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1885 - POWER GRAB
For the first 9 seasons of the Century League, William Whitney had essentially ruled by fiat. Unbeknownst to him, this rankled some of the other owners. Charles Bigsby was gone, but his brother Miles, owner of the Brooklyn club, was quietly working behind the scenes to undermine Whitney's authority. By the time the league's 10th season had ended, Bigsby's hidden coup came to light and the Century League was changed forever.
Before we get into the Century League's revolt and its aftermath, let's discuss the 1885 season itself. The CL saw a true season of dominance as the New York Gothams absolutely demolished all competition and ran away with the pennant with an 87-18 record. Most of it was due to the sheer brilliance of pitcher Walt Lopp. The 26-year-old from Brooklyn had begun his career with the old Cuyahoga club of Cleveland. When that club disbanded, he was quickly signed by the Gothams where he started slowly, but improved constantly. He went from a 15-win, 4-plus ERA season in 1883 to a solid 20-win, 2.57 ERA in 1884 before exploding in 1885 to the tune of a 44-9 record and 1.97 ERA. With Edgar Kirkpatrick (40-8, 2.01) nearly as dominating, the Gothams squashed opposing lineups. The fact that the offense scored more runs than anyone else turned the season into a laugher.
The relocated Baltimore club, now down the road in Washington and dubbed the Eagles, finished a surprising second (albeit 23.5 games back) with a 65-43 season. Providence, guided by wily Edward Wakeham, was third at 61-47. Chicago (59-51) was the only other team over .500 with St. Paul - a new entry who had moved up from the Western Federation, finishing a respectable fifth (48-58), ahead of Philadelphia, Boston, and last-place Brooklyn. The Unions' first baseman, Tom Dunn won his third straight batting title at .359 (it was also his fourth batting crown in five seasons). Washington's Johnny Wallace led the league in ERA with a 1.87 mark.
In the Border Association, Cincinnati claimed its first pennant with a 78-34 season, 10.5 games better than second-place St. Louis. The Brewers did have the two top hitters in the league with Rob Torry (.328) and Alfred Mercier (.320) while Cincy ace David Roper won his second straight Triple Crown of pitching with a 28-10, 1.29, 243 strikeout season. Montreal (67-45) was third, followed by Brooklyn (63-47), New York (45-63), Toronto (45-67), Kansas City (41-71) and Pittsburgh (39-74).
While all that was going on, the "Bigsby Clique" of eastern clubs: Brooklyn, Boston, New York and Providence (only Edgerton in Philadelphia was firmly in Whitney's corner) quietly planned their rebellion for the offseason meetings in New York. Among the grievances they would bring up: failing to either squash or make peace with the Border Association; allowing the Border Men to place direct competition in Brooklyn and New York - they blamed the failure of the Knights on this, and not on Charles Bigsby; purchasing the Baltimore club and moving it to Washington - meaning Whitney owned two teams; and believing a rumor that the Border Association was moving into Minneapolis, which led to the admission of St. Paul over "better and larger" markets in the East (specifically Buffalo, where a Bigsby ally was poised to place a club).
Whitney got wind of the plan before the meeting and quickly sold the Washington club to an old war buddy, Colonel Thomas Brennan. The result was that Whitney had four votes of his own, ensuring a deadlock when the election for President came up. In the end, Whitney decided to step down for the good of the league, with Treasurer (and non-Club owner) Edward "Ned" Wilson, stepping in as League President. Furious at being thwarted and dubbing Wilson "Whitney's toady and unacceptable as President," Miles Bigsby dropped out of the Century League, and Boston owner Jason Kirkham went with him.
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1888 - SAME OLD STORY
1888 was a relatively calm year in the lengthening hostilities between the Century League and Border Association. No clubs jumped leagues, no one put a new club in the other's territory... for once the big stories were all on the field and not off it.
While Border Association President James Tice was starting to feel the heat from his fellow owners over the perceived advantages the Century guys had over them, his team gave him a season to remember. The Cincinnati Monarchs won the second pennant in club history, posting a 92-43 mark behind the most dominating pitching performance in pro baseball history to that point: Charley Kearns went 29-4 and posted an unbelievable 1.01 ERA. He led the league in wins, ERA and saves (8) and was second in strikeouts (206) to Brooklyn's Ray Hayden (234). With Elmer Meier going 26-10 with a 1.70 ERA, opposing lineups had trouble scoring runs against Cincinnati.
Montreal was a distant second with a 77-53 record. But the Saints did have two of the league's top hitters in Walt Ray (.349) and George Maroney (.326). Batting champ Alf Mercier hit .358 for third-place St. Louis (75-62). Toronto was barely over .500 at 68-67 in fourth ahead of New York (64-66) and Chicago (60-79). With the Kansas City Westerns now extinct, the Association had added the Syracuse Olympics to the circuit - the new club went 53-78 for a seventh-place finish, with Brooklyn finishing last with a 46-87 mark. Ironically, Brooklyn owner Sheldon Burton had purchased the assets of the defunct Westerns - including Lew Clancy (who hit .295 in his first season in Brooklyn) - and even with the KC players on his payroll, his club still stunk.
Over in the Century League, it was Providence once again claiming the pennant. They didn't run away with things this year, however, as their 87-49 mark was barely ahead of the 85-50 New York Gothams' record. The biggest news in Providence probably wasn't another pennant for Edward Wakeham's club but rather the fact that Tom Dunn didn't win the batting title - and didn't even place that highly on the charts. The star first baseman hit .307 - which was second on his own team to Steve Airington's .321 (Airington was 3rd in the league as pitching began to take over). That was Dunn's lowest mark since he became a regular and broke a streak of seven straight seasons of .360-plus averages. His lifetime mark was still a very robust .368 though.
With Dunn's bat not quite up to his usual standards, the batting title was won by another good hitting veteran first baseman: Otis Collier of the Keystones. Collier was the career leader in both at-bats and hits for the Century League and was a lifetime .329 hitter but his .362 average in 1888 marked his first batting title. Unfortunately for Collier - who was also the manager - his Keystones finished at 67-70 and in fourth place far behind third-place Chicago (78-55). Washington finished fifth, followed by Pittsburgh and Boston. Buffalo again claimed the basement.
New York's Clyde Wilkes (1.91) won the ERA title in a very tight race with Providence ace Gus Schneider (1.92 - who won 42 games to lead in that category) and Chicago's Herbert Thayer (1.97). Keystones pitcher Joe Chastain led in strikeouts with 348. A young star continuing to improve was Philadelphia center fielder Lou Kirchner who hit .356 (2nd to Collier) and led the league in homers (18) while also finishing 2nd in RBIs with 89. New York's Theo Black had 93 to lead in that category. Teams were also running a lot more - Washington's Gene Deschamps led the league with a record 84 steals, but was just ahead of Chicago's Orv Wentworth, who stole 83 bases himself and fellow Eagle Al Chatman - arguably the fastest player in the league, who stole 82 in his rookie campaign.
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1889 - EDGE OF OBLIVION
After a relatively quiet 1888, the war between the Century League and Border Association heated up again in 1889. The first shot was again fired by the Century League as they (again) pilfered one of the Association's top teams, this time luring the St. Louis Brewers whose original owner (Hans Fuchs) had been James Tice's best friend in baseball. With Hans gone and son George running the team, the Brewers jumped. Ironically, Century League rules prohibited selling alcohol at games, so the Fuchs Brewery-owned Brewers were renamed the Pioneers.
The Bordermen wasted little time in responding, again following a familiar script by placing a new team in a Century League stronghold - this time it was Philadelphia, home of one of the CL's original clubs (the Keystones) and arguably its most popular player (Otis Collier). Both circuits were so focused on their own games of brinkmanship that they failed to notice a new threat rising right under their noses, which would change the face of the sport just one year later.
The new club in the Border Association was the Philadelphia Sailors. Along with the New York Stars and Chicago Cougars, the newly-minted Sailors were aimed at directly competing with the Century Leaguers in the nation's three most prominent cities. Meanwhile, the Century League's best team, the Providence Gems, suddenly fell apart due to bad money management (and high salaries). The Gems were bought outright by Chicago owner William Whitney, who promptly grabbed the team's best players (except Gus Schneider) for the Chiefs and sold the ones he didn't want to other teams (like Schneider, who ended up in Boston). In theory, this made the Chiefs the best team in the league - they even got back manager Edward Wakeham who had started his career as a player-manager for Whitney back in '76.
Things didn't really work out as expected. For the Bordermen, the Sailors played well enough (73-59, 4th place), but didn't draw much. For the Chiefs, former Gem Tom Dunn hit well again (.330, good for 5th in the league and tops on the team) but even with their improved roster, they finished third, 12 games back of the pennant-winning St. Louis Pioneers. Yep, that's right, the new guys came over from the Association and promptly won the pennant. The ex-Brewers went 84-49 just ahead of the New York Gothams (82-52). Jack Pendleton of the Pioneers won the ERA title (1.83) and was second in wins (30) to help the new team win it. Edgar Kirkpatrick went 32-3 for the Gothams in one of the best seasons yet for a pitcher (he finished second in ERA at 2.53). Fellow Gothamite Gene Neumann hit .358 to lead the league in batting and a third New Yorker led the league in steals (Rufus Riddick with 89).
Boston's pitching was improved enough for them to finish fourth (68-64) ahead of Philadelphia (62-68 but winners of the attendance derby with the new Sailors club), Pittsburgh (57-72), Washington (50-76) and again in last place, Buffalo (51-84).
The Border Association pennant-winners were a complete shocker. The Brooklyn Kings flipped their 1888 season on its head, turning a last-place finish in '88 to a pennant in '89 with a 86-44 mark. Cincinnati (79-54) was 2nd and New York (76-55) fourth. The Stars and Gothams were giving the New York fans a lot of good baseball to watch. Philadelphia (73-59) was 4th in its first season but had a lot of star power to overcome in their fight with the Keystones. Chicago was a disappointing fifth and the last team over .500 - Toronto (62-71) was respectable, but the Syracuse Olympics (44-85) and Montreal Saints (37-96) were not.
Toronto's Bob Seigle (.369) won the batting title. The Sailors Joe Chastian jumped over from the Keystones and won the ERA (2.20) and strikeout (230) crowns in his first year in the Association. Brooklyn ace Ray Hayden went 26-10 to lead the league in wins.
While all this was unfolding on the fields, a group of men bearing grudges was meeting in smoke-filled rooms planning something big, that would dominate the baseball news just a few short months later.
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1889-90: THE CHALLENGE
Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you in ways you may not have anticipated. Such was the case for the Century League (and by extension the Border Association simply by virtue of being in the same business) when the Bigsby brothers returned to the professional baseball scene in the winter of 1889-90.
You may recall that brothers Charles and Miles Bigsby were the de facto kings of baseball in New York when William Whitney launched his Century League in 1876. Charles, as the older (and wealthier) brother, claimed Manhattan as his bailiwick while Miles settled in Brooklyn. The New York Knights fell to the wayside when Charles was sent to prison for crimes committed as part of his Tammany Hall connection. Miles soldiered on with the Brooklyn Kings for a while before attempting - and failing - to oust Whitney and take control of the league itself.
Several years later, Charles was still in Sing Sing, but his 26-year-old son Charles Jr. was now wielding his father's political and financial clout while Miles still had his own connections in Brooklyn's government and business circles. Miles was also still angry with the fallout of his failed coup and looking to get back into baseball. With both the Century League and the Border Association disinterested (and the latter having a club in Brooklyn), Miles decided that the best way to run a league was to create one himself.
So that's what he did. Enlisting his nephew and assorted cronies up and down the East Coast, Bigsby quickly put together a seven-man group with the financial means to both build ballparks and ballclubs. The new league was named the Peerless League (Miles wanted a name that exemplified the concept that his league would be the best baseball league in all ways). The seven initial clubs were in Brooklyn, New York, Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Notably, most of those cities were represented by either the CL or BA (and in a couple of cases - both). Detroit was the furthest west location - Bigsby was keeping things close to his center of operations - and like Baltimore, had already proven to be a suitable location for a club.
Miles then pulled off another coup - he stole a team from the Century League. With connections in Buffalo, the Bigsby group convinced that city's club to jump. With eight clubs, Bigsby now concentrated on players and he and his group were willing to pay. Money being what it is, there were plenty of takers. In the course of a couple months, the Peerless League went from being a concept in Bigsby's mind to a full-blown crisis for both the established baseball leagues.
The immediate impact on the established leagues was financial - their operating costs shot through the roof as they scrambled to keep some of their talent. But many big names went to the Bigsbys' league. The Brooklyn club (nicknamed the Bigsbys) copped Rufus Riddick from the Gothams, Lew Clancy from the Sailors, Lou Jewett from the Keystones and David Hudson from the Monarchs (and those were just the bigger names - nearly all of the Bigsbys roster came from either the CL or BA). The Gothams were hit particularly hard: Charles Jr made a point of trying to steal as many players from them as possible, and his club (the Imperials) featured an entire starting lineup and two starting pitchers from the Gothams. To add insult to injury, the Gothams were a tenant of the Bigsby Oval, and paid rent to Charles Jr.
The impact on the Border Association was a bit less initially - and then the Century League decided to replace the Buffalo club with a new club in Cincinnati (a token thumb-nosing at James Tice). The Cincinnati Hustlers weren't much of a team, but they hurt the Monarchs' attendance nonetheless. The Bordermen also lost the Syracuse club who simply could not compete with the skyrocketing salaries and folded up their operation. Replacing the Olympics was a new club in Cleveland - the Foresters.