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T.W.C. X: DOMINANT FORCES COLLIDE

NORTHEAST U.S.A. (Aug. 8-17, 1866) – After base ball fans & pundits thought the drama of Tucker-Wheaton Cup VIII could not be topped, Tucker-Wheaton Cup IX turned out to collectively be the closest one yet. What would the tenth edition of the cup competition bring?

This much was known: the six cup entrants were a group of dominant, seemingly irresistible forces. Three teams – St. John’s (54-16), Shamrock (53-17), & Excelsior (51-19) – won more than fifty games and finished atop their regional cham-pionships by margins of nine, thirteen, and eleven games respectively. Syracuse (49-21) nearly joined the Fifty Win Club and were easily the best in the usually tricky Upstate Championship. Alleghany was “only” 47-23 and finished five games clear atop the Inland Championship. Defending champions Knickerbocker were actually the ones who entered the cup with the worst record, a 45-25 mark with a Run Differential of +96. They were also the only team to win their region by less than five games.

Last year’s cup competition was heavily slanted toward defense and pitching, with teams averaging 5.9 runs per game com-pared to the N.B.B.O. regular season average of 6.9 R/G, and Knickerbocker won the cup while allowing just 35 runs over their ten games. This year six of the top thirteen offensive attacks in the N.B.B.O. were present, including #1 St. John’s (629 R, 9.0 R/G), even if a couple of the parks were considered pitcher-friendly. The N.B.B.O. Batting Champion, R.B.I. leader, O.P.S. leader, Stolen Base leader, Batter W.P.A. leader, and Batter W.A.R. leader were taking part.

Numerous established star batsmen were on display: Ed Huntley (KNI), Zarek Polakowski (SYR), Anthony Mascherino (SHA), Luther Tatum (SHA), Art Waltrip (ALL), Sam Kessler (ALL), Royal Altman (ALL), Nelson Townsend (STJ), & Konrad Jensen (STJ) were among the shining lights present for T.W.C. X, though they were not all of the stars to play.

That’s not to say the teams were mediocre in other areas of the game. Four of the six teams – Excelsior, Knickerbocker, Shamrock, & St. John’s – entered with a pair of 20-win pitchers. Shamrock had the best fielding defense in the N.B.B.O, while Excelsior & Knickerbocker were in the N.Y.L’s top three. All six teams, as evidenced by their records, were plenty ca-pable in all areas of play: technical, physical, & mental – offense, defense, & pitching.

With such an outstanding roster of contenders, who would be the one to knock out the others the hoist the cup?

1866 TUCKER WHEATON CUP STANDINGS

TEAM			W	L	 R	RA	 RD
SHAMROCK		9	1	83	48	+35
ST. JOHN’S		6	4	76	60	+16
KNICKERBOCKER	        5	5	68	63	 +5
EXCELSIOR		4	6	45	54	 -9
SYRACUSE		3	7	61	74	-13
ALLEGHANY		3	7	59	93	-34
SYR 1-1 vs ALL; superior Run Diff.

M.V.P: SS Anthony Mascherino (SHA) – 15/45 (.333), .834 OPS, 4 2B, 1 3B, 16 R, 14 RBI, 2 BB/0 K, 4 SB
3x P.o.t.G, 142 OPS+, 1.0 WPA, 0.4 WAR in 10 Games

In the end, it was not the #1 team – St. John’s – or the defending champion – Knickerbocker – but instead the team that had the best finish to the season – Shamrock and their 28-7 second half – that won out. In finishing with a 9-1 record Shamrock matched the 1863 St. John’s cup winners that went 9-1, and bettered their Run Differential in the process. This was the most dominant cup run in the Round Robin era, with Shamrock winning their final eight games, a cup record.

The difference between a 9-1 Shamrock cup win and yet another St. John’s triumph was extra innings. Shamrock won twice in ten-inning contests – the difference between 9-1 and 7-3. On the other hand, St. John’s lost twice in ten innings, including once at Shamrock – the difference between 6-4 and 8-2. Such was the tiny difference between a championship and a defeat.

Shamrock won the cup with pitching & defense. While they did score more runs than any other team, that was thanks to their two dozen runs over two games against Alleghany. Shamrock had the best defense in the competition, which allowed them to preserve late leads and win games in extra innings. They were led by cup M.V.P. Anthony Mascherino, but OF Dennis Pruitt (.319) cracked six doubles, 3B Jerrick Stoner (.310) drove in a dozen runs, CF Walter Williams (.306) stole eight bases and scored eleven runs, and their pitching duo of Tom Ricks & Thomas Smith went 8-1 with an E.R.A. under 3.00.

St. Johns’ offense was brilliant as always in cup competition. Collin Henderson (.457) had 21 hits and fourteen R.B.I, Kon-rad Jensen (.412) drove in eleven runs with an on-base over .500, Nelson Townsend (.396) and stole eleven bases, and Wil-liam Johnson (.367) scored fifteen runs. It was St. Johns’ pitching that had issues, and it came from an unlikely source: #1 pitcher William Tighe, who was 2-3 with an E.R.A. over 4.00. John Christian also took a loss by allowing a ninth-inning ral-ly.

Knickerbocker started brilliantly. They were the only team to win their first two games, and outscored opponents 26-10 over the two. However, their form fizzled, Knickerbocker lost their next games, and their hopes to repeat as cup champs were dashed. John McGowan was “only” 3-2, but he had a 2.23 E.R.A. over 44.1 innings. Their best batsman was likely N.Y.L. Batsman of the Year Ed Huntley (.341), who scored & drove in eleven runs each while stealing eight bases.

Excelsior’s cup run was simple: they won when Jim Creighton played (4-1) and lost when he did not (0-5). Creighton was in-credible – more on him later – but the main issue for Excelsior was that the bats of their stars absolutely deserted them. All-Star C Sam Blade hit .194 (6/31), All-Star 2B Ben Lovette hit .265 (9/34), and All-Star CF Archie Mask hit .150 (6/40). The result was an offense that scored fourteen fewer runs than any other team in the competition.

Syracuse was projected last by the Writers Pool due to their significant number of close games during the season, so fifth was an okay finish for them. The team looked great in the middle of the competition, winning games 4-6, a stretch including a 14-9 win over defending champs Knickerbocker and a 7-6 win over St. John’s. Outside of that: seven losses, although they were very competitive outside of the Gameday One loss to Excelsior. Henry Neal (.341, 9 RBI, 1.1 WPA) was their #1 play-er.

Alleghany had the talent to contend for the cup, but their pitching let them down terribly. Alleghany’s 93 Runs Allowed were a whopping nineteen more than any other team, with two-time All-Star Fred Richards going 0-5 with a 6.19 E.R.A. over 32 innings (40 RA, 22 ER). Likely N.E.L. Batsman of the Year Royal Altman (.378, 12 RBI) performed well as did Arthur Waltrip (.383, 13 R, 6 SB), but eight-time All-Star Sam Kessler (.222, 6 RBI) struggled and in the end their disastrous pitching was too much to overcome.

Even though there were other players who put up better numbers, the Writers Pool named Shamrock SS Anthony Mascheri-no the Most Valuable Player of the competition. His fourteen RBI tied for the cup lead, his sixteen runs scored led the com-petition, his 1.0 W.P.A. was among the best, and he was easily the best defensive infielder of the Tucker-Wheaton Cup.

If Excelsior had finished second or even third, then the M.V.P. would have been Jim Creighton. His output during the cup was simply absurd:

• 4-1, 1.84 ERA, 44.0 IP, 4 CG, 4 BB/21 K, .209 O-AVG, 0.91 WHIP, 4.3 K/9, 5.2 K/BB, 195 ERA+, 1.6 R9-WAR
• 8/17 (.471), 1.265 OPS, 3 2B, 1 3B, 4 R, 4 RBI, 1 BB/0 K, .554 wOBA, 224 WRC+, 254 OPS+
• 1.0 WPA, 1.4 WAR combined from batting & pitching

Creighton’s four R.B.I. in five games actually tied for the Excelsior lead, and the team had a -16 Run Differential in the five games in which he did not pitch.

St. John’s had two worthy candidates for Tucker-Wheaton Cup M.V.P. First was 1B Collin Henderson:

• 21/46 (.457), .979 OPS, 2 2B, 1 3B, 15 R, 14 RBI, 2 BB/0 K, 5 SB, 180 OPS+, 1.2 WPA, 0.4 WAR

The other was venerable OF Konrad Jensen:

• 14/34 (.412), 1.257 OPS, 6 2B, 2 3B, 11 R, 11 RBI, 13 BB/0 K, 8 SB, 255 OPS+, 1.3 WPA, 0.8 WAR

Henderson led or tied for the cup lead in average, runs, & R.B.I, while Jensen had the competition’s best O.P.S, Batter W.P.A, and Batter W.A.R. thanks to the ridiculous thirteen bases on balls he took in ten games.