As the 1913 year gets underway for the Legacy Baseball League, this is a look back on the 1912 season in the Pittsburgh Gazette for the Pittsburgh Oilers Championship season, and their first Pennant win under their newfound GM, Mr. Tyler Saylor. After the Oilers Western League Championship loss in the 1911 season, 1912 they had returned to win against the St. Louis Reds in a rematch series bringing what was the Pittsburgh Oilers first Pennant winning Three games to Two in this Best-of-Five series, continuing their string of successes over the past several seasons. The Oilers landing an opportunity in the Legacy Cup to which no ones surprise, lost to the Brooklyn Whales 5 games over 1.
While the Oilers had not made huge swathes in the statistical leaderboards, being a footnote in the grand scheme of leaderboards compared to their fellows in the Eastern Conference, However compared to their brethren in the Western Conference, the statistics show the performance. Theron Bennet, originally being a 3rd round selection in the 1909 Draft, had collected his first batting title, and despite being sidelined with injury strings twice in the year, lead the Western League with his .320 Batting average and with a On-Base percentage of .400, and an OPS of .827 across 88 games, earning him his first Golden Bat award for the 1912 Year. Carl Mullinger, a First Baseman the Oilers had acquired in exchange for parting with Norman Wearmouth, and recently seen as the Successor to Randy Sliger amongst the fanbase, had made his mark on the leaderboards with 71 RBIs and finished in third for totals in Hits that year, winning his own Golden Bat award. 3rd Baseman Leroy Earnshaw, a native of Morristown Tennessee, proving yet again that he does know what maximum effort is, won the 1912 Grande Snagger award with a 5.5 ZR over 90 games played as the Oilers starting 3rd Baseman and on the offensive side, hitting a .330 average with a 129 OPS+, a 3.0 WAR Season.
In the Field of Pitching, Longtime Oilers Vet Carey Wilford finished a close 2nd place in ERA across the entire Legacy League with a near even 2.02 ERA, finishing behind the young New York Bakers star pitcher, Robert Batkin with his 1.62 ERA, however he does hold the statistical lead in ERA relative to the entire Western League. John Oxenden meanwhile, lead the Western League in a 1.05 WHIP and Bases on Balls per 9 innings with 1.9, staring this statistical lead with Carey.
Despite a feeling in the air about how older some of the veteran players such as Carey Wilford and William “Billy the Kid” Kynaston, Charles Bird, and Gerald Shearing are, all of them between the ages of 37 to 39. And the feeling of needing fresh blood in those positions as soon as possible, but across the league, no one couldn’t deny that the Oilers would still be reigning in success in the years to come until age catches up to some of these players and replacements would need to be found. Early Predictions ahead for 1913 have the Oilers finishing atop the Western League with a 68-52 record, one game ahead of 2nd place Cleveland Athletics.