1894 Major League Baseball season

This article is about the 1894 Major League Baseball season only. For information on all of baseball, see 1894 in baseball.

The 1894 major league baseball season began on April 19, 1894. The regular season ended on September 30, with the Baltimore Orioles as the pennant winner of the National League and the New York Giants as runner-up. The postseason began with Game 1 of the first Temple Cup on October 4 and ended with Game 4 on October 8. The Giants swept the Orioles, capturing their first Temple Cup.

1894 MLB season
League	National League (NL)
Sport	Baseball
Duration	Regular season: April 19 – September 30, 1894 Temple Cup: October 4–8, 1894
Number of games	132
Number of teams	12
Pennant winner
NL champions	Baltimore Orioles
NL runners-up	New York Giants
Temple Cup
Champions	New York Giants
Runners-up	Baltimore Orioles

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 1894 season saw the return of a postseason championship series, the Temple Cup, following the end of the World's Championship Series with the demise of the American Association in 1891 and the one-off, split-season 1892 World's Championship Series.

Schedule

See also: Major League Baseball schedule

The 1894 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 continued the format put in place in the previous season and would be used until 1898.

Opening Day took place on April 19 featuring eight teams. The final day of the season was on September 30, also featuring eight teams.^[1] The Temple Cup took place between October 4 and October 8.

Rule changes

The 1894 season saw the following rule changes:

• Foul bunts are now classified as strikes.^[2]
• The sacrifice hit rule, which is when a batter deliberately gets out in an effort to advance a baserunner to another base, is implemented.^[2]
  • Sacrifice hits, which exempt a batter from a time at bat (including sacrifice bunts), is implemented.^[2]
• A precursor to the Infield fly rule is implemented, stating "the batsman is out if he hits a fly ball that can be handled by an infielder while first base is occupied, with only one out."^[3]

Teams

An asterisk (*) denotes the ballpark a team played the minority of their home games at. Ballparks listed in backwards chronological order.

League	Team	City	Stadium	Capacity	Manager[4]
National League	Baltimore Orioles	Baltimore, Maryland	Union Park	6,500	Ned Hanlon
	Boston Beaneaters	Boston, Massachusetts	South End Grounds (II)*[A]	8,500*	Frank Selee
			Congress Street Grounds*[B]	14,000*
			South End Grounds (III)	5,000
	Brooklyn Grooms	Brooklyn, New York	Eastern Park	12,000	Dave Foutz
	Chicago Colts	Chicago, Illinois	West Side Park	13,000	Cap Anson
	Cincinnati Reds	Cincinnati, Ohio	League Park (Cincinnati)	9,000	Charles Comiskey
	Cleveland Spiders	Cleveland, Ohio	League Park (Cleveland)	9,000	Patsy Tebeau
	Louisville Colonels	Louisville, Kentucky	Eclipse Park	6,400	Billy Barnie
	New York Giants	New York, New York	Polo Grounds	16,000	John Ward
	Philadelphia Phillies	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Philadelphia Base Ball Grounds[A]	12,500	Arthur Irwin
			University of Pennsylvania Athletic Field*[B]	Unknown
			Philadelphia Base Ball Grounds*[C]	Unknown*
	Pittsburgh Pirates	Allegheny, Pennsylvania	Exposition Park	6,500	Al Buckenberger
					Connie Mack
	St. Louis Browns	St. Louis, Missouri	New Sportsman's Park	14,500	George Miller
	Washington Senators	Washington, D.C.	Boundary Field	6,500	Gus Schmelz

1. ^
   Initial stadium of the season burned in a fire (Boston: May 16, Philadelphia: August 6)
2. ^
   Temporary stadium.
3. ^
   Makeshift stands built for remainder of the season, from August 18.

Standings

National League

• v
• t
• e

National League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Baltimore Orioles	89	39	.695	—	52‍–‍15	37‍–‍24
New York Giants	88	44	.667	3	49‍–‍17	39‍–‍27
Boston Beaneaters	83	49	.629	8	44‍–‍19	39‍–‍30
Philadelphia Phillies	71	57	.555	18	48‍–‍20	23‍–‍37
Brooklyn Grooms	70	61	.534	20½	42‍–‍24	28‍–‍37
Cleveland Spiders	68	61	.527	21½	35‍–‍24	33‍–‍37
Pittsburgh Pirates	65	65	.500	25	46‍–‍28	19‍–‍37
Chicago Colts	57	75	.432	34	35‍–‍30	22‍–‍45
St. Louis Browns	56	76	.424	35	34‍–‍32	22‍–‍44
Cincinnati Reds	55	75	.423	35	37‍–‍28	18‍–‍47
Washington Senators	45	87	.341	46	32‍–‍30	13‍–‍57
Louisville Colonels	36	94	.277	54	24‍–‍38	12‍–‍56

Postseason

Bracket

	Temple Cup
	NL1	Baltimore Orioles	1	6	1	1
	NL2	New York Giants	4	9	4	7

Managerial changes

Off-season

Team	Former Manager	New Manager
Philadelphia Phillies	Harry Wright	Arthur Irwin
St. Louis Browns	Bill Watkins	George Miller
Washington Senators	Jim O'Rourke	Gus Schmelz

In-season

Team	Former Manager	New Manager
Pittsburgh Pirates	Al Buckenberger	Connie Mack

League leaders

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

National League

Hitting leaders^[5]

Stat	Player	Total
AVG	Hugh Duffy (BOS)	.440
OPS	Hugh Duffy (BOS)	1.196
HR	Hugh Duffy (BOS)	18
RBI	Sam Thompson (PHI)	149
R	Billy Hamilton1 (PHI)	198
H	Hugh Duffy (BOS)	237
SB	Billy Hamilton (PHI)	100

¹ All-time single-season runs record

Pitching leaders^[6]

Stat	Player	Total
W	Amos Rusie1 (NY)	36
L	Pink Hawley (PIT)	27
ERA	Amos Rusie1 (NY)	2.78
K	Amos Rusie1 (NY)	195
IP	Theodore Breitenstein (STL)	447.1
SV	Tony Mullane (CLE/BAL)	4
WHIP	Amos Rusie (NY)	1.410

¹ National League Triple Crown pitching winner

Home field attendance

Team name	Wins	%±	Home attendance	%±	Per game
New York Giants[7]	88	29.4%	387,000	33.4%	5,451
Philadelphia Phillies[8]	71	−1.4%	352,773	20.4%	4,969
Baltimore Orioles[9]	89	48.3%	328,000	129.4%	4,896
Chicago Colts[10]	57	1.8%	239,000	6.9%	3,515
Brooklyn Grooms[11]	70	7.7%	214,000	−8.9%	3,101
Pittsburgh Pirates[12]	65	−19.8%	159,000	−13.6%	2,120
Cincinnati Reds[13]	55	−15.4%	158,000	−18.7%	2,394
St. Louis Browns[14]	56	−1.8%	155,000	−20.5%	2,348
Boston Beaneaters[15]	83	−3.5%	152,800	−21.0%	2,425
Washington Senators[16]	45	12.5%	125,000	38.9%	2,016
Cleveland Spiders[17]	68	−6.8%	82,000	−36.9%	1,390
Louisville Colonels[18]	36	−28.0%	75,000	39.7%	1,210