Week 17 Summary (08/02/1920 - 08/08/1920)

Dave Bancroft

Week Seventeen of the 1920 BBW Replay is in the books, and the season marches on. Washington is the only team in the AL that has not reached the 100-games-played mark, but they will get there tomorrow. In the NL, there are four teams with less than 100 games completed. Two will get there tomorrow, one on Wednesday, and the Boston Braves, still stuck on 93-games-played, will have five doubleheaders this upcoming week, so the Braves will be there soon as well.

On July 16, 1920, second-place Cincinnati commenced a difficult span of games that started when they hosted third-place Brooklyn for a five-game series, of which Brooklyn won 3-of-5. Second-place Cincinnati then hosted the first-place New York Giants for five games, and New York won 3-of-5. Cincinnati then headed east to face third-place Brooklyn for four games and the two teams split with two wins apiece. Cincinnati then followed this with four games versus New York in the Polo Grounds, the two teams splitting their four games as well.

 

Waite Hoyt

During this eighteen-game stretch, Cincinnati went 8-10, meaning they really didn’t make up any ground on first-place New York and the Giants carried a 4.0 games lead heading into Week Eighteen. It also meant they didn’t lose any ground to third-place Brooklyn, and in fact, Brooklyn was now in fourth place, 3.0 games behind Cincinnati but 0.5 games behind third-place St. Louis.

St. Louis has been on a roll for the past month. The threesome of first baseman Jack Fournier (.370), third baseman MiltStock (.385), and second baseman Rogers Hornsby (.392) have all sat atop the leaderboard for batting average for over a month and, as a team, the Cardinals were hitting a league-leading .303. Most importantly, St. Louis had settled their pitching rotation problems and while they are currently seventh in the NL in team ERA, most of that is left over from early-season pitching woes.

 

Pittsburgh is right behind St. Louis, making it a three-team battle (along with Brooklyn) for third place. Pittsburgh leads the NL in team ERA as some of their early season pitching rotation adjustments have really paid off. They hit OK as a team, but really lack that one thumper in the middle of their lineup, much in the way Hornsby does for St. Louis. Regardless, the Pirates are playing the role of a pest and they were not afraid to bedevil the teams ahead of them who might otherwise wish to gain an advantage against their peers.

 

Billy Southworth

In the AL, Chicago had moved into first place for a few days early last week, but they couldn’t maintain their lofty position and New York was able to regain their perch atop the AL. Both teams are looking over their shoulders at third-place Cleveland though. The Indians have won nine of their last ten and are now only 2.0 games behind the third-place White Sox as Cleveland makes a late-season charge. These three teams promise an exciting pennant run as the season winds down, as do the teams in NL.

Eight weeks to go, so the season is in the initial stages of starting to wind down. There are still plenty of games to play and plenty of stories to tell, so who will get hot and rise to the top, and who will get cold and fade silently away? On this date in 1920, Babe Ruth had 41 homeruns, the same as he has for me in the replay - how far will the Babe go before the season ends? Let's go play and find out.

Ross Youngs