Week 12 Summary (06/30/1941 - 07/06/1941)

Week Twelve of the 1941 BBW replay is in the books and the season has reached the halfway point of the season, at last schedule-wise. Only Cleveland has reached the 77 games played mark, the halfway point for games played, but the remaining teams are not far behind, and making up for these otherwise missing games will be resolved easily in the second half of the season. Pittsburgh has only 68 games played, the only team in either league that hasn't reached the 70 games played mark. 

New York has dominated the AL throughout the first half of the season and continued to do so this past week. They got swept in a three-game series at home versus Washington last week, but then they got right back on their horse and have won seven of the next ten and maintained a 9.0 games lead over second-place Chicago. The Yankees are second in the AL in hitting behind Boston but lead in homeruns and runs scored, and they are second in ERA behind the White Sox, while neither Boston nor Chicago can match New York in both categories.

Chicago has steadily remained in second place for the first twelve weeks, avoiding occasional incursions from Cleveland. They do lead the AL in pitching, but they have only outscored a very weak Detroit offense. Third place Cleveland had an interesting week - they actually fell behind Boston into fourth place for a day, but then they immediately rebounded recaptured third place, and then moved into a tie with Chicago for a day, only to end the week 0.5 games behind the White Sox, a microcosm of their season so far as they get hot, cool off, and then repeat and do more of the same.

 

Cleveland Manager
Roger Peckinpaugh
Chicago and Cleveland have been very resilient in holding Boston in its perch in fourth place. They do go on hot streaks, which means their offense simply pounds the opposition, but when their offense cools off their pitching can't do it on their own. Regardless, Ted Williams is hitting .488 and leads in multiple offensive categories and he is ably abetted by Joe Cronin and Jimmie Foxx, so if Cleveland and/or Chicago should ever blink the Red Sox will be right there to catch and move past them.

Washington and St. Louis have both had an interesting first half of the season. Washington is currently one game below .500 and St. Louis is two games below .500 and both teams, perennial cellar dwellers, have both briefly touched .500. At one point the Nationals temporarily climbed past Boston into fourth place for a day or two, but then fell back into fifth place as both Boston and St. Louis were able to come back pass them. The Browns got off to a poor start but then got their lineup and pitching rotation settled down and played much better since even putting together an eight-game winning streak a few weeks ago. Neither team is going to challenge for the pennant, but both teams are setting themselves up as a nuisance to those who are in the race.

 

Philadelphia is simply just not a good team, holding on to seventh place only because Detroit has had a truly horrid start to their season. The A's are sixth in hitting and pitching while Detroit is eighth in both, and both teams are tied for last in fielding, providing themselves another way to lose a game when they really don’t want it. Of the two teams, the failure of the Tigers is the bigger story. Detroit was in the 1940 World Series, but they didn’t win their tenth game of the season until June 10. They went on a small winning streak at that point but then went on an eight-game losing streak. They ended this past week by sweeping a doubleheader versus St. Louis only to turn around and then get swept by the Browns.

 

In the NL, St. Louis is currently at the top of the standings. They got off to a good start, keeping close to Brooklyn who got off to a great start. When the Dodgers cooled off the Cardinals went on their hot streak and swept into first place and steadily built their lead from there. St. Louis is second in hitting behind Brooklyn, leads in pitching, the category with which the Dodgers are struggling, and the Cardinals' defense is second in the league. St. Louis had struggled through injuries just like any other team, but Johnny Mize and Jimmy Brown have now returned to the lineup and Walker Cooper is due to return shortly, so I expect them to remain tough throughout the second half of the season.

 

The Dodgers' offense had it going in high gear for the first month of the season, and while it is hard to maintain that level of productivity for the whole season, it is really their pitching that has leveled off (or perhaps that roaring offense masked a bigger problem). Cincinnati is fourth in hitting and runs scored, but their offense is inconsistent, and the Reds' future fortunes will only go as far as their starting pitching will take them. Cincinnati features four solid starting pitchers in their rotation and are in every game they play, win or lose.

 

New York got off to a bad start and was in last place for the first few weeks of the season, but they are another team that has finally got their lineup and pitching rotation settled down. They are currently in fourth place, 1.5 games behind Cincinnati, but three games over .500. Pittsburgh spent the much of first half of the season battling with Cincinnati for third place, but for the past few weeks they have been battling with New York for fourth place. New York has been on a hot streak, and those usually balance out, while Pittsburgh has been suffering with several key players performing below par, and those usually balance out too, so I expect these two teams to continue to fight it out for fourth place.

 

Chicago is fourth in pitching in the NL, but last in batting and runs scored. The Cubs had made a run for Pittsburgh in fourth place earlier in the season, but their lack of offense means that they must be perfect in every other area, so not only has Pittsburgh successfully stayed ahead of them but now New York has passed them. The Cubs have continued to juggle their lineup in hopes of finding a productive lineup, but no luck so far. This Philadelphia team is every bit as bad as the other Philadelphia team, with the Phillies tied for last in hitting and bringing up the rear in pitching. They do maintain a slight lead in the standings over Boston though. As soon as New York got hot earlier in the season and moved out of last place the Braves took their spot in the cellar and have stayed there until one day this past week when they managed to slip past Philadelphia into seventh place for one day. It didn’t last long, but they are another team that has been constantly juggling their lineup and rotation, looking for that little bit of baseball magic.

 

The first half of the season featured two players who hit a cycle (Wally Moses and Barney McCosky) and Cincinnati's Elmer Riddle threw a perfect game. Joe DiMaggio had a nineteen-game hitting streak early in the season, but I am pretty sure he won't get to 56 in this replay. He just had a 70-game on-base streak snapped and is hitting .388 in the first half of the season. As for DiMaggio's real hitting streak, it is sitting at 48 games through Sunday's doubleheader.

 

This mid-season standings report is getting long, so a more detailed mid-season league leaders report will be included in next week's blog post.

 League Park 1941 Digital Art by Gary Grigsby | Pixels



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