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@NatureBoyMD: In 1903, Memphis won the pennant, the regular season championship, edging Little Rock, but were accused of cheating. Little Rock then played them in a best of 5, postseason series, and won the series 3 to 2. Wonder if that counts as a 'playoff champion' or not. They say it was the best Little Rock team for years. Cake (talk) 21:49, 18 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@MisterCake:I see where Stats Crew mentions the series, but it took some looking to find any other mentions of this series. Bill O'Neal makes no reference to it in his Southern League book. Newspapers.com did turn up several articles on Little Rock's protest and the series. This one refers to it as a "postseason trophy series". Most of what else I found makes it sound like an exhibition series. This one says that LR's manager arranged the series with Memphis. This one covers some players electing to play in the series. This one called them "exhibition games" and said that LR's "victory means absolutely nothing expect a few extra dollars in the pockets of the players". In my opinion, the series was little more than an exhibition and not a true postseason championship series. NatureBoyMD (talk) 22:50, 18 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for that. It didn't seem like Little Rock claimed anything because of it; just wistful about how good that year could have been. That there was a postseason series though had me wonder just when champions as opposed to pennant winners started. Cheers. Have Simpson's book by the way; need his other on Perdue, and Skip Nipper and Bill Traughbers books on Nashville baseball in general. Cake (talk) 17:57, 19 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
