1879 National League

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1879 National League
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The 1879 season of the National League was the fourth season of the league.

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Season summary

The 1878 season again had not been a very successful one for the National League. While the financial records for all the clubs are not available, the Boston Red Stockings lost $1,433.31 down to $25,000. It was reported that the Indianapolis Blues lost more than $5,000 and were unable to continue and dropped out. By November there was talk of dropping the Milwaukee Grays as well, but the Milwaukee Sentinel, which had reported that Milwaukee was going to be ousted, also predicted an eight-club circuit which would consist of Chicago, Boston, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Syracuse, Buffalo, Providence and either Albany or Cleveland. When the league's Board of Directors met on December 3rd at the Kennard House inCleveland, OH team president William P. Rogers was there representing Milwaukee. Rogers was informed that there were three infractions against his team and that the team had 20 days to pay its indebtedness and withdraw from the league honorably. If the money was not paid the club would be expelled. When the annual league meetings opened on December 4th, Indianapolis officially withdrew from the league. The league then added the Buffalo Base Ball Association (aka Buffalo Bisons), the Cleveland Base Ball Club (aka Cleveland Forest Citys), and the Syracuse Base Ball Association (aka Syracuse Stars).

While Syracuse had a population of less than 75,000, they were admitted on account of being an established club with $5,000 in stock, and it was felt that the club would do well in terms of attendance. In the meantime, William Rogers had set about trying to come up with money to keep the Milwaukee club afloat, but little interest was shown, and the Milwaukee Grays were out of the league on December 16th. To fill the vacancy the league added the Troy Base Ball Association (aka Troy Trojans) on January 26, 1879.

Standings

Bold indicates league champion

Rank	Team	G	W	L	T	WPCT	GB	RS (RS/G)	RA (RA/G)	AVG	OBP	SLG	ERA	FPCT
1	Providence Grays	85	59	25	1	.694	-.-	612 (7.20)	355 (4.18)	0.296	0.314	0.381	2.18	0.902
2	Boston Red Stockings	84	54	30	0	.643	5.0	562 (6.69)	348 (4.14)	0.274	0.294	0.368	2.19	0.913
3	Chicago White Stockings	83	46	33	4	.554	10.5	437 (5.27)	411 (4.95)	0.259	0.276	0.336	2.46	0.900
4	Buffalo Bisons	79	46	32	1	.582	10.0	394 (4.99)	365 (4.62)	0.252	0.272	0.328	2.34	0.906
5	Cincinnati Reds	81	43	37	1	.531	14.0	485 (5.99)	464 (5.73)	0.264	0.279	0.347	2.29	0.879
6	Cleveland Blues	82	27	55	0	.329	31.0	322 (3.93)	461 (5.62)	0.223	0.232	0.285	2.65	0.889
7	Syracuse Stars	71	22	48	1	.310	30.0	276 (3.89)	462 (6.51)	0.227	0.235	0.270	3.19	0.872
8	Troy Trojans	77	19	56	2	.247	35.5	321 (4.17)	543 (7.05)	0.237	0.249	0.294	2.80	0.875

League leaders

Bold indicates league record, Italics indicate all-time record

Batting

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Games Played	Paul Hines Mike McGeary George Wright	Providence Grays Providence Grays Providence Grays	85
At Bats	Paul Hines	Providence Grays	409
Runs Scored	Charley Jones	Boston Red Stockings	85
Hits	Paul Hines	Providence Grays	146
Doubles	Charlie Eden	Cleveland Blues	31
Triples	Buttercup Dickerson	Cincinnati Reds	14
Home Runs	Charley Jones	Boston Red Stockings	9
Total Bases	Paul Hines	Providence Grays	197
Runs Batted In	Charley Jones John O'Rourke	Boston Red Stockings Boston Red Stockings	62
Walks	Charley Jones	Boston Red Stockings	29
Strikeouts	Pud Galvin Will White	Buffalo Bisons Cincinnati Reds	56
Batting Average	Paul Hines	Providence Grays	0.357
On-Base Percentage	Jim O'Rourke	Providence Grays	0.371
Slugging Percentage	John O'Rourke	Boston Red Stockings	0.521
On-Base plus Slugging	John O'Rourke	Boston Red Stockings	0.878
On-Base plus Slugging Plus	King Kelly	Cincinnati Reds	184

Pitching

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Wins	John Ward	Providence Grays	47
Losses	George Bradley Jim McCormick	Troy Trojans Cleveland Blues	40
Win-Loss Percentage	John Ward	Providence Grays	0.712
Appearances	Will White	Cincinnati Reds	76
Games Started	Will White	Cincinnati Reds	75
Complete Games	Will White	Cincinnati Reds	75
Shutouts	Tommy Bond	Boston Red Stockings	11
Games Finished	John Ward	Providence Grays	10
Saves	Bobby Mathews John Ward	Providence Grays Providence Grays	1
Innings Pitched	Will White	Cincinnati Reds	680.0
Batters Faced	Will White	Cincinnati Reds	2906
Hits Allowed	Will White	Cincinnati Reds	676
Home Runs Allowed	George Bradley	Troy Trojans	12
Base-on-Balls Allowed	Jim McCormick	Cleveland Blues	74
Strikeouts	John Ward	Providence Grays	239
Wild Pitches	Will White	Cincinnati Reds	49
Balks	25 players tied		0
Runs Allowed	Will White	Cincinnati Reds	404
Earned Runs Allowed	George Bradley	Troy Trojans	154
Earned Run Average	Tommy Bond	Boston Red Stockings	1.96
Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched	Tommy Bond	Boston Red Stockings	1.021

Umpires

• Foghorn Bradley
• A.C. Bredberg
• John Brockway*
• R.F. Cook*
• Sam Crane*
• Charles Daniels
• Herm Doscher*
• Fred Dunlap*
• John Eagan
• Bob Ferguson
• Edward Fountain
• Bill Furlong
• Tom Gillean
• Charlie Hautz
• C.E. Joyce*
• J.P. Kelley*
• Steve Libby*
• Billy McLean
• George Miller
• Dan O'Leary*
• Phil Powers
• Al Pratt
• Lou Say*
• John Scofield*
• W.L. Shepard*
• Calvin Stambaugh
• Charlie Sweasy*
• Ben Wade*
• Mike Walsh
• Charles Wilbur
• Joseph Young

* Denotes a fill-in umpire