For those of you embarking this trolley along the route, the premise of the exercise can be found HERE.
OVERVIEW
No franchise moves or changes to the league structure for the 1913 season.
OFFSEASON / PRESEASON
Three new modded NeLers enter the league in 1912, to put us at a total of 52 active:
- C Dan Kennard (29); Black Sox
- P Jim Jeffries (19); ABCs
- P John Donaldson (22); Monarchs SABR BIO
Notable 1912 rookies include Sam Jones and Carl Mays (Red Sox); Art Nehf (Braves); (Reds); Happy Felsch (White Sox); Rube Bressler (Reds); Guy Morton (Buckeyes); Harry Heilmann (Tigers); Wally Pipp (Yankees); Irish Meusel (Phillies); Al Mamaux (Pirates); and Jesse Haines (Cardinals).
The Tigers take Burleigh Grimes first overall in this year’s Rookie Draft, while “Tioga” George Burns goes to the Browns with the second pick.
We continue our reset at the Dodgers, non-tendering a number of players and trading a couple others away for Big Ed Reulbach.
Interesting offseason moves include Heinie Wagner (Black Sox); Johnny Kling (Red Sox); Jack Warhop (Braves); Nap Rucker, Hooks Wiltse, and Alfredo Cabrera (Cubs); Andrew Payne (Yankees); Beals Becker (Giants); Art Fromme (Athletics); Cy Falkenberg (Phillies); Joe Tinker (Senators).
OPENING DAY PREVIEW
The top-ranked position player is Buckeyes outfielder Joe Jackson.
The top-ranked pitcher is Washington’s Walter Johnson.
The top-rated prospect is age-22 P Dazzy Vance of the Browns ahead of Tigers 1B Harry Heilmann.
The top-ranked farm system belongs to the Reds.
BNN sees the races looking like this:
- AL East: 97-65 Athletics 2 clear of the Senators, with the 76-86 Black Sox in the cellar.
- AL Central: 86-76 Buckeyes 4 clear of the White Sox, with the 60-102 Tigers in the cellar.
- NL East: 108-54 Giants 23 clear of the Dodgers, with the 49-113 Grays in the cellar.
- NL Central: 102-60 Pirates 12 clear of the Cubs, with the 53-109 Reds in the cellar.
REGULAR SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
04/10: Christy Mathewson gets career Win #250.
04/11: Chicago’s Sam Crawford collects the cycle against Cincy.
04/12: Ad Lankford misses the entire 1913 season after suffering a setback while rehabbing from a shoulder injury.
06/02: Giants outfielder Beals Becker hits safely in 30 consecutive games.
06/22: A huge game for our Zack Wheat against the Jints, as he hits for the cycle – in the natural order with a grand slam! – and drives in 6.
06/25: Eddie Plank notches his 300th career win.
06/26: Louis Santop belts 3 homers with 5 RBI in Homestead’s 9-6 win over the Reds.
07/31: The Yankees ship Grant Johnson and Allen Russell to the White Sox for Win Noyes and Frank O’Rourke.
08/23: Fred Luderus smacks three homers and drives in 7 as the Phils blow out the Grays 13-2.
09/03: Indy 1B Ben Taylor goes 6-for-6 with 3 RBI against the Phillies.
09/05: Cincy’s Hans Lobert goes yard three times and sets a new NL record with 12 RBI in a 21-2 shellacking of the Pirates.
REGULAR SEASON RECAP
Just the AL East to keep us intrigued over the final weeks, with the other three no-contests.
AL
The Athletics clinch easily in mid-September, while the Buckeyes grind their way to a third straight Central division title.
NL
We sit at 88-62 and 3 clear of the Giants thru 150 games, but that gap has shrunk to a single game a few days later when they visit us at Ebbets. We’re operating on fumes by this point and they beat us handily in all three games to take a 2-game lead with six to play but we keep fighting and are even with them at 91-68 going into our final series: we are at home to Indy; they are hosting Philly. We lose two of three to give them their fifth NL East title in six years.
Undoubtedly the one that got away and also where our rivalry with the Giants officially begins.
The Pirates extend the streak – only themselves and the Cubs have ever won the division since it came into being in 1906 – with their third NL Central title, doing so fairly comfortably in the end by 11 games.
Fred Luderus’s HR lasts just one year as Gavvy Cravath bests it with 46.
Walter Johnson sets a new low with his 1.672 ERA.
Other new (post-1900) single-season marks set: Charles Dougherty 13 SV; Walter Johnson .2324 opponents OBP; Tom Johnson 32 HR conceded.
NeLER NOTES
A host of fantastic performances among the position players, led by 7+ WAR seasons from Cristobal Torriente and Pop Lloyd.
One must basically ignore the W-L records, with plenty of 20-loss campaigns among the pitchers plying their trade for still relatively young expansion clubs. Even Joe Williams loses 20 in spite of posting nearly 11 rWAR.
Always the trendsetter, Jose Munoz goes 3-1, just the second winning season of his long career.
That career comes to an end; here it is in all its g(l)ory:
FINAL MLB STANDINGS
AL STAT LEADERS
NL STAT LEADERS
* Please note there are some discrepancies regarding players’ correct teams in these stat leaders screenshots from the early years due to them having been taken retrospectively.
PLAYOFFS
LCS
Cleveland is looking to continue its incremental improvement by winning it all this time around. First stop, a dominant Athletics side.
The A’s hang on 7-6 in the opener after nearly blowing a huge lead and are a little lucky again the following day, doubling their lead with a 4-2 win behind Charles Bender. Cleveland gets on the board with an 8-3 win at home in Game 3 as Pop Lloyd has 4 hits and 5 RBI and then squares things up with a strong 10-4 victory the next day. Another grinding win gives the Buckeyes the lead heading back to Philly, with the Athletics having all sorts of trouble containing Lloyd and Shoeless Joe Jackson, but the home dominance continues as the A’s force a Game 7 with a gritty 6-3 win. The decider stays scoreless thru 7 before the visitors break it open and advance to their second straight World Series with a riveting 5-1 win.
Once more unto the breech for the Giants, as they again try to break their NLCS hoodoo—this time against the Pirates. Babe Adams beats Christy Mathewson as the Buccos take G1 of the NLCS at the Polo Grounds and the Jints’ struggles at this stage continue as they lose again the next day in a wild 10-9 slugfest. A tight 5-2 win for Pittsburgh behind George McConnell puts the New Yorkers on the brink of another premature exit and they meekly take their leave with a 7-1 loss completing the sweep.
WORLD SERIES
It has been more than a decade since the Pirates’ sole World Championship and, of course, the Buckeyes are still looking for their first, so I expect this to be a hard-fought and close-run thing.
Pittsburgh wins a gripping 12-inning opening game 4-3 in Cleveland but the Buckeyes bounce back with a 6-2 win behind Vean Gregg.
The old curse gets the Buckeyes again in Game 3 as they blow a lead late and lose in extras, and another loss the next day leaves them on the precipice.
Vean Gregg saves their bacon once again with a 5-hitter in a 7-0 G5 win that sends the series back to Cleveland but the Pirates put them away with a tough 5-3 win.
Max Carey wins the MVP.
1913 RECAP
Frank “Home Run” Baker and Beals Becker take out the MVPs, a first for each, with Walter Johnson winning his third CYA and Lefty Tyler his first.
Wally Schang and Jim Viox are unanimous choices for the RoY, while only the NL Relief award is handed out, with Elmer Rieger the recipient.
Doc White, Jimmy Sheckard, and Cy Seymour should have their share of admirers when they are added to the HoF ballot five years hence.
NeL-obsessed member from Sydney, Australia who spends an inordinate amount of my free time running simulations of various natures on Out of the Park Baseball.
Hi Glenn – I’ve been following along as you complete each season, great job on this project! I’m not sure if you are aware, but our Committee is conducting a Research/Survey project in which we are documenting the various games and projects that the simulation community completes. It would be great if we could get your replays listed on the project spreadsheet. Please refer to my recent blog post on the subject (11-19-25), or follow the link below. Please list each year individually. Email me if you have any questions or want to chat: baseballsimauctions@yahoo.com.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeQ_riqPmfiv-fjvTcZN4SEJhHmkB-j9Cd-fg0ZifnwSNX-lA/viewform?fbclid=IwY2xjawOJ-dtleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFMVWw0STZ4SEZjeGVCSXpHc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MghjYWxsc2l0ZQEyAAEegvrcVCQo57crV2uqOwsOxoumM8jjfdL7qkHlzYU-IOBYmJUKqy9VoAnzWlc_aem_dQaix-eN9m87fqxwhqpdhw&pli=1