1887 National League

1887 in baseball
1887 National League
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The 1887 season of the National League was the twelfth season of the league.

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Standings

Bold indicates league champion, Italics indicates World Series champion

Rank	Team	G	W	L	T	WPCT	GB	RS (RS/G)	RA (RA/G)	AVG	OBP	SLG	ERA	FPCT
1	Detroit Wolverines	127	79	45	3	.622	-.-	969 (7.63)	714 (5.62)	0.299	0.348	0.434	3.95	0.926
2	Philadelphia Quakers	128	75	48	5	.586	3.5	901 (7.04)	702 (5.48)	0.274	0.330	0.389	3.47	0.912
3	Chicago White Stockings	127	71	50	6	.559	6.5	813 (6.40)	716 (5.64)	0.271	0.333	0.412	3.46	0.914
4	New York Giants	129	68	55	6	.527	10.5	816 (6.33)	723 (5.60)	0.279	0.332	0.389	3.57	0.920
5	Boston Beaneaters	127	61	60	6	.480	16.5	831 (6.54)	792 (6.24)	0.277	0.327	0.394	4.41	0.905
6	Pittsburgh Alleghenys	125	55	69	1	.440	24.0	621 (4.97)	750 (6.00)	0.258	0.308	0.349	4.12	0.921
7	Washington Nationals	126	46	76	4	.365	32.0	601 (4.77)	818 (6.49)	0.241	0.285	0.337	4.19	0.910
8	Indianapolis Hoosiers	127	37	89	1	.291	43.0	628 (4.94)	965 (7.60)	0.247	0.296	0.339	5.24	0.912

League leaders

Bold indicates league record, Italics indicate all-time record

Batting

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Games Played	John Ward	New York Giants	129
At Bats	Sam Thompson John Ward	Detroit Wolverines New York Giants	545
Runs Scored	Dan Brouthers	Detroit Wolverines	153
Hits	Sam Thompson	Detroit Wolverines	203
Doubles	Dan Brouthers	Detroit Wolverines	36
Triples	Sam Thompson	Detroit Wolverines	23
Home Runs	Billy O'Brien	Washington Nationals	19
Total Bases	Sam Thompson	Detroit Wolverines	311
Runs Batted In	Sam Thompson	Detroit Wolverines	166
Stolen Bases	John Ward	New York Giants	111
Walks	Jim Fogarty	Philadelphia Quakers	82
Hit by Pitch	Pop Smith	Pittsburgh Alleghenys	13
Strikeouts	John Morrill	Boston Beaneaters	86
Batting Average	Sam Thompson	Detroit Wolverines	0.372
On-Base Percentage	Dan Brouthers	Detroit Wolverines	0.426
Slugging Percentage	Sam Thompson	Detroit Wolverines	0.571
On-Base plus Slugging	Dan Brouthers	Detroit Wolverines	0.988
On-Base plus Slugging Plus	Dan Brouthers	Detroit Wolverines	169

Pitching

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Wins	John Clarkson	Chicago White Stockings	38
Losses	John Healy	Indianapolis Hoosiers	29
Win-Loss Percentage	Larry Twitchell	Detroit Wolverines	0.917
Appearances	John Clarkson	Chicago White Stockings	60
Games Started	John Clarkson	Chicago White Stockings	59
Complete Games	John Clarkson	Chicago White Stockings	56
Shutouts	Dan Casey	Philadelphia Quakers	4
Games Finished	John Cahill	Indianapolis Hoosiers	5
Saves	8 players tied		1
Innings Pitched	John Clarkson	Chicago White Stockings	523.0
Batters Faced	John Clarkson	Chicago White Stockings	2183
Hits Allowed	John Clarkson	Chicago White Stockings	513
Home Runs Allowed	Charlie Getzein John Healy	Detroit Wolverines Indianapolis Hoosiers	24
Base-on-Balls Allowed	Charley Radbourn	Boston Beaneaters	133
Hit Batsmen	Kid Madden	Boston Beaneaters	20
Strikeouts	John Clarkson	Chicago White Stockings	237
Wild Pitches	Mark Baldwin	Chicago White Stockings	41
Balks	Doc Leitner Cannonball Titcomb	Indianapolis Hoosiers Philadelphia Athletics/New York Giants	1
Runs Allowed	Charley Radbourn	Boston Beaneaters	305
Earned Runs Allowed	Charley Radbourn	Boston Beaneaters	215
Earned Run Average	Dan Casey	Philadelphia Quakers	2.86
Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched	Tim Keefe	New York Giants	1.124

Postseason

In the World's Series, the National League champion Detroit Wolverines defeated the American Association's St. Louis Browns, 10 games to 5.

Umpires

• Jackson Brady
• Jack Brennan*
• Watch Burnham
• Fred Carroll*
• John Connell
• Terry Connell
• Sam Crane*
• Andy Cusick*
• Charles Daniels
• Dell Darling*
• Herm Doscher
• John Gaffney
• Pud Galvin*
• Tom Gunning*
• Lou Hardie*
• John Healy*
• Ed Hengel
• Jack Holland
• Tim Keefe*
• Bill Krieg*
• Deacon McGuire*
• Gracie Pierce
• Phil Powers
• Al Pratt
• Joe Quest
• Billy Quinn
• Eugene Rhoads*
• Dave Sullivan
• Jerry Sullivan
• John Valentine
• John Wilson

* Denotes a fill-in umpire

Further Reading

• Woody Eckard: "The Impact of the One-off 1887 Four-strike Strikeout", Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Volume 51, Number 2 (Fall 2022), pp. 70-73.