Week 18 Summary (08/11/1941 - 08/17/1941)

Week Eighteen of the 1941 BBW Replay is in the books and we are in the middle of the doubleheader season. This past week featured seven doubleheaders during the week and then ended with seven more on Sunday, while this upcoming week will include twelve doubleheaders during the week and will end with another six on Sunday to close out the week. The completion of Week Eighteen means that the replay is now at the three-quarters pole and we are heading around the final corner and heading toward the finish line. 

In the AL, Boston ended last week only 9.5 games behind New York, but New York has now won nine of their last ten while Boston, Cleveland, and Chicago all have .500 or below records over that same timeframe, meaning New York ends this week with a full 16.0 games lead over Boston, with Cleveland and Chicago both 18.0 games behind. Surprisingly, the only team that New York didn’t gain on was St. Louis, who also has won nine of their last ten and is currently working on an eight-game winning streak, and while it may not last long, they are currently sitting with a .500 record. Two weeks ago, Washington came within a game of reaching .500, but they never quite made it.

 

In the NL, it is a similar situation where St. Louis sits comfortably atop the standings and watches as Brooklyn, New York, and Cincinnati all take turns slapping each other around. Brooklyn had started to get hot again while New York and Cincinnati were floundering, but that all reversed itself last week, o the week ended with Brooklyn 14.5 games out of first, New York 0.5 games behind Brooklyn, and Cincinnati 1.0 games behind New York. The World Series opponents might have likely been decided already, but the fight for second place in both leagues is going to be a fight to the finish.

Beyond the standings, the big news was the third no-hitter this season when Cincinnati's Bucky Walters no-hit Chicago in Game One of their doubleheader on Sunday. Walters did walk one batter, so he faced 28 hitters in the game, but a no-hitter is still pretty special.

 

Ted Williams finished the week hitting .475, with 31 homeruns, and with 108 RBI's. A triple crown for Williams is very possible, but as of right now Charlie Keller leads with 112 RBI's for New York and is second in homeruns (29). He doesn’t know it yet, but Keller is going to miss the final two weeks of the season due to an injury, so the triple crown really is in play.

It is about this time in the replay when I begin to think about "What's next?". My completed replays include (or will include): 1901, 1911, X, 1930, 1941, 1949, 1957. In order to solve for the mysterious X, I downloaded the 1920 ATMgr files and ordered a 1920 season disk and card set this past week. I still have a way to go with 1941 yet plus I will want to take a break afterward, and then I will start my set-up for 1920 this winter, all that meaning gameplay for 1920 will likely not start until sometime early next spring. 1920 will let me complete my "more-or-less every ten years" replay arc of pre-expansion era seasons by the end of next year (God-willing). What then? I don't have to decide today, and I have a year to think about it, so stay tuned. Update: My APBA package arrived about ten minutes ago as I wrote this.





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