1905 Chicago Cubs replay update: 1905 Season Update as of 9/1/1905

by Scott Fennessy

Well the dog days of August have ended, and there is just over a month left in the season. The National League has seen the Giants enormous lead over the Cubs vanish, and the Pirates come and go from the chase, leaving Chicago as the only team in New York’s way. Several teams have had roller coaster rides, although for the Braves and Dodgers, unfortunately nothing changed, and they are already officially eliminated from World Series contention.

The MVP race once was Mike Donlin’s (pictured above) to lose, and has seen Frank Chance come from nowhere to become a real threat, and in perhaps one of the greatest turnarounds I have ever seen Pirates great Honus Wagner came into June just over .200, and absent from the leader boards. He has gone on a monster tear through July and August, and is now hitting .307 and has reclaimed his spot among the leaders in several categories.

Meanwhile in the pitching rich AL, the White Sox bid to go wire to wire for the second straight replay is suddenly in jeopardy as the Indians hitters finally discovered their strokes and combined with their superb pitching have closed the gap considerably.

The preseason favorite A’s have vastly underperformed, and are fading quickly. That said Jasper Davis and Ralph Seybold are starting to return to form and may yet have something to say about who goes to the series. To show how dominating the pitching is in this league Sam Crawford briefly flirted with .300 and quickly faded to .289 which currently leads the league. Napoleon Lajoie, another superstar that had a horrible first half is starting to come around and is now up to second place at .273. The Big surprise is A’s third baseman Lafayette Cross. Armed with only a 0-2 0-2 7-2 7-2 has come from nowhere and is now in sixth place for the batting title at .264. Below is my “power rankings style” summary.

National League

Giants – The most feared lineup in all of baseball continues to dominate. Christy Mathewson is 27-7 with 187 strikeouts, and Joe McGinnity (26-9) are a fearsome duo indeed. Mike Donlin (.377 3 HR 47 SB) gets all the headlines, but Dan McGann is 4th in the NL in home runs and George Browne is hitting .313.

Cubs – Make no mistake about it; Frank Chance (.340 AVG 5 HR 65 RBI 58 SB) is a threat to win MVP, but the rest of the lineup really needs to pull its weight if they want to win, because pitching and defense will only get you so far. Jake Weimer (28-3 1.48 ERA .68 WHIP) has 11 shutouts to date which is a tie for the record in a season. Ed Reulbach is 20-5 with a 2.75 ERA.

Pirates – Honus Wagner (.307 56 RBI 31 SB) has finally become the beast he was meant to become and combined with Ginger Beaumont’s second best .321 average have separated themselves from the lower half of the league. Fred Clarke has slumped in the second half, but is still hitting .294. Charles Phillippe is 27-10 with a 2.24 ERA.

Phillies – Hugh Duffy has battled injuries most of the season, but is still hitting .254 with 12 triples and 48 RBI. John Titus has been the mainstay of the offense with a .279 average, 24 doubles and 10 triples. Sherwood Magee has 24 steals and his 8 homers are good for second place. Tully Sparks has been the ace of the staff with an 18-17 record and a 1.83 ERA.
Cardinals – Homer Smoot (.269 AVG 34 SB) and Mike Grady (.254 AVG 8 HR 28 SB) have done what they can to keep things interesting. Pepper Clarke has underperformed but does have 6 home runs. Jake Thielman had a monster August, and is now 20-14 with a 2.62 ERA despite being on a bad team

Reds – Jim Seymour is hitting .309 with 6 homers, 31 steals and among the leaders in most categories. Despite underperforming Jimmy Sebring is hitting .264 with 34 steals. Fritz Odwell leads the majors with 16 homers and has 32 steals too. Bob Ewing is having a solid season with a 17-18 record and is second in the NL with 169 strikeouts. Orval Overall has a 2.74 ERA and is 7th in the NL with 119 whiffs.

Braves – Fred Tenney has been the rock of the lineup with 24 doubles, and despite a really bad slump in August is hitting .247. Jim Delahanty is hitting just .217, but finally found his power swing and has 6 for the year. Virgin Cannell has played his way into the lineup despite hitting just .235 has added some speed to the lineup that other than Abbaticchio (42 steals) is severely lacking. Irving Young could win the pitcher of the year. He is 18-19 with a 1.32 ERA. His 0.63 WHIP is on pace for a record.

Dodgers – Jimmy Sheckard is easily the team’s best player. Hitting .308 with 10 triples and 34 steals. Harry Gessler ishitting .276 and his 51 steals are third best in the NL. Harry Lumley ( .256 AVG 4 HR 19 SB)has had a super second half, and is finally giving Sheckard some protection in the lineup. Given the lack of hitting and horrible defense it would be easy to overlook Elmer Stricklett and Bill Scanlan, but both have done their part and have ERA’s in the low 3’s.

Batting Average
Mike Donlin Giants .377
Frank Chance Cubs .340
Clarence Beaumont Pirates .321

Home Runs
Fritz Odwell Reds 16
Sherwood Magee Phillies 8
Mike Grady Cardinals 8

RBI
Mike Donlin Giants 74
Dan McGann Giants 73
George Browne Giants 72

Steals
Frank Chance Cubs 58
Billy Maloney Cubs 54
Henry Gessler Dodgers 51

Victories
Jake Weimer Cubs 28
Christy Mathewson Giants 27
Charles Phillippe Pirates 27

ERA
Jake Weimer Cubs 1.48
Irving Young Braves 1.62
Tully Sparks Phillies 1.83

Strikeouts
Christy Mathewson Giants 184
Bob Ewing Reds 169
Bill Duggleby Phillies 137

American League

White Sox – Guy White leads the way at 22-11 with a 1.68 ERA. Frank Smith is 23-9 with a 1.87 ERA. Frank Owen is having a good season at 16-11 with a 2.39 ERA. James Callahan’s .267 average is third best in the league and his 42 steals are second. Frank Isbell is hitting .265 with 16 triples, and John Donahue is also hitting .265.

Indians – Harry Bay is hitting .260 with 41 steals. Napoleon Lajoie’s quest for his second batting title is back on as he is now hitting .273. Addie Joss (24-11 1.65 ERA 8 shutouts) and Earl Moore (24-6 1.66 ERA 7 shutouts) have paced the staff.

A’s –Danny Hoffman has been a surprise with a .254 average and 56 steals. Jasper Davis has come on strong of late, and is now hitting .258 with 6 homers and 35 steals. Ralph “Socks” Seybold also struggled but is now up to a .237 average with 6 home runs. Lafayette Cross is a dark horse candidate for a batting title with a .264 average. Rube Waddell (20-16) leads the AL in strikeouts with 198, and his .70 WHIP is on pace to set a new AL record. Andy Coakley (23-11) has 173 strikeouts a 1.56 ERA and 6 shutouts.

Tigers – This is a team that does it all on pitching. A trio of stud pitchers Ed Killian (19-17 1.48 ERA .80 WHIP) Bill Donovan (19-14 1.55 ERA .76 WHIP) and George Mullin (1.97 ERA .86 WHIP and hitting .258) basically do it all. Only Sam Crawford (.289 AVG 3 HR 22 SB) stands out. Matt McIntyre and Duff Cooley are the only other hitters over .200.

Red Sox – Jimmy Collins was hitting .301 prior to a series of injuries, and has dropped to .256. Only Myron Grimshaw and Kip Selbach are above .200 and not by much. Freddie Parent does have 35 steals. Cy Young (18-13 .201 ERA .74 WHIP) is having a solid year and Jesse Tannehill is 17-16 with a 2.21 ERA.

Yankees – Willie Keeler is hitting .256 with 33 steals, but is really the only hitter in the lineup to worry about, although Ed Hahn has started to hit of late. Jack Chesbro has a 2.79 ERA despite a horrible team behind him, and Al Orth has pitched well despite a lack of run support.

Senators – Frank Huelsman is hitting .248 since moving into the lineup, and is hitting .236 with 31 steals. John Anderson has had a big August to finally clear .200 with a .216 mark and his 32 steals. Casey Patten has managed 16 wins and Tom Hughes has a .294 ERA.

Browns – Although several hitters are coming around, only 3 are above .200 George Stone is as close to a leader offensively as you can get on a team this bad with a .226 AVG and his 9 homers are tops in the league. Harry Howell and John Powell are having almost identical seasons with ERA’s at 2.44 and 13 victories each. Howell is 4th in the AL with 152 strikeouts.

Batting Average
Sam Crawford Tigers .289
Napoleon Lajoie Indians .273
James Callahan White Sox .267

Home Runs
George Stone Browns 9
Jimmy Collins Red Sox 6
Jasper Davis A’s 6

RBI
Frank Isbell White Sox 70
Jasper Davis A’s 54
Ed McFarland White Sox 53

Steals
Danny Hoffman A’s 56
James Callahan White Sox 42
Harry Bay Indians 41

Victories

Addie Joss Indians 24
Earl Moore Indians 24
Frank Smith White Sox 23

ERA

Ed Killian Tigers 1.48
Bill Donovan Tigers 1.55
Andy Coakley A’s 1.56

Strikeouts

Rube Waddell A’s 198
Andy Coakley A’s 173
Harry Howell Browns 152

[editor’s note: thanks to Scott for this great update!  Truth be told, Scott is way ahead in this replay… he’s actually finished.  He writes updates faster than I can publish them.  Thanks Scott!!  -Tom]

[photo credit]