Things heated up in late June and early July: the Boston club won their last 12 games to finish 35-19, but that was only good enough for fourth place. Athletic of Philadelphia ended the season on a 15-game streak to wind up 38-16...but that was also out of the money in third place. No, the real race was between Mutual of New York and Forest City of Cleveland, both of whom had superstar batter/pitchers: Jim Creighton of Cleveland and Rynie Wolters of New York. And when the dust settled, both teams wound up 41-13...a tie for the pennant!
So...a 55th game would be needed to settle the championship, and both teams would send league-leading 31-game winners to the mound in Creighton (who also batted .469 on the year) and Wolters (whose average was a hallucinating .502 (!)).
At first it was close, then it wasn't: Cleveland scored single runs in the second, sixth and seventh innings, then put up four in the eighth...and Creighton was brilliant, shutting out Mutual on two hits: 7-0, Forest City. But "Big Jim" tired in the ninth, and so did the Cleveland defense: four hits and four errors later, it was a 7-5 ballgame. Finally, Bob Ferguson (old "Death to Flying Things" himself) grounded out to win the game, and Forest City escaped with the NPA's first-ever pennant.
As far as the rest of the NA went, the "cranks" wondered: would the famous Red Stockings rebound and jump into the pennant race?
In three words, oh
hells no:
The Cincinnati club began the season mid-table at 10-9, and then the wheels came off -- along with the doors, seats, trunk and the universal joint -- as the Red Stockings lost 33 of their last 35 games. Why? No pitching:
Asa Brainard was a great pitcher in his day...but his day was firmly over by 1871. Most of the hurling was done by "Bill" Atwater, a reserve on the team in 1869-70 and one of the "new" players inserted into the game. (Atwater, along with "Sam" Dean -- we don't know their real first names -- only played a handful of games in 1869-70, but they did well enough to warrant their inclusion here.) Altogether, Cincy gave up a frightening 1,198 runs and committed 735 errors -- that's in just
54 games, folks -- both worst in the league. The once-famed Red Stockings probably hit their nadir on June 14, when they lost to the last-place Haymakers by an incredible score of 42-41...after giving up 12 runs in the bottom of the ninth. Ouch.
Meanwhile, back at the amateur ranch:
The Resolute club of Elizabeth, NJ (who actually played in nearby Waverly) held off Baltimore to win the AA crown. Elias Cope started all 56 of the club's games and tossed 460 innings, while George Lines' .386 average led the team. And the last-place Unions...well, they only had one pitcher for most of the year, Hicks Hayhurst, who possessed an awful 11.50 ERA. (Jim Britt showed up in late June, when the 1872 players became available, and won a few starts, but it was far too late.)
As we head to the off-season...what teams will remain in 1872, and which ones will vanish? Stay tuned...!