For those of you embarking this trolley along the route, the premise of the exercise can be found HERE.
OVERVIEW
1926 sees the A-level added. Won’t get too much attention from us but it just allows another level for the unloved and slow-to-develop.
The Senators and Phillies franchises change ownership.
OFFSEASON / PRESEASON
Four new modded NeLers added for 1926, giving us 71 active:
C Tom Young (23); Black Sox
3B Alex Radcliff (20); Grays
P Luis Tiant (19); ABCs
P Chet Brewer (19); Monarchs SABR BIO
Notable 1926 rookies include Danny MacFayden and Fritz Ostermueller (Red Sox); Earl Averill (Buckeyes); Mel Ott (Giants); Dolph Camilli (Phillies); Larry French (Pirates); Rick Ferrell (Browns); Bump Hadley (Senators).
New Orleans takes pitcher Milt Shoffner first overall in this year’s Rookie Draft.
Orchestrated moves: George Mogridge to the Braves; Topper Rigney to the Red Sox; Chuck Dressen, Hod Ford, Val Picinich, and Curt Walker to the Reds; Lew Fonseca to the Buckeyes; Tommy Thomas to the White Sox; Rip Collins to the Tigers; Heinie Mueller to the Giants; Jack Quinn and Howard Ehmke to the Athletics; Johnny Mokan to the Phillies; Carmen Hill to the Pirates; Wally Schang to the Browns; Syl Johnson and Grover Cleveland Alexander to the Cardinals.
Game-generated moves in a fairly subued offseason include Sylvester Foreman to the White Sox; Kent Greenfield, Bob O’Farrell, and Jules Thomas to the Grays; Roger Peckinpaugh and Newt Joseph to the Yankees; Billy Southworth and Art Nehf to the Jays; Howard Ehmke to the Giants; Louis Santop and Red Oldham to the Phillies; Dizzy Dismukes to the Browns; Stuffy McInnis to the Cardinals; Jesse Barnes to the Senators.
Joe Jackson is elected to the HoF – just, with 80.2% of the ballot – at his first attempt.
OPENING DAY PREVIEW
The top-ranked position player is Yankees OF Babe Ruth.
The top-ranked pitcher is Gui Fou of Newark.
Age-22 Brooklyn Dodger Babe Herman is the top position player prospect; age-19 Luis Tiant of the ABCs the top pitching prospect.
The top-ranked farm system belongs to the Senators.
BNN sees the races looking like this:
- AL East: 104-58 Yankees 10 clear of the Black Sox, with the 75-87 Red Sox in the cellar
- AL North: 95-67 Athletics 7 clear of the White Sox, with the 68-94 Buckeyes in the cellar
- AL South: 87-75 Senators 13 clear of the Browns, with the 60-102 Bears in the cellar
- NL East: 90-72 Dodgers 2 clear of the Giants, with the 57-105 Phillies in the cellar
- NL North: 107-55 Pirates 12 clear of the ABCs, with the 77-85 Cubs in the cellar
- NL South: 82-80 Cardinals 3 clear of the Black Barons, with the 67-95 Blackbirds in the cellar
REGULAR SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
04/06: The Cards lose offseason recruit Grover Cleveland Alexander in his first start for them—he’ll need three months off for some elbow surgery.
04/11: The day after notching the 3000th Hit of his fabulous career, Zack Wheat suffers a rib injury that keeps him out of action for three months.
04/25: The Athletics lose SP Rube Walberg for the year to an elbow blowout.
05/04: Cliff Heathcote clips New Orleans for the cycle in an 8-3 win for the Cubs.
05/27: 28: “Sunday Ted” Lyons delivers the season’s first no-no—and on a Friday, no less.
06/13: The Browns post a 7-spot in the 8th and then an 8-spot in the 15th to win a crazy, crazy game 18-10 against the White Sox, fresh off a stretch of 10 wins; Wally Schang has six hits including the cycle, while Ken Williams and Baby Doll Jacobson have five apiece.
06/23: Braves veteran Les Mann goes 5-for-5 including the cycle in a 6-3 win over the Cardinals.
07/07: Cleveland loses 18 straight games to drop into the AL North cellar.
07/16: Ben Taylor moves the needle another notch in favour of his eventual HoF induction, becoming the 12th member of the 3000-Hit club.
07/28: Slim Harriss of the A’s no-hits Baltimore.
08/02: Walter Johnson is the second player to reach 400 Wins for his career.
09/17: Having already become the founding member of the 400-homer club this season, Babe Ruth belts his 54th homer of the campaign, eclipsing Pete Hill’s single-season record with 15 games still to play. Clearly he’s a much more clean-cut character in this timeline—that, or he’s even better at dissembling…
09/30: Dick Redding earns career Win number 200.
REGULAR SEASON RECAP
No absolute blowouts this season, but only the NL North race holds the attention to the last.
AL
The Yanks seal the deal in the AL East with a 17-game run of wins in early September—good thing, too, as the Black Sox come roaring home with one run of 12 wins locking down the AL Wild Card.
The A’s and White Sox stay close in the AL North until Philly kicks clear with eight straight and go on to take the div fairly comfortably.
The Senators easily take a weak AL South division, despite barely floating above .500 for most of the year.
NL
We win six straight at the start of September to once again hit the front in the NL East, and a 7-game run of losses by the Giants just after this gives us a little breathing-room. We put it in our pocket with another nice run of wins in the second half of September, ultimately finishing six clear of the Jints.
The Cards win their ninth straight NL South. Will this year be next year?
It becomes apparent fairly early on that the ABC-Pirates battle for the NL North will continue into the playoffs, with one of them as the top seed and the other as the WC. The question of which is which remains unamswered until the final series of the regular season, a 4-game head-to-head battle between the two at Forbes Field that the ABCs go into one clear—meaning no tie is mathematically possible.
The opening game is an absolute screamer in which Willie Wells stars, belting a pair of 3-run HR including what proves the winner in the top 9th—his 42nd of the season:
That leaves Indy needing just one win from the three remaining games to claim their 5th NL North title, and they get it in an arguably even better game the next day, with the Pirates bullpen a shambles again:
It seems almost cruel that they have to go through all of this again in the first round of the playoffs, this time in Indy.
The Babe pretty much vanishes over the final stages, ultimately finishing with 55 homers. The fadeout costs him the Triple Crown, with Harry Heilmann pipping him on AVG and friendly fire in the form of Lou Gehrig shooting him down in the RBI race as well.
Even so, his eventual 14.43 WAR is the 4th-highest so far by a position player in this timeline.
NeLER NOTES
Some outstanding performances again in 1926 from the NeL brigade.
Willie Wells’ 10.7 WAR leads all position players, with Cool Papa Bell, Turkey Stearnes, and Charlie Smith – who wins the NL batting title – finishing with 9 or more, and Rap Dixon on 8.8 right behind them. Willie and Mule top the group with 43 HR and drive in close to 250 between them.
The pitching is equally impressive, with both Smoky Joe and Harry Salmon posting 10-rWAR campaigns. They also win 20 or more, as do Sam Streeter and Bill Drake. Willie Foster leads all players with 232 strikeouts, meaning the group can claim its own Triple Crown of sorts, with Harry’s 25 Wins and Joe’s 2.21 ERA also the league’s best this year.
While he finishes with a losing record, Webster McDonald continues to impress with 8 rWAR and a sparkling 2.29 ERA, and Andy Cooper is another solid contributor this year.
We say farewell to six retiring modded NeLers in 1926.
JOSE MENDEZ: Not quite sure how I feel about Jose’s career in this timeline. I mean, nearly 80 rWAR is creditable by any measure and almost identical to the input data, but perhaps because he has dominated in a couple other saves I feel a bit let down by it all the same. The near 300 Losses don’t help in this regard, although that’s hardly his fault given his other metrics.
DOBIE MOORE: Was always going to be a tough get given the strange arc of his IRL career, but I think we’ve done him justice here. Would have loved to see him reach 2000 Hits, but it wasn’t to be, and that might be the final nail in his coffin with regard to HoF voting.
JUAN PADRON: Took his time to get going, but all the same a nice little career with nearly 40 rWAR to his name.
EUSTAQUIO PEDROSO: I’ll just provide the summary for his hitting side, along with his full pitching breakdown, as the whole two-way thing proved problematic for Bombin in this universe, as it almost invariably does. His pitching side came in unders as well, and I don’t think the two aren’t unrelated. OOTP has improved with each version in its handling of these types of players, but the version I’m using here is still having trouble with the fringier types.
LOUIS SANTOP: A solid career for one of my all-time faves, with his total of near 60 WAR very much in keeping with his input data.
JULES THOMAS: As I mentioned in running, Jules is to this point the only player with both 3000 Hits and 300 HR, way above expectations when considering his input data—which his WAR total in this timeline more than doubled. Next stop, Cooperstown, one would think.
FINAL MLB STANDINGS
AL STAT LEADERS
NL STAT LEADERS
PLAYOFFS
A couple of fascinating divisional rival match-ups here, and I am particularly eager to see how the Pirates-ABCs clash plays out.
DS
We drop a tough 7-5 result in our opening game as Sportsmans Park, with four of their runs unearned thanks to three errors in a horror 8th, and another late loss in Game 2 sends us back to Brooky feeling the heat.
We win Game 3 by 8 to 5 to extend our season, with Pelayo Chacon knocking in four, but Sunny Jim Bottomley sends us packing as he drives in half his side’s runs in a 12-6 blowout. A disappointing but hardly surprising end to our 1926 campaign.
The Yanks are clinical in a 6-2 Game 1 win against the Black Sox, as Ruth and Gehrig each homer and Waite Hoyt goes the distance, but need a walkoff 3-run homer from Bob Meusel – his second of the game – the next day to take that one 9-6, scoring 5 in the bottom 9th. A fine CG outing from Sam Streeter keeps the Bawlmer boys alive, another from Harry Salmon forces a decider.
Nerves happen to the best of us, and the Yanks are clearly not impervious in this regard, as they lose the unlosable, 8-5 in 12.
Walter Johnson pitches the Sens to a 4-2 win in Philly for Game 1, but a dogged outing from Lefty Grove helps the A’s square the series with a 2-1 win in 10. The Athletics post a 6-spot in the 7th en route to a gutsy 8-6 G3 win in DC but can’t close it out, as the Sens win 5-0 behind Ed Baecht. That costs them, as Washington rides the Big Train all the way to the League Championship Series, withstanding a ferocious bottom-9th A’s comeback to hang on 5-4.
The ABCs tie their opener with the Buccos late, then walk it off 5-3 on a 10th-inning 2-run shot by Cristo Torriente, with a 5-3 Pittsburgh win in Game 2 knotting it at one. Andy Cooper pitches a 4-hitter in a 5-0 win at Forbes Field and the Pirates upend the regular season result with a wild 11-7 clincher.
LCS
The Black Sox take Game 1 against the Senators as young tyro Martin Dihigo outpitches wily veteran Stan Coveleski, and look to be cruising again the next day at 4-0 before Washington puts 5 up in the 7th and walks it off 6-5 a couple frames later.
Baltimore edges ahead again on the back of a fine Sam Streeter outing, then takes control of the series with a 6-2 win as Turkey Stearnes pops a pair of jacks.
They emphatically eliminate the Senators with a 16-3 humiliation, as age-40 former Dodger Al Nixon goes deep twice to power the bats.
The Pirates continue their strong playoff form, winning the opener 5-2 in St. Louis behind Ray Kremer and dominating again in Game 2, with Glenn Wright going 5-for-5 and Johnny Morrison twirling a CG for the W.
The Cards stop the rot with a nervy 5-3 win at Forbes Field a couple days later, and a similarly tight 3-2 win squares the series at two, before the Pirates rebound with the first home win of the series—a 9-0 laugher with Kremer twirling a 3-hit gem.
Woe to you, O loyal Cardinals fans, for the wait continues as the Pirates are just too good here, advancing to another World Series – their sixth, tied with the Cubs; only the Red Sox have been in more – with a 9-4 victory.
WORLD SERIES
Two top-notch clubs in peak form, so I expect a cracking contest.
Andy Cooper v Sam Streeter in the opener at Forbes Field, and Cooper wins it on points as the Pirates claim a tough 3-2 victory, but Dihigo pips Kremer 1-0 the next day as the Black Sox level the series.
Game 3 in Baltimore is another arm-wrestle that the home side wins 6-2, but the Buccos put things back on even footing once more with a 4-2 win behind Johnny Morrison and then a clinical 9-0 demolition in G5 sets them up perfectly as they head back to Pittsburgh, with Andy Cooper pitching a 4-hitter and Paul Waner driving in four.
The Pirates complete a perfectly executed playoff run all the way from the Wild Card by claiming the franchise’s fourth title with a 6-2 win.
Andy Cooper is named MVP.
1926 RECAP
A nice awards season for the NeL crew, with Willie Wells winning a maiden MVP, and “Beans” Salmon (his second) and Smoky Joe Williams (fourth) taking the CYAs.
Babe Ruth wins MVP number eight.
Harry Smythe and fictional player Sam Hartman take the RoYs, while reliever nods go to Firpo Marberry and Joe Pate.
Sherry Magee looks the most likely of this year’s non-NeL retirees to make the HoF.
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.