The long path to the end of the 1903 season has finally arrived. Taking 22 months was longer than expected, but now I have the satisfaction of being able to head to the World Series at last.
This was also my first full season with the advanced fielding ratings and it showed in my defensive stats. No, I don’t keep individual fielding, that’s just too much work for me personally, but I do tally total team errors, double plays and triple plays. Even my worst defensive team was well under the most errors ever for a team, and several teams were within 20 errors of the number of double plays.
Pitching was supreme again as the AL averages were well below where they should have been, and there were only 2 .300 hitters, but unlike 1905, most hitters did manage at least a .270 average. Please note I play 140 game seasons to match the length of the 1901 season so that the stats will all be meaningful and will never have to say (well so and so played an extra number of games)
Final American League Standings
Boston Red Sox 95-45
Cleveland Indians 81-59
Detroit Tigers 78-62
Philadelphia A’s 71-69
New York Yankees 68-72
Chicago White Sox 63-77
St. Louis Browns 57-83
Washington Senators 46-94
Boston Red Sox (95-45)
Boston roared out of the gates and never was challenged from opening day. Armed with their trio of overpowering A starters and power hitting, mixed with a hint of speed, and outstanding defense, which set a record for the fewest errors in a season with 68, while turning 54 double plays was more than any team could deal with.
Cy Young wins the Pitcher of the Year award with a 33-13 record to go with his 1.87 ERA and .73 WHIP. He allowed just 6.65 base runners per inning while most averaged over 10.
Teammate Bill Dinneen also had a 33-13 record, and had a 2.53 ERA and .85 WHIP, Tom Hughes, who seems to be a journeyman, now on his 3rd team in three replays went 25-19, with a 2.56 ERA and .90 WHIP. George “Sasafrass” Winter had a 1.27 ERA in limited playing time.
While the pitching was at the forefront there was some good hitting on this team. Pat Dougherty hit .322 to win his first batting title. He also had 16 triples and 52 stolen bases.
John Freeman was a favorite of mine to win the MVP award with his .288 AVG. and led the league with 16 homers. He had 68 extra base hits overall (pretty good for deadball) and had 99 RBI. He also became the first player to have a cycle.
Freddy Parent had a fine year, hitting .279 with 15 triples and 20 steals. Jimmy Collins had 11 homers, but struggled a bit with nagging injuries and only hit .259. He also hit 11 triples and stole 29 bases however, while playing great defensively at third. Hobe Ferris finished second in home runs with 15, but struggled plenty when not hitting the long ball and finished at .217.
The bottom of the order is the only true weak spot as first baseman Candy LaChance (.194) and catcher Lou Criger (.183) were automatic outs. Back-up catcher Charles Ferrell hit .291 in a part time role.
Cleveland Indians (81-59)
Another good run by the tribe, still pretty much in rebuild mode they show signs of things to come. Another good defensive team, they came the closest to being the first team with more double plays than errors with a -11 differential.
This is another team where pitching was talked about more than their hitting, but they were a solid bunch that just got out of the gate slowly and had never really recovered.
Earl Moore 27-16, 1.89 ERA, .88 WHIP had 10 shutouts this year. Earl is one of the few guys that could match up with Cy Young, but never had the same firepower in his lineup. Young Addie Joss was hot and cold at times, and finished with a 23.20 record and a 2.84 ERA and a .90 WHIP. Bill Bernhard was the surprise on the staff, going 25-17.
Harry Bay was among the leaders in average again, hitting .280, and tied for the lead in steals with 59. Elmer Flick had some cold streaks but still managed to hit .270 with 18 triples and 29 steals.
Napoleon Lajoie struggled early again, but had another monster second half to finish third in hitting with a .296 batting average. He also hit 6 homers and stole 24 bases.
Charlie Hickman was the backbone of the offense through 3/4th of the year, but finally tired out. He finished with with a .281 average and 11 home runs among his 59 extra base hits. He even exceeded his actual season total of 11 steals with 23 during the replay.
Third baseman Bill Bradley FINALLY finished a season with only a 1 day trip to the DL. For those new to my replays he is the official king of days and trips to the injured list. He hit well below his actual numbers, but for him it was a decent replay just because he survived. He hit just .245 with 3 homers. If you were to see his card you would not believe how much he underperformed.
The bottom of the lineup was as soft as it gets. Catcher Harry Bemis hit just .199, and reserve Harry Abbott hit just .214. Shortstop in name only, John Gonchaur hit a paltry .164 and was a SS-6, allowing many hits that an average defender would have made. While the Indians played well defensively, he was the culprit most times.
Detroit Tigers (78-62)
Detroit got off to a slow start, and I was wondering if they would ever get near .500. “Wahoo” Sam Crawford got off to a slow start, but had a good season, hitting .270 with 9 homers, and lead the league with 104 RBI. He stole 29 bases as well.
Charlie Carr was downright awful for the first half, but was an important part of the comeback. Once player-manager Lewis McAllister shuffled the lineup he got better pitches to see and finished with a decent .263 average.
Speaking of McAllister, he started off doing well, but failed in the second half and finished at just .252. The offensive spark that benefited most from the reshuffle was at the top of the order. Jimmy Barrett (.262 36 SB) was struggling at the bottom of the order and once moved into the top of the order began to flourish, and Billy Lush really came alive in the two spot and used the hit and run to advantage, despite not having the extra 31 usually needed. He finished 7th in hitting at .282 and stole 38 bases and had 16 triples to set the stage for Crawford.
Pitching was the strong suit for this club. Bill Donovan went 24-20 with a 2.41 ERA and a .91 WHIP. He also threw two no hitters. George Mullin had the second half of the year though. He went undefeated after July 1 and was among the leaders in every pitching category, and finished 3rd in POY voting. He ended up with a 27-16 record, 2.06 ERA, .90 WHIP. Frank Kitson finished with a respectable 21-20 2.97 ERA.
Philadelphia A’s (71-69)
My preseason favorites really struggled. It was one step forwards, two steps back most of the year. Pitching underperformed and hitting was solid, but always failed in the clutch. A funny thing happened on the way to Buck Freeman’s certain MVP ceremony. It came up a bit short. First baseman Jasper Davis just kept hitting and never stopped. Jasper was in the top 5 in almost every category, and other than home runs was above Freeman in all of them.
I know that once I start playing more modern era games this is a season that will be forgotten, but when your first baseman plays gold glove caliber defense, hits .312 with 13 HR (which translates to about 35 in the modern era) drives in 99 runs despite the top two hitters with OBP barely over .300, hits 12 triples, 41 doubles (third straight season for him) and steals 45 bases you have a player to boast about.
He got plenty of help from Ralph “Socks” Seybold who played well, but had a great September and finished at .294 and 6 homers. Tullos Hartsel hit .277 with 8 HR and drove in 82 runs, but really underperformed his card.
Another team with a terrible bottom of the order, but to the A’s credit their bench was really strong. Danny Hoffman hit .284 while subbing frequently for the terribly underperforming Lave Cross. Ed Hilley and even Mike Powers hit over .300 in very limited roles. The biggest shock in all of baseball was reserve Albert Daly, who hit just .192 in the real season, and was rewarded with a terrible card, but somehow ALWAYS hit the few good numbers on the card. He only has 8 hit numbers against even a D, and if it’s a B or an A even worse. I actually started him over the afore mentioned Cross for the final month of the year and he managed to hit .291 for the year and despite only appearing in 46 games managed 14 triples and finshed 9th among the league there. Congratulations Albert!
Rube Waddel set the single season record for strikeouts in a season with 324. He went 24-18 with 3.13 ERA and 1.03 WHIP on his way to the POY award. Eddie Plank chipped in with 24 victories and a 3.03 ERA. Chief Bender was extremely disappointing, basically serving BP most of the year.
New York Yankees (68-72)
The bombers were anything but. The team batting average was just .212. Even Willie Keeler struggled and finished with just a .266 average. Player-Manager Norman “The Tabasco Kid” (eventually they shortened this to just “The Kid”, but the original name is sooooo much cooler to me! Led the way with a .277 average. Dave Fultz hit .243, but did tie for the league lead in stolen bases with 59.
The biggest boost for this team was actually on accident. I did not notice until well into the season that Ambrose Puttmann was a J-4. I only used him once in the final 2 months to try and balance it out. Puttmann finished with 20 wins by the way, but John Chesbro was the true ace of the staff, going 22-20 with a 2.65 ERA. Jesse Tannehill, once moved into the rotation posted a 2.71 ERA despite a 4-7 record. Elmer Bliss was used exclusively in relief and had a 2.00 ERA in 20 appearances.
Chicago White Sox (63-77)
This is a team that really had no chance. A tiny roster that had a few good players and a lot of bums. Harry Clark hit .271 with 15 triples. For some reason a man named Ed Green has the nickname “Danny”. Despite that oddity, Danny had a great year, but faded in September to finish with 12 triples, 6 homers and a .290 average. Fielder Jones hit .257, but everyone else was lucky to hit .200.
The pitching was really not that bad, but because of the lack of hitting had to be spot on to win most games. Guy “Doc” White was terrific 22-17 with a 2.27 ERA and a .90 WHIP, and 4 shutouts. Roy Patterson notched 19 victories.
St. Louis Browns (57-83)
I was somewhat disappointed in the brownies this season. I knew they were not going to win the title, but looking at the cards I expected a better finish. Several players underperformed badly, Jesse Burkett, John Anderson and Bobby Wallace truly disappeared this year, and Emmett Heidrick struggled for the first two months, but finished with a .275 average and 26 stolen bases. Late season call up Benny Bowcock moved into the starting position at second, and while he struck out a LOT he was a true offensive threat. Hitting .293 with 4 home runs in the final month and a half.
This was a team that had good pitching, better than the White Sox, and Yankees even. John Powell was 16-18 with a 3.44 ERA, John Sudhoff was even better, going 17-18 with a 2.68 ERA. Barney Pelty was great once he got regular starts 3-5 with a 2.98 ERA. In a league filled with A starters, C R pitcher John Terry was actually pretty solid, going 3-5 with a 3.14 ERA.
Washington Senators (46-94)
Congratulations Senators! You win the prize for worst team in baseball. Well, at least they didn’t lose 100. Armed with almost nothing I was not expecting much, but this was a team that was not fun to play the games with because unless they were playing the White Sox, you knew they were going to lose.
Gene DeMontreville was the true bright spot on offense; starting the year on the bench, but moving in sometime in May and hit .303 with a couple of homers. He also wins the Shawon Dunston “Eagle Eye” Award for drawing one walk and striking out 88 times. Ed Delahanty underperformed, but was still tolerable with a .265 average. James Ryan hit .235. Nobody else cleared the “Mendoza Line.”
Once again Wyatt Lee (15-23, 3.24 ERA) and Casey Patten 10-26, 3.45 ERA) were as good as could be, but the rest of the staff was downright awful, “led” by Al Orth who went 2-9 with a 5.37 ERA and a 2.41 WHIP.
Excellent article, Scott. I recently bought the 1901 APBA Baseball set off of my brother, I plan to do a season at some point.
Great write. Congrats on completing the replay…good read. Loved the commentary on the Senators. It is painful to play the tail-enders, particularly as the replay ends. Still, you wind up getting attached to them to see if they can spoil someone else’s bid for the pennant.
RC