This is not your father’s APBA Baseball replay. Indeed, the idea of doing a pre-1900 replay would never have been on my radar 20 years ago. But Rod Caborn (who The APBA Blog did a Fan Profile of a while back) is quite a ways into a 1883 National League replay using APBA Baseball at this point.
Just to put this into perspective (for me, at least), my grandfather was born in 1892 and Rod is replaying a season that happened nine years before THAT.
Here are Rod’s standings as of July 31:
| 1883 National League Standings thru July 31 | ||||
| American League | W | L | PCT | GB |
| Boston Beaneaters | 38 | 20 | 0.655 | — |
| Chicago White Stockings | 35 | 23 | 0.603 | 3.0 |
| Cleveland Blues | 34 | 24 | 0.586 | 4.0 |
| Providence Grays | 34 | 24 | 0.586 | 4.0 |
| New York Gothams | 33 | 25 | 0.569 | 5.0 |
| Buffalo Bison | 29 | 29 | 0.500 | 9.0 |
| Detroit Wolverines | 18 | 40 | 0.310 | 20.0 |
| Philadelphia Quakers | 11 | 47 | 0.190 | 27.0 |
The Boston Beaneaters seem to be on pace to simulate their first place finish. In fact, with some slight differences, Rod’s replay is quite accurate. No team is off by more than one spot in the standings… so far.
Obviously, Rod’s replay has no four-man rotations, no sluggers in the modern day sense (though the New York Gothams do have 20 dingers… more than I would have expected) and certainly no closers in the bullpen.
To emphasize the point about the distribution of starts and innings among pitchers, here are some selected stats from the Buffalo Bison pitching staff:
| Pitcher | W | L | PCT | G | GS | CG | IP |
| Pud Galvin | 25 | 20 | 0.556 | 46 | 46 | 36 | 435.7 |
| George Derby | 3 | 4 | 0.429 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 63.3 |
| Ed Cushman | 0 | 5 | 0.000 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 38.7 |
| Walter Burke | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4.0 |
| Dan Brouthers | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| James Lillie | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.7 |
| Jim O’Rourke | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6.7 |
| Team Totals | 29 | 29 | 0.500 | 62 | 58 | 43 | 549.01 |
It’s safe to say that Pud Galvin is carrying the load of the Bison pitching staff with 46 of the 58 starts and 435 2/3 of the 549 total innings. Galvin’s example is on the extreme end but most teams have no more than two primary starters.
Offensive stars?? Let’s start with the Bison’s Dan Brouthers who led the league in real life with a .374 batting average. He is hitting .356 with 46 rbis in Rod’s replay. The Gothams have both Roger Connor (.346) and Buck Ewing (41 runs, .325). On the pitching side of things, the Providence Grays’ Hoss Radbourne is tied with Pud Galvin for league lead in wins with 25 and paces the league in ERA with a 1.65 mark. The Cleveland Blues have a nifty 1.92 team ERA behind the pitching of Hugh Daily (2.19) and Jim McCormick (1.76).
Poor John Coleman of the Philadelphia Quakers. He limping along with a 6-30 record and has allowed 463 hits in 306 innings. It’s already been a long season for him.
This is fascinating stuff and I really enjoyed perusing the numbers. When Rod finishes his replay, I’ll make an attempt to put all his stats online.
Thanks, Rod!
In my 1883 replay, the Providence Grays won the NL and the Cincinnati Red Stockings won the American Association pennant, with the Grays winning the World Series 2-0 behind the hitting of series MVP Jack Farrell. In the National League, Jim Whitney of the Boston Beaneaters won the league MVP with a 41-18 pitching record and a .316 batting average with 4 home runs, but Old Hoss Radbourn beat him out for the Cy Young with a 55-18 record and a 1.48 ERA. Philadelphia Quakers first baseman Sid Farrar won the rookie of the year among of less-than-stellar first year players, with a .249 batting average in 98 games. For the American Association, Cincinnati’s Will White took home both the MVP and Cy Young for the second consecutive year, compiling a 49-15 record with a 1.30 ERA and 215 K’s in 581 2/3 IP. He pitched in 66 games, 64 starts, and 64 complete games with 17 shutouts. Ren Deagle of the Red Stockings won the rookie of the year, pitching to a 13-5 record and a 1.28 ERA.
League Leaders:
AVG: Dan Brouthers, Buffalo, .392
Bill Gleason, St. Louis, ,292
HR: Buck Ewing, New York, 14
Harry Stovey, Philadelphia, 11
RBI: Pete Gillespie, New York, 70
John Reilly, Cincinnati, 60
Wins: Old Hoss Radbourn, Providence, 55
Will White, Cincinnati, 49
ERA: Old Hoss Radbourn, Providence, 1.48
Tony Mullane, St. Louis, 0.87
K’s: Old Hoss Radbourn, Providence, 380
Tim Keefe, New York, 397
I have finished every season from 1871-1906 and am in mid-September of 1907. I give every current award each season, have my own hall of fame, and world series and all-star game every year. Hope you are enjoying your replays as much as I do Rod!
thanks for the report, Pat!
A question for both you and Rod. What prompted you to take on the 1883 replay and what kind of research did you do in preparation?
I decided to try to replay all major league seasons, and started with 1901. It felt incomplete because some great players were at the end of there careers or their careers had ended entirely by then. So using baseball reference and bbw wizard I generated the players for each season, and found someone who sells actual daily lineups for each season that there currently are no daily boxscores for on any sites. It just seemed like a fun project to take on and to this point has not been disappointing
A side note about Pud Galvin, he pitched in 77 games, starting 75, completing 74, with a 49-26 record, a 1.72 ERA, and 337 k’s in…ready for this…708 innings pitched. Times were surely different. Though at the time, I think pitchers had to throw underhand.
Hi Pat,
I have done a little looking into the very early beginnings of the NL and Pud was indeed quite the workhorse.
I think in the inagural season of 1876 the Hartford Dark Blues only had 2 starters in their rotation and 2-3 position players did mop up work when needed. Yes the early days were much different.
In my replay all of the pitching for the 1876 Blues was done by Tommy Bond and Candy Cummings. Cummings threw 46 complete games and pitched 403 1/3 innings and Bonds threw 23 complete gays and 211 2/3 innings. Jim Devlin for Louisville was my innings leader with 602 IP. And today, the best pitchers get SAVED so they aren’t worn out for next year
Those were the two guys names who came up a lot in the days of the Dark Blues. Too bad they got caught fixing games and the team got kicked out of the NL.
Wow, I heard that about Devlin but never about Bond or Cummings, which one of them was it?