

-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----++-----+----- W. L. W. L. W. L. W. L. W. L. W. L. W. L. W. L. -------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+----- Keefe 3 4 5 1 5 4 5 0 3 1 8 2 6 0 35 12 .744 George 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 1 .666 t.i.tcomb 1 1 2 0 1 1 3 3 2 2 1 0 4 1 14 8 .636 Welsh 3 6 5 4 6 3 1 2 4 2 3 1 4 1 26 19 .577 Weidman 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 .500 Crane 1 0 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 2 1 2 5 6 .450 -------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+----- Totals 8 11 14 5 12 8 11 7 9 7 14 5 15 4 83 47 [1]

[Footnote 1: The game forfeited by Pittsburg is, of course, not included.]

In the pitching averages, based on the existing method of estimating earned runs off the pitching, the record stands as follows: