Welcome to another edition of What If? Fantasy Baseball. In case you're not familiar with this concept, this is where I look back at a season long before fantasy baseball became a prominent or permanent fixture in American society. I'll calculate the numbers on what that player's season would have looked like if the fantasy game existed then or wasn't as known. Today, I'm flashing back to the 1930 season for Hall of Fame outfielder and Chicago Cubs star Hack Wilson. As most of you know, the Cubs are my favorite team, and this season by Hack Wilson is one of the most notable in history so we'll look at it more closely. But before we do that, let's look at the Sporting News fantasy scoring system in place for this.
Point system for Sporting News(batting):
Out: -2 points
Run Scored: 5 points
Single: 5 points
Double: 10 points
Triple: 15 points
Home Run: 20 points
Run Batted In: 5 points
Walk or Hit By Pitch: 3 points
Strikeout: -1 point
Stolen Base: 10 points
Caught Stealing: -5 points
Point system for Sporting News(pitching):
Win: 30 points
Save: 30 points
Hold: 5 points
Loss: -15 points
Inning Pitched: 15 points
Hit Allowed: -5 points
Earned Run Allowed: -10 points
Walk or Hit Batsman: -3 points
Strikeout: 3 points
Here are the stats and SN points for Hack Wilson's 1930 season:
Outs: 377 = -754 points
Runs Scored: 146 = 730 points
Singles: 111 = 555 points
Doubles: 35 = 350 points
Triples: 6 = 90 points
Home Runs: 56 = 1,120 points
Runs Batted In: 191 = 955 points
Walks + Hit By Pitches: 106 = 318 points
Strikeouts: 84 = -84 points
Stolen Bases: 3 = 30 points
Caught Stealing: 0 = 0 points
Total SN Points: 3,310 points
Points Per Game: 21.35
Wilson played in 155 games in 1930 according to baseball-reference.com.
Hack Wilson is well known for this 1930 season in Major League Baseball for his single-season RBI record of 191 which at one time stood at 190 until the league gave him credit for one more. Until 1998, Wilson also had the National League Record for home runs with 56, and batted .356 on the season as well. He led the NL in home runs four times, and was coming off a year of 39 HR and 159 RBI after helping the Cubs win the NL pennant. Surprisingly, none of Wilson's 56 home runs were grand slams during the season either.
Because of those numbers, the 30-year old Wilson would have been a high draft pick and he didn't exactly come out of nowhere after having a strong five-year run. Averaging over 21 PPG in SN fantasy baseball means he had an elite year which not many in the history of the game averaged over 20 a game during a fantasy season. Hack Wilson fantasy owners would have been happy with that number.
The country was hit hard with the beginning of the Great Depression which put the future of the sport in serious jeapordy, too. But this was a wild year in the National League with an average ERA of 4.97 and half the teams averaging more than 6 runs a game on offense. Wilson's .356 batting average would have led the league in most year in the history of the game, but he finished 10th which shows just how wild the 1930 season was offensively in the NL.
During the season, Wilson had two 6-RBI games and five 5-RBI Games: 6/1 vs Pittsburgh(4-for-5, 2 HR, 5 RBI in a 16-4 win); 6/23 vs Philadelphia(5-for-6, HR, 5 RBI in a 21-8 win); 7/26 @ Philadelphia(3-for-5, 3 HR, 5 RBI in a 16-2 win); 8/30 vs St. Louis(3-for-3, 2 HR, 6 RBI in a 16-4 win); 9/12 @ Philadelphia(5-for-5, HR, 6 RBI in a 17-4 win). He had 38 RBI against Philadelphia, 32 against Pittsburgh, and 22 against St. Louis who won the NL pennant that year. He had an RBI in 92 of the 155 games played, and the Cubs went 62-30 in those games. They were 28-34 when he didn't have an RBI. He also had eight multi-home run games, and the Cubs won all those games.
In the standings, the Cubs finished in second place and were two games behind the rival St. Louis Cardinals with a 90-64 record. The Cardinals lost the World Series to the Philadelphia Athletics.
All in all, Wilson had six 100-RBI seasons with over 1,000 in his career, 240 home runs, .307 average, and .395 on-base percentage. His short frame of 5' 6" in height also helped him to lead the league in walks twice in his career.
Unfortunately, Wilson's famous troubles with alcoholism shortened his career, and he was out of the game by 1934. Because of his bout with alcoholism, he died in 1948 at the young age of 48. The Veteran's Committee did vote him into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.
On a sidenote, the town of Martinsburg, West Virginia has a street named after him called Hack Wilson Way. Two cousins and an aunt and uncle of mine live there in Martinsburg where he was buried.
Hack Wilson's 1930 season is still rated as one of the best in league history even almost 80 years later.
Previous What If? Fantasy Baseball posts:
Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig's 1927 season
Ted Williams' 1941 season
Roberto Clemente's 1966 season
Thanks for viewing!
5/13/2009 05:00:00 PM
David Funk
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