1893 Major League Baseball season

This article is about the 1893 Major League Baseball season only. For information on all of baseball, see 1893 in baseball.

The 1893 major league baseball season began on April 27, 1893. The regular season ended on September 30, with the Boston Beaneaters as the pennant winner of the National League and therefore winner of the final Dauvray Cup.

1893 MLB season
League	National League (NL)
Sport	Baseball
Duration	April 27 – September 30, 1893
Number of games	132
Number of teams	12
Pennant winner
NL champions	Boston Beaneaters
NL runners-up	Pittsburgh Pirates

Orioles

Beaneaters

Grooms

Colts

Reds

Spiders

Colonels

Giants

Phillies

Pirates

Browns

Senators

Locations of teams for the 1893–1895 National League seasons
National League

The 1893 season saw no postseason championship series, unlike the split-season 1892 World's Championship Series. This would not last, as the following season would see the Temple Cup, which would be a championship series between the NL pennant winner and the runner-up.

Schedule

See also: Major League Baseball schedule

The 1893 schedule consisted of 132 games for the twelve teams of the National League. Each team was scheduled to play 12 games against the other eleven teams in the league. This replaced the 154-game, 14-games-each format put in place in the previous season and would be used until 1898.

Opening Day took place on April 27 featuring eight teams. The final day of the season was on September 30, featuring six teams.^[1]

Rule changes

The 1893 season saw the following rule changes:

• In place of a pitcher's box, a pitcher's plate at a size of 12 inches by 4 inches was instituted.^[2]
• Per new Rule 27, prior to throwing a pitch, a pitcher must keep their rear foot on the plate through coming set and the windup.^[2][3]
• The pitcher's plate was moved back from 50 feet from home plate to 60 feet 6 inches.^[2]
• Changes were made to baseball bats, as described in new Rule 13, stating: "the bat must be made round and of hardwood and may have twine on the handle or granulated substance applied not to exceed 18 inches from the end. No bat shall exceed 42 inches in length."^[3]
  • This rescinded the 1885 rule allowing flat bats, reinstating the 1857 rule requiring round bats.^[2][4]
  • Softwoods, like pine, and bats that were sawed off at the end were banned.^[2][4]
• The balk rule was clarified to state that motions to deceive a baserunner would be declared a balk, but "when the pitcher feigns to throw the ball to a base" he must resume his former position before delivering the ball to the plate.^[3]
• On-field mingling between opposing players was prohibited.^[3]
• A sacrifice hit would no longer result in hitters being charged with an at bat, though the question on whether this counted for outfield fly balls was an open question^[3] (the "sacrifice hit" was not a formal rule until the following season).

Teams

An asterisk (*) denotes the ballpark a team played the minority of their home games at

League	Team	City	Stadium	Capacity	Manager[5]
National League	Baltimore Orioles	Baltimore, Maryland	Union Park	6,500	Ned Hanlon
	Boston Beaneaters	Boston, Massachusetts	South End Grounds	8,500	Frank Selee
	Brooklyn Grooms	Brooklyn, New York	Eastern Park	12,000	Dave Foutz
	Chicago Colts	Chicago, Illinois	West Side Park	13,000	Cap Anson
			South Side Park*	6,450*
	Cincinnati Reds	Cincinnati, Ohio	League Park (Cincinnati)	3,000	Charles Comiskey
	Cleveland Spiders	Cleveland, Ohio	League Park (Cleveland)	9,000	Patsy Tebeau
	Louisville Colonels	Louisville, Kentucky	Eclipse Park (II)	6,400	Billy Barnie
			Eclipse Park (I)*	5,860*
	New York Giants	New York, New York	Polo Grounds	16,000	John Ward
	Philadelphia Phillies	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Philadelphia Base Ball Grounds	12,500	Harry Wright
	Pittsburgh Pirates	Allegheny, Pennsylvania	Exposition Park	6,500	Al Buckenberger
	St. Louis Browns	St. Louis, Missouri	New Sportsman's Park	14,500	Bill Watkins
	Washington Senators	Washington, D.C.	Boundary Field	6,500	Jim O'Rourke

Standings

National League

• v
• t
• e

National League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Boston Beaneaters	86	43	.667	—	49‍–‍15	37‍–‍28
Pittsburgh Pirates	81	48	.628	5	54‍–‍19	27‍–‍29
Cleveland Spiders	73	55	.570	12½	47‍–‍22	26‍–‍33
Philadelphia Phillies	72	57	.558	14	43‍–‍22	29‍–‍35
New York Giants	68	64	.515	19½	49‍–‍20	19‍–‍44
Cincinnati Reds	65	63	.508	20½	37‍–‍27	28‍–‍36
Brooklyn Grooms	65	63	.508	20½	43‍–‍24	22‍–‍39
Baltimore Orioles	60	70	.462	26½	36‍–‍24	24‍–‍46
Chicago Colts	56	71	.441	29	38‍–‍34	18‍–‍37
St. Louis Browns	57	75	.432	30½	40‍–‍30	17‍–‍45
Louisville Colonels	50	75	.400	34	24‍–‍28	26‍–‍47
Washington Senators	40	89	.310	46	21‍–‍27	19‍–‍62

Managerial changes

Off-season

Team	Former Manager	New Manager
Brooklyn Grooms	John Ward	Dave Foutz
Louisville Colonels	Fred Pfeffer	Billy Barnie
New York Giants	Patrick Powers	John Ward
Pittsburgh Pirates	Tom Burns	Al Buckenberger
St. Louis Browns	Bob Caruthers	Bill Watkins
Washington Senators	Danny Richardson	Jim O'Rourke

League leaders

Any team shown in small text indicates a previous team a player was on during the season.

National League

Hitting leaders^[6]

Stat	Player	Total
AVG	Billy Hamilton (PHI)	.380
OPS	Billy Hamilton (PHI)	1.014
HR	Ed Delahanty (PHI)	19
RBI	Ed Delahanty (PHI)	146
R	Herman Long (BOS)	149
H	Sam Thompson (PHI)	222
SB	Tom Brown (LOU)	66

Pitching leaders^[7]

Stat	Player	Total
W	Frank Killen (PIT)	36
L	Duke Esper (WSH)	28
ERA	Theodore Breitenstein (STL)	3.18
K	Amos Rusie (NY)	208
IP	Amos Rusie (NY)	482.0
SV	Mark Baldwin (NYG/PIT) Tom Colcolough (PIT) Frank Donnelly (CHI) Frank Dwyer (CIN) Tony Mullane (BAL/CIN) Cy Young (CLE)	2
WHIP	Kid Nichols (BOS)	1.280

Home field attendance

Team name	Wins	%±	Home attendance	%±	Per game
Philadelphia Phillies[8]	72	−17.2%	293,019	51.3%	4,440
New York Giants[9]	68	−4.2%	290,000	122.1%	4,085
Brooklyn Grooms[10]	65	−31.6%	235,000	27.9%	3,507
Chicago Colts[11]	56	−20.0%	223,500	104.9%	3,062
St. Louis Browns[12]	57	1.8%	195,000	1.3%	2,708
Cincinnati Reds[13]	65	−20.7%	194,250	−1.1%	2,943
Boston Beaneaters[14]	86	−15.7%	193,300	32.0%	2,974
Pittsburgh Pirates[15]	81	1.3%	184,000	3.8%	2,521
Baltimore Orioles[16]	60	30.4%	143,000	52.8%	2,383
Cleveland Spiders[17]	73	−21.5%	130,000	−7.1%	1,857
Washington Senators[18]	40	−31.0%	90,000	−29.8%	1,837
Louisville Colonels[19]	50	−20.6%	53,683	−59.1%	1,013