20 Jun 2006, Paul Wendt wrote
in "Coverage in Spalding's - clubs and standings"

> Spalding's Base Ball Guide 1884 and 1885 covers the Western Collegiate
> (WCA) and Inter-Collegiate (ICA) Base Ball Associations in two short
> chapters or sections. Inside each section it names the clubs and gives
> final standings. Here is that data for the WCA only, presented in a way
> that hints how a database deftly uses abbreviations and multiple tables.

Folks,
Beside methodology, some in this group may be interested in the outcomes
of the four 1883-1884 collegiate league-seasons covered by Spalding's.

Therefore,
Here are extended standings for each, showing the home, visitor, and
neutral W-L records and the runs records for all WCA teams.

All these elements and team-v-team variations on same can be generated
automatically from a complete game log. For example, see the retrosheet
webpages for each major league season.
http://retrosheet.org/boxesetc/Y_1884.htm (1884, pick a club)
The Retrosheet format is best if there is much interest in generating
home and away elements as well as full-season ones.

Although extended in scope, these standings remain simple because every
game was played to a W-L decision.

Paul Wendt


----------------------------
Western or Northwestern CBBA, 1883-1884
----------------------------

W L Club home visitor Runs oRuns
WCA 1883
6 0 Northwestern 3-0 3-0 78 41
4 2 Wisconsin 2-1 2-1 71 35
1 5 Racine 1-2 0-3 37 83
1 5 Beloit 1-2 0-3 34 61
12 games

The 1883 summary must be typical of small, poorly balanced leagues.


W L Club home visitor Runs oRuns
WCA 1884
5 1 Wisconsin 3-0 2-1 51 45
4 2 Racine 2-1 2-1 60 43
2 4 Northwestern 0-3 2-1 71 57
1 5 Beloit 0-3 1-2 31 68
12 games

By winning the two biggest blowouts, at Racine and Beloit, but losing
its four other games closely, Northwestern generated unusual home-away
and unusual runs record for the association in 1884. Racine beat
Wisconsin badly at home, 19-8, but lost lost a close one in Madison,
4-3, which amplified the unusual runs record.

----------------------------------------
Inter-Collegiate or American College BBA, 1883-1884
----------------------------------------

W L Club home visitor neutral
ICA 1883
7 1 Yale 3-0 3-0 1-1
6 2 Princeton 2-0 2-0 2-2
4 4 Amherst 2-1 1-2 1-1
2 6 Harvard 2-2 0-4 -
1 7 Brown 1-3 0-4 -
20 games

Dartmouth missed this season of the otherwise stable six-team
association. Spalding's 1885 is sympathetic to Dartmouth against
Harvard especially. The 1884 record suggests that the issue was refusal
of other teams to visit Dartmouth.
Amherst and Yale both played Princeton twice in New York; all other
pairs of clubs played twice home-and-home.


W L Club home visitor neutral
ICA 1884
9 2 Yale 4-1 2-1 3-0
8 3 Harvard 5-1 3-1 0-1
6 4 Amherst 3-2 3-2 -
5 5 Brown 3-2 2-3 -
2 8 Princeton 2-3 0-3 0-2
1 9 Dartmouth 0-2 1-7 -
31 games

Dartmouth was readmitted for 1884 after agreeing to visit Harvard, Yale,
and Princeton twice each, playing home-and-home only with Brown and
Amherst.
Yale defeated Harvard in the final game, June 27 at Brooklyn,
evidently a playoff for the championship, four in a row for Yale.
Harvard beat Yale twice but also lost two games to the other strong
teams while Yale did not.