Pittsburgh Pirates (89-65) v Washington Senators (103-51)
Best-of-seven, Pirates with the home-field advantage.
PITTSBURGH PIRATES S+ PAGE
WASHINGTON SENATORS S+ PAGE
No person in their right mind believes we have a chance here. The Sens, who became the first team in MLB history to win 100 games in a season, are a beast of a side with everything in their favour who has been in control of their own destiny for almost the entire season. The chunkiest meat of any team, led by Shoeless Joe and his 356 / 429 / 539 slash and 120 RBI and rookie Jack Fournier’s 11 HR, along with fellow first-year sensation Ray Chapman. A rotation containing not one, but two 30-game winners in Walter Johnson and Dick Redding. The eldest of whom is Train, at the grand age of 24. Connie Mack pulling the strings. A bunch of playoff experience and the desperation to go one better than in their previous tries.
Like I said, a
beast.
We, on the other hand, have a rotation whose average age is well on the wrong side of 30 and a starting lineup featuring two 38- and two 33-year-olds. One of those 38-year-olds is the reigning batting champion, but none of our players reached double figures in homers or the century mark in RBI. We only locked down our playoff berth on the next-to-last day of the season after fighting tooth and nail to get there and are pretty well operating on fumes. Few of our group have any playoff experience at all and those who do got it long enough ago for it to feel like it never actually happened. And they’ve got me running things.
So we go into this Series with no expectation at all. Perhaps we’ve already “won” our “Series” just by getting here. Perhaps to be giving stalwarts like Big Six and Rube Vickers their first taste of post-season action and the other veterans one last hurrah before they shuffle off into retirement is achievement enough.
To which I say,
bollocks. We’re in it to win it.
No expectation, sure. But no fear, either.
