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PROVIDENCE LOSES THEIR ACE BUT IT DOESN’T MATTER AS THEY WIN THEIR SIXTH STRAIGHT PRESIDENT’S CUP

The Providence Saints went into the 1896 APBL season being told that…surely…finally…this had to be the year that they would lose their grip on the President’s Cup.

The reason was simple: the second-place finishers in the Colonial Conference in 1896, Buffalo, figured that if they couldn’t beat Providence they’d just sign their talisman, two-time Hurler of the Year winner Charles Wilkerson, to a six-year contract. The move was seen as especially devious because just a couple of weeks earlier the Blues had traded star outfielder Appolonius Wilkins (29 y/o, 43.8 career WAR) to Providence for five prospects in order free up money and turn center field over to emerging star Mogens Markert. They then used the money saved in the trade with Providence to turn around and sign the Saints’ best ever pitcher.

Wilkerson was seen as even more important to the Saints’ fortunes than three-time APBL MVP Charley Rankin as Wilkerson joined Providence from the Philadelphia Quakers in November of 1891, meaning his signing coincided with the team’s five consecutive President’s Cup triumphs. Wilkerson wasn’t just Providence’s ace. Instead, he was the best pitcher in the APBL and viewed as the man whose arrival turned the Saints from a good team into a historically great one. His exit, combined with the expansion of pitching from three-man to four-man rotations left just about everyone figuring that, while still a very good team, the Saints were now beatable.

Wilkerson’s record during five years in Providence:





Honors & achievements include five President’s Cups (1892-96), one President’s Cup MVP (1895), two Hurler of the Year awards (1892-93), four times leading the APBL in pitching WAR, three strikeout championships, three thirty-win seasons, and an average of 31 wins per year.

For a good portion of the season, it looked like Buffalo could indeed prove to be the best team in the “C.C.” as they were in a three-way dogfight with Providence and Rochester after 90 games (PRO: 60-30, BUFF: 57-31, ROCH: 55-35). However, the Saints did what they always do and excelled during the final third of the schedule, going 34-8 over their final 42 games to leave Buffalo and Rochester 10+ games back in the standings when all was said and done.

As it turned out, retooling in the outfield and some excellent fortune in the pitching market led to the Saints winning more than 90 of their 132 games for the fifth time in the last six years (final record: 94-38). To start off the season, second-year Providence manager Malcolm Stocker moved the aforementioned Wilkins from CF to RF, inserted highly rated 23-year-old Frederick Hammond (purchased from Olympic B.B.C.) at CF, and moved RF of two and half years Henry Duncan to first base while keeping Daniel Snell at LF. The result was the best lineup in the APBL (collective Batting WAR of 37.8).

On the pitching side, the front office signed two journeymen to replace Wilkerson and fill out the rotation: Thomas Apple from Jersey City (28 y/o, two years a pro) and Grover Hildebrand from Detroit (32 y/o, pro career of 3 IP). Pitching Coach Albert Tierney worked wonders (NOTE: His "Teach Pitching" attribute is 183/200 and his Reputation is "Legendary") and both were shockingly good – Apple was 24-11 with a 2.47 ERA while Hildebrand was 18-6 with a 2.77 ERA. Hildebrand’s output was especially surprising, as he was never once a regular starter in eight years of semi-pro ball before pitching a handful of innings in the MWBA in 1896.

From there the Saints faced Excelsior in the President’s Cup for the second year in a row, and for the second year in a row they beat the Knights in five games. The series MVP was Brogan Williams, who was simply absurd – 13/22 (1.518 OPS), 5 runs, 3 doubles, 2 triples, 2 RBI, and 5 steals. Once again a mid-September parade and party was planned for Rhode Island’s biggest city, and the Saints had proven once and for all that they were baseball’s greatest dynasty.