Find 1894 to their liking
The 1927 Yankees play the 1894 Phillies, the 1894 Orioles, and the 1894 Boston Beaneaters for a full 154 game season. Though the Phillies were the best offensive group of the time, they only finished 4th in the NL that year. The Original Baltimore Orioles won the pennant with a late season charge, led by Hall-of-Famers Willie Keeler, John McGraw and Dan Brouthers. The Orioles edged the New York Giants, for whom the feisty McGraw would achieve his greatest fame and success. In 3rd landed the Boston Beaneaters, who had been the three-time (1891-93) defending league champs. The Bean town Bunch had three Hall of Famers, Tommy McCarthy, Hugh Duffy and Kid Nichols. They also had Bobby Lowe, who if not a Hall-of-Famer, enjoyed a long, fine career, and a Hall-of-Fame day.
1894 was a historic year. The pitching distance had just been reset at 60 feet 6 inches for the first time... it had been 50 feet up until the year before. As you might expect, there was a huge uptick in offense... the league average was a hefty .309 after hovering in the mid .250s the previous three years. Only two teams posted team ERAs below 5.00. The Giants at 3.82 led by a full run over Cleveland (4.97), who finished 6th with some big fella named Cy Young.
Baseball as a major professional institution was still finding and defining itself. There had been two major leagues for ten years, with the American Association battling it out from 1882 to 1891. While researching this era, by the way, I discovered that the city of Boston enjoyed TWO champions, as the Boston Reds (AA) and the Beaneaters (NL) each won their league pennants! Sadly, I cannot find any record of the two teams squaring off after the regular season. I will keep looking. Or perhaps I will match them up myself in a Mac's Legendary Baseball all-Boston championship!
Note: Stats and league standings are found at baseball-reference.com, an outstanding online encyclopedia.
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