Week 8 Summary (06/02/1941 - 06/08/1941)

Week Eight of the 1941 BBW replay is in the books and the replay has reached the one-third point in the schedule. The replay is not at the one-third point for games played though as both leagues, and especially the NL, is trailing slightly behind. This will be rectified over the course of the season obviously, but it is where we stand now. In the AL, Cleveland has played 54 games already to lead both leagues, with Boston bringing up the rear with 46 games played. In the NL, St. Louis has played 50 games, the only NL team to reach that mark, while Pittsburgh just crossed the 40 games mark two days ago and currently sits at 42 games played.

 


New York is continuing to make a shambles of the AL pennant race as they currently have an 8.0 games lead over second-place Chicago. The Yankees did end the week by losing both ends of a doubleheader in St. Louis, or their lead would have been even larger … maybe it's an omen of things to come? Cleveland and Chicago continue to toggle back and forth between second and third place, but both teams know that Boston is right on their heels, but at the same time, the Red Sox know the surprising team from Washington is right on their heels. St. Louis and Philadelphia don’t have much to look forward to either, and Detroit finally picked up their ninth win of the season on Sunday. They really aren’t that bad of a team (they were in the World Series just last year) - they should start getting a few bounces to go their way here shortly.

 

Washington Manager
Bucky Harris
St. Louis has been on a hot streak recently, including taking two games from Brooklyn this past week on their way to taking a 4.0 games lead in the NL. However, like the Yankees, the Cardinals were swept in a doubleheader on Sunday, those games played at the Polo Grounds in New York. Brooklyn had gotten off to a tremendous start, but they have been struggling recently as their pitching and hitting aren't always coordinated. Pittsburgh and Cincinnati continue to fight it out for third place, and the four teams behind them continue to fight it out to avoid the cellar.

 

What kind of year is Ted Williams having? Despite having missed the first two weeks of the season due to an ankle injury incurred during spring training, Williams is hitting .504, is fourth in runs scored (46), leads in RBI’s (54), is tied for third in hits (68), is tied for fifth in doubles (14), leads the AL in homeruns (15), and is second in walks (43). While Williams is single-handedly picking up the Red Sox and carrying them on his back, Dom DiMaggio is having a good year, but Bobby Doerr has been injured for the past three weeks, third baseman Jim Tabor missed returned recently from an extended absence, and Jimmie Foxx and Joe Cronin have been remarkably inconsistent. If they could ever get everyone healthy and moving in the same direction at the same time, it won’t make much difference how mediocre their pitching is.

 

As of the completion of Sunday's games (06/08/1941) Ted Williams had his 23-game hitting streak come to an end, while Joe DiMaggio would extend his hitting streak to 24 games. The New York Media Machine was just starting to get cranked up over DiMaggio's hitting streak, so this story has only recently begun to get hot. There is a long way to go yet, so stay tuned.

 

Griffith Stadium 1941 Digital Art by Gary Grigsby | Pixels




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