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1916 North Carolina State League — News & Notes
Some final tidbits before we move on to 1917!
• Will Simpson’s 76 stolen bases for Charlotte was a new single-season best in the NCSL…
• Charlotte’s Ivan Martinez was feared at the plate, but he also set a new league record for striking out with 87 K's in 1916.
• Asheville pitcher Karl Graves, usually a middle reliever, set a new single-season league best with a sterling 1.41 ERA. Asheville starter Chris Wilson set a new season best in strikeouts, with 171. He beat out Skull Jenkins, who had held the record with his 160 K effort in 1913. Jenkins still leads all NCSL pitchers with 547 career strikeouts.
• What can Brown do for you? Greensboro and Winston-Salem traded a couple of Browns between themselves on July 12, with 26-year-old minor league MR Marvin Brown heading to Winston in return for 19-year-old minor league LF Steve Brown.
• Speaking of Greensboro, 2B Daniel Smith enjoyed a pair of 5-for-5 games in 1915, once in April and once in August. In both games, Smith scored four times. But of those 10 hits, Smith only managed to record one RBI.
• Starting pitcher Gary “Brick” Lee was traded from Durham to Winston-Salem during the middle of the season. He returned the favor by throwing a four-hit shutout against his old team on July 16. Take that, Bulls!
• Manager swap: Durham and Raleigh franchise owners are pretty tough on their managers. Both fired their respective leaders after the 1916 season. Then each went out and signed the other’s former manager. Good grief. (Note - the game seems too quick to pull the trigger on firing managers IMO. Durham had won two regular season titles, as well as a playoff championship in three years. This was the only “off” year and the manager gets canned?. Too quick for that. Just my .02 cents worth).
• The Charlotte Hornets were deemed to have the best Minor League system, with four of the league's top-15 prospects on its D-League roster.
• Winston-Salem’s Santiago Alonso got bit by a rabid dog during the season, missing about two weeks. No player missed time because of punching his locker or getting into fights with the press this season, however…
OK, now on to 1916! Can Asheville successfully defend it's championship? Can Greensboro turn its young gun pitching staff into a playoff contender? Can Durham's Anthony Watson make it back onto the field after a devastating injury?
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