The National League pennant is very much up for grabs again in 1896. After the Baltimore Orioles tore off to a fast start, several other teams also turned their games up a notch and the fight is now tight.
The Cleveland Spiders posted a 19-7 month of May and are holding down the top spot, with a slim half-game edge on both Baltimore and Louisville. With Brooklyn just a game behind Cleveland, it's a four-way fight. And Pittsburgh, five games off the pace, can not be discounted either as there is a lot of base ball left to play.
Rick Kushner of Baltimore was the circuit's top chucker for May, a month in which he posted a 7-2 record with a 2.80 earned run mark. The top hitter was Cleveland's Tom Ewart. The veteran hitter whose speed earned him the moniker the "Erie Eel" when he debuted back in 1879, hit a robust .421 in May and is holding the second highest batting average in the League with a .396 for the season. Ewart has amassed nearly 2500 hits in his career, one that will certainly end with a firm place for Tom as one of the game's immortals.
Tom "The Erie Eel" Ewart