1890 Louisville Colonels season

The 1890 Louisville Colonels baseball team finished with an 88–44 record and won the American Association championship. The previous season, the Colonels had lost 111 games, the most any team in the Major Leagues had lost up to that point (the record was broken during the 1890 season by the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, who lost 113 games). When the Colonels won the 1890 pennant, it was the first time in major league history that a team had moved from last place to first place in the span of a single year. The Colonels accomplished this largely because of the contributions of two young pitchers, Scott Stratton and Red Ehret. Several other players, including outfielder Jimmy Wolf, first baseman Harry Taylor, second baseman Tim Shinnick and shortstop Phil Tomney, provided strong support. Veteran manager Jack Chapman was also lauded in the press for providing his young team with steady guidance. Yet another factor in the Louisville club's success was that the competition in the American Association was diluted by the advent of the Players' League and by the fact that two of the best AA teams from 1889 moved over to the National League in 1890.

1890 Louisville Colonels
1890 American Association Champions
League	American Association
Ballpark	Eclipse Park
City	Louisville, Kentucky
Manager	Jack Chapman
← 1889 1891 →

Although the Louisville club is listed as the "Louisville Colonels" in most sources, the club was actually known as the "Louisville Cyclones" during the 1890 season. A deadly tornado (referred to as a cyclone in 1890 parlance) swept through Louisville in March 1890, killing 115-120 people. When the local baseball team began showing signs of dominance early in the 1890 baseball season, the club was dubbed "the Cyclones." It continued to be referred to by that name the rest of the season, then switched back to "Colonels" the following year.

After the season, Louisville played the NL champions, the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, in the 1890 World Series. The Bridegrooms were one of the teams that had jumped to the NL, and had been the champions of the AA in 1889. The World Series wound up in a 3–3–1 tie.

Regular season

Season standings

• v
• t
• e

American Association

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Louisville Colonels	88	44	.667	—	57‍–‍13	31‍–‍31
Columbus Solons	79	55	.590	10	47‍–‍22	32‍–‍33
St. Louis Browns	78	58	.574	12	45‍–‍25	33‍–‍33
Toledo Maumees	68	64	.515	20	40‍–‍27	28‍–‍37
Rochester Broncos	63	63	.500	22	40‍–‍22	23‍–‍41
Baltimore Orioles	15	19	.441	24	8‍–‍11	7‍–‍8
Syracuse Stars	55	72	.433	30½	30‍–‍30	25‍–‍42
Philadelphia Athletics	54	78	.409	34	36‍–‍36	18‍–‍42
Brooklyn Gladiators	26	73	.263	45½	15‍–‍22	11‍–‍51

Record vs. opponents

1890 American Association record v t e Sources:
Team	BAL	BR	COL	LOU	PHI	ROC	STL	SYR	TOL
Baltimore	—	0–0	2–4–2	1–2–1	2–2	5–1	2–5	1–2	2–3–1
Brooklyn	0–0	—	5–9	2–13	2–10	3–10–1	4–10	5–12	5–9
Columbus	4–2–2	9–5	—	10–8–1	11–9	10–9–1	12–8–2	10–7	13–7
Louisville	2–1–1	13–2	8–10–1	—	17–3	11–6–2	9–11	14–5	14–6
Philadelphia	2–2	10–2	9–11	3–17	—	7–12	7–13	10–7	6–14
Rochester	1–5	10–3–1	9–10–1	6–11–2	12–7	—	8–12–1	11–4–1	6–11–1
St. Louis	5–2	10–4	8–12–2	11–9	13–7	12–8–1	—	10–9	9–7
Syracuse	2–1	12–5	7–10	5–14	7–10	4–11–1	9–10	—	9–11
Toledo	3–2–1	9–5	7–13	6–14	14–6	11–6–1	7–9	11–9	—

Opening Day lineup

Roster

1890 Louisville Colonels
Roster
Pitchers Ed Daily Red Ehret Herb Goodall Mike Jones George Meakim Scott Stratton Catchers Ned Bligh Jack Ryan Pete Weckbecker		Infielders Henry Easterday Dan O'Connor Dan Phelan Harry Raymond Chief Roseman Tim Shinnick Pete Sweeney Harry Taylor Phil Tomney		Outfielders Charlie Hamburg Farmer Weaver Jimmy Wolf		Manager Jack Chapman

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Jack Ryan	93	337	73	.217	0	35
1B	Harry Taylor	134	553	169	.306	0	53
2B	Tim Shinnick	133	493	126	.256	1	82
3B	Harry Raymond	123	521	135	.259	2	51
SS	Phil Tomney	108	386	107	.277	1	58
OF	Charlie Hamburg	133	485	132	.272	3	77
OF	Farmer Weaver	130	557	161	.289	3	67
OF	Jimmy Wolf	134	543	197	.363	4	98

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Pete Weckbecker	32	101	24	.238	0	11
Ned Bligh	24	73	15	.205	1	9
Dan Phelan	8	32	8	.250	0	4
Dan O'Connor	6	26	12	.462	0	5
Henry Easterday	7	24	2	.083	0	1
Chief Roseman	2	8	2	.250	0	0
Pete Sweeney	2	7	1	.143	0	1

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	GS	IP	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Scott Stratton	50	49	431.0	34	14	0	2.36	207
Red Ehret	43	38	359.0	25	14	2	2.53	174
George Meakim	28	21	192.0	12	7	1	2.91	123
Herb Goodall	18	13	109.0	8	5	4	3.39	46
Ed Daily	12	10	93.0	6	3	0	1.94	31
Mike Jones	3	3	22.0	2	0	0	3.27	6

1890 World Series

Main article: 1890 World Series

Louisville, champions of the American Association, played the National League champions, the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in the 1890 World Series. The series pitted the two most recent American Association champions against each other.

The series winner was to be the first to win four games. Brooklyn started strong, winning the first two games in Louisville, with game 3 called after eight innings with the score tied. Louisville salvaged the fourth game, which was the last one played in Louisville. After Brooklyn won the first game at home to take a 3–1 lead, Louisville came back to win two straight. After that, bad weather and poor attendance forced the remaining games to be canceled, with the plan that a deciding game would be played before the 1891 season began. However, due to inter-league disputes, that never occurred, and the series officially ended in a 3–3–1 tie.

References

• 1890 Louisville Colonels team page at Baseball Reference