1930 National League Regular Season Review

St. Louis Cardinals (101-53 / 62-62 / +9)

At the completion of Week 19 St. Louis was 76-49 and in third place in the NL, but they then proceeded to end the season on a 25-4 run to easily clinch the NL pennant. Several key things happened - first of all, the Cardinals got healthy. Chick Hafey missed five weeks over the season on two different injury stints, and he returned to play about this time. Frankie Frisch had a two-week absence and he returned at this same time as well. As the Cardinals were getting healthy their primary opponents suffered key injuries, all of which helped to open the door for the Cardinals.

Despite his five weeks of absence, Hafey finished third in the league in RBI's with 136, plus his name was littered all over the top ten offensive categories. Frisch (.373) and Jim Bottomley (.353) were also keep components of the offense, but none more so than right fielder George Watkins, who finished with a .396 batting average, 30 homeruns, and 118 RBI's in only 113 games played.

Note: George Puccinelli, he of the monster hitting card, went 10-for-19 (.526) and hit two homeruns - a three-run homerun against New York in his first at-bat and a three run homerun against Brooklyn in his final at-bat. That final homerun gave the Cardinals a key late season sweep in Brooklyn and pretty much sent the Robins into a season-ending tailspin.

Jesse Haines (18-5, 2.87) helped the Cardinals get off to as good a start as they did, but he was limited in appearance in the second half of the season. Burleigh Grimes (18-1, 1.87) was acquired in an early-season trade from Boston and went on to have a marvelous finish for the Cardinals (think Rick Sutcliffe and the 1984 Cubs). The Cardinals did score 1005 runs and all Cardinals pitchers benefitted from the run support, but none more than Bill Hallahan (13-13, 6.31). Hallahan led the league with 122 walks allowed but what was worse was that he had the unfortunate habit of making any crucial situation worse with his control problems. The Cardinals offense bailed him out numerous times during the season.

Chicago Cubs (95-59 / 90-64 / +5)

The Cubs got off to a bit of a rocky start, righted the ship and had a good summer, and at about the 2/3 mark in the season moved into a back-and-forth duel with Brooklyn for first place. The charge up the standings was led by pitchers Pat Malone (23-9, 3.63) and Charlie Root (20-8, 3.66), but unfortunately, Root missed the final two weeks of the season and the Cubs had no real replacement and they sputtered down the end of the season.

The Cubs finished fourth in the NL with a .298 batting average and they led all of baseball with 161 homeruns. Hack Wilson led the way with a .328 average, 51 doubles, 48 homeruns, and 179 RBI's. With Woody English (.351) and KikI Cuyler (.350) batting in front of him, Wilson ended the season with 261 runner left on base, which means Wilson had the opportunity to put up some truly mind-boggling numbers. Other key Cubs injuries included Rogers Hornby who broke an ankle at the end of May, missed three months, and came back to limited duty. First baseman Charlie Grimm missed most of the last month of the season as well.

Once you got past Malone and Root the Cubs pitching got pretty bleak. Bud Teachout (14-7, 3.26) came on late and put up some good numbers, but the pitcher they really missed was Guy Bush (9-15, 6.99). Bush had several good seasons before this one and would have more after this season, but this year he was the equivalent of gasoline on a fire for the Cubs, including picking up six of those losses in a relief role.

Brooklyn Robins (91-63 / 86-68 / +5)

It was quite a pennant race in the NL all three of the top teams did their best to exceed expectations as they tried to stay caught up with their peers. Brooklyn took an early lead in the standings and stayed for a long time, mostly based on the strength of their pitching as they led the NL with a 3.82 ERA. However, their pitchers started breaking down towards the end of the season and first Chicago and then St. Louis was able to climb back into the pennant race, and then disaster struck when center fielder Johnny Frederick broke his ankle and missed the last two weeks of the season. Brooklyn ended the season with an eleven game losing streak, winning on the final day of the season to avoid making it worse.

Batting lead-off, Frederick was the key initiator of the Brooklyn offense. He hit .328, had 48 doubles, and scored 116 runs, all while constantly setting the plate for those in the lineup behind him. Babe Herman hit .380, scored 139 runs, had 48 doubles and 39 homeruns (405 total bases) and drove in 125 runs, while Del Bissonette (.374) drove in 131 runs.

Dazzy Vance (18-9, 2.34) led the Robins pitchers with 31 starts, but no other pitcher made more than 24 starts. Watty Clark (16-12, 3.94) and Jumbo Elliott (13-4, 3.49) and several others pitched well, but just couldn’t be counted on to take the ball every turn and manager Wilbert Robinson had to work around them the best he could.

New York Giants (82-72 / 87-67 / -5)

New York was a bit of an enigma in this replay. They were clearly a good team, but they seemed content to let the three teams ahead of them fight for the pennant and they truly never engaged. The Giants might have been looking for that late-season hot streak to get them back into the race, but instead, they barely won their seasons contests versus Cincinnati and Boston. The Giants had three really good pitchers, and Bill Terry and Freddie Lindstrom both had exceptional years at the plate, but things kind of ended there. Mel Ott had a good but not outstanding season. I realize it was his fifth year with the Giants, but Ott was still only 21 at the time and his truly great years were still ahead of him.

Bill Terry did hit .400 (.409) but unfortunately finished third in the batting title race. Terry had 240 hits, drove in 128 runs, and scored 115 runs. Lindstrom (.377) had a strong second half, finishing with 52 doubles, 100 RBI's, and 123 runs scored. Ott did hit 18 homeruns to lead the team and had 119 RBI's, but the Giants could have used some help at the top of the lineup. Shortstop Travis Jackson missed a month early in the season due to illness and really wasn't much of a force at the plate.

Freddie Fitzsimmons (21-8, 3.46), Carl Hubbell (18-13, 2.76), and Bill Walker (17-12, 3.83) accounted for 56 of the Giants 82 wins. The Giants just couldn't find another person to fill in that next slot in the rotation, although they provided the opportunity to several pitchers that will serve them well in the future.

Cincinnati Reds (69-85 / 59-95 / +10)

The Reds were another team that played tenaciously, making every opponent work for their victories. The Reds had several good offensive players and hit .287 as a team (7th in the NL), and their pitching finished in the fifth slot with a 4.74 ERA, ahead of the three teams below them in the standings. Manager Dan Howley was not content to let the Reds go through the motions as he regularly manipulated the lineup, Joe Stripp was made the full-time first baseman after two months and George Kelly was released (Kelly ended up with the Cubs), and while Hod Ford and Leo Durocher provided solid defense up the middle, they were both prime candidates to be pinch-hit for.

Harry Heilmann

Veteran pickups Harry Heilmann (.370) hit 50 doubles and drove in 96 runs to lead the team and Bob Meusel (.284), in his final season, led the team with 92 runs scored while only playing in 113 games. Another veteran in his final season, Curt Walker (.316) scored 88 runs. Youngsters like Tony Cuccinello (.305) and Stripp (.355) were given the opportunity to play and made the most of it.

Ray Kolp (15-4, 3.23) made the most of his 19 starts, and Benny Frey (14-9, 3.84) and Red Lucas (14-13, 4.34) held their own. On the other end of the spectrum, reliever Si Johnson had seven losses in relief.

Pittsburgh Pirates (65-89 / 80-74 / -15)

The Pirates were the hard-luck team of the NL. Third baseman Pie Traynor missed the first month of the season and center fielder Lloyd Waner missed the first three months of the season, both due to issues with appendicitis. As you might expect the Pirates got off to a rocky start with two key cogs in their lineup missing, and when the missing players rejoined the lineup they performed well individually, but the team just never really clicked as a cohesive force.

Lloyd Waner hit .326 in 70 games, and Traynor hit a healthy .350 following his return. Paul Waner finished tenth on the league with a .365 average, plus he chipped in with 43 doubles and 19 triples. George Grantham hit 25 homeruns and Gus Suhr hit 20, both good enough to finish in the top ten in the NL, plus Suhr led the NL in walks with 106. Adam Comorosky had fine year too, hitting .311 with 47 doubles and a league-leading 23 triples. Again, all nice numbers, but they just never really managed to get into an extended team-wide hitting groove.

The Pirates spent the season with a pretty thin pitching staff - they led the league with 80 complete games, but their 48 quality starts only led Philadelphia (30). Larry French (13-20, 4.07) and Ray Kremer (14-21, 4.56) led the NL with 38 and 35 starts. Erv Brame (14-13 5.44) hit .336 for the year and made several pinch-hit appearances.

Boston Braves (60-84 / 70-74 / -10)

The Braves were an odd collection of aging superstars, nobodies, and a rookie hero that no one expected. Rookie Wally Berger appeared on the scene with 42 doubles, 36 homeruns and 122 RBI's, but RBI's were always a struggle as he hit way too many solo homeruns. Future Hall-of-Famers 39-year-old Rabbit Maranville and 37-year-old George Sisler were to be the keys to the Braves offense, but they played like they were just tired. Sisler retired after the season, but Maranville stuck around for several more years in Boston, playing fulltime at shortstop and second base. Give the Braves some credit though - they had several youngsters start the season the roster and when they didn’t pan out they shipped them out and brought in others. These new players didn't do much either, but at least they got their shot.

Socks Seibold (15-13, 3.58) was the anchor Boston's pitching staff, but Bob Smith (10-14, 4.30) was the only other pitcher with ten or more wins. Tom Zachary (8-12, 4.30) was picked up in an early-season trade from the Yankees and served the Braves well in his appearances. The Braves had six pitchers with ten or more losses and another with nine.

Philadelphia Phillies (53-101 / 52-102 / +1)

The Phillies hit .308 as a team, well behind the Cardinals .319, but more than enough to make them an offensive force. The lineup had five regulars hit .350 or better, and Pinky Whitney was right behind with a .343 average. Of course, the Phillies didn't offer much in the way of pitching, but any team playing the 1930 Philadelphia Phillies knew they were in a for a fight against this lineup.

Chuck Klein

Any talk of the Phillies offense revolved around two players: Chuck Klein and Lefty O'Doul. Klein ended the season leading the NL in hitting with a .415 average, and O'Doul was right behind in second with a .410 average. Klein led the replay with 258 hits, hit 52 doubles and 40 homeruns, and finished with 96 extra base hits and 438 total bases, and finished second in RBI's with 164. O'Doul missed most of the last two weeks of the season but still finished seventh in walks with 74 and sixth in runs with 130, those walks allowing O'Doul to lead the NL in on-base percentage (.489).

The Phillies were never able to get their team ERA (6.43) up to their real 6.71 finish, but that was pretty close. I stated once during the replay that the Phillies had bad starting pitching but their bullpen was worse - the relievers ERA was 6.92. The Phillies did throw six shutouts though, with Phil Collins (11-13, 4.12) getting three of them. Collins hit four homeruns over the course of the season as well. Despite the lack of pitching, this was the team that released future Hall-of-Famer Pete Alexander at the end of May.