Week 9 Summary (06/09/1941 - 06/15/1941)

Week Nine of the 1941 BBW replay is in the books and the big news of the week isn't that New York has an 8.5 games lead over Chicago in the AL, it's that St. Louis has jumped out to an 8.0 games lead over Brooklyn in the NL. The season is progressing well - no teams have reached the 60 games played mark yet, while only Pittsburgh hasn't played 50 games yet. We have another busy week ahead of us and those particular milestones will all soon be passed.

1941 Cincinnati Reds
The Cardinals ended the week hosting the Dodgers for a four-game set and they won the final three games, the last two as part of a doubleheader sweep on Sunday. Both teams are experiencing injury problems but of the two St. Louis has remained on a hot streak while in Brooklyn their offense has become much more selective. The Cardinals are missing third baseman Jimmy Brown and first baseman Johnny Mize, while Brooklyn is missing left fielder Joe Medwick, third baseman Cookie Lavagetto missed most of this past week, and manager Leo Durocher was forced to take the field at shortstop for two games in the middle of the past week. This one isn't over yet though - St. Louis is playing over their head and Brooklyn's tough streak will alleviate itself once they don’t have to play the Cardinals for a while.

The Yankees are continuing to steamroll the AL. They played second place Chicago and third place Cleveland this past week and neither team could make a dent in that 8.5 games lead. Actually, the fun in the AL is that Boston and Washington are tied for fourth place, with the Red Sox leading only by percentage points. Boston will go as far as Ted Williams (.506) can take them, while Washington is getting good pitching from Sid Hudson and Steve Sundra to go along with surprisingly good hitting (they are third in the AL in team batting average).

 

Cincinnati Manager
Bill McKechnie
This week in 1941 ended with Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak sitting at 27 games. DiMaggio has had a nineteen-game hitting streak in this replay and while I don’t realistically think he will ever get to 56 for me, he is having an extraordinary season. He is currently second in hitting (.390), leads in runs scored (60), is seventh in RBI's (41), leads in hits (82), is tied for second in doubles (18), is second in triples (7) and is third in homeruns (12). Charlie Keller carried the Yankees through the first month of the season, but DiMaggio has picked up the mantle since, making the Yankees often seem invincible.

As of this day in 1941 New York Giants outfielder Mel Ott had hit sixteen of his 27 homeruns. In this replay, he is currently sitting on two homeruns. It's hard to blame the Giants woes on just Ott - they really aren't a good team to begin with - but without Ott being Ott, they have really struggled. Manager Bill Terry had juggled the lineup occasionally, but it was always the same piece parts. To their credit, they have climbed out of the cellar and are currently in fifth place, but they are going to be in a dogfight with the Cubs to be able to stay there.

 

Someone is going to get hot, someone is not, so let's get started on Week Ten and see who's who.


Crosley Field 1940 Digital Art by Gary Grigsby | Pixels



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