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THE 1860 SEASON ENDS WITH TWO .400 HITTERS!

NORTHEAST U.S.A. (August 6th, 1860) – The final games of the National Base Ball Organization season were played yesterday afternoon, and that meant the final statistics were compiled. With the season now moving on to the playoffs, there were officially two players across the 48-team competition who hit over .400 in 1860: American B.C. first baseman William Rich and Susquehanna B.C. center fielder Willie Davis – the 23-year-olds two of the N.B.B.O.’s brightest young stars.

Rich finishes the year as the N.B.B.O. Batting Champion with an average of .413, which will immediately lead one to wonder why he failed to make the All-Star Game. That is because Rich managed to raise his Batting Average precipitously at the very end of the season, hitting .460 after July 1st (46/100) and an absurd .550 during the final week (11/20) to raise his average by more than twenty points over the last five weeks of play.

Rich’s final 1860 statistics:

• 67 G, .413/.441/.515, .956 OPS, 57 R, 109 H, 17 2B, 2 3B, 2 HR, 44 RBI, 2 SB, 136 TB, 3.1 WPA, 2.9 WAR

Davis was more consistent throughout the season, hitting between .380 and .420 during every month, including the lone week of play in August to end the season. Since Davis, like Rich, plays in the Northeastern League he was not the Batting Champion, but he led the Northeastern League in a number of other categories and is considered the odds-on favorite to win Batsman of the Year, and possibly repeat as Most Valuable Player on top of that.

Davis’ statistics for the 1860 season:

• 70 G, .403/.428/.541, .969 OPS, 85 R, 129 H, 26 2B, 6 3B, 2 HR, 52 RBI, 42 SB, 173 TB, 4.5 WPA, 4.7 WAR

It looked like there would be a third N.E.L. member of the 400 Club, but tragically Scranton catcher Roy Jacobson’s average fell from .405 to .398 over the last two days of the season.

Empire B.B.C.’s Walter Banks was the N.Y.L. Batting Champion with an average of .392.