Following an offseason of upheaval which saw two owners buy stakes in other clubs in "better" markets and then proceed to trade their good players to their new clubs, has had an interesting effect on the standings.
The Louisville Colonels, the powerhouse club of 1898, was essentially dismantled, its best parts shipped to the great metropolis of New York, with the pitchers almost the only thing left of the championship club. Someone apparently forgot to tell the "new" Colonels that they weren't the same club any longer. Though the season is still very young, the Louisville club is in its accustomed spot near the top of the standings, sitting at 11-4 right behind the 11-2 Boston Beaneaters.
Though Ronald Mason, the ace of the Colonels, has gotten off to a bumpy start, allowing 25 walks and 29 hits in his three starts - all three of those starts were victories for the Colonels. Young keystone star Sean Murphy is living up to his nickname "The Mighty Mite" as he is powering the new-look Colonels lineup with a .390 average. Dave Duthie, one of the few 1898 backups left behind when the shop moved to Gotham, is thriving in a starting role, hitting .380 thus far. Ex-Giant Pete Bruner, at age 37, may have found the fountain of youth with a .358 average, 12 runs and 10 driven in after 14 games. Will it last? Probably not... but it sure is fun for the fans in Louisville who cried in their mint juleps when the cream of the club was dispatched to New York in the dead of winter.
Louisville's surprising resilience begs the question: what of the ex-Colonels who now call New York home? Well, the Giants, long the doormats of the League are slowly rounding into shape with the infusion of new talent and are 7-6 thus far, in the fifth place in the standings. Clive Hines, the holdover pitcher who lost 28 contests in 1898, apparently likes his new teammates: he's 2-1 with a 1.38 ERA thus far. Dell Coyne finds the Polo Grounds to his liking: after a middling .281 in 1898, he's rapping out hits at a .385 clip this spring. Once 1898 Batting Champ Bruno Barbella (.304 thus far) and young Billy Nelson (.232) round into shape, this Giants team should be dangerous.
As for the league's front-runners, the Beaneaters have found a magic elixir for 38-year-old King Karl Quinlan. The third baseman is battling Father Time and winning with a .431 average so far as he seeks to become the first batsmen to reach the magic mark of 3000 for a career. He's been playing professionally since 1879 and his experience shows. Heinie Staudenmaier has been making strudel of opposing pitchers as well, as his .481 mark will attest while John Walton rounds out a trio of outstanding hitters in Beantown with a .423 mark himself. With all that offense, you wouldn't think you'd need much pitching, a thought which no one bothered to tell Stanley Sweetwater. Following a 40-win campaign in 1898, Sweets is at it again, with a 4-0, 1.82 to show for it in April.
Looking at the rest of the Big League, the revamped St. Louis squad sits in third place at 9-3 while the Philadelphias are surprisingly strong in the early going: 8-5 and in fourth place. Behind the Giants are the Pirates (6-6) as the final team winning at least half their games. If Louisville is the surprise success of the early portion of the schedule, the Brooklyn club is the disappointment: 3-10 and in 11th place. This is the same club which was dominating League play not too long ago. Only the basement-dwelling Chicago club, 4-13 and in the midst of a much needed roster revamping, is worse than Brooklyn thus far.
"King" Karl Quinlan