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THE 1867 CUP FIELD IS SET
FIELD IS A REPEAT OF LAST YEAR; KNICKERBOCKER IS THE ONLY 50-WIN TEAM

NORTHEAST U.S.A. (Aug. 6, 1866) – It took extra games, but the NBBO season is over and the six-team field for the Tucker-Wheaton Cup is set in place. Even though the top teams were not as dominant as they were last season – there is only one 50-win team this year instead of three – the cup field is an exact repeat of last season, the first such occurrence.

BROOKLYN – Excelsior was one game ahead of the much-improved Kings County at the halfway mark, and that was how things stayed until the end. With their lead at one game going into the final day of play, Excelsior responded to K.C.’s 11-9 win at Bedford with an 11-6 win at Nassau County to clinch their fourth Brooklyn pennant in five years.

NEW YORK CITY – Knickerbocker was the NBBO’s only 50-win team – 28-7 in the first half and 26-9 in the second half for a 54-16 record. They were clear in first place by eight games at the halfway mark, and at season’s end they had won the New York City Championship by a record seventeen games with a record-setting Run Differential of +259.

UPSTATE NY – Syracuse was always just far enough in front of their upstate rivals to be comfortable. They were five games clear after Week Seven on June 17th, five games clear on July 17th, and seven games clear going into the final week of play. They ended up winning Upstate by four games due to some struggles during their final series.

COASTAL – It was clear from early in the season that Coastal would be a two-horse race between Shamrock & American, but American simply could not keep pace with the defending champions. American was behind by just one game at the midseason point but the deficit was six games one month later, and that six-game gap was the final margin.

INLAND – Inland was the tightest regional competition in NBBO history. Alleghany, Lake Erie, Pioneer, & Susquehanna were separated by all of one game going into the final week. Only Lake Erie was knocked out of contention over the last five games, with a three-way playoff deciding the champion. After Pioneer won at Susquehanna in the first game of the playoff, a walk-off single by light-hitting Ed Brown against Pioneer sent Alleghany to the cup for the third year in a row.

NEW ENGLAND – Once again, St. John’s and their machine-like offense (9.7 R/G) was too much for everyone else, most notably Sons of the Ocean. The gap between St. John’s and S.o.t.O. was four games at the midway point of the season, and it had grown to eight games one month later before St. John’s coasted to another New England title by five.

This is the first time that the roster of teams taking part in the postseason is an exact repeat of the previous year. However, only Knickerbocker comes into the Tucker-Wheaton Cup with a better record than they had last year. The other five teams won anywhere from four to nine fewer games than they did in 1866.

THE 1867 TUCKER-WHEATON CUP

FORMAT: Each team plays all others twice, once home and once away, for a total of ten games. The team with the best record wins the cup. A one-game playoff will be held at Washington Park in Brooklyn if there is a tie for 1st place. Head-to-Head record and Run Differential will be used as tiebreakers to determine other positions in the case of identical record.

TEAMS: The six entrants to the Tucker-Wheaton Cup, sorted by record & run differential.

• Knickerbocker (NYC) – 54-16 (+259 RD)
• Shamrock (Coastal) – 49-21 (+210 RD)
• St. John’s (N. England) – 48-22 (+197 RD)
• Excelsior (Brooklyn) – 42-28 (+99 RD)
• Syracuse (Upstate) – 42-28 (+47 RD)
• Alleghany (Inland) – 41-30 (+110 RD)

SCHEDULE: The tournament is twelve days in length, teams receiving Monday & Tuesday off as they do during the season.

• Aug. 7: Syracuse at Excelsior, Alleghany at Shamrock, Knickerbocker at St. John’s
• Aug. 8: Alleghany at Syracuse, St. John’s at Excelsior, Knickerbocker at Shamrock
• Aug. 9: Excelsior at Syracuse, Shamrock at Alleghany, St. John’s at Knickerbocker
• Aug. 10: Syracuse at St. John’s, Knickerbocker at Alleghany, Excelsior at Shamrock
• Aug. 11: Shamrock at Syracuse, St. John’s at Alleghany, Knickerbocker at Excelsior
• Aug. 12: DAY OFF
• Aug. 13: DAY OFF
• Aug. 14: Syracuse at Shamrock, Alleghany at St. John’s, Excelsior at Knickerbocker
• Aug. 15: Syracuse at Knickerbocker, Shamrock at St. John’s, Excelsior at Alleghany
• Aug. 16: Syracuse at Alleghany, Excelsior at St. John’s, Shamrock at Knickerbocker
• Aug. 17: St. John’s at Syracuse, Alleghany at Knickerbocker, Shamrock at Excelsior
• Aug. 18: Knickerbocker at Syracuse, Alleghany at Excelsior, St. John’s at Shamrock

The Writers Pool has been asked their collective opinion of what they expect from this year’s cup competition, and they have the teams in the following order:

• #1: Knickerbocker (54-16, 26-9 2nd half, 8-2 last 10, 1 cup win, #1 in NBBO history with +259 RD)
• #2: Shamrock (49-21, 25-10 2nd half, 7-3 last 10, 2 cup wins, #2 in NBBO history with 4.6 RA/G)
• #3: St. John’s (48-22, 23-12 2nd half, 6-4 last 10, 4 cup wins, #1 in NBBO history with 9.7 R/G)
• #4: Excelsior (42-28, 18-17 2nd half, 4-6 last 10, 23-12 away from home in 1867)
• #5: Alleghany (41-30, 19-17 2nd half, 5-5 last 10, needed extra games to make postseason)
• #6: Syracuse (42-28, 19-16 2nd half, 6-4 last 10, lost last 3 games, Pyth. W-L was 38-32)