1915 Season Summary! Five in a row for the Tigers!

World Series Champions - Detroit Tigers (Frank McDonald)

MVP -   Dave Davenport (DET)  28-14, 2.50 ERA, 230 K's, 403 IP

Cy Young Award - Dave Davenport (DET)  28-14, 2.50 ERA, 230 K's, 403 IP

Manager of the Year -  Frank McDonald (DET)

1915 was a breakout year for 
Detroit's Dave Davenport

Detroit opens the season with another pennant raising

Another OTBL season, and another title for Frank and his Detroit Tigers! The Tigers may have had their most dominating season yet in the run of terror here, winning 102 games and only losing 48 in the regular season.  With Detroit racking up wins, every other team but one was relegated to a record below the .500 mark.  That one intrepid team that dared to finish with a winning record and challenge the Tigers in the World Series was Doug's Boston Red Sox.   The BoSox put up a great fight, but the Tigers dispatched them in five games to win their FIFTH title in a row!

President Woodrow Wilson throws out the
first pitch of the Detroit-Boston World Series

Dave Davenport narrowly edged teammate Walter Johnson for the the MVP and Cy Young Award.  They had virtually identical stats but Davenport did pitch in a league record 403 innings and his Pud Galvin-esque endurance may have ultimately swayed the voters.  He was a new name for me this year, and I really enjoyed this summary of Davenport as I tried to find out more about him  219-img2-DAVENPORT_Dave.pdf (diamondsinthedusk.com)

 Detroit got a bit of an off year from Ty Cobb, whose .318 average was, well, below average  for the lifetime . The Georgia Peach did, however, swipe a league-record 148 bases this year! That destroyed the former mark of 121 steals set by Clyde Milan in 1912.  

Other efforts worth noting.....

Eddie Collins (DET) set an all-time record for most walks in a season, with 118 BB's.  Teammate Ty Cobb was second for the year (and second all-time) with 114 walks!

RBI champ Bill Hinchman

Iron Man Dave Davenport (DET) started in a league-record 49 games

Bert Gallia (NYG) won the Rolaids Fireman Relief award, notching 20 saves

Benny Kauff (BOA) won the Batting title with a .326 average, topping Ty Cobb, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and many others

Gavvy Cravath (SLN) led all batters with 19 HRs

Bill Hinchman (DEA) was the only 100 RBI batter this year, driving ins 113 Tiger runs

The Big Train, Walter Johnson (DEA) led all hurlers with 29 wins, one more than teammate Dave Davenport

Fred Toney (BRN) won the ERA title (1.87).  That's tremendous, deadball era or not!

Grover Cleveland Alexander (BRN), also known as Pete Alexander, AKA "Miner" Alexander racked up the most strikeouts (257)

St Louis bested New York 2-1 in the longest game of the year, a 24 inning marathon! Cardinal batters Mike Mowrey and Ward Miller each logged 11 at bats in that one game. Iron Man Guy Morton of New York somehow went the distance, recording 71 outs in 23 and 2/3 innings that game!  Would love to see the pitch count there. :-)

I had to really try hard to find something Detroit DIDN'T do well this year, but I found one.   Braggo Roth went 0-5 against Pittsburgh in a game late in July, striking out every time.  Braggo wasn't talking much smack after setting the single game record for most strikeouts by a batter :-)

Fred Toney (BRN) and Walter Johnson (DET) each threw one-hitters this season 

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1914 Season Recap

 World Series Champions - Detroit Tigers (Frank McDonald)

MVP -   Claude Hendrix (NYG)  27-12, 2.62 ERA, 209 K's, 363 IP, 8 saves

Cy Young Award -  Clyde Hendrix (NYG)  27-12, 2.62 ERA, 209 K's, 363 IP, 8 saves

Manager of the Year -  Dave Besser (NYG)

.One-peat?  Good.  Two-peat?  Wow!  Three-peat?  Amazing!  Four-peat?!  Incredible!!!!!!  The unstoppable Detroit Tigers win their fourth title in the past four seasons.  This was likely the biggest challenge for the Tigers, as the New York Giants edged them to in the regular season to claim the best record by one game.   However, the Tigers were very experienced in dealing with the bright lights and high pressures  of the Series and dispatched the Giants in five games. 

The Tiger Dynasty raises yet another banner!

1914 Tigers team photo

The Tigers claimed the top two ERAs in the league, with Ray Caldwell (2.12) and Russ Ford (2.34) anchoring the rotation.   Giants slugger Steve Evans had the best season for a hitter this season, coming just one home run away from a Triple Crown (.364, 14 HRs, 120 RBIs).  Sherry Magee of DET was a distant second in RBIs with 94. Brooklyn's Duke Kenworthy led the loop with 15 homers. Walter Johnson (DET) claimed another Strikeout crown, with 239 K's.  Rube Bressler (NYG) led all relievers in saves with 23.  BOS outfielder Benny Kauff swiped 67 bases to led the league.    

NYG ace (and league MVP) Claude Hendrix
comes into his own this season!

NYG Steve Evans, after accumulating only
109 hits in his first six seasons, comes within
one homer of a Triple Crown!

 

 Some of the other top performers of the season include..

-NY Giant Steve Evans was the most valuable batsmen (highest rated non-pitcher in the MVP voting.  The slugger slashed .364/.400/.552.  His 120 RBIs is tied for fifth best ever (Frank Schulte set the all-time record with 133 in 1911)

-NYG's Shoeless Joe Jackson scored five runs in a game, the only time this season that was many runs where scored by one batsmen. 

-Pittsburgh hurler Dutch Leonard had the four highest single-game strikeout totals, whiffing 12 players twice and 11 places two more times. 

-Pittsburgh 3B Ed Lennox was the only player to accumulate two two-homer games! 

-Detroit's Ray Caldwell set a new all-time record for winning percentage (.857), going 24-4. 

-St. Louis Cy Falkenberg racked up 23 losses, nearing the all-time record of 26, set by Cy Young way back in 1902. 

-Claude Hendrix was 23-17 in his first three years in the OTBL, but he really broke out this year.  His 27 wins has ONLY been eclipsed by Rube Waddell, Christy Mathewson, Russ Ford, Addie Joss, and Walter Johnson!  He also set a new all-time single-season record with 46 starts! 

-Detroit's Walter Johnson threw 377 innings, tying his 1912 self for second-place all time.  1904 Rube Waddell threw 379.3 for most ever in the OTBL. 

-NY skipper Dave Besser broke DET manager Frank McDonald's FIVE year stranglehold on the Manager of the Year award!  This is Besser's first Manager of the Year award since 1904!

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1913 Season Recap!

World Series Champions - Detroit Tigers (Frank McDonald)
MVP -   Walter Johnson (DET)  27-11, 1.86 ERA, 240 K's
Cy Young Award -  Walter Johnson (DET)  27-11, 1.86 ERA, 240 K's

Manager of the Year -  Frank McDonald (DET)

.

The dominating Detroit Tigers make it three in a row as they repeat again as your OTBL World Champions!  Walter Johnson had a spectacular season, winning MVP, Cy Young, and the Pitching Triple Crown!  The Big Train came close to no-hitters several times, endingup with one one-hitter and two two-hitters.  Ty Cobb led all batsmen again, this time with his .386 average edging out Shoeless Joe Jackson's .382.  Wahoo Sam Crawford led the league in RBIs, his 115 dwarfing Shoeless Joe's 98.  An unique sign of their dominance?  Four of the top five vote-getters for MVP were Tigers (Big Train, Eddie Collins, Sam Crawford, and Donie Bush), and three of top five vote-getters for Cy Young were Tigers (Big Train, Nap Rucker, and Eddie Cicotte).  Surprisingly, Cobb was not among the top five MVP candidates.  He must've treated the writers badly this year  :-) 

This season was notable for the dramatic race to the very end for the second entry spot in the World Series.  New York and Boston were neck and neck all season, and amazingly ended up in exactly tied at the end of the regular season.  New York won the one-game play-in game to "win" the chance to face the Tigers,  Detroit rolled to victory in just five games, winning their third straight tile and fifth of the past seven seasons!!!!

 

 Some of the other top performers of the season include..

-NY Giant Shoeless Joe Jackson was the most valuable batsmen (highest rated non-pitcher in the MVP voting.  The bare foot slugger slashed .382/.448/.525

-St. Louis outfielder Gavvy Cravath burst on the scene with 19 home runs, more than double the amount slugged by the runner-up, teammate Home Run Baker.  Gavvy's total was 4th highest of all time (behind Charlie "Piano Legs" Hickman, Frank Schulte, and Nap Lajoie)

-NY Giant closer Hub Perdue led all relievers with 26 saves

-Boston speedster Clyde Milan racked up 87 steals

-Detroit's Eddie Collins was a patient man,racking up fice walks in a game against St. Louis

-Only three players hit two home runs in a single game - Stuffy McInnis, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and Brooklyn hurler Jean Dubuc!

-Pitch counts be damned!  Pittsburgh's Larry Cheney recorded 41 outs vs. Brooklyn, that's 13 2/3 innings!

St Louis slugger Gavvy Gravath knows
that chicks (OK, maybe flappers back then!)
dig the long ball!

Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson, the top two batting averages this season. 
Apparently using multiple bats at the same time dramatically boosts your average!

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Updated All-Time Stats!

Ty Cobb and his Detroit Tigers are certainly dominating our retro league, but there are also other players doing amazing things.  

Boston's Honus Wagner continues to add to his huge lifetime numbers.  Honus this year became the first player ever to accumulate 2000 hits, the first to get 1000 runs scored, and also became the first to get 1000 RBIs!  Honus continues to be the all-time leader in games played, doubles, home runs, HBP,s, and stolen bases.

Shoeless Joe Jackson (NYN) has also risen to the top of some important career statistics in his brief five-year career so far.   The Shoeless One now is the all-time leader in all three "slash" categories (batting average .357, on base percentage, .406. slugging percentage.514)!  No small "feet" (ugh, sorry for the pun!) to top Ty Cobb in any of these categories, yet alone all three. 

Shoeless Joe Jackson 

Ed Walsh (SLN) has now taken over the all-time best ERA, with 2.40.  Teammate Christy Mathewson extends his all-time strikeout record to 2344 so far.  Mathewson leads in all-time wins, with 244, and should crack 300 before he hangs up his spikes.  Eddie Plank (DEA) joined Mathewson as the only pitchers so far to toss 3000 innings. 

You can check the all-time single season and career leaders by clicking on the links to the right.  Wanted to include the "Register" reports for some of the young talent in the OTBL, you can see what fantastic starts these relatively new players are off to!

1912 Season Recap!

World Series Champions - Detroit Tigers (Frank McDonald)
MVP -   Walter Johnson (DET)  31-14, 2.72 ERA, 341 K's
Cy Young Award -  Walter Johnson (DET)  31-14, 2.72 ERA, 341 K's

Manager of the Year -  Frank McDonald (DET)

.

The Detroit Tigers make it two in a row as they repeat as your OTBL World Champions!  The Tigers again dominated the competition, finishing the regular season 17 games ahead of second-place St. Louis!  The Cardinals and the Red Sox staged an epic battle down the stretch for the honor of making the Series and facing the Tigers, with St. Louis winning out by just 1 game.  It was almost all for naught, however, as the Tigers romped to victory in the World Series in just five games!  

Detroit was loaded again, with Ty Cobb (.412, 23 triples, 6 HRs, 58 steals),  Eddie Collins (.316, 61 steals), and Wahoo Sam Crawford (.293, 63 steals, 101 RBIs) anchoring a tremendous offense.  Walter Johnson was spectacular, of course, but Nap Rucker (21-13, 2.90) and Vean Gregg (21-11, 2.97) aided him in shutting down opposing lineups.  

 

The Most Valuable Player and 

The Most Valuable Batter

hugging it out!

Repeat Champions Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford

bookend Bobby Veach in this 1912 classic phoo

 Some of the other top performers of the season include..

-Ty Cobb (DEA) set an all-time mark with a .412 average!  This was the Georgia Peach's second straight year of batting over .400
-Clyde Milan (BOA) set a new league record for steals, swiping 121 bags to break Jimmy Sheckard's old record from 1902.  Milan had six steals in one game against St. Louis!
-Detroit's pitching staff set a new mark with a combined 931 strikeouts'
-Walter Johnson (DEA) won 30 games for the third consecutive season! The Big Train won 31 and struck out a league-high 341 batsmen!  He also struck out a season-high 18 batters in a game against Boston
-Chief Wilson (BRN) lead the league in home runs with 11, edging out Ed Konetchy (SLN) and his 10 dingers

-Home Run Baker (SLN) may have to change his name to RBI Baker after leading everyone with 112 runs batting in
-Hank Robinson (BOA) led all relievers with 46 saves, and was the runaway winner of the Rolaids Relief Award (even though Rolaids wouldn't be invented for another ten years or so :-))  Robinson was just one save away from Eddie Cicotte's all-time record.  Boston set a new league record for most team saves, with 51
-Smoky Joe Wood (SLN) won the ERA title at 2.35
-Larry Cheney (PIN) and Smoky Joe Wood (SLN) each threw one-hitters
-My favorite performance of the year was from Jeff Tesreau (NYN), who recorded FIFTY outs in a single game this season!  Tesreau went 16 and 2/3 innings against the Cardinals on April 21.  Would love to know the pitch count on that game!

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This score card is from a 1912

Tiger game

Cobb's aggressive style set the tone for the 

World Champion Tigers

This season also marked the debut of Boston's

new home field, Fenway Park!  Great book if

you are looking for something to read on

this great era of baseball!

Runny tally of All Star nominations

Went back through all of the Award Winners docks for the regular season, and compiled a list of most All-Star nods.  Unsurprisingly, Honus Wagner has made the year-end All Star team each and every season of the OTBL!

Ty Cobb won the 'real' MVP this past season, giving him his second "Most Valuable Batter" award :-)

1901 Jimmy Sheckard (NYG)

1902 Honus Wagner (BOA)

1903 Honus Wagner (BOA)

1904 Nap Lajoie (NYG)

1905 Honus Wagner (BOA)

1906 Honus Wagner (BOA)

1907 Honus Wagner (BOA)

1908 Honus Wagner (BOA)

1909 Ty Cobb (DET)

1910 Sherry Magee (DET)

1911 Ty Cobb (DET)

Cobb climbs atop all-time batting average charts!

Eleven season in for this league, and now Ty Cobb has climbed ahead of Nap Lajoie, Big Ed Delahanty, Honus Wagner, and others to now have the highest lifetime batting average (.341).

St. Louis ace Christy Mathewson continues to lead everyone in career strikeouts and is the ONLY hurler with more than 200 wins!  His teammate Ed Walsh leapt to the top (or is it the bottom?!) of the all-time ERA list, with a sparking 2.36.  Russ Ford of Detroit has the best total winning percentage .753.

Danny Murphy clubbed his way into the 1000 Hit Club.  Honus Wagner continues to lead the league in "Categories Led" with 11!!!  Honus even took over the lifetime home run title this season, and now stands atop all with 79 career home runs

1911 Season Recap

World Series Champions - Detroit Tigers (Frank McDonald)
MVP -   Ty Cobb (DET)  .409 average, 170 runs, 97 RBIs, 60 steals
Cy Young Award -  Walter Johnson (DET)  30-9, 3.47 ERA, 189 K's

Manager of the Year -  Frank McDonald (DET)

.

The Detroit Tigers made the Old Time Baseball League their personal playground this year, dominating this league like no one else ever has.   The Tigers set a new record for wins (105), relegating everyone else to below .500 records, and had all FIVE top MVP candidates (Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Frank "Wildfire" Schulte, Sam Crawford, and Eddie Collins) and the top THREE Cy Young candidates (Walter Johnson, Russ Ford, Nap Rucker)!!!!  And of course, Frank McDonald, winner of his third straight Manager of the Year award,  provided the guidance and wisdom this highly talented squad needed.  They easily dispatched the St. Louis Cardinals in five games to win the World Series!    

The Tigers set many single-season team records during this reign of terror called the 1911 OTBL season, including...

• Most Wins with 105
• Most Runs Scored with 967 (for some context, 1903 CIN is second with 828, 1903 NYG third with just 798)
• Most Hits with 1656
• Most Doubles with 270
• Most Triples with 138
• Most Walks with 553
• Highest Team Batting Average at .303 (they are the ONLY team with an average over .300)
• Best run diffential at 324 (second is 1910 DET with just 256)  

This was really the year Ty Cobb cemented his greatness, putting together the single greatest season the league has ever seen!  That statement contains NO exaggeration.  The Georgia Peach set new ALL-TIME single-season records for batting average (.409), on-base percentage (.452), slugging percentage (.628), OPS (1.080), runs (170), hits (254), and total bases (390).  Whew!!!  This other-worldly performance rightly earned Ty the MVP award.  

 Some of the other top performers of the season include..

-Walter Johnson (DET) won 30 games for the second consecutive season

-Frank "Wildfire" Schulte (DET) set a new record for RBIs in a season (133),  Schulte won the Home Run title again, with 26, second best total ever behind the legendary Charlie "Piano Legs" Hickman and his 31 for the 10-3 Cincinnati Reds
-Eddie Collins (DET) set a new all-time mark for most HBPs, with 19
-Claude Hendrix (NYG) led all relievers with 27 saves
-Rube Marquard (NYG) topped the strikeout chart with 270 K's
-Russ Ford (DEA) won the ERA title at 2.68
-Slim Sallee (BOA), Doc White (BRN), and Smoky Joe Wood (BOA) each threw one-hitters
-Several players collected six hits in one game, including Jack Barry (SLN), Clyde Milan (BOA), Nap Lajoie (BOA), Dots Miller (PIT), and unsurpringly, Ty Cobb (DET)
-Chief Wilson (BRN) racked up 10 RBIs in one game
-King Cole (SLN)  whiffed 14 batters in one game, tops in the league
-Neal Ball (BRN) set a new record for strikeouts by a batter with 108!  Five of the top six batter strikeout seasons happened in 1911.   This free-swinging attitude of the modern ballplayer could spell the end of the game as we know it :-) 

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