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THE 1860 TUCKER-WHEATON CUP
THE REGULAR SEASON #1 IN EACH LEAGUE BATTLES TO LIFT THE TROPHY

BROOKLYN & PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Late August 1860) – For the second time in three years, the team with the best record in the New York League met the team with the best record in the Northeastern League in the Tucker-Wheaton Cup series. Once again, it was as if the regular season predicted the outcome of the league playoffs.

Kings County B.B.C.’s presence in the T.W.C. final was redress for last year, in which they crashed out of the playoffs by losing the N.Y.L. Championship Series as the #1 seed. In this year’s N.Y.L.C.S. they played New York City champions Mutual B.B.C., and by played, what is really meant is “destroyed”. K.C. won the series in a sweep, winning the three games by scores of 19-4, 9-5, & 22-4 for an aggregate score of 50-13 – an absolute battering never-before seen in the playoffs. K.C. was 54-16 and ended the season with sixteen consecutive wins, but nobody was expecting that kind of brute-force dominance in a playoff series.

St. John’s B.C. made the T.W.C. series for the third time in its four editions, but their path was a little bit tougher. As the Northeastern League’s #1 seed, they had to wait for #2 seed Scranton to finish their sweep of Shamrock B.C. to take part in their first playoff game. St. John’s started the N.E.L. Championship Series with two shocking home losses, losing Game Two by allowing a pair of runs in the ninth to turn a 5-4 lead into a 6-5 loss. With a mountain to climb, they won a twelve-inning Game Three in Scranton before dominating Game Four to force a series-decider back at home. Game Five was a breeze, with St. John’s winning by ten runs to take what they felt was their rightful place in the Tucker-Wheaton Cup finals.

The N.E.L. had the home field advantage for the Tucker-Wheaton Cup but many saw Kings County as clear favorites, not just due to their humiliation of 44-26 Mutual but also because the sweep had taken their winning streak to nineteen games. Still, St. John’s already had two years of championship experience to their names, and that made them the ideal team to take down the hottest squad in N.B.B.O. history. Could they do it?

1860 TUCKER WHEATON CUP: Kings County (N.Y.L.) defeats St. John’s (N.E.L.) 3-1

• Game 1: K.C. 2-3 STJ P.o.t.G.: J. McGowan (P, STJ) – CG, 4 H, 2 R/1 ER, 1 K, 104 PIT
• Game 2: K.C. 3-1 STJ P.o.t.G.: A. Nelson (P, K.C.) – CG, 4 H, 1 R/0 ER, 3 K, 146 PIT
• Game 3: STJ 6-9 K.C. P.o.t.G.: J. Peterson (3B, K.C.) – 3/4, 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI
• Game 4: STJ 7-8 K.C. P.o.t.G.: K. Jensen (RF, STJ) – 4/5, 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 SB
• M.V.P.: Jerald Peterson (3B, K.C.) – 8/15 (.533), 2 2B, 2 R, 4 RBI, 2 BB
• NOTABLE: K.C. scored four times in the 9th inning of Game Four to win the series

Kings County simply proved to be too powerful. After finally losing in Game One, they won the next three games to lift the Tucker-Wheaton Cup for the first time, and in the process ran their record over the last four weeks of the season and their pair of playoff series to an unimaginable 24-3.

GAME ONE at Olneyville Field in Providence was a defensive duel. Both teams scored once in the first inning, and aside from a Kings County tally in the fourth that was it for runs until the final inning. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, William Johnson doubled in Marvin Reagan to level the score at 2-2. The next batter, Anderson MacGyver, then singled in Johnson to win the game for the hosts and bring K.C.’s weeks-long streak of victories to a halt.

GAME TWO was another tight, defensive affair that started with both sides scoring one run in the first. After that, single runs by Kings County in both the fifth & sixth innings were enough to win, thanks to fine pitching by Aldous Nelson and excellent work by the K.C. defense. St. John’s were held to four hits in the game, and brilliant baserunner Johnson was caught out attempting to steal second base in the bottom of the fifth.

GAME THREE was under the control of Kings County the entire way. K.C. scored three times in the first inning, and they were ahead 6-0 after three. St. John’s responded with three runs of their own in the fourth, but K.C. were up 9-3 by the end of the sixth. St. John’s put up a rally in the ninth, but the six-run deficit was too much to overcome and they lost by three. This game was far sloppier than the first two – both teams committed six errors, multiple Passed Balls, Wild Pitches, and had baserunners thrown out attempting to steal.

GAME FOUR was the best of the series. St. John’s were the better side over the first half of the contest, up 2-0 after five innings thanks to a pair of RBI singles by Konrad Jensen. They went up 3-0 in the sixth, but Kings County countered with a run on a Fielder’s Choice. St. John’s then plated two in the seventh, but K.C. scored three times to make the score 5-4 going into the final two innings. After a scoreless eighth, St. John’s scored twice in the ninth to go ahead 7-4 and make it look like they were headed home for Game Five. However, K.C. had other ideas. With one out in the ninth K.C. scored on a Fielder’s Choice, then scored a second run via error, and then a third run via single by Per-Olaf Bakken to tie the score. Joseph Griffin was brought in to face Jackson Buss, but Buss singled on the first pitch to drive in George Lawrence, winning the game 8-7 and giving the Tucker-Wheaton Cup to Kinge County.

The MOST VAULABLE PLAYER decision was not the formality that it was last year, as there were several quality performers for K.C.: Aldous Nelson (2-0, 2 CG, 1.50 ERA), John Francis (7/18, 3 2B, 5 R, RBI), and Jerald Peterson (8/15, 2 2B, 2 R, 4 RBI). Peterson carried the vote, making him the M.V.P. of both the New York League Championship Series and the Tucker-Wheaton Cup, the same feat Orange B.B.C.’s Edward Huntley pulled off last year.

Peterson’s batting during the playoffs:

• 7 G: 16/30 (.533), 2 2B, 8 R, 9 RBI, 3 BB, 0.9 WPA (9.0/70 G), 0.6 WAR (6.0/70 G)

It wasn’t the supernatural performance that Huntley displayed for the Orange Club last August, but it was still another case of one of the league’s brightest stars playing his best possible base ball at the most important possible time.

After one year in New York City the Tucker-Wheaton Cup would be residing in Brooklyn, and two observations immediately sprang to mind: one for now, and one for the future. First, it appears that other elite teams have figured out how to rough up St. John’s in a winner-take-all series. Second, just how frightening is Kings County going to be in 1861?