Week Twenty-Five of the 1920 BBW Replay is in the books, and the regular season is now complete. Chicago (AL) started the week with a Magic Number of one and they wasted no time as they defeated Detroit on Monday to clinch the AL pennant. After the game, the indictments against the seven active players were announced and newspapers with the information were circulated throughout the clubhouse. The players were permanently suspended the following day. The White Sox had several days off following this and no doubt spent this time coming up with a lineup, not only for the World Series but for the rest of the season as well.
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| Ty Cobb |
It must have been a real punch in the gut, not just for the guilty parties, but for the whole team. One minute you've clinched the pennant for the second consecutive year, the next some members of the team find out that they will never play again, while the rest of the team knows the team has had their guts ripped out. What a week.
In the NL, all three teams - Cincinnati, New
York, and Brooklyn - were running on fumes as they stumbled down the stretch. New
York had a chance to catch and even pass Cincinnati for first place, but
instead, they got swept in a doubleheader by lowly Boston, and the Giants never
recovered. Brooklyn was never able to get hot either, but Cincinnati had to
wait out two midweek rainouts in Pittsburgh to push things back. Finally, the
two teams and the league President decided that Cincinnati and Pittsburgh would
play three games on Saturday - a tripleheader! No one wanted the season to
extend past Sunday, and Cincinnati started Saturday with a Magic Number of
four, so anything was possible.
Cincinnati decided their own fate by winning
all three games, including games where they had judiciously placed pitchers in
the field in order to not overuse their regular starters. New York lost on
Saturday as well, so in the span of this one day, Cincinnati took their Magic
Number from four to zero to claim the pennant.
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| Walter Johnson |
The World Series teams will be repeats of last season's World Series, with games starting Tuesday in Cincinnati. Most sportswriters are downplaying the White Sox's chances, as well they should. The team is a husk of its former self, but the commissioner (i.e., me) announced before the season started, if this particular outcome came to fruition, then that this is the way it would be played out.
The Reds should be happy, but they were frustrated as well. They felt they were a good enough team to have defeated Chicago without any shenanigans, so now that they get another chance, their opponents will have been severely hobbled. If they win, they beat a bad team. If they lose, they lose to an inferior team. Cincinnati is ready to go out and get their second consecutive World Series championship, even knowing that both wins will have a certain taint attached to them throughout the remainder of history.
As has been done in the past, separate posts will be provided that will include a final leaders report and a post that includes a year-end review for each team. While these are forthcoming, highlights include:
Babe Ruth finished the season with 61 homeruns (Actual: 54). He spent most of the season very close to his day-by-day numbers from 1920, but then he had two different weeks later in the season where he hit five homeruns in each of those weeks.
A pair of St. Louisans led their respective
leagues in batting average as both ended up hitting over .400. Rogers
Hornsby led the NL at .413 (Actual: .370), while George
Sisler hit .433 (Actual: .407) to lead the AL. Sisler spent much of the
season with his average up in the .470-.480 range but cooled off during the
last month of the season. Hornsby did it the other way - he spent most of the
season hitting in the .370-.380 range but then went on a tear over the last
month to bump his average not only over .400 but well over .400.
There we six no-hitters over the course of
the season:
May 5, 1920 - Babe Adams
(PIT) over CHC - Perfect Game
May 20, 1920 - Dolf Luque
(CIN) over PHP
May 30, 1920 - Babe Adams (PIT) over CIN
June 30, 1920 - Rollie
Naylor (PHA) over NYY
August 1, 1920 - Dolf Luque
(CIN) over NYG
August 21, 1920 - Eddie
Cicotte (CHW) over WAS
There was a game where both pitchers (Jack Quinn,
NYY, and Red
Faber, CHW) took no-hitters into the tenth inning. Quinn gave up a hit in
the tenth, and Faber gave up a hit and lost the game in the eleventh.
Jack
Fournier hit for the Cycle on June 11, 1920, way back in Week Nine, the
only Cycle of the season.
As stated previously, there will be a few
more close-out posts to follow. Thanks to all for following, commenting, and
your suggestions.
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