1896 Cincinnati Reds season

1896 Cincinnati Reds
League	National League
Ballpark	League Park
City	Cincinnati
Owners	John T. Brush
Managers	Buck Ewing
Seasons

The 1896 Cincinnati Reds season was a season in American baseball. The team finished in third place in the National League with a record of 77–50, 12 games behind the Baltimore Orioles.

Regular season

After a late season collapse by the Reds in 1895, in which the team won only fourteen of their last thirty-nine games to fall completely out of the pennant race to an eighth-place finish, the club began to make changes to get younger players.

Buck Ewing returned as player-manager, and the team made a big trade, as Arlie Latham, Ed McFarland, Morgan Murphy and Tom Parrott were traded from Cincinnati to the St. Louis Browns for Red Ehret and Heinie Peitz. Ehret struggled in 1895, with a 6–19 record and a 6.02 ERA. His best season came in 1890 with the Louisville Colonels of the American Association, when Ehret was 25–14 with a 2.53 ERA in 43 games. Ehret also led the National League in shutouts with four during the 1893 season with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Peitz hit .284 with two home runs and 65 RBI with the Browns in 1895.

The Reds also acquired Charlie Irwin from the Chicago Colts to play third base. Irwin missed most of the 1895 season, but in 1894 he batted .296 with eight home runs and 100 RBI with Chicago.

Offensively, Eddie Burke led the team with a .340 batting average and 120 runs scored, as well as hitting a homer and 52 RBI. Dummy Hoy also scored 120 runs, as he hit .298 with a team tying high four home runs and 57 RBI. Dusty Miller had a club high .321 average, 93 RBI and 76 stolen bases, as well as tying Hoy with four home runs. Bid McPhee had another solid season, as he hit .305 with a homer and 87 RBI while stealing 48 bases.

Frank Dwyer led the pitching staff with a 24–11 record and a 3.15 ERA in 36 games, 34 of them starts. Ehret went 18–14 with a 3.42 ERA in his first season with the Reds, which marked a big improvement over his horrible 1895 season with the Browns. Billy Rhines led the league with a 2.45 ERA, however, he missed some time due to injuries and finished the year with a record of 8–6 in 19 games.

Season summary

After starting the year with a 9–7 record and in fifth place, Cincinnati posted ten wins in their next twelve games to improve to 19–9, and sit in first place in the National League. The Reds slipped out of first place with a 3–5 record in their next eight games, and continued to slump to a 27–20 record, fourth in the league. Cincinnati then rebounded, going 14–2 in their next sixteen games to push their record to 41–22, and be in a first place tie with the Baltimore Orioles. The club stayed hot, going 12–2 in their next fourteen games to push their record to 53–24, and take over first place by themselves, three games up on the Orioles. Cincinnati then went 8–2 in their next ten games, and pushed their first place lead to five games over Baltimore, and a 34–6 record in their last forty games. Despite a solid 8–5 record in their next thirteen games, Cincinnati saw their five-game lead evaporate to only a half game over the red hot Orioles. As the season was coming to a close, the Reds completely fell out of the pennant race, as they lost eleven games in a row and would eventually finish in third place with a 77–50 record, 12.5 games behind Baltimore.

Season standings

National League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Baltimore Orioles	90	39	.698	—	49‍–‍16	41‍–‍23
Cleveland Spiders	80	48	.625	9½	43‍–‍19	37‍–‍29
Cincinnati Reds	77	50	.606	12	51‍–‍15	26‍–‍35
Boston Beaneaters	74	57	.565	17	42‍–‍24	32‍–‍33
Chicago Colts	71	57	.555	18½	42‍–‍24	29‍–‍33
Pittsburgh Pirates	66	63	.512	24	35‍–‍31	31‍–‍32
New York Giants	64	67	.489	27	39‍–‍26	25‍–‍41
Philadelphia Phillies	62	68	.477	28½	42‍–‍27	20‍–‍41
Washington Senators	58	73	.443	33	38‍–‍29	20‍–‍44
Brooklyn Bridegrooms	58	73	.443	33	35‍–‍28	23‍–‍45
St. Louis Browns	40	90	.308	50½	27‍–‍34	13‍–‍56
Louisville Colonels	38	93	.290	53	25‍–‍37	13‍–‍56

Record vs. opponents

1896 National League record Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Team	BAL	BOS	BR	CHI	CIN	CLE	LOU	NYG	PHI	PIT	STL	WSH
Baltimore	—	5–7	6–6	7–4–2	10–2	3–8–1	10–2	9–3	12–0	9–2	9–3	10–2
Boston	7–5	—	10–2	3–9	5–6	5–7–1	8–4	7–5	7–5	7–5	8–4	7–5
Brooklyn	6–6	2–10	—	6–6	2–10	5–7	8–4	4–8	8–4	6–5–1	7–5	4–8–1
Chicago	4–7–2	9–3	6–6	—	4–6–1	2–9–1	9–3	5–7	4–8	11–1	9–3	8–4
Cincinnati	2–10	6–5	10–2	6–4–1	—	6–5	9–3	6–6	8–4	5–7	12–0	7–4
Cleveland	8–3–1	7–5–1	5–7	9–2–1	5–6	—	8–3–2	7–5	6–6	4–8–1	10–2	9–3–1
Louisville	2–10	4–8	4–8	3–9	3–9	3–8–2	—	4–8–1	7–5	2–10	3–9	3–9
New York	3–9	5–7	8–4	7–5	6–6	5–7	8–4–1	—	3–8	4–8	9–3–1	6–6
Philadelphia	0–12	5–7	4–8	8–4	4–8	6–6	5–7	8–3	—	6–6	8–3	8–4
Pittsburgh	2–9	5–7	5–6–1	1–11	7–5	8–4–1	10–2	8–4	6–6	—	8–3	6–6
St. Louis	3–9	4–8	5–7	3–9	0–12	2–10	9–3	3–9–1	3–8	3–8	—	5–7
Washington	2–10	5–7	8–4–1	4–8	4–7	3–9–1	9–3	6–6	4–8	6–6	5–7	—

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Heinie Peitz	68	211	63	.299	2	34
1B	Buck Ewing	69	263	73	.278	1	38
2B	Bid McPhee	117	433	132	.305	1	87
SS	Germany Smith	120	456	131	.287	3	71
3B	Charlie Irwin	127	476	141	.296	1	67
OF	Eddie Burke	122	521	177	.340	1	52
OF	Dusty Miller	125	504	162	.321	4	93
OF	Dummy Hoy	121	443	132	.298	4	57

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Farmer Vaughn	114	433	127	.293	2	66
Bill Gray	46	121	25	.207	0	17
Bug Holliday	29	84	27	.321	0	8

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Frank Dwyer	36	288.2	24	11	3.15	57
Red Ehret	34	276.2	18	14	3.42	60
Frank Foreman	27	185.2	14	7	3.97	33
Billy Rhines	19	143.0	8	6	2.45	32
Brownie Foreman	4	23.0	1	3	11.35	9
Bert Inks	3	20.0	1	1	4.50	2

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Chauncey Fisher	27	159.2	10	7	4.45	25

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Wiley Davis	2	1	1	0	8.31	1
Hank Gastright	1	0	0	0	4.50	0
Bug Holliday	1	0	0	0	0.00	0

External links

• 1896 Cincinnati Reds season at Baseball Reference