Week 6 Summary (05/19/1941 - 05/25/1941)

Week Six of the 1941 BBW replay is in the books and the strong get stronger and the weak teams fall farther and farther behind. All teams have now reached the 30 games played mark, and Cleveland has reached the 40 games played mark. There are a lot of doubleheaders on the schedule this upcoming week, plus Memorial Day (05/30/1941) us Friday, so all teams will be playing two then for sure. I would suspect that most of the AL will be at the 40 games played mark by the end of Week Seven and that most (but not all) of the NL will be there as well.

1941 St. Louis Browns
In the AL, New York continues to be red hot. They are currently on a nine-game winning streak and have a 6.5 games lead over second place Chicago. The Yankees are first in runs scored (235) by a wide margin (Cleveland is second with 197) and are in second place in ERA (3.21), trailing only Chicago (2.70). The combination of offense and pitching is dominating the AL as their 31-7 record might indicate. Chicago, despite the league-best ERA, has only scored a seventh-best 142 runs, only three more than last place Detroit (139). Cleveland actually has the same number of wins as Chicago (23) but has five more losses. The Indians do play well, at least as well as their pitching will let them. They are fifth in ERA (4.33), so far too often it is a race to see if their offense can overcome their own pitching.

A surprising Washington team is sitting right at .500 (19-19), meaning they are tied with the offensive juggernaut from Boston (16-16). Washington has gotten several good pitching performances already (fourth in league ERA at 4.18) and they and St. Louis are tied for fourth in runs scored (180). I doubt the Nationals can continue to perform at this level, but I also think the Red Sox are just getting warmed up. Boston leads the AL in hitting (.308), is third in runs scored (193), and Ted Williams has finally accumulated enough plate appearances to make an appearance on the leaderboard. Their Achilles heel is, as always, their pitching as their 4.66 ERA is sixth in the AL. St. Louis and Philadelphia have been able to avoid the bottom of the AL standings only because of Detroit’s horrid performance to date. With their nineteen-game losing streak now behind them, perhaps the Tigers can play a little more respectably going forward.

 

St. Louis (AL) Manager
Fred Haney
In the NL, St. Louis and Brooklyn are both trying to run away with it. All of the other NL teams have a record below .500, and third-place Pittsburgh is 8.0 games out of first place already. The Dodgers got off to a tremendously hot start, but the Cardinals have managed to stay close, and in each of the past three weeks, St. Louis has temporarily spent a day in first place because of a better winning percentage, all the while still trailing by 0.5 games at the same time. At the end of Week Six St. Louis took sole possession of first place, but how long will they hold it? St. Louis leads in hitting (.298) and Brooklyn is third (.279), but the Dodgers lead in runs scored (207) while the Cardinals are second (177). Brooklyn (2.75) and St. Louis (2.77) have almost identical ERA’s … this is going to go on all season I believe.

Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, despite both being below .500, are safely ensconced in third and fourth place and may have to resign themselves to fending off attacks from below as opposed to trying to catch the teams at the top. Chicago and Boston had gotten off to good starts but have fallen on tough times recently. New York might be awakening from its early season slumber, and Philadelphia, while not a good team, can be a dangerous team when you least expect it.

 

With enough plate appearances to qualify Ted Williams (.525) is now able to take his place at the head of the batting title race, well ahead of Bill Dickey (.389) and Joe DiMaggio (.387). Charlie Keller leads in runs scored (42), just ahead of DiMaggio (41) (Williams is fourth with 35), and Keller also leads in RBI’s (44), but Williams (35) is second. Keller (13) and DiMaggio (9) lead in the homerun race, but right behind them are Williams and Jimmie Foxx, both with 8. Dario Lodigiani leads in doubles (13), just ahead of Keller and Cecil Travis, both with 12, and Chet Laabs, Gee Walker, and DiMaggio are tied with 5 triples each. The pitching leader boards are littered with Chicago and New York pitchers, but Bob Feller (9-1, 2.54) is doing his solitary best to carry the Indians to respectability.

 

As you might expect the NL Leader boards are replete with St. Louis and Brooklyn players. Johnny Mize (.390) leads in hitting. Joe Medwick (34), Dolph Camilli (31), and Cookie Lavagetto (27), all from Brooklyn, are 1-2-3 in runs scored, and Camilli (47), Medwick (36), and Mize (35) lead in RBI’s. Jimmy Brown (52) and Terry Moore (51) bat one-and-two for St. Louis and lead in hits, just ahead of Frank McCormick (49), Medwick (49), and Mize (48). The top six in doubles are either from St. Louis or Brooklyn – Camilli (12), Billy Herman (11), Mize (11), Lavagetto (11), Medwick (10), and Moore (10). Pete Reiser and Enos Slaughter both lead with 5 triples, and Camilli (9) and Mize (7) lead in homeruns. Brooklyn’s Whit Wyatt (9-0, 1.05, five shutouts) has set the pace for NL pitchers so far.

 

After six weeks it looks like the standings have pretty much fallen into place already. St. Louis and Brooklyn brawled down to the end in 1941 and it looks like they are going to do it for me as well. The Yankees got off to a slow start in 1941, then got hot, and then they ran away with it from there on. I expect the Yankees will cool down a bit, but I just don’t know if anyone will really be able to mount a challenge.

 

https://pixels.com/featured/sportsman-park-1946-gary-grigsby.html

 


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