1912 Season Recap — Northern League
Tris Speaker of Payson was a man on a mission after losing out on last year's Big Stick Award, an honor many around the Arizona League thought he deserved. The Longhorn OF took out his frustration at not winning the prestigious honor on Northern League teams in 1912, helping Payson to the best record in baseball for the season.
Speaker hit .320 with five homers and 69 RBIs from the No. 3 hole. It wasn't close to his .398 clip a year ago but offense in general seemed to be down some this season. And Speaker certainly didn't get as much to hit. Fellow lefty
Jack Daubert, a first baseman and this year's clean-up hitter, was the run-producing machine for the 'Horns. He had 99 RBIs and hit 10 home runs. LF
Ginger Beaumont batted .308 with 77 RBIs and 33 stolen bases (Speaker stole 30).
Case Patten paced the Payson pitching core, earning a 25-8 record and 1.65 ERA.
Bill Burns won 22 games.
Payson managers definitely favored lefty hitters. The Longhorns usually pencilled in six or seven left-handed hitters in most games, including guys like Speaker, Daubert and speedy leadoff 3B
Del Paddock, who stole 44 bases.
The Longhorns, winners of the inaugural Cactus Champions Cup in 1901, will return to the playoffs for the first time since 1909. Jerome, which held off a late-charging Flagstaff team to win the wild card, will return to the AZL playoffs for the first time since winning the NL in 1903.
The Copper Miners were pretty solid on the road, winning 48 games. The rough and tough crew didn't have an real superstars.
Barney Wolfe won 24 games from the mound, and
Heinie Berger won 20. LF
Matty McIntyre had the best batting average at .329, with 57 RBIs. 1B
Jake Stahl had 92 RBIs for the season, pretty good for a guy hitting No. 2 in the lineup.
Stahl was talking pretty boldly before the playoff series with Payson about not being afraid of the Longhorns and their potent offense, which led the league in batting average. Of course, Stahl did record five hits and three RBIs in a single game against Payson over the summer. "We're a lot tougher than they are," the 1B said. "They'll crumble when they get in here around our fans. And we know we can win on the road."
Here are the final NL standings for 1912:
Code:
Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
Payson 95 67 .586 - 98-64 -3 51-30 44-37 9-5 28-28 * L3 4-6
Jerome 93 69 .574 2.0 91-71 2 45-36 48-33 2-7 32-24 - W1 6-4
Flagstaff 89 73 .549 6.0 92-70 -3 49-32 40-41 6-13 26-25 - L1 8-2
Prescott 85 77 .525 10.0 92-70 -7 50-31 35-46 6-5 26-35 - L3 3-7
Cottonwood 79 83 .488 16.0 75-87 4 36-45 43-38 7-3 24-22 - L1 5-5
Grand Canyon 76 86 .469 19.0 77-85 -1 45-36 31-50 6-7 25-30 - W2 6-4
Sedona 70 92 .432 25.0 67-95 3 35-46 35-46 9-5 27-24 - W2 4-6
Kayenta 61 101 .377 34.0 55-107 6 32-49 29-52 7-7 26-26 - W1 4-6