The champions have re-claimed their spot atop the League's standings board. With nearly half the season having been played, the Brooklyn Bridegrooms have notched a 43-18 record and hold a two-game cushion on the Cleveland Spiders, who had been top dog for the past six weeks. Baltimore, Louisville and Pittsburgh are also very much in the pennant picture with the Pirates being four back and the others even closer than that.
Brooklyn's charge has been sparked by the superb pitching of veteran hurler George Tharp. The Connecticut-bred Tharp has posted a 17-4 record with a miniscule 1.59 earned run average thus far and is easily on pace for his second career 30-plus victory campaign. Lest anyone get the idea that Tharp is carrying the Brooklynites alone, outfielder Bradford Brooks is second in the circuit in hitting with a success rate of .381 and is on pace to exceed the century mark in both runs scored and runs driven in.
In the so-called "minor" loops, there is a tight pennant race shaping up in the Western League. The Kansas City and St. Paul clubs are knotted at 32-25 in a very competitive race with even the last-place club from Milwaukee only nine games off the pace. In the Eastern League, which has struggled the last couple of years at the gate, the Scranton Miners are in control of the pennant chase, with a 36-13 mark, good for a seven-game cushion over the second-place (and close geographical rival) Wilkes-Barre nine.
BRADFORD BROOKS