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 1919 season.
OFFSEASON / PRESEASON
Four new modded NeLers for 1919, giving us 59 active:
- P Dave Brown (21); ABCs SABR BIO
- C Jim Brown (26); Grays SABR BIO
- P Bill Holland (18); Black Barons
- P Red Ryan (21); Black Sox
The Monarchs get unmodded pitcher Ed Rile. Just as an FYI, the order in which these NeL franchises and the ahistorical clubs receive players is standings-based, with no Lottery or the like.
Notable 1919 rookies include George Uhle (Buckeyes); Earl Whitehill (Tigers); Frankie Frisch (Giants); Curt Walker (Phillies); Johnny Gooch (Pirates).
The Bears take Arnold “Jigger” Statz first overall in this year’s Rookie Draft.
My Dodgers get Andy High and Zack Taylor as rookies, sign 3B Doug Baird, and trade for outfielder Tommy Griffith.
You do have to love it when the gods of randomness do something like have both Joe Jackson andChick Gandil traded from the Jays to the White Sox just in time for the 1919 season. Thankfully, Baltimore’s are the only Black Sox in this timeline.
Orchestrated moves: Eddie Foster to the Red Sox; Ray Caldwell to the Buckeyes; Frank Snyder to the Giants; Carl Mays to the Yankees; Milt Stock to the Cardinals.
Game-generated moves: include Ray Demmitt (Black Sox); Red Smith and Dick Rudolph (Red Sox); Ad Lankford (Cubs); Candy Jim Taylor (Reds); Babe Adams (Buckeyes); Bill Killefer (Giants); Jose Mendez (Jays); Pelayo Chacon (Phillies); Ossie Vitt (Browns).
Turkey Mike Donlin makes it into the HoF on his first attempt.
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-20 3B Frankie Frisch of the Giants.
The top-ranked farm system belongs to the Athletics.
BNN sees the races looking like this:
- AL East: 100-62 Red Sox 10 clear of the Yankees, with the 55-107 Black Sox in the cellar
- AL North: 98-64 Buckeyes 1 clear of the White Sox, with the 62-100 Athletics in the cellar
- AL South: 106-56 Browns 27 clear of the Monarchs, with the 52-110 Bears in the cellar
- NL East: 94-68 Dodgers 6 clear of the Giants, with the 69-93 Phillies in the cellar
- NL Central: 94-68 Cubs 3 clear of the ABCs, with the 80-82 Pirates in the cellar
- NL South: 86-76 Blackbirds 6 clear of the Cardinals, with the 56-106 Black Barons in the cellar
Another tough year for a few of these expansion clubs but how about them Blackbirds!
REGULAR SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
04/11: Les Mann has six hits and collects the cycle as the Blackbirds whip the Black Barons 20-3.
05/18: Harry Heilmann and Bill Lamar have 5 hits apiece as the Tigers rip Chicago 22-6, with Slug also driving in half a dozen.
06/07: Ty Cobb goes 5-for-6 against Baltimore to take his AVG to an unseemly .442.
06/26: Tillie Walker has a 3-homer game in the Phillies’ 21-2 smackdown of the Braves and then does it again the very next day against the Pirates.
07/07: Ty Cobb becomes the fifth player in this timeline with 3000 MLB hits to his name—Honus Wagner is the all-time leader at this point, with 3893.
07/22: Pi Schwert collects the cycle in the Cubs’ 13-3 win over the Buccos.
07/31: At the Deadline, the Browns acquire pitchers Carl Mays from the Dodgers and Art Nehf from the Braves, while the Pirates send Al Mamaux to the White Sox.
08/02: Joe Williams moves to an extraordinary 19-1 on the season with the 250th Win of his career.
08/28: The Bruins get an immediate return from Nehf, who no-hits the Red Sox.
09/12: He’s done it! After going homerless in 11 games, Pete Hill finally puts one over the wall against Memphis to set a new single-season record with 47 HR. It has come completely out of the blue for Pete, whose career high before this was the previous season’s 19.
09/25: All-time leader Gavvy Cravath belts career home run number 300.
09/28: Barney Shotton has a colossal 6-hit, 7-RBI game as the Cards wallop the Black Barons 21-6, and teammate Jack Smith also has 6 hits in a losing cause a couple days later against the Braves.
10/01: Walter Johnson becomes the fifth player in this timeline with 300 career Wins.
REGULAR SEASON RECAP
Another enthralling season with most of the excitement very close to home.
AL
The Browns utterly dominate the AL South, clinching their second straight division title in early September and look a real force this season. They tack on a pair of 12-game win streaks in September for good measure and finish an astonishing 43 games, posting a new MLB record of 121 Wins.
The Yanks look to have the AL East in the bag with a week to go but wither in the face of a dogged Red Sox challenge and see their lead cut to one with four to play but they recover just in time to take the division by three.
The annual Buckeyes-White Sox dogfight adds another layer to its ever-growing status as they once again wear each other like cheap pants all the way down the stretch drive. After innumerable lead-changes, Cleveland gets the upper hand and goes on to win it by a half-dozen games.
The Wild Card race goes down to the wire as well with the White Sox a game to the good of the Tigers entering the final day and they remain so when each club loses.
NL
The Giants win 11 straight in the middle of July to grab a mini-break in the NL East but come back to the field and, ultimately, happenstance and scheduling collide to set up a massive finish in the division. With all four teams still alive and 10 intra-divisional games left to play, things could hardly be tighter after the Phillies win 10 straight and the Grays eight to put just four games from top to bottom. Homestead can’t sustain their run and are quickly dropped off but the other three clubs remain within one of each other at the start of the final week. We are tied with the Giants and one clear of Philly entering our final 4-game series at Homestead, with the Phillies playing host to New York at the same time. A pair of 0-3 losses while the Jints win twice almost settles the thing and we have to turn our focus to the Wild Card when we lose again the next day.
The Reds always seem in control of the NL North and go on to take the division by seven from the Cubs, locking down the club’s first playoff appearance in this timeline.
The Blackbirds give it a decent show in the NL South but run out of puff in the closing weeks and the Cardinals repeat, putting an exclamation point on the triumph with a late 8-game run of wins to win by that margin.
We are tied with the Phils on 91-70 at the start of the final day and look completely dead on our feet, with news of our Brown Dodgers exiting the AAA playoffs not helping morale at all. And yet somehow the lads lift to get a 4-1 win against Bullet Rogan and, when the Giants do us a favour by winning 7-1, the WC is ours.
George Sisler hits .405 to win the AL batting crown and his .725 SLG sets a new MLB record in this timeline.
NeLER NOTES
Once again the NeL brigade show just what a potent force they are, obviously led by Pete Hill’s record-setting 53 HR—and we’re only just about to reach 1920! Dear Lord, this next period is going to be fantastic to watch.
Oscar Charleston edges out Pete to lead the group with 8.9 WAR and, at just 22, looks just about ready to take the league by storm. Dobie Moore, Dick Lundy, and Alejandro Oms also have excellent seasons, while Edgar Wesley’s 33 HR are second only to the great Mr Hill.
Tom Williams, Bill Drake, Frank Wickware, and Joe Williams – who fades a bit down the stretch to finish the year 23-7 – each post 8 rWAR or more and it is good to see that , after a few years in the wilderness, Jose Mendez seems to be getting back to some decent form.
Bullet Rogan combines for nearly 9 WAR on both sides of the two-way coin.
Four retirees from among the modded NeL fraternity for 1919.
TODD ALLEN: A nice little career for Todd, who exits this timeline with 100 home runs on the dot and just over 25 WAR. He amassed six Soft Gloves and also got himself some bling as part of the ABCs 1917 Championship squad.
WALTER BALL: More than anywhere, individual win-loss tallies are a tricky affair in this timeline and Diamond’s 156 Wins far outweigh his 183 Losses, even if he spent less time with expansion clubs than some of the others. Of more consequence is his 35 rWAR and 102 ERA+, his 1905 Reliever of the Year award and his 1903 Championship ring with the Red Sox.
CHARLES EARLE: A very similar career to Todd’s, although Charles slightly edges him on a number of key metrics. He finishes with 98 homers and more than 30 WAR, back-to-back titles with the Red Sox in 1909-10 and a couple All-Star nods.
RAFAEL FIGAROLA: Struggled to find work at the top level and was barely replacement value for his time in the game as part of this league.
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
Dolf Luque blanks us 5-0 on 3 hits in Game 1, and runs are scarce again in Game 2 but Jeff Pfeffer pitches a 10-inning 7-hitter and we win it 1-0 as Casey Stengel goes 4-for-5 and drives in the winner.
Zack Wheat’s return from injury for Game 3 seems to inspire the lineup as we edge ahead with an impressive 10-3 win but that is only short-lived as Jakie May 3-hits us in another 5-0 loss that sends us back to Cincy for a decider.
We fare markedly better against The Pride of Havana the second time around, booking our passge to the LCS with a convincing 9-4 win as the “Old Perfesser” shines again and is awarded series MVP honours.
The Yanks win Game 1 in Cleveland 8-2 with Waite Hoyt starring, before the Buckeyes take a 3-2 nail-biter the next day to get level and then nose ahead with a tight 7-5 decision in NYC. The Yankees stay alive with a 14-5 blowout and look set to take the series, leading the decider 5-1 early but then stop completely in their tracks as the Buckeyes mount an epic comeback and win it 6-5 in somewhat anticlimactic fashion style on a walkoff walk by Smoky Joe Wood.
A late flurry earns the White Sox a shock 9-5 win in St. Louis and the Browns need some 9th-inning heroics to escape with a split, walking off Game 2 8-7 with a 3-spot in the final frame. The Chicagoans win Game 3 at home convincingly and complete the stunning upset with a 2-0 win behind Jack Quinn.
Joe Williams and the Giants win their opener at the Polo Grounds against the Cards 6-2 but the Redbirds square it up with a strong 7-2 win and then take the series lead by winning Game 3 at home 5-4, then finish off the Jints with a 4-2 victory despite Rosy Ryan allowing just one hit in six scoreless frames of relief.
LCS
We start the NLCS on the road with two at Sportsmans Park, the first of which is an instant classic. We give up a pair in the bottom 9th to leave the game tied at 4 and that holds until we bust it open with 6 in the top 15th for a 10-4 final. Game 2 needs extras as well as they square things up with a walkoff 4-2 win in 10.
We win the next two in Brooky – each by a run – to put ourselves in a strong position, with Zack Wheat having four hits in each, but Bill Sherdel outduels Phil Douglas in Game 5 as they halve the deficit with a 1-0 win that send the series back to the Loo.
In a truly top-class series, it takes another set of spare frames for us to advance to our third World Series as we close it out 5-3 in 10. Zack Wheat has one of the best series I can remember seeing, hitting .621 with 7 RBI and he is rightly named MVP.
Unbelievable to think the Buckeyes and White Sox get to do battle for a spot in the WS after such an epic stretch run and these great rivals split the first two in Cleveland.
Veteran Babe Adams spins a 2-hit gem to put the Buckeyes back ahead with a 2-0 road win but Joe Jackson has 4 hits and 4 RBI as the Sox fire back with a 12-1 blowout and then win a crazy one the next day 9-7 to hit the front heading back to Cleveland.
In the end, the Sox simply have too much firepower for the Buckeyes and, after so many close misses, they finally secure their invite to the Big Dance with a 10-5 win.
WORLD SERIES
Despite all the changes, I do hope to retain some semblance of the historical in this timeline. So it is nice to see the Sox – infamously involved in the ’19 WS IRL, of course – and Dodgers, who made it in 1920 doing just that. The meeting also marks two Wild Cards playing off in the Series for the first time.
No sign of Sleepy Bill Burns or his nefarious cadre in this timeline so hopefully this will be a rip-snorter between two evenly-matched clubs. We add Sherry Smith to the roster although he’s unavailable for the first part. They are at full strength.
All the runs come late in Game 1 as we open the series with a 4-2 win at Comiskey Park but Knuckles Cicotte shows up his historical avatar by pitching strongly in G2 for a 5-3 victory.
As the series comes to Ebbets, we get another 4-2 result despite Joe Jackson going deep twice, with Jeff Pfeffer otherwise outduelling Lefty Williams. Once again they rebound quickly and re-tie the series at two with a 6-3 win behind Jack Quinn.
Caddy Cadore beats Al Mamaux again in a Game 1 rematch to put us within one win of the grand prize but we’ll need to do it at their place.
We do so in a fantastic finale, coming back to tie it with a pair in the top 9th then adding two more in the 11th as Sherry Smith earns the save.
Fred Merkle is named MVP.
1919 RECAP
The Babe and Rajah each earn MVP number two, with Joe Williams winning his second CYA and Stan Coveleski his first.
RoYs to fictionals Alex Padilla of Newark and Pittsburgh’s Austin Queen, while Cy Falkenberg and our own Larry Cheney take out the relief awards.
No future HoFers among this year’s retiring players.
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.