Chapter 16

THIRD BASEMEN. --------------------------------------------------------------------- P u A C P t s E h e G s r T a r a O i r o n c m u s o t c e e t t r a e n s s s s l s t RANK. NAME. CLUB. . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Nash Boston 132 199 271 34 504 .932 2 McGarr Cleveland 127 171 246 35 452 .922 3 Cross Philadelphia 100 177 240 40 457 .91* 4 Davis New York 124 154 251 40 445 .916 5 Dahlen Chicago 55 95 127 23 245 .906 6 Lyons Pittsburgh 72 120 158 30 308 .902 7 Peitz St. Louis 43 61 69 15 145 .896 8 McGarr Baltimore 117 130 246 44 420 .895 9 Shindle Brooklyn 117 190 232 50 472 .894 10 Reilly Philadelphia 27 35 55 12 102 .882 11 Flaherty Louisville 38 43 75 16 134 .880 12 Hartman Pittsburgh 49 65 96 23 184 .875 13 Hassamer Washington 30 64 79 21 164 .872 14 Latham Cincinnati 129 163 256 64 483 .867 15 Denny Louisville 60 84 124 32 240 .866 16 Joyce Washington 98 151 184 52 387 .865 17 Miller St. Louis 52 71 97 33 201 .835 18 Irwin Chicago 68 90 125 43 258 .833 19 Gilbert Brooklyn and Louisville 31 56 61 24 141 .829 20 O'Rourke Louisville, Wash., St.L. 21 30 39 15 84 .821 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

SHORT STOPS. --------------------------------------------------------------------- P u A C P t s E h e G s r T a r a O i r o n c m u s o t c e e t t r a e n s s s s l s t RANK. NAME. CLUB. . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Glasscock Pittsburgh 86 195 300 35 530 .934 2 Jennings Baltimore 128 307 497 62 866 .928 3 Richardson Louisville 107 236 363 50 649 .923 4 Smith Cincinnati 128 234 523 72 829 .913 4 Corcoran Brooklyn 129 282 446 69 797 .913 5 McKean Cleveland 130 278 401 66 745 .911 6 Allen Philadelphia 40 93 130 23 246 .907 7 Connaughton Boston 32 60 105 18 183 .901 8 Ely St. Louis 127 279 444 82 805 .898 9 Dahlen Chicago 66 191 257 52 500 .896 10 Long Boston 99 223 371 71 665 .893 11 Sullivan Washington and Phila. 83 199 232 52 483 .892 11 Irwin Chicago 62 122 219 41 382 .892 12 Murphy New York 48 112 148 34 294 .884 13 Shiebeck Pittsburgh and Wash. 62 130 230 48 408 .882 14 Fuller New York 91 211 309 71 591 .879 15 Pfeffer Louisville 15 30 63 13 106 .877 16 Radford Washington 47 127 184 53 364 .851 17 Selbach Washington 18 52 52 23 127 .818 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

OUTFIELDERS --------------------------------------------------------------------- P u A C P t s E h e G s r T a r a O i r o n c m u s o t c e e t t r a e n s s s s l s t RANK. NAME. CLUB. . . . . . . --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Dungan Louisville and Chicago 18 30 3 1 34 .970 2 Griffin Brooklyn 106 298 13 12 323 .963 3 Hamilton Philadelphia 131 363 16 15 394 .961 3 Thompson Philadelphia 102 163 11 7 181 .961 4 Weaver Louisville and Pitts. 35 59 8 3 70 .957 5 McAleer Cleveland 64 173 10 9 192 .953 6 Kelley Baltimore 129 274 19 15 308 .951 7 Brodie Baltimore 129 311 11 19 341 .944 8 Shock Brooklyn 34 89 11 6 106 .943 9 Burns Brooklyn 126 212 16 14 242 .942 10 Hogan St. Louis 29 43 5 3 51 .941 11 Blake Cleveland 73 122 17 9 148 .939 11 O'Connor Cleveland 31 85 8 6 99 .939 12 Delehanty Philadelphia 85 224 21 16 261 .938 13 Smith Pittsburgh 125 271 18 20 309 .935 14 Tiernan New York 112 170 11 13 194 .933 15 Donovan Pittsburgh 133 267 24 21 312 .932 16 Dowd St. Louis 115 201 16 16 233 .931 17 Keeler Baltimore 127 220 27 19 266 .928 18 Radford Washington 22 30 8 3 41 .927 19 Ewing Cleveland 52 91 7 8 106 .924 19 Selbach Washington 76 153 7 13 173 .924 20 Duffy Boston 123 313 23 28 364 .923 21 Burke New York 138 269 16 23 308 .922 22 Stenzel Pittsburgh 131 317 22 30 369 .918 22 Canavan Cincinnati 94 191 10 18 219 .918 23 Holliday Cincinnati 121 247 26 25 298 .916 24 Brown Louisville 130 327 23 33 383 .914 24 McCarthy Cincinnati 25 46 7 5 58 .914 25 Burkett Cleveland 124 242 18 24 284 .912 26 VanHaltren New York 139 309 28 33 370 .911 26 Shugart St. Louis 119 276 23 27 326 .911 27 Abbey Washington 129 341 26 36 403 .910 27 Hassamer Washington 68 102 10 11 123 .910 28 Turner Philadelphia 77 143 7 15 165 .909 29 McCarthy Boston 124 286 30 32 348 .908 30 Smith Louisville 39 64 2 7 73 .904 30 Ryan Chicago 108 222 23 26 271 .904 31 Lange Chicago 110 278 30 33 341 .903 32 Twitchell Louisville 51 104 14 13 131 .900 33 Hoy Cincinnati 128 322 27 41 390 .895 34 Treadway Brooklyn 122 274 20 36 330 .891 35 Clark Louisville 76 166 14 23 203 .886 36 Frank St. Louis 77 159 11 23 193 .880 37 G. Tebeau Wash'n and Cleveland 87 182 8 26 216 .879 38 Murphy New York 20 32 3 5 40 .875 38 Virtue Cleveland 20 38 4 6 48 .875 39 Bannon Boston 127 243 42 41 326 .874 40 Wilmont Chicago 135 262 17 46 325 .858 41 O'Rourke Louisville, Wash., St.L. 18 34 2 6 42 .857 42 Decker Chicago 30 55 9 11 75 .853 43 Cooley St. Louis 38 73 1 14 88 .840 44 Nicol Louisville 26 33 3 7 43 .837 45 Anderson Brooklyn 15 21 0 6 27 .777 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

CATCHERS' AVERAGES. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ P P T u A a o C P t s E s t h e G s r s B a a r a O i r e a l n c m u s o d l c e e t t r l e n s s s s s s t RANK. NAME. CLUB. . . . . . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1 Zimmer Cleveland 88 285 107 16 13 421 .931 2 Clements Philadelphia 47 182 38 11 7 238 .924 3 Buckley Philadelphia, St. Louis 66 249 72 18 12 351 .914 3 Robinson Baltimore 106 364 96 24 19 503 .914 4 Mack Pittsburgh 63 274 59 22 15 370 .900 5 Merritt Boston, Pitts., Cinn 61 177 72 16 13 278 .895 6 Schriver Chicago 86 294 93 34 13 434 .891 7 Grimm Louisville 75 262 104 29 16 411 .890 8 Miller St. Louis 39 138 36 12 10 196 .887 Murphy Cincinnati 74 197 69 29 5 300 .887 Farrell New York 103 470 138 41 36 685 .887 9 Kittredge Chicago 50 209 40 20 13 282 .883 10 Vaughn Cincinnati 41 155 43 19 8 225 .880 Dailey Brooklyn 58 217 62 21 17 317 .880 11 Ganzel Boston 55 188 57 24 10 279 .878 12 Sugden Pittsburgh 30 104 28 12 7 151 .874 13 Earle Brooklyn and Lousiville 31 89 42 6 13 150 .873 14 Twineham St. Louis 31 147 35 9 18 209 .870 15 O'Connor Cleveland 42 160 37 12 20 229 .860 16 McGuire Washington 102 288 116 39 28 471 .857 17 Clarke Baltimore 22 86 21 10 8 125 .856 Ryan Boston 49 166 49 18 18 251 .856 18 Peitz St. Louis 38 153 52 13 11 229 .851 19 Tenny Boston 18 55 18 11 3 87 .839 20 Wilson New York 32 119 22 20 9 170 .829 21 Weaver Louisville and Pitts. 30 88 27 11 15 141 .815 22 Kinslow Brooklyn 61 114 47 19 23 203 .793 23 Grady Philadelphia 38 101 30 21 20 172 .761 24 Dugdale Washington 30 75 38 20 10 143 .720 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

PITCHERS' RECORD, IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER--1894.

Heading abbreviations used in this table: G Games Played %W Percent games won excluding tie games RS Runs scored average per game RE Runs earned, average per game %BH Percent of base hits off pitcher BoB Bases given on balls SO No. struck out %FC Percent fielding chances accepted

Pitcher. Club. G %W RS RE %BH BoB SO %FC -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Breitenst'n St. Louis 49 .551 6.32 3.06 .280 162 138 .902 Colcolough Pittsburgh 15 .533 9.13 4.87 .354 59 19 .844 Cuppy Cleveland 37 .583 7.13 3.24 .298 119 63 .916 Carsey Philadelphia 31 .580 7.93 3.84 .314 95 40 .831 Clarkson St. Louis 26 .308 8.11 4.19 .318 102 42 .794 Chamberlain Cincinnati 19 .526 7.45 3.70 .309 78 57 .729 Dwyer Cincinnati 39 .500 7.3 4.13 .317 97 47 .902 Daub Brooklyn 26 .423 7.89 3.70 .306 71 33 .694 Esper Wash. and Balti. 26 .500 8.3 4.88 .339 59 36 .929 Ehret Pittsburgh 41 .436 7.05 4.17 .306 111 91 .808 Gumbert Pittsburgh 31 .600 7.23 4.87 .326 73 60 .909 Griffith Chicago 32 .656 6.46 3.59 .300 79 67 .901 German New York 17 .471 7.82 3.53 .288 48 15 .842 Gleason St.L. and Balti. 29 .586 6.00 3.45 .312 59 39 .841 Hemming Louis. and Balti. 40 .500 6.02 2.85 .295 140 75 .893 Hawke Baltimore 23 .562 7.17 4.08 .311 58 50 .887 Hutchinson Chicago 30 .467 7.47 3.33 .314 125 60 .716 Hawley St. Louis 47 .413 7.04 3.72 .303 121 117 .708 Inks Balti. and Louis. 24 .478 7.96 4.04 .337 75 37 .846 Killen Pittsburgh 24 .583 6.25 3.87 .303 83 57 .909 Knell Louisville 30 .200 8.46 3.60 .329 97 65 .693 Kennedy Brooklyn 42 .545 7.55 4.21 .302 134 101 .771 Menafee Louis. and Pitts. 37 .351 6.59 3.67 .309 85 78 .904 Mercer Washington 38 .421 7.18 4.09 .303 105 57 .852 Meekin New York 47 .790 4.91 2.38 .253 147 127 .798 Maul Washington 24 .458 8.08 4.08 .307 60 31 .785 Mullane Balt. and Cleve. 17 .470 8.17 4.17 .297 80 44 .740 McMahon Baltimore 34 .735 5.51 3.00 .269 109 55 .869 McGill Chicago 24 .291 8.12 3.83 .321 98 55 .846 Nichols Boston 46 .711 6.78 3.56 .291 108 98 .856 Parrott Cincinnati 37 .459 7.24 3.94 .307 120 61 .824 Rusie New York 49 .734 4.73 2.12 .253 189 204 .867 Stratton Louis. & Chicago 21 .476 9.43 5.24 .366 52 29 .931 Stockdale Washington 16 .375 7.60 3.60 .353 39 8 .825 Stivetts Boston 39 .692 7.49 3.43 .306 100 73 .913 Stein Brooklyn 42 .619 6.26 3.05 .280 162 72 .785 Staley Boston 25 .520 8.88 5.72 .344 55 29 .744 Sullivan Wash. and Cleve. 23 .348 8.26 3.74 .320 97 28 .714 Terry Chicago 19 .278 9.73 4.00 .334 91 43 .782 Taylor Philadelphia 33 .719 5.30 2.76 .281 85 79 .796 Weyhing Philadelphia 33 .545 6.72 3.49 .324 101 79 .845 Wadsworth Louisville 21 .190 9.38 4.66 .360 97 58 .703 Westervelt New York 18 .412 7.39 3.83 .297 62 28 .654 Young Cleveland 47 .532 5.83 3.17 .293 100 100 .902

Tie games--Cuppy, 1; Dwyer, 1; Daub, 1; Ehret, 1; Gumbert, 1; Hawley, 1; Inks, 1; Meekin, 4; Nichols, 1; Stein, 1; Terry, 1; Taylor 1; Westervelt,1. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Batting of 1894.

THE TEAM-WORK AT THE BAT.

It goes to the credit of the leading teams in the pennant race of 1894 that the first three clubs did better team-work at the bat, and more of it, than any previous trio of the kind known in the annals of the League. In fact, competent managers and captains of teams have learned in recent years, by costly experiment, that one of the most potent factors in winning pennants is the method of handling the ash known as good _team-work at the bat_ the very essence of which is devoting all the batsmen's efforts to _forwarding runners by base hits_, and not by each player's going to the bat simply to build up a high record of base hits without regard to forwarding runners on bases. Suppose the first baseman in a game to take his position at the bat makes a two or three-bagger at the outset. Of course the object of the batsman who succeeds him would be to send the runner home the best way he can, either by a base hit or a sacrifice hit. In striving to do this, the very worst plan, is to try solely for a home run hit, as it only succeeds once in thirty or forty times, and not that against skilful, strategic pitching. Time and again were batsmen, last season, left on third base after opening the innings with a three-bagger, owing to the stupid work of the succeeding batsmen in trying to "line 'em out for a homer," instead of doing real team-work at the bat. Of course, good "sacrifice hitting" is part and parcel of team-work at the bat, but this kind of hitting was not done to any special extent last season by a majority of the League batsmen.

SACRIFICE HITTING.

There is one thing about the point of play in batting known, as "sacrifice hitting" which is not as thoroughly understood as it should be. A majority of batsmen seem to be of the impression that when they are called upon to forward a base runner by a "sacrifice hit," all they have to do is to go to the bat and have themselves put out, so that the base runner at first base may be able to reach second base on the play which puts the batsmen out. This is a very erroneous idea of the true intent of a sacrifice hit. No skilful batsmen ever goes to the bat purposely to hit the ball so as to have himself put out; that would be a very silly move. On the contrary, he takes his bat in hand every time, with the primary object of _making a base hit_ if he possibly can; but in trying for this strongest point in batting, he proposes, to make the desired hit in such a way that if he fails to make the base hit he will at least hit the ball in that direction in the field which will oblige the fielders to throw him out at first base. With this object in view he will always strive for a safe hit to _right field_, especially by means of a hard "bounder" in that direction, so as to force the second baseman to run to right short to field the ball, in which case the runner at first base will be able to steal to second on the hit in nine cases out of ten. Another good effort for a sacrifice hit is to _bunt_ the ball so that it may roll towards third base, out of reach of the baseman or pitcher. A third sacrifice hit is that of a long high ball to the outfield, which admits of a chance for a catch, but so far out in the field that the runner will have an opportunity to steal a base on the catch. This latter point won't work, of course, when two men are out; moreover, it should be the last point aimed at.

A great deal of bosh has been written--mostly by the admirers of "fungo" hitting--about sacrifice hitting being something that should not be in the game, just as these fungo-hitting-advocates try to write down _bunt_ hitting--the most difficult place hit known to the game. This class of writers think that the very acme of batting skill is the home run hit, a hit which any muscular novice in batting on amateur fields can accomplish without difficulty, and where more home runs are made in a single season than in two seasons by the best managed professional teams. The effort to make home runs leads to more chances for catches by outfielders in one game than there are home runs made in fifty. The exhaustion which follows a home run hit, with its sprinting run of 120 yards at full speed, is entirely lost sight of by the class of patrons of the game who favor home runs. One season, a few years ago, the tail-end team of the League excelled all its rivals in scoring home runs, while the pennant-winning team took the honors and the prize solely on account of its excellence in team-work at the bat. The mere record of the best averages in scoring base hits in batting seems to be regarded by the majority of "cranks" in base ball as the only sound criterion of good batting. This is one of the fallacies of the game, as such a record is unreliable. The only true criterion of good batting is the record which shows the players who excel in the batting which forwards runners; and this record the existing scoring rules, up to 1895, did not admit of, the champion batsman being regarded as the one who excels in his base-hit average, without regard to the runners his base hits forwarded. For instance, one batsman in a game will make three three-baggers, and forward but a single runner by his three hits, while another batsman by a single base hit, a good "bunt" hit and a telling "sacrifice hit," will forward _four runners_; and yet by the existing scoring rules the record batsman carries off all the honors in the score, and the team-worker at the bat does not get the slightest credit for the effective batting he has done.

SACRIFICE HIT RECORD.

The following is the record of the players in the League teams of 1894 who led in sacrifice hits last season. The names are given in the order of bases stolen, as recorded in the official average tables made up by Mr. Young. The percentage figures would, of course, materially change the order.