1914 Season Recap — Southern League
Nogales climbs back to the top
The Nogales Apaches played in the first two Cactus Champions Cup series, winning in 1902. They got back to the pinnacle series in 1910, only to lose to Prescott. This year, the always competitive franchise is back on top of the Southern League with aims to go all th way. Nogales won the SL regular season by two games over the close-but-not-quite Tucson Saguaros, who have yet to claim a championship.
The Southern League was much more balanced than the NL, with six teams playing .500 ball or better. No one in particular finished the season all that strong, so the playoffs could be a toss up.
Nogales features one of the up-and-coming stars in LF
"Shoeless Joe" Jackson. After batting .349, .340 and .366, Shoeless Joe, age 25, had a somewhat down year for him. But hey, batting .314 still ain't all that bad. He had 71 RBIs and 54 stolen bases. Jackson earned his fourth trip to the all-star game in as many years. Third baseman
Jimmy "Runt" Walsh also had a big year for the Apaches, batting .284 with 13 dingers. Another all-star, Walsh had a five-hit game against Yuma during the season.
The Apaches had three 20-win pitchers, led by
Babe Adams (not Babe Ruth), who was 24-13.
This was a powerhouse year for Tucson's
Ty Cobb. The now 27-year-old put himself in position to win another Big Stick Award, batting a cool .311 with nine homers and a whopping 105 RBIs. He got red-hot over the summer, batting .352 in the dry heat of August.
Cobb's outfield mate,
Harry Hooper, carried a big stick as well, batting .330 with 91 RBIs.
Steady pitchers
Barney Pelty (23-13, 2-14 ERA) and
Jake Boultes (20-14) paced the defense.
Like the Northern League, there is lots of star power lining up for the 1914 SL Divisional playoffs... Can the Saguaros finally break through and win a championship? Can the Apaches climb back on the throne they held more than 10 years ago. Stay tuned ...
On a side note, it's interesting that the real "stars" of the league at this time, offensively speaking — Cobb, Speaker, Crawford, Shoeless Joe, etc. — are all in this year's playoffs. Should be fun to track how each does...
For all those Yuma fans, alas the Prisoners are still in rebuilding mode. "Old-timer" Addie Joss, 34, is still pitching. He won 21 games but lost 18, with an ERA at 4+ (his worst by far). Yuma needs to get younger, I think...
Here are the complete Southern League standings for 1914:
Code:
Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
Nogales 92 70 .568 - 92-70 0 48-33 44-37 7-5 25-22 * L1 4-6
Tucson 90 72 .556 2.0 91-71 -1 42-39 48-33 11-16 22-27 - L2 5-5
Bisbee 86 76 .531 6.0 90-72 -4 44-37 42-39 8-11 26-27 - L1 4-6
Phoenix 83 79 .512 9.0 86-76 -3 40-41 43-38 9-7 24-20 - W2 6-4
Tombstone 82 80 .506 10.0 79-83 3 42-39 40-41 14-9 32-24 - L6 4-6
Yuma 81 81 .500 11.0 78-84 3 45-36 36-45 11-11 23-20 - W1 6-4
Tempe 72 90 .444 20.0 66-96 6 41-40 31-50 8-7 23-28 - W1 5-5
Carefree 62 100 .383 30.0 65-97 -3 30-51 32-49 6-8 20-27 - W2 6-4
For fun, Nogales unveiled a new "alternative" look this season:
