[Eckstein 4 Prez]

Sorry for the delayed reply. The league is not dead, in fact I've just finished the 1875 season (well, about two weeks ago, but anyway). I was having problems with Cato which are summarized over in the mods section. The conclusion was that I got it to run without the leaderboards or Win Shares for 1875.... which sucks, but I will continue to work on a solution and I still have the files archived so that if the problem is ever solved in Catobase I can go back and run it again.

Anyway, here are the final 1875 standings:

Boston Red Stockings 58-21 (champion)
Philadelphia Athletics 54-19
Philadelphia Whites 46-22
New York Mutuals 45-23
St. Louis Red Stockings 9-10 (defunct)
Keokuk Westerns 5-8 (defunct)
Chicago White Stockings 29-38
Brooklyn Atlantics 17-27
Washington Nationals 9-19 (defunct)
New Haven Elm Citys 18-29
Philadelphia Centennials 0-14 (defunct)
St. Louis Brown Stockings 22-46
Hartford Dark Blues 23-59

Boston had a late surge to take the first-place crown by a very narrow margin from the Athletics and win their fourth consecutive title. So, the champions of the National Association have now been:

1871 Cleveland Forest Citys
1872 Boston Red Stockings
1873 Boston Red Stockings
1874 Boston Red Stockings
1875 Boston Red Stockings

For the 1876 season, the association format will be scrapped as the new National League is formed. The Boston Red Stockings (renamed the Red Caps), the Philadelphia Athletics, the New York Mutuals, the Chicago White Stockings, the St. Louis Brown Stockings, and the Hartford Dark Blues will survive to compete in the new association, and two new teams will be added - the Cincinnati Reds and the Louisville Grays.

This means that, in addition to the four teams which disbanded during the season, the Philadelphia Whites, the Brooklyn Atlantics and the New Haven Elm Citys will cease operations this offseason. So there will be a rather large pool of players from which the new teams can draw. Also, by the end of the 1876 season, "free agency" will allow many of the original players to begin signing contracts with the teams of their choice. So it will be interesting to see how this new National League copes with such challenges.....

The league leaders in a few categories:

Batting:

George Hall, New York Mutuals - .391
Mike McGeary, Philadelphia Whites - .374
Bob "Death to Flying Things" Ferguson, Brooklyn Atlantics - .366
Joe McDermott, New Haven Elm Citys - .363
George Wright, Boston Red Stockings - .361

Hits:

Ross Barnes, Boston Red Stockings - 123
George Wright, Boston Red Stockings - 123
John Radcliff, Philadelphia Athletics - 121
Mike McGeary, Philadelphia Whites - 120
2 tied with 117

Doubles:

Ross Barnes, Boston Red Stockings - 22
John Bass, Hartford Dark Blues - 20
"Orator Jim" O'Rourke, Boston Red Stockings - 19
John Radcliff, Philadelphia Athetics - 17
George Heubel, Philadelphia Athletics - 16

Triples:

Lip Pike, Hartford Dark Blues - 12
John Radcliff, Philadelphia Athletics - 11
"Orator Jim" O'Rourke, Boston Red Stockings - 10
Ed Pinkham, Brooklyn Atlantics - 10
Bob "Magnet" Addy, Hartford Dark Blues - 9

Home Runs:

Charlie Gould, Boston Red Stockings - 2
Jim Foran, Brooklyn Atlantics - 2
Eddie Booth, Boston Red Stockings - 2
George Hall, New York Mutuals - 2
George Heubel, Philadelphia Athletics - 2

Runs Batted In:

John Bass, Hartford Dark Blues - 68
George Heubel, Philadelphia Athletics - 67
Ezra Sutton, Philadelphia Athletics - 66
"Orator Jim" O'Rourke, Boston Red Stockings - 66
Dick Higham, New York Mutuals - 65

Runs Scored:

Dickie Flowers, New York Mutuals - 92
Ross Barnes, Boston Red Stockings - 75
John Radcliff, Philadelphia Athletics - 71
Fred Waterman, Hartford Dark Blues - 66
George Wright, Boston Red Stockings - 66

Stolen Bases:

Dickie Flowers, New York Mutuals - 44 (of 57)
Ezra Sutton, Philadelphia Athletics - 34 (of 36)
Lip Pike, Hartford Dark Blues - 34 (of 36)
Fred Waterman, Hartford Dark Blues - 28 (of 38)
Pony Sager, Chicago White Stockings - 23 (of 37)

OPS:

George Hall, New York Mutuals - .907
Tom Carey, St. Louis Red Stockings - .853
Jimmy Wood, New Haven Elm Citys - .844
Joe McDermott, New Haven Elm Citys - .834
Gat Stires, New Haven Elm Citys - .828

ERA:

Candy Cummings, New York Mutuals - 1.66
Frank Buttery, Boston Red Stockings - 1.98
Al Spalding, Boston Red Stockings - 2.00
Bill Stearns, Philadelphia Whites - 2.00
Cherokee Fisher, Boston Red Stockings - 2.03

Wins-Losses:

Dick McBride, Philadelphia Athletics - 26-4
Cherokee Fisher, Boston Red Stockings - 22-2
Frank Buttery, Boston Red Stockings - 21-10
Asa Brainard, New York Mutuals - 20-9
Dan Collins, Chicago White Stockings - 19-23

Opponent Average:

Candy Cummings, New York Mutuals - .218
Bill Stearns, Philadelphia Whites - .228
Frank Buttery, Boston Red Stockings - .237
Joe Borden, Philadelphia Whites - .244
Al Spalding, Boston Red Stockings - .253

In honor of his batting title, my avatar is going to be switching over to George Hall of the New York Mutuals. I'll be doing the offseason stuff for the next day or two and hopefully will be able to update with the start of 1876 later this week. Thanks to all who've been reading, and sorry for the long layoff.