anded
the pennant 'had it not been for the fact that the jealousy of the old
players in the East engendered by the Brotherhood revolt would not allow
a team of youngsters, many of whom were newcomers in the League to carry
off the honors, and a conspiracy was entered into whereby New York lost
enough games to Boston to give the Beaneaters the pennant and to
relegate us at the very last moment into the second place.

We had made a whirlwind fight for the honors, however, and though we
lost no fault could be laid either at my door or at the doors of the
players, as we had the pennant won had it not been for the games that
were dropped by the "Giants" to the Boston Club, in order that the
honors might not be carried off by a colt team.

Hutchinson, upon whom the most of the pitching work devolved, was one of
the best in the business. He was a graduate of Yale, a gentleman and a
player who used his head as well as his hands when in the box. Gumbert
and Luby were both fair, and the latter, had it not been for strong
drink, might have made for himself a much greater reputation than he
did. Dahlen at short was a tower of strength to the team, being as agile
as a cat, a sure catch and an exceptionally strong batter, while the
rest of the infield and the entire outfield was away above the average
in playing strength.

The race in 1891 was one of the closest in the history of the League.
Opening the season in the third place we never occupied a lower
position, but on the contrary, out of the twenty-four weeks that the
season lasted he held the first place in the race for all of fifteen
weeks and should have finished at the top of the column had it not been
for the reasons already given, and which were largely commented on at
the time by lovers of the game throughout the country, and the
newspapers from one end of the United States to the other.

At the beginning of the closing week of the season's campaign Chicago
was in the van by a percentage of victories of .628 to Bostons .615,
which was apparently a winning lead and which would have been had not
the New York organization made a present of its closing games to the
Boston Club for the express purpose of throwing us down and keeping the
pennant in the East. As it was, however, we finished head and head with
the leaders, New York being third, Philadelphia fourth, Cleveland fifth,
Brooklyn sixth, Cincinnati seventh, and Pittsburg eighth.

As an excuse for the queer showing m