For those of you embarking this trolley along the route, the premise of the exercise can be found HERE.
OVERVIEW
The 1918 season sees our second league expansion. Four new franchises – Birmingham, Memphis, Newark, and New Orleans – enter the league, and the Braves move south to Atlanta.
Both the AL and NL will henceforth consist of an East, North, and South Division.
The playoffs will now have an extra round, with the three Division winners joined by a Wild Card on each side of the draw in a best-of-five Division Series.
Here is how the new alignment looks at the MLB and AAA levels:
OFFSEASON / PRESEASON
Three modded NeLers join the league in 1918, and Birmingham will now also receive these players as their influx picks up pace from this point. We now have 60 active:
- P Phil Cockrell (22); Black Barons SABR BIO
- 3B Judy Johnson (18); Black Sox SABR BIO
- 3B Oliver Marcell (22); Grays
Notable 1918 rookies include Garland Buckeye (Buckeyes, of course); Joe Hauser and Eddie Rommel (Athletics); Heinie Sand (Phillies); Tom Zachary (Senators).
Before the Rookie Draft, an Expansion Draft takes place to give the new clubs some players. Other than for my Dodgers, I had no involvement in which players were stashed away and who was left unprotected. Those taken include:
- Birmingham: OF Jimmie Lyons; C Pinch Thomas; C Bruce Petway; SS Alfredo Cabrera.
- Memphis: P Red Faber; C Les Nunamaker; OF Ashby Dunbar; P Harry Krause; P Tom Johnson; P Jack Coombs; OF Larry Kopf; P Dicta Johnson; 1B Vic Saier; P Harry Coveleski; OF Tommy Leach.
- Newark: C Bill Pierce; SS Wally Gerber; OF Joe Jackson; 2B Bingo DeMoss; 2B Jack Barry; OF Sam Rice; P String Bean Williams; C Gervasio Gonzalez.
- New Orleans: P Pol Perritt; P Jose Mendez; P Bob Groom.
The Braves take fictional pitcher Josh Turner first overall in this year’s Rookie Draft.
Jules Thomas ends up at the Cubs on a juicy 7-year deal.
Orchestrated moves: Bullet Joe Bush, Herb Pennock, and Stuffy McInnis to the Red Sox; Cocky Collins to the White Sox; Smoky Joe Wood and Larry Gardner to the Buckeyes; Ping Bodie to the Yankees; Earl Hamilton to the Pirates.Game-generated moves: include Amos Strunk, Candy Jim Taylor (Braves); Everett Scott (Red Sox); Jeff Tesreau, Jules Thomas (Cubs); Wally Schang (Tigers); Frank Schulte and Johnny Evers (Monarchs); Eustaquio Pedroso and Ed Konetchy (Blackbirds); Erskine Mayer and Pearl Webster (Yankees); Del Pratt (Browns); Del Gainer (Senators).
No new HoFers this year, with Iron Joe McGinnity the closest, appearing on 70% of the ballots.
OPENING DAY PREVIEW
The top-ranked position player is Cardinals 2B Rogers Hornsby.
The top-ranked pitcher is Washington’s Walter Johnson.
The top-rated prospect is age-20 fictional 1B Enrique Gonzalez of the Bears.
The top-ranked farm system belongs to the Athletics.
BNN sees the races looking like this:
- AL East: 100-62 Red Sox 18 clear of the Yankees, with the 74-88 Jays in the cellar.
- AL North: 99-63 Buckeyes 4 clear of the White Sox, with the 55-107 Athletics in the cellar.
- AL South: 97-65 Browns 17 clear of the Monarchs, with the 54-108 Bears in the cellar.
- NL East: 93-69 Grays 3 clear of the Phillies, with the 85-77 Dodgers in the cellar.
- NL Central: 96-66 Cubs 11 clear of the Pirates, with the 53-109 ABCs in the cellar.
- NL South: 87-75 Cardinals 4 clear of the Braves, with the 59-103 Black Barons in the cellar.
REGULAR SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
04/01: The Buckeyes lose Tris Speaker for five months with a knee injury.
04/19: Jim Hickman earns the honour of collecting the first cycle for Memphis, achieving the feat against the Athletics.
04/13: White Sox outfielder Happy Felsch has his season ended by a knee blowout.
04/19: Will Babe Ruth perhaps be a lifetime Bostonian in this timeline? He is currently signed with the club thru 1921—but, if they let him become a FA after that, I will send him to the Yankees as per the protocol for this universe.
04/25: We get our first no-no of the season courtesy of Atlanta’s Joe Oeschger.
07/19: Zack Wheat hits safely in 33 straight, the fifth-longest so far in this timeline, leaving his AVG on the season at a lofty .398.
07/24: Another no-hitter, this time Vean Gregg becoming the first to achieve the feat for Birmingham. The club shows its appreciation by trading him to Washington a week later.
07/31: At the Deadline, my Dodgers trade Red Smith and Jack Meyers to the Monarchs for John Donaldson and catcher Lew McCarty.
09/12: Babe Ruth collects the cycle against Memphis.
REGULAR SEASON RECAP
Our own travails notwithstanding, this ends up being a thoroughly riveting season as we get some truly outstanding individual efforts and the new alignment cooks up some very interesting dishes that still aren’t polished off when the final day rolls around.
AL
The Browns are the first to clinch, taking the new AL South division a day ahead of the BoSox, who blow their AL East rivals away with an 11-game win streak in August and are never threatened.
The AL Central might be renamed and realigned but the story remains virtually the same, with the Buckeyes and White Sox duking it out, along with the Tigers. It is the Detroit mob who gains the ascendancy in the latter part of September but they stumble with the finish line in sight and, with two to play the three are back within a game of each other. Cleveland is eliminated on the next-to-last day but the other two need a ‘breaker to be separated, with the White Sox winning that game in Detroit to advance and the Tigers somehow missing out completely.
In the inaugural Wild Card race, the Yankees try to make a run for it with a 7-1 run toward the end of September but can’t ever fully shake the three clubs embroiled in the AL North battle. They hold a one-game advantage entering the final day and beat the Red Sox 5-2 to lock down their playoff berth.
NL
The Cardinals easily clinch the new NL South division.
Just a game separates our three NL East rivals at the end of July but the Grays put their foot down after that with a 36-20 record from August 1, ultimately taking the group in a canter.
In the NL North, the Cubs take a lead of a few games over the defending champion ABCs into the final fortnight and they hold that lead to the end.
With a week to go the Giants, Phils and ABCs are in a virtual tie for the WC and are still within a game of each other with one to play. We beat the Phillies to end their season as the ABCs get home by a game with a cruisy 6-0 win at Cincy.
After nearly going 20-20 last year, Babe Ruth puts that to shame with 24 Wins and 42 HR this season. Only one player will ever have a chance of doing something similar, one would think, and he – I am referring to Bullet Rogan – has a decent enough crack at it this year with 25 wins and 30 HR. Such a shame that this is really the only season where they are both full-time two-way players—that would have sure been something to watch unfold over a longer period.
Fictional pitcher Nick Jones advances the single-season Saves record by one with 16.
NeLER NOTES
A real watershed year for the NeL fraternity in the wake of the ABCs triumph and this should only intensify with 1920 just around the corner. The Grays have obviously come good and the Monarchs look ready to do the same. I’m tipping an all-NeL-club World Series before too long.
While Dobie Moore is again the pick of the bats on a WAR basis, Pearl Webster has had a breakout season and sets a new HR record for the modded players with 38, while Louis Santop continues to charge toward the HoF with another stellar campaign.
Bullet Rogan leads the pitchers with 24 Wins but is pipped for rWAR by Joe Williams, although Bullet does have the 4 from his hitting up his sleeve. Tom Johnston is the group’s only 20-game loser.
Five from among the modded group retiring in 1918.
ALFREDO CABRERA: Even though we need to scale it back a wee bit because of the slightly juiced environment, it’s a testament to what a good job the lads have done with this mod that pre-1920 contact / smallball guys like Alfredo are having nice little careers in this timeline. They rightly get some WAR help from their secondaries (Alfredo’s career ZR was 144) but, all the same, what we are seeing here is excellent compared to how the unmodded versions of the NeL players from this era fare. A little ironically given the club’s historical aversion to diversity, was a member of the Red Sox’s 1911 Championship team in this timeline.
GERVASIO GONZALEZ: Similar but far more balanced (21 ZR), “Striker” did well with nearly 1600 hits and a good total of RBI, to go with four ASG appearances and a Hot Stick.
PASTOR PAREDA: As anticipated, Pastor doesn’t get much of a look-in and is one who, with hindsight, the slot for could have been used better.
ANDREW PAYNE: Again, nice to see “Jap” get a decent run of it – nearly 1800 hits and more than 800 ribbies – in this universe, as he is one of those guys who usually gets treated poorly.
PEARL WEBSTER: Here for a good time, not a long time and boy did “Specks” have a good time in his farewell season, racking up almost half his career WAR. Was nearly a Dodger for that season but we wisely passed because he wanted a long-term deal that was never going to pan out anyway. Genius at work.
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
DCS
It seems somewhat fitting that it is the Yankees and Red Sox that get the league’s first DS underway and there’s a nice look to the overall playoff tree with two Chicago-St. Louis matchups and a pair of NeL clubs battling it out.
Boston and New York split a couple close ones at the Fen and the Sox edge ahead with a tight 2-1 in New York for G3. They close it out with a 5-4 win in 10 on enemy ground, which no doubt would make it a whole lot sweeter, as Babe Ruth has 4 hits.
The Browns spank the White Sox 10-1 in their opener and win again 8-6 the next day, then look set for the sweep with a 6-0 lead late in G3. However, the White Sox battle all the way back only to concede a run in the top 12th and the Browns do close it out this time to advance in straight sets.
The defending champs grab a pair of road wins at Homestead to put their opponents under all sorts of pressure and, despite the Grays throwing everything at them, finish off the sweep with a 4-3 win.
The Cards win in Chicago to begin their series with the Cubs but Chicago nabs a 10-5 result in G2 to even it up and then take the lead on the back of a Carmen Hill 5-hitter. St. Louis forces a decider with a gritty 2-1 home win but drops Game 5 in Chicago by the same score as the Cubs spoil the chance of an all-Loo WS.
LCS
The Sox walk off G1 4-3 but drop the next game 4-2 as Allen Sothoron goes the distance for the Browns. Game 3 is a ripper as the Babe’s 5 hits and 6 RBI end up not being enough with the Browns winning it 9-8 and when they win another wild one the next day, the Sox are on the ropes. The Browns fail to take immediate advantage, however, with Boston closing the gap via a gutsy 2-1 win to head back to Boston still in it and they force a decider in dramatic fashion as a 2-run single by Stuffy McInnis walks G6 off 4-3. This will forever be remembered as the one that got away for Bruins fans, as they blow another lead late-ish in Game 7 and the Red Sox move on to another World Series appearance with a famous 5-3 victory.
The Cubs win the opener 3-2 at home and blow out the ABCs 11-4 the next day, with Bill Pettus putting two into the seats. A 2-1 road win behind Hippo Vaughn puts them three to the good before the ABCs get a pair of wins to keep their title defence alive. The Cubs look to have stopped in their tracks as they drop another one at home a couple days later but show all the heart in the world to somehow pull out of their swandive to book their spot at the final stage with a 4-1 win.
WORLD SERIES
To think we were only a few runs away from a repeat of last year’s World Series. Instead, we get a heavyweight belt contest between two (along with the Athletics) of the most successful clubs in this timeline, who after this one is sorted out will between the three of them have won 12 of the 18 championships decided so far. A Red Sox win here will see them move into outright first with five titles, matching their IRL total over the same period, while a Cubs win would pull them into a tie with the other two on four. Plenty at stake, in other words.
Game 1 is close until the host Cubs break it open with a 6-run 6th that holds up in an 8-2 win but the Sox bounce back, prevailing in a 9-7 slugfest the next day.
As the series moves to Boston, things get a bit more tense as the Cubs win an arm-wrestle in Game 3 and ride another strong outing by Carmen Hill the following day to go further ahead with a 3-1 win.
It takes every bit of guile and talent the Sox have for them to stay alive with a nail-biting 5-4 win in Game 5 and once again they simply refuse to go down quietly as the Babe delivers a 5-hitter and thet force a Game 7 with a 1-0 win.
This truly epic series finishes in suitable style as the Cubs rally from an early 0-4 deficit to finally put the Sox away with a 10-4 win as series MVP Jules Thomas shines with 5 RBI to give him 13 all up.
A magnificent end to a magnificent season.
1918 RECAP
The Babe and Bullet each win his first MVP. Walter Johnson wins his fifth CYA, Smoky Joe Williams his first.
RoYs to fictional Sam Smith and Cliff Heathcote, reliever awards to Baltimore’s Axel Lindstrom and our Sherry Smith.
Tommy Leach’s 2500 hits and 200 HR mean he will stay on a few ballots but I doubt he’ll ever get there. None of the other 1918 retirees will even go close.
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.