[luckymann]

The quirks of the September schedule I have found so endearing in previous campaigns strike me as an annoyance this time around, prolonging unnecessarily a season i want over and done with as quickly as possible.

Again, I’ll only bore you with a few key updates, none of which hopefully features any of our pitchers’ arms falling clean off their torsos:

• We get a rare series sweep over the Reds, with Cy the First beating Irv “Cy the Second” Young in the closer.
• Despite our offence remaining stubbornly inconsistent, we actually have our best run of sustained form all season. So much so, in fact, that by the time September is nearly October we have cut our deficit to 5 and are still mathematically alive, albeit only just.
• In fact, we aren’t officially eliminated until the 151st game of the season, a fair effort indeed from the lads with seemingly nothing to play for. Hopefully a good springboard out of this horror-show season into the next.
• We suffer our second no-no of the season the very next game, this time to Rube Waddell and the Cubs.
• We go a combined 19-9 down the stretch, finishing at 85-69, 3 GB of the Reds.

Hot

• Jack Chesbro: records 11 straight wins before dropping a tough 5-4 decision to Brooklyn. Finishes with an all-time record of 428 innings pitched and pretty much holds our club together in the second half of the year.

Not

• Yours truly: I am a very self-analytical being and as I have said numerous times I am not at all happy with how I have managed our club this season. For what has essentially been a waste of a year I have traded away a couple of guys who may have made the difference this season, one of whom it is becoming glaringly obvious I completely misread the talent of, and those two unexpected injuries shone the spotlight on precisely how much damage I had done to the depth of our squad. I keep track of the trades I do for the club and the tale of the tape is damning to put it mildly. Over the first five seasons my meddling has cost us in the vicinity of 25 WAR. Admittedly, the majority of that comes from trading away Seybold too early, and we have pivoted quite a few years younger through these trades, not to mention won two championships. But these figures seem to show that our success was in spite of my involvement rather than in any way because of it. I need to be smarter from here on in, because this league ain’t getting any easier.

Around the Leagues

• The Phillies keep nipping at the Reds’ heels, inching ever closer. We do our part in the proceedings, winning six straight against Cincy and taking two from three with Brooky. With four games to play the Reds are clinging to a half-game lead, but they manage to scrape through in the end by one game. Good luck to them, too, they deserve it after going so close in those first couple of seasons behind us.
• In what is almost certain to be – given the imminent arrival you’ll be hearing about in the off-season – merely the first in a long tradition of such battles, the Tigers and White Sox go toe to toe and slug it out all month. Slowly but surely, however, the Tigers take control and eventually clinch in early October.
• George Browne of the Cards puts together a 30-game hitting streak.
• A torn rotator cuff ends Beaneaters pitcher Joe Harris’s season prematurely.
• Zaza Harvey of New York wins the AL batting title with a superb 419, while Cincy’s Roy Thomas takes the NL crown with a much more mortal 323.
• A’s ace Eddie Plank gives the Triple Crown a good shake, finishing top 3 in all categories including an AL-best 252 strikeouts.

Awards

• 09/04 POTW: AL – Hobe Ferris (New York) 545 / 6 RBI; NL – Bob Ewing (Cincinnati) 2-0 / 0.50 / 14 K / 18 IP.
• 09/11 POTW: AL – Ned Garvin (St. Louis) 2-0 / 0.50 / 11 K / 18 IP; NL – Jake Beckley (Philadelphia) 433 / 4 RBI.
• 09/18 POTW: AL – Del Howard (Philadelphia) 462 / 8 RBI; NL – Rube Waddell (Chicago) 2-0 / 0.00 / 17 K / 18 IP.
• 09/25 POTW: AL – Jake Thielman (Detroit) 2-0 / 0.50 / 8 K / 18 IP; NL – Dave Brain (Philadelphia) 469 / 1 HR / 3 RBI.
• 10/02 POTW: AL – Harry Howell (New York) 2-0 / 0.47 / 5 K / 19 IP; NL – Jimmy Collins (Chicago) 538 / 3 RBI.

• AL Batter of the Month: Erve Beck (Chicago) 429 / 0 HR / 18 RBI.
• NL Batter of the Month: Sam Crawford (Cincinnati) 356 / 1 HR / 11 RBI.
• AL Pitcher of the Month: Charles Bender (Philadelphia) 7-1 / 1.73 / 54 K / 78 IP.
• NL Pitcher of the Month: Jack Chesbro (Pittsburgh) 6-1 / 2.19 / 32 K / 70 IP.
• AL Rookie of the Month: Jake Thielman (Detroit) 3-2 / 3.21 / 20 K / 42 IP.
• NL Rookie of the Month: Bill Hogg (Boston) 3-2 / 3.23 / 34 K / 53 IP.

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