1881 Season Recap
The New York Knights, and their larger-than-life owner Charles Bigsby, were no longer around. The younger Bigsby (Miles), still ran the show in Brooklyn but for the first time in the short history of the Century League there would be no club playing in the nation's largest city. Filling the void in the lineup were the Providence Gems - a solid touring performer playing in what would be the league's smallest city.
Surprisingly, Providence more than held its own against the Century League's other clubs. The Gems won 49 games against 34 losses, good for a second-place tie with Philadelphia, four games behind the champion Chicago Chiefs. Providence had a potent lineup and led the league in runs scored. The Gems had a trio of potent bats: 1B Clarence Gannon (.337, 11 HRs), C Cornelius Quimby (.311 and a league-high 80 RBIs) and CF Art Penick who hit .347, good for third in the batting race. Three veteran pitchers: Lou Allerton (late of NY), Bill Dunbar (Brooklyn) and Dan Farham (Boston) kept the opposition down on most days. Still, it wasn't enough to catch the Chiefs.
Chicago won the pennant for the second time - interestingly, through six seasons, three teams (Philly, Brooklyn and Chicago) had won championships and each now had a pair of titles. The Chiefs relied largely on their stellar pitching. Young, but veteran, ace Pat Murphy (19-11, 2.73) was joined by rookies Abel Kizzie (21-8, 1.32) and Al Kiernan (14-12, 2.34) in the league's stingiest pitching staff. The offense ranked just sixth in runs scored but the overall result was a 54-31 record and the championship.
Brooklyn's Tom Dunn emerged from two seasons sitting on the bench in Cleveland to lead the league in hitting with a .388 average. He was followed by Detroit second sacker Ed Moffitt (.349) and Penick of Providence (.347). For the first time ever, two men reached double figures in homers as Gannon was joined by Boston rookie Jack Castle (10). Chicago's Kizzie led the league by a mile in ERA his 1.32 more than a half-run better than Brooklyn ace Edgar Monroe's 1.92 mark. Cleveland's Walt Lopp was third at 2.29. Rufus Riddick pitched a lot for Boston, and won 42 of his club's 45 games. He also led the league in strikeouts with 245. Apparently when you pitch 640-plus innings, you can rack up some numbers.
But as the season drew to a close, the biggest news wasn't really about any of the above - it was all about the rumors circulating that Cincinnati Monarch club owner James Tice was looking to make a splash in a big way.