Spalding's Baseball Guide and Official League Book for 1889 — John Shaqi
Spalding's Baseball Guide and Official League Book for 1889
History
Spalding's Baseball Guide and Official League Book for 1889
Baseball -- Periodicals
BASERUNNERS.|CLUB. |Games.|Stolen Bases.
------------+------------+------+-----------
Hoy |Washington | 136 | 82
Seery |Indianapolis| 133 | 80
Sunday |Pittsburg | 119 | 71
Pfeffer |Chicago | 136 | 64
Ryan |Chicago | 130 | 60
Fogarty |Philadelphia| 120 | 58
Kelly |Boston | 105 | 56
Ewing |New York | 103 | 53
Tiernan |New York | 113 | 52
The above are the leaders in seven of the eight League clubs. Hanlon led
in the Detroit team, but he only scored 38 stolen bases in 108 games. The
Detroit team was singularly weak in this respect.
Mr. R.M. Larner of Washington has made up an interesting table from the
figures of the League averages, which presents some very interesting
statistics of the base running in the League during the championship
season of 1888. Mr. Larner says:
"The official averages of League players contain the number of bases
stolen by each player during the season, but furnish no means of
comparison between the clubs in that most important department of the
game. A glance, however, shows that the three tail-end clubs possess the
three most successful base-runners in the League, in Hoy of the
Washingtons, Seery of Indianapolis, and Sunday of Pittsburgh, the latter
of whom would probably have finished first had an accident not prevented
him from playing during the last two weeks of the season."
The following table includes in its first column all those methods of
reaching first base, except the force-outs, which cannot be ascertained,
and would not materially affect the record, in this comparison.
Indianapolis and Washington still lead, Pittsburgh comes well to the
front, pushing the next three clubs down a peg each, and the Phillies and
Detroits keep their places at the foot:
CLUBS. |Reached 1st Base.|Stolen Bases.|Percentages.
------------+-----------------+-------------+-----------
Indianapolis| 1,589 | 350 | .220
Washington | 1,515 | 331 | .218
Pittsburg | 1,474 | 282 | .191
New York | 1,772 | 315 | .178
Boston | 1,719 | 292 | .170
Chicago | 1,720 | 285 | .166
Philadelphia| 1,569 | 246 | .157
Detroit | 1,843 | 193 | .105
Mr. Larner says. "The simple total of bases stolen is misleading as to a
club's proficiency in base running, since the strong batting clubs having
more men who reach first base have more chances to steal, and hence excel
in totals, while in percentages they fall below clubs which are weaker in
batting. The true measure is the relation between the number of bases
stolen and the number of chances offered for the attempt, which is the
whole number of those who reach first base, whether on hits, balls,
errors, hits by pitcher, illegal delivery, or force-outs."
THE CLUB RECORD OF STOLEN BASES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account