Outlaw Pacific Coast League Finishes Marathon Season, Portland Takes Crown
In a reshuffling of league teams and its players, the new Pacific Coast League crowned the Portland club its 1903 inaugural champion. The six-team upstart league plays a daunting schedule of 200 games, most of which was dominated by two teams, Portland and second place finisher Seattle. These teams were formed to compete with the Pacific National League for dominance in the west and the league’s might surely showed in their performance, embarrassing the league’s founding Californian teams in Sacramento -last year’s California League champs – Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland. But stacking the teams helped the league survive in those contested regions. One sacrificial lamb may have the Sacramento club. With the team having lost the core of its near-championship team the year before, management disbanded the team and sold it to interests in Tacoma, WA for next season’s campaign. The reliance on putting major leaguers on rosters was demonstrated by defending champion’s San Francisco finishing a pathetic 81 games back of Portland. As such, pressure is mounting to join the National Association to settle disputes with organized baseball about securing or sharing local and national talent pools. However, the league still harbors a few ex-American and National League players, those who have opted to remain in the sunny confines of gamblers and loose women. Among those we suspect are pitchers Jack Taylor (35 wins, Portland), Parson Lewis (27 wins, Sacramento), and Joe McGinnity (33 wins, Portland). Among batsmen under assumed names are believed to be old Joe Quinn. Men who may look like Honest John Anderson and Patsy Donovan may have been identified in the semi-pro leagues.
Final Pacific Coast Club Standings 1903
Code:
Club Won Lost Pct G.B. Avg. ERA
Portland 146 54 .730 - .297 2.23
Seattle 142 58 .710 4 .294 2.30
Sacramento 102 98 .510 44 .261 3.22
Los Angeles 81 119 .405 65 .247 3.30
San Francisco 65 135 .325 81 .275 4.14
Oakland 64 136 .320 82 .241 3.73