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PBCC’S BENSON TAKES 2ND STRAIGHT TRIPLE CROWN
STAR PITCHER HAS EARNED PITCHING TRIPLE CROWN BOTH SEASONS IN LEAGUE

PHILADELPHIA (Aug. 13, 1877) - The Philadelphia City Baseball League has come to an end, and for the second straight season Philadelphia Baseball & Cricket Club’s Robert Benson has pulled off one of the most difficult feats in the sport.

Last season, Benson earned the first Triple Crown in P.C.B.L. history by leading the league with 33 Wins, a 1.84 ERA, and 103 Strikeouts over 362.1 innings. This season, Benson repeated the feat:

• 30-7, 2.02 ERA, 98 K, 356.1 IP, 30 CG, 1 SHO, 2 SV, 2.3 K/BB, 2.5 K/9, 9.3 HA/9, 1.16 WHIP, 6.7 WAR, 9.3 rWAR

While his numbers weren’t quite as incredible as they were last season, Benson still became the first player in any league to earn two Triple Crowns, and he’d done it in consecutive seasons as the anchor of a P.B.C.C. team that prides itself on winning games with pitching excellence and peerless defense.

Nobody was particularly close to Benson in any of the three Triple Crown categories, either. His 30 Wins were five better than James Kilgore of Spartan (25-17), his 2.02 Earned Run Average was a touch above 0.25 better than runner-up Henry Brown of Merion (2.28), and his 98 Strikeouts were 21 better than second-place Richard Sutherland of Germantown (77).

Benson’s dominance in the P.C.B.L. has occurred thanks to a small repertoire that relies on perfect command. He delivers the ball in just two ways as opposed to the 3-5 typically seen from regular pitchers, which is something that would limit him if he pitched in the N.B.B.O. or A.P.B.L. However, the command he has over his two types of pitch, a standard ball and a variation of it that dives downward, is almost perfect, and his ability to induce ground balls from opposing batters plays right into P.B.C.C.’s hands since they have the league’s best infield defense by far.

Robert Benson has only been in organized baseball for two seasons, but in those two short years has already delivered an extraordinary list of performances and achievements for P.B.C.C. One wonders how long Benson can keep this up, but given his age (30) he should be able to give the team at least five more years of prime performance.