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1872 NATIONAL BASE BALL ORGANIZATION REVIEW

WRITERS POOL OBSERVATIONS

This was a strange season. The spring rule changes to pitching did indeed end up favoring the pitchers, but nobody could have predicted just how much of an impact they would have. Team scoring in the New York League was down around 9.5% (7.4 R/G to 6.7 R/G), and team scoring in the Northeastern League was way down. The NEL saw per team run production fall by 17.1% (7.6 R/G to 6.3 R/G).

Allowing pitchers finer control over the ball decreased Bases on Balls by around fifty percent as expected, but there was a knock-on effect in that, even though Batting Average went down around five percent, batsmen hard a harder time taking Extra-Base Hits, which went down by 20-25%. The result: OPS in both leagues decreased by 50-60 points.

Portland’s NEL Championship Series win over Quaker St. was the most stunning upset in NBBO history. The defending NBBO champs and 1872 #1 had won ten straight to end the season, while Portland played two one-run games in sweeping Susquehanna in the semifinals. That they then went down 0-2 and won three in a row to beat Quaker St. made the upset that much more improbable.

There has never been a pair of Greenhorns to dominate a league like what happened in the NEL in 1872. For much of the season Elijah Hill of Green Mtn. looked like might break the NBBO Batting Average record, but in the end he had to settle for “only” hitting .433. Earl Henry of Susquehanna won thirty games, nearly broke James Goodman’s ERA record, and came within a few votes of winning Pitcher of the Year, Most Valuable Player, & Greenhorn of the Year at the same time.

Pity poor Robert Dressen. Because of the above, he had 22 Wins with a 2.95 ERA, led all NBBO pitchers in WAR at 7.4, and still had to settle for 3rd place in NEL Greenhorn of the Year voting.

Raise a glass to James Heilman. At the ripe young age of 42 years & 276 days, the Utica outfielder received a Team of the Year nomination for the first time in his sixteen NBBO seasons. He finished in the NYL top ten in Average, On-Base, OPS, Runs, Stolen Bases, & Batsman WAR, and of course he led the league in Bases on Balls. At this point, it looks like he’ll play as long as he feels like playing.

The new teams continue to impress. Marathon in Brooklyn, Mercury in NYC, and Maryland in Coastal all finished in 2nd place. Salem was 3rd in New England, and Star finished 4th in Brooklyn. The only new team that really had a dud of a season was Baltic, who finished last in New York City with the NBBO’s worst record & Run Differential.

Unluckiest team of the year: undoubtedly previous NYC champs Metropolitan. Going 8-15 in one-run games meant that even though they had the NYL’s best Run Differential at +110 they finished the season 38-32, which was good for 4th place in the New York City Championship.