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1879 AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE ALL-STAR GAME
GAME HOSTED BY CHAMPS; ST. JOHN’S LEADS AGAIN WITH FIVE PLAYERS; ROSTER SURPRISES

NEW YORK CITY (Aug. 4, 1879) – There are fifteen games left to play in the season, and that means it’s time for the annual American Professional Baseball League All-Star Game!

Rosters for the A.P.B.L.’s Midsummer Classic aren’t the same as those in its N.B.B.O. counterpart:

• Twenty players per conference
• Roster places 1-4 go to pitchers – two for each rotation place
• Roster places 5-20 go to batsmen – two for each position

It was the Metropolitan’s turn to host this time around and, just as happened last year, the honor of hosting was given to the defending champions: Knickerbocker B.B.C. and their glorious Elysian Fields with a capacity of more than 15,000.

The rosters for this year’s game saw 14/16 teams represented, down from 15/16 last year. Thanks to their top-ranked attack, St. John’s led with five nominees, including both of their Greenhorns, for the second year in a row. Five teams sent four players each: league-best Alleghany, Metro leaders Knickerbocker, Niagara, Quaker St., Shamrock.

The biggest surprise in this year’s rosters was the omission of Konrad Jensen, who would be missing an All-Star Game for the first time since way back in 1862, when was 22 years old. Unfortunately for him, he shares a conference (Colonial) and position (1B) with Samuel Eastman & William Norman, who are batting .381 (.929 OPS) and .410 (.970 OPS) respectively.

The other big surprise this year was Alleghany’s Tom Ricks. Signed to be their third pitching option after having similar roles with American & Knick the previous two seasons, the 40-year-old established himself as Alleghany’s #1, pitched better than he had in years, and made his first All-Star Game since the A.P.B.L.’s inaugural season in 1871.

History was also made, as Knickerbocker 2B Anthony Mascherino became the first player to be selected for TWENTY All-Star Games, with or without using the pre-1871 N.B.B.O. to separate out top-level All-Star Games. He also started.

With the Metropolitan Conference looking to build on last year’s ten-inning win, these were the All-Star Game rosters, with total All-Star appearances between the pre-1871 N.B.B.O. & A.P.B.L. noted:

Here are the number of nominees who represented each team:

• ALLEGHANY: 4 (Doherty, Meier, Ricks, & Strong)
• AMERICAN: 2 (Burke & Everhart)
• EXCELSIOR: 2 (Hill & Oberst)
• FLOUR CITY: none
• GOTHAM: 2 (Altman & Johnson)
• KINGS CO.: 2 (Anderson & Bartholomew)
• KNICK: 4 (Alexander, Goodman, Mascherino, & Stoffers)
• MASS. BAY: none
• NEWARK: 2 (Richards & Valentine)
• NIAGARA: 4 (Barrett, Hudspeth, Mukai, & Norman)
• ORANGE: 2 (Cobb & Schreiber)
• PT. JERSEY: 1 (Eastman)
• QUAKER ST.: 4 (Aplin, Gill, Morganti, & Williams)
• SHAMROCK: 4 (Burroughs, Groves, Jost, & Simon)
• ST. JOHN’S: 5 (Burns, Evans, Higgins, Nalley, & Townsend)
• TIGER S.C.: 2 (Prince & Tallman)

St. John’s, once again, led all teams in nominees while being in second place. That’s because they again have the league’s #1 attack, and perhaps more impressively both of their Greenhorns have legitimately played at an All-Star level.

There was a decent case to be made for a fifth Alleghany All-Star, as Jonathan Nabors is batting .321 (.782 OPS) with 56 RBI. However, his run production, power numbers, WPA, & WAR were just a bit short of those of William Valentine.

The closest thing Flour City had to an All-Star was venerable #1 James Goodman at 19-19 with a 3.22 ERA and 5.9 WAR, but considering the pitching competition in the Colonial a .500 record wasn’t going to earn him a nomination. Mass. Bay had LF Harold Durand batting .352 (.829 OPS) but with roughly half the WAR of John Meier (1.5 vs 3.2), and while SS Jonathan Quarles is having a fine season (.299, 44 RBI, +18.0 ZR, 2.4 WAR) it just wasn’t quite as good as those of Richards or Strong. If he was still in the Metro with Gotham, he probably would have made it in over Martin Prince.

There were nine first-timers at the game (COL: 6, MET: 3) including the two St. John’s Greenhorns. Orange Jonathan Cobb was the youngest All-Star starter at 23 years, 84 days.

As for the game itself, this was how it turned out:

The Metropolitan repeated as All-Star Game victors, and they had an easier time of it than in last year’s extra-inning game in Providence.

The home team wasted little time in taking the lead, as they scored on the fourth batsman of B1 – a Sacrifice Fly by Oberst – before a two-run Double by Cobb and a run-scoring Single by Anderson made it 4-0 by the end of the first. After the Colonial stranded Townsend on second in T2, the Metropolitan men put up another four-run rally, with a two-run Double by Oberst and a pair of run-scoring Singles driving in the runs, to put the hosts ahead 8-0. Another run in B3 came through on a Single by Mascherino to make it 9-0, then one in B5 on a Wild Pitch to make it 10-0, and two more in B6 on a Single by Stoffers made it 12-0.

The Colonial mounted a valiant comeback attempt late. After scoring twice in T7 via Sacrifice & Error they used a five-run rally in T8 – the key hit a three-run Triple by Norman – to cut the deficit to 12-7. They then scored twice in T9, but that was the best they could do and the Metropolitan Conference had a three-run victory.

There were two players who finished with three base hits at the Elysian Fields, and it was the three-hit man on the winning side who took home Most Valuable Player honors: Orange’s Jonathan Cobb.

• MET RF Jonathan Cobb: 3/3 (2 2B), 1 R, 3 RBI, 5 TB

The honor marked the continuation of a rapid rise for the youngest All-Star Game starter, who hit .259 (.625 OPS) for Orange as a Greenhorn last year before improving significantly this season, with July being his best month yet.

The other player with three Hits was St. John’s OF Joseph Evans, who played the entire game and hit 3/5 (2B, R, RBI).

The pitchers of record were Henry Tallman with the Win, Harold Burns with the Loss, and Ross Gill with the Save.

There were 15,292 in attendance at the Elysian Fields, and they got to experience an All-Star Game played in 75-degree weather with a stiff wind blowing across the field from left to right. Not the most pleasant night, but a fun one nonetheless.