[legendsport]

The Colonels ran away with the pennant, winning 121 games and dominating the League to such an extent that the excellent season of the Boston Beaneaters (103 wins) saw them finish eighteen games off the pace.

Unsurprisingly, based on the number of victories amassed by Louisville, both the top pitcher and top hitter were members of the Colonels squad. Pitcher Ronald Mason won an amazing 41 games (tops in the league) and also had the best earned run average with a 1.75 mark. Stanley Sweetwater of Boston was nearly as dominant, winning 40 games and posting a 1.81 ERA, both good for second-best to Mason. Louisville also had the league's top hitter, with (just turned) 26-year-old second baseman Bruno Barbella leading the circuit in batting at .361 for the season. Barbella began his career at the young age of 17 and in nine seasons has gone from a .226 average to posting averages above .360 in four of his last five seasons. He has improved his career mark to .322 and his 1619 hits.

Milwaukee took the pennant in the Western League, finishing with an 84-52 record, six games better than the 78 wins amassed by St. Paul. Milwaukee's Mike Bergeron won 24 games to lead the league - not bad for a fellow who lost 22 games in 1894 for the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League. St. Paul boasted the league's top hitter in 33-year-old Trey Duren, who hit .420 to lead the circuit. This is the same Trey Duren who held down the keystone in Louisville for almost ten years until he was supplanted by a certain young man named Bruno Barbella. With a .293 lifetime National League average, it wouldn't be a surprise for the veteran Duren to get a long, hard look from some Big League clubs for the 1899 season.

In the Eastern League, the recent dominance of the Wilkes-Barre Coal Barons continued. The Barons won 92 games, eleven better than the runners-up from Montreal. The Barons built their 1898 pennant on pitching; although posting no league leader, the club boasted the runner-up in ERA (rookie Lionel Frace, 2.58) and victories (Myron Groves, 27). Wilkes-Barre was good enough in both hitting (3rd best overall) and pitching (2nd best) to win the pennant. The batting title went to 36-year-old Toronto catcher Clayton Greenway. Greenway swatted for a .318 average in 201 at-bats for the Reds back in 1893, but has hit .362 and now .418 in two seasons in the Eastern League. Perhaps he might be worthy of one last shot at the National League should he decided to continue his career.