1921 - A Whole New Animal

There had never been anyone like him so everything he did was eye-popping in general, but what he did in 1921 has stood the test of time as one of the greatest seasons by any player in any year. Max Morris finally had a season in which he both played right field regularly and avoided injury and boy-oh-boy did he have a season for the ages. He won a Triple Crown but did it with eye-popping, record-setting numbers: a .411 average, 53 home runs, 149 RBIs, 153 runs scored and 121 walks. He had a .511 on-base percentage and a .785 slugging percentage (he had 32 doubles & 13 triples for a total of 456 total bases). And his team, naturally, won the pennant again.

The St. Louis Pioneers, with Morris driving the boat, went 92-62 and won the Federal Association by 8.5 games over second-place Washington (more on them in a sec). Not content with their championship run in 1920, the Pioneers got even better for 1921. They swung a deal with the Stars for a new leadoff man in CF Billy Elson (.276-3-31), made Pinky Howard their starting leftfielder and he hit .319 with 7 homers and 65 RBIs out of the two spot. Roger Landry went down in April with an injury and didn't come back until September, but Eddie Hannah stepped in at shortstop and hit .326 in his place. They scored 831 runs, hit .305 as a team and just flat out killed opponents with their batting. The pitching was okay: Jimmy Clinch led the league with 22 wins against 10 losses (he had a 3.13 ERA, not great, but not bad). They allowed a lot of runs, but were able to generally just outhit the opposition and won a lot of 6-5 and 7-6 ballgames.

Washington entered the '21 campaign on a long and poor run that had seen them finish no higher than sixth since their 1915 second-place finish (that followed back-to-back pennants). But a steady influx of good, young players (with more on the way) had the Eagles flying high again in 1921. They had a reliever who did not make a start but still won 20 games, threw 197 innings and finished first in the league in both ERA (1.87) and strikeouts (130). Third-year 2B Jim Carreon arrived in a big way with a .342 average and 106 RBIs and young CF John Cobb chipped in with a .316 average and 81 runs driven in.

Third place Chicago had the pitching with a league-best 3.53 ERA despite not having a single pitcher win more than 17 games. 1B Rube Cross led the Chiefs with a .328 average, 7 homers and 98 RBIs. Boston finished fourth, their best finish since George Theobald left the club after the 1917 season (Theobald was now running the Detroit Dynamos). The Gothams were fifth, and New York now seemed mired in a perennial middle-ground, not able to escape the middle of the standings table. Detroit, now retooling under George Theobald (who was now a part-owner as well as manager) - in typical Theobald fashion, he unearthed a new gem in C Dick York who hit .364 in his first full-time action while 3B Cliff Everett had the best season in his career with a .332 average. And 1B Danny James also blossomed, hitting .288 with 25 home runs and 95 RBIs. The pitching for the Dynamos remained very much a work in progress.

Pittsburgh was seventha as they too sought to retool around new ace Willie Couillard (20-12, 2.98). The Keystones, last again, had some of the game's highest rated prospects, but none of them appeared ready to join the big stage, so Philly remained a poor team.

The Continental Association had probably the best pennant race in its history in 1921. Six clubs were grouped within four games in the standings at season's end. The season was a rollercoaster with Montreal, Cleveland, Brooklyn and Philadelphia trading first-place amongst themselves with Baltimore and Chicago frequently within a game or two of the top as well. Ultimately, the Saints won the pennant by one game over Cleveland with Brooklyn 1.5 back in third, Philly two back, Baltimore three back and Chicago four back.

The Saints relied on an offense that scored 914 runs to power their club because the pitching (aside from reliver Stan Waters and his league-best 2.40 ERA) was mediocre. C Sam Sanderson became a sensation, hitting .333 with 26 homers and 104 RBIs. Team-leader 3B Joe Ward hit .363 with 95 RBIs and 2B Norm Baker chipped in with a .332 average and 89 RBIs. Cleveland had lost one star in Morris, but promptly found another in 2B Carl Martin whose sophomore effort was even better than his previous season's Whitney-Award-winner as he hit .280 with 33 homers and 121 RBIs. Brooklyn had a star too in catcher Paul Tattersall. The 29-year-old Iowan blasted a league-best 37 homers and tied Martin for the RBI lead at 121. The Sailors didn't have any real standouts, though their pitching was their strength.

Baltimore got its usual stellar effort from Powell Slocum who hit .401 and shot past Zebulon Banks to take over as the game's all-time hits king. At season's end his total was 3549 hits and at age 35, he probably had a few more seasons to push that number towards 4000. Pitcher Phil Miller led the league with 22 wins (against 17 losses) and had a 3.76 which was good enough to be an ace as the dead ball era crumbled in the face of the Morris-led power revolution. Hitting had taken over to such an extent that sixth-place Chicago, with a pair of .330 hitters in their lineup, finished last in the league in scoring. Sadly for the Cougars, not among those hitters was John Dibblee who, now 33 years old, had his second straight injury-plagued campaign - he hit .360, but only played 61 games. 

The last two spots in the Continental belonged to the New York Stars, stuck in baseball purgatory and Toronto, who had bottomed out and was now looking like a long-term rebuilding project.

The World Series went to the Saints, who outlasted St. Louis in seven games to claim their second World Championship. Max Morris had three homers in the series and Jimmy Clinch had an ERA of 1.00 for his two starts for St. Louis, but the Saints had just a little more firepower even without Conrad Gardner who was limited to two at-bats due to injury. Red Henry posted a .444 average and Joe Ward hit .370 with 5 RBIs to lead Montreal's championship effort.

The Whitneys went to players from the pennant winning clubs with Sam Sanderson winning the Continental Whitney Award and Morris repeating as the Federal winner (it was three straight for Morris going back to his 1919 win as a Cleveland Forester).