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1895 GIVES US A PAIR OF CLASSIC SEASONS IN THE AMERICAN BASEBALL ASSOCIATION!

Going into 1895, there were a pair of clear favorites in the two member leagues of the American Baseball Association: Pennsylvania in the APBL and Milwaukee in the MWBA. Pennsylvania, the 1894 runners-up, were tipped to end Providence’s three-year run as champions because of the offseason spending spree they underwent that brought in eleven-time MWBA Batsman of the Year Jacob Milburn. Defending MWBA champs Milwaukee went 93-35 in 1894 and were returning the core of their roster after a straightforward 4-2 Lincoln Memorial Cup win over Detroit.

For much of the APBL season, the Pennsylvania Quakers were clearly the league’s best team. They led the Metropolitan Conference basically wire-to-wire with a winning percentage that spent most of the season between .650 and .700 while having the APBL’s best offensive attack. However, it looked like their opponent in the President’s Cup would not actually be the mighty Providence Saints, as the Saints spent much of the Colonial Conference season in a three-way dogfight with Rochester and Boston, with Rochester spending much of ‘95 hanging on to first place. Even though they were in third in late August, the Saints went an extraordinary 17-2 over their final nineteen games to rip a spot in the President’s Cup out of Rochester’s hands by two games once the final day of the season was complete.





And thus, it was time for a Providence-Pennsylvania rematch in the President’s Cup – one that was sure to be an epic encounter. However, Providence had other plans….





The Saints swept the series – outscoring a team that had led the APBL in Runs (764), Run Differential (+237), Batting Average (.298), On-Base % (.380), Slugging % (.397), and thus OPS (.776) – by a total of 21-4.

The four runs allowed over four games was easily the best team-wide pitching performance in the history of the President’s Cup. Charles Wilkerson and Charles Carlyle threw four complete games in the process, and the President’s Cup MVP was given to Wilkerson when it easily could have been split with Carlyle. The two combined to hold the sport’s best active batsman, Jacob Milburn, to 2/15 with just a single RBI over the four games of the PC – a feat that seemed impossible on the face of it. In fact, the only Quaker that hit above .270 in the series was Owen Wilkie.

Even though he wasn't the APBL Batting Champion, Milburn would win the Batsman of the Year Award in his maiden APBL season as he was the best hitter on the APBL’s best team & #1 offense. He was the only APBL player with over 100 RBI, while he finished in the top three in Batting Average, OBP, Slugging Percentage, and OPS as he transitioned to first base. Once he got used to the APBL’s superior pitching he hit .400 over the season’s final two months, which both helped his BotY candidacy AND made his postseason performance even more shocking.

George Patterson of the New York Athletics won his second straight Hurler of the Year Award, and second of his career, at the young age of 39 thanks to a league-leading ERA (1.87) and seven shutouts to go with a 32-11 record for the APBL’s second-best team.

Charley Rankin won his third APBL Most Valuable Player award thanks to eight home runs and 88 RBIs while also playing Golden Glove defense at shortstop for Providence. He finished the year with a league-leading 8.4 WAR for a team that would go on to win their fourth APBL championship in as many years.

Jacob Mixon added to the excitement of the season, putting up a rookie position player record 7.5 WAR for the oh-so-close Rochester squad. Just one year after being signed out of college the 23-year-old right fielder hit well over .300 and stole 96 bases, nearly 25 more than any other player.


Meanwhile…


Over in the MWBA, Milwaukee cruised to the Lincoln Memorial Cup. Their record wasn’t as good as the previous year’s at 84-44, but they took the Eastern League by nineteen games over a group of clubs that ranged from mediocre to terrible. The western half of the MWBA was non-stop suspense, as nearly the entire Western League finished within ten games of first place…




Note: The two halves of the MWBA do play games against each other during the season.

The Western League wasn’t decided until the final two days, with Indy clinching it thanks to a 7-2 home win over Detroit on September 10th that kept them two games ahead of Cincinnati with one game to go.

Since Milwaukee was seven games better than any other MWBA team and effectively coasted into the playoffs over the season’s final month, many figured that the Bavarians had the Lincoln Memorial Cup in the bag. Instead, what unfolded was a seven-game classic…





In the final game in Milwaukee on September 21st, the Bavarians took the LMC 1-0 thanks to a home run in the bottom of the sixth by Thierry Moreau and a complete-game shutout by Thomas Tinsley, who struck out six Indians batters. Hans Ehle didn’t start Game Seven because he had already gone 26 innings over three starts in the series to get the Bavarians to the deciding game, putting up a 1.73 ERA in the process.

Louis Bennett was given the Lincoln Memorial Cup MVP because he went 10/26 at the plate with a double, triple, and home run while playing stellar defense in center field. It made up for his performance during the previous LMC, in which he was Milwaukee’s worst hitter (.111, 5 Ks) during their six-game series win against Detroit.

The suspense would continue after the LMC, as the league needed to decide who would receive the first Batsman of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards after the departure of Jacob Milburn to the APBL. In the end, both decisions were easy, and both went to the same player: Milwaukee second baseman Thierry Moreau. Moreau was 3rd in the MWBA in Average, 1st in OPS, 1st in OPS+, 3rd in RBI, 5th in Hits, 6th in Runs, 3rd in Total Bases, and 1st in Walks while leading the league in both WPA (5.89) and WAR (5.7). To top it off, he did it all while playing for the MWBA’s best team. Matthew Towns of Detroit was the MWBA Batting Champion at .387, but Moreau’s numbers in other offensive categories were superior.

There was no suspense for MWBA Hurler of the Year, as Hans Ehle once again led the MWBA in Wins (31), ERA (2.17), and WAR (13.7) while pitching for the champions.