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ALTMAN NEW KING OF SWING AS 1867 SEES HISTORIC PERFORMANCES
ALLEGHANY STAR SETS FIVE RECORDS; NUMEROUS OTHER RECORDS FALL; CREIGHTON WINS BATTING TITLE

NORTHEASTERN U.S.A. (Aug. 7, 1867) – Now that the Inland Championship Playoff has been completed the 1867 National Base Ball Organization season is over, and with the end of the season numerous records have officially fallen.

First up is Alleghany’s superstar corner outfielder Royal Altman, who over his three NBBO seasons has gone from .345 hitter to .400 hitter to record-breaking hitter. Altman set five NBBO records during the 1867 season:

• Batting Average: .445 (previous: Cormack Alexander w/ .430 in 1864)
• Slugging Percentage: .606 (previous: .595 by Royal Altman in 1866)
• On-base + Slugging: 1.079 (previous: 1.038 by Arvi Hamalainen in 1862)
• Hits: 141 (previous: 138 by Cormack Alexander in 1864)
• Win Prob. Added: 6.75 (previous: 6.08 by Walter Dudley in 1864)

Altman was not the only Alleghany batsman to make history. Samuel Kessler set three records of his own in 1867:

• Total Bases: 199 (previous: 185 by Royal Altman in 1866)
• Doubles: 37 (previous: 35 by Jerald Peterson in 1866)
• Extra-base Hits: 51 (previous: 43 by Albert Jones in 1858)

Elsewhere in the Northeastern League, St. John’s center fielder William Johnson, the leadoff hitter in the team’s record-breaking offense, tied former teammate Anderson MacGyver’s record with 106 runs scored while having a career-best season.

One other Northeastern League batsman broke a record, and it was a bit of an oddity due to the Inland Championship playoff. Because Pioneer played two extra games in an effort to make the Tucker-Wheaton Cup, 5x All-Star Declan Brice became the first player in NBBO history to play in 72 games in a season.

Among the pitchers of the NBBO, numerous records were also set. Pioneer’s Thomas Paddock set a new record for games pitched in during a season with 48, Granite’s Howard Riggs set a new record for games started in a season with 44, and Shamrock’s Tom Ricks set a new record for complete games pitched in a season with 33.

There was one other pitcher who set a record during 1867, and of course it was Jim Creighton. His 361.2 innings pitched set a new standard, and that was not the only history he made.

In addition to his usual pitching excellence, Creighton became the first NBBO pitcher to win his league's Batting Title, occasionally starting at first base when he was out of the Pitcher’s Area and batting .416 with a 1.030 OPS over 58 games, both marks leading the New York League. Creighton’s 1867 was the first season in which a player could credibly lay claim to being both the best pitcher and batsman in one league in the same season.

In real life, Jim Creighton was regarded as extremely skilled with the bat in addition to his legendary reputation as a pitcher. From https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/jim-creighton/:

“But the best was to be saved for last. After another championship campaign in 1861, Creighton went through the 1862 season as not only the game’s peerless pitcher but also its top batsman, being retired only four times, either in plate appearances or on the basepaths.”

Given the above, a season where he was the best pitcher and hitter in a league in an OOTP setting is most definitely possible. He apparently first started showing significant ability with both arm and bat when he was just sixteen years old as a cricket player in Brooklyn. That fact that he was already a legend when he died at age 21 is evidence of his talent.

Teams also set records this season. Both Knickerbocker and St. John’s broke the existing record for runs scored in a season, with Knickerbocker scoring 672 runs (9.6 R/G) and St. John’s barely besting them with 676 (9.7 R/G). Knickerbocker’s run-scoring exploits, while not as extraordinary as those of St. John’s, did allow them to break the 1859 St. John’s team’s record for Run Differential in a season with a final RD of +259 (+3.7 R/G), fourteen runs better than the St. John’s team of eight years ago. Alleghany set a new record for extra-base hits in a season with 223 (172 2B, 40 3B, 11 HR), and St. John’s broke its own record for bases on balls taken in a season with 229.

Also, Shamrock nearly broke the 1865 Knickerbocker team’s record for runs allowed in a season, coming three runs short at 320 (4.6 RA/G). They had the NBBO’s #1 defense in all four main factors – Errors, Fielding Percentage, Efficiency, and Zone Rating – for the second season in a row.

It was quite a season when it came to history-making performances in the NBBO. Hopefully the upcoming Tucker-Wheaton Cup will feature more of the same.