For those of you embarking this trolley along the route, the premise of the exercise can be found HERE.
OVERVIEW
No organisational or structural changes for the 1927 season.
OFFSEASON / PRESEASON
Four new modded NeLers added, giving us 69 active:
P Satchel Paige (20); Black Barons SABR BIO
C Clarence Palm (19); Grays
P Ted Trent (23); ABCs
OF Roy Parnell (23); Monarchs
Satchel should be a fascinating case study in this timeline. He’ll be around for close to 30 years, and I might even unretire him for those old man cameos after that. If Joe Williams can win as many as he looks likely to end up with, Satchel could well give 500 a run. Wouldn’t that be something to watch unfold, him trying to chase down Cy Young’s all-time record of 519. A lot will depend on how strong the clubs he plays for are. As we’ve seen, pitching well doesn’t guarantee wins in this universe, especially for the NeL crew.
The 1927 rookie group includes Carl Reynolds (White Sox); Billy Jurges (Cubs); Ernie Lombardi and Paul Derringer (Reds); Wes Ferrell and Mel Harder (Buckeyes); George Selkirk (Yankees).
The Buckeyes select pitcher Belve Beane first overall in this year’s Rookie Draft.
Orchestrated moves: Jack Smith to the Braves; Slim Harriss to the Red Sox; George Kelly to the Reds; Riggs Stephenson to the Cubs; Marty McManus to the Tigers; George Harper, Bob O’Farrell, and Larry Benton to the Giants; Ty Cobb and Eddie Collins to the Athletics; Lu Blue to the Browns; Frankie Frisch to the Cardinals; Garland Braxton to the Senators.
A number of big-name veteran FA up for grabs in an unusually busy offseason.
Cristobal Torriente heads to the Grays, where he’ll be newly minted teammates with Rogers Hornsby, who inks a 6-year deal.
Newt Joseph goes to the Cardinals, Rats Henderson to the Tigers, and Dizzy Dismukes to the Red Sox, of all places.
After they traded him to Pittsburgh during last season, Andy Cooper – with some new bling on his ring finger – heads back to the Black Barons on a 6-year deal.
Love seeing this sort of thing—Tris Speaker ends up back at Fenway Park on a 3-year deal.
My Dodgers trade Pelayo Chacon and Jack Fournier to the Monarchs for Alejandro Oms.
Other game-generated moves include Bill McCall to the Braves; George Carr to the White Sox; Kent Greenfield, Heinie Manush to the ABCs; Sam Jones to the Bears; Jack Scott and Howard Freigau to the Blackbirds; Earl Smith to the Yankees; Ben Taylor and Heinie Groh to the Phillies; Al Mamaux to the Browns; Newt Joseph and Joe Harris to the Cardinals.
Jimmy Sheckard – wearing a Dodgers cap, always nice to see – finally makes it into the HoF on his ninth attempt.
OPENING DAY PREVIEW
The top-ranked position player is Yankees OF Babe Ruth.
The top-ranked pitcher is Gui Fou of Newark.
Age-23 Monarchs SS Roy Parnell is the top position player prospect; age-20 Satchel Paige of Birmingham the top pitching prospect.
The top-ranked farm system belongs to the Pirates.
BNN sees the races looking like this:
- AL East: 121-41 Yankees 46 clear of the Black Sox, with the 64-98 Jays in the cellar
- AL North: 99-63 Athletics 14 clear of the White Sox, with the 76-86 Buckeyes in the cellar
- AL South: 89-73 Monarchs 9 clear of the Senators, with the 59-103 Bears in the cellar
- NL East: 101-61 Dodgers 7 clear of the Grays, with the 66-96 Phillies in the cellar
- NL North: 91-71 Pirates 4 clear of the ABCs, with the 66-96 Reds in the cellar
- NL South: 93-61 Cardinals 1 clear of the Black Barons, with the 63-99 Blackbirds in the cellar
It’s Murderers Row central, with the Babe and Lou set to slug it out for the HR crown—BNN is pegging them for a combined 120 with nearly 360 ribbies!
REGULAR SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
04/06: Ty Cobb leads off his second game for the A’s with a double off Rats Henderson, the 4000th hit of his career in this timeline. Of course, he is playing against the Tigers. In Detroit. Oh, Universe…
04/20: Wilson Redus has a 6-hit game for Indy in a 16-2 mauling of Atlanta.
04/21: Cincy’s Edd Roush somehow comes out on the short end of a 10-9 loss to Philly despite going deep three times and driving in six.
04/26: After his 27-game consecutive hit streak ands, Heavy Johnson’s AVG sits at a lofty .482.
05/04: Sammy Hale goes 5-for-5 including the cycle and knocks in a half-dozen as his A’s smash Newark 17-2.
05/17: It’s not something I want to do and certainly won’t be doing so regularly, but after Baltimore ignores my repeated attempts to get them to play Martin Dihigo at the parent club, I trade him away to the ABCs for Wilson Redus and Ted Trent.
05/21: So much going on as George Pipgras no-hits the A’s—a dozen walks in the no-no; Pipgras now 9-0; the Yanks at 37-7; Ruth and Gehrig in peak tandem mode.
06/20: Babe Ruth’s charge is temporarily halted, with the Bambino sidelined for a few weeks due to back trouble. He already has 30 HR on the year, and Lou is hot on his heels with 29—let’s see if the mouse plays while the cat’s away.
07/06: By the time Babe makes it back, Lou has gone off and now leads him 36-30 in the HR stakes. Can the big man respond?
07/17: A second straight injury-plagued season for Cards veteran “Pete” Alexander, who is done for the year courtesy of a UCL tear that, at age 40, will be a tough one to come back from. He’s on 290 Wins in this timeline—I do hope he plays on and makes it to 300.
07/29: Vic Harris and Biz Mackey combine for 9 hits and 14 ribbies in a 27-0 destruction of the White Sox by the Monarchs.
08/22: Ray Kremer twirls a no-no against the Braves.
08/23: Lou Gehrig reaches 50 HR for the campaign, leaving him 35 games to get the six he needs to knock off the Babe’s single-season record. The big guy is on 42 at this point, with Babe Herman on 39.
08/29: Pittsburgh’s Paul Waner has a 6-for-6 game in a 6-5 loss to the Cards.
09/10: Herb Pennock gets his 26th Win of the season and 200th in this timeline, beating Baltimore 5-1.
09/12: Babe pops three and drives in nine, Lou pulls within one of the record with his 54th, and Poosh ‘Em Up Tony also goes deep as the Yanks belt the Tigers 22-3.
09/17: On the same day that Zack Wheat joins Jules Thomas in the 3000/300 Club, virtually cementing his future HoF enshrinement, Cy Williams becomes the second player to reach 400 career HR in this timeline.
09/21: A 2-homer game against the Jays sees Lou Gehrig finally wrest the single-season HR crown from Babe Ruth, whose hopes of maybe catching Lou and keeping the top spot are killed off a few days later when he is forced to rest up for the playoffs by a back niggle.
09/25: Cristobal Torriente belts the 300th home run of his career—the eighth player to do so.
REGULAR SEASON RECAP
While this has been a highly competitive regular season, it ends up a fairly low-key one with regard to standings drama.
AL
The Yanks put together an utterly dominant campaign, which they end with 119 wins.
The A’s also do it easily in the AL North—the club’s fourth win of the group in a row.
The Monarchs give the Senators a decent run in the AL South, but have to be content with the Wild Card as Washington gets home by four games in the end.
NL
We aren’t all that convincing down the stretch but, once a challenge from the Grays peters out, comfortably take the NL East.
The Black Barons push them all the way, but the Cardinals make it ten straight NL South titles.
The Cubs win their first NL North title since 1920, finally seeing off a dogged Indy, with the ABCs edging Homestead and Birmingham for the NL Wild Card.
A fitting finale to what has been an extraordinary regular season, as Lou Gehrig comes off the bench in the 9th to pinch-hit and puts an offering from Clise Dudley into the seats for his 60th home run of the year. Will anyone take a run at in the meantime, or will this still be the target when Maris and Mantle come along?
Lou’s 170 RBI are also a new season record, as are the Babe’s .572 OBA, .823 SLG, and 1.396 OPS.
Firpo Marberry sets a new mark with 32 Saves as well.
NeLER NOTES
An absolute star turn from Monarchs rookie Roy Parnell, who just edges out veteran Oscar Charleston to lead the NeL position player group with 10.5 WAR, and as almost a lock for RoY honours in the AL. Turkey Stearnes, Jud Wilson, and Willie Wells are also prominent.
Among the pitchers, young Luis Tiant has had a breakout year with more than 10 rWAR to his name, the most of any NeL pitcher this season and second only to Herb Pennock. Satchel Paige looks set to be prominent in the NL rookie vote, posting a 17-11 / 2.68 mark with 241 K and nearly 9 rWAR. Bullet Rogan’s 24 Wins led the group, and in any other year you’d presume at least one of the major awards would be headed his way. This year, however, he’s up against it.
That forced move involving Martin Dihigo seems to have worked out very well for all parties, with El Inmortal combining for a total of nearly 12 WAR points across his two disciplines – not quite matching Bullet’s 12.4 – and Wilson Redus mashing a group-high 43 HR and driving in 132. Ted Trent, the other player involved, books a 6rWAR campaign as well. By my calculation, the score is ABCs 11.7, Black Sox 12.4.
Five modded NeLers call time on their careers in 1927.
BINGO DE MOSS: A difficult one to replicate being a fringy glove-heavy type, but I always felt Bingo was sneaky good and the sim seems to have captured that as well, with his WAR total of nearly 30 far from terrible. Racked up more than 2000 Hits despite the lifetime .244 AVG, which means he found plenty of admirers, with more than half his career spent away from NeL clubs.
DIZZY DISMUKES: Another personal favourite, who kind of floated in and out of favour in this timeline but never really approached the sort of level I was expecting or hoping for. Nearly 40 rWAR is nothing to be sneezed at, but his WAR total barely reaches half of the source version. Look, if he didn’t have a special place in my heart I am sure I’d be satisfied with his output here.
BILL GATEWOOD: One of the bigger misses we’ve seen, finishing his career in this timeline with just 14 rWAR, well short of his input of 40. Never really got going, with half of his total coming in his age-38/39 seasons in 1920-21. The 1910s were just a wasteland for him, during which he was barely replacement value.
CANDY JIM TAYLOR: Polar opposite to Big Bill, Candy Jim has thoroughly enjoyed this timeline and greatly outpointed his source data. More than 2500 Hits – nearly 200 of them into the seats – and almost 40 WAR, a solid little career in anyone’s book.
EDGAR WESLEY: Played his entire – short – career with the Grays here and was unlucky not to reach 200 homers, very much in keeping with his input stats.
FINAL MLB STANDINGS
AL STAT LEADERS
NL STAT LEADERS
PLAYOFFS
So many times you see a dominant club falter when it counts, almost always due to an unavoidable sense of complacency that creeps in, combined with a heightened sense of competitiveness in their opponents. The Yankees will need to avoid that trap if they want to finally grab their first title in this timeline.
DS
The ABCs await us, with Joe Williams v Martin Dihigo the marquee opening course.
We continue our poor form with a 7-4 loss and dig ourselves an almost inescapable hole with another listless loss the following day. Given our second-half swoon of sorts, it is not a total surprise when we bow out inelegantly with a 6-3 loss in 10, Cool Papa Bell walking it off for the ABCs with a 3-run home run off Doug McWeeny. Back to the drawing-board we go.
Even with no Ruth, the Monarchs have the unenviable task of facing the Yanks in this first round, and the Bronx Bombers are clinical in Games 1 and 2, winning them 4-1 and 10-2. A chink in the armour appears in the form of a 5-3 loss to Webster McDonald in Game 3, but the Yanks hold their nerve and close it out against quality opposition with a tight 3-2 victory as Urban Shocker gets a CG win.
A 6-1 home win gives the Athletics the early advantage against the Senators, with Lefty Grove going the distance, and they win again the following day as a 3-HR performance from Al Simmons leads them to a 9-2 rout. They can’t close it out, as the Sens extend the series with a 6-2 win behind future HoFer Walter Johnson, and another 7-2 win in G4 sets up a decider back in Philly. The Athletics just can’t get it going until it is too late, as Washington moves onto the LCS with an 8-6 win.
The Cardinals take the opening game in Chicago 7-1 behind Flint Rhem and go 2-0 up with a 13-8 win in a slugfest Game 2 as Newt Joseph knocks in seven. The Cubs almost blow a big lead a couple days later but hang on to stay alive with a 6-5 win, but bow out despite a late flurry of runs as the Cards win it 12-7 to advance.
LCS
The ALCS starts with a major upset as the Yanks drop Game 1 to the Sens in New York, but they are back to their relentless best the next day with a 14-1 laugher. The Babe is still on the IL, but Lou picks up the slack with 5 RBI and Lazzeri is prominent as well. Still, you can tell they are missing the big guy, and they can muster only four hits off Bump Hadley in Game 3 as the Senators edge ahead again with a 2-1 win, then put the Yanks under all sorts of pressure with a blowout 8-1 win that gives them the chance to clinch in DC.
They just can’t oblige, as the Yanks dig deeper than they’ve ever had to for a nervy 4-3 win behind Waite Hoyt, then take it to a decider with a statement 14-6 win.
Yankee Stadium would have been no fun that night, however, as the Senators shock the world with a 4-3 win and the futility continues for the New Yorkers in this timeline.
This is usually when the problems start for the Cardinals, and they are just awful in G1 at Sportsmans Park as the ABCs humiliate them 10-0, with Luis Tiant twirling a 6-hitter. A much improved performance sees them level the series with a 6-2 win behind Flint Rhem in Game 2 and Chick Hafey leads them to another convincing 10-4 win in Indy a couple days later.
The whipsaw continues, as the ABCs take Game 4 in a 10-0 cakewalk with Charlie Smith belting a couple homers and Nip Winters delivering a 4-hitter, then wins G5 with a tight 3-1 decision to Luis Tiant. They jump out to an early lead in Game 6 as well, but the Cards somehow drag themselves back into the contest and force a massive Game 7 with a 6-5 walkoff win on a single by unheralded George Foss, whose IRL career consisted of 7 hitless AB with the Senators in 1921. Gotta love this game.
But the ABCs will not be denied, booking a spot in the World Series with a disciplined 8-3 win that ensures the St. Louis drought continues for at least another year.
WORLD SERIES
This is just the second WS appearance for each club, with both successful at their only other attempt—Washington in 1914 against the Phillies; Indy in 1917 against the Red Sox. I think it’s fair to say the two of them would not have realistically expected to be here. I wouldn’t have picked it in ten tries.
Luis Tiant and the ABCs are too good for Garland Braxton and the Senators in Washington for G1, winning it 4-1, then score late to earn Martin Dihigo the W in G2 by 5 to 4.
Game 3 in Indianapolis is scoreless thru five before the home side breaks it open late for a 6-0 win as Lefty Stewart spins a 2-hit gem, but Walter Johnson prolongs the Senators’ season with a dogged performance in a 6-3 win and then the ABCs waste another top-notch outing from Luis Tiant, dropping Game 5 to Garland Braxton and friends 1-0.
The Senators do just enough to win Game 6 5-2 and force a decider, then complete the glorious comeback with a thrilling 1-0 win as Bump Hadley outduels Lefty Stewart, pitching a 4-hitter.
Muddy Ruel is named series MVP.
1927 RECAP
Martin Dihigo takes the first of what I anticipate will be many major awards, winning the NL MVP ahead of three-time winner Bullet Rogan. And to think he could have been stuck at AAA. Lou Gehrig wins in the AL, also his first.
Maiden CYA wins for Herb Pennock and Specs Meadows, with Roy Parnell and Satchel Paige winning unanimous RoYs.
Firpo Marberry and fictional Alex Fernandez win the relief awards, the second for each.
Among this year’s retiring players, Babe Adams’ excellent 260-130 record and solid black / gray ink metrics make him seem destined for HoF immortality, while I expect Charles Bender to eventually get in, although not early in his cycle.
Although each had a solid career, I suspect not reaching 3000 Hits might close the door on both Roger Peckinpaugh and Harry Hooper unless they can sneak in on a weak year.
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.