1919 Season Recap — Northern League
Old powers return to top, tie for NL crown
The Flagstaff Lumberjacks and Grand Canyon River Runners shared the regular season title in the NL this year, and boy did the 'Jacks have to work for it.
When the calendar rolled into September, Flag had several games to make up. Then in the last two days of the regular season, Flag trailed Grand Canyon by two games. The River Runners had to lose two, and the Lumberjacks obviously had to win two.
On Oct. 2, Grand Canyon cooperated by falling to Jerome 4-3. Flag stayed alive by knocking off Kayenta 4-2. The next day, the teams switched opponents. Grand Canyon lost again, getting drilled by Kayenta 7-1. Flag, meanwhile, got locked in an epic pitching struggle with Jerome.
The Lumberjacks scored a run in the second, and Jerome knotted the game 1-1 in the sixth. Then no one scored again for the next six innings. Jerome kept pitcher
Fred Link out there the entire time, and finally in the bottom of the 13th, he blinked.
Pinch hitter
Swede Risberg doubled for the Lumberjacks to lead off the frame. Then shortstop
Otis Johnson bunted Risberg to third. Link walked RF
Armando Marsans, and then CF
Lee Magee singled to the gap in left-center to score Risberg and end the game.
"We had no idea how Grand Canyon had done that day," Magee said. "We knew we had to win, even if it took more than four hours. We celebrated after the victory like we had won the Cactus Cup or something."
The good news is that both Flagstaff and Grand Canyon made the playoffs. But Flag earned home-field advantage by forging the tie in the standings (I'm pretty sure the game used the alphabet to determine the teams' order). That could prove critical, obviously.
Notable players this season for Flagstaff included pitchers
Al Schulz (24-14, 2.67 ERA) and
Herb Pennock (27-10, 2.45). 2B
Steve Yerkes hit 12 HRs and had 89 RBIs to go with his .288 average. SS
Otis Johnson batted a cool .300 with 10 homers and 69 RBIs.
Claude Cooper has filled in nicely in left field since the retirement of Hall-of-Famer
Sam Crawford. He batted .266 with 11 HRs and 86 RBIs for the Lumberjacks. (As a side note, Crawford has been nowhere to be found in Flagstaff since being abruptly released by the Lumberjacks in September of his final year, 1917. He's still sore the team didn't allow him the grace of finishing out the final few weeks of his career in the town where he played 16+ years).
Byron Houck (23-17, 2.75 ERA) and
Dan Marion (23-14, 2.54 ERA) paced the Grand Canyon rotation.
Carl Mays added another 18 wins. Long-time 2B
Johnny "Crab" Evers, now 38 years old, showed he's still got it. Though he appeared in just 94 games, Evers batted a robust .343 with 41 RBIs. He also stole 17 bases. SS
John Knight was Grand Canyon's masher, with 11 homers and 96 RBIs.
This will be Flagstaff's first trip to the playoffs since 1915. The Jacks were seventh, sixth and seventh in the NL the three prior seasons. Grand Canyon's playoff drought had been a decade, with River Runners last appearing in the post-season in 1909. Both teams have one AZL championship to their credit, Flagstaff in 1907 and Grand Canyon in '09.
The big news in the NL was the end of Payson's playoff streak. The mighty Longhorns had won five of the last seven division titles and had advanced to the post-season seven years in a row before coming up a few games short this year. Maybe the tide is finally shifting away from the
Tris Speaker-led 'Horns?
As for the Sedona franchise, which spent this season in Show Low as it rebuilds its fire-ravaged stadium? Well, the two-city Scorpions started off pretty hot, even leading the Northern League for awhile. But they turned back into a normal Sedona-type franchise after awhile, finishing seventh (70-92). Prescott's woes continued, and the franchise with the most Cactus Champions Cup titles (five) missed the playoffs for the sixth-straight season.
Here are the complete Northern League standings:
Code:
Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
Flagstaff 93 69 .574 - 94-68 -1 44-37 49-32 8-9 34-29 1 W3 6-4
Grand Canyon 93 69 .574 - 93-69 0 47-34 46-35 12-8 26-21 1 L2 5-5
Payson 88 74 .543 5.0 88-74 0 42-39 46-35 8-10 21-25 - W1 7-3
Cottonwood 84 78 .519 9.0 78-84 6 46-35 38-43 9-8 23-22 - W4 7-3
Kayenta 79 83 .488 14.0 88-74 -9 36-45 43-38 8-13 11-30 - W1 5-5
Jerome 73 89 .451 20.0 65-97 8 44-37 29-52 11-5 30-24 - L1 4-6
Sedona-Show Low 70 92 .432 23.0 71-91 -1 35-46 35-46 11-14 26-25 - L3 5-5
Prescott 68 94 .420 25.0 67-95 1 38-43 30-51 8-8 26-21 - L1 1-9