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Week 12 Summary


Week 12 is in the books and the races at the top are still running hot. In the AL first place Boston took some of the wind out of third place Baltimore's sails by beating them five times in a row, but at the end of the week, they find themselves only one-half game ahead of Chicago. I have been predicting a Detroit resurgence for the past ten weeks or so and we might actually be seeing it now as they have won seven of their last ten. Washington continues to hang tough but is likely benefitting from Philadelphia's struggles. The A's were 1818 after week eight, but are 7-16 since as their pitching has cratered and they can't win at home (8-20 home WL record). Cleveland and Milwaukee spent much of this last week trading licks with the Blues finally able to climb out of the cellar and up to seventh place.

1901 Philadelphia Phillies
It's still a three-team race in the NL as Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia have all won six of the last ten games. Like all of the team's injuries are beginning to pile up for the three as well, but so far they have been able to weather it. Boston's strong pitching finally kicked in and they have pulled themselves up to fourth place, but their lack of offensive punch is still going to be a problem. Chicago has the opposite problem - they have offensive punch, but their pitching is a little thin. New York has tied Chicago in the standings, but that is more of a result of the Orphans going backward, not of the Giants moving upwards. St. Louis is now last in the league in pitching but so far has avoided the cellar only because Cincinnati seems to struggle in all areas of play.

This was a bad week for the .400 hitters in both leagues. Nap Lajoie is hitting .439 still, a 20 point drop from last week, ahead of Sam Dungan (.404) and John Anderson (.401). Lajoie still leads in almost everything else: Runs (62), RBI's (70), homeruns (10), is tied with Anderson for hits (108) and second in doubles (21) behind Anderson (32). Sam Mertes lead in triples (12) with a line of players right behind him. Cy Young (16-1, 1.49) remains the key to Boston's hopes of an AL pennant.

In the NL, Jesse Burkett (.394) leads in hitting, just ahead of Ed Delahanty (.388), Kip Selbach (.386), and Ginger Beaumont (.382). Delahanty leads in runs (58), doubles (19), is second in RBI's (50) behind teammate Elmer Flick (53), and is second in hits (102) behind Burkett (112). Brooklyn teammates Tom McCreery (15) and Jimmy Sheckard (12) lead in triples and homerun race is knotted up with three players with six and four players with five. Jack Powell (12-5) and Doc White (12-6) lead the NL in wins, but there are six pitchers right behind them with eleven.

Bill Shettsline, Manager
Philadelphia Phillies
The completion of Week 12 is generally the midpoint of the replay, at least as far as the calendar goes. Games played wise, with 70 being the halfway point of a 150 game season, there are six teams that still haven’t played 60 games get, with Chicago (NL) being the closest to seventy with 67 games played. Baltimore is currently sitting on 54 games played, the fewest of any of the teams. Taking a look ahead at the upcoming schedule I don’t see too many doubleheaders remaining in the month of July, but in August the rush starts and carries into September as every team starts their push to get their games in.

Injuries continue to be a thing as almost all teams have to utilize pitchers in the field occasionally.  There is a lot of roster manipulation going on as teams look to improve their roster - or maybe just to get rid of problem players - but as a reminder, the AL self-promoted itself to a major league in direct competition to the NL starting this year and raided the NL rosters pretty well before the season started, but there are still plenty of holes to be filled in on all teams.

Another mid-season tradition is naming an All-Star team, but that doesn’t really start for another 32 years so I am going to forego it. However, technically there isn’t a World Series for another two years, but yes, if I am going to play this season all the way out to the end then there will be a World Series.


Baker Bowl, Philadelphia PA




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