Ohboyohboyohoyohboy....
OK, let's get the boring stuff out of the way - by which, I mean our season. Despite being grossly overmatched for the most part, the lads never stop trying and only miss out on playing 500 ball by the minimum. In fact, if not for a horror August and first half of June, we would have finished a lot closer - though, at 23 GB come the end of the season, nowhere near close enough to threaten the Cubs, who cruise to a second-straight NL pennant.
A near-7 bWAR campaign should see Sam Jethroe in the MVP mix, while Ray Dandridge's final season with us is another good one in which he charges home late to pip Jackie Robinson for his third straight NL batting title.
With regard to the pitching, of the few bright lights Bob Muncrief and Ken Heintzelman try hard and Leroy Matlock is once again a Rock of Gibraltar in the Stopper role. I do hold great hope that Johnny Sain has plenty of improvement in him but we need a few more like him to get back to being competitive.
While the NL is uneventful, the AL more than makes up for it with the Yanks, A's and Red Sox at it to the very end. And I mean,
very. The quirky schedule means the A's finish their games early as the clubhouse leader on 90 wins while the BoSox and Yanks still have a 4-game matchup left to play. By the final day, the A's are out of it because Boston and New York are both also on 90 wins with one to play, meaning one of them must finish on 91 after they play what is essentially a Game 154 tiebreaker, which pans out thus:
I bet there's a few from Red Sox Nation following along who wish the historical BOS-NYY results more closely followed those in this save - the Sox do seem to have the wood on the Evil Empire in this timeline, don't they?
So the final standings are as follows:
Johnny Pesky takes the AL batting title, Bus Clarkson leads the league with 29 HR and Ted Williams gives the Sox a trifecta with a league-leading 112 ribbies.
An amazing pitching performance by Cub Johnny Schmitz, whose 19-3 record sets a new all-time win% mark with .863, while Jack Hallett of the Yanks again ticks up the saves record with 29. Bob Feller is the King of K with 203 (and only 120 BB this time around), while Cincy's Ewell Blackwell might lock down the rare bird of a Johnson-Waddell / RoY double, although Jackie Robinson might have something to say about that.
Final Top 20s
Final Leaders
Monthly Award Winners
August
American League
- Batter – Danny Litwhiler (Indians): 330 / 3 HR / 20 RBI
- Pitcher – Max Lanier (Red Sox): 4-1 / 1.28 / 24 K / 42.1 IP
- Rookie – Augie Bergamo (Browns): 278 / 1 HR / 13 RBI
National League
- Batter – Jackie Robinson (Dodgers): 381 / 3 HR / 17 RBI
- Pitcher – Spud Chandler (Cubs): 6-0 / 3.88 / 17 K / 48.2 IP
- Rookie – Jackie Robinson
September
American League
- Batter – Whitey Kurowski (Athletics): 380 / 6 HR / 31 RBI
- Pitcher – Howie Pollet (Detroit): 5-0 / 1.55 / 23 K / 40.2 IP
- Rookie – Dave Ferriss (Senators): 3-2 / 3.95 / 13 K / 41 IP
National League
- Batter – Augie Galan (Cubs): 311 / 5 HR / 21 RBI
- Pitcher – Warren Spahn (Braves): 4-2 / 1.84 / 23 K / 49 IP
- Rookie – Ewell Blackwell (Reds): 2-2 / 1.93 / 29 K / 42 IP
Milestones and Observations of Note
- 250 wins: Paul Derringer
- 3000 hits: Mel Ott
- 2000 hits: Stan Hack
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