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THE 1860 CUP PLAYOFFS ARE READY TO GO!
5/6 CHAMPIONSHIPS WON BY WEEK OF GAMES OR FEWER; KINGS CO. ENDED SEASON WITH 16 W’S

NORTHEAST U.S.A. (August 6th, 1860) – Season number four of the National Base Ball Organization concluded yesterday afternoon, and that means the six-team playoff field is official. For the first time none of the six city & regional championships were decided on the final day, but most were still close, with five of the six winners taking the pennant by a week’s worth of games – five – or fewer. The exception was in the Brooklyn Championship, where Kings County finished first by nine games thanks to their extraordinary winning streak to end the season.

BROOKLYN – A little over three weeks ago Atlantic & Kings County were tied for first place. Then K.C. peeled off SIXTEEN straight wins to blow Atlantic away and take the pennant by nine games.

NEW YORK CITY – Mutual B.B.C. enters the playoffs for the first time after managing to keep Gotham, Knickerbocker, & Orange at arm’s length over the last month of the season to take first place with a five-game margin.

UPSTATE – Naturally, four teams in Upstate were within three games of each other going into the final week – Flour City, Utica (1 GB), Niagara (2 GB), & Victory (3 GB). Flour City fattened up on last-place Binghamton to win Upstate by two.

COASTAL – Newark was tied for first with Shamrock three weeks ago but their form fell, and that opened the door for Shamrock to take another Coastal pennant while holding off Massachusetts Bay (2 GB) & American (3 GB).

INLAND – Scranton improved from 29-41 to 45-25 to win their first Inland pennant after finishing one game back in 1857. They were 3-5 games clear in first for the last month, and in the end won the Inland Championship by four over Pioneer & Susquehanna.

NEW ENGLAND – St. John’s won New England again, but it was not easy this time. They won seventy percent of their games (49-21) but had to spend nearly the entire season trying to keep Green Mountain (3 GB) from catching them.

Here is what the 1860 playoffs, which begin tomorrow, will look like:

NEW YORK LEAGUE

Semi-Final: #3 Mutual Base Ball Club (N.Y.C: 44-26, +62 R.D.) vs. #2 Flour City Base Ball Club (Upstate: 44-26, +89 R.D.)
Championship: Mutual or Flour City vs #1 Kings County Base Ball Club (Brooklyn: 54-16)

NEW ENGLAND

Semi-Final: #3 Shamrock Baseball Club (Coastal: 42-28) vs. #2 Scranton Baseball Club (Inland: 45-25)
Championship: Shamrock or Scranton vs #1 St. John’s Baseball Club (New England: 49-21)

TUCKER-WHEATON CUP

New York League Champions vs Northeastern League Champions

Orange Base Ball Club were last year’s champions, so that means the cup will be changing hands. Based on how each of the six teams ended their respective seasons, one simply must pencil in Kings County as the favorites to take the cup home this year. Of the six Flour City had the second-bast form over the final two weeks with seven wins & three losses, and then above them is K.C. and their sixteen straight victories going into the playoffs.

Then again, last year everyone had it figured that the multiple-record-setting St. John’s team would win the cup for the third year in a row, and they exited the playoffs after an epic series in the Northeastern League finals. Perhaps the playoffs will bring similar drama again this year.