For the first time in the annals of the League, but one western club occupied a position in the first division as early in the season as July 2d, when the Pittsburgh club stood fourth in the race, following Baltimore, Boston and Brooklyn, being followed by Philadelphia and New York, Cleveland at that date being in the second division. On July 17th Cleveland replaced Brooklyn in the first division, and remained there to the finish of the race. Pittsburgh was driven into the ranks of the second division on August 21st, and failed to get back again. Baltimore had the pennant virtually in hand in August, and New York drove Boston out of the second place on September 6th, the percentage figures of the three leaders on that day showing Baltimore to be in the van with .676, New York .652, and Boston .646; with the "Phillies" fourth, the Brooklyns fifth and the Clevelands sixth, these relative positions not afterwards being changed. Neither were those of the clubs in the second division at that date, except in the case of the Cincinnati and St. Louis clubs, the team under the Boss Manager, Chris Von der Ahe beating the Brush-Comiskey combination team of Cincinnati out the very last day of the race, greatly to the disgust of the Cincinnati cranks.
A great disappointment to the Louisville cranks, whose pet club started the season with a picked team of star players, containing three ex-captains of League teams, in Pfeffer, D. Richardson and Tom Brown—was the sad falling off of that club from the position of being tied for first place with Baltimore and Boston in April, to a permanent place in the last ditch in August, a result which relieved Manager Schmelz considerably, as up to August 22nd Washington had occupied the tail end position in the race from July 9th to August 23d. Similar bad management of a club team had retired Pittsburgh from second position, on June 8th, to seventh place, on July 2d, and it was only through a wise change of managers that the club was able to retain the lead in the second division to the end of the campaign.
An incident of the campaign of 1894 was the disastrous start in the race made by the Chicago club, which occupied the tail end position in the race at the close of the April campaign and remained in the last ditch up to May 11th, after which the club gradually passed the Washington, Louisville, Cincinnati and St, Louis teams, finally occupying eighth position the last of September. The pennant race of 1894, as a whole, was a decided failure as far as an evenly contested race was concerned, the only exception in the way of an exciting struggle for the lead being that between the three leaders from July 5th to September 30th, this being the one redeeming feature of the League championship campaign of 1894.
#The Contests for the Pennant in 1894.#
Not since 1890 has a new candidate for League championship been successful in winning the pennant, but in 1894 another club was added to the list of League pennant winners, the interest in the annual races, of course, being thereby proportionately increased. In 1876, when the League was organized, Chicago was the first city to win League championship honors, and in 1877 Boston entered the arena of pennant winners. Next came Providence in 1879, after which a whole decade of League seasons passed without a new pennant winner being added to the above two, Detroit winning in 1887 for the first time. Next came New York in 1888, followed by Brooklyn in 1890, and now Baltimore has entered the contest arena of champion clubs, that city winning the honors in 1894. During the intervals of this period of nineteen years of League championship campaigns the Boston and Chicago clubs won the majority of pennant races; Boston carrying off the flag during the seasons of 1877, 1878, 1883, 1891, 1892 and 1893, and Chicago winning in 1876, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1885 and 1886, this latter club being the only one to win the pennant in three successive years, from 1876 to 1890 inclusive, the Bostons not being three time winners until the seasons of 1891, 1892 and 1893. That club, however, is the only one to win the championship in four successive seasons—outside of the League—since the professional championship was inaugurated in 1871, the Bostons afterwards winning in 1872, 1873, 1874 and 1875. There are now in the League eight clubs out of the twelve which have yet to win a single pennant race, viz., the Philadelphia and Washington clubs of the Eastern divisions, and all six of the Western clubs. There are also but four clubs now in the League which have never reached higher than second position since the League was organized, viz., Louisville, 1877—that club's earned title to first place having been lost by the crookedness of four of its team of that year—Cincinnati in 1878, Philadelphia in 1887 and Pittsburgh in 1893, while there are two clubs now in the League which have never reached higher than third place, viz., St. Louis in 1876, and Cleveland in 1880 and 1893. The only aspirant for a position in League pennant races higher than fourth place at the close of the season now in the League is the Washington club; so there is plenty of room to win honors in 1895 if only in getting in among the six leaders by October next.
#The Three Leading Clubs in the Pennant Race of 1894.#
It is about time that the record of the championship campaigns of each year should be divided up, in order that the leading minority of the competing teams may be awarded the additional credit due them for obtaining positions of special distinction during each season; beginning, of course, with the winner of the pennant, and followed by the occupants of second and third positions with the three other clubs of the first division ranking in due order. By thus extending the list of honorary positions in the race an additional incentive for making extra efforts toward the close of the race is given to each one of the twelve clubs of the League at large. Thus, in the early part of the championship campaign, if two or three clubs find themselves hopelessly contending for the pennant itself, there will still be left over those of the other two honorary places in the race, viz., second and third positions, to compete for; and failing to achieve success to that extent, there will be one or other of the last three places in the first division to strive for. This opens the door to win other creditable places in the season's race to be fought for by the six clubs of the second division, instead of their losing heart in the contest, simply because, by the end of the May or June campaign, they are left without a chance of winning the pennant. It would seem to be, from this view of the case, an object of special interest for the League to award a series of honorary prizes to the players of each team attaining one or other of the three leading positions in the race of each year, in the proportion, we will say, of $3,000 for the first place, $2,000 for second and $1,000 for third. In the future the GUIDE will give special prominence, in its statistical records, to the clubs attaining second and third positions; in the race, leaving a less detailed record to the other nine clubs entering the campaign for championship honors, this change beginning with the GUIDE of 1895. We now present first in order the complete record of the Baltimore champions of 1894:
#The Campaigns of the Three Leaders and of the First Division Clubs for 1894.#
An interesting statistical chapter of the GUIDE of 1895 includes the comparative tables of the three leaders in the pennant race of 1894, viz., those of the Baltimore, New York and Boston clubs, the struggle between these three clubs being a decidedly attractive feature of the past season's championship campaign. The season opened on April 19th, and the close of the first day's play saw the Boston and New York clubs tied for first place, with Baltimore tied with four other clubs for second place, only eight of the twelve clubs playing on that day. By the end of the first month's campaign, on April 30th, Boston had dropped to third position; Baltimore to fifth place and New York down to ninth in the race. On May 31st, the close of the second month's campaign, Baltimore led Boston, being then in third position, and Boston in fourth, New York having pulled up to sixth place. On June 2d Baltimore jumped to first place, with Boston fifth and New York seventh. By June 9th the Bostons had got up to second place, but New York was still in the second division, Baltimore, of course, still leading in the race on that date. At the end of the third month of the season's campaign, on June 30th, Baltimore held the lead, with the percentage of victories of .712, with Boston second, having .667 in percentage figures, while New York had got back into the first division again with the figures of .564. On July 5th the "Giants" had worked up to third place, preceded by Baltimore and Boston, each with the percentage figures respectively of .679, .672 and .593, it being a close fight at this time between Baltimore and Boston, while New York was close behind. From July 5th to the finish these three clubs occupied the three leading positions in the race, the others being virtually "not in it," as far as winning the pennant was concerned. This fact alone made the pennant race of 1894 a very one-sided one, as nearly three months of the season's games remained to be played. At the end of the July campaign the record showed Boston in the van, with the percentage figures of .659, to Baltimore's .618 and New York's .613, Boston having taken the lead from Baltimore on July 24th, It was just about this time that Boston stock on the racing market was above par, it being fully expected at this time that the best the Baltimores would be likely to accomplish would be to retain second place, while New Yorkers were sanguine at this period of the contest that the "Giants" would soon lead Baltimore. The Boston champions retained first position up to July 30th, while New York tried in vain to push Baltimore out of second place. By, the close of the August campaign the Baltimores, by a brilliant rally, had replaced Boston in the lead, the record on August 31st showing Baltimore in the van with the percentage figures of .657, followed by Boston with .645, and New York close to the champions with .639. Now came a grand fight for second place on the part of New York, the Bostons, from this time to the finish failing to make the accustomed final rally which their friends had anticipated. On September 6th New York ousted Boston out of second place, at which date Baltimore led with the percentage figures of .676, followed by New York with .652, Boston's figures being .646; the rest of the clubs in the first division at that time being in the five hundreds only in percentage figures. Boston got down to .632 on September 19th, New York being then credited with .667 and Baltimore "way up" with .692. It was now Baltimore's race and New York was regarded as a fixture for second position, there being a difference in percentage points between Baltimore and Boston of no less, than 62 points on September 22d; New York then being behind Baltimore 39 points and ahead of Boston 24 points; in fact, a week before the finish, on September 30th, the positions of the three leaders were fixtures, the only interest left remaining being the struggle between Philadelphia, Brooklyn and Cleveland for fourth place. As before remarked, the chief interest in the September campaign was the expectation on the part of the majority of the patrons of the game that the Bostons would rally towards the finish and that the Baltimores would fall off during the last week or two; instead, however, it was the Boston champions who failed to play up to their old mark, while it was the Baltimores who did the rallying, and in fine style, too, under the leadership of the champion manager of the campaign of 1894.
#The New Champions of 1894.#