For those of you embarking this trolley along the route, the premise of the exercise can be found HERE.
OVERVIEW
No franchise changes for the 1922 season.
OFFSEASON / PRESEASON
Seven new modded NeLers for 1922, putting our active list at 71:
- P / UT Martin Dihigo (16); Black Sox SABR BIO
- 2B Newt Joseph (25); Black Sox
- P Rats Henderson (25); Black Barons
- 2B George Scales (21); Black Barons SABR BIO
- IF Jud Wilson (26); ABCs SABR BIO
- P / OF Cool Papa Bell (18); Grays SABR BIO
- P Webster McDonald (22); Monarchs SABR BIO
Notable 1922 rookies include Smead Jolley (White Sox); Freddie Lindstrom (Giants); Earl Combs, Tony Lazzeri, and George Pipgras (Yankees); Al Simmons and Rube Walberg (Athletics); Glenn Wright (Pirates); Earl McNeely and Firpo Marberry (Senators).
The Black Barons take pitcher By Speece first overall in this year’s Rookie Draft.
My Dodgers get Babe Herman as a rookie but makes no moves of consequence over the break.
Orchestrated moves: Johnny Bassler to the Tigers; Tony Boeckel and Ray Powell to the Braves; Charlie Jamieson to the Buckeyes; Rabbit Maranville to the Pirates; Jack Quinn and Bill Piercy to the Red Sox; George (non-Tioga) Burns to the Reds; Whitey Witt, Sad Sam Jones, and Bullet Joe Bush to the Yankees; Heinie Groh and Hugh McQuillan to the Giants.
Game-generated moves: include Bill Pettus (Black Barons); Joe Dugan (Cubs); Jackie Tavener (Grays); Jose Mendez (Monarchs); Tom Williams (Bears); Howie Shanks (Giants); Jesse Petty and Dickie Kerr (Athletics); Everett Scott (Browns); Jeff Pfeffer (Cardinals); Ray Caldwell (Senators).
Two absolute legends in Nap Lajoie and Christy Mathewson get into the HoF on their first try.
OPENING DAY PREVIEW
The top-ranked position player is Red Sox OF Babe Ruth.
The top-ranked pitcher is Washington’s Walter Johnson.
The top-rated prospect is age-21 2B George Scales of the Black Barons, with Sam Streeter the top pitching prospect.
The top-ranked farm system belongs to the Black Sox.
BNN sees the races looking like this:
- AL East: 97-65 Yankees 18 clear of the Jays, with the 60-102 Red Sox in the cellar
- AL North: 90-72 Buckeyes 3 clear of the Tigers, with the 69-93 White Sox in the cellar
- AL South: 109-53 Browns 21 clear of the Monarchs, with the 60-102 Senators in the cellar
- NL East: 107-55 Giants 19 clear of the Grays, with the 53-109 Phillies in the cellar
- NL Central: 89-73 Pirates 5 clear of the Reds, with the 67-95 ABCs in the cellar
- NL South: 105-57 Cardinals 29 clear of the Black Barons, with the 69-93 Braves in the cellar
The Browns continue to thrive in this timeline, although so far it is yet to translate into a title. Is this the year? Perhaps even for an all-St. Louis World Series?
Surprised to see the Red Sox rated so poorly with the Babe still at their club in this universe. Pitching seems to be their issue, with BNN projecting them to finish with a 4.64 ERA— equal-highest with the Phillies.
Keen to watch Ken Williams (and others) try to chase down Pete Hill’s HR record of 53—just one of many threads in what is shaping as another fascinating season.
REGULAR SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
04/04: Pittsburgh 3B Pie Traynor misses four months with a finger injury.
04/13: Frankie Frisch hits safely in 27 straight games.
05/05: Rajah Hornsby collects the cycle against the Cubs in a losing cause.
05/21: Pete Hill reaches 3000 Hits for his illustrious MLB career in this timeline.
05/22: Elam Vangilder gives us the first PERFECT GAME in this timeline.
05/28: Joe Williams notches his 300th Win.
06/09: Cincy’s Bubbles Hargrave collects the cycle against New Orleans—something of a rarity for a catcher.
07/09: After losing his first 11 MLB decisions, Sam Streeter finally gets into the Win column.
07/17: One bright day in an otherwise challenging first half of the season sees the Cubs post 11 in the 2nd and 10 in the 4th en route to a 29-6 demolition of the Reds.
07/31: At the Deadline, the Red Sox pre-empt the historical by a year, trading Herb Pennock to the Yanks—in this timeline, for Mark Koenig.
08/20: Memphis outfielder Reb Russell clips Washington for the cycle.
09/02: The Pirates lose key veteran Babe Adams for the year to an elbow blowout that will also see him miss most of 1923 as well—at 40, that will be tough to come back from.
09/05: Heavy Johnson is enjoying another stellar season and he adds a cycle against the Athletics to it in a 10-5 win.
09/19: While most of the spotlight has been on John Beckwith (see below), Babe Ruth is having a pretty damn fine season himself and gives us one of the best individual games we’ve seen in this timeline, going 5-for-5 with 4 HR and 5 RBI in a losing cause against Baltimore—a performance that will retrospectively be given a Game Score of 130.
REGULAR SEASON RECAP
A pretty low-drama season for once.
AL
Not that they were ever in danger, but the Yankees make sure of another AL East crown with a 13-game win streak at the end of August.
The Buckeyes and White Sox renew hostilities, shaking off the Athletics in August for some alone time. That doesn’t last long, as Cleveland takes it up another notch in September and Chicago can’t go with them, earning the Buckeyes their fourth AL North title in a row.
Another straightforward AL South title for the Browns.
The AL Wild Card is the one truly tight race, with the Jays – looking for their first playoff run – and the White Sox still tied entering the final day. Cocky Collins steps up big time, going 5-for-6 and scoring 5 runs as the White Sox destroy Cleveland 20-0, and they head back to the playoffs for the first time since 1919 when Newark drops its final game 7-1 to the Yankees.
NL
Woeful pitching—we finish the year ranked 10th of 10 for Starter ERA at 4.32—and a terrible run of injuries cruel my Dodgers’ chances this year.
The Giants are relatively untroubled in taking the NL East division.
The Reds decisively take the NL North, just their second trip to the playoffs so far.
Things tighten right up in the NL South during August as the Cardinals just lose their way a bit and the Black Barons catch them in the last week of that month. Birmingham keeps them honest to the end, but the Cards win all but one of a late series to take the division, meaning they are still the only club to win this division since the 1918 realignment.
The BBs nevertheless comfortably book their maiden playoff appearance as the NL Wild Card.
Waite Hoyt finishes the season 23-6 with a 2.30 ERA – throwing two 1-hitters, two 2-hitters and a 3-hitter along the way – but misses the Triple Crown by one measly strikeout to Urban Shocker.
Fictional player Mel Mendoza breaks his own record with 26 Saves.
NeLER NOTES
Not even I have words to adequately describe John Beckwith’s season. Thankfully, I believe the stats do themselves the requisite justice unembellished by yours truly.
Among them, he sets new season marks in this timeline for SLG, OPS, Total Bases, and WAR.
As to the question of how? The 1922 source data for him are particularly strong—a 394/598/641 slash with 60 doubles, 16 HR and 120 RBI for a whopping 21.1 WAR. The MLE stats from which those are derived actually have this as a roughly standard Beck season, with 1925 in fact his peak year. According to the IRL, the two (1922 and 1925) are fairly similar and his best by some margin, at least on a WAR basis as calculated by Seamheads.
As far as the 1922 environment in this timeline is concerned, the averaging stats actually worked against him with a 264/334/385 line vs the IRL for that year of 287/346/399 (MLB only), while historically there was a HR hit in 1.244% of PA and in the LTMs that control the overall league statistical output, that figure was 1.94%. Kind of a wash.
Do I think this season is realistic? Yes, with a caveat.
It is undoubtedly an outlier on the high side, given the greatest single historical season by WAR as calculated by BBRef is Babe Ruth’s 1923 campaign. That said, I reckon if you’re more knowledgeable than I am about statistics (not hard), you wouldn’t have to look too hard for criteria with which to justify its validity.
One thing I do know for sure is that it was lots of fun to watch unfold.
Bullet Rogan continues with his unbelievable two-way performances, racking up nearly 15 combined WAR, while Edgar Wesley must be among the most underrated players among the group, with his fourth straight season of at least 30 HR.
Andy Cooper is the pick of a very good pitching group, posting 8.4 rWAR in a 22-6 campaign that should see him prominent come awards time. Nice to see age-37 Jose Mendez back to his best.
Just the one modded NeLer finishing up in 1922.
JOSE JUNCO: One of the biggest misses on a WAR basis to this point, just never really got much of a go for whatever reason. Unusual, because he acquitted himself pretty well in the limited opportunities he did get.
FINAL MLB STANDINGS
AL STAT LEADERS
NL STAT LEADERS
PLAYOFFS
Of the six clubs left in the competition, only the reigning Champion Giants have previously held the trophy aloft.
DS
The White Sox show plenty of spunk to get a 5-4 win in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium and then really set the cat among the pigeons with a 3-0 win the next day as Rollie Naylor excels. The Yanks bow out with nary a peep as the Sox sweep them on the back of a 12-5 cakewalk.
Two clubs desperate to get off the schneid after so much recent regular-season dominance and post-season futility face off in the other ALDS, and the Buckeyes start strongly on the road with a 9-1 win in the opener behind George Uhle. They repeat the dose 4-2 in G2 to head home seemingly in command but can’t finish the job in Game 3, which the Browns take 8-6, nor in G4, which they lose 10-4 to set up a big decider back in the Loo. The Buckeyes’ capitulation is complete when Ken Williams leads the Browns into the ALCS with a 7-3 victory.
The Giants begin their title defence proper with a disciplined 3-1 home win against Cincy, then escape with a walkoff 4-3 victory the next day and close it out with a 9-5 win at Crosley Field a couple days later.
Rajah v Beck in the other NLDS, with the Birmingham boys taking the opener 3-1 thanks in a large part to a fine outing from Bill Force. They double their advantage with a cruisy 8-2 G2 win as Beck drives in 4, then finish the disappointing Cards off quick smart with a 5-3 victory at a packed Rickwood Field.
LCS
Momentum is such a key factor at this time of the year, and the White Sox look to be peaking at the perfect time, beating the Browns 4-1 at Sportsmans Park and pushing them all the way again in Game 2 before the home side prevails 7-4. Game 3 in Chicago is an arm-wrestle until the Browns break it open with a 4-spot in the top 9th for an 8-4 final, with a 3-1 White Sox win the next day behind Specs Hill once again restoring the balance. The flip-flopping continues as a 10-inning 5-4 win sends the Browns home needing one win from two for their maiden AL Pennant. They don’t get it in an epic Game 6 the Sox end up winning 4-3 in 12, but score a bunch early in the decider and get the job done with a stirring 9-2 victory behind Urban Shocker.
Joe Williams and Bill Force give us a Game 1 gem at the Polo Grounds that the Black Barons ultimately win 3-1 in 13, but the Jints bounce back strongly the next day with a 10-1 blowout win to square the series. Game 3 is a ripper, with the Giants coming back late to take it 5-4, and they win an even better one in spares the day after to move within one win of the WS. The BBs throw everything at them and will take a lot away from this series, but the win is not among them as the Giants advance with a gritty if imperfect 9-6 win.
WORLD SERIES
A tentative start to the 1922 World Series at the Polo Grounds sees Rosy Ryan outduel Ray Kolp in a 1-0 win for the home side, with Game 2 another tight tussle the visiting Browns take 4-3.
We get a few more runs as the series shifts to St. Louis for the next three, with the Giants poking their noses back in front via a grinding 7-5 win and then extending their lead with another hard-fought 3-2 victory.
Facing elimination, the Browns respond emphatically, sending the series back to NYC with a 10-2 thrashing and look all set to have forced a decider as they lead Game 6 5-2 heading into the bottom 9th. But of course, this is the Browns we’re talking about here, and they somehow manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as Bill Bayne implodes and the Giants rally for a 6-5 win on a glorious walkoff single by Ross Youngs, scoring Dave “Beauty” Bancroft with the winning run.
Howie Shanks wins the MVP.
1922 RECAP
Babe adds a fifth MVP to his collection, Beck a first.
Waite Hoyt and Dolf Luque win maiden CYAs.
Sam Streeter and Frank Parkinson are this year’s RoYs, with Marv Goodwin and fictional Tim Civetti named best relievers.
As he did IRL, Joe Wood poses an interesting HoF case. He finishes his career in this timeline with a 192-89 record and 130 ERA+, which should earn him support from adherents of both traditional and advanced metrics, and has the late-career position player kicker that adds nearly 1000 Hits and 58 homers into the mix.
Johnny Evers is probably just off the pace but should see some ballot love, while 305 HR – second to Frank Baker on the all-time leaderboard as it currently stands – should earn Gavvy Cravath plenty of consideration, although he might have slipped well down that list by the time his eligibilty rolls around. The rest are little to no chance.
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.