Thriftlon Reports

[Syd Thrift]

Draftlon Report!

Baltimore (artists)
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Samuel Goldwyn, 2B - One-third of the famous production studio of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Boston (A) (baseball people)
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Gabby Street, RF - American catcher, manager, coach and radio broadcaster in Major League Baseball during the first half of the 20th century. As a catcher, he participated in one of the most publicized baseball stunts of the century's first decade. As a manager, he led the St. Louis Cardinals to two National League championships (1930-31) and one world title (1931). And as a broadcaster, he entertained St. Louis baseball fans in the years following World War II.

Boston (N) (business)
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Leon Weiss, CF - Architect for several monuments that Louisiana senator and virtual dictator Huey Long commissioned.

Henry Kaiser, RF - American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding.

Brooklyn (thespians)
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George Bancroft - American actor. Appeared in such films as Mister Deeds Goes To Town and Thunderbolt (a film that got him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor).

Lionel Barrymore, 2B - an American actor of stage, radio and film best known for his role as Mr. Potter in It's A Wonderful Life.

Chicago (A) (gangsters)
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Papa Johnny Torrio, C - an American mobster who helped build the criminal empire known as the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s that would later be inherited by his protege, Al Capone. He also put forth the idea of the National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s and became an unofficial advisor to the Genovese crime family.

Arnold Rothstein, SP - Major player in the 1919 Black Sox scandal.

Sergei Witte Jr., C - Son of Russian Finance Minister Sergei Witte, who would preside over the Lena Massacre in 1912. Though not technically a gangster, the Chisox reportedly like the bloodthirsty bloodlines.

Chicago (N) (cowboys)
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Billy Claiborne Jr., C - Son of one of the survivors of the shootout at the OK Corral. Do not expect the presence of him and Jesse James Jr. to mean that you'll be seeing a Wyatt Earp Jr. any time soon. Then again, do not expect these guys' presences to not mean that.

Jesse James Jr., 3B - Son out outlaw Jesse James (okay, this isn't a real person. I don't care! It's my dynasty and I am sticking to it.)

Cincinnati (communists)
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Volin, CF -

Cleveland (musicians)
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Igor Stravinsky, SS - Russian composer, considered by many in both the West and his native land to be the most influential composer of 20th century music.

Zoltan Kodaly

Detroit (writers)
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A.A. Milne, SP - Creator of the "Winnie The Pooh" series of books.

James Oppenheim, SP - The founder and editor of The Seven Arts, an important early 20th-century literary magazine.

James Joyce, 2B - Irish expatriate writer, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses (1922) and its highly controversial successor Finnegans Wake (1939) as well as the short story collection Dubliners (1914) and the semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916).

Louisville (military men)
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Crown Prince Wilhelm, 2B - The last Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire. A widely acknowledged playboy, he had received little command experience when he was given charge of the 5th Army in August 1914, shortly after the outbreak of World War I. After a quick victory in the Ardennes, his military reputation rose. During the remainder of the war he served on the Western Front. While there he notably headed the Verdun Offensive against the French in February 1916.

Husband Kimmel, SS - Admiral of the US Navy at the time of Pearl Harbor.

New York (heroes)
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Fiorello LaGuardia, SS - Republican Mayor of New York for three terms from 1934 to 1945. Elected to office as a reformer, he also championed Roosevelt's New Deal and was the Director of Civil Defense in the time leading up to America's entry in the Second World War.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, C - the 32nd President of the United States. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945, and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. A central figure of the 20th century during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war, he has consistently been ranked as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents in scholarly surveys.

Philadelphia (A) (athletes)
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Bobby Kerr, CF - Irish-Canadian sprinter. He won the gold medal in the 200 metres and the bronze medal in the 100 metres at the 1908 Summer Olympics.

John Taylor, 2B - American track and field star. First African-American to win a gold medal in the Summer Olympics, as a member of the medley relay team in 1908. He missed out on getting a medal in the 400 meter dash that year when he sat out the final race in protest of fellow American Bob Carpenter, who was disqualified for willfully obstructing British runner Wyndham Halswell.

Philadelphia (N) (men of science)
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Herbert Ives, 3B - A scientist and engineer who headed the development of facsimile and television systems at AT&T in the first half of the twentieth century.

Robert Goddard, CL - American rocket scientist. He launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926. From 1930 to 1935 he launched rockets that attained speeds of up to 550 miles an hour. Though his work in the field was revolutionary, he was often ridiculed for his theories. He received little recognition during his own lifetime, but would eventually come to be called one of the "fathers of modern rocketry" for his life's work.

Max Born, MR - Mathematician and physicist, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954.

James Franck, MR - Physicist and Nobel Laureate. Worked with Max Born for several years at the University of Gottingen.

Pittsburgh (outlaws)
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Sean O'Kelly
Cuong De, - an early 20th century Vietnamese revolutionary who, along with Phan Boi Chau unsuccessfully tried to liberate Vietnam from French colonial occupation.

Saint Louis (religious figures)
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Metropolitan Ilarion, LF - Ukrainian churchman (1940 Archimandrite of the St. Onuphrius Monastery in Jableczna, 1940 Bishop of Chelm, 1944 Metropolitan of Chelm and Lublin (Podlachia), 1951 Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada), linguist, church historian, and historian of culture. He was also active in Ukrainian politics, both during the revolution and later in emigration.

Washington (politicians)
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Mohammed Mossadegh, SP - The prime minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, when he was deposed by the Shah with the covert backing of the United States government.

Ion Antonescu, 1B - Prime minister and conducător (Leader) of Romania during World War II from September 4, 1940 to August 23, 1944.

Louis St. Laurent, MR - The twelfth Prime Minister of Canada from November 15, 1948, to June 21, 1957.

[Syd Thrift]

Summer Gets Under Way

National League Standings
Team			W  L  PCT  GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff Home  Away	 Hm+/- XInn 1Run  Strk  Last10
Saint Louis Cardinals	38 23 .623  -	39-22	-1   20-13 18-10 +5	1-8  8-6  L2	6-4
Cincinnati Reds		38 24 .613  .5	34-28	+4   20-12 18-12 +6	8-1 14-7  L2	5-5
Boston Beaneaters	37 24 .607 1.0	34-27	+3   20-13 17-11 +4	6-3 13-8  W2	7-3
New York Giants		32 29 .525 6.0	36-25	-4   16-15 16-14 +1	4-3  8-11 W5	6-4
Pittsburgh Pirates	32 29 .525 6.0	39-22	-7   19-12 13-17 +1	1-5  4-9  W2	4-6
Philadelphia Phillies	23 38 .377 15.0	23-38	+0    9-18 14-20 -4	4-2  8-12 W2	4-6
Brooklyn Superbas	23 39 .371 15.5	23-39	+0   10-17 13-22 -4	3-4  8-10 L2	5-5
Chicago Colts		22 39 .361 16.0	18-43	+4   12-19 10-20 -9	2-3  9-9  L5	3-7

American League Standings
Team			W  L  PCT  GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff Home  Away	 Hm+/- XInn 1Run  Strk	Last10
Baltimore Orioles	43 21 .672 -	43-21	+0   21-10 22-11 +12	5-2 12-6  W2	6-4
Louisville Colonels	41 23 .641  2.0	36-28	+5   17-13 24-10  +9	4-3 10-6  L2	6-4
Washington Nationals	39 26 .600  4.5	38-27	+1   22-11 17-15  +6	2-5 14-4  L1	8-2
Philadelphia Athletics	34 30 .531  9.0	34-30	+0   19-16 15-14  -1	5-5  9-10 W1	5-5
Boston Red Stockings	32 33 .492 11.5	33-32	-1   12-17 20-16  +3	3-4  8-12 W1	5-5
Chicago White Stockings	26 40 .394 18.0	29-37	-3   13-20 13-20  -7	1-2  9-11 W1	4-6
Cleveland Blues		20 41 .328 21.5	21-40	-1    8-27 12-14 -15	2-2  5-11 L1	3-7
Detroit Tigers		22 43 .338 21.5	25-40	-3    8-23 14-20  -9	1-0  2-9  L1	3-7

National Sports A 3-Team Race

We recently put forth the opinion that the team that is in the lead on the 4th of July will win the pennant. Last year that turned out to be true as both the Boston Beaneaters and the Washington Senators ran away with things fairly early. This year, however, looks to be a neck and race, at least on the National side of the ledger. The St. Louis Cardinals are riding the superb pitching of Trevor Munzie (10-3, 2.56 ERA) and Mike "Saint" Hebert (11-4, 1.94) to the top spot in the league, but close behind are the Peoples' Ballclub of Cincinnati with their potent offensive attack spearheaded by SS Drake Gates (.294, 48 runs, 31 steals), CF Ed Scalf (.296 with 23 steals), and C Tyler Lenard (.325, 22 BBs in 169 at-bats). To make things crazier, just one game behind are the defending champion Boston Beaneaters, who are getting a typically awesome season from Erik Pritchitt on the mound (13-5, 2.29 ERA) and 2B Lonzo Amill in the field (.316, 52 runs, 34 SB, 4:1 K/w ratio). Who will be on the top of the list come the end of September? We aren't going to pretend that we know.

Old Guard Leads American

There are many unsettling reports coming out of Baltimore but so far nothing on the field is stopping them from winning ballgames. We have heard that Ban Johnson is planning on moving the team to New York next season, and also that manager John McGraw is planning something very sinister indeed. We've even heard, in fact, that McGraw has already signed a contract to manage the Giants of New York. We don't take a lot of stock in these rumors, though, not when Snoopy Haddon (16-3, 1.66 ERA) is putting up such gaudy numbers or Mike Hartigan (.344, 57 R, 49 RBI, 27 steals, 46:8 K/W) is carrying the team along in such a fashion as he is. Not that the Colonels of Louisville are out of it. Johnny Gruelle, who jumped from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Colonels in the offseason, has been just plain lights-out (14-1, 1.82), but the team features 5 regulars who are hitting over .300 and 2 more who are above .290. It's no wonder that the team as a whole is hitting .294 even as the league average has dipped to .268.

News From Around The League

Baltimore: We've found it hard to quote manager John McGraw without hearing some sort of reference to "cur dogs" so we'll ignore the larger issues at hand in favor of more mundane issues. Four days ago, CF Lynch Passager (.337, 33 R, 27 RBI) could barely get out of bed and has since been placed on the disabled list with spasms of the back. "He might come back to find he has no team around him, ho ho ho" said OF Mike Hartigan. We assume this is slang of some sort and has something to do with the way the team is beginning to pull away from the league.

Boston (N): The Beaneaters' defense has been problematic so far this year. On the one hand, they're 3rd from the bottom in errors with 166. The only two teams that are worse are cellar-dwellers Brooklyn and Chicago. On the other hand, they lead the league in double plays with 57. Emblematic of this display is 3B Roderick Glass, who leads all NL 3rd baseman in both categories (32 and 12, respectively). "Fact is, he's a very good gloveman", said manager Jeremy Neary of Glass. "He just doesn't always keep his head in the game." Although the pitching staff sports a sub-3.00 ERA (2.91), the team's 108 unearned runs make them the most generous of all the teams in the NL with a winning record.

Boston (A): The Bosox, who finished in the running last year in the American League but who have been unable to even win more games than they have lost so far this year, looked to shake things up a bit by trading their best hitter, LF Dan DeBose, to the Louisville Colonels for 1B Jay Hoskinson. Hoskinson, 33, is the Colonels' all-time leader in every significant statistical category, but this spring training he suffered a broken foot, which forced the team to find a replacement for him. That man, Rick Harpham, has played exceptionally well (.318, 37 R, 30 RBI), and just as importantly the Colonels have gotten off to a huge start. Hoskinson isn't particularly happy that he got dumped just as the club's luck turned around but is philosophical about the whole thing. "The Red Sox aren't this bad," he told us. "Once the bats start doing their thing, we'll be able to show [Colonels GM Fred Clarke] what's what."

Brooklyn: General Manger Bad Billy Barnie insists that manager Ned Hanlon's job is secure. "It's a young team," he said. "I won't lie - I am disappointed that they're still in the second division - but I think they're on their way upward." Language such as this is unheard of in Brooklyn, where for the better part of a decade we've heard little but talk of how the Superbas are more of a vaudeville troupe that plays baseball than a baseball team that likes to act. We believe that the first step in solving one's problems is recognizing them.

Chicago (N): There is a ray of hope in the Windy City, however slight. 1B Bob McGary was plucked from the Detroit Tigers organization, where he was hitting an amazing .452. The ultimate minor-league hitter, McGary was given an opportunity to start for Detroit last season but flubbed it by hitting just .198 in 102 at-bats. So far for the Colts he's hitting .444. Although he's a career .320 hitter in the minor leagues, the only other real chance he was given in the big league was in 1897 for the Pirates, when he hit .325 in 206 at-bats. That was the year the Pirates made the disastrous decision to try Mark Lucott at third.

Chicago (A): Word that a train navigated the trip from New York to Chicago in just under 16 hours failed to impress White Stockings manager Terry Lucott. "Sure, I suppose that's fast," he said. "Fast enough to bat leadoff for us? Not hardly." The Chicago AL entrant is to date 2nd in the league in steals with 71. Three players - 1B Branson Sellars (.269, 28 SB), 2B Frank Raines (.275, 11), and CF Roy MacCodrum (.298, 13) are in double figures.

Cincinnati: 2B Tim Gates, who lost his starting job last season thanks to a woeful .233 average, has won it back. Originally the position was to be filled by [b]James Engelhart, who jumped from the Cleveland Blues, but he hit an empty .260 in the first few months of the season and prompted the move. "I'm always happy to help the Peoples' Cause," said the 36-year-old Gates, who has been the regular second sacker for the Reds since 1895. "Perhaps these old bones can't run as fast as some of the young'uns do, but I know ways of keeping the kids off my lawn if you know what I mean." Amazingly, Gates has committed just 1 error in 102 chances at 2B this season.

Cleveland: Desperate for some sort of positive change, manager McGrath Adger has turned the Blues rotation upside-down. Gone to the minors is Brian Gilbert, the 23-year-old who has shown little else to date other than being young (1-7, 5.79 ERA this year), and [b]Auliffe Oulton (2-11, 5.25) has been banished to the bullpen. In their places are Harry Herapeth, who has oft been tried as a starter but who has never shown the required endurance for the position, 20-year-old Kathel Semson, and Colts cast-off Bobby Ralph (1-5, 6.62 but 11-5 and 3.09 for them last year). Given that they're allowing over 7 runs a game, it's not likely the Blues are going to get any worse.

Detroit: It wasn't the greatest month of his career, but given the way his 1902 has gone, CF Dave Wilson has to be happy with his June. He hit .259 for the month with 16 steals, doubling his theft total and raising his seasonal average from .227 to .240. "He's starting to see the ball better," said Brian Mertz of the career .274 hitter. There have been rumors that Wilson is not happy with the play of his teammates and has let that affect his own game. He's only 24 years old and a known hothead so we wouldn't necessarily put that past him.

Louisville: As good as Johnny Gruelle has been for the Colonels, one has to also wonder what's going on with the man who was supposed to be the team's ace this season, Jerry "Magoo" Watson. The lifetime major league leader in strikeouts escaped the sinking ship of the Philadelphia Phillies to join Louisville this season but thus far has managed just 6 wins in 15 decisions. Luck is said to be a factor, given that Watson sports an ERA under 3 and is a respectable 5th in the AL in Ks with 71 (and 3rd in K/W rate). Good players do not, however, blame luck for their woes and we expect a resurgence from the man with the golden glasses.

New York: P Cullen Crewe narrowly missed becoming the 2nd player this century to pitch a no-hitter on the 29th of June vs. the Chicago Colts. With 2 outs in the 9th inning he worked 2B Bob Parker to a 1-2 count, only to see him slam a hot ground ball down the 3rd base line for a double. The subsequent batter Gabriele Mollica also got a hit but RF Rick Douglas threw Parker out at home to end the game. "So close and yet so far," said a dejected Crewe after the game. "At least the hit that did it was a solid one, I guess." Crewe stands at 7 wins and 8 losses on the year with an ERA of 2.76.

Philadelphia (N): It hasn't been the greatest of years for the Phillies, but two members of the 1900 rotation that helped them win the pennant have returned and are adding a veneer of respectability to the ballclub. David Pininferino won his 200th game across the town with the Athletics and is generally a .500 pitcher so far (7-8, 3.32 ERA). He won 20 games in each of the past 2 seasons. Jimmy Baker was the '00 Phillies' relief ace, saving 19 games in 138.1 innings then. Now that that role has fallen into disfavor, he's proven to be the team's 2nd best starter behind Pininferino (4-8, 3.02).

Philadelphia (A): The Athletics remain the lone brand new AL club to establish itself as a quality team. They can credit part of their good fortune to the Washington Nationals, who traded the tricky right-hander Garrison Lindsley to them before this season for 3B Bailey Hamilton (and also to prevent the National League from taking him). So far, Lindsley is 11 and 5 with an ERA of 2.56. They have also been quite fortuitous with their kangaroo players. 2B George Marshall (.303, 15 steals) and RF Doonan Elmes (.285) have shown that they're just as good in the new league as they were in the old.

Pittsburgh: You know you're having a good season when you hit .300 with a .435 OBP for a month and that takes you off the pace you started at. Such is the case with CF Johnston Long, who is now just 69 hits away from being the 5th leading Pirate of all time in that category. By the time his career ends, he's very likely to be at the top of that and several other lists. The only person who might push him out is LF John Choate, who is still rehabilitating a badly damaged ankle.

St. Louis: Gianfranco Amoccaci came to the big leagues with his own entourage. We're not sure why, but the 27-year-old with the 7-8 career record has a legion of female fans who sit behind the third base dugout every game he pitches and swoons for 9 innings. The "Love Hunter", as his name loosely translates, is not what we would call the most attractive man in the world but he appears to have something not quite explainable that can best be described as charisma. It's worth mentioning that so far this year Amocacci's fastball has been dazzling the hitters as much as his eyes dazzle the females: he's 4-2 with a 2.32 ERA in 50.2 innings pitched.

Washington: The Nationals' chances were dealt a heavy blow last week when staff ace Brian Pike (9-7, 2.16) tore his bicep. Suffice it to say that he won't be back for the rest of this season if at all. His string of 8 consecutive years with at least 19 victories will end. In the short term, he'll be replaced by Ken Wilson, who won 32 games in the minors last year, but it's very likely that the Nationals will be looking for a longer-term solution.

[Syd Thrift]

AL Has Had Enough With McGraw, Allows Him To Return To NL

Despite running a team that was sitting atop the American League this year, manager John McGraw could not keep himself from constantly sniping at league president Ban Johnson about issues real and imagined. As a result, Johnson has acceded to McGraw's wishes and has allowed him to take the reigns of the New York Giants ballclub. "It's too bad that we couldn't find a more equitable resolution to this issue," said Johnson. "I am saddened by the loss but I wish the man nothing but the best in his new environs."

McGraw was downright pleased. "Finally I am released from the cur-doggery of the old league. I am not sure if I have mentioned yet that the team in Philadelphia are a bunch of white elephants, but I'll do so now because it seems an apt comparison. Also, I know you haven't asked, but I promise not to tamper with my old ballclub. If anybody comes over here to New York City, they will do so out of their own free will. I mean, they won't do that at all, ha ha. Can you not include that last bit in the article?"

McGraw takes over a Giants team that has seen better days. The winners of 5 consecutive league pennants from 1895 through 1899, the Giants have failed to finish higher than 4th place in each of the last 2 seasons. They are 34-34 so far on the year in spite of a 2.70 earned run average that is the 2nd best in the senior circuit.

[Syd Thrift]

Pennant Races Shaking Out

National League Standings

Team			W  L  PCT  GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff Home  Away	 Hm+/- XInn 1Run  Strk	Last10
Cincinnati Reds		48 27 .640   -	43-32	+5   25-13 23-14 +10   8-1  15-8  W2	8-2
Saint Louis Cardinals	46 27 .630  1.0	48-25	-2   22-14 24-13 +10   2-9  10-8  W1	6-4
Boston Beaneaters	41 32 .562  6.0	39-34	+2   21-15 20-17  +5   6-5  14-12 L1	3-7
Pittsburgh Pirates	40 33 .548  7.0	47-26	-7   23-14 17-19  +3   2-5   7-11 W2	6-4
New York Giants		36 37 .493 11.0	40-33	-4   18-19 18-18  -1   4-4  11-13 L2	4-6
Philadelphia Phillies	32 41 .438 15.0	31-42	+1   15-21 17-20  -4   6-2  13-12 W6	8-2
Brooklyn Superbas	26 48 .351 21.5	26-48	+0   13-23 13-25 -10   3-4  10-14 L6	3-7
Chicago Colts		25 49 .338 22.5	21-53	+4   14-24 11-25 -13   2-3   9-11 L2	2-8

American League Standings

Team			W  L  PCT  GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff Home  Away	 Hm+/- XInn 1Run  Strk	Last10
Baltimore Orioles	51 25 .671  -	51-25	+0   21-10 30-15 +20   6-2  13-8  W4	7-3
Louisville Colonels	48 28 .632  3.0	45-31	+3   17-13 31-15 +18   4-4  11-9  W3	6-4
Washington Nationals	46 33 .582  6.5	44-35	+2   28-17 18-16  +1   2-6  18-5  L3	4-6
Boston Red Stockings	41 39 .512 12.0	44-36	-3   13-18 28-21 +10   3-4  10-15 W3	7-3
Philadelphia Athletics	40 39 .506 12.5	40-39	+0   24-24 16-15  -8   6-6  12-13 L1	3-7
Chicago White Stockings	33 46 .418 19.5	35-44	-2   20-26 13-20 -13   1-2  11-12 L1	5-5
Detroit Tigers		27 51 .346 25.0	31-47	-4    9-24 18-27  -6   2-1   5-13 L2	4-6
Cleveland Blues		25 50 .333 25.5	25-50	+0   12-35 13-15 -22   3-2   7-12 W1	3-7

Lies, ____ Lies, And Statistics

National League Batting
Team			AVG	AB   R   H   2B  3B HR  SB
Pittsburgh Pirates	.285	2610 422 744 113 40 20  57
Cincinnati Reds		.264	2677 386 708 81  37  8 121
Brooklyn Superbas	.262	2573 293 675  91 34  4	41
New York Giants	        .259	2532 337 656 100 31 11 123
Philadelphia Phillies	.255	2529 320 646  89 29 14  79
Saint Louis Cardinals	.254	2619 362 665 101 30 26 102
Boston Beaneaters	.252	2546 366 641 107 31 10 118
Chicago Colts	        .252	2591 275 654  95 39  5  46

National League Totals
Team			AVG	   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  SB
TOTALS			.261	20677 2761 5389 777 271  98 687

American League Batting
Team			AVG	AB   R   H   2B  3B HR  SB
Louisville Colonels	.286	2754 370 789  97 28 10	 62
Baltimore Orioles	.276	2742 387 758 104 31 13	 69
Washington Nationals	.274	2708 390 742  92 24 18  108
Chicago White Stockings	.270	2755 334 744 114 32  4	 82
Boston Red Stockings	.258	2785 341 718  92 24 21	 44
Philadelphia Athletics	.256	2791 343 715  94 34 17	 69
Detroit Tigers		.253	2776 347 703 105 37  8	 59
Cleveland Blues		.244	2620 312 638  97 19 13	 70

American League Totals
Team			AVG	   AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  SB
TOTALS			.265	21931 2824 5807 827 244 104 563


National League Pitching
Team			ERA	IP    HA  R   ER  HRA BB  K   OAVG CG SHO BABIP
Saint Louis Cardinals	2.54	673.0 579 253 190  11 223 196 .231 68	8  .247
Cincinnati Reds		2.87	690.1 706 326 220  12 274 208 .264 61   6  .283
New York Giants		2.87	656.0 660 299 209   8 140 181 .260 71	5  .277
Boston Beaneaters	2.90	667.0 684 335 215  11 177 210 .261 68	3  .280
Pittsburgh Pirates	2.93	659.2 624 302 215  11 160 291 .245 66	6  .273
Philadelphia Phillies	3.50	650.1 666 383 253  17 201 157 .263 64	4  .275
Brooklyn Superbas	3.54	650.2 700 405 256  16 236 201 .270 62	1  .288
Chicago Colts		3.95	656.2 770 458 288  12 258 155 .290 50	2  .305

National League Totals
Team			ERA	IP     HA   R    ER   HRA BB   K    OAVG CG  SHO BABIP
TOTALS			3.13	5303.2 5389 2761 1846  98 1669 1599 .261 510  35  .279

American League Pitching
Team			ERA	IP    HA  R   ER  HRA BB  K   OAVG CG SHO BABIP
Boston Red Stockings	2.42	716.1 719 305 193  7  162 284 .258 69 10  .285
Baltimore Orioles	2.52	697.0 636 260 195 17  112 241 .242 70 10  .261
Louisville Colonels	2.55	699.1 634 306 198 14  137 261 .236 67  8  .257
Washington Nationals	2.80	716.0 747 346 223  3  127 214 .264 66  4  .285
Philadelphia Athletics	2.88	719.0 718 339 230 10  221 277 .258 70  6  .284
Chicago White Stockings	3.59	700.0 722 377 279 20  203 176 .265 73  1  .277
Detroit Tigers		3.75	688.1 811 439 287 14  220 164 .294 62  2  .309
Cleveland Blues		4.26	671.1 820 452 318 19  267 207 .301 58  0  .320

American League Totals
Team			ERA	IP     HA   R    ER   HRA BB   K    OAVG CG  SHO BABIP
TOTALS			3.09	5607.1 5807 2824 1923 104 1449 1824 .265 535  41  .285

The Biweekly Scoop
News From Around The League

Baltimore: There's something brewing in Crab Cake City. We're not sure what, but the signs have been quite ominous. Several of the players have reportedly chosen not to renew their leases on the apartments they'd been sharing. We asked AL President Ban Johnson if he was considering moving the league-leading club to New York City to try to step up the ongoing feud between the American and National Leagues. "No! That's preposterous. Not in the middle of the season, at least. It's true that Baltimore is not coming out to support the team in quite the way that we'd hoped but any move like that would take place during the offseason. The logistics alone require that. This news of Orioles packing their belongings is the first I've heard of this issue."

Boston (N): OF Steven Corliss, lauded by all sorts of Bostonians for his grit and hustle, has voiced his displeasure about not playing more often. "I realize that it's not normal that a person so average in height becomes a great major league baseball player," said Corliss, who stands 5'11" and weighs in at 170 pounds. "Still, I think I should be given a chance. I know that I am a great leader but how am I going to get the chance to show my awesome leadership ability while sitting on the bench?" To date, Corliss has played in just 11 games, mostly as a late-inning defensive replacement.

Boston (A): The Red Stockings have seemingly broken out of their season-long slump, scoring 37 runs in the past 5 games. 3rd baseman Ken Vine is leading the team with a .322 average in the month of July but he's hardly the only Bostonian to start swinging his bat. Recently acquired Jay Hoskinson is hitting .304 for the month. Even SS Gunnar Jones, who saw his average dip to .210 after an o-fer performance on the 4th of July, has collected 16 hits in 39 at-bats since then. It's no wonder, then, why they've managed to go 9-5 as a team since June ended.

Brooklyn: Sadly, it's beginning to look as though Murrough "Skinny" Smethurst's amazing 1900 season was a fluke. In the final year of the last century, Smethurst hit .367 in 240 at-bats and looked like the kind of player the Superbas could build around. In the 2 season since, he's collected 871 at-bats, hitting nearly 100 points lower in that time (.272). This year he's hitting just .258 and to make matters worse has collected just 14 extra-base hits. As a result, the 24-year-old has just 36 RBIs on the season despite hitting cleanup the entire time.

Chicago (N): The atmosphere around the West Side Grounds has become downright poisonous. 3B Gabriele Mollica, who delighted Chicago fans last year with a .332 average in his rookie campaign, has been telling everyone within earshot how poorly run this franchise is. Truth be told, Mollica is part of the reason why this team isn't performing: he's batting only .248 and has 33 errors in 72 games. A better team might bench a player like this; fortunately for Mollica, the Colts have little option but to write his name on the lineup card every day.

Chicago (A): Normally, when you are fielding a team as bad as the White Stockings, you expect and even kind of prefer that your players are a little disgruntled. How, then, to explain pitcher Larry McCaa, who is reportedly quite happy with his position at the end of the White Stockings' bench? "I feel like I belong here," said the 31-year old Texas native who sports a career record of 85 wins and 123 losses. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't prefer the team to be better, but then again if they were better I probably wouldn't be here, you know?" McCaa is 2-5 this year with a 3.05 ERA in 8 starts and 4 relief appearances.

Cincinnati: The Reds have ridden a 10-3 record over the past 2 weeks to the top of the National League. Much of those gains were despite the loss of two-thirds of the outfield. LF Dowd Swanne is still nursing a sore knee and isn't expected to come back until late August at the earliest. The 27-year-old was an MVP candidate last year but is now just looking for a chance to come through in a pinch for the Peoples' Ballclub. CF Ed Scalf also missed several games with a sprained ankle, although by this time teams should be aware of his proneness.

Cleveland: 1B Werner Oland's time remaining with the team is reportedly limited. Not only has he been hitting just .186 this year after taking over for the aging Nivens O'Mulvaney, he's also gotten into more than one scuffle with 2B Ning Zhang, who has called Oland "a walking stereotype" due to the portrayal of a character Oland calls 'Charlie Chan' at the local vaudeville clubs. "It insults my heritage," said Zhang. "Not all of our people disperse witty bromides as they get older. Okay, maybe that's not a negative stereotype, but it's still a stereotype."

Detroit: Posting a winning record for a team as bad as the Tigers is almost as miraculous an accomplishment as winning 30 games. Although Chris Langdon is just 9-8, that's still more wins than losses. "It could not be happening to a better person," said manager Bryan Mertz. The Birmingham, Michigan native also looks poised to break his personal record of 12 wins, a mark he set in 1899 with the Brooklyn Superbas. Still only 26 years old, Langdon already has a career record of 28 wins against 35 losses.

Louisville: Not everybody who came over to the Colonels from the National League has been able to make their presence fully felt. Chief among those kangaroo bench-warmers is 2B Zander Bostic, who hit .279 with a respectable 24 steals last season with the Chicago Colts but who has just 149 at-bats to his name this year. The resurgence of 2B Fergus McKnight (.317) and steady play of former St. Louis Cardinal Loren Larson (.287) have kept him from getting more appearances. "I know my role," Bostic told us. "If anybody in the infield goes down, I'm there."

New York: It's still very early, but manager John McGraw has as of yet not been able to do much with this Giants team. He's won just 2 of 5 games since taking over for Max O'Cromley, who is now coaching the team's minor league affiliate the Norfolk Sugar Kings. "It's just nice being in a league where you are not treated like a..." at this point in the interview Mr. McGraw engaged in a long soliloquy about canines of questionable breeding. We regret to inform the public that our beat reporter fell asleep during this and woke to find himself outside of the Giants' office with his wallet missing and his shirt unbuttoned.

Philadelphia (N): Perhaps the Giants should have hired Paul Meagresauce instead. The newly named Phillies manager is 6-1 since taking over the job. His charges are averaging 7 runs a game for him so far. "Sure, it won't last," he said, "but I reckon these fellows aren't as bad as they looked before either." Among the changes Meagresauce has made to the ballclub: calling up 1B Daniel LaCour (.391) and 2B Irving Langmuir (.500), who have instantly turned two of the weaker slots in the lineup into 'plus' positions.

Philadelphia (A): Call it the "No Name Lineup". Although the Athletics are solidly in the middle of the AL pack in terms of runs scored, there is not an everyday player that your average fan could name on this squad. By default the most famous player is CF Doonan Elmes (.285), who was a supporting member of the 1900 pennant winning Philadelphia Phillies. If it weren't for the presence of pitchers Garrison Lindsley (13-6, 2.46) and Claude Cugnoni (7-12, 2.73), the A's could hire out 9 complete strangers to don the green and gold and no one would be the wiser.

Pittsburgh: It's going to be a crowded outfield when John "First Mate Two Percent" returns. In his old position of LF, rookie David Cook (.311) is quickly becoming a fan favorite with his slap hitting and solid fielding. Center and right are ably manned by Johnston Long (.368, 67 R, 31 SB) and Ned Kelly Jr. (.302, 32 XBH, 49 RBI), respectively. Lest he think he could just swing to first base, that slot is also taken by Mark Lucott, who is on pace to hit .300 for his 6th time in 7 tries and who won the Gold Glove last year.

St. Louis: Some critics have said that the reason the Cardinals aren't running away with the NL is because of the presence of 3 automatic outs at the bottom of the lineup in the form of the pitcher, CF Fred Jacobsen (.180, 18 steals), and SS Bryan Roadley (.197). We think nothing could be further from the truth. Look at the success of the Boston Beaneaters last year with Nelson Johnson at shortstop, for example. The Cards have by a fair margin the best defense in the league and by our count give up about a hit less a game than they should be giving up.

Washington: The Nationals did make a move, just as we'd predicted they would, but we still wonder whether or not this one was just biding time until something bigger came along. 2 days ago, Washington acquired [b]Dennis Culler (6-0, 2.44) from the Detroit Tigers in exchange for SP Ken Wilson (now 1-3 and 5.50) and a minor league reliever. Culler is a converted reliever who won 22 games last year between the minors and the majors. His major league career, however, is as brief as it is perfect: 7 wins in 7 decisions is nice but can you count on it?

[Syd Thrift]

Disaster Strikes American League!
Giants Owner John Brush Buys Out Orioles, Sells Parts To Himself, Cincinnati Reds

The news is even worse than we imagined it to be. Unbeknownst to even the head of the American League, the new owner of the National League New York Giants purchased 201 of the 400 shares of the Baltimore Orioles franchise and promptly engaged in a couple of 'trades' that can be properly referred to as nothing but theft. Nothing good can come of syndicate ownership and this is a good example of why.

First, 1B Cody Plummer (.290), 3B Dolan Packard (.349), SP Snoopy Haddon (18-5, 1.78), and bullpenner John O'Cloonan (1-4, 3.83) were dispatched to the Giants in exchange for the waiver price of $25. Then, if that was not enough, the club then turned around and dispatched LF Mike Hartigan (.333, 27 steals), RF Dave Heading (.316), and SP Bill Copeland (14-6, 2.42) to the Peoples' Ballclub of Cincinnati for the same dollar amount. This has left the Baltimore Orioles in a precarious position; not only have they lost all of their good players, but they are in danger of not being able to field a ballclub at all this evening.

As soon as he heard the news, AL President Ban Johnson took personal control of the Baltimore team and stocked it with players from its farm club. For the moment the immediate disaster appears to have been avoided. What, though, will become of the Orioles? This devious piece of brigandry has soured the Thriftlon Reports towards the senior circuit. As bleak as the prospects sound, we would not at this point stand in the way of the junior league hanging around for good.

[Syd Thrift]

1902 Enters August

National League Standings

Team			W  L   PCT   GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff Home  Away	 Hm+/- XInn  1Run  Strk	Last10
Cincinnati Reds		57 31 .648    -	52-36	+5   25-13 32-18 +19	9-1  17-9  L1	6-4
Saint Louis Cardinals	54 33 .621  2.5	56-31	-2   29-20 25-13  +5	3-10 12-9  W5	6-4
Pittsburgh Pirates	49 38 .563  7.5	57-30	-8   24-14 25-24 +11	2-6   8-14 W1	6-4
Boston Beaneaters	45 42 .517 11.5	44-43	+1   25-24 20-18  -4    6-5  16-13 L1	3-7
New York Giants		44 43 .506 12.5	50-37	-6   18-20 26-23  +6    5-5  11-18 L1	6-4
Philadelphia Phillies	36 51 .414 20.5	35-52	+1   19-30 17-21 -13    7-3  15-14 L1	3-7
Chicago Colts	 	33 55 .375 24.0	28-60	+5   15-24 18-31  -6    3-4  10-12 W1	5-5
Brooklyn Superbas	31 56 .356 25.5	30-57	+1   18-31 13-25 -18    4-5  14-14 L2	5-5

American League Standings

Team			W  L   PCT   GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff Home  Away	 Hm+/- XInn  1Run  Strk	Last10
Baltimore Orioles	57 30 .655    -	59-28	-2   23-14 34-16 +20	7-2  14-9  L1	5-5
Louisville Colonels	56 32 .636  1.5	52-36	+4   20-13 36-19 +23	4-5  13-10 W3	8-2
Washington Nationals	55 36 .604  4.0	52-39	+3   34-20 21-16  +1	2-6  21-7  W3	7-3
Philadelphia Athletics	46 45 .505 13.0	45-46	+1   24-28 22-17  -6	6-7  13-15 W4	6-4
Boston Red Stockings	44 50 .468 16.5	48-46	-4   16-25 28-25  +3	3-4  10-19 L6	2-8
Chicago White Stockings	41 49 .456 17.5	42-48	-1   25-28 16-21 -12	1-2  14-13 W1	7-3
Detroit Tigers		33 57 .367 25.5	36-54	-3   12-27 21-30  -6	3-1   9-14 L3	4-6
Cleveland Blues		27 60 .310 30.0	28-59	-1   13-37 14-23 -23	3-2   8-15 L3	2-8

Your Scoop On What's New In Baseball
News From Around The League

Baltimore: These kids have heart. Expected to fall apart and cede the American League race to the Colonels and Nationals, the Baltimore Orioles have responded to John McGraw's cruel blow by doing what it takes to remain on top of the American League. Many National League fanatics have said that this is living proof that the American is the inferior circuit, but if you ask us it's all about something we like to call "gumption". Manager Von Craufurd, who is also the team's #1 catcher, has led his charges to an 11-6 record since McGraw jumped the team, and last month the lone member of the rotation to not leap to the Giants or Reds, Sean Nickerson (17-4, 1.81 ERA) was named the leagues best pitcher.

Boston (N): On June 30, Erik Pritchitt was sitting pretty at 13 wins against just 5 losses with a 2.29 ERA. Two months later, his ERA is similar (2.53) but his record is now even. That means he's lost his last 8 decisions. Run support is cited as a factor, but manager Jeremy Neary thinks there's something else going on. "It's got to be mechanics," he said. "Yeah, I know the stats say one thing but you know what they say about statistics." Pritchitt has failed to complete 3 of his last 4 starts, allowing 26 runs in 28.1 innings during that period. While it's true that 14 of those runs are unearned, the bottom line is that Pritchitt is allowing baserunners to score.

Boston {A}: News out of the other Boston camp is somber to say the least. Three days ago the front office publicly admitted defeat, trading the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball Jesse MacLagan (11-12, 2.67 with Boston) to the Louisville Colonels for a satchel of prospects and future considerations. "I don't like it any more than anybody else," said Royal Rooters President and Red Stockings GM Joseph Kennedy, "but we just weren't scoring runs for the guy. We have to look at the future, both for us and for the league." MacLagan did provide quite a bounty for the Red Sox: 25 year old RF Billy "Flyboy" Mitchell (.310, 14 RBI in 158 ABs), 2-time 20-game winner Stephen "Parochial" Vickers (2-2, 4.56), and 22-year old Ralph O'Mulvany (9-10, 3.13).

Brooklyn: SS Devlin Shaner is proving to be much more than just a pretty face with a prettier singing voice. The 25-year-old is already in his 5th full season and this one looks to be his best. Our resident stat guru projects him setting a new career high in batting average (.343) and doubles (28) while just missing hits (190; he slapped 194 back in 1899). On top of that, he's considered to be a front-runner for this season's Gold Glove award at his position since last year's winner Nelson Johnston of the Beaneaters is out for the season.

Chicago (N): In winning the Rookie of the Month award for July, Wallace Stevens (11-12, 2.60) is giving Chicago fans some hope for the future. The 23-year-old, who goes to school at New York Law in the offseason and also writes a fair bit of poetry (the Chicago beat reporter for Thriftlon has seen some of these poems and to be honest, he is not impressed), won 5 games last month and sported an earned run average of just 1.62. He is one of two current members of the Cubs staff to strike out more batters than he has walked. The other, Martinez Bajana (2-1, 4.30) has thrown just 29 innings for the club.

Chicago (A): IF Tim Gillett (.238, 1 RBI) is not happy and does not care who knows. Last year at this time he was the White Stockings' starting second baseman. He was displaced from that spot, however, when Frank Raines (.289, 48 R, 34 SB) jumped from the Brooklyn Superbas, and on the year has just 21 at-bats stretched out over 13 games. Said Gillett, "It's not just the playing time. Okay, it's mostly the playing time. But it stinks to be on the bench of a team that's not going anywhere. If I wanted to sit on my rear end all day, I'd take up cigar rolling."

Cincinnati: With all the talk of how John McGraw callously sold out the Baltimore Orioles, we find it interesting that so far the team that has really made out from that deal were the Peoples' Ballclub of Cincinnati. OF Mike Hartigan (.321, 68 R, 56 RBI) and P Bill Copeland (16-7, 2.46) have patched holes that were wide open all season long. Those players came along just as the Reds were peaking; their 19-7 July mark pushed them right past the Cardinals into first place in the National League.

Cleveland: As expected, the Werner Oland era ended in Cleveland almost as soon as it began. Yesterday the Blues flipped Rowan Dillon (.307, 23 RBI) to the Nationals for veteran pinch-hitter and 1B Bill Young (.346, 9 RBI) and those nefarious "future considerations". Young is not, should we say, young, being an original member of the league, and he has not exceeded 175 at-bats in a season since 1897. Still, the Blues desperately needed a change. "We've got youngsters here who need to learn what it means to win and not just compete", said manager McGrath Adger, who, in fairness, is fighting for his own job at this point.

Detroit: How Henry Hosler (.364, 36 RBI) missed being named the AL Player of the Month for July is beyond us. Perhaps it has something to do with the Tigers' horrendous record. However, the youthful Hosler, who works as a fireman in the offseason, smoked the opposition last month, hitting .384 with 11 of his 38 hits going long distances. That hit total was almost half of what he got in all of 1901 (80, for the record)! "It puts everything into perspective", said Hosler of his winter job. "You get into a slump and start to get down on yourself, then you remember when you carried a child out of a burning building and it doesn't matter so much."

Louisville: Now that they've acquired [b]Jesse "Rawhide" MacLagan[b], he Colonels' starting rotation might just be the greatest of all time. It is anchored by 24-year-old phenom Johnny "Raggedy Andy" Gruelle (19-2, 1.79), so nicknamed for the way he seems to flop his way through his delivery like a rag doll. It may look unconventional but it sure is effective: just 2 years into his career, he's listed as the all-time leader in earned run average (1.99) and winning percentage (.764, 42 wins vs 13 losses). The rest of the rotation is not exactly chopped liver either, unless for you chopped liver means "a delicious repaste": MacLagan, Jerry "Magoo" Watson (10-11, 2.63), a 234-game winner who has failed to notch 20 victories just twice in his 11-year career, and Kelan Quarton (14-5, 2.56), an extreme ground-ball pitcher who finds ways to get batters out despite walking more men (51) than he's struck out (36).

New York: As surprising as the Baltimore Orioles have been since John McGraw's pillage, the Giants have been disappointing. Since July 16, a day that will live in infamy for all baseball fans in the land of crab cakes, New York has gone just 7-6: not horrible, but given that they were just .500 before that event and trailed the NL leaders by double digits, not nearly good enough to get back into the pennant race. Don't blame the jumpers though: 3B Dolan Packard (.339, 67 R) has hit .333 with his new club, 1B Cody Plummer (.293, 50 RBI) has helped Giants cranks to forget the cruel way McGraw cut fan favorite John Knight (.260 with 27 RBIs this year), and it's hard to blame Snoopy Haddon (21-7, 1.99) for winning "only" 3 of his 5 starts with the team.

Philadelphia (N): What's wrong with 1B/OF Tom Cruse? He lost his first-base job after a poor showing last season (.249, 62 RBI), but the man is still only 27 years of age. This year, though, he's playing like he's 57, hitting just .102 in 27 games. In a paradoxical move that we can only explain by the fact that the Phillies aren't going anywhere anyway, skipper Paul Meagresauce rewarded Cruse's ineffectual pinch-hitting over the first half of the season by handing him the left field job. Needless to say, this move has made some in the outfield unhappy.

Philadelphia (A): Say what you will about the Athletics' pitching, they win and lose games on their own terms. Despite some lackluster fielding, this team is 3rd in the league in batting average allowed due in large part to their 311 strikeouts, a close second to Boston's league leading 317. Given that the Red Stockings' primary outsman has been shipped off to Louisville, we expect Philadelphia to surpass them soon. Unfortunately, all those free outs still only give them a slightly above average ERA (3.01 vs the AL average of 3.11) due to their 262 walks allowed, 10 more than Detroit and 2nd only to the hapless Cleveland Blues. In an attempt to teach his young charges the virtues of allowing fielders to make plays, Connie Mack has brought in control artist Pat "The Caped Crusader" Nihil (8-12, 2.82), recently of the New York Giants, to round out the rotation.

Pittsburgh: We've noticed that usually when a baseballer turns 35, he is largely living off his reputation. We're not saying that people of that advanced age cannot play the game anymore; it's just that usually, they're decent if not great players whose best years occurred in the past. Not so with 2B/SS Tim William. William has fielded two important positions well (at least in a Pirates sense of the term) and for the month of July hit .404 with 15 long hits. This garnered him the Player of the Month trophy. So far, a Pirate has won all three of them for the NL (CF Johnston Long (.346, 78 R, 42 SB) won the May and June honors). Have we mentioned that William collects small replicas of automobiles that children regard as toys? He is a strange fellow, this Tim WiLLiam.

St. Louis: Can you imagine how incredible this team's pitching would be if Johnny Gruelle hadn't defected? Right now the Cards' rotation consists of second-year stud Trevor Munzie (15-5, 2.16), the crafty Mike "Saint" Herbert (16-6, 2.03), young finesse man Dan Hanson (9-11, 2.25), and fan favorite Gianfrocco Amocacci (8-4, 1.85). Suffice it to say that whatever issues these boys have with keeping a hold of first place, it lies with the offense.

Washington: Nobody can accuse the Nationals of penuriousness. So keen has this team been about keeping the American League competitive that they have in many ways traded themselves out of a dynasty. While Louisville and Baltimore were busy stocking their larders with National Leaguers, Washington was doing things like trading flamethrower Garrison "Rube" Lindsley (15-7, 2.80) to the Athletics along with Martin Cheney (12-10, 3.73) for 3B Bailey Hamilton (.270, 55 RBI), who was so mediocre at third that the club was forced to add Rowan Dillon to the roster as well.

[Syd Thrift]

1902: The "Dog Days" of Summer

National League Standings

Team			W  L   PCT   GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff Home  Away	 Hm+/- XInn  1Run  Strk	Last10
Cincinnati Reds		67 34 .663    -	63-38	+4   34-15 33-19 +18    10-2  19-11 W1	8-2
Saint Louis Cardinals	62 38 .620  4.5	64-36	-2   31-20 31-18 +11	 5-10 15-10 W2	7-3
New York Giants		56 44 .560 10.5	62-38	-6   28-21 28-23  +7	 7-5  15-18 W6	9-1
Pittsburgh Pirates	54 46 .540 12.5	63-37	-9   29-20 25-26  +5	 3-9  11-17 L2	3-7
Boston Beaneaters	50 50 .500 16.5	50-50	+0   26-25 24-25  -1	 7-7  18-16 L1	4-6
Chicago Colts		39 62 .386 28.0	33-68	+6   21-29 18-33 -11	 3-4  11-13 L2	5-5
Philadelphia Phillies	38 62 .380 28.5	37-63	+1   19-32 19-30 -13	 8-4  15-17 L10	0-10
Brooklyn Superbas	35 65 .350 31.5	33-67	+2   20-31 15-34 -16 	 4-6  15-17 W2	4-6

American League Standings

Team			W  L   PCT   GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff Home  Away	 Hm+/- XInn  1Run  Strk	Last10
Baltimore Orioles	64 37 .634    -	67-34	-3   30-21 34-16 +13	 8-2 16-9  L1	5-5
Louisville Colonels	61 39 .610  2.5	59-41	+2   25-20 36-19 +16	 5-5 14-13 L4	4-6
Washington Nationals	63 41 .606  2.5	61-43	+2   34-20 29-21  +9	 2-8 24-12 W3	7-3
Philadelphia Athletics	53 51 .510 12.5	52-52	+1   24-28 29-23  +5	 8-7 14-16 W1	5-5
Chicago White Stockings	48 55 .466 17.0	49-54	-1   25-28 23-27  -5	 2-3 15-14 L1	6-4
Boston Red Stockings	48 58 .453 18.5	53-53	-5   20-33 28-25  -5	 4-6 13-23 W1	4-6
Detroit Tigers		39 64 .376 26.0	40-63	-1   18-34 21-30 -13	 3-2 12-14 L1	4-6
Cleveland Blues		34 65 .343 29.0	34-65	+0   13-37 21-28 -16	 3-2 10-17 W1	5-5

National: No World's Series in '02
Cites "Obvious Lack of Balance"

We cannot say that we were surprised by the senior circuit's announcement last Friday that there will be no World Championship of baseball this October. Baltimore, after all, is little more than a team of minor leaguers and they still lead the American League despite the best efforts of the Louisville Colonels and Washington Nationals. We were, frankly, left to hope against hope that the lack of a solid leader in the National League would lead to the playing of a fall classic. Neither Cincinnati nor New York, of course, were likely to agree to anything of the sort, but Cardinals owner Tim Hurst seemed amenable to it.

Sadly, the decision came about and was announced by Albert Spalding, who despite being named the NL President is largely just a figurehead. "The National League of Base Ball Clubs does not serve itself well to stage a postseason contest against a minor league," he announced via press release. "The obvious lack of balance is simply too much to ignore." One thing Spalding appears to be overlooking is that, despite being based in smaller towns than their older counterpart, the AL is actually outdrawing the NL in attendance this year. Of particular note are the situations in Chicago and Philadelphia, two towns that have both an AL and an NL entrant. In both towns, the American club is fielding a more successful team (both the Cubs and Phillies are living through poor seasons) and, just as importantly, bringing more cranks to their games than their National counterpart.

We Would Say That We Are Talking Baseball But In Fact We Type With Our Mouths Closed
News From Around The League



Baltimore: Where was this man ten years ago? SP Sean Nickerson has gone from being the most unlikely Rookie of the Year candidate in the National League to being a surprisingly solid Pitcher of the League award-winner for the AL. Prior to last season, the 32-year-old Nickerson had appeared in a grand total of 35 games, all of them in relief in the Senior Circuit. Given a chance to start by a combination of expansion and a rebuilding Chicago Colts team, Nickerson was the winner in 18 of 29 decisions, posted an earned run average of under 2.50 (2.43), and struck out 3.41 batters for every man he walked. In 1902 he is currently 21-4 with a 1.77 ERA for these Orioles and has won 10 consecutive starts dating back to before McGraw and John Brush shipped his teammates out of Chesapeake Bay.



Boston (N): Earlier, we reported on the situation between CF Steven Corliss and his team. In the intervening month, the situation has become even crazier. Corliss continues to lash out at the club almost daily, but has managed to swing in such a way that the front office's hearing has improved. He's hitting .354 in August, which raises his seasonal average all the way to .280. Despite his prickly nature - or perhaps because of it - Corliss has also become something of a fan favorite. At this point, every option available to the Beaneaters - trade him, cut him, bench him, or play him every day - seems untenable.



Boston {A}: Manager Jeff Sass is sitting on a seat so hot it appears to be giving him blisters. Although he's renowned for his ability to handle young players, the Red Stockings' youthful hitters are batting like yannigans. Only Jay Robbins (.292, 54 RBI) appears to be striking the ball with any force, and even he is far, far off the pace he set in 1899 with the Chicago Colts, when he reached safely 206 times in 579 tries for a .356 average and added a full 53 long hits to that total. Back to '02: the most maddening thing about this ballclub is that there are no .180 hitters. It's just that everybody - from CF Eddie Hoddell (.245, 47 R, 8 SB) to SS Gunnar Jones (.246 with just 20 extra base hits in 382 at-bats) - is hitting somewhere between .230 and .260 with no apparent ability to slap the ball at a better rate.



Brooklyn: 3B Terrence Swarbrick is quietly helping to establish the right side of the Brooklyn infield as the best in baseball. Everybody knows teammate Devlin Shaner (.328), who is 3rd in hitting and 6th in runs scored in the Senior Circuit, but how many youngsters crowd around Swarbrick every day asking for an autograph or a kindly pat on the head? Swarbrick is landing on base nearly as often as his teammate in the middle of the infield (.322 BA) and has more doubles and triples (22 and 9 to 18 and 5). We will grant you that he is absolutely brutal afield (an .853 fielding average with 51 errors at the "hot corner"), but this is the Superbas we are talking about here - every positive must be highlighted.



Chicago (N): 2B Francis Ford (.385) more or less forced manager Jimmy Murphy to find a place for him after hitting .311 over 549 at-bats in the minors last year and this one. Ford is a man who you can visualize as a septegenarian, perhaps as an old man in the midst of a mob all too keen to lynch a couple of drifters who may or may not have murdered a local farmer. Or maybe he looks more like a wizened de facto leader of a small Irish town that an American boxer has come to live out his days at. Ford fancies himself an actor and director, yet there is a strange tie between him and the West that seems stronger than his love of the stage. His younger brother John, it is rumored, shows even more potential.



Chicago (A): We are not ones to criticize the play of those on the field, but we have some advice for SP Matt Nutt (10-16, 5.08): find a few pitches and stick to them. Currently, Nutt claims to have command of no less than six different deliveries: a fast ball, a nickel curve, two kinds of dropshoots, and another kind of fast ball that he says moves a little to the outside. The end result: this jack of all trades is the master of none. Everything seems to come in at about the same speed, which is not all that fast, and the movement he gets on his pitches is average at best. You would think that not having a lot of "stuff" on the balls he throws might make him better able to control them, but you would be wrong. In 219 innings this year, Nutt has walked 85 men and struck out just 53. He's still young - he won't celebrate his 22nd birthday until December - but he's going to need to undergo a significant change in his pitching philosophy if he wants to last in this league.

Cincinnati: It's only the middle of August, but it's beginning to look like the Peoples' Ballclub has sewn up the National League pennant and therefore the World title. They've nearly paced the red-hot Giants with 10 victories in 13 tries this month and will have a fine chance to put the Boston Beaneaters and St. Louis Cardinals away when they play both next weeks. Following that, it's a week's worth of games against two of the National's bottom feeders, the Phillies and the Superbas. Although the Reds hold the old American Association record for wins with 105, the National record is only 94 (by the 1894 Giants); can they surpass that? They need 29 wins in their last 39 games to do so.



Cleveland: We're not entirely sure whether the Blues' series victory over Boston was the result of an improved ballclub or the collapse of the Red Stockings, but we the people who have to report on them will take our victories any way we can get them. Actually, prior to losing 2 of 3 to lowly Detroit, our fair club was 6-3 for the month! Of particular note is SP Berto Sarrie (10-15, 3.84), who has shown signs of greatness this month, winning all three of his starts while allowing just one earned run per nine.



Detroit: What do you do with a 19-year old kid with a career record of 10 wins and 36 losses? You let him get some seasoning in the minor leagues, correct? Well, if you're the Detroit Tigers, that is incorrect. Gar "Doctor Detroit" Wood, a player whom manager Bryan Mertz was sure was going to be a big part of the rotation, was, in fact, sent down after winning just 1 of his first 8 decisions. However, he turned major-league Liliputianism into minor-league Brobdignagianism, winning 6 consecutive starts and posting an ERA of 2.40 against those lesser batters. Upon re-entry into the majors, he promptly lost his next 4 games.



Louisville: It's hard to say exactly what bedevils the Colonels. Poised to take the place of the Orioles at the top of the American division, the Fightin' 9th, as the cranks like to call them, were recently swept by the division rival Nationals and overall are just 5-7 for the month of August. It's true that 1B Rick Harpham (.311, 41 RBI) is out with an ankle injury (and likely gone for the season), but IF Zander Bostic (.301, 31 RBI, 12 XBH in 186 AB) has filled in admirably. They're also, it should be noted, without the services of CF Carl Hendron until next year, although they've had him out of the lineup for a while and were not stymied before.



New York: We were expecting this. The Giants have been almost unstoppable this month, winning 12 of 13 and outscoring their opponents 73 to 21 in that time. Both Bill "Snoopy" Haddon (25-7, 1.83) and youngster John "Big Six" Pearson (19-7, 2.37) are perfect for the month and will contend for Pitcher of the Year honors. The presence of fresh blood in the lineup has emboldened 3B Norm "Big Napoleon" Aston (.303, 54 RBI) and CF Ray Pearl (.304, 46 RBI, 15 SB) to each collect hits in a third of their at-bats for the month. If there's a cloud in this silver lining, it's that during this hot streak they've been able to gain just 2 games on the equally hot Cincinnati Reds.

Philadelphia (N): The wheels have come off the old Philles club. It was looking for a while as though brand new manager Paul Meagresauce was going to lead them to the promised land but instead he has led them to an altogether different Canaan - they won half of their first 22 games for him but have gone just 1-11 since. Mainly, we can blame defense for these woes. In their last 10 games, all of which they have lost, the Phils have given up on average 6.4 runs per game, a streak that includes 4 games in which they have surrendered 9 or more. The current home-and-home series against the Giants may be the season's low water mark.



Philadelphia (A): With four hitters earning a base hit in more than 3/10ths of their at-bats this August (that means a batting average of .300 or more for those of you who do not remember your fractions), things are really looking up for the Athletics in the future. 2B George Marshall (.307, 61 R, 28 SB) is, amazingly, still only 19. He has some ideas about how to "fix Europe"; we haven't the heart to tell him that Europe is not broken. At the hot corner, Ty Graham (.300, 75 R) is having a breakout season that puts him among the contenders for Most Valuable Player honors. SS Jerry Miller (.289, 37 R, 8/9 SB) is also having a career year; this is his second year in the majors and he's hitting 55 points above what he did the year before for the rival Philadelphia team. Finally, RF Doonan Elmes (.305, 49 R, 49 RBI) combines offense, defense (he earned a Gold Glove in 1900 and looks like he might get a 2nd), and gritty baserunning (9 steals so far and untold base advancements) to be the most complete player on the team.

Pittsburgh: The Pirates have got to be the most frustrating team in the league. It's not that they don't have the talent. A fan of the Superbas or the Cubs can at least rest in the knowledge that his team is performing as poorly as it's supposed to. The Pirates, however, seem to revel in underachieving. One month they'll look like legitimate champions, the next like a mediocrity. This month is looking to be one of the mediocre ones. Coming off of a 17-9 July, Pittsburgh was in a great position to make that extra step and get themselves into the pennant race. Unfortunately, their pitching has completely broken down and they've won just 5 of 13 games since then. "I'm doing everything I can," said manager Dave Wilke, who seems to be resigned to his fate at the end of the season. "The boys just won't do what they don't want to do."

St. Louis: Call them the Hitless Wonders. The Cardinals remain in 2nd place despite posting the lowest batting average in the National League (.247). It should be noted that despite the average, this team is somehow 4th in runs scored, so it's not entirely about the pitching. The Cards lead the league in the novelty that is the home run, which to our minds is more of a bit of trivia than an explanation for success. Our stathead tell us that a team that is 4th in the league in categories like "on base percentage" (how is that not batting average?) and "slugging percentage" (that's a nice name, but again... batting average covers that, right?) is exactly where it should be in terms of runs scored. Did we mention that our stathead lives in his mother's basement? We don't even pay him. He just shows up at the office.



Washington: A combination of grit, determination, and hustle have moved the Nationals into a tie for 2nd place and a prime slot to win the American League pennant. 1B Matt Barlow (.342, 71 R, 28 SB) has moved up a weight class this month, slamming the spheroid at a .357 clip. But it's not all about him. Pitchers Dennis Culler (11-1, 2.36) and Bob Cummins (17-8, 2.31) have both been perfect for the month - Cummins having given up 1 earned run (3 total) in 27 innings during that time. It just goes to show that sometimes generosity pays. The Nationals are building a dynasty and building a league at the same time.

[Syd Thrift]

Bump to draw attention to a new feature of the Thriftlon Reports: photographs lovingly retouched into color!

[Syd Thrift]

1902 Enters August

National League Standings

Team			W  L   PCT   GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff Home  Away	 Hm+/- XInn  1Run  Magic Strk	Last10
Cincinnati Reds		76 39 .661    -	72-43	 +4  37-16 39-23 +23   11-2  21-11 20	 W3	7-3
Saint Louis Cardinals	69 45 .605  6.5	71-43	 -2  36-25 33-20  +8	5-11 16-12	 W1	5-5
Pittsburgh Pirates	66 48 .579  9.5	74-40	 -8  31-22 35-26  +9	3-9  14-17	 W1	8-2
New York Giants		65 49 .570 10.5	72-42	 -7  29-24 36-25 +12	7-5  16-21	 L2	6-4
Boston Beaneaters	54 60 .474 21.5	54-60	 +0  28-33 26-27  -7	7-7  19-18	 L1	4-6
Chicago Colts		47 68 .409 29.0	40-75	 +7  24-30 23-38  -7	3-4  14-15	 W1	5-5
Philadelphia Phillies	41 73 .360 34.5	41-73	 +0  21-40 20-33 -20	8-4  15-20	 L1	3-7
Brooklyn Superbas	39 75 .342 36.5	37-77	 +2  22-39 17-36 -22	4-6  18-19	 L1	2-8

American League Standings

Team			W  L   PCT   GB	Pyt.Rec	Diff Home  Away	 Hm+/- XInn  1Run  Magic Strk	Last10
Louisville Colonels	69 43 .616    -	68-44	 +1 26-21 43-22	 +22    8-5  15-15 27	 W1	7-3
Baltimore Orioles	69 45 .605  1.0	72-42	 -3 30-23 39-22	 +16    9-2  17-14	 L2	4-6
Washington Nationals	67 48 .583  3.5	65-50	 +2 37-26 30-22	  +4	3-10 25-13	 L1	4-6
Philadelphia Athletics	61 56 .521 10.5	59-58	 +2 32-32 29-24	  -3    8-7  17-16	 W3	6-4
Boston Red Stockings	57 59 .491 14.0	62-54	 -5 20-33 37-26	  +4    4-6  15-23	 W6	9-1
Chicago White Stockings	52 64 .448 19.0	52-64	 +0 29-34 23-30	 -11	2-4  16-15	 L3	3-7
Cleveland Blues		41 71 .366 28.0	40-72	 +1 20-43 21-28	 -22	3-3  11-18	 W1	5-5
Detroit Tigers		42 72 .368 28.0	44-70	 -2 18-34 24-38	 -10	3-3  13-15	 L1	3-7

Colonels Finally Pass Orioles
We Were Beginning To Wonder

The American League had a month of August that could be charitably be described as containing a great deal of parity and otherwise described as proving out the National League scions when they refused to schedule a postseason duel with the "minor league". The team with the best record over the past lunar cycle was the Red Stockings of Boston, a squad that had conceded the league title some time ago. The three clubs in the "pennant race", if it really can be called that, finished 13-11 (Louisville), 12-15 (Baltimore), and 12-12 (Washington). All this is making for a rather exciting 3-team duel, we will grant you, but it's more akin to a feature of sway-backed nags than hustling thoroughbreds.

The National League, while it may not be coming down quite to the wire the way the junior circuit is, at least has some knowledge of who in the league are the cream and who are the suds. On the cream end: Cincinnati, who have won a blistering 38 of their last 53 games, New York, who rode a 20-2 stretch from late July into mid-August to sit on the outside edges of the race, and Pittsburgh, who rattled off 10 consecutive victories of their own in the month. On the other hand, the Philadelphia Phillies lost 17 games in a row at one point and finished the month just 5-22.

Call It The "Dead Ball Season"
Team Statistical Totals

National League Batting

Team			 AVG   AB   R    H  2B  3B  HR  SB
Pittsburgh Pirates	.278 4064 625 1128 181  63  30   89
Cincinnati Reds		.268 4103 625 1100 135 	53  13	186
New York Giants		.259 3962 542 1026 151  48  15	171
Chicago Colts		.257 4028 457 1034 138  49  12	 62
Brooklyn Superbas	.257 3930 420 1009 146  50   6	 60
Philadelphia Phillies	.253 3970 470 1003 129  43  24	109
Saint Louis Cardinals	.245 4013 531  983 152  47  40	163
Boston Beaneaters	.245 3923 495  960 150  52  15  162

American League Batting

Team			 AVG   AB   R    H  2B  3B  HR  SB
Louisville Colonels	.284 4051 549 1151 194  57  17   92
Baltimore Orioles	.276 4079 571 1127 151  39  27	 84
Washington Nationals	.276 3986 582 1102 149  42  31	173
Chicago White Stockings	.271 4084 512 1107 181  47   7	110
Philadelphia Athletics	.264 4152 530 1095 135  50  24	101
Boston Red Stockings	.264 4027 502 1062 141  37  27	 74
Detroit Tigers		.250 4026 499 1007 151	55  14	 94
Cleveland Blues		.245 3881 454  950 155  23  18	 94

National League Pitching

Team			ERA    G  CG SHO     IP   HA   R  ER HRA  BB   K OAVG
Saint Louis Cardinals	2.36 114 105  12 1045.0	 886 403 274  13 354 271 .226
New York Giants		2.52 114 111   9 1024.2	 994 400 287  21 187 320 .253
Cincinnati Reds		2.72 115 100   8 1049.0 1023 475 317  17 378 318 .254
Pittsburgh Pirates	2.78 114 102  14 1031.1	 940 444 318  17 222 432 .238
Boston Beaneaters	2.93 114 100   6 1031.0	1066 527 336  16 272 318 .263
Chicago Colts		3.54 115  86   6 1017.1	1131 641 400  19 349 229 .278
Brooklyn Superbas	3.63 114  94   1 1004.2	1114 633 405  22 348 298 .276
Philadelphia Phillies	3.79 114  92   4 1014.2	1089 642 427  30 365 217 .272

American League Pitching

Team			ERA    G  CG SHO     IP   HA   R  ER HRA  BB   K OAVG
Louisville Colonels	2.49 112  99  10 1027.2	 952 435 284  20 194 395 .241
Baltimore Orioles	2.66 114 101  12 1037.0	 978 424 307  27 194 333 .247
Boston Red Stockings	2.69 116 101  12