[Rocketdawg2016]

1876

THe 1875 off-season saw the adition of four brand new teams into the NOBB, maxing out the total teams at 12 and providing a chance at a more balanced competition. There was a slight hiccup in the road to adding four new teams, though. In October, when the expansion draft happened, the league actually ran out of viable players to use for the expansion. Protection lists were already submitted and there were no more free agents, so the league came up with the idea to use replacement players for a year while letting all four expansion teams pick first in the following years amateur draft. Needless to say, it was a brazen idea.

The pennant chase in both leagues proved to be ridiculous this year, and Providence leaped out of the gate with a hot start. In the Colonial League, it was a dogfight all season long, but Providence and Manchester kept pace with one another the entire length of it. On August 3rd, both teams moved into a virtual tie for first place. Providence moved into 1st place after Manchester was swept by the Angels, and it was a position they would never give back up. Manchester scratched and clawed their way to within a game numerous times, but the mountain was just high enough. Providence, on the second to last day of the regular season, clinched the Colonial League pennant, becoming the first team other than Manchester to do so in the league. The Eagles' run of seven straught pennants and championships, was over.

On the other side of the pond, the Atlantic League was yet again a scorching hot, three team race the majority of the season. Washington, Philadelphia, and New York each took their jabs at taking control of first place various times throughout the season, but it was New York who, on the VERY LAST GAME, outlasted Philadelphia and clinched the AL pennant by one game. An impressive regular season that say empires fall, and kingdoms rise.

While the race to the pennant was highly competitive, the bottom end of the league was atrocious. The league's idea of using replacement players for a season did NOT pan out, and it is easily distinguishable in the records of the expansion teams. Outside of Brooklyn, who finished a respectable 65-71 in year one, Pittsburgh, Newport and Worcester combined for a 33-375 record in year one. Pittsburgh ALONE finished the year 3-133, the worst statistical season, possibly ever. Many players on the team were not used to the constant conditions of playing, and many walked off the team, leaving Pittsburgh under the roster cap and struggling to find any sort of competitive edge. Surely the league will address this, but a brutal first year for the newcomers.



The 1876 National Championship series was anticipated to be one of the most competitive championships ever. With the Eagles finally out of the picture, it was time for new teams to step up. It was a BATTLE every single game, as each team won twice to force a winner-take-all game 5 in Providence to become the first team in league history not named the Manchester Eagles to win a title. New York did all of their damage in the first couple of frames, holding off a Providence comeback to capture their first ever National Championship in franchise history, the first ever National Championship for the Atlantic League and the first National Championship to not be won by the Manchester Eagles. Fans and players across the league celebrated the victory, and many think this is the turning point for parity in the league, after seven bruising years under Manchester. Pitcher Jacoby Petrosky won National Championship MVP after going 2-0 with 19 innings pitched, four strikeouts and a 0.95 earned run average in his two games.

Season Awards
CL Most Valuable Player: Jorge Garcia, Providence Fighters - .412 AVG|195 H|99 RBI|161 R|
AL Most Valuable Player: Carson Cowee, Brooklyn Barons - 25-22|205 K|2.31 ERA|

CL Pitcher of the Year: Mark Simek, Providence Fighters - 31-11|1.90 ERA|120 K|
AL Pitcher of the Year: Carson Cowee, Brooklyn Barons - 25-22|205 K|2.31 ERA|

Carson Cowee becomes the first player in NOBB history to win both the Most Valuable Player Award, and the Pitcher of the Year Award, in the same season. A phenomenal season from the Carson and the newcomer Brooklyn Barons.

Joel Miller of the Hartford Angels records the first cycle in NOBB history by going 4-for-7 with one home run and 1 run batted in against Worcester.
Antonio Arangua of the Hartford Angels records the first 130+ runs batted in season with 137 RBI's

While 1876 saw quite the offensive explosion in terms of statistics, historians heavily critique this season as a "sham" because of the way the league handled the player issues with the expansion teams. Whether the fans agree is up for interpretation, but there might be an asterisk next to this season for the foreseeable future.