Roger's 1911 APBA Replay: Week 16 Summary (07/24/1911

Week Sixteen of the 1911 BBW replay is in the books and the excitement continues. In most seasons Week Sixteen would mark the two-thirds point of a 24-week schedule, but with 27 weeks in the 1911 schedule, we are at around 60% of the season having been completed. Every team has reached the 90 games played mark except Chicago (NL), which has 88 games played, so they will be there shortly.

In the AL, the Athletics have regained their dominating ways after having struggled for a period of several weeks. The A's currently have a 9.0 game lead over second-place Boston which has an 8.5 game over third-place Detroit and New York, and that's where things get messy. Detroit and New York are tied, Cleveland is 1.0 games behind those two, and Chicago is 0.5 games behind Cleveland. And behind Chicago is the one team that has the best record over their past ten games than any of those five teams - Washington. Washington is ten wins ahead of their actual record at this time in 1911, so I somehow doubt they will maintain this pace but are causing some chaos in the meantime.

In the NL, New York continues to play well, but no matter what they do they continue to fall farther behind first-place Pittsburgh who currently has a 7.0 lead over the Giants. Chicago pounded Boston to end the week and has pretty much claimed third place as their own, while St. Louis and Philadelphia seem content to swap fourth and fifth place back and forth. A struggling Brooklyn team went into Cincinnati at mid-week with both teams having identical win-loss records, but despite the Reds having been playing much better recently it was the Dodgers who took 3-of-4 to hold on to sixth place.

In the Shoeless Joe Jackson watch, Jackson finally saw his batting average dip below .500 late in the week. He ended the week at .499 so I wouldn't be surprised if he temporarily popped back over the .500 mark again, but his average has been trending down over the past several weeks and it looks like the odds have finally caught up with him. In other categories, Jackson leads in hits (187), runs scored (91), doubles (49), triples (16), and homeruns (8), and is second in RBI's (93) behind Ty Cobb (95). And we still have 40% of the season remaining left to play. Nap Lajoie (.421) has finally returned to the Naps starting lineup, a welcome addition, but Cleveland is currently one game below .500 and is 18.5 games out of first. They would sure like to climb out of that mess in the middle of the AL standings if possible.

Pittsburgh Player/Manager
Fred Clarke

The big news of the week was my first no-hitter of the 1911 BBW replay. Chicago's (NL) Lew Richie walked two and kept the decimated Phillies offense at bay to get the no-no. The Phillies are missing their left fielder (Sherry McGee - suspended), their right fielder (John Titus - just back from a broken leg, but limited to pinch-hit duties still), and player/manager and catcher Red Dooin (broken leg, out for the remainder of the season.)

For some unknown reason, I have had many no-hitters as a part of my replays:

1901 - Two no-hitters, two perfect games

1911 - One no-hitter (so far)

1930 - Four no-hitters, one perfect game

1949 - Three no-hitters

1957 - Seven no-hitters

I see occasional posts where APBA managers talk about never having had one or getting their first-ever after having played for many years … I just can't explain it. I am playing the BBW computer game, so it's not like I can go and fudge dice rolls whenever I want to. Regardless, APBA can be a mystery sometimes, and this is just part of that mystery.

Stadium Forbes Field 1909 Canvas Print / Canvas Art by Gary Grigsby (pixels.com)