The Roaring 20s
By Glenn Guzzo

Strat-O-Matic has always taught us as much - no, more - about baseball players, baseball strategy and baseball history than watching the real games. But perhaps no season will teach us as much about how and when baseball began to evolve as SOM's latest oldtimer card set based on the 1920 season.
The historic 1920 season would be fun no matter what. After all, this card set gives us:
-- A great American League pennant race, in which only 3 games separated first-place Cleveland, second-place Chicago and third-place New York.
-- A World Series with the only unassisted triple play (by Cleveland 2B Billy Wambsganss), the first grand slam (Cleveland's Elmer Smith) and the first championship in Indians franchise history. The Tribe beat Brooklyn in seven games, but it was scheduled as a best-of-nine.
-- Baseball's only on-field death, as Cleveland SS Ray Chapman, a .303 hitter, was beaned by New York's Carl Mays, a 26-game winner.
-- The suspensions-for-life of the "Black Sox" in the final two weeks of the 1920 pennant race, for their role in throwing the 1919 World Series.
-- One of the greatest Strat batting cards ever in Babe Ruth, whose .847 slugging is still a record. Ruth crushed 54 homers among 99 extra-base hits, hit .376, drove in 137 runs and walked 148 times.
--The first, or first great, advanced cards for such all-time greats as ...
- Shoeless Joe Jackson (.382, 42 doubles, 20 triples, 12 HR, 121 RBIs, .444 on-base and a 1 in LF/RF)
- Tris Speaker (.388, 50 doubles, 11 triples, 107 RBIs, .483 on-base, .563 slugging, 17 speed and a 1 in CF)
- George Sisler (.407, 49 doubles, 18 triples, 19 HR, 122 RBIs, .449 on-base, .632 slugging, 42 SB, 17 speed and a 1 at 1B)
- Eddie Collins (.372, 38 doubles, 13 triples, .438 on-base, 17 speed and a 1 at 2B)
- Pete Alexander (27-14, 1.91)
- And for Hall of Fame OFs Sam Rice, Ross Youngs, Zack Wheat, Edd Roush, Ken Williams and Ps Burleigh Grimes and Stan Coveleski (who had three complete-game wins in the 1920 World Series).
-- Seventeen 20-game winners, including 31-game winner Jim Bagby of Cleveland.

A BRIDGE IN HISTORY
When you consider the transition years in which the game changed the most, you think about 1901, when the "modern" game began with sweeping rules changes; 1941 and 1946, the "sandwich" years of World War II; 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color line; 1961, the start of expansion; 1969, the start of divisional races; and the mid-1970s, the start of free-agency.
But all of those seasons were pivotal because of decisions made off the field.
The 1920 season was pivotal for the way baseball players' performances changed the game.
Chief among them was Ruth, who single-handedly changed the game from hit-and-run to longball. In the process, he was supplanting Ty Cobb as the acknowledged greatest player in baseball, both in the eyes of fans and in the minds of the game's analysts.
Cobb, who had won three batting titles in a row, and 11 of the past 13, surrendered his crown to Sisler in 1920. And Cobb never won another. Although he would play well until 1928, Cobb's 1920 card chronicles his decline.
Cobb's .334 average was 34 to 86 points short of his previous nine batting titles and would have been insufficient to win any non-war AL title from 1909-1951.
He managed just 428 at-bats, 38 extra-base hits and 63 RBIs. Most telling of all, his still-impressive .416 on-base average yielded just 14 stolen bases (vs. 10 caught stealing).
Most embarrassing of all, SOM has given Cobb pedestrian 1-13 running, C stealing, D bunting, C hit-and-run and cf-3(+1)e14 fielding.
Accurately for his seventh-place team with a 61-93 record, Cobb's card no longer depicts a player who creates ways to beat you.

HERE COME THE YANKS
Ruth's Herculean season (others' subsequent awe-inspiring seasons would be called Ruthian), foreshadowed a) the first Yankees dynasty, which produced the next three pennants in 1921-23 and six of the next eight and b) how the Yankees built the teams that won so often.
Ruth and teammate Carl Mays were acquired after the 1919 season from Boston. Three others in Boston's 1920 cards, catcher Wally Schang (.305) and pitchers Herb Pennock (the Red Sox' top starter) and 20-year-old Waite Hoyt, would come later. Urban Shocker, the top starter on the Browns (20-10, 2.71 in '20), and Dutch Ruether, the Reds' ace (16-12, 2.47) also would go to the Yankees. Pennock, Hoyt, Shocker and Ruether - Strat fans familiar with the awesome 1927 Yankees will recognize that four-man rotation. And the A's Joe Dugan, a versatile 23-year-old infielder who hit .322 with 40 doubles in 1920, also was destined to become part of the Yankees dynasty.
A key part in most of these deals was the money the Yankees offered their rivals.
Long before the Yankees' dynasty of the late 1950s/early 1960s was assisted by trades with Kansas City, there were the trades between New York and Boston (the "Curse of the Bambino" is still active in Boston, where the Red Sox - winners of three World Series in four years with the Babe as a pitcher - have not won once since).
Long before George Steinbrenner and Wayne Huizenga bought championship talent in the era of free agency, the Yankees purchased key ingredients to their first championship teams.

THE ROARING '20
While Ruth's ascent, Cobb's decline and the emergence of other exciting young stars such as Sisler and Rogers Hornsby began to change the game, the transformation was far from complete.
Make no mistake: 1920 had little resemblance to post-World War II baseball, when plodding power hitters ruled the lineups.
Hit-and-run baseball was still the rule. Ruth alone outhomered every other Major League team. In many other ways, the stats and the cards demonstrate that 1920 still was rather more like the dead-ball era that preceded it than the lively ball era about to arrive.
After all, as SOM's card set shows, 1920 was a time when:
-- Typically, hitters have more triples than homers. Only the Yankees and Phillies hit more homers than triples. Most teams had 2-3 times more triples.
-- A team's cumulative fielding range ratings for its carded batters typically exceeds those players' homers.
-- A single homer guarantees a player N power on one side of his card.
-- Unable to wait for the longball, teams were more daring on the basepaths. Most players were caught stealing more often than they made it. The players who are *-rated stealers without automatic out numbers are scarce.
-- The emphasis on making contact means that many batters and pitchers have higher walk stats than strikeout stats. Not a single batter struck out 100 times. Pete Alexander's 173 Ks (in 363 innings) beat by 40 the next-best pitcher.
One carded pitcher, the Braves' Leo Townsend, had zero strikeouts in 24 IP.
-- In the era before relief-pitching specialists (the Cardinals' Bill Sherdel is a 5-rated closer with just 6 saves), almost every carded pitcher is both a starter and reliever. And the top starting pitchers had almost all the saves.
-- Starting pitchers were expected to finish. Ten pitched more than 300 innings each. And pitchers with 9-rated endurance so abound that it's common to see pitchers with a higher number for his point of weakness than his home runs allowed.
-- It's common to see carded pitchers with more decisions than starts. In 1920, pitchers were not spared starts, or decisions, to spare their feelings. In addition to the 17 20-game winners, there are seven 20-game losers, including 25-game loser Scott Perry of the Philadelphia A's.
-- There are an unheard-of four players with cards both as hitters and pitchers: OFs Lyle Bigbee (A's), Rube Bressler (Reds), E. Eayrs (Braves), and 1B Clarence Mitchell (Dodgers) - but not Ruth, who as 1-0 as a pitcher for the Yankees.
-- Carded nicknames are everywhere. It's not every card set that has a Pickles Dillhoefer. We could almost field a European team with Irish (Meusel), Swede (Risberg) and the Dutch boys (Leonard, Ruether) ... [Germany Schafer had retired and Frenchy Bordagaray was years from his debut].
In these ways, the 1920 set is one of the great teachers about baseball history. Playing it will allow us to appreciate the tactics of the time and the performers who won the lasting praise of their peers.

AMERICAN LEAGUE
BOSTON (72-81, 5th). Fenway Park was no homer haven in '20 (ballpark HR: 1) and this team suffers from little power (only seven Sox hit any, for an AL-worst 22 combined), little speed and poor up-the-middle defense. Look hard for the highlights: RF Harry Hooper (.312, .411 on-base, 30 doubles, 17 triples, team-best 7 HR and a 1 with a -3 arm) gets a little help from C Schang (.305, .413 on-base, 4 HR in 387 AB) and LF Mike Menosky (.383 on-base), but the Sox can put only two guys with N power in the lineup vs. LH. Pennock, the rare lefty with control, is both the team's best starter and closer (2 saves).
Oddity: Pennock yields walks to lefties on rolls 4-2, 5-2 and 6-2 - and those are the ONLY walks vs. LH.
Best names: Stuffy McInnis (1b) Hob Hiller (if).
CHICAGO (96-58, 2nd). The AL pennant winners in 1917 and 1919 almost won this one. Many suspect they would have, because they finished just 2 games behind Cleveland despite losing half their key players to permanent suspension with two weeks left in the season. On the other hand, reports persist - fueled by 2B Eddie Collins' comments - that the corrupt players were still throwing games in 1920.
"Black Sox" ring-leader Chick Gandil did not play at all in 1920. The seven others suspended in late 1920 include three of Chicago's top four hitters - LF Jackson, CF Happy Felsch (.338, 69 extra-base hits, 114 RBIs and a CF-1) and 3B Buck Weaver (.331) - full-time SS Swede Risberg, 20-game winners Lefty Williams and Eddie Cicotte and inconsequential IF Fred McMullin. When the Black Sox are forced to finish the season without these carded players, they will have no carded SS, will have to play Eddie Murphy (5e59) at 3B, will drop from a 1 to a 4 in CF and will have only C Byrd Lynn and RF Bibb Falk on the bench. SOM did not card Harvey McClellan, who got 18 ABs in 4 games at SS. In Jackson and Felsch, the Sox also lose 26 of their team's 37 homers.
At full-strength, this is a formidable team. Add Collins to the big hitters above. The Sox also have the best dead-ball style hit-and-run game - the best speed (average among the eight starters: 14.4 running, with C Ray Schalk the worst at 1-12), seven A bunters and six B hit-and-run men. And they have a best-in-the-set four 1s afield (C, 2B, LF, CF) with 2s at SS and 3B.
The pitching essentially is in the hands of four men, all 20-game winners: Williams (22-14), Cicotte (21-10), Red Faber (23-13, 2.99) and Dickie Kerr (21-9). They start 140 of 154 games and all have 9 endurance ratings. Faber and Williams had 300-plus IP, Cicotte 299 and Kerr, the "wimp" among them, 254 (but he's also a 4-rated closer for his 5 saves).
There are no minus hold-on ratings on the entire staff, but three starters have zero-holds and Faber is only +1 - that will be fine as long as Schalk (-4 arm), who caught 151 of 154 games, is behind the plate.
Oddity: According to SOM's roster sheet, RF Nemo Leibold was the leadoff man. He has the starting lineup's lowest batting average, on-base average and stolen-base percentage.
Best name: Shovel Hodge (p).
CLEVELAND (98-56, 1st). Speaker does it all, but he is far from alone on a team with nine .300 hitters and 10 with at least .379 on-base. Slugging RF Elmer Smith (.310-12-103 in 456 AB) has one-third of the team's HRs, but his .391 on-base and .520 slugging is all vs. RH.
The Indians led the majors in runs, not the Yankees. And if any team can match Chicago's all-around game, it's Cleveland. Like Chicago, the Indians have four 1s afield (C, SS, 3B, CF) and three 2s (1B, 2B, LF) for the best overall defense (C Steve O'Neill has a -3 arm and only RF Smith is a 3). The Indians can match Chicago's seven A bunters and six B hit-and-run men. And the Tribe has seven clutch hitters, led by 3B Larry Gardner's +10 vs LH / +9 vs. RH.
When Chapman (.303, SS-1e38) is beaned on Aug. 16, good-field, no-hit Harry Lunte (.197, 2e17) gets the first shot (71 AB), but gives way to 21-year-old, good-hit, bad-field Joe Sewell (.329, 3e88! in 70 AB). Rookie Sewell would go on to become a Hall of Famer. Chapman's injury, by the way, is on a 2 roll and it carries no special notation for a season-ending event.
The arrivals of Sewell and pitcher Duster Mails in September were keys to clinching the pennant. Mails (7-0, 1.88), who pitched 63 innings in 8 starts, gives the Tribe four starters (117 starts) with 9 endurance. The others are big winners Bagby (31-12, 2.89), Coveleski (24-14, 2.49) and Ray Caldwell (20-10, 3.86).
Oddity: On a team with great lineup defense, only Coveleski (a 1) is better than a 3 fielder among the nine pitchers.
Best names: Bill Wambs-ganss (2b) and Duster Mails (p).
DETROIT (61-93, 7th). Even in Cobb's injury-plagued season, he led the team in hitting and was second in slugging (to LF Bobby Veach's .472). So Cobb will bat third in a lineup with good on-base at the top of the order, excellent bunt / hit-and-run ratings and 4-5 hitters Veach (.307-11-113 with 39 doubles and 15 triples) and young 1B Harry Heilmann (.309-9-89). But with infrequent long balls and ho-hum speed (example: Veach hits 15 triples, has 11 steals and is 1-11 running), the Tigers cannot score runs as often as they surrender them.
An error-prone defense whose few good fielders are part-timers (except Ralph Young, 2b-2e28) will only hurt a dreadful pitching staff. Only RHP Howard Ehmke (15-18, 3.29, 3 saves, a 1 fielder and a 4 hitter), who is tough on righties, can be expected to hold his own against the good teams. Ehmke and four others - RHs Hooks Dauss and Doc Ayers, plus LHs Dutch Leonard and Red Oldham - account for 81 percent of the carded starts, 91 percent of the carded IP and all of the 5 saves. But they are all losers, a combined 53-83, with Dauss 13-21 and Leonard 10-17.
Oddity: There are four guys rated only as catchers, an oddity in itself. Even stranger, all are righty batters and not one can hit, throw or run. Go ahead, mix and match.
Best name: Hooks Dauss (p). Detroit has two Babes (IFs Ellison and Pinelli), but they combined for zero HRs.
NEW YORK (95-59, 3rd). Ruth's amazing card trails only 1998 Mark McGwire, the 70-homer man, for the best SOM homer card ever for a full-time player. And the basic side has a full HR chance more than '27 Ruth, who hit 60. Lefty pitchers provide no escape from Ruth. His advanced card has 11.5 HR chances vs. RH, plus 8 ballpark diamonds (rare for this set) in a 1-19 park. But vs. LH, he has an astonishing 19.5 chances, plus 8 diamonds. Walk him.
Ruth single-handedly outhomered 14 other Major League teams (all but the Phillies), but he did not outhomer his teammates, who had 59. However, the Yankees' reliance on the longball while at home in the Polo Grounds (1-19 ballpark homers) should hurt them on the road everywhere except Philadelphia (1-19) and St. Louis (1-19 for LH). Get this: Ruth is the Yanks' fastest (1-14) runner with the most stolen bases (14, but also 14 CS) on a team that stole 64 and was caught trying 78 times. 1B Wally Pipp hit 14 triples but has 1-11 speed. The Yanks also have no B hit-and-run men, a true oddity in 1920.
More Ruth: In his first year as a Yankee, he's a RF/LF-3(-3)e22 (he's a 4 fielder in the basic game). But only LF Duffy Lewis is a 2 among the six Yankees OFs, and all have e-ratings of at least 13.
Ruth is but one of the dynasty-to-be teams' variety of interesting players. We know now why Bob Meusel became a strong-armed outfielder instead of a strong-armed 3Bman. Splitting time in 1920, the 23-year-old Meusel is a 3b-5e65 and a lf/rf-3(-5)e17. By 1927, he'd be a lf/rf-1(-5). The excellent defensive infield includes Pipp, the man Lou Gehrig replaced in 1925 and SS Roger Peckinpaugh, a 1 fielder now and a future manager.
Ace pitcher Carl Mays (26-11, 3.06) does much to help himself win. He's got 9 endurance, he's a 1e4 fielder, a 4 hitter/A bunter, and the deadly beanballer walked just 84 in 312 IP and is both a wp-0 and a bk-0. Still, he surrendered 310 hits and struck out just eight more than he walked (92-84) despite good control. Worse, he has a ballpark diamond vs. both LH and RH (remember the 1-19 Polo Grounds), the only Yankee pitcher to be so afflicted.
Mays and Bob Shawkey combine for nearly half (70) of the Yankees' decisions, in 68 combined starts.
Oddity: SOM has carded all Yankees pitchers except two: Ruth (1-0) and future slugging OF Lefty O'Doul (0-0).
Best name: Ping Bodie (of).
PHILADELPHIA (48-106, 8th). Connie Mack was still rebuilding the team he tore apart (for money) after it won four pennants and three World Series from 1910-14. The stars of those teams - Eddie Collins, Frank "Home Run" Baker, Eddie Plank, Chief Bender - are long gone. But there are the first signs of the team that would dominate again from 1929-31 (before Mack dismantled that one, too, rather than pay higher salaries): 2B Jimmy Dykes (.381 on-base) and P Eddie Rommel (7-7, 2.84).
But 1929 is still a long time away, and this A's club was a last-place, 106-game loser for good reason. 3B Joe Dugan is the only .300-hitting regular. And he was the only guy with more than 1 HR who hit above .268. LF Tilly Walker hit 17 HRs when that was impressive for anyone not named Ruth, but he hit only .268 with low on-base and poor defense.
Ah, the defense. Dugan is one of four 2s, including C Cy Perkins, whose -2 arm is desperately needed for a pitching staff with only 133 IP of minus hold ratings. You have to go to the super-advanced charts to find e-ratings high enough for LF Walker (e23), CF Frank Welch (the max e25), half of the RF at bats (the max e25), 2B Dykes (e44) and the two SS Chick Galloway (e64) and Red Shannon (e52). The shortstops combine to put the A's in contention for the worst lineup position in the set: They hit a combined .229 with just 30 extra-base hits (0 HR) and 5 SB with 1-12 running. Actually, the A's catch a break: Shannon's .255 card includes his much better performance for the Red Sox early in the season. He really hit .170 for the A's.
Rommel and Dave Keefe (6-7, 2.98) are rays of light on a pitching staff whose won-lost records recall the 1962 Mets: Scott Perry (11-25), Rollie Naylor (10-23), and Roy Moore (1-13). Perry and Naylor each yielded more than 300 hits.
Best names: With a Lena (Styles), Ivy (Griffin), Chick (Galloway) and Tilly (Walker), as well as Slim, Cy, Rollie and Lyle, it's clear this team was doomed to the cellar.
ST. LOUIS (76-77, 4th). The Browns never won a non-war pennant (the franchise moved to Baltimore in 1954), but this team had many of the key players who gave the Browns their best team in 1922, which finished just one game behind the Yankees. 1B Sisler (.407-19-122) and OFs Ken Williams (.307, 57 extra-base hits, 18 SB), Baby Doll Jacobson (.355, 57 extra base hits, 122 RBIs) and Jack Tobin (.341, 34 doubles, 21 steals) all were in their late 20s and playing well in 1920. That also describes RHPs Shocker (20-10, 2.71) and Dixie Davis (18-12, 3.18).
The Browns led the majors in hitting (.308) but their 4.03 ERA was better than only Detroit (4.04) and Washington (4.17). Lefty sluggers Sisler and Williams will benefit from 1-19 ballpark HRs at home, but seven of 10 Browns pitchers have ballpark diamonds vs. LH. The lineup is terrific at the hit-and-run (eight Bs), but except for Shocker's excellent card and Davis' walk-prone card, avoiding hits on the Browns' pitching cards is like avoiding hits while in dodge-'em cars.
Oddity: John Shovlin's 7-AB card is not a record for fewest at bats. That distinction belongs to Tom Walsh, the No. 3 catcher on the 1906 Cubs who was 0-for-1.
Best names: Baby Doll Jacobson (of), Urban Shocker (p) and Elam VanGilder (p).
WASHINGTON (68-84, 6th). Sore-armed Walter Johnson (8-10, 3.13) is a shadow of his self, but his card is still the pride of a pitching staff that had the highest ERA (4.17) in the majors. Only Johnson had an ERA of less than 3.77. And despite his arm woes, his 78 Ks in 144 IP gives him one of the better strikeout cards, and his impeccable control gives him a very good card, indeed.
The Senators' moundsmen are better hitters than pitchers. Johnson (8N), Eric Erickson (5N), Henry Courtney (4N) and three other 4s lead a staff whose only hitter worse than a 3 is 17-IP Harry Biemiller. The pitchers can't field, either (no 1s, Biemiller is one of only two 2s). The guys behind them include a 1 and five 2s, but all six players rated at SS are 4s or 5s and the team overall is error-prone - especially Rice, an e20 in CF.
The pitching woes are all the more remarkable because home field Griffith Park is one of the best pitching parks (HR 1, SI 1-9). Appropriately, the offense is geared toward "little ball." The non-pitchers hit 33 HR, nobody hit 30 doubles and only 1B Joe Judge hit double-figure triples (15). But the Senators have four .300 hitters, excellent bunting (10 As and Bs) and excellent speed (starters average 14.3 with one 17, one 16 and three 15s). Good news: HOF CF Sam Rice hit a team-leading .338 and had a majors-leading 63 steals (he's a AA). Bad news: His 41 extra-base hits led the team. Good news: Judge hit .333 and LF Clyde Milan hit .322. Bad news: RF Braggo Roth (.291-9-92 with 24 SBs) led the team with a mere .432 slugging. Only he had more than 5 homers and only five others hit more than 1.
Oddity: One of the pitchers is Al Schacht, who later became a baseball clown. You might say that being on this staff prepared him well.
Best name: Braggo Roth (of).
NATIONAL LEAGUE
The NL pennant race was no match for the AL's, and neither was the NL offense. Five AL teams scored more than the NL leader, New York. Five NL teams scored so seldom that they would have outscored only Philadelphia in the AL. The Cardinals led the NL in hitting and slugging, but would have finished fifth in AL batting and sixth in slugging.
As for Brooklyn winning the pennant, "the wrong team won," SOM past-season researcher Steve Barkan declared. But Barkan's pick, the Giants led by John McGraw, finished 7 games behind the Dodgers led by McGraw's former Baltimore teammate, Wilbert Robinson.
BOSTON (62-90, 7th). The Braves avoided the cellar by a half game, but not without the best efforts of twin 21-gamer losers Dana Fillingim and Jack Scott, a leadoff man (CF Ray Powell) who hit .225 and had a .282 on-base average, and such "sluggers" as Powell (team-best 6 HRs but only .314 slugging, last among the 10 Braves with at least 240 ABs); SS Rabbit Maranville, the light-hitter who led the Braves with 35 extra-base hits (1 HR) and 1B Walter Holke, who led the regulars with tepid .294 batting, .377 slugging and 64 RBIs. RF Walton Cruise, the part-time cleanup hitter, had just 1 HR, hit .278 and goes down -11 in the clutch. Easily the worst clutch-hitting team, no Braves starter is better than -6. Among the dozen batters with 200-plus ABs only one, Hod Ford, goes up.
There are worse defensive teams: The Braves have only about 600 ABs from 4s. At least Maranville is a SS-1, but he's e52; Powell is CF-2(-3), but he's e19. But get this: Even on this decent defensive team, the combined range ratings of the eight lineup regulars tops their homers (20-19).
So, lay the blame for this lame season on the hitters, who produced the fewest runs (523) in the majors. The Braves get 124 of 151 carded decisions from pitchers with ERAs of 3.54 or better. These pitchers lost 73 of the 124. A good Strat manager can manipulate this staff to pitch well often, especially at cavernous Braves Field.
Oddity: Hugh McQuillan got 5 of the Braves' 6 saves. So if he needs a closer for any of his 27 starts, it's gotta be Scott, who has the only other closer rating (0) on the team.
Best names: Rabbit Maranville (ss) and Bunny Hearn (p) on the same team!
BROOKLYN (93-61, 1st). This doesn't look like a championship offense. Only LF Zack Wheat (.328-9-73), CF Hy Myers (.304-4-80) and 1B Ed Konetchy (.308-5-63) hit .300 or slugged .400. Wheat's few HRs and Myers' few RBIs led the team. The Dodgers were last in the NL (by far) in steals and seventh in walks. Only two starters (the No. 1 and 7 hitters) go up in the clutch. Somehow, the Dodgers were third in NL scoring - there are seven starters and two subs who hit at least .272, the Dodgers led the NL in triples, they seldom strike out and they bunt and hit-and-run very well.
This is a championship defense, however: The lineup has a 1 and seven 2s.
And the pitching is simply the best: Led by HOFer Burleigh Grimes (23-11, 2.22), there are 94 starts from sub-3.00 ERAs and all 155 starts from ERAs no worse than 3.26. The Dodgers led the majors with a 2.62 team ERA. Of the nine carded pitchers, six have 9 or 8 endurance, six are 1 or 2 fielders, six are 4, 5 or 7 hitters. Perhaps most extraordinary, the Dodgers have a 3-rated closer and a 2-rated closer whose cards look like closers: Righty Al Mamaux (12-8, 2.69, 4 saves) and lefty Sherry Smith (11-9, 1.85, 3 saves) are splendid and frequently available (only 30 starts between them in a combined 327 IP). The only blemish: Only 19 starts with minus hold ratings on a team with catchers who don't help.
Oddity: The 1-19 ballpark homer for lefties at Ebbetts Field has remarkably little value on Dodgers cards. Wheat is the only lefty batter with any ballpark homer chances (two). And other than 23-IP Johnny Miljus, the other eight Dodger pitchers yield a combined one ballpark chance vs. LH, by Johnny Pfeffer.
Best name: Rowdy Elliott (c).
CHICAGO (75-79, 5th). The Cubs have the most dominant pitcher of 1920: HOFer Pete Alexander, who led the NL in wins (27), ERA (1.91), strikeouts (173), starts (40), complete games (33) and innings (363). He was second in the majors with 7 shutouts. He walked fewer than one man per five innings. He has 9 endurance and a 4-closer rating (second best in the NL with 5 saves). And he's a 4N hitter ... Add Hippo Vaughn (19-16, 2.54, 38 starts, 301 IP, runner-up 131 Ks) and they vie with Pittsburgh's Wilbur Cooper and Babe Adams for the best 1-2 starting-pitcher combo (who combine to start more than half the games).
How did Alexander and Vaughn lose 30 games between them? The Cubs don't have a lot of power (LF Dave Robertson's 10 HRs are twice as many as any teammate; RF Max Flack's 30 doubles are tops and only two guys hit double-figure triples), or a lot of speed (only two are better than 1-14 runners; only two had more SB than CS) or a lot of defense (their two 1s are part-time players and their only two 2s are at 1B and RF) ... The middle infield is a wasteland: None of the six guys can homer and only 301-AB Charlie Hollocher is better than a 3 fielder, or a 1-12 runner, or a .280 hitter.
Hollocher (.319 hitting, ss-1, 16 speed) and Flack (.302, rf-2, -2 arm, 16 speed, .373 on-base, +9 clutch) are the best of a mediocre lot. IF Zeb Terry (.280 hitting, .341 on-base, +10 in the clutch), good-hit/bad-field OFs Robertson (.300-10-75, .462 slugging, +4 clutch) and Dode Paskert (.279-5-71, +8 clutch) and part-time, good-field/no-hit C Bill Killefer (a 1, w/-2 arm) offer some support ... It's clearly not enough: Alexander and Vaughn are the only Cubs pitchers with winning records.
Oddity: Add utility man Turner Barber (+11) and backup C Tom Daly (+4) and six Cubs with more than half the team's carded ABs go up in the clutch, with four of them at least +8. Maybe that's why the Cubs tried so aggressively to steal bases that they succeeded on only 47 percent of their tries.
Best names: Sweetbreads Bailey (p), Chippy Gaw (p) and Max Flack (rf).
CINCINNATI (82-71, 3rd). Only a lack of power kept the defending NL champs from contending again. But there is a stunning lack of power: 18 HRs for the team (only 2 better than ML-worst Pittsburgh), and the fewest extra-base hits in the majors. Only 2B Morrie Rath has any ballpark diamonds (3 vs. LH only), not that they are of any use in Crosley Field (ballpark HR: 1) when the distances were 360 down the line and 420 to center. Only CF Edd Roush and 1B Jake Daubert have N power vs. both LH and RH. Rath is the only other with N power vs. LH and only three others have N power vs. RH.
Everything else is in order. Led by Roush (.339-4-90, 16 triples, 36 steals, 17 speed, A bunter, B hit-and-run, +4 clutch, cf-1, -3 arm), the Reds hit for decent average, (.277) with decent clutch-hitting (seven go up), good batting eyes (eight of 11 carded batters with 100-plus ABs have more walks than strikeouts), excellent team speed (starters' average running: 14.4 and seven starters had double-figure steals), excellent bunting (11 As and Bs), excellent hit-and-run ability (seven Bs and the fewest strikeouts in the majors) and fine defense (four 1s, three 2s and one 3 in the lineup with good arms at C, CF and RF). 3B Heinie Groh (1e15), CF Roush and RF Greasy Neale (rf-1e5 with -2 arm) are about the best in the set at their positions. And none of the pitchers are 4s or 5s.
Dutch Ruether (16-12, 2.47) leads five 200-plus-IP hurlers, four of whom have sub-3.00 ERAs. The five account for 93 percent of the innings on the eight carded Reds pitchers (Slim Sallee's 12 starts and 116 IP are carded with the Giants, where he had 17 season-ending IP) ... Instead of being cannon-fodder, the three little-used Reds include Buddy Napier (4-2, 1.29 in 5 starts and 49 IP) and Rube Bressler (2-0, 1.80 in 2 starts and 20 IP). All of the big five and Napier have 9 or 8 starting endurance.
Oddities: SPs Luque, Eller, Ring and Fisher all have stealing ratings with Luque, a 4-hitter, getting a lead of *2-6, 12 with no automatic out and 15-12 success ... Counting Sallee's card with the Giants, SOM has carded all but one Reds start, the only game pitched by Dazzy Swartz, who nonetheless got 12 IP and allowed 17 hits.
Best names: Ivy Wingo (c) and Greasy Neale (of).
NEW YORK (86-68, 2nd). With excellent pitching (three 20-game winners, a 2.80 team ERA and a major-league best 18 shutouts) and the NL's highest-scoring offense, the Giants would seem to be the favorites. But on closer inspection, this team is poor fundamentally, uncharacteristically so for a John McGraw-managed team.
For instance, the Giants' 692 runs led the NL, but would have been just sixth in the AL, a rather amazing 165 fewer runs than AL leader Cleveland. The only other offensive stats the Giants led in were walks and strikeouts. The latter contributes to the Giants' poor hit-and-run game (only two Bs). The Giants also bunt poorly (two As, two Bs). Frankie Frisch stole an impressive 34 bases in 45 attempts, but the other carded Giants succeeded on only 45 percent of their tries ... At first glance, the defense looks strong with two 1s and four 2s; great arms at C (-3), RF (-4) and part-time in CF (-2); and low e-ratings at C, 1B, 3B and LF. But look closer: 2B Larry Doyle is a 4; SS Dave Bancroft is a 1, but e48; the two CFs are 3e21 and 3e15; RF Ross Youngs is e22.
That would seem to leave it to pure hitting. But the Giants have just one .300 hitter (Youngs: .351, and second in the NL with .427 on-base), only one double-figure homer man (1B George Kelly, with 11) and only two guys (Bancroft and LF George Burns) who hit more than 27 doubles ... There is some mighty impressive clutch hitting in the 3-4-5 spots in the lineup, however: No. 3 Youngs elevates his glitzy average with +8; No. 4 Kelly, the NL RBI champ despite hitting .266 with 11 HRs, is +10; and No. 5 Frisch, who drove in 77 runs while hitting a very light .280 (only 24 extra-base hits), is +13. The three CFs who share the No. 6 spot all go up slightly in the clutch, too.
There is nothing deceiving about the excellent pitching. Every start will be by a man with an ERA no worse than 3.11. Three of these guys (93 starts) are 1 fielders. All have hold ratings of -1 to +1, which is fine since C Frank Snyder has a -3 arm. The staff is led handsomely by RHs Fred Toney (21-11, 2.65), Jesse Barnes (20-15, 2.64) and LH Art Nehf (21-12, 3.07). RH Phil Douglas (14-10, 2.71) is a fine No. 4 starter.
Try to give Toney, Nehf and Douglas most of the starts at home. The Polo Grounds yields 1-19 ballpark homers, but these three have no diamonds on their cards. Likewise, try to get OFs Benny Kauf (vs. RH) and Lee King into the lineup at home. Only they and 1B George Kelly (esp. vs. LH) will take much advantage of the park made for pull-hitters (about 250 feet down the lines, but 430-plus to center and the "power" alleys).
Oddity: Seldom-used Jigger Statz has just one hit chance on his card - an automatic triple on roll 3-2 vs. LH. His right side is almost all strikeouts.
Best name: Jigger Statz (of).
PHILADELPHIA (62-91, 8th). Last by a mere half-game, the Phillies joined the A's to give Philadelphia two cellar-dwellars. The Phillies easily outhomered all other NL teams and their slugging OF (CF Cy Williams and LF Irish Meusel were 1-2 in the NL with 15 and 14 HRs, respectively) will flourish at home where their ballpark diamonds (Meusel has 4 of them, Williams and RF Casey Stengel 3 each) are 1-19 homers. Unfortunately, just about all the Phils offense is in that OF and by mid-1921, Meusel and Stengel would be helping the Giants to the first of four consecutive pennants.
Eight of 12 other carded batters have on-base averages below .300. None hit .300 or slugged .400. None scored 60 runs or drove in 40. Now you know why middle-of-the-order Williams, Meusel and Stengel were 1-2-3 on the team in RBIs with the embarrassing totals of 72, 69 and 50 ... Play backup C Walt Tragesser at home. He hit just .210 in 176 ABs, but with 6 HR - all vs. RH - he is one of the few in the set to have 8 ballpark diamonds.
Defense is another problem. Besides Williams CF-2(-2)e13, the only decent defenders are part-timers at 2B (3e27) and 3B (2e30). High e-ratings spoil the 2s at 1B and LF. With a 4 at C and half the time at 2B and 3B, plus a 3e52 at SS, the Phils offer little help to a weak pitching staff. Lead C Mack Wheat's +2 arm assures that the Phils will have a combined plus hold rating whenever he plays.
On the mound, only RHP Lee Meadows (16-14, 2.84) had a winning record and a good card. Only LHP Eppa Rixey (11-22, 3.49) can field (he's a 1) and only RHP George Smith (13-18, 3.44) can bunt. Only Huck Betts (88 IP, 86 hits) yielded fewer hits than IP.
Oddity: Manager Gavvy Cravath also has a card (45 ABs) that SOM advises be used only for pinch-hitting ... In a year when bk and wp ratings seem universally low, 18-year-old Lefty Weinert has bk-19 and wp-18 ratings. He also walked 19 in 22 IP.
Best names: Bevo (LeBourveau), Dots (Miller), Eppa (Rixey), Gavvy (Cravath) and Huck (Betts), not to mention the OF of Casey, Irish and Cy. Catcher Mack Wheat missed being HOF OF Zack Wheat by one letter - and 102 points of batting average. No wonder these guys finished last.
PITTSBURGH (79-75, 4th). Outstanding defense in the outfield, at catcher and 1B. Low error ratings and strong arms everywhere. But can a team with a scratch-and-claw offense (seventh in NL runs, last in the majors with 16 HRs) survive the runs surrendered by one of the worst DP combinations ever in 2B George Cutshaw (4e30) and SS Howdy Caton (4e60)? There are four other middle infielders - all 4s with high e-ratings, including young Pie Traynor, who debuts as a SS-4e88 who hit .212 in 52 ABs before becoming one of the finest 3Bmen ever and a lifetime .320 hitter.
Five pitchers handle 147 starts and all but 112 of the carded innings. And the cards of lefty Wilbur Cooper (24-15, 2.39) and Babe Adams (17-13, 2.16, NL-best 8 saves) are among the finest in the set. Lefty Earl Hamilton and righties Hal Carlson and Elmer Ponder will do fine, too, if they can get any runs to work with.
Where will the runs come from? Leadoff man Carson Bigbee's modest 38 extra-base hits lead the team - by far. LF Bigbee's four homers are twice as many as anyone else's. CF Max Carey's .289 average is best among all with more than 46 ABs. 3B Possum Whited's 74 RBIs is the product of being the cleanup hitter, not his .261 average with 1 HR. And he's the only clutch hitter among the regulars ... This team will have to rely on its fine base stealing (one AA, one A and three Bs - the Pirates led the NL in steals by far), overall speed (two 17s, two 15s, two 14s), excellent bunting (seven As and a B in the starting lineup) and ability to hit-and-run (five Bs, and no one with more than 40 strikeouts) more than any other team.
Best names: Possum Whited (3b) and SS Howdy Caton (ss).
ST. LOUIS (75-79, 5th). Led by a lethal Rogers Hornsby card, the Cardinals clawed their way into a tie for fifth place on offense alone (only 7 runs behind NL-best NY). This was Hornsby's break-through year after five full seasons. His huge year (.370-9-94 with 44 doubles, 20 triples, .431 on-base and .559 slugging) led the NL in batting, hits, doubles, RBIs, on-base average and slugging. It was the first of his six straight batting titles. And yet, it was perhaps only his ninth best season in a career that would establish him, even now, as the greatest hitting 2Bman, and maybe the greatest-hitting righthander, ever (including Hank Aaron and Willie Mays - Hornsby is second all-time with a career .358 batting average and seventh all-time with a career .577 slugging average).
Hornsby had help: Although homers were scarce in spacious Sportsman's Park, the Cardinals led the NL in slugging and hitting (all regulars hit at least .281) and nearly led in triples (five Cards hit them in double figures). Five Cards go up in the clutch. Six Cards had double-figure steals.
Unforunately, Manager Branch Rickey apparently let the Cardinals take the field with their bats. This is the worst team defense in the set. There are no 1s in a lineup will start four or five 4s, with such e-ratings as 1b-4e28, ss-3e56, lf-4e19. The best of seven OFs is e14 ... The catchers are 4s with +1 throwing and are prone to throwing errors and passed balls. The poor catchers' arms means the Redbirds never get better than a -1 cumulative hold and they will suffer 68 starts with plus holds ... Even the 2s (Hornsby, 2b-2e34, Mike Stock, 3b-2e30 and Jack Smith, of-2e15) have high e-ratings. And the pitching staff features four 5s and two 4s.
Big three pitching: Bill Doak (20-12, 2.53), Ferdie Schupp (16-13, 3.51) and Jesse Haines (13-20, 2.98) have fine cards to account for 111 starts (37 each), but there's only spot help after that. All have better cards than their stats suggest, because of the horrid Cardinals defense. Schupp appears to be almost unhittable vs. LH and Haines, despite allowing 303 hits, is strong both ways. But they are both 4 defenders to add to the X-chart hit parade with the Redbirds in the field ... Doak, with one of the best cards in the set, should do well in any case. He's a 2 fielder, with the team's best hold rating (-2), an A bunter, and won't balk or throw a wild pitch ... 5-rated closer (6 saves) Bill Sherdel, helps himself more than any pitcher in the set. He's a 1e8 fielder with a -2 hold, who won't balk or wild pitch. He's a poor bunter, but as a 7N hitter, he won't want to. Maybe that's why he was a winning pitcher (11-10) on a losing team, despite allowing more hits than IP and a modest 3.28 ERA.
Oddity: This is the only 1920 team that doesn't have a pitcher with 9-rated endurance.
Best name: Pickles Dillhoefer (c).