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FOUNDERS’ CUP VI: NIAGARA VERSUS GOLIATH

BUFFALO & PHILADELPHIA (August 1876) – Last year’s Founders’ Cup was a bit of a surprise. American was expected to handily beat their Colonial Conference opposition, Alleghany, who ended the season in terrible form. Instead, the series was another seven-game classic that featured a No-Hitter in Game Five and a ninth-inning rally to force Game Seven. American did come out on top, but it was a much closer series than expected.

Founders’ Cup VI again featured American B.C., who was looking to win the A.P.B.L. title for the fourth time in five years, a run of championships no team has ever done. The opposition: Niagara B.B.C. who managed to vault itself from last place in the Colonial Conference in 1875 to first place in 1876, clinching a most unlikely pennant on the season’s final day.

Niagara had an extremely difficult road to the Founders’ Cup. Part of a three-way for the Colonial Conference lead on July 20th, they took a two-game lead by the end of the month and it would grow to three for only one day (Aug. 11). Going into the final day they were one game ahead of St. John’s and were able to match a St. John’s rout of Alleghany with a four-run win at Shamrock to complete an incredible worst-to-first season and make the playoffs for the first time since they were part of the N.B.B.O. in 1868.

American’s road to the Founders’ Cup was easier than it was last year. There was no 14-1 August surge by a contender that they had to defend against. Instead, the three-time champions were able to keep second-place Knickerbocker 5+ games behind them for the final two and a half weeks, taking the Metropolitan pennant with a week to spare.

Niagara made it to the Founders’ Cup with pitching and defense. Their pitching duo of Tomoharu Mukai & Jack Smith ranked 3rd in combined ERA, while their fielders, led by Clyde Hudspeth & William Schumacher, ranked 2nd out of the league’s sixteen teams in Efficiency & Zone Rating.

American made the Founders’ Cup the same way they always had: terrifying offense that could never be held in check.

American was the favorite going in. Would they take their fourth title in half a decade? Or would 1876’s surprise team have the biggest surprise of all up their sleeves?