1894 by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Page 79
excellent 83-49 record was good for no better than third place that season. And the brief heyday of the Heavenly Twins was now approaching its end.
Although not comparable to his previous year’s numbers, Duffy posted fine stats in 1895. He batted .353, with 9 home runs and 100 RBIs. He also scored 112 runs and stole 42 bases. But Tommy McCarthy, overweight, nagged by minor injuries, and flashing the bad attitude that would soon hasten his departure from the majors, was slipping, posting .290 in only 117 games. Mac’s business partnership with Duffy was also headed toward dissolution. At the close of the 1895 season, Hugh had remarried, and new wife Nora Moore was lace curtain Irish, not the type to humor saloon keeping by her husband for long. Within months, the Duffy-McCarthy business association was terminated.
The two, however, remained friends.
McCarthy was sold to Brooklyn, and 1896, .249 in 104 games, was his final major league season. Boston and Hugh Duffy were also having difficulties. That season, the Beaneaters, 74-57, fell to fourth place, while the name Duffy, .300/5/113, no longer appeared among NL batting leaders. But both rebounded strongly in 1897, with Boston, 93-39, capturing the pennant and Hugh leading the NL in homers - 11, while batting .340, with 129 RBIs and 130 runs scored. Boston dropped the postseason Temple Cup