It's clear that I didn't have much time to update in the 2nd half of the season, and that's too bad as the both the Federal and Continental Associations had some of the best pennant races of all time.
At the end of the day on June 16th, the Chiefs had a record of 39-18 (.684) and a 4.5 game lead over the Pittsburgh Miners. Little did everyone know that the Chiefs were about to embark on one of their worst stretches of baseball in quite a while. From June 16th to the end of August, the Chiefs played 29-39 (.426). This put their season record at 68-57 (.544), trailing the Boston Minutemen by 6.5 games.
At the beginning of September, the Chiefs woke up and went 10-4 over the next 15 days, which, thanks to the collapse of Boston, put the Chiefs back in first by 1/2 game. Unfortunately for Chiefs fans, the club went 4-9 over their last 13 games to finish in 3rd place.
It was a good race, with 6 clubs having a viable chance at the pennant at the beginning of September. And the 1938 season looks to be just as competitive.
The mid-summer struggles can--as usual--be laid at the feet of the offense.
Pete Layton strained a muscle on June 17th and missed the next 5 weeks. And when he returned, he had some knee soreness and really wasn't himself until the end of the season.
Bob Martin was cold nearly all season. And while he did collect his 2,000th career hit, he finished with a batting average below .300 for the first time in his career.
The brightest spot among the bats was the season that
Tom Bird had. It was one of the better seasons for a catcher in the history of the league. He carried the offense all summer, and he finished 3rd in the voting for the Whitney Award (the Whitney was won by Washington's
Mel Carrol who hit .409 and became the first batter to top .400 since Max Morris in 1925).
On the pitching side,
Rabbit Day spent the first few month of the season not looking at all like the Rabbit Day we know, but he righted himself and ended up right around where you would expect (and finished 3rd in the voting for the Allen Award).
Al Miller had a good follow-up sophomore season to his tremendous rookie campaign.
Charlie Bingham, though was an enigma. On that fateful June 17th day, Bingham had a record of 9-1 with an era of 2.89. He would go 3-12 the rest of the way and finish with an ERA of 4.90. It got to the point where he was no longer trusted to pitch in important games in September.
Ron Coles came down with a sore elbow in mid-July and missed the remainder of the season.
