1921 North Carolina State League — Regular Season Recap
Twins pull away from the pack
Bulls win five-team race for second place
In the end, neither Greensboro nor Wilmington could keep the Cinderella story going in the North Carolina State League. Old powers Winston-Salem and Durham finished on top of the heap, with the Twins pulling away over the last two months and the Bulls holding off a sizeable field of challengers in the final week.
Winston-Salem was an absolute hitting machine, with four players earning 200 hits over 162 games, and two more not far behind. Right fielder
Angel “Sweetness” Pellicer looks ready to get his Batter of the Year award back after putting together a .387 average (a team-high 234 hits). Sweetness had 38 doubles and 16 triples. He walked more times (117) than he had RBIs (107).
It was tough pitch around Pellicer because there were so many other potent swingers around him -- 2B
Colton McQueen (224 hits, .318 average), 1B
Roland Brown (219 hits, .328 average), CF
Junior Young (200 hits, .340 average) and CF
Ryan Travis (187 hits, .346 average), just to name a few. Brown pounded out 129 RBIs. McQueen had 102. Young stole 58 bases.
Winston-Salem was first in the NCSL in every offensive category except strikeouts and home runs. The Twins had pretty good pitching, too, led by
Howard Miller, last year’s Newcomer of the Year. Miller went 24-11 with a 3.68 ERA.
Gary “Brick” Lee had another 19 wins. Youngster
Eric Mason posted a 16-7 record. Mason stepped in when
Jack Fry went down with a season-ending injury.
Things were close most of the summer. On Aug. 1, Wilmington was just two games off the Twins’ pace, with Greensboro only three games back, and Asheville and Durham five back.
On Sept. 1, Winston-Salem led the Patriots by three games. But by the middle of the month, Winston created the distance it needed to coast to the finish line in front. That created a feverish race for second place. Greensboro, Asheville and Durham each had 76 wins on Sept. 12, with Fayetteville and Wilmington at 72 wins. The Patriots, Tourists and Bulls were still tied on Sept. 26, before Durham squeaked past to earn another playoff spot.
Durham turned to 1B
Raul Rivera and RF
Garrett McDonald to supply offensive pop. Both had more than 200 hits. The duo batted .327 and .330 respectively. OF
Jason Wilson stole 57 bases.
Dan “Little Rat” Sutton led the Bulls’ bullpen with a 21-14 record. Norm Ross won 14 games.
Asheville picked the wrong time to slump, losing three of its last four games. The Tourists could have forged a tie with Durham in the standings on the last day but lost to last-place Raleigh (for the second day in a row). It’s a shame for Asheville fans, because their team had the best ERA and best overall batting average of anyone in the league. Pitching was first in several categories, led by
Chris Wilson (21 wins) and
Merlin “The Wizard” McNeill (18 wins). Wilson had an ERA of 3.42 and struck out 131.