1901 Regular Season Review

The 1901 BBW regular season replay is over and despite the fact that there wasn't actually a World Series played in 1901, in my role as commissioner, there will be one coming up shortly. I had first started thinking about replaying the 1901 season when it was first released ~30 years ago. I bought the card set and the season disk at the time started doing some preparatory work, but alas, parenthood intervened and the project got shelved. Now that I have come out of the other side that cycle I got the replay bug again and over the past few years I have completed 1930, 1949, and now 1901. I use BBW and ATMgr for my replays and am pleased with the way things have turned out.

1901 was a fun season, but a much different season than I initially anticipated. If you are thinking about replaying 1901 here are some things to be aware of:

1. There were the usual group of Hall-of-Fame level players we have all heard of, there was a group of what I would call "All-Star Level" players, a group of everyday type players, and of course, a group of not so good players as well.
2. Given the era, not a lot of homeruns but lots of stolen bases and sacrifices, and pitchers controlled their own destiny a lot more than they do in current days.
3. The rosters are very slim, basically your starting eight, an extra catcher (many of which played multiple positions), and usually one multi-position bench player. Teams generally carried 3-5 pitchers, with the occasional call-up thrown in every once in a while, especially around doubleheaders. Many pitchers took turns playing a position in the field as well. There were several times that Washington, who only had five pitchers to begin with, had one on the mound and two others covering in the field at the same time.
4. With rosters that short there just isn’t a lot of pinch-hitting, relief appearances, or roster manipulation. And besides, if you hit for your pitcher in the ninth inning and the game does go into extra innings, you really don’t have that kind of a bullpen. You will have to make tough decisions - yes, you will have to let that weak hitter or weak-hitting pitcher bat in the ninth because you really just don’t have anyone else.
5. I did play with "rest of game" injuries, so this was another reason to not start making extra arbitrary lineup changes. There aren’t that many of these injuries (or ejections), but they do happen and you will have to adjust around that. There were several occasions where, for instance, my second shortstop was brought in and then he got hurt. Now, what to do? You search around to see if another player had a shortstop rating, but if not, I would move in a third baseman or a second baseman, but that would mean they would need to be replaced on the field too.
6. Of course, as baseball fans, these are all things we already "know." Knowing and realizing are two different things though. It is a lot different when you are actually knee-deep in the replay and want to start running in relievers or pinch-hitters and coming to the realization that you just can't.

Even with those caveats, 1901 was a fun season to replay. There are several other things to be aware of:

1. I carded up the 80+ players that APBA didn’t card. This may seem like an unnecessary step, but again, given the rosters were so slim to begin with these players definitely helped get me through the season.
2. The APBA set was produced ~30 years ago and much in the world of baseball statistics has changed since then. I am guessing that when this set was produced there weren't any HBP numbers available because HBP numbers are reflected on the cards. I am also guessing that things like appearances, steals, and what not have been updated over the years. If APBA was to reproduce a revised 1901 set my guess is that it would look quite different.
3. The cards do come with two error numbers on them (except for Nap Lajoie - he had too many hit numbers). I added a third error number to the lowest 50% of plate appearances by OBP. It still wasn't enough. Not even close. The given fielding ratings would be considered within the range of normal, but even so, there just weren't enough errors (see chart).
4. AL teams finished with 1412 errors, versus 2875 actual, about a 50% drop. In the NL it was 1428/2452, or about a 40% drop. Even with two or three error numbers per card and we were still that far off, although the double play numbers came out pretty good.
5. With no HBP numbers on the carded players I came in at about 50% below actual.

And now, a word about ATMgr. I have used ATMgr now for my previous replays and will be using it again for my forthcoming 1957 replay. Since I am using BBW for my replays ATMgr is an invaluable tool for me. It automatically loads my historically correct lineups for every game plus it automatically makes the scheduled roster adjustments throughout the course of the season. This requires a little extra work up front, but the benefit comes once gameplay starts - once a game is completed, a few clicks and my next game is ready to play. I understand that this type of replay is not everyone's cup of tea, but it fits nicely with my goals and intentions.

Having said that, the 1901 ATMgr files were produced back when the 1901 season (cards and disk) were created and released ~30 years ago. Several very diligent fans combed periodicals and newspapers from that era and assembled the ATMgr lineups and player movement files using the information they had at the time. Baseball research doesn’t sit still though and retrosheet.org and baseball-reference.com continue to comb the records and fill in those missing holes of baseball history. It was announced recently that BBR now has complete box scores for all seasons back to 1904, so one can hope 1901-1903 can't be far behind.

The nut of this is that both the ATMgr files and the cards were built off incomplete data and are not perfect. Having said that, they are both still pretty darn good and I am very happy with the results. Would I do it again? Probably not. I am not getting any younger for one thing, and there are other seasons I want to play.

My next project will be 1957 (the year I was born). Beyond that … I would like to do 1919, maybe 1941, and then 1908 or 1912. Which means that when completed, I would have replayed 1901, 1908(?), 1919(?), 1930, 1941(?), 1949, and 1957, meaning I would have kinda sorta completed a one-per-decade snapshot of pre-1960's baseball.

But I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I want to finish my 1901 summary, I have already purchased 1957 re-issued disk and cards, and over the course of the summer will complete all of my 1957 set-up work with the intention of starting play sometime in the early fall and then finishing in late spring of next year.

American League

Chicago (Replay: 94-42 Actual: 83-53 +11)

As of Week 12 Chicago was still in second place behind Boston, but that wouldn’t last long as they went 53-19 (.736) the second half of the season and ran away with the Al pennant. Chicago did flounder around in the top half of the standings initially, but once they got hot they couldn’t be stopped. The difference was that pitcher Jimmy Callahan rejoined the team at the end of May (Week 7) after having broken his arm during a spring training accident. His presence added to Clark Griffith and Roy Patterson settled the big three at the top of the pitching rotation and Chicago ended the season with a 2.20 ERA, a half-a-run better than second-place Boston.

Chicago also led the AL in walks (421), 38 more than second-place Detroit, and they led in Stolen bases (272), 64 more than second-place Detroit. Chicago's offense was based on getting runners on base, moving them over, and then relying on key hitting up and down the lineup to get the runs home, and when you were only giving up two runs a game to begin with, you were always within striking distance of a win.

Chicago's offense did not feature any truly great hitters, but it did feature a consistent top-to-bottom lineup of good hitters who were all able to produce on a regular basis. First baseman Frank Isbell led the team with 85 RBI's and right fielder Fielder Jones led the team with 94 runs scored as Chicago finished second as a team with runs scored (5.0 runs per game).

Detroit (Replay: 84-51 Actual: 74-61 +10)

Detroit spent the first half of the season bouncing around the second division and at the end of Week 12 had moved up into a tie with Philadelphia for fourth place, even as their record was still below .500 (31-32). But then they got hot and finished the second half of the season with a 53-19 (.736) record, the same as Chicago. Their turnaround points to Joe Yeager as the reason. Yeager stated the season 6-0 from the mound, but then shortstop Kid Elberfeld got hurt and Yeager filled in at shortstop for three weeks. Yeager then got hurt while at shortstop and missed another 2-3 weeks on top of that. Once Yeager returned to the mound he ran his record to 18-0 before he finally lost a game, but his presence in the rotation allowed Detroit to focus their big three pitchers of Yeager, RoscoeMiller, and Ed Siever, again, similar to the experience in Chicago.

Detroit right fielder Ducky Holmes surpassed his season's RBI's total (62) by mid-season and ended up with 90 for the season. Basically, Holmes was the one thing keeping Detroit's head above water while they were struggling early in the season. The Tigers lineup was pretty stable with plenty of talent, but as explained previously they managed to finish in most offensive categories behind Chicago. They just dug themselves too big of a hole early and despite a tremendous hot streak in the second half of the season could never catch up the Chicago. Detroit went 10-10 versus Chicago, meaning they were the only team that did not have a losing record to the champs.

Boston (Replay: 84-52 Actual: 79-57 +5)

Boston was in first place for most of the first half of the season and were 38-19 at the end of Week 12, but that was too tough pace for them to maintain when their offense wasn't that strong. They went 46-33 (.582) in the second half of the season which allowed Detroit to catch them, but once that happened the two teams were basically inseparable in the standings with Boston finishing one-half game behind Detroit in the final standings.

Boston finished fifth in hitting in the AL with a solid regular lineup anchored by third baseman and player-manager Jimmy Collins and first baseman Buck Freeman. They ended up scoring only six fewer runs than Detroit, but their strength wasn't in their offense, but it was in their pitching and defense. Cy Young (33-8, 1.15) ought to have an award name after him as he dominated the rest of the league and with a little more offensive support could have easily turned half of those losses into wins, which would have vaulted Boston past Detroit in the standings.

Baltimore (Replay: 68-65 Actual: 68-65 +0)

Baltimore had a bit of an odd season. They were competitive most of the first half of the season and were in third place at the end of Week 12 (29-25, .537). But they could never settle on a first baseman so Mike Donlin played there the second half of the season, which meant they were now weakened in the outfield. Then they lost third baseman and player-manager John McGraw for the final third of the season to a knee injury that essentially ended his full-time playing days, catcher Wilbert Robinson missed considerable time in the second half as well, plus center fielder Jim Jackson couldn’t stay on the field either. All this, and they still played better in the second half of the season by going 39-30 (.565).

Pitchers JoeMcGinnity and Harry Howell led the depleted pitching staff, with McGinnity starting both ends of a doubleheader twice during the season and essentially carrying the whole Baltimore team on his back to get them through the season. Besides taking his turn in the rotation Howell also took turns starting in the infield and outfield as was needed plus was used as an occasional pinch-hitter as well. I kept expecting this team to collapse at some point after the mid-season but they never did - they played every game tough and somehow managed to replicate their actual win-loss record.

Philadelphia (65-71 Actual 74-62 -9)

Philadelphia was in last place at the end of Week 4 but by the end of Week 7, they had climbed up to third-place, all based on the best offense in the AL. Heading into Week 7 Philadelphia had three players hitting over .400 and another hitting in the .380's, but that couldn’t maintain itself and once their hitting settled down their true weakness was exposed - their pitching. Philadelphia led the AL in hitting, but only escaped last place in pitching because of a woeful Milwaukee pitching staff.

Second baseman NapLajoie started off the season hitting over .400 and never fell below that mark all season, and never really came close. Lajoie also led the AL in hits (224), runs (117), RBI's (136), homeruns (17), and came in second in doubles (44). Third baseman Lave Cross ended second in hitting (.372) despite missing the final month of the season due to an injury, and right fielder Socks Seybold put on a late-season rush to finish third (.358).

But leading the league in hitting and runs scored just isn't enough in and of itself and their pitchers got lit up way too many times for their offense to be able to keep up. I suspect that the Philadelphia pitchers had the same problem the St. Louis pitchers had - they had enough bad outings along the way that they got poor pitching grades and they were always therefore at risk of getting hit hard. It is my thought that they likely deserved a grade line a B/D as a starter - some percentage of the time they pitched with a higher grade, sometimes with a lower grade. Manager Connie Mack did know a good thing when he saw it though and he signed Eddie Plank right off the college playing fields of Bucknell University.

Washington (Replay: 52-83 Actual: 61-72 -9)

Washington made it through the entire season with the use of only five pitchers. Not five starters but just five players who took the mound for them all season. Most of the pitchers took turns helping in the outfield and infield as well, and it was not unusual for Washington to have 2-3 pitchers in the game at one time, one on the mound and another one or two on the field somewhere. Actually, all teams did that to some extent, but just not to the degree that Washington did.

Washington hit 43 homeruns as a team, enough to lead the AL. Right fielder Sam Dungan was in the chase for .400 for the first two-thirds of the season until he cooled off, and left fielder Pop Foster finished second in AL homeruns with 15 (#15 came when he was with Chicago at the end of the season). The homeruns were shared pretty equally by the rest of the offense, but there just wasn't enough of anything else as they finished seventh in the AL in hitting.

The fact that they finished fifth in the AL in pitching actually says more about the teams below them then it does about them. They finished a full run in ERA behind the fourth-place team (Baltimore), basically sitting right on the great divide between the good teams (with pitching) and the bad teams (without). Bill Carrick had a "Steve Carlton-esqueue" type of season with 22 wins, 42% of the teams total of 52.

Cleveland (Replay: 50-88, Actual 54-82 -4)

Cleveland spent most of the season in last place with occasional forays into seventh place and then when you least expected it, they went on a tear and won eight of their last ten to move past Milwaukee and end the season all alone in seventh. Cleveland also led the league in one-day players rentals, finding a local amateur to play for a day to fill in a spot for an injured player, a total of eight players with only one or two games played, and most never to grace a ML roster every again. That doesn't seem like a very effective way in which to build your franchise, but on the other hand, it is one more that than I ever played, so good for them.

Lead-off hitter Ollie Pickering played every day and his center-field coverage covered whoever else was in the outfield that day. His 90 runs scored, .293 average, good enough OBP, and steals always him a threat at the top of the lineup, but things got pretty bleak after that. Cleveland finished last in batting average, on-base, and slugging, and finished the season with only eleven homeruns.

Earl Moore finished with a 15-14 record and a 2.23 ERA, but that was the end of the Cleveland pitching highlights. Still, while Cleveland did have their share of stomping's, they always came back and played hard the next day.

Milwaukee (Replay: 46-91 Actual: 48-89 -2)

Milwaukee was somewhat similar to Cleveland in that they weren't afraid to bring a player up and give them a tryout. However, a tryout with Milwaukee was generally a multi-week affair, not just a one-day in-and-out. Even player-manager and Hall-of-Famer Hugh Duffy, in his final season, opted to sit out the last month to allow younger outfielders to get in some extended playing time.

The team did have one serious offensive highlight - first baseman John Anderson. Anderson hit over .400 for much of the first half of the season, finishing fourth in the AL at .353. He finished third in RBI's with 100 and finished the season with an amazing 57 doubles (he actually had 46). Milwaukee hit 34 homeruns as a team, good for third in the AL.

Despite their somewhat decent hitting, Milwaukee finished last in pitching and last in fielding. Milwaukee did have a couple of decent starters, but the team was just too inconsistent to provide any steady level of support, and once Anderson cooled off in the second half of the season it got worse.

Milwaukee committed 252 errors, 54 more than the next worse team. If all eight AL teams committed that many errors, the replay total would still be ~800 errors less than actual.

National League

Pittsburgh (Replay: 88-51 Actual: 90-49 -2)

Pittsburgh was clearly the best team in the NL - second in hitting, second in pitching, second in defense, a settled big three at the top of the pitching rotation, and one of the all-time greats in the middle of the lineup. However, Pittsburgh in this replay lacked a certain level of killer instinct, would let bad teams hang around too long when they should have been putting them away, and then at the end of the season did just enough to stay ahead of a hard-charging Brooklyn team before finally claiming the pennant on the next-to-last day of the season.

Honus Wagner did hit .338 and by looks had a great year, but he fell short in all extra-base hits categories and fell 40 RBI's short of his actual total. He certainly had the opportunities to do more damage, but never went through a period where he picked the team on his back and carried them for a stretch like some of his star peers did on other teams. The rest of the Pittsburgh lineup was strong enough to overcome Wagner's reluctance in the clutch and they were in serious contention all season, spending the first half the season moving up and down in the standings with Philadelphia and Brooklyn, but by the end of Week 14 first-place was theirs to keep.

Jesse Tannehill, Deacon Phillippe, and Jack Chesbro all had 20 or more wins, combined for 20 shutouts and were the real strength behind Pittsburgh's success. I suspect if I was to do 1901 again that Pittsburgh would be a much stronger team than they were for me this time.

Brooklyn (Replay: 84-52 Actual: 79-59 +5)

Brooklyn won the pennant in 1900 and took their turns in first place early in the season and then once Pittsburgh moved ahead Brooklyn stayed right on their heels. Brooklyn finished first in hitting and fielding and fourth in pitching as they could never really find that third stud pitcher to complete their pitching rotation.

Brooklyn led the NL in batting average, on-base, and slugging plus they led in doubles, triples, and was second in homeruns and lead in runs scored. Brooklyn had a good top-to-bottom lineup, played solid defense, but just couldn't get over the hump and pass Pittsburgh.

Bill Donovan and Frank Kitson anchored the pitching staff, Jay Hughes had a good season, but once a couple of pitchers didn't work out they were behind in the standings and couldn't catch up. Again, they were a good team, but I felt like they were playing above their heads, but they made it work for the whole season so kudos to them.

Philadelphia (Replay: 79-61 Actual: 83-57 -4)

Philadelphia finished third in hitting, third in pitching, and fifth in fielding, and like Brooklyn, they dabbled in first place early in the season but once Pittsburgh took up residence at the top of the standings they could only stay close. They tangled with Brooklyn down the stretch, both holding on to second place periodically, but struggled the last few weeks of the season to get home in third place.

Ed Delahanty and Elmer Flick powered the Philadelphia offense as they finished third and sixth in hitting, first and second in RBI's, and first and sixth in homeruns. Center fielder and lead-off hitter Roy Thomas was second in the league in OBP (.426) and was second in runs scored (108). On the other hand, Monte Cross played shortstop every day and ended with a .166 average.

Philadelphia had four pitchers with 16-to-20 wins, but no one was confusing their pitching staff with any of the greats. They certainly maximized what they had, and third place was about right.

Boston (Replay: 76-63 Actual: 69-69 +7)

Boston led the NL in pitching, finished fourth in defense, but offensively they finished in seventh place, only ahead of Cincinnati. They did surpass their actual second record but were never really a factor in the standings. They didn’t finish last in homeruns, but they did finish last in slugging.

The Boston offense was led by veteran outfielders Duff Cooley and, in his last year, Hall-of-Famer Billy Hamilton.  Cooley didn’t arrive until mid-season, and Boston rolled through a total of twelve other outfielders throughout the season trying to find someone who could produce. Add in the pitchers and catchers who took the occasional turn in the outfield and it is easy to see it was a mess. They did have a strong foursome in the infield, a real benefit to their pitchers.

The four primary pitcher all had fifteen or more wins, two finishing above .500 and two that didn't. Boston played the most one-run games and the most extra-inning games of any team in either league and while they finished above .500 in both of those categories, that was still a hard way for a team to prosper.

New York (Replay: 63-74 Actual: 52-85 +11)

New York had a slow start to the season and hung around the bottom of the standings for most of the first half of the season, but then for some reason went on a hot streak around mid-season, finally reaching up to fourth place in the NL in Week 16. New York cooled off after that and fell back behind Boston into fifth, but they were never seriously challenged from below and that was where they finished the season.

New York had two good outfielders in Kip Selbach and George Van Haltren and player-manager George Davis at shortstop, but the talent level dropped off pretty quickly after that. Sammy Strang moved back and forth between second and third as the team could never find an answer to one of the two positions, and right field was a bit of a mystery too.

Christy Mathewson and Dummy Taylor carried the pitching staff, with the team resorting to having to use sixteen other pitchers to get through the season. Somehow New York improved their record by eleven wins though, although that may reflect more on the teams below them than above them.

St. Louis (Replay: 62-78 Actual: 76-64 -14)

Truth be told, I am a Cardinals fan and I was looking forward to playing a competitive Cardinals team that, while destined for fourth place, should have been a fun team. They got off to a bad start and mostly moped through the season though.

Offensively, Jesse Burkett was the story for St. Louis. He was hitting over .400 for a long period in the first half of the season, hung around in the .390's for a long while, finally fell into the .380's, but then made two serious runs at .400 late in the season, finally falling short at .394. Shortstop Bobby Wallace had a good year, but center fielder Emmet Heidrick fell 40 points below his actual batting average and player-manager and right fielder Patsy Donovan was 60 points short. If your good players don't produce, it is hard for the not-so-good players to make up for it.

I think what happened with the St. Louis pitchers is that they had enough bad outings in 1901 that their final stats got their pitching grades lowered and they were never truly able to perform to their capabilities. It's almost like they needed a split starter's grade so they could take turns pitching with a higher or lower grade. As it was, they just got hammered too many times, their offense struggled, and they were never really in the hunt.

In my other replays there has always been one pitcher that, no matter the situation, always comes into the mound with a gas can and a book of matches (Willis Hudlin, Cleveland, in my 1930 Replay). This time around it was Willie Sudhoff. Starter or reliever, he was just instant offense for the opponent.

Chicago (Replay: 52-87 Actual: 53-86 -1)

Chicago got off to a good start to the season but slowly settled into the second division, occasionally made a run at fifth place, but then they released their pitching ace Rube Waddell and the wheels simply fell off and they eventually let St. Louis pass them and barely avoided last-place. Most of the Orphans lineup spent some time on the injured list as they occasionally had to scramble to get a lineup on the field.

Left fielder Topsy Hartsel led the team in hitting at .373 and led the league in runs scored with 110, but center fielder Danny Green might have been the team MVP as he repeatedly came through with clutch hits or defensive plays. The team featured two different second baseman named Childs (Pete and Cupid) that hit an empty .303 as a tandem. Frank Chance had several long absences and was never much of a force.

Once Waddell was released the rest of the staff was pretty shaky and the team finished sixth in pitching in the NL. The team's collapse at the end did point back to Waddell's dismissal as replacements couldn’t match his value.

Cincinnati (Replay: 51-89 Actual: 52-87 -1)

To their credit, if Cincinnati was going to be a bad team they were going to be a bad young team. Several of their older players were moved over the course of the season and several young players were given extended tryouts on the field although they had their share of one-day wonders as well. The results were pretty much what you would expect, but there were several players that did stick around for many years (Harry Steinfeldt, Bill Bergen).

The stars of the team were right fielder Sam Crawford and first baseman Jake Beckley. Beckley hit .327 and finished second in the NL in doubles with 43 while Crawford hit .309 and finished fifth in RBI's with 86. John Dobbs also finished strong with a.306 average, but also missed a third of the season to various ailments.

Noodles Hahn carried the pitching staff as best he could, but beyond that, it was Bill Phillips and then the twelve other fill-ins. Cincinnati finished last in hitting and pitching and seventh in defense. The team's highlight was that one-weekend series late in the year in Brooklyn where they won 3-of-4 games, ultimately hurting Brooklyn's run for the top.