Week 21 Summary (09/01/1941 - 09/07/1941)

Week Twenty-One of the 1941 BBW Replay is in the books and the season is starting to wind down. The range in the number of games played by teams goes from 131 to 138, so there is still a lot of baseball to be squeezed into these final weeks for some teams. A few pair of the teams from each league have already completed their twenty-two scheduled games already, but at this point in the season, it is the time when it is time for one last road trip to clean up a few final yet-to-be-played games, and then usually a final sweep through your more localized opponents and then we will be done.

In the AL, St. Louis continued to be a pleasant surprise. They are currently nine games better than where they were at this same point in 1941. Most of this is due to their surging offense - they have scored 718 runs, third in the AL, and only three runs behind the Yankees. Chicago and Cleveland continue to founder directly ahead of them as neither one of these two teams wish to be the one that ends up behind St. Louis at the end of the season.

 

New York's magic number is now down to two, so it is likely that they will clinch the AL pennant in the next few days. Joe DiMaggio has been out most of these past two weeks and is scheduled to return in mid-week. Third baseman Red Rolfe is currently fighting colitis and pitcher Red Ruffing has been shut down for the remainder of the regular season, but all expect these players to be ready once the first pitch of the World Series is ready to be thrown.

In the NL, St. Louis has been in the doldrums the past few weeks but got back on their horse this week as they ended the week on a six-game winning streak, including ending the week sweeping three games at home versus second-place Cincinnati. The Cardinals ended the week with their magic number at eight … it will be tough to lose at this point, but that is why we play the games. First baseman Johnny Mize has spent most of the second half of the season in the lead for the batting title, but after this past week he has now slipped down to second place, his .352 well behind Brooklyn's Pete Reiser (.367). If St. Louis wants to compete with the powerful Yankees a hot-hitting Mize would be an important piece to have in their lineup.

 

Two games of interest from this past week:

 

The already struggling Philadelphia Phillies, already in the middle of their just-ended thirteen-game losing streak, had three consecutive games where their starting pitcher became injured and was removed from the game - as if they needed even more problems. All my injuries are rest-of-game injuries only, so the injured players were able to go in the next game, but the first two games were in a doubleheader and the third one was in the first game of a doubleheader the following day. Those poor pitchers … someone had to come in out of the bullpen and pitch long relief … three days in a row … in the middle of a long losing streak.

On Monday, the Yankees played the Nationals in a Labor Day doubleheader. The bottom of the second inning of Game One started off as follows: Catcher Bill Dickey homerun (#2), right fielder George Selkirk homerun (#3), second baseman Joe Gordon homerun (#13), and shortstop Phil Rizzuto homerun (#3) - four consecutive homeruns. Before the inning was over, third baseman Red Rolfe added his homerun (#8) to the fun. Before the game was over both Selkirk and Gordon each added a second homerun, seven total homeruns in the game for New York. Spud Chandler (13-2, 1.97) won in a laugher.

 

I am sure I have had three consecutive homeruns at some point in my numerous replays, but never four in a row. After #3 I check to make sure my BBW set-up was correct and that I hadn't missed something. After #4 I had to get up and take a walk around the house. Poor Lum Harris never knew what hit him.






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