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TWO .400 HITTERS & A TRIPLE CROWN WINNER IN PCBL
EVANS, NORMAN, & BENSON FINISH THE SEASON BY MAKING PCBL HISTORY

PHILADELPHIA (Aug. 14, 1876) - The P.C.B.L. season came to an end yesterday, and with it there was history made as not only did the two most dominant teams in league history finish their seasons but the league saw its first two .400 hitters and its first Triple Crown winners as well.

Joseph Evans’, whose Batting Average had been over .400 every day since the beginning of July, saw his average slip to .399 during Frankford Arsenal’s second-to-last game. For Evans to climb back over .400, he was going to need to hit .500 or better in 3+ At Bats against Sons of Ben in the season finale. The result:

• TOTAL: 4/6 (2B, 5 TB), 3 R, 2 RBI, 1 SB

Evans had done what was required and more, finishing the season with a .404 Batting Average and a full batting line of .404/.444/.584 for a 1.028 OPS, a P.C.B.L. record. Evans had also finished the season leading the P.C.B.L. in Doubles, On-Base, Slugging, Triples, Extra-Base Hits, Win Prob. Added, and Batsman WAR.

Notice that it wasn’t said that Evans won the P.C.B.L. Batting Title. Incredibly, he was beaten out by the second of the first two players in league history to hit over .400 over a full season: Merion 1B William Norman, who also broke the league record for Hits in a season with 139.

Norman entered the final game of the season with a six-point lead over Evans at .405, and he played well against Mercantile even though Merion ended the season with a loss at home:

• TOTAL: 3/6 (2B, 4 TB), 2 R, 3 RBI

The final-day output meant Norman finished with an average of .406, making him and not Evans the 1876 P.C.B.L. Batting Champion and new record holder for highest Batting Average in a P.C.B.L. season. Don’t expect much disappointment from Evans, however, as he’s likely to be unanimously voted P.C.B.L. Batsman of the Year for the fourth time in a row once the offseason begins.

Philadelphia B.C.C. had a history maker of their own, and one whose debut season was so spectacular that it may have overshadowed the work of both Evans and Norman.

Robert Benson was both the P.C.B.L.’s Pitcher of the Month & Greenhorn of the Month for June & July, and for good reason. His June was astounding: a 12-1 record with a 1.57 ERA over 113 innings of work. Benson then followed an 8-5 July (2.17 ERA) by earning the Win in each of his six August outings. In the process, Benson became the first P.C.B.L. Pitcher to win 30 games in a season on August 6th, and by season’s end he was far and away the league’s most dominant pitcher:

• 33-9, 1.84 ERA, 103 K, 362.1 IP, 34 CG, 2.5 K/9, 8.6 HA/9, .229 O-AVG, .251 O-OBP, 6.4 WAR, 10.9 rWAR

That Sons of Ben star Paul Krueger had a superior WAR (7.5) didn’t matter much. Benson led the P.C.B.L. in the three key pitching statistics – Wins, Earned Run Average, and Strikeouts – making him the first Triple Crown winner in P.C.B.L. history. Not only that, but Benson set league records in all three, as well as league records for Innings Pitched, Complete Games, Hits Allowed/9, Opponents’ Average, Opponents’ On-Base, Opponents’ BABIP (.240), & RA/9 WAR.

Put simply, Robert Benson had the most dominant debut season any of the three competitions has ever seen. He is going to win both Pitcher of the Year and Greenhorn of the Year. The only question remaining is whether or not he can win Most Valuable Player over sentimental favorite Joseph Evans, who is likely to move to the A.P.B.L. over the winter, and become the first player ever to take three major individual awards in the same year.

In a season dominated by Frankford Arsenal and Philadelphia Baseball & Cricket Club it’s no surprise that players from both teams made history. For Merion, that their star batsman beat out Joseph Evans for the Batting Title when both men hit over .400 will be a fair consolation prize to end 1876.