Week 4 Summary

Chicago South Side Park

Week 4 is in the books and the 1901 replay is rolling along. One team (Chicago (NL)) has played twenty games, while New York and Washington have only played twelve, with everything else in between somewhere. The thing that can be seen is that if you divide the AL and the NL into east and west "divisions" that intra-divisional play hasn’t started yet. That will start this coming week as teams begin to take cross-country trips to visit their distant cousins.

The other thing to notice is that in each of the four "divisions" there are two teams that are stronger and two that are not and this is reflected in the WL records to date. This will sort itself out over time of course, but you have to start somewhere. Baltimore is a bit of surprise as they have won eight in a row to claw their way to the top of the AL. At only twelve games played that lead is pretty tenuous so we'll see how long that lasts. Pittsburgh has been atop the NL most of the way so far, but Philadelphia has climbed into a tie for first place despite being on their third second baseman already.

The NL has still played more games than the AL, but the AL has surpassed the NL in runs scored already. Overall, total runs are down, total hits are down, the batting averages are actually pretty close, and ERA's are up by about a third of a run. And as you might expect, I am nowhere close to the number of errors that occurred. I have really pushed the sacrifice hits and stolen bases over these past few weeks and in some cases, I will need to temper this back a little. I am using relievers … there just aren’t a lot of relief appearances to go around though, but my complete games seem to be on track so it is just one more thing to keep an eye on.

Chicago (AL) Player-Manager Clark Griffith

The real news of the week was another no-hitter, but not just a no-hitter but indeed a perfect game (I am going to assume that term hadn’t been incorporated by baseball writers yet in 1901, but it fits). Twenty-year-old Christy Mathewson earned his place in history as he shut down Boston completely. I knew there was a possible no-hitter in progress, but with two outs in the ninth I realized the pitcher was at-bat and that a perfect game was a possibility as well. That is no-hitter #2 for me in this replay. I don’t know why this happens to me. I had three no-hitters in 1949, and a total six (six!) in 1930, including two perfect games. I am playing the computer game so I really can’t fudge dice rolls or anything like that, but I seem to get more than my fair share of no-hitters for some reason. I'm not complaining - it's just odd that it keeps happening.

As far as leaders go, well, it's still a small sample size, but it's enough to get the discussion started.  Nap Lajoie (CLE) leads the AL in hitting (.449) ahead of three others still hitting over .400. John Anderson (MLA) leads the AL in hits (29) and runs (17) and is tied for second in RBI's with Pop Dillon (DET) (16), trailing only Ducky Holmes (DET) with 19 RBI's. Anderson also leads the AL in doubles (9), John Farrell (WAS) and Fred Hartman (CHW) both have four triples and Jimmy Williams (BLA) is the only AL player with three homeruns so far. Ed Siever (DET), Joe Yeager (Det),  and Cy Young (BOS) all started the season with a 4-0 record, with Yeager and Young owning a league-leading ERA of 1.25.

Ginger Beaumont (PIT) is the only NL player hitting over .400, but there are plenty right behind him. Dan McGann (STL) leads in runs scored (17) and homeruns (3), while Honus Wagner (PIT) leads in RBI's with 17. Kip Selbach (NYG) leads with seven doubles while four players are tied with four triples. Beaumont is also tied with three others for the leads in hits (27) in a very close race. Doc White (PHI) is 5-0 to start the season and one of the key reasons for the Phillies' success so far.

Injuries are starting to pile up for some teams, more roster adjustments are being made, and teams continue to figure out their restructured rosters and adjust accordingly. That must mean it is time to start Week 5.