The Baltimore Club's Career.
We have the pleasure of greeting a new champion club in the League arena in the GUIDE of 1895, viz., the Baltimore club, and it is therefore a point of interest to give a brief resume of its career from the time it entered the defunct American Association in 1882 to the date of its being taken into the reconstructed National League in 1892. The Baltimore club's career in the late American Association was one thing; that of its progress since the club was taken into the National League is altogether quite a different matter. From 1882, the year of the organizing of the old American Association, up to the period of its secession from the National Agreement ranks in 1891, the Baltimore club occupied the position of being the occupant of the "last ditch" in the Association's pennant races for no less than four years, viz., in 1882, 1883, 1885 and 1886. In 1884, when twelve clubs were in the Association race of that year, the highest the Baltimore club reached was sixth position. In 1888, 1889 and 1890, the club got no higher than fifth place in the three races of those years; while the nearest it could get to first place during the decade of the eighties was in 1887, when it ended in third place, being led by St. Louis and Cincinnati. During all that period William Barnie was the club's manager. In 1892 he was superseded by Manager Hanlon; and from that date to the close of the past season, the club began to get out of its previous "slough of despond," induced by its repeated failures to win a pennant race.
Here is the club's record while in the American Association, from 1882 to 1890, inclusive, showing the positions occupied in the several pennant races of that period:
——————————————————————————— NUMBER OF CLUBS YEAR. POSITION. IN THE RACE. ——————————————————————————— 1882 Sixth (last ditch) Six. 1883 Eighth " Eight. 1884 Sixth. Twelve. 1885 Eighth (last ditch) Eight. 1886 Eighth " Eight. 1887 Third. Eight. 1888 Fifth. Eight. 1889 Fifth. Eight. 1890 Fifth. Eight. ———————————————————————————
In 1891 the Cincinnati club was ahead of the Baltimores when the former was transferred to Milwaukee, after which the "Reds" broke badly, and the Baltimores were thus enabled to get into third place. The wretched management of the Association during the year was costly in demoralization to every club in the race. Up to the date of the Cincinnati transfer, that club stood with a percentage of .619, to Baltimore's .526. During the season of 1892 the Baltimore club occupied an experimental position in the race of that year, Manager Hanlon not joining the club in 1892 until too late to get a good team together. They began the campaign of 1893 low down in the race record, but they finally pulled up among the six leaders, beating out Brooklyn in the race by 10 games to 2, as well as St. Louis, Louisville and Cleveland; but they were so badly beaten by Boston-2 games to 10-and by Pittsburgh—1 game to 11-that they finished in eighth place only. That season's experience enabled Manager Hanlon to prepare for 1894 with a better chance of success than he had had since he took the club in hand, and the effect of the improved management was made apparent before the May campaign of 1894 had ended, his team closing that month one among the three leaders. From that position the club was not afterwards removed, the team first heading the Bostons and finally taking the lead in the race, the New Yorks coming in second, ahead of the previous three-time champion club of Boston.
THE BALTIMORE CLUB'S RECORD.
Under the heading of "The Three Leaders in the Race," will be found the record of the monthly campaigns of the Baltimores and the progress made by Hanlon's team from the start to the finish in the race of 1894. We now give the detailed record of the season's campaign of the Baltimores in full.
Here is the record of the club's victories, defeats, games played and drawn, and the percentage of victories made against each individual club, as well as the grand percentage against all of the eleven opposed to the Baltimores:
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EASTERN CLUBS. WESTERN CLUBS.
P
h
i W P C L
l a C i S i o
N a B s l t t n u
e d r h e t C . c i
BALTIMORE w B e o i v s h i s
o l o n e b i L n v
vs. Y s p k g l u c o n i
o t h l t a r a u a l
r o i y o n g g i t l
k n a n n d h o s i e Grand
Totals Total Total
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Victories 6 4 6 8 11 35 9 6 9 10 10 10 54 89
Defeats 6 8 4 4 1 23 8 4 2 2 2 2 16 39
Games played 12 12 10 12 12 58 12 10 12 12 12 12 70 128
Drawn games 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Per cent. of
Victories .500.333.400.667.917 .603 .750.600.750.833.833.833 .771 .695
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It will be seen that the "Orioles," under Hanlon, did the pennant winning business up in style in 1894. Of the six Eastern clubs in the race, they tied the New York "Giants," had the best of the unfinished series with the "Phillies," took the Brooklyns into camp without difficulty, had almost a walkover with the Washingtons, and found the Boston champions the only club that got the best of them in the five series played against their Eastern adversaries, their percentage of victories against the Bostons being only .333, while their figures against the Washingtons were as high as .917. Against their six Western opponents, the Baltimores almost wiped out the St. Louis, Cincinnati and Louisville teams, each of these clubs winning but two games out of the twelve played with the "Orioles," while the best each of the Cleveland and Chicago teams could do was to win three of the twelve, the Pittsburgh "Pirates" being the only Western team to trouble them, their series with that club being unfinished, with a credit of but four victories to Pittsburgh's six. Only one game was drawn, and that with the "Phillies."