1903 AL replay enters homestretch

by Scott Fennessy

As the dog days of August have come to a close the teams in the junior circuit scramble for position in their attempt to finish second. While Boston has yet to clinch anything it’s pretty obvious that they are going to the post season.

Boston Red Sox 76-36

While player-manager Jimmy Collins has had a down year by his standards he has done well in building a huge lead despite the 6-7-8 spots hitting 50 points or more below their actual averages.

Pat Dougherty (.295 38 SB 109 Runs scored) is 2nd in hitting, 1st in hits and challenging teammate John Freeman for the league MVP. Freeman (.278 14 HR 84 RBI) is 1st in slugging pct. and 2nd in OPS. He and Dougherty are first and second in runs scored as well as triples.

Freddy Parent is 8th doubles and 9th in triples. Garland Stahl is in the top 10 in triples while in a reserve role.

Freeman has had a tremendous month and has now taken the lead in home runs from teammate Hobe Ferris. Ferris is struggling offensively as when he is not hitting homers, he is not hitting much else and is limping along at a .212 clip. If he ever starts to hit like he should this could be a very scary lineup.

Cy Young and Bill Dinneen are having almost identical seasons and are first and second in victories and are battling for POY honors. Young (27-10 1.97 ERA .72 WHIP) leads the league in ERA and WHIP.

Dinneen 3-hit the Senators in DC early in the month, and two starts later 1-hits the Indians in Cleveland. Young threw a three hitter against the A’s in Philadelphia and last week took a no hitter into the ninth against the White Sox in Chicago, but with two outs ran out of gas and finished with a three-hitter.

Cleveland Indians (66-47)

Napoleon Lajoie’s squad continues to play well, but just cannot come up with the winning combinations against Boston.

Harry Bay (.291 48 SB) is once again coming on strong in the second half and is 4th in the AL in average. Should he win would be the first two time batting champion. Elmer Flick (.276) and Lajoie (.278) are also in the top ten. Flick is flashing solid power despite only having one home run. He is sixth in the league in doubles and third in triples. Charlie Hickman is third in the AL in HR with 10 and despite a slump in mid-August is hitting .270.

Third baseman Bill Bradley had an awful first half, and has finally started to show signs of life. He is still well off of his actual season numbers, but if he continues to hit like he did in august the tribe may have a chance. However, the 7 and 8 spots in the lineup are basically giving their opponents three easy innings a game and this has to change quickly.

Earl Moore (28-14 2.04 ERA .88 WHIP) continues to shine. Earl threw a two hitter against the White Sox and followed that up with a three hitter against the Yankees in their recent home stand. Along with team mate Addie Joss (20-17 2.82 ERA) are among the leaders in most of the categories for pitching, and Moore is arguably the only pitcher outside of Boston that can match up with Cy Young.

Detroit Tigers (58-51)

The Tigers took a long time to come alive, but while the hitting has underperformed, they have improved. Billy Lush and Lewis McAllister are among the leaders in batting average, and while injuries have suddenly weakened their chances they continue to be supported by one of the better rotations in the league.

Bill Donovan (21-16 2.39 ERA .95 WHIP) and George Mullin (20-16 2.34 ERA .94 WHIP) are the backbone of the team. Mullin is also having another good year with the bat, hitting .235 with a homer and two steals.

Frank Kitson three hit the Browns in St. Louis on the second of the month. And in one of the more exciting finishes of the season the Tigers were losing to the Red Sox 1-0 with two out in the bottom of the ninth and rallied for a 2-1 victory.

New York Yankees (55-50)

The Yankees have had a solid season so far, but after realizing I had a J-4 starter in the rotation things went slightly downhill. Fortunately they still have a C to move in, and I don’t expect much more of a drop, but the offense other than Willie Keeler and Norman Elberfeld has been very lackluster. Keeler and Elberfeld are both hitting .286 and Norman is in the top 10 in doubles. Dave Fultz has struggled, but once on base has been great, as evidenced by being second in the AL in steals with 44.

John Chesbro (19-16 2.70 ERA .94 WHIP) is the ace of the staff. Calvin Griffith 3 hits the Senators on the 7th in DC.

Philadelphia A’s (54-58)

While this team has clearly underperformed, there have been some bright spots. Jasper Davis (.291 8 HR 76 RBI 35 SB) Ralph Seybold (.273 6 HR 62 RBI) have provided most of the offense. Albert Daly despite only playing 38 games is seriously over performing his awful card and actually has 12 triples in just 125 at bats, good enough for the top 10.

Oliver Pickering who has lost his starting job did have a great moment recently when he got a rare start hit for the cycle against the Red Sox. Seybold went 4-5 with a three run homer against the Browns a couple days later, and in the series finale Davis and Daly both racked up 4 hits while Waddell struck out 10 hitters, and the final four hitters in succession as a reminder how good this team should be.

Eddie Plank and Rube Waddell have been truly solid this year, but not much help from the rest of the staff has hurt them late in games. Both pitchers are almost identical in their results with 21 wins, and ERA’s just over 3, but Waddell has been mowing the lawn lately with an already new AL record of 274 strikeouts and averaging 7.73 K’s per game.

In what was Plank’s best all-around game of the year he allowed just 5 hits in a 12 inning complete game in Detroit, and to top it off hit the game winning homer.

Chicago White Sox (51-61)

The pale hose have really struggled, this season. Ed Green is hitting .309 and is among the leaders in most power categories. Fielder Jones is hitting .274. Guy White has 19 victories with a 2.38 ERA and an extremely impressive .79 WHIP.

St. Louis Browns (47-64)

While the summer in St. Louis has not been a lot of fun, the Browns have had a little to be excited for down this final stretch. Second baseman Bennie Bowcock was inserted into the lineup after they were unofficially eliminated and is hitting .306 with 4 home runs. First baseman/Outfielder “Honest John” Anderson has 43 steals. While the top half of the lineup has shown improvement, the bottom 4 are really awful.

If the offense had any kind of output this team would actually be middle of the pack. So while the staff as a whole is hurting John Sudhoff is having a good year. He has 16 wins and an ERA of 2.65.

Washington Senators (37-75)

Easily the worst team in baseball. James Ryan is the “Star” of this really inept team, hitting .238 with 7 HR and 7 steals. Wyatt Lee has a 3.43 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP with 162 strikeouts, but has only 12 wins to show for it.