Replaying The First 65 Years!

About This Project

This project all started when I read the article “Here is where the Negro League stars rank among the game's best”. The article was written by Anthony Castrovince*, a reporter for Major League Baseball that reviews the work done by Eric Chalek**. Eric has been working on his project creating Major League equilencies for Negro League players for some time now.

I downloaded Eric's spread sheet and have applied the data to the Dave Koch PC Action Baseball+ game. I use the game to run historical baseball replays. I have created the Negro League teams and added the clubs to the major league seasons as discussed above.

Replaying The First 65 Years

Starting in 1883 with tweleve clubs and following all the way thorough till the integration of Negro league players in 1948. I will be selecting to play a season about once every 5-8 years. Here are the seasons I selected, 1883, 1887, 1891, 1897, 1903, 1912, 1921, 1926, 1934, 1942, 1948.

Along the way I will be adding Black and Cuban clubs were applicable. The early days of Black baseball were heavily infused with Cuban players. This was brought about when the black players would travel to Cuba in the off season bringing some of the Cuban stars into their leagues before the offical Negeo Leagues started in 1920. As a side note there were Major League players as well as Negro League players who would travel to Cuba in the off season.

I add the first club in 1891, the York Cuban Giants they joined the existing 17 clubs of the National League. The York Cuban Giants here, in this project is a combination of the New York Gorhams and the Cuban Giants of the Independent Negro League. The club includes both clubs player/managers, Sol White, and George Williams. The next season, 1897 I add two clubs, the Cuban X Giants an extension of the Cuban Giants and the Chicago Unions to the existing 12 clubs in the National League. The next season 1903, there are now an American and National League with 8 clubs in each. I added four clubs bringing the total to 20, the Cuban X Giants once again, the Habana Cuban Stars, the Almendares Alcranes and the Philadelphia Giants. Next I jump to 1912 were there is once again 4 Independent Cubs added to the 16 of the Major League clubs. The Independent Clubs added included the Rube Foster managed Chicago American Giants, the Grant Johnson managed Brooklyn Giants, the New York Linclon Giants managed by John Henry Lloyd, and the Havana Cuban Stars managed by Tinti Molina.

Jumping ahead again, the next season is 1921, now the Negro League has offically formed with 8 clubs to go along with the Independent clubs. The eight new clubs are the St. Louis Giants, Kanasa City Monarchs, Indianapolis ABCs, Detroit Stars, Columbus Buckeyes, the Hilldale Club and the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants. Yes they do like the name Giants! For the next four seasons, 1926, 1934, 1942 and finally 1948 I created a 28 team league format, that is I add 12 Negro League clubs added to the existing 16 clubs in the majors. Another side note the Negro League was not always stable therefore the clubs are not always the same. There are clubs from multiple cities, Newark, Philadelphia, Homestead, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, Memphis, Jacksonville, Nashville and Birmingham.

Season One 1883

Yes, I know this is almost 140 years ago, but you have to start somewhere. Actually major league baseball started about 20 years prior, according to the Baseball Almanac++ and Baseball Reference+++ has the first season at 1871. Anyway this is not a history lesson, and it's my project so I decided to start in 1883, where pitchers started to throw overhand, (see the Baseball Almanac site). There are eight clubs in both the National and American Associations. One thing I do differently here is have the two clubs from the same city play interleague games, ie. The Philadelphia Quakers of the National Association will play the cross town Athletics of the American Association. Once again it's my replay, my rules. There are no Black players in this season, according to the Seamheads# site the first offical season of organized Black baseball isn't until 1886. I will introduce the players in the third season's replay in 1891. I set the schedule to 84 games, six games versus all teams from both associations. In actually each team played 98 games in 1883 but they did not play interleague games.

In the real world if there was a World Series, it would have been between the Boston Beaneaters of the National Association versus the Philadelphia Athletics of the American Association. In the replay the Chicago White Stockings finished three games ahead of the Beaneaters with the Athletics finishing on top of the American Association. The Athletics won five more games on the season so they hosted the series. I called the series the Championship Series, after all there was no world travel until 1919 per CNN## Travels site. In the replay series the Athletics defeated the White Stockings in five contests, 4-1, 6-7, 7-5, 14-6 and 10-9. The Athletics ace George Bradley won his two contests and their catcher Jack O'Brien was named MVP batting .421 in the series.

Season One 1883 Allstars

Season Two 1887

There are 16 clubs in this season, once again there is eight from the National and American Associations. In the actual season the St. Louis Browns won the American pennant and the Detroit Wolverines the National. In our replay the Wolverines did win the National pennant and the Athletics won the American. In the Championship series the Athletics defeated the Wolverines in seven games, 3-4, 3-0, 5-0, 2-3, 3-13, 13-9 and 7-2. Bobby Mathews and Ed Seward shut out the Wolverines in games two and three. Jocko Milligan led the Athletics from the plate in the series. On the season Sam Thompson of the Wolverines was MVP and Pud Galvin of the Pittsburgh Alleganys was named the pitching MVP.

Season Two 1887 Allstars

Season Three 1891

There are 18 clubs in this season, 17 from the American and National Associations and one from Black Baseball's Independent clubs, actually the replay team is a combination of their two clubs. I mentioned this previously. In the real world both the American and National Associations played about 135 games, but the Gothams and the Cuban Giants of Black Baseball only played 13 games per Seamhead's site. With 18 clubs scheduling things got a little bit wonky. I came up with an 108 game schedule, hopefully the Black team will be able to adjust.

In the real world both Boston clubs, the Beaneaters and the Reds finished on top of their respective Associations. In the replay the Cleveland Blues of the national and the St. Louis Browns of the american won their pennants. The Boston Reds of the american finished second only one game behind St. Louis. The black club the York Cuban Giants finished second in the national 5 games behind Cleveland. Remember this club was a “best of” team. Cleveland hosted the championship series winning five more contests than the Browns. In the Championship series the Blues won the title in six games, 4-5, 6-2, 4-12, 11-5, 8-4 and 6-5. It was a closely played series, starter John Clarkson of the Blues won his two contests and Jimmy McAleer, George Davis and Jesse Burkett led the team in batting. On the season George Williams of the York Cuban Giants lead the league in batting at .409. Cleveland's ace Cy Young won 31 and lost 7 pitching contests (hence the name of title awarded to the most valuable pitcher to this day).

Season Three 1891 Allstars

Season Four 1897

There are now only 14 clubs in the third replay season, 12 from the American and National Associations and two Independent Black clubs, the Chicago Unions and once again the Cuban X Giants. I have divided the teams into two groups, the east and the west. In the east there Boston Beaneaters, Baltimore Orioles, New York Giants, Washington Senators, Brooklyn Bridegrooms, Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies. In the west there are the two the Black clubs, the Chicago Unions and the Cuban X Giants along with the Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Blues, Chicago White Stockings, Louisville Colonels and the St. Louis Browns. I will keep to the 108 game schedule, where each team plays all others six times and most teams within their region as much as twelve times.

In the real world the Boston Beaneaters and the Baltimore Orioles finished on top of the National league. In our replay it's the Beaneaters in the east four games ahead of the Orioles and the Blues in the west seven games ahead of the Chicago Unions with the Cuban X Giants finishing in last place 43 games behind. The Beaneaters hosted Championship Series winning 16 more games than the Blues. The Beaneaters won the series in five games, 4-3, 7-1, 3-15, 7-4, and 8-5. Kid Nichols of the Beaneaters won both his contests. Herman Long and Jimmy Collins led the club in hitting.

On the season the Chicago Unions pitcher/right fielder Harry Buckner pitched in 36 games winning 20 and losing 9 and was second in era to Ed Doheny of the New York Giants. Harry also batted 103 times with a .340 batting average. The Unions firstbaseman Louis Reynolds was second in batting at .404 behind Cleveland's Jesse Burkett. Reynolds also tied team mate Frank Jackson for the league's most home runs with 20.

Season Three 1897 Allstars

Season Five 1903

There are now 20 clubs in the project, including the 8 in the newly formed American league and 8 in the National league. I have also added four Black teams, the Giants of Philadelphia, Almendares Alacranes (scorpions) and the Cuban Stars of Habana along with the Cuban X Giants. Once again I am sicking to the 108 games schedule, where each team plays all other six times and some teams in their league up to 12 times.

In the real world the Boston Americans defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in the “World Series”. In the replay the same two teams win their pennants. The Habana Cuban Stars faired the best of the four Black teams finishing fourth in the national league, the Cuban X Giants finished fifth in the American and the Giants of Philly and the Alacranes finished last in their respective leagues. The Habana Cuban Stars firstbaseman Julian Castillo won the batting title at .370, Honus Wagner finished second to Castillo. Carlos Royer won the second most games, 19 behind the Pirates Sam Leever. Star's ace Bernardo Carrillo had the lowest era in the league at 1.06. Second to Carrillo was the Philadelphia Giants Kid Carter at 1.64, Earl Moore of the Cleveland club finished third at 1.91. The Pirates hosted the Americans in the Championship Series. For the fist time the Championship Series goes the full seven games with the Americans out lasting the Pirates, 1-0, 2-1, 2-3, 9-2, 7-10, 1-4 and 4-3. The American's ace Cy Young won the final contest on the mound and at the plate, literly as he was the winning run to cross it in the top of the ninth in game seven, Freddy Parent collected the series winning RBI.

Season Five 1903 Allstars

Season Six 1912

There are still 20 teams in the project, the original 16 from the mlb and four Black clubs, the Chicago American Giants, Brooklyn Royal Giants, New Linclon Giants, and Havana Cuban Stars. I will once again use the 108 game schedule.

In the real world the Red Sox and the Giants faced each other in the World Series. In the replay the Giants will face the Senators in the Championship series. The Lincoln Giants of New York finished the highest of the Black teams winning 48% of their games. The other three clubs were at the bottom of their respective leagues. Grant Johnson and Gus James of the Brooklyn Giants batted .338, 12th overall, Allen “Hurley” McNair also of the Brooklyn club was 16th at .330. The Brooklyn Royal Giants Lefty Harvey was the top black hurler, he finished 7th in era behind the Athletics Eddie Plank. 'Smoky' Joe Williams of the Lincoln Giants was 4th in strikeouts behind, Walsh, Johnson and Alexander. The New York Giants defeated the Senators in six games in the championship, 4-5, 2-0, 8-3, 0-4, 5-0, and 5-3. There were three shutouts in the series, Jeff Tesreau of the Giants in game two, Christy Mathewson of the Giants in game five. Walter Johnson of the Senators threw a no hitter in game four! Jeff Tesreau won his second contest in game six.

Season Six 1912 Allstars

Season Seven 1921

The project now has expanded to 28 clubs, the original 16 teams from mlb along with six clubs from the newly formed Negro National league and another six Independent Black teams. In addition to the teams from 1912 I have added the St. Louis Stars, Kansas City Monarchs, Indianapolis ABCs, Detroit Stars and the Chicago Giants from the Negro League. The new Indepent clubs are the Hilldale Club, Atlantic City Bacharach Giants, and another Cuban club, the Stars East.

In the real world the World Series was all New York affair with the Giants beating the Yankees. In our replay it's the Cleveland Indians ranked first, the St. Louis Cardinals ranked second, Hilldale third, and Indianapolis club ranked fourth. In the first round of playoffs the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Indianapolis ABCs in six, 3-1, 1-3, 2-9, 11-5, 6-1 and 9-2. Rogers Hornsby led the club with 8 RBI, 3 for game winners. In the other series the Hilldale Club upset the Cleveland club in five games, 9-2, 9-5, 3-0, 3-18 and 7-4. Phil Cockrell shut out the Indians in game three, Dick Whitworth won his two contests while William “Judy” Johnson batted .500 and collected three game winning RBI in the series. In the championship series the Cardinals held off the Hilldale club taking it in six games, 1-6, 5-3, 7-5, 4-3, 0-4, and 5-2. Bill Doak won both his pitching contests, Hornsby, Stock and McHenry led the club in hitting. Dick Whitworth won two more games giving himself a 4-0 record in the playoff for the Hilldale Club.

One the season Alejandro Oms of the Cuban Stars East was second in batting behind Harry Heilmann, Isadore Fabre and Jose Mesa were second and third in homers behind Babe Ruth. Edgar Wesley of the Detroit Stars was second in RBI behind Ken Williams of the St. Louis Browns, John Beckwith of the Chicago Giants finished third, tied with Babe Ruth. Fred Boyd of the Brookly Royal Giants was 6th in batting behind Ty Cobb of the Tigers. John Beckwith and ABCs Ben Taylor were tied of 9th in batting. Louis Santop, catcher of the Hilldale Club was 12th. Cristobal Torriente of the Chicago American Giants finished 5th in homers, 4th in stolen bases and 15th in batting.

Season Seven 1921 Allstars

Season Eight 1926

Once again we have 28 teams in the project broken down into four leagues, the two mlb leagues and the Negro National League and the Eastern Colored League. In the real world the Cardinals defeated the Yankees in the World Series and the Chicago American Giants defeated the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro League Championship. In the replay the Indians finished ranked first, followed by the Monarchs, then the Hilldale Club and the Cardinals in fourth. Both of the first rounds in the playoffs go down to the seventh game with Hilldale defeating Kansas City and St. Louis over Cleveland. In the Championship Series the Cardinals swept the Hilldale club, 2-1, 7-2, 7-4 and 6-4. Jesse Haines won all three of his playoff games for the Cardinals. It was a team effort by the Cardinals at the plate with a different player stepping up each of their wins. Tommy Thevenow led the club with 8 RBI in the playoffs.

On the season Nip Winters, ace of the Hilldale Club finished second in wins behind Ted Blankship of the Chicago White Sox and was named pitcher of the year. The Monarchs Bullet Rogan led the league in era at 1.66, he was 5th in wins at 15 and 9th in strikeouts at 127. Rube Chambers of the Lincoln Giants and Chet Brewer of the Monarchs topped the strikeouts board. The Black Sox's Heavy Johnson was 8th in batting at .338, followed by Robert Hudspeth of the Lincoln Giants, Judy Johnson of Hilldale, Martin Dihigo of the Cuban Stars West and then Dick Lundy of the Atlantic City Bacharch Giants.

Season Eight 1926 Allstars

Season Nine 1934

There are still 28 teams in the project, now with 8 teams from a new second Negro League and four other Independent clubs. In the real world the Cardinals defeated the Tigers in the World Series and Philadelphia Stars defeated the Chicago American Giants in the Negro League Championship. This year's playoffs have the number one ranked Pittsburgh Crawfords to host the number four club the New York Cubans and the number two ranked New York Yankees to host the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Dodgers swept the Yankees and will face the New York Cubans who beat the Crawfords in six games. The Championship goes the full seven games with the Dodgers defeating the Cubans of New York, 6-1, 5-11, 2-0, 14-1, 0-1 and 7-2. Dodger ace Ray Benge shut out the Cubans in game two, he also won all three of his starts in the playoffs, and Johnny Taylor shut out the Dodgers in game six. The Dodgers were lead by the bats of Taylor, Frey and Leslie.

On the season Satchel Paige of the Crawfords was 18-1 with the third lowest era and was runner up to Lefty Gomez for the most valuable pitcher. Gomez who won 22 games and was 2nd in strikeouts and 8th in era. Mule Suttles lead the league with 42 homers followed by Josh Gibson with 35. Suttles also lead the league in RBI collecting one more than Hank Greenberg. Felton Snow was the batting champion with a .413 average. Martin Dihigo for the New York Cubans won 16 games, losing 6 and batted .316 while belting 22 homers.

Season Nine 1934 Allstars

Season Ten 1942

This season I continued with the 28 team 108 game schedule. In the actual 1942 season the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series and the Kansas City Monarchs swept the Homestead Grays in the Negro League World Series. In the replay the Yankees finished first in American League, the Dodgers in the National, the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro American League and the Baltimore Elite Giants in the Negro National League II. In the first round of the playoffs the Yankees defeated the Monarchs in six games and the Dodgers defeated the Elite Giants in 4 straight. In the Championship series the Yankees defeated the Dodgers in seven games, 3-7, 3-2, 2-1, 1-6, 1-3, 4-0 and 4-2. With the Yankees down three games to two Hank Borowy shut out the Dodgers on six hits. The Yankees were led by Tommy Henrich and Charlie Keller from the plate.

On the season the batting leaderboards were lead by Negro League players. David Whatley for the Homestead Grays, Lester Lockett of the Black Barons and Willard Brown of the Monarchs, took the top three spots. The RBI leaderboard was led by Ted Williams, Ted Strong for the Monarchs was second, followed by Charlie Keller and Joe DiMaggio of the Yankees, then Harry Sampson of the Black Barons, Willard Brown, Art Pennington of the American Giants, followed by Monte Irvin and Buz Clarkson of the Newark Eagles. Ted Williams belted the most homers, 33, followed by Ted Strong who hit 29, Irvin hit 25, Mel Ott for the New York Giants and Charlie Keller hit 24, Art Pennington and Dolph Camilli of the Brooklyn Dodgers hit 23. The stolen base leaderboard was chalked full of Negro League players led by Gabby Kemp of Jacksonville at 35 and Matt Carlisle of the Homestead Grays at 22 who tied with Johnny Berardino of the St. Louis Browns. On the pitching mound Jim LaMarque of the Monarchs was second in wins behind Cliff Melton of the New York Giants. Jesse Gaines of the Elite Giants won 14 contests. Genry Jessup of the American Giants was tied for 4th in era with Johnny Rigney of the Chicago White Sox. Bill Harvey was 11th for the Elite Giants.

Season Ten 1942 Allstars

Season Eleven 1948

Our last replay still has 28 teams and continues to use the 108 game schedule. In the actual 1948 season the Cleveland Indians defeated the Boston Braves in the World Series and the Homestead Grays beat the Baltimore Elite Giants in the Negro World Series. It's one year after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the majors which triggered the end of the Negro Leagues.

In the replay the Boston Braves finished on top of the National League and Cleveland in the American. The Homestead Grays took the Negro League II pennant and the Indianapolis Clowns the Negro American League. The Braves defeated the Clowns and the Indians beat the Grays to move on to the Championship, both clubs won in five games. The Indians defeated the Braves in five games in the Championship, 6-0, 6-8, 3-0, 9-6 and 4-3. Bob Feller shut out the Braves on five hits in game one and team mate Gene Bearden did the same in game three. Ken Keltner, Joe Gordon and Lou Boudreau led the club from the plate. Jeff Heath, who played his first ten seasons in the majors on the Indians had three homers for the Braves in the loss.

On the season Luke Easter of the Homestead Grays was 4th in homers, third in RBI and was named the league's MVP. Henry Baylis of the American Giants led the league in batting, followed by Bob Harvey of the Eagles, Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals, T.J. Brown of the Black Yankees, Johnny Washington of the Elite Giants, Minnie Minoso of the New York Cubans, Quincy Trouppe of the American Giants, Ed Steele of the Black Barons and Richie Ashburn of the Philadelphia Phillies. Lester Lockett was tops in RBI one ahead of Dell Ennis of the Phillies. On the mound Eugene Smith of the Buckeyes and Frank Thompson finished 6th ant 7th on the era leaderboard.

Season Eleven 1948 Allstars

Team and Player Records

Resources

* Anthony Castrovince. "Here is where the Negro League stars rank among the game's best." "MLB", February 14th, 2022, www.mlb.com/news/negro-leagues-major-leagues-equivalencies.

** Eric Chalek. "Major League Equivalencies for Negro Leagues Hitters." "the Hall of Miller and Eric", October 25, 2017, https://homemlb.wordpress.com/2017/10/25/major-league-equivalencies-for-negro-leagues-hitters/.

** Adam Darowski. "The Hall of Stats", Dec 29, 2021, http://hallofstats.com/articles/the-hall-of-stats-and-the-negro-leagues.

+ Dave Koch. "Action PC Baseball." DK Sports, https://www.dksports.com/baseball.htm

++ Baseball Almanac. "Baseball Rule Changes." "Baseball Almanac", https://www.baseball-almanac.com/rulechng.shtml

+++ Baseball Reference. "Baseball Stats and History The complete source for current and historical baseball players and teams, scores and leaders." "Baseball Reference", https://www.baseball-reference.com

# Seamheads Negro League Database. "Negro Leagues Database." "Seamheads", https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/index.php

## Francesca Street. "100 years ago: The first scheduled international passenger flight departed." "CNN", August 26, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/first-scheduled-international-passenger-flight/index.html

Various website tips. "CSS Tricks on Codepen", https://codepen.io/team/css-tricks