The Big Bang: A Larger Baseball Universe Starting From Nothing in 1857

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OCEANIC TROUNCES PORTLAND, GAYNOR THE STAR
OCEANIC OUTFIELDER HAS CAREER-BEST PERFORMANCE AS TEAM WINS BY SEVENTEEN IN MAINE

PORTLAND, MAINE (May 19, 1870) – Oceanic BC took no prisoners in the second game of their series at Portland, scoring multiple runs in six different innings as they beat their hosts into submission:

Oceanic received a number of fine performances on the afternoon:

• Dennis Hunt (1B): 3/7 (all Singles), 3 R, 2 RBI
• Jonathan Richards (SS): 4/5, 2B, 3 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB
• Jonathan Rue (C): 4/5, 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI
• Karl Valentine (RF): 3/6, 2B, 2 R, 4 RBI

However, none of the above earned Player of the Game honors because starting left fielder John Gaynor topped them all with his efforts at William King Field:

• T1: 2-RUN HOME RUN to RCF (in the park) off O. Erickson (R)
• T3: Reached via Error by SS H. Burkhardt (R)
• T4: Fly Out to RF
• T6: Reached via Error by 1B E. Reed (R)
• T7: 1-run Single to CF off P. Marston (R)
• T9: Reached via Base on Balls by P. Galante (R)
• T9: 1-run Single past 1B off V. Gimsing
• TOTAL: 3/6, HR, 5 R, 5 RBI, 1 BB, 7 TB, 92 GMSC

That was a career-best performance from Gaynor, typically more known for his baserunning & defense than his offensive output. Still, his day with the bat left Gaynor with a team-best .365 average & .902 OPS, while Oceanic improved to 9-3.

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CONT’L TEAMMATES SLAM 5 HITS EACH AT BEDFORD
BARLUND & BARR BELT BUNCH OF BASE HITS AS BROOKLYN BOYS BEAT BEDFORD BY TEN

LONG ISLAND (May 21, 1870) – Continental BBC scored early & often at Brooklyn Championship foes Bedford in the Long Island Cricket Club, going up six over the first three innings before eventually winning by an even ten runs:

Continental was led by a two-man wrecking crew in the game, as Lage Barlund & Edwin Barr combined to mete out ten of the team’s eighteen base hits.

The afternoon for the two in summary:

• Lage Barlund (CF): 5/6, 2B, 3 R, 1 RBI, SB, 6 TB
• Edwin Barr (2B): 5/5, 2 2B, 4 R, 2 RBI, 7 TB

William Vickers & Roel Woudenberg also had multiple hits for Continental, while pitcher Earl Quinn both scored and drove in one run as part of the team’s fifteen-run outburst.

Bedford never stood a chance here, as the score was 15-2 before the hosts scored a few consolation runs in the 8th inning.

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KESSLER GRABS HANDFUL OF HITS & RBI IN VICTORY
11X ALL-STAR LEADS LINEUP THAT OVERPOWERS READING IN EIGHTEEN-RUN WIN

READING, PENN. (May 25, 1870) – It took a couple of innings for them to warm up, but once Alleghany’s attack was ready to go on Wednesday afternoon their hosts didn’t stand a chance at the Rasmussen Grounds:

The 28 base hits were a season high for Alleghany, and as one might imagine there were a number of batsmen in on the act:

• Royal Altman (LF): 3/4, 2B, 2 R, 1 RBI, 4 TB
• Carl Ippolito (2B: 4/6, 2 2B, 2 3B, 3 R, 4 RBI, 10 TB
• Grover McKenzie (RF): 3/6, 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI, 4 TB
• Ben Stiltner (C): 3/6, 2B, 1 R, 2 RBI, 4 TB
• Gerald Strong (SS): 3/6, 2B, 3 R, 3 RBI, 1 SB, 4 TB

However, none of those five took home Player of the Game honors because Samuel Kessler was magnificent:

• T1: 1-run Double to LCF off T. Stewart
• T3: 1-run Single past 3B off T. Stewart (R)
• T4: 1-run Fielder’s Choice to 2B off T. Stewart (R)
• T5: 1-run Double to RCF off I. Sterling (R)
• T7: 1-run Single past SS off I. Sterling
• T8: Leadoff Single to RF off F. Boudet (PO)
• TOTAL: 5/6, 2B, 3 R, 5 RBI, 1 BB, 85 GMSC

Alleghany also belted a dozen Extra-Base Hits in the game (9 2B, 3 3B), the most in the NBBO this season, as they pushed their record to 10-6 in the Inland Championship.

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DYKE MARVELOUS IN DOMINANT KNICK VICTORY
GREENHORN CF SCORES FIVE & DRIVES IN FIVE AS KNICKERBOCKER WINS BY A DOZEN

NEW YORK CITY (May 25, 1870) – Knickerbocker & Hilltop opened their Week Four series today, and the visitors made no major mistakes as they easily handled their hosts at Nodine Hill Park:

The result was never in doubt – Knickerbocker was up 8-0 by the end of the 4th – and neither was Player of the Game as Greenhorn CF Louis Dyke had a splendid afternoon for the 2x cup champs:

• T2: Leadoff Triple to RCF off C. Bridges (R)
• T3: Reached via Base on Balls by C. Bridges (R)
• T4: 1-run Single to LCF off F. Mills (R)
• T6: 2-run Single past 2B off F. Mills (R)
• T7: 2-run Double to LCF off F. Mills (R)
• T8: Fly Out to LF
• TOTAL: 4/5, 2B, 3B, 5 R, 5 RBI, 1 BB, 96 GMSC

The performance continues a fantastic debut season for Dyke, who is batting .425 with 22 RBI over his first sixteen games in the NBBO. Dyke has also stolen a dozen bases and has a positive Zone Rating at CF, so his spectacular batting has not come at the expense of his two main strengths: baserunning & defense.

Knickerbocker is now 11-5 and tied for 2nd in N.Y.C., while Hilltop is 8-8 and tied for 4th.

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NATIONAL BASE BALL ORGANIZATION MAY RECAP

NORTHEAST U.S.A. (June 1, 1870) – The end of May sees the 1870 National Base Ball Organization finished with exactly four weeks of play. Here are how things stand after the end of Week Four:

REGIONAL LEADERS (20 of 70 games played)

• BROOKLYN: Atlantic at 15-5 (Excelsior 4 GB; Empire, Kings Co., & Nassau Co. 5 GB)
• NEW YORK CITY: Knickerbocker & Metropolitan at 14-6 (Orange 2 GB; Gotham 3 GB; Harlem 4 GB)
• UPSTATE NY: Flour City at 15-5 (Niagara & Utica 3 GB; Syracuse 4 GB; Victory 5 GB)
• COASTAL: Massachusetts Bay at 16-4 (Quaker St. 1 GB; Shamrock 2 GB)
• INLAND: Susquehanna at 13-7 (Alleghany 1 GB; Lake Erie & Sportsman’s 2 GB; Pioneer & Scranton 4 GB)
• NEW ENGLAND: Oceanic & St. John’s at 13-7 (Portland 1 GB; Cantabrigians & S.o.t.O. 3 GB)

Defending champions Alleghany have a top-five offense, but their middling defense means they are dealing with a resurgent Susquehanna team. Mass. Bay has been the class of the competition even though their only notable addition ahead of the season was Leslie Arnett. Flour City appears to have shrugged off the loss of two important players, having gone 12-2 since their 3-3 start. St. John’s has lost their last three to fall into a tie with Oceanic, with superstar Konrad Jensen somehow hitting just .266 (.700 OPS) for the entire month.

The two big surprises are Atlantic & Metropolitan. Atlantic added the Three Walters – 2x All-Star OF Walter Banks, 2x All-Star 1B Walter Dudley, & 4x Golden Glove CF Walter Williams – and all three have been excellent. Metropolitan is seeing rebounds in form by Francis Smith, Luther Tatum, & Jonathan Jenkins, while outstanding Greenhorn OF Troy Oberst is batting .382 with sixteen RBI.

BATTERS OF THE MONTH

• NYL: Louis Dyke (CF, KNI) – .439 AVG, 1.038 OPS, 29 R, 43 H, 10 2B, 2 3B, 0 HR, 26 RBI, 3 BB, 12 SB, 1.0 WPA, 1.6 WAR
• NEL: Will Dickerson (3B, Q.S.) – .448 AVG, 1.133 OPS, 28 R, 43 H, 10 2B, 6 3B, 0 HR, 25 RBI, 3 BB, 9 SB, 1.4 WPA, 1.3 WAR

Highly touted “Scouting Discovery” Dyke has lived up to every bit of his billing and then some over his first month in the NBBO. Dickerson built on his debut All-Star campaign from last year by winning BotM for the first time.

PITCHERS OF THE MONTH

• NYL: Jonathan Jenkins (MET) – 11-2, 1.92 ERA, 103.1 IP, 8 CG, 2 SHO, 14 BB, 12 K, 1.15 WHIP, 0.9 WAR, 3.3 rWAR
• NEL: Ross Gill (Q.S.) – 8-3, 1.96 ERA, 101.0 IP, 10 CG, 0 SHO, 4 BB, 11 K, 1.18 WHIP, 2.2 WAR, 2.0 rWAR

Two years after being forced out of Quaker State due to loss of command, Jenkins delivered a stunning May for Metro in which he authored a pair of Shutouts while winning eleven times. Gill didn’t have the most wins in the NEL – two had nine – but led the NEL in ERA and was the league’s best pitcher over the first four weeks of the season.

GREENHORN OF THE MONTH

• NYL: Louis Dyke (CF, KNI) – NYL Batsman of the Month
• NEL: James Dressman (P, PORT) – 8-3, 2.56 ERA, 98.1 IP, 6 CG, 2 SHO, 11 BB, 7 K, 1.17 WHIP, 1.5 WAR, 2.7 rWAR

Naturally, Dyke won NYL GotM after taking its BotM honor. Dressman was excellent for a Portland team that has won nine of its last ten games, winning his last six starts and pitching his two Shutouts over the last ten days.

STATISTICAL LEADERS

• Average: .448 by William Dickerson (3B, Q.S.)
• OPS: 1.133 by William Dickerson (3B, Q.S.)
• Runs: 30 by James Burke (CF, SHA)
• Home Runs: 2 by John Gaynor (OCE) & Jackson Watts (HAR)
• RBI: 26 by Louis Dyke (KNI)
• Stolen Bases: 22 by Konrad Jensen (OF, STJ)
• Batter WPA: 2.82 by Mario Fusilli (1B, SYR)
• Batter WAR: 1.8 by James Burke (CF, SHA)

• ERA: 1.25 by Govaart Vogelzang (ATL) over 72.0 IP
• Wins: 9 by three different pitchers (1 in NYL; 2 in NEL)
• Complete Games: 11 by Bubba Mack (L.E.)
• Strikeouts: 43 by Jim Creighton (EXC)
• WHIP: 0.90 by Sammie Cato (KNI) over 65.1 IP
• Pitching WAR: 3.0 by Jim Creighton (EXC)
• Pitching rWAR: 4.2 by Bubba Mack (L.E.)

• Total WAR: 3.6 by Jim Creighton (EXC)

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EXCELSIOR HAMMERS LEADERS ATLANTIC 22-0
CREIGHTON PITCHES SHUTOUT & BATS 4/5; FIVE OTHER EXCELSIOR BATSMEN WITH 3+ HITS

BROOKLYN (June 1, 1870) – It was an afternoon to remember for Excelsior fans at Carroll Park, as the 2,240 in attendance watched their team absolutely crush top-of-the-standings Atlantic in the first game of their Week Six series:

It was an extraordinary team performance by Excelsior. No fewer than six players had 3+ hits for the rampaging hosts. Here are the first five:

• Harold Cunningham (2B): 3/6 (all 1B), 3 R, 1 RBI
• Ralph Hunt (RF): 3/5 (all 1B), 3 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB
• James Shepherd (SS): 3/4 (all 1B), 2 SAC FLY, 3 R, 2 RBI
• Ben Smith (LF): 3/6, 2B, 3 R, 3 RBI
• Obelix Tsiaris (CF): 3/6, 2 2B, 2 R, 4 RBI

The final Excelsior player with a gaggle of hits on the afternoon? Of course, it was none other than Jim Creighton, and he did far more than excel with the bat:

• 4/5 (all 1B), 3 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB
• CG SHUTOUT, 7 HA, 1 BB, 8K

Creighton’s performance was easily the best by a single player in the NBBO this season, and one that raised his record for 1870 to 8-4. Meanwhile, poor Walter Banks, a 2x All-Star who struck out just a dozen times last year, was sat down three times on strikes by Creighton.

The result keeps Atlantic comfortably in first place, although the gap between them and Excelsior is now three games.

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BAILEY BATTERS 10 BASE HITS IN TWO BUSY DAYS
F.C. 1B GOES 5/5 ON FRIDAY, THEN REPEATS THE TRICK ON SATURDAY

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (June 10-11, 1870) – Utica and Flour City split the 2nd & 3rd games of their Week Six series in Rochester, with Rochester winning 13-9 on Friday and Utica winning 7-4 on Saturday. However, that wasn’t the main takeaway from this pair of contests in Upstate New York.

The talk of the 48 hours was Flour City first baseman Julius Bailey, a career .330 hitter (.827 OPS) who has been a near All-Star a couple of times and a respectable batsman for his entire career.

During Friday’s game Bailey was 5/5 with a pair of doubles, and he was part of a six-run rally in the 7th that delivered the win to Flour City. F.C. was on the wrong end of the result the next afternoon, but Bailey’s hot streak continued and he hit 5/5 again.

Bailey’s torrid two days against Utica:

• FRIDAY: 5/5, 2 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI
• SATURDAY: 5/5 (all 1B), 1 R, 1 RBI
• TOTAL: 10/10, 2 2B, 3 R, 3 RBI

The two games raised Bailey’s average to .391 with an OPS of .953, making him one of the leading batsmen in the New York Legue through nearly six weeks of play in 1870. He is 7th in Batting Average, 8th in OPS, and is on pace to finish the season with just over sixty RBI.

Meanwhile, Flour City is 20-9 and three games clear in 1st place in the Upstate New York Championship.

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Tomorrow, I'll finally get to the formal split between amateur/semipro & professional baseball.

I'm much happier having spent the extra time going through the initial years of the in-game universe instead of just providing a rough outline like I did the previous time.

[RMc]

I’m really enjoying this. It’s too bad you’re only using fictional players so far…or will real players start showing up in 1871…?

[jasg224]

Originally Posted by tm1681

Tomorrow, I'll finally get to the formal split between amateur/semipro & professional baseball.

I'm much happier having spent the extra time going through the initial years of the in-game universe instead of just providing a rough outline like I did the previous time.

Loving the reading so far, this is a fun universe!

[KCRoyals15]

Originally Posted by RMc

It’s too bad you’re only using fictional players so far…or will real players start showing up in 1871…?

Well, I know Jim Creighton is real (and was really baseball's first superstar and was probably one of its first paid players)...though in real life he died in 1862 as the result of a freak injury that was purported to be on-field but will probably never be known

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Originally Posted by RMc

I’m really enjoying this. It’s too bad you’re only using fictional players so far…or will real players start showing up in 1871…?

I'm using fictional players except Jim Creighton - that was a unique circumstance involving the fake Excelsior finding a random pitcher via "Scouting Discovery" in the same in-game year that the real-life Excelsior "discovered" the real-life Creighton - because there's not much info about those players other than what positions they played. And, that's for star players.

I prefer not to use real players because so many others do that already, and do it well. However, I do think I want to use Negro League stars who never got a fair shot at Major League Baseball (ex: Josh Gibson) and prominent players whose careers were greatly impacted by wartime military service (ex: Ted Williams).

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Originally Posted by KCRoyals15

Well, I know Jim Creighton is real (and was really baseball's first superstar and was probably one of its first paid players)...though in real life he died in 1862 as the result of a freak injury that was purported to be on-field but will probably never be known

Long story short based on what I've read...

Creighton was so dominant that batters used the rules of the time - there were no called balls/strikes and a hitter didn't have to swing at pitches they felt were "unfair" - to force Creighton to frequently deliver 300+ pitches in a game at a time when there were no substitutions. However, back then the pitcher had to deliver with a one-step, underhand motion similar to slow-pitch softball, so pitching wasn't the extreme-stress activity that it was today. The overhand pitching that we're all familiar with was accepted and codified in the mid-1880's, with the pitching mound & 60-foot distance coming over the next 10-15 years.

Still, that forced excess of pitching more than likely caused Creighton to develop an undetected hernia that then reportedly ruptured during a game in October of 1862, which caused him to die of internal bleeding days later.

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THE “APBL” IS BORN AT SPECIAL MEETINGS IN NYC
SEVEN CLUBS ADDED TO THE FIVE MEMBERS OF THE “PENTAGON”; LEAGUE BEGINS PLAY NEXT YEAR

NEW YORK CITY (June 13-15, 1870) – At the beginning of June, an “Extraordinary Meeting” of the National Base Ball Organization Executive Committee was called, with the topic being the final steps in the creation of the first fully professional baseball league ever to exist. The meetings were scheduled for the NBBO’s historic meeting place, the St. Nicholas Hotel, and they would last three days.

These were the days everyone had been waiting for since the five biggest clubs in the sport made their intentions known last autumn, and while even those with scarce knowledge of the sport could probably figure out what most of the roster of twelve clubs would be, there were still some questions to be answered after all of the applications were considered.

As talks wore on and plans were finalized, the roster of baseball’s first twelve professional clubs was sent out early on Wednesday evening via series of announcements, shortly after the completion of that day’s games.

The first announcement: the new league would be known as the American Professional Baseball League – the APBL – and it would consist of a dozen clubs from the ranks of the NBBO.

The second announcement: the five members of the “Pentagon” were introduced as the “Five Founders” of the APBL.

• ST. JOHN’S BC – 12x New England champions; 4x TWC winners; 640-300 (.681) record – The most successful club in the sport: no debate necessary. They’d been the New England champs in every season but one, they won the first two Tucker-Wheaton Cups, and then they won the first two Round Robin TWC’s after other clubs complained they had it too easy in a traditional playoff format. St. John’s also finished 2nd in the Round Robin twice, so with a bit more luck they would be six-time champions in the 48-team NBBO over just thirteen years.

St. Johns’ continuity was the model for every club to follow. They’d had the same President (owner), General Manager, Manager, Scouting Director, & Trainer since the creation of the NBBO in 1857. They employed the famous “Hydra” of outfielders Jensen, Johnson, & Townsend, who’d started nearly every game together since the beginning of the 1862 season. Their success came via unorthodox tactics that drive opposing teams mad, and above all, they won large amounts of games with incredible consistency.

• SHAMROCK BC – 8x Coastal champs; 2x TWC winners; 595-345 (.633) record – Boston’s most prominent club dominated what, in theory, should be the most cutthroat region of the six in the NBBO. Instead, Shamrock began their Coastal supremacy in the NBBO’s inaugural season and it never stopped, with the team finishing either 1st or 2nd in Coastal every season except 1864, when a 34-36 record saw then finish in 5th place.

Shamrock’s 1866 team that went 53-17 and then 9-1 in the cup is regarded as one of the 3-4 best in NBBO history, and the club had always found ways to bring new talent into the fold. Ex: after falling from 1st to 5th in the previous year’s TWC over the final three days, they let three prominent players go including the legendary Anthony Mascherino, replaced them with three Greenhorns and a change of position for James Burke, and Shamrock was 22-8 to start 1870.

• KINGS COUNTY BBC – 8x Brooklyn Champs, 2x TWC winners, 576-364 (.613) record – K.C. dominated Brooklyn, taking the pennant six times in seven years during a run lasting from 1858 to 1864. They had finished out of the top half of the Brooklyn Championship standings exactly once – 1866 – and they responded to that embarrassment by moving up from last to 2nd place the next season. Their cup-winning 1860 team was one of the most dominant ever.

K.C. was a club always known for its ability to find premier outfield talent, employing the likes of 1x BotY John Francis, 5x All-Star & 3x Golden Glove winner Declan Brice, 2x All-Star Soren Thomsen, 3x All-Star James Hoyt, 2x All-Star Carlton McShane, over the opening weeks of the 1870 season they had a Greenhorn CF named Charles Foster who looked like he just might be made out of All-Star material.

• KNICKERBOCKER BBC – 5x New York City champs, 2x TWC winners, 589-351 (.627) record – The oldest member of the Five Founders, Knickerbocker BBC dated back to 1845 and their President, Doc Adams, wrote the rules of the sport that the NBBO’s member organizations played its games. It took some time for the much-respected club to find its footing in the NBBO, but once they did the rest of NYC didn’t stand a chance. Over the previous five years they’d taken the NYC pennant four times, won the TWC twice, fielded the single-best team in NBBO history, and finished with W-L marks of 57-13, 45-25, 54-16, 42-28, & 50-20 while enjoying a 23-7 record after six weeks in 1870.

Knickerbocker was most famous for its home venue: The Elysian Fields, the most revered grounds in the sport, and a place where some of the first informal contests were played well over a generation prior. However, they were also known for their organizational consistency and scouting work. Knickerbocker was on year number seven with the same coaching & front office staff, and scout Bryan Stevenson had been able to discover talent like current NYL Batsman of the Month Louis Dyke when the rest of the NBBO wasn’t aware of him at all.

• ALLEGHANY BC – 8x Inland Champs, 1x TWC winners, 557-384 (.592) record – Alleghany’s dominance of Inland had never been in question. Aside from a terrible two-year stretch in which the team finished in Inland’s bottom two (1863-64) before righting the ship, Alleghany was 1st or 2nd in the Inland standings every other season. It took much longer for the team to find Tucker-Wheaton Cup glory, but it finally arrived when they clinched the TWC on the final day of competition last year.

Since the club’s two-year low in the early 60’s Alleghany had been focused on pummeling teams into submission with offense. They had enjoyed the services of all-time Hits leader Arthur Waltrip, single-season Batting Average record holder & 2x BotY Royal Altman, 11x All-Star 3B Samuel Kessler, 4x All-Star & 1869 MVP Collin Henderson, & 2x All-Star infielder Arran Duffy. That philosophy saw the team win at least two-thirds of their games in four of the past five seasons.

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The third announcement was the most important of all: the one detailing the seven clubs that would join the Five Founders, as well as the one that missed out.

• THE CHAMPION: Orange BBC – 3x NYC champs; 2x cup champs; 528-412 (.562) record – It was presumed that Orange was content as a club fielding highly competitive teams while celebrating its Dutch roots. After all, their two cup wins came in just three playoff appearances while every other NBBO champion had at least five. Their team had finished 5th or 6th in New York City just as often as they’d finished 1st, and they were the only NBBO champs who didn’t express any interest in turning the “Pentagon” into a “Hexagon” the previous autumn.

However, Orange’s actions during the winter of 1869-70 changed everybody’s thinking about the club, and when they opened the season as Writers’ Pool favorites to take home the cup for the third time the Five Founders realized that this was a far more serious club than they’d taken them for. Indeed, Orange was a professional-grade organization.

• THE DRAW: Excelsior BBC – 4x Brooklyn champs; 502-438 (.534) record – Aside from Nassau Co. back in the inaugural season Excelsior was the only club to take the Brooklyn pennant other than Kings Co. More importantly, Excelsior employed the sport’s brightest star: Jim Creighton, a man who had increased attendance wherever his team went and had done things that no other baseball player would dare even dream of.

Creighton’s talent drew a sharp line in Excelsior’s history. Before Creighton turned 20 Excelsior’s finishes in Brooklyn were 6th, 8th, 8th, & 8th. After that, Excelsior placed top-three in Brooklyn each of the next nine seasons while sporting a 405-255 record (.614), a mark better than Brooklyn rivals Kings Co. over the same period of time.

• THE OLD HAND: Gotham BBC – 2x NYC champs; 518-422 (.551) record – Gotham was the oldest club in the sport, with its founding occurring in 1837. Like Knickerbocker it took some time for Gotham to find its way in formally organized baseball, but they won NYC twice in the first half of the 60’s and finished in the top half of a very tough New York City Championship in each of the past ten seasons.

Gotham’s Red House facilities and their venue at the St. George Cricket Ground were unquestionably first class, and adding that to team’s history meant the decision to invite them to the pro ranks was as much out of respect as it was their results on the ball field.

• THE UPSTATE UPSTART: Flour City BBC – 3x Upstate champs; 520-420 (.553) record – Upstate NY was infamously tough, with six of the eight teams having taken the pennant at one time or another. Flour City had won it three times, but for them the most important thing going in their favor was that they were 55-15 the previous season, the second-best record in NBBO history, and had started 1870 with a 21-9 record in such a tough region.

F.C.’s record of 76-24 over the previous hundred games meant the Five Founders had to extend them an offer. They had the sport’s best pitcher outside of Jim Creighton in the crafty James Goodman, a budding superstar in Reginald Roper, and a five-star Greenhorn roaming the outfield in Fred Bartholomew.

• THE RIVAL: Massachusetts Bay BC – 4x Coastal runners-up; 525-415 (.559) record – Massachusetts Bay had never won the Coastal Championship, but that wasn’t due to lack of trying. They had finished 2nd no less than four times, and M.B. had ended a season within five games of 1st eight times. Everyone knew this was a well-run club.

However, what punched M.B.’s ticket into the pro ranks was the fact main rivals Shamrock insisted that they receive an invitation to join the new league so the rivalry could continue. Not surprisingly, what the second-most successful club in NBBO history says goes, and with Boston’s second club starting 1870 with a 22-8 record they were going pro.

• THE BIG FISH: Niagara BBC – 2x Upstate champs; 509-431 (.541) record – Niagara, the NBBO team representing Upstate New York’s biggest city of Buffalo, had taken the Upstate pennant twice, but other big clubs found their results puzzling. Niagara’s finishes in the 60’s: 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 5th, 1st, & 5th. There was little consistency, but to be fair to Niagara they did finish 5th with a 35-35 record in 1869.

What earned Niagara an invitation to the professional ranks were the facts that they were based in Buffalo, clearly had first-class facilities at the Greater New York Sporting Grounds, and were comfortably over .500 through 13+ years in a region that was notoriously tough.

• THE TOP END TALENT: American BC – 1x Coastal champs; 480-460 (.511) record – For much of American’s history in the NBBO they struggled, finishing below .500 in five of their first eight seasons and last in 1858. However, the club started to figure it all out in the middle of the decade, going from 3rd in 1865 to 2nd in ’66, and after another 2nd-place finish in ’67 they went 48-22 and knocked Shamrock off their perch in 1868.

American didn’t have the cumulative record or postseason pedigree of any other club invited to the professional ranks, but they did have one thing in abundance: talent. Their senior roster could boast of having top-five players at five different positions: C Howard LeBoeuf (#3/48), 1B William Busby (#5), 2B Peter Boyce (#2), 3B Werner Verstegen (#3), and 2x NEL Batsman of the Year & 2x MVP CF Willie Davis (#2). A team with that level of talent at the top of its roster could be a competitive professional outfit, so long as the other places were filled out logically.

• THE ODD TEAM OUT: Quaker State BC – 1x Coastal runners-up; 460-480 (.489) record – Quaker St. was a club slowly on the rise. After consecutive 7th-place finishes from 1863-65 came three 4th-place finishes from 66-68, and then a 3rd-place finish in 1869. They had started 1870 with a 19-11 record and an outstanding offense featuring two of the sport’s best players: 1B Cormack Alexander & 3B William Dickerson.

Unfortunately, Quaker St. remained a club that had punched below its weight throughout its NBBO history, still with zero postseason appearances to their name and a slightly under .500 cumulative record in spite of their hot start to the season. The team’s venue, the Philadelphia Cricket Grounds, certainly held enough people to host a pro team, but the Five Founders wanted to see more. The worry was that Quaker St. had the potential to become a last-place punching bag given their history, but perhaps with another five years of solid results they could turn professional.

Once finalized, the initial roster of clubs to form the APBL was a group of twelve that had numerous things in common:

• They were clubs with winning histories.
• They were clubs with first-class facilities.
• They were well-run, profitable clubs.
• They were experts at identifying & recruiting the most talented players.

These were twelve organizations truly worthy of being the first to take up the mantle of making baseball a professional sport.

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The final announcement, at least the final announcement at this time, was one concerning how the American Professional Baseball League would be organized. The Five Founders wanted a 90-game schedule and a season-ending playoff of some sort, so putting every team in a single group would have meant the teams would play each other an unequal number of times.

This meant the teams needed to be split into two groups. Here’s what the NBBO Executive Committee and the Five Founders settled on:

• COLONIAL CONFERENCE: Alleghany, Flour City, Mass. Bay, Niagara, Shamrock, & St. John’s
• METROPOLITAN CONFERENCE: American, Excelsior, Gotham, Kings Co., Knickerbocker, & Orange

There were seven teams from the state of New York and five from elsewhere, so simply splitting the teams into “New York” & “Northeastern” like in the NBBO wouldn’t work. However, with five based in New York’s metropolitan area and one based in Philadelphia, a split between those in the two largest metro areas in the USA and those based elsewhere made sense.

While one might think that splitting the teams up in such a manner would make the conference with the teams based in America’s two biggest cities far stronger than the other, as a reminder the NBBO’s two most successful clubs and three of the Five Founders were named members of the Colonial Conference.

There were still many finer details to be hammered out: player salaries, contract lengths, ticket prices, playoff format, etc. That would more than likely be done during the Autumn Meetings, with final roster regulations and any rule tweaks coming at the 1871 Spring R&R Meetings.

And with that, the American Professional Baseball League was officially organized. Professional baseball was one giant step closer.

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HORMEL PLATES SEVEN IN ROMP AT METRO
GOTHAM LF BECOMES FIRST WITH 7 RBI IN A GAME THIS SEASON AS GOTHAM WINS BY 22

NEW YORK CITY (June 18, 1870) – Gotham had the easiest afternoon of any team this season, scoring the first 25 runs against Metropolitan before graciously allowing their hosts to score a few times late in the contest:

A record seven Gotham players had 3+ base hits during the mauling of Metropolitan. The first six:

• Burton Ellerby (SS): 3/7, 2B, 4 R, 2 RBI, 5 TB
• Babe Johnson (2B): 4/7, 3B, 3 R, 3 RBI, 6 TB
• Hiram Majors (CF): 3/5, HR, 3 R, 1 RBI, SB, 6 TB
• Nicky Smith (3B): 3/5, 2B, 2 R, 1 RBI, 4 TB
• Clive Strachan (RF): 3/7, 2B, 4 R, 2 RBI, SB, 4 TB
• Jackson Wright (1B): 4/7, 2B, 3B, 4 R, 1 RBI, 7 TB

As fine as those six batsmen performed, it was Charles Hormel who took Player of the Game honors due to his fantastic work when men were on the basepaths:

• T1: Fly Out to CF
• T3: 1-run Sac Fly to CF off I. Corey
• T4: Single past SS off I. Corey (SB, R)
• T5: 1-run Single to RF off R. Treichel (R)
• T6: 1-run Sac Fly to CF off W. Anderson
• T8: 2-RUN HOME RUN to RF off W. Anderson (R)
• T8: 2-run Single past 1B off J. Burnett
• TOTAL: 4/5, HR, 2 SAC FLY, 3 R, 7 RBI, SB, 7 TB, 103 GMSC

It was the best performance of Hormel’s career, one that raised his average to .341 & his OPS to .885, both of which would be career highs for the third-year Gotham man if they hold for the rest of 1870. Hormel is currently looking likely to earn his first All-Star Game nomination, which would be well-deserved as the outfielder has done well in all areas of the game so far this season.

Gotham is now 21-13, 3rd place in New York City and five games behind leaders Knickerbocker.

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TOWNSEND SETS NINE-INNING RECORD WITH 7 HITS!
STAR ST. JOHN’S SLUGGER STRIKES SEVEN SINGLES SEASIDE IN MAINE; TEAMMATE KUOPIO BATS 6/7

PORTLAND, MAINE (June 19, 1870) – St. John’s has a long history of spectacular offensive performances and what occurred on Sunday goes right to top of the list, due to what two players did while they beat Portland by a staggering 22 runs:

St. John’s received a lot of help via Portland’s embarrassing fourteen miscues in the field, but their batsmen still made history at William King Field.

The man of the hour in Maine was 7x All-Star Nelson Townsend, who set a new NBBO record with seven base hits in a nine-inning game:

• T1: Single past SS off J. Dressman (CS)
• T2: Single past SS off J. Dressman (R)
• T4: 1-run Single to LCF off O. Erickson (R)
• T4: 1-run Single past 2B off O. Erickson (R)
• T6: Single past 2B off P. Marston (R)
• T8: 2-run Single past SS off P. Marston (R)
• T9: Single to RCF off P. Marston (R)
• TOTAL: 7/7 (all 1B), 6 R, 4 RBI, SB, OF AST, 126 GMSC

When Townsend came to bat with two out in the top of the 9th what was left of the initial crowd of roughly two thousand people waited in anticipation to see if he could become the first player with seven hits in a nine-inning contest. Townsend did just that with a solid single to the outfield, and he received a lengthy ovation from the crowd. He then came around to score on a Tarmo Kuopio single to become the first player in the NEL this year to score six times in one game.

There have been two other seven-hit outings in NBBO history – Archie Stewart in 1859 & Theo Cooke in 1864 – but those were both in extra-inning games.

Speaking of Kuopio, batting right behind Townsend in the St. John’s lineup meant he had plenty of good chances to do damage with the bat, and Kuopio duly delivered:

• T2: Leadoff Single past 2B off J. Dressman
• T3: 1-run Single past 3B off J. Dressman (R)
• T4: 1-run Single to LCF off O. Erickson (R)
• T4: 1-run Double to LCF off O. Erickson
• T6: 1-run Single to LF off P. Marston
• T8: Ground Out to SS
• T9: 1-run Single to RCF off P. Marston
• TOTAL: 6/7, 2B, 2 R, 5 RBI, 7 TB, 93 GMSC

In the end, Townsend & Kuopio had the best day for a lineup partnership in NBBO history:

• TOTAL: 13/14 (.929), 1 2B, 8 R, 9 RBI, 1 SB, 1 OF AST

Lost in the history made by Townsend & Kuopio, St. John’s pitcher Thomas Smith had himself quite an afternoon as well:

• BATTING: 3/5, 3B, 5 R, 3 RBI, 1 BB
• PITCHING: CG, 12 HA, 5 RA (2 ER), 0 BB, 2 K

The result improved Smith’s record to 15-5 with a 2.64 ERA so far in his maiden season with St. John’s after Shamrock let him go, and in the process he also became the first pitcher in the NBBO to score five runs in a single game this season.

All totaled, it was an extraordinary afternoon for St. John’s, who raised their record to 26-9 and once again have a stranglehold on the New England Championship.

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PAIR OF SCHNEIDERS COME UP BIG VS METRO
ONE SCHNEIDER DRIVES IN A HANDFUL OF RUNS WHILE THE OTHER HAS A HANDFUL OF HITS

NEW YORK CITY (June 24, 1870) – Mutual BBC has had a miserable season to this point – 10-27 entering Friday – but for at least one day they looked brilliant in their multiple-run victory against visiting Metropolitan:

Roughly half of Mutual’s seventeen hits came from two players right in the middle of their batting order, and those two were #3-4 batsmen Uwe Schneider & Mathijs Schneider:

• Uwe Schneider (RF): 4/5, 2B, 4 R, 5 RBI, 5 TB
• Mathijs Schneider (3B): 5/5 (all 1B), 2 R, 4 RBI

It was a much-needed performance for the confidence of Uwe Schneider, who entered Friday’s contest with a .227 average & .514 OPS so far in 1870, well below his career marks of .323 & .746 respectively. For greenhorn Mathijs Schneider, the 5/5 day with the bat raised his average back above .300 to .306.

Wasted by Metropolitan’s loss was a 4/5 performance by star CF Francis Smith that included a triple, a pair of runs, and three RBI.

Mutual remains in last place in New York City after the win, while Metropolitan is in 4th.

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BIGGEST SERIES IN BOSTON HISTORY TAKES PLACE
TOP TWO IN COASTAL GO HEAD-TO-HEAD WITH BEST RECORD IN NEL ON THE LINE

BOSTON (June 22-26, 1870) – With the city housing two of the three best teams in the Northeastern League, never has the baseball in Boston been of a higher quality than it has been so far in 1870, and that is why the recent series between Massachusetts Bay & Shamrock was the biggest five-game set in the history of Boston baseball.

The Coastal Championship standings going into the series looked like this:

• #1: Shamrock – 27-8 (+113 RD)
• #2: Mass. Bay – 26-9 (1 GB; +120 RD)
• #3: Quaker St. – 24-11 (3 GB; +80 RD)

To take the Coastal lead back from Shamrock, Mass. Bay, Coastal leaders on June 1st, would need to win four of the five games. Shamrock would need to win the series 3-2 to preserve their Coastal lead. A 3-2 Mass. Bay series victory would result in the two teams being tied for 1st place.

The results:

• GAME 1: MB 9-6 SHA – Hugh Harris (3B, M.B.) 3/4, 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI, BB, 4 TB
• GAME 2: MB 5-12 SHA – James Burke (CF, SHA) 3/4, 3B, 2 R, 1 RBI, BB, SB, 5 TB
• GAME 3: MB 11-4 SHA – George Carver (1B, M.B.) 2/3 (both 1B), 1 R, 3 RBI
• GAME 4: MB 4-8 SHA – Tom Ricks (P, SHA) CG, 10 HA, 4 RA (3 ER), 1 BB, 2 K; 2/3, 2B, 2 R, SAC BUNT
• GAME 5: MB 2-5 SHA – Ernest Duncan (P, SHA) CG, 7 HA, 2 RA (0 ER), 1 BB, 1 K

Mass. Bay won the opener by scoring all nine of their runs over the middle innings, with Harris, Leslie Arnett (2B), Daniel Flynn (P), & Franklin Skaggs (RF) responsible for the run production. Game Two was decided in the opening innings as a miserable outing by Mass. Bay pitcher Richard Hahn (1.0 IP, 10 HA, 10 RA, 7 ER) meant Shamrock was ahead 12-2 after the 2nd inning and could ease up after that. Mass. Bay took the series lead back on Friday with their own barrage during the opening innings – eleven runs over their first four times to bat – with Carver being the key man. Shamrock evened the series again in Game Four after Ricks did a bit of everything and enough teammates pitched in to keep Mass. Bay from becoming a threat.

The series decider was a tense, defensive affair. The teams committed only two errors each (NBBO Avg: 5.5), and Shamrock’s five runs over the first five innings would prove to be enough as hits and runs came at a premium for both sides. Shamrock took the series 3-2 and kept their lead in the Coastal Championship.

The Coastal standings after the end of the weekend:

• #1: Shamrock – 30-10 (+117 RD)
• #2: Mass. Bay – 28-12 (2 GB, +116 RD)
• #3: Quaker St. – 26-14 (4 GB; +74 RD)

Shamrock had gained a full game on both teams hot on their heels, because Quaker St. went a disappointing 2-3 at home against the now 16-24 Trenton United.

The series between Mass. Bay & Shamrock was their second, and final, series of 1870. Over the ten games between the two teams, both won five and lost five.

The last six weeks of play in the Coastal Championship figure to be very exciting as far as the top three teams are concerned, and the city of Boston will be at the center of it all.