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Week 9 Summary


Both leagues have seen teams in the middle of the pack rise and fall all season so far, but the two teams at the top have been relatively secure in their position. At least, until this week. Pittsburgh is missing lead-off hitter and center fielder Ginger Beaumont and has hit a bit of a slide recently while Brooklyn has gone on a hot streak and the Superbas ended the week in first place in the NL. Meanwhile, in the AL, Boston has been playing quite a bit ahead of its expectations but this week Chicago finally started playing to its potential and have cut the Americans lead down to 4.0 games at weeks end. While the usual churn continues below the top, it looks like we might get a real pennant race after all in both leagues.

1901 Detroit Tigers
Nap Lajoie continue to be Mr. Offense in the AL, batting .461, and leading in hits (82), runs scored (52), RBI's (52), homeruns (8), and is second in doubles (18). John Anderson is second in hitting (.433) and has 23 doubles, but has already had a 23-game hitting streak and is currently working on a 16-game streak. Anderson is in the top three of just about every offensive category, but well behind Lajoie. What Lajoie does for the offense, Cy Young (11-0, 1.08) is keeping Boston in first place almost single-handedly.

George Stallings, Detroit Manager
The aforementioned Beaumont still leads the NL in hitting (.383) but has missed most of this previous week due to injury. Beyond that, it is Ed Delahanty who is swinging the big stick by leading the NL in runs (38) and RBI's (33). Jesse Burkett leads in hits (76) and doubles (14), Jimmy Sheckard leads in triples (9), and there are five players tied for the lead in homeruns with four. Frank Kitson picked up three wins during this past week and now has a 9-3 record, plus his three shutouts tie him with Christy Mathewson for the NL lead.

As I look ahead I begin to see doubleheaders on the schedule, which was going to have to happen and most teams are still behind the curve for the percentage of games played versus the number of weeks in the season. Every team should be over 40 games played by the end of this coming week,  but there are still plenty of games to be made up yet.

Bennett Field, Detroit MI



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