Week 24 Summary (09/20/1920 - 09/26/1920)

Week Twenty-Four of the 1920 BBW Replay is in the books, and with the conclusion of the regular season only one week away, these final few weeks have been among the most interesting of all the replays I have completed. Five teams have reached or surpassed the 150-games-played mark, and as you might expect, the remainder are very close behind. Teams in both leagues completed the final cross-country road trip in the middle of the week and are now wrapping up the season series against teams from their own neck of the week. There are several doubleheaders in the schedule remaining to be played, but the schedule is not packed with teams having off days as they bounce from city to city, 

Eppa Rixey

In the AL, Chicago has a 3.5 games lead over New York and has a Magic Number of one, so a win by Chicago or a loss by New York will clinch the AL pennant for the South-siders. Cleveland, much to their disappointment, was eliminated on Sunday. Chicago has steadfastly played good ball all season. They were stuck in second place for most of the season behind a surprising New York team, and when New York faltered over the final weeks of the season Chicago was ready and able to take advantage. In his first season in New York, Babe Ruth has hit 60 homeruns so far with three games remaining and otherwise propelled a good Yankees squad to the top levels of the AL. Cleveland actually won the AL in 1920, but the backend of the rotation problems and the occasional offensive blackout prevented them from duplicating that result.

 

Tris Speaker

In the NL, we have a real-life down-to-the-last-day (I hope) pennant race. Cincinnati ended the week with a 0.5 game lead over New York, with Brooklyn still hanging in there at 2.5 games out. In Week 23 all three teams ended the day tied for first on two different occasions, but then Cincinnati put on a charge and opened a small lead, only to see that lead slip away at the end of this past week. Cincinnati's Magic Number is seven, so this past week will be quite exciting in the NL.

And, of course, the elephant in the room is the recently convened grand jury in Chicago. A States Attorney has been digging into the 1919 World Series gambling rumors for several weeks now, the newspapers have been printing updates, but nothing official has happened, so everyone in baseball (not just the White Sox) is waiting for the next shoe to drop. What will the Grand Jury say? And when will they say it? Before the seasons end, or maybe after the World Series? Or maybe they won’t have anything to say at all? Through this the White Sox have remained resilient … all you can do is play the games on the schedule (Chicago hosts Detroit tomorrow) and keep moving.

 

Besides the pennant races and a major gambling scandal, this upcoming week will also feature a day (Thursday, September 30, 1920) with no games at all, and then a real-life triple-header (that is not a misspell!), so let's go play!