It will be seen that Rusie leads all the pitchers against the Western teams and Meekin all against the Eastern teams, Rusie having the highest individual percentage of victories against a single section.
There can be no really reliable criterion of a pitcher's skill, as judged by the data of his averages, until the figures of runs earned off the pitching solely by base hits, and not by base hits and stolen bases, and the errors they lead to combined, as is the case under the defective scoring rules in existence in 1894. To call a run scored by a combination of base hits and stolen bases is unjust to the pitcher, while judging his pitching by the percentage of victories pitched is only less faulty; but the latter is the better criterion of skill than that of earned runs, as calculated on the basis of the rules of 1894.
THE OFFICIAL AVERAGES FOR 1894.
The official averages for 1894, as prepared by Secretary Young, of the National League, from data furnished him under the regulation scoring rules of each year, have always been more or less defective as far as affording a reliable criterion of play in each department of the game was concerned, and necessarily so, owing to the faulty scoring rules in existence up to 1895. The batting averages are more than useless, as they fail to show the only reliable criterion of play there is, and that is, the percentage of runners forwarded around the bases by base hits. The pitching averages are similarly useless, as they fail to give the correct data for judging the percentage of runs earned off the pitching on the basis of runs scored by base hits, and by nothing else; the figures of earned runs, under the present defective rules, including runs earned by a combination of base hits and stolen bases, together with such fielding errors as base stealing leads to, a class of errors aside from regular fielding errors. Glancing at the record of the so-called leading batsmen since 1888, we find that the data on which the averages are made out grew more defective each year up to 1893, when they were improved a little. Below will be found the several headings of the season's averages, together with the name of the so-called leading batsman of each year, during the past seven years, beginning with 1888 and ending with 1894.
SEASON OF 1888.
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Rank. 1
NAME. Anson
CLUB. Chicago
Games Played. 134
Times at Bat. 515
Runs Scored. 101
Ave. Per Game. 0.75
First Base Hits. 177
Percentage. .343
Total Bases. 52
Ave. Per Game. 1.88
Bases Stolen. 28
Ave. Per Game. 0.20
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SEASON OF 1889.
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Rank. 1
NAME. Brouthers
CLUB. Boston
Games. 126
Per cent. of
Base Hits. .373
Stolen Bases. 22
Sacrifice Hits. 31
No. of Runs. 105
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SEASON OF 1890. ——————————————— Rank. 1 NAME. Glasscock CLUB. New York Position. S. S. Games. 124 P. c. base hits to times at bat. .336 ———————————————
SEASON OF 1891.
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Rank. 1
NAME. Hamilton
CLUB. Philadelphia
Games Played. 133
Runs Scored. 42
Per cent. .338
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SEASON OF 1892.
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Rank. 1
NAME. Childs
CLUB. Cleveland
Games Played. 144
Times at Bat. 552
Runs Scored. 135
Base Hits. 185
Per cent. .335
Total Bases. 233
Sacrifice Hits. 14
Stolen Bases. 31
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SEASON OF 1893.
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Rank. 1
NAME. Stenzel
CLUB. Pittsburgh
Games Played. 51
Times at Bat. 198
Runs Scored. 56
Base Hits. 81
Per cent. .409
Total Bases. 113
Sacrifice Hits. 12
Stolen Bases. 13
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