Week 19 Summary (08/14/1911 - 08/20/1911)

Week 19 of the 1911 BBW replay is in the books and the fun continues. All AL teams have passed the 110 games played mark while none of the NL teams have reached that mark yet, although they will shortly. There has been a lot of churn in the middle of the standings, while those teams at the top have remained pretty secure in their position. Eight weeks remain in the season and the season is heading towards its finale, but there is still plenty of baseball yet to come.

At the end of Week 12 Washington was 27-41, and now they are currently at 57-57, meaning they have gone 30-16 in the ensuing seven weeks. Of course, this corresponds to the ritualistic pounding the AL East teams administered to their Midwestern counterparts during the months of June and July. The east teams moved back to the Midwest this past week and are already off to a 13-4 start, finally reaching the point that the top four teams in the AL are all from the east. Washington and New York are tied for third with identical 57-57 records, well behind Boston and Philadelphia at the top.

 

Pittsburgh right fielder Owen "Chief" Wilson carried the Pirates through the months of April and May to get them off to a fast start, but since then it has been Honus Wagner doing the heavy lifting. Wagner leads the NL in hitting (.381) and Wilson is fifth (.338), Wagner (108) recently overtook Wilson in RBI's (96), and Wilson has hit 18 homeruns, although he has slowed down quite a bit in this department. The timely hitting of Wagner (batting in the fourth spot) and Wilson (batting in the seventh spot) has been the engine that has powered the Pirates' success to date.

However, Wagner is hurt and will miss the next few weeks, and this may give New York the opening they have been looking for as they continue to try and get back in the pennant race. New York has cut the Pittsburgh lead by two games over the past two weeks, they are currently behind by 7.0 games, and there are eight weeks remaining. This could get interesting.

 

For the Joe Jackson watch, Jackson finished Week 19 with a .485 average. Now, .485 is nothing to sneeze at and Jackson will surely provide plenty of highlights as the season comes to its conclusion, but I think the dreams of .500 are over. Ty Cobb (.412) is still hitting over .400, as is Jackson's Cleveland teammate Nap Lajoie (.411), although Lajoie missed almost two months of the season and doesn’t qualify for the batting crown.