Deadball Era: APBA releases 1910 set

Yesterday, APBA officially announced the release of the 1910 baseball card set and disk to the delight of deadball APBA fans, I’m sure.

 

Rk Tm W L W-L% GB
1 CHC 104 50 .675
2 NYG 91 63 .591 13.0
3 PIT 86 67 .562 17.5
4 PHI 78 75 .510 25.5
5 CIN 75 79 .487 29.0
6 BRO 64 90 .416 40.0
7 STL 63 90 .412 40.5
8 BSN 53 100 .346 50.5
  Avg 76 76 .500  
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/31/2012.

 

Rk Tm W L W-L% GB
1 PHA 102 48 .680
2 NYY 88 63 .583 14.5
3 DET 86 68 .558 18.0
4 BOS 81 72 .529 22.5
5 CLE 71 81 .467 32.0
6 CHW 68 85 .444 35.5
7 WSH 66 85 .437 36.5
8 SLB 47 107 .305 57.0
  Avg 76 76 .500  
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/31/2012.

Now as a Cubs fan I should love this.  They took the NL title with a 104-50 record.  On the American League side, Connie Mack’s A’s won it with 102 wins (Mack was already being called the “dean of managers” at this point.  Alas, he only had 41 more years left as manager of the Athletics).

A few more side stories to the 1910 season:

2012taftopening-day1910

  • William Howard Taft was the first President to throw out the ball at opening day at Washington’s League Park. 
  • Comiskey Park opened in 1910 with a capacity of 48,600.
  • 1910 was the year of the Ty Cobb-Napoleon Lajoie rivalry.  Allegedly, the St Louis Browns let Lajoie beat out seven bunts in the last day of the season so that he would win the batting crown (Bunt for a hit board, anyone?)
  • Cy Young won his 500th game and lost his 300th.

Obviously, if you’re looking for homerun power, you won’t find it in the 1910 season.  The Chicago White Sox hit 7 as a team all year.  Three players hit double digits and just barely.  Jake Stahl, Fred Beck and Frank Schulte all hit exactly ten to lead the majors.  But that’s not why you would buy the 1910 set.  It has pitching, speed and yes, some hitting. 

But the pitching!  Here are the top ten in ERA from qualifiers from both leagues:

Rk Tm W L ERA ? G GS CG SHO IP H ER HR BB SO
1 Ed Walsh CHW 18 20 1.27 45 36 33 7 369.2 242 52 5 61 258
2 Jack Coombs PHA 31 9 1.30 45 38 35 13 353.0 248 51 0 115 224
3 Walter Johnson WSH 25 17 1.36 45 42 38 8 370.0 262 56 1 76 313
4 Cy Morgan PHA 18 12 1.55 36 34 23 3 290.2 214 50 0 117 134
5 Chief Bender PHA 23 5 1.58 30 28 25 3 250.0 182 44 1 47 155
6 Ray Collins* BOS 13 11 1.62 35 26 18 4 244.2 205 44 1 41 109
7 Russ Ford NYY 26 6 1.65 36 33 29 8 299.2 194 55 4 70 209
8 Smoky Joe Wood BOS 12 13 1.69 35 17 14 3 196.2 155 37 3 56 145
9 King Cole CHC 20 4 1.80 33 29 21 4 239.2 174 48 2 130 114
10 Hippo Vaughn* NYY 13 11 1.83 30 25 18 5 221.2 190 45 1 58 107
11 Mordecai Brown CHC 25 14 1.86 46 31 27 6 295.1 256 61 3 64 143
12 Christy Mathewson NYG 27 9 1.89 38 35 27 2 318.1 292 67 5 60 184
13 Charley Hall BOS 12 9 1.91 35 16 13 0 188.2 142 40 6 73 95
14 Fred Olmstead CHW 10 12 1.95 32 20 14 4 184.1 174 40 1 50 68
15 Eddie Plank* PHA 16 10 2.01 38 32 22 1 250.1 218 56 3 55 123
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/31/2012.

 

I count at least six Hall of Famers on that list.  Ed Walsh’s 1.27 ERA is striking and will no doubt earn him his A&B again despite his 18-20 record.

Lajoie and Cobb were really far and away tops in hitting in 1910.  Scandal or no, they hit .384 and .383 and were over 40 points better than any contenders in the batting title in either league (Speaker did hit .340). 

Some say it was actually one of Ty Cobb’s down years.  Yes, he should have won the batting title in 1910 but didn’t lead the AL in hits (Lajoie, 227), steals (Eddie Collins 81), or rbis (Sam Crawford, 127) which he had been quite accustomed to doing. 

Finally it will be interesting to see how APBA handles the fielding.  If I remember my 1908 set, they’ll have to get creative.  To give you an idea, four players made 60+ errors.  Obviously, era adjustments will have to be made. 

I’d love to hear from anyone who gets this set especially if you decide to replay it.  When you do any replay from a different era, game play style is so critical and that’s so true with the deadball era.  You can’t rely entirely on Earl Weaver’s winning formula of “pitching, fundamentals and three-run homers”.

Thomas Nelshoppen

I am an IT consultant by day and an APBA media mogul by night. My passions are baseball (specifically Illini baseball), photography and of course, APBA. I have been fortunate to be part of the basic game Illowa APBA League since 1980 as well as a frequent participant of the Chicagoland APBA Tournament. I am slogging through a 1966 NL replay and hope to finish before I die.

One Comment:

  1. Interesting season to release. As a deadballer myself, my 1916 replay is nearing the end of April but the thing that makes it interesting for me is that there were two great pennant races. There really weren’t in 1910, even though there are a lot of great names in this set which means it’s a candidate for my purchase.

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