From Elias...

Albert Pujols drove in four runs in the Angels' 6-2 win at Kansas City on Monday. It was Pujols's 64th career game with at least four RBIs, and his team is 60-4 in those games (.938). The only player with at least 60 four-RBI games whose teams had a better record in those contests was Joe DiMaggio (60-2 with one tie in 63 games, .968).

Mark Teixeira hit his 200th career home run in a Yankee uniform in New York's win over the Giants on Sunday afternoon. Teixeira is the 17th player to hit 200 home runs as a Yankee. That is by far the most such players for any team in major-league history. No other franchise has more than 10 players with 200 career home runs (Red Sox, Reds, Tigers and Phillies).

Teixeira is the fourth switch-hitter to hit 200 home runs with the Yankees joining Mickey Mantle, Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams. That equals the total number of switch-hitters that have hit 200 home runs for all other franchises: Chipper Jones (Braves), Eddie Murray (Orioles), Lance Berkman (Astros) and Jimmy Rollins (Phillies).

The Reds suffered their 60th loss of the season by losing to the Diamondbacks on Sunday. It's only the sixth time Cincinnati reached 60 losses in 98 or fewer games in the 127-year history of the franchise. The Reds reached 60 losses in 89 games in 1934, in 94 games in 1982, in 95 games in 1931 and 2001 and in 98 games in 1913.

Nelson Cruz hit a grand slam and a three-run homer in the Mariners' win in Toronto on Saturday. It's the fourth time that Cruz has driven in seven or more runs in a major-league game, and three of those games have been against the Blue Jays. (The others were in 2011 and 2012, when Cruz played for the Rangers, and in each of those games he had eight RBIs.) The only other player to have three games with seven or more RBIs against one team was Ralph Kiner, against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Jay Bruce hit his 20th home run of the season in the Reds' win over the Diamondbacks on Saturday. It's the eighth time that Bruce has had a 20-homer season for Cincinnati. The only other players who had eight 20-homer seasons for the Reds were Johnny Bench (11), Frank Robinson (10), and Tony Perez (8).

1901, and an end to a means

     Major League Baseball at the turn of the twentieth century meant one thing, National League baseball. Founded in 1876, the National League had remained a constant through the early turbulent years of professional baseball. Several leagues tried to compete with the NL, and they all failed.

     The National Association began play in 1871, but has not been officially recognized as a Major League. However, a few of the National Association teams were charter members of the National League in 1876. Some of the cities that were hosts of 'major league' caliber teams include Hartford, Elizabeth, Rockford, Troy , Keokuk and Fort Wayne.

     The National League monopolized Major League Baseball from 1876 through 1881, and then the American Association debuted in 1882. There were other leagues scattered throughout the country, but none had the prestige or the financial strength to consistently put forth the type of play, and player, that would exemplify the epitome of what professional baseball should be.

     At least in their minds.

     The challenge of the American Association to the established National League was great. And the league was successful, lasting from 1882 through 1891. And while it was not a harmonious relationship, the two leagues did agree to have a championship series at the conclusion of their season, the forerunner to the modern World Series.

     The American Association placed teams in the 'lesser' cities that were passed over by the National League, and tried to appeal to a more 'blue collar' crowd than the established National League. When the American Association finally disbanded, seven of its teams were absorbed into the National League.

     There was also the Union Association in 1884, which struggled to finish the season intact. This was the third major league that played that year, not very successfully. Four of its teams folded and were replaced by the end of the season. However, the champions of this one season league, the St. Louis Maroons, were adopted into the National League for the 1885 season.

     The Players League in 1890 was the last attempt at a second major league this century. It also lasted a year. The brainchild of star John Montgomery Ward as a protest to help alleviate the lopsided player-management situation in the National League. It was, by several reports, underfunded and under appreciated, and didn't last very long.

     In 1901, Byron Bancroft “Ban” Johnson led a group of minor league owners from the Western League, and brought them into direct competition with the established National League. Calling their newly formed league the American League, and placed teams in Boston, Washington, Baltimore, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee and Chicago.

     (In 1902 the Milwaukee team would move to St. Louis and become the Browns, who would then move to Baltimore to become the Orioles; In 1903 the Baltimore team would move to New York and become the Highlanders, later the Yankees)

     At this time, the National League teams had, for all intents and purposes, a salary cap for each player. This made it easier to lure the underpaid players from the NL to the upstart AL, and player raiding became all the rage in the very early years of the two leagues. Over 100 players jumped leagues to take advantage of the higher pay.

     For the first two seasons of its existence, the AL out drew the NL in attendance, and the two leagues agreed in principle to work together, signing a National Agreement bringing 'peace' and confirming the two 'major leagues' as we know them today.

     There were other attempts at a third major league, the first being the Federal League, who played for two seasons, 1914 and 1915, they were the first to challenge baseball's 'reserve clause' which I have discussed in earlier articles, and will discuss in later articles as well.

     The Federal league was considered to be an 'outlaw league' since it played its games outside of the aforementioned National Agreement. Many sportswriters considered the play in the Federal to be on par, if not beyond par with the two current leagues.

     During their off-season between 1914 and 1915, the Federal League filed and anti-trust lawsuit against the American ans National Leagues. The suit was brought before Federal Judge Kennesaw Landis (future baseball commissioner) who let the case languish as he urged the three parties to negotiate a resolution. It didn't work, and essentially, the Federal league ran out of the financial resources to continue the battle.

     The other attempt at a third league came in response to western expansion. After the Dodgers and Giants left New York for California, several influential businessmen decided to pool their resources to begin the Continental League. The Continental, who recruited the legendary Branch Rickey to help with its formation, planned to place teams in New York, Toronto, Denver, Houston and Minneapolis-St. Paul initially. Then were going to add teams in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth and Buffalo.

     This league never did come to fruition, but it did lead to the expansion in 1961 and 1962. It is interesting to note that of the ten cities selected by the Continental League, only Buffalo has not been selected to receive a Major League team.

     But back to the American League. Ban Johnson was the President of the league from its inception until he was removed from office in 1927, after being placed on a sabbatical due to declining health. In reality, he suffered a breakdown, and was no longer able to recognize friends and family members.

     He was deeply troubled by the events of the 1919 World Series, (again mentioned in an earlier article) and tried to be a moral compass for the league. He was made aware of a situation where some of the games greatest players conspired to throw a game at the end of the 1919 season. The information came to light in 1926, when two letters were presented by pitcher Dutch Leonard that he maintained showed proof of wagering of a game between the Tigers and the Indians.

     Allegedly, the story was put forth, that the Indians had already clinched their second place finish, and were willing to lose a game so that the Tigers might clinch third place instead of the Yankees. Those finishing in the top three positions received bonus monies from the league. (The third place bonus was approximately $400 for each man)

     Leonard said that he and Ty Cobb met under the stands with Tris Speaker and Joe Wood of the Indians to guarantee that the Indians would win. During this meeting, Leonard alleges, monies were then given to a runner to place a bet on the game,since the four knew the outcome.

     The foursome had pooled about $5,000 to bet on the Tigers, but the runner, a clubhouse man couldn't get such a large bet covered in time, and was only able to get $600 bet on the game. (The Tigers won, by the way)

     Leonard kept these correspondences to himself for a few years, until he became convinced that Cobb and Speaker (both managers by this time) had conspired to keep him out of the game, so he made these letters available to Ban Johnson.

     Johnson, not wanting to give Commissioner Landis any more headlines gave Cobb and Speaker an ultimatum...quit baseball right now or these letters go public.

     Both men retired from baseball within the week, and never took the field in an official capacity again.

     But, now to the field of play...

     Since the World Series as we know it today didn't begin until 1903, there was no post season championship. But the top 5 teams (according to the power rankings) were:

1. Pittsburgh Pirates 1^st NL
2. Chicago White Sox 1^st AL
3. Brooklyn Superbas 3^rd NL
4. Boston Americans 2^nd AL
5. Philadelphia Phillies 2^nd NL

     I use an overall number as my initial starting point. Each players statistics are measured on a scale to determine an actual numeric value. I do the same for each player, each team and each league overall. In 1901, the American League offense was far better than the pitching, which stands to reason. As Casey Stengel would say, “Good pitching stops good hitting, and vice versa.”

     I mention this because the discrepancy is a pretty sizable one, the hitters fared 23% better than the pitchers, and 13.8% better than their National League counterparts. This was buoyed by the first modern baseball Triple Crown winner, Nap Lajoie of the Cleveland Blues. His .426 batting average still has yet to be beaten, and his overall performance number was 25% better than the second best offensive player in the league, Jimmy Williams of the Baltimore Orioles.

     Lajoie averaged 1.95 Runs Produced per game, while the league itself averaged just under 6 runs scored per game. He was wholly responsible 32% of Philadelphia's runs scored during the season. His 1901 season may in fact be the greatest offensive season ever.

   

     So we'll look at the American League offense first. I will include the overall raw number for comparison)

Player	Team	HR	RBI	AVG	SB	Raw #
Napoleon Lajoie	Athletics	14	125	.426	27	3.0629
Jimmy Williams	Baltimore	7	96	.317	21	2.4482
Buck Freeman	Boston	12	114	.339	17	2.4035
Lave Cross	Philadelphia	2	17	.328	23	2.3641
Bill Keister	Baltimore	2	93	.328	24	2.3249
Jimmy Collins	Boston	6	94	.332	19	2.3032
Mike Donlin	Baltimore	5	67	.340	33	2.2915
Socks Seybold	Athletics	8	90	.334	15	2.2803
Fielder Jones	Chicago	2	65	.311	38	2.1723
Harry Davis	Philadelphia	8	76	.306	21	2.1658

     Now compared to their team's performances, with their percentage above their team average:

Nap Lajoie						1.6382
John Anderson	Milwaukee	8	99	.330	35	1.4702
Buck Freeman						1.3615
Jimmy Williams						1.3460
Jimmy Collins						1.3047
Bill Keister						1.2783
Lave Cross						1.2644
Mike Donlin						1.2599
Jack McCarthy	Cleveland	0	32	.321	9	1.2298
Mike Grady	Washington	9	56	.285	14	1.2282

     And then averaging their overall performance, and their performances against both their teams, and the rest of the league, it brings us this overall audited ranking:

Nap Lajoie						1.7160
Jimmy Williams						1.3899
Buck Freeman						1.3846
John Anderson						1.3659
Jimmy Collins						1.3268
Lave Cross						1.3245
Bill Keister						1.3199
Mike Donlin						1.3009
Socks Seybold						1.2775
Chick Stahl	Boston	6	72	.303	29	1.2350

     Over in the National League, the competition was a little closer,but there was a clear cut winner as well. The overall raw numbers:

Player	Team	HR	RBI	AVG	SB	Raw #
Jimmy Sheckard	Brooklyn	11	104	.354	35	2.5201
Honus Wagner	Pittsburgh	6	126	.353	49	2.5022
Ed Delahanty	Philadelphia	8	108	.354	29	2.4481
Jesse Burkett	S. Louis	10	75	.376	27	2.4110
Elmer Flick	Philadelphia	8	88	.333	30	2.3050
Sam Crawford	Cincinnati	16	104	.330	13	2.2746
Lefty Davis	Pittsburgh	2	33	.313	22	2.2066
Fred Clarke	Pittsburgh	6	60	.324	23	2.2306
Ginger Beaumont	Pittsburgh	8	72	.332	36	2.1978
Patsy Donovan	St. Louis	1	73	.303	28	2.1880

     Okay, now we'll look at the comparison against their team's performances:

Jimmy Sheckard						1.8495
Wee Willie Keeler	Brooklyn	2	43	.339	23	1.7909
Sam Crawford						1.7744
Ed Delahanty						1.5895
Topsy Hartsell	Chicago	7	54	.335	41	1.5015
Bill Dahlen	Brooklyn	4	82	.266	23	1.5010
Elmer Flick						1.4967
Kip Selbach	Giants	1	56	.289	8	1.4879
Jake Beckley	Cincinnati	3	79	.307	4	1.4795
Billy Hamilton	Boston	3	38	.287	20	1.4629

     And then their overall performances:

Jimmy Sheckard						1.7642
Sam Crawford						1.6445
Ed Delahanty						1.6102
Wee Willie Keeler						1.5677
Honus Wagner						1.5400
Elmer Flick						1.5162
Jesse Burkett						1.4814
Tom Daly	Brooklyn	3	90	.315	31	1.4404
Topsy Hartsell						1.4246
Kip Selbach						1.3722

     Now, onto the pitching performances. While compiling these, I discovered an interesting anomoly, which I'll uncover at the end. Cy Young won the pitching triple crown, leading in Wins, ERA and strikeouts. Young also was the most dominant pitcher in the league, statistically speaking, he was 20.6% higher than his nearest competition. In winning 33 games, he won 41.7% of the Boston Americans games that year.

     The American league raw numbers first, featuring ERA and total Runs Allowed average. The runs allowed is crucial here, since the fielding of this era was not very good, between field conditions and the essential lack of fielders gloves:

Player	Team	W-L	ERA	RA
Cy Young	Boston	33-10	1.62	2.71
Clark Griffth	White Sox	24-7	2.67	3.85
Jimmy Callahan	White Sox	15-8	2.42	3.93
Roscoe Miller	Detroit	23-13	2.95	4.55
George Winter	Boston	16-12	2.80	4.74
Snake Wiltse	Athletics	13-5	3.58	4.93
Joe Yeager	Detroit	12-11	2.61	4.73
Earl Moore	Cleveland	16-14	2.90	4.62
Eddie Plank	Athletics	17-13	3.31	4.59
Joe McGinnity	Baltimore	26-20	3.56	5.16

     And against their teams average:

Earl Moore
Cy Young
Snake Wiltse
Casey Patten	Washington	18-10	3.93	5.77
Eddie Plank
Roscoe Miller
Clark Griffith
Joe McGinnity
Bill Reidy	Milwaukee	16-20	4.21	5.47
Joe Yeager

     And then the overall rankings are as follows:

Cy Young
Earl Moore
Clark Griffith
Snake Wiltse
Roscoe Miller
Jimmy Callahan
George Winter
Joe Yeager
Eddie Plank
Casey Patten

     Now for the raw numbers in the National League:

Deacon Phillipe	Pittsburgh	22-12	2.22	3.50
Al Orth	Philadelphia	20-12	2.27	3.23
Jesse Tannehill	Pittsburgh	18-10	2.17	3.35
Jack Chesboro	Pittsburgh	21-10	2.38	3.25
Sam Leever	Pittsburgh	14-5	2.86	4.19
Red Donahue	Philadelphia	20-13	2.59	3.38
Vic Willis	Boston	20-17	2.36	3.27
Christy Mathewson	Giants	20-17	2.41	3.51
Bill Donovan	Brooklyn	25-15	2.77	3.87
Bill Duggleby	Philadelphia	20-12	2.88	3.79

     And then against their teams:

Noodles Hahn	Cincinnati	22-19	2.71	3.81
Christy Mathewson
Rube Waddell	Chicago	14-14	2.81	4.54
Dummy Taylor	Giants	18-27	3.18	4.92
Vic Willis
Al Orth
Bill Donovan
Jack Harper	St. Louis	23-13	3.62	4.61
Red Donahue
Deacon Phillipe

     And then the overall ranking:

Noodles Hahn
Christy Mathewson
Al Orth
Deacon Phillipe
Vic Willis
Rube Waddell
Jesse Tannehill
Jack Chesboro
Red Donahue
Bill Donovan

     Historical note here, Frank George “Noodles” Hahn was a twenty-two year old pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds. He won 22 games for a team that won 52 games. He led the league in strikeouts for the third consecutive season. He struck out 16 batters in a game, becoming the first to do that in the modern era.

     He was the youngest player to win 100 games in his career (Bob Feller would be younger when he reached that milestone, and Dwight Gooden would be five months older). But wise beyond his years, Hahn realized that he would not play baseball forever, and began looking for a vocation beyond his playing days.

     The Nashville native thought about medicine and the legal profession, but decided to enroll in classes at Cincinnati Veterinary College. Hahn's career lasted only a handful of years beyond the 1901 season, a victim of a dead arm, but Doctor Hahn did enjoy a lengthy career as a veterinary inspector in Cincinnati.

   
     The anomoly that I found involves the runs allowed. The raw numbers are the basis for all the other comparisons, but the raw number uses a formula that includes earned runs, NOT total runs allowed. If I replace the earned runs, the top performers in the AL maintain pretty consistent, and are ranked as follows:

Cy Young

Clark Griffith

Roscoe Miller

George Winter

Snake Wiltse

Earl Moore

Joe Yeager

Eddie Plank

Roy Patterson, White Sox

     And the National League, the variance is much greater:

Red Donahue

Al Orth

Deacon Phillipe

Jack Chesboro

Jesse Tannehill

Vic Willis

Christy Mathewson

Sam Leever

Bill Donovan

Bill Duggleby

     If nothing else, this shows the consistency of the quality of National League play, and the inconsistency of the upstart American League play. I say this because of the two performances in the AL that were head and shoulders above the rest of the league. This type of inconsistency would level itself out over the next two or three seasons.

Or perhaps these players were just in the right place at the right time

     In the AL, the player is obviously Napoleon Lajoie

     And the pitcher is Cy Young.

     In the NL, the player is Jimmy Sheckard

     And the pitcher is Noodle Hahn

     I hope you enjoyed reading this article...

Just for comparison sake...

So, as I was pondering which season to review next, I thought I might change things up a little bit. In following with the theme from the Cy Young/Walter Johnson article, I decided to pick ten players active in the last forty years (or when I was in my baseball formative years) and see how they match up with each other.

It was more of a curiosity, as I had no pre-conceived notions as to what I might find.

Of the ten players, only two of them were Hall of Fame players. Should there have been another one enshrined from this list? Lets' see.

Below are the averages based on the ten best season performances from their careers. I will not assign names to the players until the end of the article.

Player	HR	RBI	AVG	SLUGGING	ON BASE PCT	RAW NUMBER
A	14	74	0.286	0.417	0.366	1.8746
B	22	89	0.276	0.443	0.373	1.8249
C	24	78	0.271	0.472	0.376	1.8582
D	22	99	0.300	0.488	0.356	1.9081
E	16	75	0.284	0.445	0.360	1.8735
F	19	94	0.301	0.456	0.374	1.8504
G	15	82	0.291	0.430	0.360	1.9097
H	26	108	0.281	0.471	0.535	1.9327
I	20	86	0.307	0.481	0.364	1.8571
J	19	90	0.299	0.457	0.348	1.7479

We'll look at each player next.

• Player A was an All-Star player, as was everyone else on this list. While he never won an MVP award, he did finish 2^nd in voting one year, and averaged 1.09 Runs Created per game during his ten year spread. He spent his entire career with one team. He never won a batting title, and in fact, the only offensive stat he led the league in was Sacrifice Hits, which he led twice in.
• Player B played for three teams during his career. Again, another one from this list who never won an MVP award, he finished as high as fifth in voting, and averaged 1.01 Runs Created per game. He led the league in Runs Scored one year, and in On Base Percentage in another.
• Player C also never won an MVP, and also played his entire career with the same team. He also averaged 1.01 Runs Created. He led the league in homers once, led in Runs Scored once, led in Walks three times, led in On Base Percentage once.
• Player D did win an MVP award, and finished second one year, and third another. Over his career, he managed to receive MVP votes in nine of his nineteen seasons, playing for a handful of teams. He averaged 1.06 Runs Created. He won two batting titles, led the league in doubles twice, led in Hits once, led in Runs Batted In once, led in Slugging Percentage twice, and led in Total Bases three times.
• Player E again never won an MVP award, although he did finish fourth in Rookie of the Year voting, in a season that didn't qualify him for any batting championships. He finished as high as sixth in MVP voting, and averaged 1.07 Runs Created. He only led the league in doubles, but did that twice. He did steal a lot of bases during a stolen base rich era. He stole 50 or more bases in six straight seasons.
• Player F played for three National League teams throughout his career, winning one MVP award, and finishing as high as fifth on another occasion. He also was the runner up to the Rookie of the Year Award, and averaged 1.02 Runs Created. During his MVP season, he led the league in batting, Runs Batted In, Hits and Total Bases.
• Player G was another one that spent his entire career with the same team. He won two MVP awards, and averaged 1.12 Runs Created. He hit over .300 six times, but never won a batting title. He led the league in hits once, in doubles twice, in triples twice, and once in Slugging Percentage and Total Bases
• Player H had the longest career of all the players on this list, playing for a handful of teams. Never did win an MVP award, but he did finish as high as third in voting. He averaged 1.11 Runs Created. He never led the league in an offensive category, but did have 90 or more Runs Batted in for eleven straight seasons.
• Player I also spent his career with the same team, and never won an MVP award, only finishing as high as second in voting. He did, however, win the Rookie of the Year award, and finished fourth in MVP voting that year. He averaged 1.01 Runs Created. He won three batting titles, led the league in hits five times, including three in a row, and he did it during his rookie season. He also led the league in doubles four times, in Slugging Percentage once, and in Total Bases once.
• Finally, Player J played for two teams in his illustrious career, winning one MVP Award, finishing second once, and finishing sixth on three other occasions. His .94 Runs Created Average is the lowest of the ten on this list. He led the league in hits twice, and had six seasons of 200 or more hits.

So now, looking at the stats, and only the stats, we can make some notes. The top 4 in homers, players H,C, B & D, only one of them is in the Hall of Fame. RBI's, top 3 are H,D and F. Only one Hall of Famer in that group. Average...I,F and D. None of them are in the Hall. Slugging, D,I and C...again, none in the Hall. On Base Percentage, C, F and B...none in Hall. Runs Created per Game, G, H and E...two of them are the Hall of Famer from this list. And the Raw Number, which is the formula that I use for these rankings in all of these articles, the top three are H,G and D. Again, both of the Hall of Famers are in that grouping.

By Hall of Famers, I mean enshrined as players, voted in by the BBWAA or by the Veteran's Committee. 

That being said, here is the reveal:

Player A:

Alan Trammell

Player B:

Bobby Murcer

Player C:

Dwight Evans

Player D:

Dave Parker

Player E:

Cesar Cedeno

Player F:

Joe Torre
Hall of Famer, but primarily for his managerial record.

Player G:

Robin Yount...Hall of Famer

Player H:

Tony Perez...Hall of Famer

Player I:

Tony Oliva

Player J:

Steve Garvey

There you go, just as a curiosity...