e, Dahlen shortstop and Wilmot, Lange, Ryan and
Decker the outfield. There were at least seven good twirlers in the
bunch, at the head of which stood Griffith and Hutchinson. Thornton,
Parker, Friend, Terry and Stratton were all better than the average when
just right, and it was certainly not the fault of the pitchers if the
team did not carry off the pennant honors. At late as September 7, and
when the club was in the ninth place, predictions were freely made to
the effect that the club would not finish in the first division, but
this time the croakers proved to be all wrong, for the team made a grand
rally in the closing weeks of the season and finished in fourth place, a
fact that some of the newspaper critics seemed to have purposely lost
sight of at the time of my enforced retirement, that being the same
place they stood under Burns' management the first season.

The Baltimores again won the championship, they having 87 games won and
46 lost to their credit, as against Cleveland's 84 won and 46 lost,
Philadelphia 78 won and 53 lost, and Chicago 72 won and 58 lost,
Brooklyn, Boston, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, New York, Washington and
Brooklyn following in order.

The Chicago team of 1896 was a somewhat mixed affair, change following
change in rapid succession. Hutchinson had retired from the game and the
pitchers, seven in number, were, Griffith, Thornton, Briggs, Friend,
Terry, Parker and McFarland; Kittridge and Donohue as catchers, myself
and Decker alternating at first base, Pfeffer and Truby doing the same
thing at second, and Everett and McCormick at third. Dahlen played
shortstop, and Lange, Everett, Ryan, Decker and Flynn took care of the
outfield.

The most of the pitching this season devolved upon Griffith and Friend,
while Parker and McFarland both proved failures. Neither Pfeffer nor
Decker were themselves for a great part of the season, and yet, in spite
of all, the team played good ball and finished in the fifth place, the
pennant going for the third consecutive time to Baltimore, which won go
games and lost 39, while Cleveland came second with 80 games won and 48
lost, Cincinnati third with 77 games won and so lost, Boston fourth with
74 games and 57 lost, and Chicago fifth with 71 games won and 57 lost,
Pittsburg, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Brooklyn, St. Louis and
Louisville finishing as named.

The team with which I started out in 1897 was certainly good enough to
win the pennant with, or