The NABL: The Other League

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Several big American sports originated shortly after WW2 (NBA and NASCAR for example) and the NABL (later known as USBL for a period of time) was one of them. The idea came from several rich businessmen in the New England area. They had to think about how they could they create a baseball league that rivals the MLB. This was hard, because the MLB was already a well established sport with well established teams and the other league that challenged it (Federal League) collapsed within a few years, but they came up with some ideas. Open up teams in some markets that MLB teams hadn't expanded to. They even put teams in small markets like El Paso. The reason? The population was growing. The NABL was forming and by early 1948 the stadiums were ready and all the teams commenced play.
A chunk of the players from independent leagues and backup players from the MLB joined and were a part of the inaugural draft, and in the coming years players from colleges started showing up in the NABL draft instead of the MLB. Now you may be thinking, "Why would any college player want to play for a not as established league like the NABL?" A ton of them set out to the NABL because of being pioneers in a new sport, not to mention the fact that the NABL was more innovative than the MLB. It was also more welcoming sport with a ton of international players choosing to play in the NABL. The things the NABL tried to do to set it's self apart from the MLB was have more vibrant jerseys, have exciting things such as introducing the home run derby in 1953 (Introduced in the MLB in 1985) and the prospects game to showcase future talents. Double A and Triple A teams were also formed from some teams in the independent leagues. A few years into the future when players were coming out of colleges and started filling up the league with some notable players like Matt Garland, Lex Schuurman, Cody Moring, Josh Jacobs, and Dave White to name a few. The NABL had already lasted longer than the Federal League by 1951. While the MLB tried to run the NABL out of business the NABL held on... by a thread. Some teams had started to go bankrupt by 1950 and it was hard competing with the MLB. Turns out at this point more people were interested in going to MLB baseball games than going to NABL baseball games. The MLB had the most popular players in the country, players like Phil Petrozza, Dennis Samuels, Brian Roitman, and Jose Duran couldn't compete in terms of popularity as the MLB players such as Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Yogi Berra... You get the point. All these players who couldn't get their footing in the MLB weren't as popular as the ones who could. When the league almost went bankrupt in 1950 companies in the cities these teams were in started funding some teams and attendance slightly increased so it guaranteed the life of the league for at least a few more years.
TL;DR Rich People create a baseball league.

Anyway let's jump into the leagues history.

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So as the time of writing this the season is 1954, so there will be in depth season by season reporting from 1954-2024/2025/the far future?


Assuming you read the above post about the backstory and part of the founding of the league you know what happened so I won't go over it again. I will display a list of champions, MVPs, ROTYs, Diamond Glover, etc. and a few things I found interesting and a few storylines and important things that happened in the league. I'll eventually upload the almanac and maybe even the save game. We'll see about the last one.



Here is the list of champions
1948: Portland Stags
1949: El Paso Blackbirds
1950: Chicago Wind Sox
1951: San Francisco Fire
1952: California Grizzlies
1953: San Francisco Fire
List of MVPs
1948: Mike Evjen
1949: Jonathan del Carpio
1950: Phil Petrozza
1951: Jose Duran
1952: Phil Petrozza
1953: Phil Petrozza
As you can see from the list above, Phil Petrozza was the first really great NABL player.
Stars League Rookie of the Year
1949: Zack Hall
1950: Brian Roitman
1951: Tim Lynch
1952: Lex Schuurman
1953: Jeffrey Murphy
Stripes League Rookie of the Year
1949: Joel Wurtz
1950: Kotaro Matsuura
1951: Josh Wright
1952: Clint Gates
1953: Matt Garland
While Matt Garland is very good, the Stars League had better rookies.
You can look at the various Great Glove and Sapphire Stick winners below.

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Great Glove Sapphire Stick 1950-1952

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1953 GG and SS winners

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1954 was when the NABL started to become very popular, all the players started getting baseball cards, not just the all-stars and the stadiums were getting filled up as well. Here's the standings


The Pittsburgh Arsenal had the best record going 87-61 and the SF Fire had the worst record going 53-97, which is quite surprising regarding that they won the championship last year. The Fire has most of its players from last year, but they haven't been performing as well. Phil Petrozza boasts a WAR of 8.5 which is .2 higher than last year.


Matt Yarkosky is the batting champion in the Stripes League, finishing the season with a .355 average. Lex Schuurman was crowned the batting champion in the stars league and had a .356 average. Now let's talk about Lex Schuurman for a little bit. He was born in the Netherlands, went to the University of Virginia, and was the 2nd pick in the 1951 draft. He was picked by the Philadelphia Liberty. 4 days after he got drafted he got suspended a few games for a fight. What a way to start your career... Anyway by 1952 he was the star 1B for the Philadelphia Liberty and in his 1st year his batting average was .346 got 183 hits, 24 home runs and had a WAR of 6.3. He was the ROTY, was an All-Star, and won the Sapphire Stick at 1B. I definitely think that if he stays with the Liberty he is going to be the most celebrated player in Philadelphia. As of 1954 he is 24 years old and has a very bright future with no signs of slowing down. In 1954 he won the Triple Crown, the 3rd player ever to do so. Jonathan del Carpio getting the Triple Crown in 1949 and Jose Duran in 1950. Alright we might talk about Lex Schuurman later but for now, let's talk about other players. Vinny Roldan hit 3 HR's against the Boston Pilgrims on June 6th. The Knights won 12-3 with Roldan responsible for 8 runs. Roy Galligan hit 3 HR's against New Orleans on July 11th. The Kings won 10-6. 2 players hit for the cycle Steve McCauley and Cody Moring. McCauley on September 24th and Moring on September 29th. 3 pitchers pitched a no-hitter. Brian Tock, Vitenka Pariysky, and Jon Matheson. Tock and Pariysky pitched a no-hitter for Philadelphia and Matheson for Pittsburgh. Jon Matheson and David Rogers both collected 20 wins. 7 players had a hitting streak over 20 games, but one player stuck out to me, Kevon James. He had a streak of 35, which is the highest hitting streak so far. The tale of Kevon James is kind of mysterious. He was virtually unknown before the 1954 season but after it, everyone knew who he was. James didn't come from a college or the MLB or any other major league. He was discovered from a scouting discovery in November of 1953 and come opening day he was on the starting lineup of the Omaha Cyclones. By the end of 1954 he led the league in doubles with 42, was 6th in hits with 176, was 2nd with RBIs with 94, and he had the 4th best average with .342. Dave White of the Pittsburgh Arsenal led the league in HR's with 39 and had 119 RBIs. Here is the top 20 players according to OSA:

and here's the top 20 pitchers:

If I were to talk about every shut-out, 4-4 game we'd be here for a while so I'm not going to be talking about stuff like that.
The top picks in the 1954 draft were:
1: Seth Nolan from the University of Montana was drafted by the New York Knights
2: Kevon Curtis from Northern Illinois University was drafted by the Memphis Lions
3: Chris Jenkins from Quinnipiac University was drafted by the Portland Stags
4: John Morrison from California State University, Sacramento was drafted by the Colorado Kings
5: Kymani Coffee from Robert Morris University was drafted by the San Antonio Phantoms
Major Injuries this year were:
Aaron Conner, Torn Rotator Cuff, out for 10 months
Brian Tock,Torn ulnar collateral ligament, out for 14 months
Kelly Baker, Bone Chips, out for 8 months
Jonathan del Carpio, Ruptured achilles tendon, out for 7 months
Joe Geffrard, Ruptured ulnar collateral ligament, out for 12 months
Before we move onto the playoffs we need to talk about the All-Star game.


On July 20th, 1954 the Rising Stars game was played and kicked off the All-Star break. The Stars League Rising Stars won by a convincing 7-1 game at the Polo Grounds (The NY Knights play there). Dave Bridgewater was the POTG. I have no clue why he is still in it. He has been selected for the game every year since 1949, and was selected in the 1st rookie draft. Since 1948 he has been bouncing around Chicago's minor league system. Just give up on Bridgewater guys...




2 days later on July 22nd, 1954 the Stripes blew out the stars 11-4. To start off the game Bill Grimm was the SP for the Stars. Let's just say that his appearance did not go well. His All-Star game ERA was 45.00 (His Regular season ERA was around 3.70). I feel like I couldn't give a summary on how bad he pitched so might as well pull up the game log and read it to you.


Batting: RHB Joe Seigler 0-0: Called Strike
0-1: Swinging Strike
0-2: SINGLE
Batting: RHB Matt Yarkosky 0-0: Ball
1-0: Ball
2-0: Foul Ball
2-1: Ball
3-1: Base on balls
Alright 2 on no outs, we're behind but if Josh Wright grounds into a double play there will be 2 outs runner on 3rd, let's see what happens
Batting: RHB Josh Wright 0-0: Ball
Ok we're off to a not as good start considering that Grimm walked the last guy up, but I still have hope
1-0: 3-RUN HOME RUN 506 FT.
No way. All Grimm had to do was not to give up a home run. That was the worst thing that he could've done in that moment. Score? 3-0 Stripes ahead
Batting: LHB Chris Waldman 0-0: Fly-out
Alright! We're starting to get somewhere. I mean 2 outs to go but hopefully Grimm is done giving up walks and home runs.
Batting: RHB Matt Garland 0-0: Ball
1-0: Ball
I don't blame Grimm for being careful and throwing 2 balls. Matt Garland is one of the best players in the league. If anyone was going to hit a home run, it was going to be him.
2-0: Called Strike
2-1: Ball
3-1: Base on Balls
2nd guy he has walked so far but let's hope he can get the next guy out.
Batting: SHB Sean Hale 0-0: Called Strike
0-1: Foul Ball
Hale is already behind 0-2, if Grimm can throw a strike or if Hale hits the ball weakly we'll have 2 outs. Last year Hale got 150 hits and 7 home runs. He is more of a contact hitter and doesn't usually hit balls into the stands. The odds are in our favor, it's time to redeem yourself Grimm, if you can get through Hale and Moring, another pitcher can take over and we'll hopefully take back the lead.
0-2: 2-RUN HOME RUN 377 FT.
Unbelievable. Stripes lead 5-0 in the 1st inning with only 1 out. I'm done. That's it. They blew the ball game in the 1st inning. I know that coming back from a 5 run deficit isn't impossible, and with the right amount of luck can be done over an inning or 2. Alright maybe I'm not done. Let's see how well the Stars hitters hit.


3 up, 3 down.
Alright. It's not the end of the world. Let's see how they do in the 2nd


3 up, 3 down.
In conclusion the Stripes win the All-Star game 11-4. Unbelievable. They lost in a Stars League ballpark in front of a sell-out crowd of 55,000.
They really made a mockery of the Stars League


If you couldn't tell I'm a Stars League person, not a Stripes League person. The Stars league is my favorite league out of the two. Anyway, I've seen enough let's just move on to the postseason.

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The Memphis Lions won the Globe Cup. It got close but they did it. One interesting thing I would like to point out is Craig Martins of the Washington Potomacs. He pitched 2 shutouts in the playoffs. (well actually 1 since my game crashed and I hadn't saved it yet which erased the 2nd one. This is his rookie year. Within the span of 1 1/2 he went from pitching on the Iowa State Cyclone, to pitching what has to be one of the best rookie runs in the playoffs. Both of the games he pitched were complete shutouts. How he didn't win rookie of the year, I have no clue.
Dan Hill beat him by 1 vote. 1. Dan Hill had a decent year don't get me wrong, but what were they thinking. While WAR wasn't really a thing back in 1954, let's just look at WAR. Dan Hill, 3.6. Craig Martins, 5.2. Dan Hill had a very nice year with 135 hits, 19 HR's, 94 RBI's, SLG% of .499, and an average of .298. Now let's look at Craig Martins stats. 18 wins, 6 losses, ERA of 2.78, 121 Ks, WHIP of 1.16, and a K/9 of 4.3. In my opinion Craig Martins deserved Rookie of the Year, but what do I know?
Bobby Estrada of the Liberty set a Stars League playoffs record of 5 hits in a single game only for that record to be tied 9 days later by fellow teammate, Sean Lyons. Now it's time to look at awards.
STARS LEAGUE:
STRIPES LEAGUE:

The League AVG. for the Stars League was .270
The League AVG. for the Stripes League was .264
The League ERA for the Stars League was 4.22
The League ERA for the Stripes League was 3.91
FREE AGENCIES:
The biggest players to hit free agency were:
Ron Burrows
Sam Paolo
Antonio Lopez
Bryan Bond
Colin McKaskle