Revising Deadball-era Pitching Records Last fall the Almanac began to examine the records of deadball-era (1902-1919) pitchers whose records were incomplete by virtue of their playing in fewer than 15 games. Using newspapers.com to look up each box score for a particular season allowed me to gather a range of data for a pitcher whose published record was incomplete. This time-consuming process was essential to the overall objective of determining the leaders in categories such as hits per nine innings and other assorted "ratios-based" values; the goals was to create a leaderboard for the top pitchers using the new numbers. Then in December the focus of the project shifted to the original aim of the subject for this issue in order to explore how the various pitching leaders established their records, such as Davy Dunkle 's 31 wins or Heinie Berger' s 260 strikeouts. The result of this work was published just days ago and highlights the records of five pitchers: t...
Player Batting Records of the American Association Playoffs The American Association Almanac is a print volume available by subscription. It is published twice per year, in the spring and in the fall. For a full listing of each subject of focus from previous editions of the Almanac , please see the listing of back issues below. In yet another installment of the Almanac' s work on the American Association playoffs, the Fall 2024 issue brought to light batting highlights uncovered by an exhaustive treatment of playoff statistics. Beginning in 2018, the Almanac entered the data from the box score of each playoff game using spreadsheet software. The result was a complete statistical profile for each round of the playoffs for each season, including the finals and semifinals. The Almanac covered other aspects of the playoffs (please see listing of back issues presented below) and will complete its coverage with a focus on hitting in the Fall 2025 issue. The cover for Vol...
Eighty years ago this week the American Association put its first cadre of All-Stars on display. The event took place July 19, 1934 at hitter-friendly Nicollet Park in Minneapolis. Interesting how this anniversary corresponds with MLB's 2014 All-Star game to be played tomorrow night at Target Field in Minneapolis, just a few miles due north of where Nicollet Park once stood. The Millers defeated the All-Stars, 13-6. The 1934 American Association All-Star Team The contest pitted the American Association All-Stars against the Minneapolis Millers, the club which was in first-place on the pre-selected date. In the photo above are (with position played during game): BACK ROW: GEORGE HOCKETTE (lhp), ALLAN SOTHORON (mgr), EARL WEBB (rf), MEL ALMADA (lf-cf), LIN STORTI (2b), ERNIE WINGARD (1b), FRED BEDORE (3b), and JACK KLOZA (lf). FRONT ROW: TONY RENSA (c), GENE TROW (rhp), MILT GALATZER (cf), BILL BRENZEL (c), JOSE OLIVARES (ss), GARLAND BRAXTON (lhp), and AL NIEMIC (ss)...
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