1901 New York State League

Albany ekes out a carousel victory as a Utica spurt falls short. Schenectady traces out an unusual parabola across this league, fueling some other second half spurts. It's unusual because it's been obtained irrespective of their opponents. The full scheduling cycle probably ended three times: Memorial Day, mid-July and season's end. This usually creates nodes during the year between which teams repeat their successes and failures. But Schenectady beats everyone early, then crests it's winning percentage, and gets beat by everyone late. It's never happened on the major league level this evenly and from such a height "over second place."

Early century minor league pennant races that feature two such tragic losers as Ilion and Cortland, are best understood by tempering the "high" winning percentages of the championship teams. Determine the aggregate win percentage of the first six teams (.567) and subtract .500: you get .067. Using Albany as an example, subtract .067 from .626 and you get .559. A more reasonable winning percentage relative to the six teams that fielded teams up to New York State League snuff. Otherwise, you're going to have to conclude the Jersey City in 1903 had the greatest minor league team ever.

Oswego, nee Elmira, was dropped for this season and Ilion picked up. Cortland moved to the "city" of Waverly at the intersection of the PA border and the Susquehanna River on July 11th. Both of these new "franchises" were dropped in favor of Syracuse and the "Gloversville Area" for 1902.