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1885 - POWER GRAB
For the first 9 seasons of the Century League, William Whitney had essentially ruled by fiat. Unbeknownst to him, this rankled some of the other owners. Charles Bigsby was gone, but his brother Miles, owner of the Brooklyn club, was quietly working behind the scenes to undermine Whitney's authority. By the time the league's 10th season had ended, Bigsby's hidden coup came to light and the Century League was changed forever.
Before we get into the Century League's revolt and its aftermath, let's discuss the 1885 season itself. The CL saw a true season of dominance as the New York Gothams absolutely demolished all competition and ran away with the pennant with an 87-18 record. Most of it was due to the sheer brilliance of pitcher Walt Lopp. The 26-year-old from Brooklyn had begun his career with the old Cuyahoga club of Cleveland. When that club disbanded, he was quickly signed by the Gothams where he started slowly, but improved constantly. He went from a 15-win, 4-plus ERA season in 1883 to a solid 20-win, 2.57 ERA in 1884 before exploding in 1885 to the tune of a 44-9 record and 1.97 ERA. With Edgar Kirkpatrick (40-8, 2.01) nearly as dominating, the Gothams squashed opposing lineups. The fact that the offense scored more runs than anyone else turned the season into a laugher.
The relocated Baltimore club, now down the road in Washington and dubbed the Eagles, finished a surprising second (albeit 23.5 games back) with a 65-43 season. Providence, guided by wily Edward Wakeham, was third at 61-47. Chicago (59-51) was the only other team over .500 with St. Paul - a new entry who had moved up from the Western Federation, finishing a respectable fifth (48-58), ahead of Philadelphia, Boston, and last-place Brooklyn. The Unions' first baseman, Tom Dunn won his third straight batting title at .359 (it was also his fourth batting crown in five seasons). Washington's Johnny Wallace led the league in ERA with a 1.87 mark.
In the Border Association, Cincinnati claimed its first pennant with a 78-34 season, 10.5 games better than second-place St. Louis. The Brewers did have the two top hitters in the league with Rob Torry (.328) and Alfred Mercier (.320) while Cincy ace David Roper won his second straight Triple Crown of pitching with a 28-10, 1.29, 243 strikeout season. Montreal (67-45) was third, followed by Brooklyn (63-47), New York (45-63), Toronto (45-67), Kansas City (41-71) and Pittsburgh (39-74).
While all that was going on, the "Bigsby Clique" of eastern clubs: Brooklyn, Boston, New York and Providence (only Edgerton in Philadelphia was firmly in Whitney's corner) quietly planned their rebellion for the offseason meetings in New York. Among the grievances they would bring up: failing to either squash or make peace with the Border Association; allowing the Border Men to place direct competition in Brooklyn and New York - they blamed the failure of the Knights on this, and not on Charles Bigsby; purchasing the Baltimore club and moving it to Washington - meaning Whitney owned two teams; and believing a rumor that the Border Association was moving into Minneapolis, which led to the admission of St. Paul over "better and larger" markets in the East (specifically Buffalo, where a Bigsby ally was poised to place a club).
Whitney got wind of the plan before the meeting and quickly sold the Washington club to an old war buddy, Colonel Thomas Brennan. The result was that Whitney had four votes of his own, ensuring a deadlock when the election for President came up. In the end, Whitney decided to step down for the good of the league, with Treasurer (and non-Club owner) Edward "Ned" Wilson, stepping in as League President. Furious at being thwarted and dubbing Wilson "Whitney's toady and unacceptable as President," Miles Bigsby dropped out of the Century League, and Boston owner Jason Kirkham went with him.
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1886 - WAR IS HELL
In the wake of the tumultuous league meetings in November of 1885, the Ned Wilson era officially began with the new Century League president adding two new clubs to replace the departed Brooklyn Unions and Boston Pilgrims. Ironically, one of the new clubs would be in Buffalo - where departed Unions owner Miles Bigsby had wanted to place a club. The Buffaloes, as they'd be known, were not owned by Bigsby's crony however and were a respectable addition. The other team, however, was a direct shot in the ongoing war with the Border Association and as such turned out to be a mistake that quickly became obvious.
That second club would be in Canada - directly challenging a market that had thus far been the sole property of the Border Association. The club, the Quebec Frontenacs, was poorly run and poorly staffed. They would limp home in last place with a poor 27-92 record, and then immediately disband without a trace of lamentation from the largely disinterested Quebecois public.
In other CL news, the pennant was won by the Providence Gems, who posted an 88-36 mark, ten games better than the Philadelphia Keystones. The Gothams continued to be a strong contender, finishing third at 70-56, followed by Washington (67-58) and the middling St. Paul Crusaders (60-66). Buffalo was competitive and finished 53-65 in sixth place, followed by Whitney's Chicago Chiefs, who had a poor season and finished in seventh place at 51-75. Providence had picked up Jim Jones from the defunct Brooklyn club (Bigsby's bid to start a third league died in the cradle the previous winter) and he continued to dominate opposing pitchers with a fourth-straight batting title. Baseball writers had dubbed Jones "The Big Steam Engine" as he kept chugging along. He hit .369 and through six full seasons had five batting crowns and a .375 lifetime batting average.
Frank Sobreville, "The Trojan Horse" as he was known (he hailed from Troy, NY) was second in batting, collecting a .363 average for Philly. 26-year-old Freeman Rogers joined the Gems and hit .360 to keep his team mate Jones honest. Chicago's lone bright spot was rookie pitcher Nathan Watters who went 21-15 with a league-best 1.74 ERA. Providence had the two winningest arms in the league in George Payne (30-6, 1.88) and German-import Pretzels Cronauer (29-6, 2.20).
The Border Association, for its part, was not going through the war with the CL unscathed. Border President James Tice of Cincinnati was likewise feeling the heat in the wake of his companions seeing Whitney ousted and thinking their loop might benefit from an "impartial" (or non-owner) President as well. For now Tice was safe, but the sharks were gathering. One of the biggest issues concerned Kansas City. The Western Club was beginning to increasingly suffer from its high operating costs. The club, which debuted in 1883 and finished 2nd, had trended downward ever since, finishing 5th, then 7th and finally bottoming out in last place in '86 - despite having the batting champion in Joe Johnson who hit .402 for the season. With Century League teams looking on with great interest, Johnson would need to be paid to stay in KC... something needed to be done.
Pittsburgh won the pennant with an 88-51 mark, just ahead of Montreal (86-52). Cincinnati was third, followed by St. Louis, Brooklyn, New York and Toronto. Montreal found a terrific young pitcher in 22-year-old New Yorker Clarence Young. He went 31-6 with a 2.14 ERA and struck out 336 batters in 366.2 innings - all were league-leading totals and the winning percentage (.838) and strikeout totals were league records.
But bad news for the Bordermen came soon after the end of the season. With Quebec having folded, CL President Ned Wilson promptly offered the open slot in his league to the Border Association champion Pittsburgh club... and they accepted. This was the first break in the ranks and signaled a new escalation in the "Border War."
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1887 - ESCALATION
At the close of the 1886 season, Century League President Ned Wilson completed what he saw as a coup: he "purloined" the Border Association's champions by convincing Pittsburgh Quarries owner Martin Elswich to jump leagues. Both sides had been stealing players from each other since the Association showed up in 1882, but this was a whole new level of larceny.
Naturally the reaction from the BA President James Tice was not fit for print. But Tice was also a smart man, and he decided that though he could not duplicate Wilson's coup, he could escalate things in his own way. Wilson's office was in Chicago, the Century League's headquarters from its birth. Tice needed a replacement for Pittsburgh and decided there'd be no better place for his league's new franchise than.... Chicago.
The Chicago Cougars weren't particularly good, but they did serve their purpose of splitting the Chicago baseball fans. It probably helped that the Chiefs were in a rut and not very good themselves (they finished 6th), but the Cougars' presence drove down the Chiefs' attendance and that hurt league founder (and, according to some, CL shadow President) William Whitney in the pocketbook. So the Cougars, despite a 7th-place finish, were - to James Tice - a resounding success.
The Century League's pennant race was a race in name only: the Providence Gems ran away with things, finishing 88-37 and 18.5 games ahead of second-place Washington. With Tom Dunn winning yet another batting title (this was five straight and six of seven), plus Gene Styles (.387 average, 112 RBIs) and a pitching staff led by Bill Page (20-8, 2.28 ERA) and Dan LeBouef (25-9, 3.69), the Gems lived up to their nickname. People feted club manager Edward Wakeham with some wags saying that he was so good that other clubs hired his brothers hoping the magic was genetic - Edward's younger siblings Jack and Park were running Border Association clubs (Brooklyn and Cincinnati, respectively).
Dunn and Styles were 1-2 in batting, with Otis Collier of Philly third at .366, while Collier's Keystones team mate Carl Hoffman tied with New York's Ed Dibrell for the HR lead (17). New York's other star hitter, Gene Neumann paced the circuit in RBIs with 119. Page led the league in ERA and LeBouef in wins and Providence's third starter - Gus Schneider, went 22-12 with a 3.09 ERA (he was tied for 2nd in wins) with Washington's Silas Lawton (22-12, 2.91) who was also 2nd in ERA.
Pittsburgh didn't do much in its first season in the Century League - the newly-remonikered Miners were fifth at 63-65. New York (68-59) was third with Philadelphia just behind (68-61) in fourth. Chicago (56-70) was sixth, a new entry in Boston (the Minutemen, who replaced the departed St. Paul Crusaders - who went back to the Western Federation and still finished last) finished 7th at 52-74 and Buffalo limped home last with a 42-85 mark.
Over in the Border Association there was a good pennant race - and three-way one at that. The New York Stars (87-51) ultimately topped St. Louis (85-52) and Montreal (84-55) by being good, but not great, both at the plate and in the pitcher's box (they finished 3rd in the league in both runs scored and runs allowed). St. Louis had the best offense in the league and Montreal was 2nd in hitting and pitching, but still managed to finish third. Brewers outfielder Alfred Mercier won his first batting title with a .406 average, just edging out Montreal's Walt Harkness and his .405 average. Si Keane of Toronto was third at .362 for the year. Mercier actually was the BA's first Triple Crown winner, collecting 27 homers and an astounding 145 RBIs (it was not a good year for pitching in the Association). Montreal's Ike Sawyer repeated as ERA (2.44) and strikeout (261) champ, but missed the Triple Crown by one win as his 29 victories was just shy of the 30 collected by St. Louis' Fred Lorraine (30-17, 3.66 as a pitcher and a .386 batter as the Brewers left fielder when not pitching).
Brooklyn (73-68) was fourth, followed by Cincinnati (61-75) and Toronto (61-77) with the new Chicago club seventh and last-place going to the financially strapped Kansas City Westerns who managed to hold on to Lew Clancy (and his .360 average) and not much else in what turned out to be the franchise's swan song.
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1888 - SAME OLD STORY
1888 was a relatively calm year in the lengthening hostilities between the Century League and Border Association. No clubs jumped leagues, no one put a new club in the other's territory... for once the big stories were all on the field and not off it.
While Border Association President James Tice was starting to feel the heat from his fellow owners over the perceived advantages the Century guys had over them, his team gave him a season to remember. The Cincinnati Monarchs won the second pennant in club history, posting a 92-43 mark behind the most dominating pitching performance in pro baseball history to that point: Charley Kearns went 29-4 and posted an unbelievable 1.01 ERA. He led the league in wins, ERA and saves (8) and was second in strikeouts (206) to Brooklyn's Ray Hayden (234). With Elmer Meier going 26-10 with a 1.70 ERA, opposing lineups had trouble scoring runs against Cincinnati.
Montreal was a distant second with a 77-53 record. But the Saints did have two of the league's top hitters in Walt Ray (.349) and George Maroney (.326). Batting champ Alf Mercier hit .358 for third-place St. Louis (75-62). Toronto was barely over .500 at 68-67 in fourth ahead of New York (64-66) and Chicago (60-79). With the Kansas City Westerns now extinct, the Association had added the Syracuse Olympics to the circuit - the new club went 53-78 for a seventh-place finish, with Brooklyn finishing last with a 46-87 mark. Ironically, Brooklyn owner Sheldon Burton had purchased the assets of the defunct Westerns - including Lew Clancy (who hit .295 in his first season in Brooklyn) - and even with the KC players on his payroll, his club still stunk.
Over in the Century League, it was Providence once again claiming the pennant. They didn't run away with things this year, however, as their 87-49 mark was barely ahead of the 85-50 New York Gothams' record. The biggest news in Providence probably wasn't another pennant for Edward Wakeham's club but rather the fact that Tom Dunn didn't win the batting title - and didn't even place that highly on the charts. The star first baseman hit .307 - which was second on his own team to Steve Airington's .321 (Airington was 3rd in the league as pitching began to take over). That was Dunn's lowest mark since he became a regular and broke a streak of seven straight seasons of .360-plus averages. His lifetime mark was still a very robust .368 though.
With Dunn's bat not quite up to his usual standards, the batting title was won by another good hitting veteran first baseman: Otis Collier of the Keystones. Collier was the career leader in both at-bats and hits for the Century League and was a lifetime .329 hitter but his .362 average in 1888 marked his first batting title. Unfortunately for Collier - who was also the manager - his Keystones finished at 67-70 and in fourth place far behind third-place Chicago (78-55). Washington finished fifth, followed by Pittsburgh and Boston. Buffalo again claimed the basement.
New York's Clyde Wilkes (1.91) won the ERA title in a very tight race with Providence ace Gus Schneider (1.92 - who won 42 games to lead in that category) and Chicago's Herbert Thayer (1.97). Keystones pitcher Joe Chastain led in strikeouts with 348. A young star continuing to improve was Philadelphia center fielder Lou Kirchner who hit .356 (2nd to Collier) and led the league in homers (18) while also finishing 2nd in RBIs with 89. New York's Theo Black had 93 to lead in that category. Teams were also running a lot more - Washington's Gene Deschamps led the league with a record 84 steals, but was just ahead of Chicago's Orv Wentworth, who stole 83 bases himself and fellow Eagle Al Chatman - arguably the fastest player in the league, who stole 82 in his rookie campaign.
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1889 - EDGE OF OBLIVION
After a relatively quiet 1888, the war between the Century League and Border Association heated up again in 1889. The first shot was again fired by the Century League as they (again) pilfered one of the Association's top teams, this time luring the St. Louis Brewers whose original owner (Hans Fuchs) had been James Tice's best friend in baseball. With Hans gone and son George running the team, the Brewers jumped. Ironically, Century League rules prohibited selling alcohol at games, so the Fuchs Brewery-owned Brewers were renamed the Pioneers.
The Bordermen wasted little time in responding, again following a familiar script by placing a new team in a Century League stronghold - this time it was Philadelphia, home of one of the CL's original clubs (the Keystones) and arguably its most popular player (Otis Collier). Both circuits were so focused on their own games of brinkmanship that they failed to notice a new threat rising right under their noses, which would change the face of the sport just one year later.
The new club in the Border Association was the Philadelphia Sailors. Along with the New York Stars and Chicago Cougars, the newly-minted Sailors were aimed at directly competing with the Century Leaguers in the nation's three most prominent cities. Meanwhile, the Century League's best team, the Providence Gems, suddenly fell apart due to bad money management (and high salaries). The Gems were bought outright by Chicago owner William Whitney, who promptly grabbed the team's best players (except Gus Schneider) for the Chiefs and sold the ones he didn't want to other teams (like Schneider, who ended up in Boston). In theory, this made the Chiefs the best team in the league - they even got back manager Edward Wakeham who had started his career as a player-manager for Whitney back in '76.
Things didn't really work out as expected. For the Bordermen, the Sailors played well enough (73-59, 4th place), but didn't draw much. For the Chiefs, former Gem Tom Dunn hit well again (.330, good for 5th in the league and tops on the team) but even with their improved roster, they finished third, 12 games back of the pennant-winning St. Louis Pioneers. Yep, that's right, the new guys came over from the Association and promptly won the pennant. The ex-Brewers went 84-49 just ahead of the New York Gothams (82-52). Jack Pendleton of the Pioneers won the ERA title (1.83) and was second in wins (30) to help the new team win it. Edgar Kirkpatrick went 32-3 for the Gothams in one of the best seasons yet for a pitcher (he finished second in ERA at 2.53). Fellow Gothamite Gene Neumann hit .358 to lead the league in batting and a third New Yorker led the league in steals (Rufus Riddick with 89).
Boston's pitching was improved enough for them to finish fourth (68-64) ahead of Philadelphia (62-68 but winners of the attendance derby with the new Sailors club), Pittsburgh (57-72), Washington (50-76) and again in last place, Buffalo (51-84).
The Border Association pennant-winners were a complete shocker. The Brooklyn Kings flipped their 1888 season on its head, turning a last-place finish in '88 to a pennant in '89 with a 86-44 mark. Cincinnati (79-54) was 2nd and New York (76-55) fourth. The Stars and Gothams were giving the New York fans a lot of good baseball to watch. Philadelphia (73-59) was 4th in its first season but had a lot of star power to overcome in their fight with the Keystones. Chicago was a disappointing fifth and the last team over .500 - Toronto (62-71) was respectable, but the Syracuse Olympics (44-85) and Montreal Saints (37-96) were not.
Toronto's Bob Seigle (.369) won the batting title. The Sailors Joe Chastian jumped over from the Keystones and won the ERA (2.20) and strikeout (230) crowns in his first year in the Association. Brooklyn ace Ray Hayden went 26-10 to lead the league in wins.
While all this was unfolding on the fields, a group of men bearing grudges was meeting in smoke-filled rooms planning something big, that would dominate the baseball news just a few short months later.