Deadball Era: APBA releases 1910 set

Yesterday, APBA officially announced the release of the 1910 baseball card set and disk to the delight of deadball APBA fans, I’m sure.

Now as a Cubs fan I should love this.  They took the NL title with a 104-50 record.  On the American League side, Connie Mack’s A’s won it with 102 wins (Mack was already being called the “dean of managers” at this point.  Alas, he only had 41 more years left as manager of the Athletics).

A few more side stories to the 1910 season:

• William Howard Taft was the first President to throw out the ball at opening day at Washington’s League Park. 
• Comiskey Park opened in 1910 with a capacity of 48,600.
• 1910 was the year of the Ty Cobb-Napoleon Lajoie rivalry.  Allegedly, the St Louis Browns let Lajoie beat out seven bunts in the last day of the season so that he would win the batting crown (Bunt for a hit board, anyone?)
• Cy Young won his 500th game and lost his 300th.

Obviously, if you’re looking for homerun power, you won’t find it in the 1910 season.  The Chicago White Sox hit 7 as a team all year.  Three players hit double digits and just barely.  Jake Stahl, Fred Beck and Frank Schulte all hit exactly ten to lead the majors.  But that’s not why you would buy the 1910 set.  It has pitching, speed and yes, some hitting. 

But the pitching!  Here are the top ten in ERA from qualifiers from both leagues:

I count at least six Hall of Famers on that list.  Ed Walsh’s 1.27 ERA is striking and will no doubt earn him his A&B again despite his 18-20 record.

Lajoie and Cobb were really far and away tops in hitting in 1910.  Scandal or no, they hit .384 and .383 and were over 40 points better than any contenders in the batting title in either league (Speaker did hit .340). 

Some say it was actually one of Ty Cobb’s down years.  Yes, he should have won the batting title in 1910 but didn’t lead the AL in hits (Lajoie, 227), steals (Eddie Collins 81), or rbis (Sam Crawford, 127) which he had been quite accustomed to doing. 

Finally it will be interesting to see how APBA handles the fielding.  If I remember my 1908 set, they’ll have to get creative.  To give you an idea, four players made 60+ errors.  Obviously, era adjustments will have to be made. 

I’d love to hear from anyone who gets this set especially if you decide to replay it.  When you do any replay from a different era, game play style is so critical and that’s so true with the deadball era.  You can’t rely entirely on Earl Weaver’s winning formula of “pitching, fundamentals and three-run homers”.