Week 5 Summary (05/12/1941 - 05/18/1941)

1941 Philadelphia Phillies
Week Five of the 1941 BBW replay is in the books and the Yankees might be starting to run away with the AL, but in the NL Brooklyn can't quite shake St. Louis and it looks like these two teams will fight it out until the end. A few teams have reached the 30-game-played mark, but all should be there by the end of this coming week. Teams are still adjusting their rosters and there were quite a few trades this past week as teams try to cover perceived weaknesses

In every replay, there is that one pitcher that despite having a good grade, and no matter what he does, he just gets lit up. In this replay, it is Bobo Newsom for Detroit. The thing is that Newsom is supposed to be an innings eater, but if I can't get him past the fifth that means all the Detroit relievers will need to be overused. My pitching coaches are working with Newsom and I have already told him that he is going to have to start staying in games, regardless of the score, so we will see how that goes.

 

Philadelphia (NL Manager
Doc Prothro
Unfortunately, as Newsom goes so go the Tigers. Detroit captured the AL pennant in 1940, but they are currently sitting on a fourteen-game losing streak and while there is hope in sight, there doesn't seem to be much they can do right now. Barney McCosky (.359) is their best hitter, but he is on his second stint on the injured list. Hank Greenberg left to join the Army already, and veterans Rudy York (.168) and Charlie Gehringer (.157) are both struggling. Hal Newhouser shows a lot of promise, but he won’t blossom for several years yet. Dizzy Trout and Al Benton are in the bullpen and their best years are still ahead of them as well. Reinforcements are on the way as Pat Mullin just joined the roster and DickWakefield and Hoot Evers will arrive before the year's end. Also, yet to be seen are hurlers Virgil Trucks and Fred Hutchinson, so not all hope is lost.

 

The Yankees have 94 extra-base hits in the 32 games they have played as they continue to pound their opponents. That, along with their strong pitching, will be hard to overcome for their AL opponents. Chicago (AL) is 4.5 games behind and Cleveland is 6.5 behind, but they are both falling farther and farther behind. I do expect the Yankees to have a few bad weeks here and there before the season is up, so the question is whether either of these two teams will be able to take advantage of it when it does happen.

 

Again this past week St. Louis (NL) crept past Brooklyn for the top spot in the NL for a day, but again Brooklyn responded by recapturing the pole position. Cincinnati slipped back a little and is at .500, tied with Pittsburgh, although the Pirates spent most of their week trading the fourth and fifth spots back-and-forth with suddenly surprising Chicago (NL).

 

The final day of the week marked Game #4 Joe DiMaggio's 1941 56-game hitting streak. DiMaggio (.397) is currently on a roll and has an active sixteen-game hitting streak. Ted Williams is hitting .552 but is still lacking a sufficient number of plate appearances before he can start showing up on the leader boards.


Shibe Park 1950 Digital Art by Gary Grigsby | Pixels

 


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