Alltime Allstar League begins operation - Page 40

Eugene Church · 08-18-2007, 02:53 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Tuesday, September 23, 1909

AL AND NL GOLD GLOVERS SNAG AWARDS

The American and National Leagues have picked the best defenders for 1909. The announcement was made today at the AAA headquarters in St. Louis.

In baseball parlance a player with good range, good arm and good hands is a great catch. Clubs strive to be strong especially "up the middle." Solid defenders can make a difference in the outcome of tight games and tight pennant races.

In the American League second baseman Eddie Collins of the White Sox continues to dominate his position and won for the Gold Glove for a record seventh time. Two of his teammates also picked up trophies with first baseman Frank Thomas taking the honor for the fourth time and shortstop Dick Lundy winning a third time. Alejandro Oms of the A's was selected as the top center fielder for the second time in his career. All others were first time recipients.

Right fielder Turkey Stearnes of the Cubs tops the National League list of defenders and has been selected for the seventh year. Left fielder Barry Bonds of New York will pick up his fourth Gold Glove, while Honus Wagner of the Pirates will get also get his fourth, but he has won it three times for second base. This year he was named the best shortstop. Two Phillies won the honor for the third time each, third baseman Mike Schmidt and catcher Biz Mackey. Pittsburgh first sacker Sadaharu Oh also garnered the award for a third time. Cool Papa Bell of Chicago was named the best fielding center fielder for a second year. The other honorees are first time Gold Glovers.

Good defense will be honored this weekend at the annual Baseball Writers of America sports awards banquet. This year's American and National League Gold Glove Awards will be presented to these standout defenders:

American League Gold Glove Winners
Pitcher: Bob Lemon (Cleveland)
Catcher: Bill Dickey (New York)
First Base: Frank Thomas (Chicago)
Second Base: Eddie Collins (Chicago)
Third Base: Paul Molitor (Washington)
Shortstop: Dick Lundy (Chicago)
Left Field: Ted Williams (Boston)
Center Field: Alejandro Oms (Philadelphia)
Right Field: Goose Goslin (Washington)

National League Gold Glover Winners
Pitcher: Carl Morton (Boston)
Catcher: Biz Mackey (Philadelphia)
First Base: Sadaharu Oh (Pittsburgh)
Second Base: Bill Mazeroski (Pittsburgh)
Third Base: Mike Schmidt (Philadelphia)
Shortstop: Honus Wagner (Pittsburgh)
Left Field: Barry Bonds (New York)
Center Field: Cool Papa Bell (Chicago)
Right Field: Turkey Stearnes (Chicago)

Eugene Church · 08-25-2007, 08:17 PM

I took a few days off.

I am in the process of getting the rookies for the 1910 season.

It is getting very hard to get good rookies now.

Most of the good players have been added over the first nine years of the league.

Eugene Church · 09-06-2007, 01:00 PM

Sorry, I am a dunce.

I spent all day yesterday writing up the preseason analysis for the 1910 season for the American League and wiped it out by mistake. I opened a PM, while I had the thread open and lost it.

I should have used the "back" button, but didn't.

I will get busy today and complete both leagues, so I can play the 1910 season.

Eugene Church · 09-06-2007, 02:18 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Wednesday, April 9, 1910

SCRIBES PICK TRIBE TO WIN AGAIN IN AL

The Cleveland Indians coasted to the American League pennant last season and won by 9 games. This year the Baseball Writers of America have overwhelmingly chosen them to take the title again. In the BWA preseason poll, the Tribe was named on 85 of the ballots, easily outpointing the Detroit Tigers, who received 15 votes. The St. Louis Browns finished third in the poll with 7 votes, followed by the Athletics with 5 and the Yankees with 3. No other clubs received any votes.

American League
1. Cleveland Indians
2. Detroit Tigers
3. St. Louis Browns
4. Philadelphia Athletics
5. New York Yankees
6. Chicago White Sox
7. Boston Red Sox
8. Washington Senators

In the preseason analysis by the baseball journalists, the Cleveland Indians were picked to repeat as American League champions. Manager Steve O'Neill has a very solid and well-balanced team. He has the league's best pitching staff that was first with a fine 3.48 ERA, backed up by the highest-scoring offense. The Indians were second in hitting to the Tigers .272 with a .268 average, but still scored the most runs.

Leading the Cleveland charge in 1910 will be pitchers Addie Joss (15-5 3.07), Bob Lemon (14-9 3.19) and relief ace Doug Jones (9-4 2.69). Mix in veterans Bob Feller (12-14 3.92) and Herb Score (13-13 4.02) and you have the potential for an outstanding staff. O'Neill will also be able to call on Mel Harder (4-2 2.90) and Stan Coveleskie (9-4 3.00) the whole season. They joined the rotation when Joss was lost to injury for two months late in the season and both did a fine job replacing him.

In the batting department, the Indians will feature Golden Bat winner, Willie Wells (.312/30 HR/119 RBI/98 R/35 SB), who led the league in batting and RBIs, along with Earl Averill (.281/21 HR/102 RBI/90 R), Tris Speaker (.287/17 HR/78 RBI/109 R) and Nap Lajoie (.307/6 HR/62 RBI/109 R).

The only newcomer to the Cleveland roster will be slick-fielding second baseman Roberto Alomar, promoted from Indianapolis in the American Association. The 20-year-old hit .336 with 20 homers, 100 RBIs, 113 runs scored and 30 stolen bases. However, he will be groomed to replace Lajoie and will be used as a utility infielder for the time being.

The Detroit Tigers were third last year and trailed the Indians by 13 games. The Tigers get by on excellent hitting, paced by superstar Ty Cobb (.301/9 HR/85 RBI/100 R/55 SB), Charlie Gehringer (.306/13 HR/86 RBI/80 R) and Hank Greenberg (.257/28 HR/95 RBI/82 R). Detroit has an abundance of good hitters throughout their lineup.

On the hill skipper Hughie Jennings has good starters in Tommy Bridges (17-8 3.18), Jack Morris (14-9 3.42), Masaichi Kaneda (13-11 3.99) and Hal Newhouser (11-11 4.04), but he is looking for improvement in his relief corps, a problem in past seasons. John Hiller (3-0 2.93) will be his closer this season. Hiller has failed to nail down the job many times in the past and was exiled to the minor leagues for most of the last two years. He was recalled from Toledo late last year and did well, when rookie Francisco Cordero (4-7 5.16) struggled in the role. Just in case Hiller doesn't do the job, Detroit has added Troy Percival as insurance. Percival stood out at Double A Little Rock with a brilliant 1.92 ERA, 40 saves and a 10-2 won-lost mark.

Solving this dilemma could go a long way in getting the Tigers back in contention for the AL pennant.

Manager Earl Weaver of the St. Louis Browns has quietly created a good ballclub. He has done it with pitching and defense. His mound corps is rated number two to Cleveland's with a 3.60 ERA. Heading the list of hurlers are Hoyt Wilhelm (19-9 2.34), the ERA leader, Ned Garver (17-8 3.31), Urban Shocker (12-9 2.71), Mike Cuellar (10-15 3.45) and Jim Palmer (8-8 3.92). Like Detroit, the Browns lack a good closer. B. J. Ryan (2-7 4.01) floundered last year and will be replaced by Armando Benitez, purchased from the Baltimore Orioles of the International League. The 21-year-old Benitez had an outstanding season with the Orioles, chalking up a 9-4 record with 41 saves and a 2.96 ERA.

St. Louis has to do it with pitching and fielding. The Browns were tied with New York for the worst batting average with a .250 mark. Weaver's best batters are Ken Williams (.293/13 HR/87 RBI/66 R), George Sisler (.287/6 HR/47 RBI/75 R/44 SB) and Josh Gibson (.2151/32 HR/83 RBI/79 R).

A lack of depth in the starting rotation is the reason why last year's second place team is forecast to finish fourth in 1910. The Philadelphia Athletics have a good nucleus of starters in Rube Waddell (20-9 2.94), Lefty Grove (14-11 3.63) and Bobby Shantz (14-10 4.16), but will need a revitalized Ed Plank (8-11 5.06) to challenge the leaders. Plank had to endure his worst season last year. Bullpen ace Dennis Eckersley (11-4 2.64) is back after a career year with a record-breaking 41 saves. Another righthander Danny Haren was bought from the Oakland Oaks. Haren compiled a 14-6 record and a 2.87 ERA. He and returning holdovers, Barry Zito (3-2 2.92) and Tim Hudson (1-0 4.80), will vie for the fifth slot in the pitching rotation.

Manager Connie Mack's A's were down near the bottom in offense last year as Jimmie Foxx (.241/25 HR/74 RBI), John Henry Lloyd (.247/15 HR/73 RBI) and Mickey Cochrane (.254/6 HR/54 RBI) all suffered down seasons and the team had a composite batting average of only .252, next-to-last in the AL. This trio will need a rebirth for the Athletics to finish higher in the standings. Philadelphia's only reliable batters were Alejandro Oms (.312/13 HR/65 RBI/99 R), Al Simmons (.281/14 HR/93 RBI/68 R) and Frank Baker (.280/25 HR/84 RBI/88 R).

Mack has gone out and purchased several players from the Pacific Coast League. Righthander Jesse Flores was 17-10 with a 2.75 ERA with a mediocre Sacramento club. His teammate, outfielder Sam Chapman, batted .325 with 25 home runs, 106 RBIs and scored 99 times.

The Bronx didn't have much to cheer about in 1909. The mighty New York Yankees dipped to fourth place, 18 games off the pace. It was their worst season ever. Even worse is predicted this year. The BWA has voted the Bronx Bombers to end up in fifth place. Poor hitting and so-so pitching is the reason. The Yanks were dead last with a .250 batting average and fourth with a 3.97 team ERA. This has to change for them to challenge for the AL flag. New York can not be successful by just hitting home runs. They topped the league again in homers. But they need to have baserunners on when they hit it out of the park. 199 roundtrippers translated into only 683 runs, fourth best in the league.

Manager Casey Stengel's got a great season from Mel Stottlemyre (22-8 3.38), but only a fair performance from Whitey Ford (12-12 3.74) and a lousy performance from Lefty Gomez (7-12 5.04). Gomez will begin the season in the bullpen and work long relief. In the bullpen, relief specialist Mariano Rivera (4-7 4.13) had a subpar year. However, rookie Randy Johnson (13-12 3.65) showed good promise in his freshman season. This year's rotation will also include Ron Guidry (9-7 3.69) and two minor leaguers, rookie David Wells and Andy Pettitte. Wells went 18-4 with a 3.49 ERA for the Kansas City Blues in the American Association. Pettitte is back in the majors for his second trial. He was 1-3 with a 5.36 ERA in 1906. Last year at Newark in the International League, he was 18-7 with a 2.78 ERA.

First baseman Lou Gehrig (.295/24 HR/90 RBI/83 R) and center fielder Joe DiMaggio (.292/18 HR/64 RBI/92 R) had good years at bat, but the rest of the Bronx Bombers bombed a bit. Babe Ruth (.269/31 HR/83 RBI/104 R) had a disappointing season by his standards, hitting only .269. The highly-regarded youngsters Alex Rodriguez (.249/34 HR/92 RBI/68 R) and Alfonso Soriano (.214/22 HR/56 RBI/80 R) hit for power, but not for average. They also struck out too much. It is rumored Stengel will replace Soriano at second base with the veteran, Joe Gordon (.235/9 HR/21 RBI/13 R), who was the backup last year.

In addition to Wells and Pettitte, outfielder Charlie Keller will get another opportunity on the parent team. He starred for Kansas City by batting .296 with 33 homers, 122 RBIs and scoring 102 times. Keller's only previous stay in New York was short-lived in 1903. He batted only .190 in a parttime role and went back to the minors. He is only 26 years old, yet has 8 years experience.

The Chicago White Sox, managed by Al Lopez, are slated to finish sixth this year. The Pale Hose are mediocre in most categories and have several talented ballplayers, but no stars. The Chisox were next-to-last with a .257 batting average and fifth with a 4.05 ERA. You name it and they need it.

Lopez has the basis for a good pitching staff in Ed Walsh (14-12 3.34), Dick Donovan (15-10 3.28) and Ted Lyons (15-7 3.84). Chicago just needs Billy Pierce (2-14 5.36) to regain the form that made him a consistent winner in past years. Wilbur Wood will be taken out of the bullpen -- he was the closer last year -- and be restored to a starting role, where he has had success in the past. Dave Steib (4-11 3.61) will also get a shot at starting. Pierce and Wood could be the keys to the White Sox sneaking into the first division.

Bobby Jenks will be Wood's replacement as the closer. He had 37 saves for Double A Memphis in 1909. He won 10 and lost only 2 for the Chicks with a sparkling 2.67 ERA. Jenks' last foray into the majors was 1908, when he had a dismal 2-9 mark with a very poor 6.22 ERA.

Offensively, the White Sox don't have much to boast about. Joe Jackson (.311/5 HR/83 RBI/89 R) consistently hits .300, but has little help. Gold Glovers Dick Lundy (.279/18 HR/87 RBI/83 R) and Eddie Collins (.299/1 HR/43 RBI/89 R) are also good, dependable contact hitters. What Chicago is sorely lacking is someone to hit the long ball. They need more power at the plate to compete with the first division teams. Only Frank Thomas (.226/27 HR/98 RBI/67 R) is a threat to go long, but he hits only .226. If he would hit .300, it would make a world of difference in his overall numbers. Louis Santop (.246/18 HR/71 RBI) and Magglio Ordonez (.254/17 HR/59 RBI) fall in the same boat.

On paper the Boston Red Sox should be able to compete with anybody. The Bosox have great personnel, good enough to rival any of the other teams, but when they get on the field, they just don't produce. Manager Joe McCarthy is bewildered by it. They have finished sixth and eighth the last two seasons.

Only George Ruth (16-10 3.42) had a good season on the hill. Second year man Bill Monbouquette (10-6 4.01) and vet Mel Parnell (7-6 4.02) had decent years, but the rest were not very effective. The Red Sox had a terrible 4.68 ERA, one of the worst in AAA history. That's why they ended the season in the cellar, 33 games out of first place. Roger Clemens (8-14 4.27), Pedro Martinez (3-8 5.51) and Cy Young (0-4 5.31) did not pitch up to their potential. Boston will add three hurlers to the mound corps. Rookie Josh Beckett has been promoted from the San Diego Padres of the PCL, where he compiled a 17-6 record with a 3.03 ERA. Beckett won a starting role in spring training. Two other pitchers will be making return appearances to the Red Sox. The new closer will be Jonathan Papelbon, who went 8-0 with a splendid 1.61 ERA in a half season with the Louisville Colonels of the American Association. He had started the season in Boston, but was a disappointing 2-3 with a 6.14 ERA. Tim Wakefield was also called up from the Colonels. He chalked up a 16-7 mark with a 2.95 ERA. Wakefield was 6-10 with a 4.18 ERA in two short stints in 1907-08 with the Red Sox. He will initially be used in middle relief, but will get a shot at starting, if any of the other starters falter.

If the pitchers could pitch like the Bosox batters hit, things would be alright in Beantown. Ted Williams and Company hit a composite .260 (4th) with a 160 home runs (2nd) and ranked third in runs scored. Williams (.288/36 HR/110 RBI/99 R) was the AL leader in home runs and finished second in RBIs. He was aided by Oscar Charleston (.299/25 HR/81 RBI/101 R/59 SB), David Ortiz (.239/29 HR/92 RBI/70 R) and the Rookie of the Year, Johnny Damon (.277/14 HR/67 RBI/84 R).

Another good bat has been added to the roster. Outfielder Mike Greenwell will be used as a utility outfielder this year. He had an outstanding season in San Diego, hitting .325 with 22 roundtrippers, 119 RBIs and scored 86 times.

Some good pitching could do wonders for the Bosox.

Good seasons from third baseman Nomar Garciaparra (.250/21 HR/72 RBI/77 R) and shortstop Joe Cronin (.272/7 HR/59 RBI/71 R) could do wonders, too.

The Washington Senators were seventh in 1909 and are expected to slip to the basement in 1910. Only a handful of players stood out for the Senators last year. One of them is their fine righthander, Alvin Crowder (15-10 3.69), who is 68-53 in his six years with the club. The others are Golden Glove winner Paul Molitor (.296/9 HR/59 RBI/78 R) and journeyman outfielders Goose Goslin (.270/19 HR/81 RBI/80 R) and Heinie Manush (.294/6 HR/73 RBI/68 R).

Manager Clark Griffith will pretty much go with the current personnel. The only newcomer is rookie lefthander, Jerry Koosman, who had an impressive season with the Double A Chattanooga Lookouts in the Southern Association. Koosman starred there with a 21-10 record and a remarkable 2.49 ERA with a seventh place team. He will do time as a middle reliever at the beginning of the season, but will step in, if any of the starters struggle.

Washington is building its hopes for a better year on pitcher Walter Johnson (7-15 4.36), who had a rare bad season in 1909. Griffith is looking for Cannonball Dick Redding (11-15 3.88) to continue to improve. He thinks Redding has the talent to be an elite pitcher in the American League. Griffith also puts second year pitcher Dean Chance (9-9 4.70) in that same category. The Senator skipper also expects better things from starters Bert Blyleven (5-9 3.66) and Jim Kaat (2-1 3.39) and Eddie Guarado (1-2 3.83), who took over the closer spot from Rick Aguilera (6-8 4.45) at the end of last season.

Washington also has some great young talent in first baseman Justin Morneau (.256/14 HR/86 RBI/68 R), center fielder Torii Hunter (.255/17 HR/82 RBI/70 R) and catcher Joe Mauer (.266/3 HR/42 RBI/62 R). All of them are ready to move up in class.

Eugene Church · 09-07-2007, 10:20 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Wednesday, April 9, 1910

GIANTS AND CARDS IN A SCRAMBLE FOR NL FLAG

The Baseball Writers of America have predicted the New York Giants will repeat as the National League champions. John McGraw's Polo Grounders were the choice of 70 voters in the preseason baseball poll. The St. Louis Cardinals were the runner-up choice with 30 votes. The Phillies came in a very distant third with 6 votes, followed by the Reds with 4 and the Dodgers with 2.

National League
1. New York Giants
2. St. Louis Cardinals
3. Philadelphia Phillies
4. Cincinnati Reds
5. Brooklyn Dodgers
6. Pittsburgh Pirates
7. Chicago Cubs
8. Boston Braves

The New York Giants made shambles of the National League pennant chase last year and have been picked by the baseball experts to do the same this year. The Giants boasted the best ERA last season with a 3.60 mark, hit more homers than anybody else, were second with a .264 batting average and second in runs scored. That's why they won by 10 games and then whipped Cleveland in the World Series. The Giants were the best team in both leagues. It could be more of the same in 1910 with a World Series rematch with the Indians, who are picked to win the American League.

Manager John McGraw has a wealth of pitchers and position players. On the hill, he has Christy Mathewson (18-8 3.16), Carl Hubbell (16-9 2.47), Johnny Antonelli (15-8 3.23), Juan Marichal (12-11 3.98) and bullpen ace, Marv Grissom (7-4 3.01). New York has added rookie hurlers Red Ames and Jesse Barnes to the roster, along with Jason Schmidt, who has sat out the last two years with an arm injury. Ames and Barnes both pitched for the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association with Ames registering a 22-8 record with a 2.74 ERA and Barnes going 16-10 with a 3.06 ERA. Schmidt has a career 8-9 mark and a 4.05 ERA in two short stints with the Giants in 1907-08. All three are scheduled to be middle relievers. The other two spots on the staff will be filled by Sal Maglie (5-2 3.05) and Joe McGinnity (5-4 1.73), who were very effective in the second half run in 1909. They will share the #5 starter slot.

New York excels in the hitting department, too. The Giants big bats are Mel Ott (.282/28 HR/105 RBI/117 R), Martin Dihigo (.301/36 HR/119 RBI/84 R), Barry Bonds (.277/31 HR/73 RBI/116 R), Willie Mays (.264/23 HR/85 RBI/96 R) and Billy Terry (.318/6 HR/89 RBI/53 R).

What a year the St. Louis Cardinals hitters had last season. They led both leagues with a .276 average, but it wasn't enough to beat the Giants. The Redbirds pitching corps labored most of the year and compiled a 4.07 ERA, only good enough for sixth place in the NL.

Manager Tony Larussa has more .300 hitters on his roster than he can fit into the starting lineup. Leading the Cards are Stan Musial (.301/29 HR/115 RBI/106 R), Johnny Mize (.300/26 HR/94 RBI/91 R), Rogers Hornsby (.301/11 HR/86 RBI/81 R) and Austin McHenry (.302/15 HR/66 RBI/101 R).

To bolster the mound staff the Cards have restored longtime stalwart Harry Brecheen (6-3 3.34) to the starting rotation. He was 61-37 from 1901 to 1906. Brecheen spent 1907-08 at Rochester in the International and was recalled last season. Larussa moved him into the starting rotation in August and he responded well. Bill Doak will be the only rookie on the team this year. He was 20-12 with the Columbus Redbirds of the American Association in 1909. Doak will be used in long relief at first with the possibility of some spot starting.

Rookie Dan Quisenberry (4-5 3.49) proved to be a good closer last season and will be used there again this year.

For St. Louis to contend with New York, the key will be the pitching, both starters and relievers. If the Cards get improvement there, they will give the Giants a lot of competition.

Last year the Philadelphia Phillies hung close to the Giants until midseason, but couldn't match their torrid second half pace and eventually lost out by 12 games and finished in the third spot in the standings. This season the baseball scribes think that is where they will end up again.

Manager Danny Ozark has stayed pat with his roster and will start the season with the same players as last year, hoping they can remain in the race the whole year. The Phils have to improve in the batting department to challenge the Giants and the Cardinals. As a club they hit only .254 in 1909, fifth in the National League.

No one on the Philadelphia squad had a good year, they all fell below career levels. Ed Delahanty (.246/5 HR/50 RBI/60 R), a lifetime .315 batter, had a terrible season. The best the Phillies had to offer were Chuck Klein (.299/21 HR/78 RBI/88 R), Biz Mackey (.294/15 HR/88 RBI/74 R) and Billy Hamilton (.288/4 HR/50 RBI/93 R/33 SB), but their numbers were down as well. It will take good years from them, plus Ryan Howard (.213/25 HR/79 RBI/66 R) and Mike Schmidt (.256/22 HR/79 RBI/63 R) for Philadelphia to be contenders.

Pitching-wise Ozark is in pretty good shape with the likes of veterans Steve Carlton (17-10 3.57), Robin Roberts (15-11 3.49), Chris Short (13-10 3.63) and Pete Alexander (11-12 3.60). In the bullpen Tug McGraw (0-1 2.70) did a capable job after he replaced Billy Wagner (6-11 4.97) as the closer. Vincent Padilla (4-4 4.37) and Sid Fernandez (4-2 5.40) will be the #5 starters, replacing Curt Shilling (3-6 5.48) and Curt Simmons (6-7 4.33).

Fourth in the preseason poll were the Cincinnati Reds. Sparky Anderson's crew made good progress last year and stayed in the race until the halfway mark in the schedule, trailing by only 4.5 games. Rookie of the Year Junior Griffey (.266 /32 HR/93 RBI/100 R) played a big role in that improvement, along with vets Ted Kluszewski (.288/26 HR/107 RBI/87 R) and Frank Robinson (.274/33 HR/95 RBI/92 R).

Returning to Cincinnati's roster this year is 1907's sensational Rookie of the Year Chris Sabo. Anderson is hoping Sabo will recapture the magic of that season, when he hit .290 with 20 homers and 100 RBIs. He went to the bench the next year. Sabo will be installed at third base and Dave Conception will be given the shortstop position. Journeyman Conception is brilliant with the glove and would be a great addition, if he can hit consistently. With regular play, Sparky thinks he can. Conception has been at Nashville in the Southern Association for the last three season. He hit .305 there in 1909.

Decent pitching also played a part in Cincy's rise in play. They ended up in sixth, 20 games out, but played a good brand of baseball. The team ERA was 3.90, second to New York's 3.60. Starters Gary Nolan (14-10 3.41) and Eppa Rixey (13-12 3.81) had good seasons. So did Don Gullett (6-4 3.21) and Tom Seaver (6-9 3.21), who were moved to the starting rotation at the season's mid-point. Closer Rob Dibble (8-9 3.17) had a fine year, too.

1910 is looking good for the Reds. A relief whiz from the Nashville Vols has been added to the roster. His name is John Franco. He might give Dibble some strong competition for the closer spot. Franco compiled a 12-3 mark for Nashville with a sensational 2.18 ERA. Also promoted from the Vols was Johnny Vander Meer, who charted an 18-12 record and a 2.87 ERA. Vander Meer will used as a spot starter by Anderson. The Reds also are looking for good things from Noodles Hahn (1-3), who impressed with a 1.47 ERA and 3 saves in 20 relief appearances last season.

The BWA has forecast a fifth place finish for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Manager Tommy Lasorda's ballclub was tied for fourth last year with the Pirates and ended up 17 games behind the leader. The Dodgers need pitching. Sandy Koufax (19-7 1.89), the best pitcher in baseball, can't win a pennant by himself. He will need help from Dazzy Vance (11-15 3.45), Fernando Valenzuela (6-4 3.47) and the others in the starting rotation like veterans Van Mungo (9-8 4.23) and Claude Osteen (10-8 4.41) and rookies Brad Penny and Dutch Ruether. Last year Penny went 15-4 with a 2.82 ERA at Montreal in the International League, while Ruether was 19-6 and 2.91 with the St. Paul Saints in the American Association. Lasorda will have the capable Eric Gagne (6-4 4.14) in the bullpen.

Brooklyn hits well, ranking fourth in the NL with a .262 average. They hope rookie outfielder Raul Mondesi will add a little spark to the attack. He batted .310 with 30 home runs and 92 RBIs for the Montreal Royals in 1909 and will platoon in right field with Duke Snider (.252/10 HR/36 RBI).

The leaders in the lineup this season are expected to be Mike Piazza (.292/37 HR/101 RBI/81 R), Cristobel Torriente (.299/13 HR/93 RBI/87 R), Jack Fourrier (.304/14 HR/73 RBI/92 R) and Jackie Robinson (.297/16 HR/68 RBI/100 R/36 SB).

Improved pitching could move the Dodgers higher in the standings, but it is not likely they will challenge the Giants and the Cards. Third may be the best they can do.

The Pittsburgh Pirates were in the thick of the battle up until midseason last year. They were in a three-way tie for first place at the midpoint mark, but slumped badly in the second half and ended up tied for fourth with Brooklyn. The Bucs don't really do anything very well on paper, but they won some ballgames last year somehow, mainly via home run power. They were sixth in hitting with a .253 mark and next-to-last in pitching with a dismal 4.32 ERA.

Skipper Danny Murtaugh will have basically the same regulars, but has dipped into the farm system for pitching. Vic Aldridge has been promoted from the Hollywood Stars of the PCL and Al Mamaux called up from the New Orleans Pelicans in the Double A Southern Association. Aldridge compiled a 16-9 mark with a 3.48 ERA, while Mamaux was 21-15 with a 2.53 ERA for the seventh place Pels.

Both of these youngsters will have to stand by in the wings. They will have to do time in middle relief to prove themselves. Pittsburgh's starting rotation will include Deacon Phillippe (12-12 4.22), Bruce Kison (12-8 4.01), Rip Sewell (9-6 3.93), Bob Veale (4-10 3.12) and Doug Drabek (5-10 4.83). Murtaugh is blessed with a fine closer in Kent Tekulve (9-5 3.41).

Pacing the Pirate attack will be the NL batting champ, Honus Wagner (.332/17 HR/81 RBI/91 R/43 SB), Sadaharu Oh (.234/32 HR/101 RBI/82 R), Brian Giles (.252/24 HR/90 RBI/79 R) and Dave Parker (.240/25 HR/75 RBI/72 R). Rookie Dick Groat will take over at shortstop and move the versatile Wagner and Golden Glover back to second base. The 21-year-old Groat batted .319 for New Orleans, hitting 6 roundtrippers, drove in 73 runs and scored 83 runs. To get more punch in the lineup, Murtaugh intends to give infielder Arky Vaughan, a career .281 hitter, and outfielder Roberto Clemente, a lifetime .271 hitter, more playing time this season. Good fielding rookie catcher Jim Pagliaroni is slated to play a lot this year as well. He impressed at the PCL's Hollywood Stars in 1909. The 19-year old already has two years of pro ball under his belt. Pagliaroni batted .295 with 17 homers for the Stars.

The up-and-down Pirates could do it again this season and contend, if the pitching improves. Second or third is not out of the question, but sixth is more likely.

The Chicago Cubs went from the penthouse to the outhouse in one season as they tumbled from first to last place -- from World Champions to the cellar. Pitching was the culprit -- the Cubs team ERA soared to 4.41 and a good pitcher was hard to find -- Moe Brown (15-8 3.30) was still solid, but skipper Charlie Grimm had little else. Ed Reulbach slumped to 10-16 with a 3.54 ERA, Rube Foster staggered to a 10-17 mark and a poor 4.88 ERA and bullpen ace Bruce Sutter struggled at times and ended the season with a 7-6 record as his ERA ballooned to 3.99.

To rectify the situation, the Chicubs are writing it off as a bad season. Grimm will keep the rotation pretty much the same as last year. He is glad to have Pat Malone (6-4 3.39) back from injury. He was one of the few bright spots before being laid up in July. He is fully recovered and ready to go this year and will be the #4 starter. Larry French (3-2 4.02) and Rick Reuschel (2-2 4.50) are the other hopefuls for the #5 slot.

The Cubs fall from glory couldn't be blamed entirely on the pitching, the batters had their problems, too. The remarkable Turkey Stearnes (.322/41 HR/134 RBI/106 R) and Cool Papa Bell (.298/11 HR/71 RBI/112 R) almost carried the offensive load by themselves. Little help came from the rest of the lineup. Ernie Banks (.233/17 HR/75 RBI), Aramis Ramirez (.234/15 HR/47 RBI), Gabby Hartnett (.248/10 HR/42 RBI) and Bill Dahlen (.254/4 HR/28 RBI/33 R) all had a part in the collapse.

To energize the offense, Grimm has restored left fielder Hack Wilson (.299/4 HR/19 RBI)and first baseman Tetsuharu Kawakami (.306/3 HR/17) to fulltime status. Last season they were on the bench much of the season. He has also summoned Woody English from the farm team in Los Angeles. He hit .319 with 117 runs scored, 4 homers and 53 RBIs for the Angels in the Pacific Coast League. English won the shortstop spot in spring training.

The preseason sportswriters poll shows Chicago seventh in 1910. However, they could finish anywhere from seventh to fourth, but not much higher than that.

The Boston Braves finished 22 games out of first in 1909 and were tied with the Cubs for last place in the National League. According to the pollsters, manager Bobby Cox's squad will have sole possession of last place this year. The Braves are simply the worst team in the Alltime Allstar Association. They hit only .238 last season and will have to greatly improve this to climb in the standings.

Only Buck Leonard (.289/28 HR/105 RBI/82 R), Hank Aaron (.288/20 HR/72 RBI/78 R) and Hubert Long (.291/13 HR/51 RBI/83 R) carried their weight. Boston needs Chipper Jones (.254/20 HR/72 RBI/78 R), Eddie Mathews (.226/23 HR/76 RBI/53 R) and the rest of the regulars to get it into gear. Cox is bringing in a rookie outfielder from the American Association, John Francoeur. He batted .294 for the Milwaukee Brewers with 29 home runs and 103 RBIs. He will split time with Tommy Holmes (.267/2 HR/16 RBI) and Dale Murphy (.244/4 HR/15 RBI) in right field. To shore up the shortstop position the Braves will give the sure-handed Rabbit Maranville another chance in the majors. He has spent the last six seasons in the minors. In 1909 Maranville played for Milwaukee and put up a .295 batting average, scored 115 times and drove in 63 runs. Cox would be overjoyed, if he could come close to those numbers in the National League.

If they could get decent run support, Boston has some good arms. Year-after-year Greg Maddux (14-13 3.35), Warren Spahn (12-14 3.48) and Tom Glavine can pitch with the best of them. Cox is glad to have Glavine back after he missed two years with a bad elbow. Lifetime he is 74-66 with a 3.83 ERA. Toss in newcomer Carl Morton (17-8 3.53), who is 25-8 with a 2.94 ERA over the last season and a half and you have a solid group of pitchers.

New to the roster this year are pitchers Charlie Leibrandt and Don Rudolph. Leibrandt is a rookie and earned the promotion by going 19-12 with a 2.66 ERA at Milwaukee in Triple A. He will share starts with Glavine and be used in long relief. Rudolph pitched for the Atlanta Crackers in the Southern Association, racking up a 17-9 mark with a 2.69 ERA in 1909. He will work middle relief this season. Rudolph had brief trials in 1902 and 1904 with the Braves and is 1-5 with a 7.53 ERA in the majors. He has been with Atlanta for the last five years.

In the bullpen, Steve Bedrosian (3-6 4.99) has impressed, but needs to be more consistent. He had 32 saves last season. Too many home runs inflate his ERA.

So goes the hitting, so goes the Boston Braves. They have the pitching to compete at the first division level.

reds1 · 09-07-2007, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eugene Church

1910 is looking good for the Reds. A relief whiz from the Nashville Vols has been added to the roster. His name is John Franco. He might give Dibble some strong competition for the closer spot.

Ooh, this might be the nucleus of an alternate 'Nasty Boys' group.

Just a question for you Eugene and I apologize if its been asked before, but: How do you conduct your preseason poll on the strengths/weaknesses of the teams? Is that your own assessment of each roster?

Eugene Church · 09-08-2007, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reds1

Ooh, this might be the nucleus of an alternate 'Nasty Boys' group.

Just a question for you Eugene and I apologize if its been asked before, but: How do you conduct your preseason poll on the strengths/weaknesses of the teams? Is that your own assessment of each roster?

Yeah, I am a committee of one.

I just access the plusses and minusses of each team based entirely on stats and performance.

The preseason poll is just created by me based on the strengths and weaknesses of each team.

I still don't understand, why one team will go from worst to first or vice-versa, when I disable the development mode.

I play the season in "Replay" mode...and use "Career" mode only to accumulate career league stats.

"Career" mode is used only to got to the next season.

I still don't understand some great players being great and some great players being mediocre in performance. And why great teams like the Reds of the 70's have done so poorly in the league.

All players keep their initial ratings based on their career stats. I check it at the beginning of each season.

For some reason the game will change some players ratings...maybe 2 or 3 players on each team. But I put them back where they originally were.

Eugene Church · 09-09-2007, 11:10 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Sunday, June 1, 1910

AMERICAN LEAGUE

BIG SURPRISE! BROWNS ON TOP OF AL!

All it took was good hitting and the St. Louis Browns have taken charge of the American League race. In the first two months of the season the Browns are ranked number one in pitching with a superb 3.38 ERA -- but they are surprisingly the best hitting and best scoring team, too. Put it all together and Earl Weaver's bunch have bolted to a five-game lead.

American League standings
Team W-L GB
STB 36-18 --
DET 31-23 5
CWS 27-24 7.5
BOS 28-29 9.5
PHA 25-27 10
NYY 23-29 12
WAS 23-30 12.5
CLE 20-33 15.5

No wonder St. Louis is in first place in the AL -- they are hitting .271 as a team and have a 3.38 ERA -- both numbers are the best in the league. Coming into the season they knew they had good pitching, but the hitting has been amazing. Josh Gibson (.353), Brooks Robinson (.301), George Sisler (.296), Ken Williams (.296) and Cal Ripken (.275) have been blistering the ball and giving great run support to the Browns mound staff, who have done their job very well, too. Mike Cuellar (8-1), Dennis Martinez (4-1), Ned Garver (6-3), Jim Palmer (4-2) and Hoyt Wilhelm (5-4) have been outstanding so far this season. Although he had been inconsistent, rookie reliever Armando Benitez (2-2) has saved 13 games already, but he will have to bring his 5.58 ERA down a lot to retain the closing role.

The only club to stay close has been the Detroit Tigers, who trail by five games. Ordinarily it's the Tigers hitting prowess that take precedence, but this year it's the pitchers leading the way. Manager Hughie Jennings starting rotation has stood out with Jack Morris (7-2), Hal Newhouser (6-3) and Masaichi Kaneda (5-3). The bullpen has been sensational with John Hiller (2-2) already having 15 saves and rookie Troy Percival (2-0) piling up 9 more. As a team the Tigers are second in the league with a 3.80 ERA.

Detroit batters are not having a good season. The Tigers are hitting only .256 and are ranked sixth in the AL this season. Only Alan Trammell (.368) and Ty Cobb (.312) are doing well.

The Chicago White Sox have also hit the cover off the base in this young season and have improved their league standing over last year. They are in third place and 7.5 games behind the Tigers. Usually a league doormat, the Pale Hose have been pounding the ball at a .267 clip, sparked by Joe Jackson (.352), Dick Lundy (.319), Magglio Ordonez (.317), Eddie Collins (.296) and Luke Appling (.286).

Skipper Al Lopez's pitching corps has backed up the fine hitting with some good pitching and they are rated third with a 3.90 ERA. Billy Pierce has comeback from a lousy year in 1909 and leads the staff with a 4-1 mark. Other fine contributors are Dave Steib (4-2), Ed Walsh (4-3) and Ted Lyons (5-4). Fireman Bobby Jenks (2-1) has been effective in relief and has converted 6 saves for the Chisox.

The Boston Red Sox have staged a good comeback this season and improved to fourth place, but still trail by 9.5 games. The Bosox's rise can be attributed to an improved pitching staff, that's fourth in the league with a 4.17 ERA -- last year it was an abysmal 4.63.

Four pitchers have paved the way for Boston this season. At the top of Manager Joe McCarthy's rotation are Mel Parnell (6-2), Cy Young (3-1) and Pedro Martinez (5-4). Young Jonathan Papelbon (3-2) has been his main relief specialist with 6 saves.

The Red Sox are still doing a good job with the bats, hitting .261. They still have some firepower with Ted Williams (.293), Joe Cronin (.321), Oscar Charleston (.302), Kotsuya Nomura (.286) and Normar Garciaparra (.279).

The Philadelphia Athletics are at the top of the second division, resting in the sixth spot, 10 games off the pace. The offense has rebounded in 1910 and pretty much carried the load for Manager Connie Mack's club. They are hitting a composite .263, headed by Al Simmons (.353), Bing Miller (.310), Alejandro Oms (.310), Mickey Cochrane (.306) and Jimmie Foxx (.276). On the hill, the A's are next-to-last in the American League with a 4.28 ERA. Most of the pitching rotation have been inconsistent this year. Mack's most dependable hurlers have been Lefty Grove (5-3), Bobby Shantz (5-4), Rube Waddell (5-5) and Barry Zito (4-4). Relievers Dennis Eckersley (2-1) and Huston Street (1-1) have been reliable, too.

So far, this has been the worst season the proud New York Yankees have had to endure. They are batting only .234 and are resting in sixth place, trailing the Browns by 12 games. They still hit lots of homers, but little else. Babe Ruth has 18 roundtrippers and Alex Rodriguez 15, but they are only batting .250 and .263 respectively. The only bright spots in the Yanks lineup are Lou Gehrig (.327) and Joe DiMaggio (.283).

On the mound Manager Casey Stengel's top pitchers are Whitey Ford (8-2), rookie David Wells (5-2) and relief ace Mariano Rivera (1-0).

The Washington Senators are seventh in the American League standings, 12.5 games back of St. Louis. It has been a good year for Senator batters as they are whacking the ball at a solid .265 pace and the pitchers have compiled a decent 4.02 ERA, but this improvement hasn't pushed them up the ladder at all. Manager Clark Griffith's lineup card has a host of good hitters -- Heinie Manush (.322), Rod Carew (.311), Cecil Travis (.304), Joe Mauer (.281), Mule Suttles (.281), Goose Goslin (.279) and Torii Hunter (.268). Washington's downfall is the lack of power. They are last in home runs and seventh in runs scored. Bert Blyleven (5-4), Dick Redding (5-4) are Griffith's prime starters with reliever Eddie Guarado (1-3) doing well with 6 saves.

Last season the Cleveland Indians went from last to first, now they have made an about-face and gone from first to worst. The Tribe is already 15.5 games out of first place. Manager Steve O'Neill has seen his wonderful pitching staff disintegrate to a 4.69 ERA, down from 3.48 last year. In the batting department they have gone from .268 to a dismal .244 average and are last in run production. Except for pitchers Bob Feller (7-1), Herb Score (5-3) and center fielder Tris Speaker (.340), no one has performed well.

It looks like a season Cleveland will want to forget.

Eugene Church · 09-10-2007, 05:23 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Sunday, June 1, 1910

NATIONAL LEAGUE

GIANTS AND CUBS 1-2 IN TWO-HORSE RACE

The National League is "hit happy" in 1910 with the New York Giants batting a lofty .281 and are at the top of the standings. The Chicago Cubs are second with a .277 batting average and 2 games behind in second place. Both clubs are a "pitcher's best nightmare".

Team W-L GB
NYG 33-19 --
CHC 32-22 2
BRO 26-26 7
PIT 26-28 8
CIN 25-28 8.5
PHI 25-28 8.5
STL 22-29 10.5
BSN 24-33 11.5

Manager John McGraw has a slew of sluggers like Barry Bonds (.327), Bill Terry (.318), Jeff Kent (.308), Willie Mays (.298), Martin Dihigo (.287) and Mel Ott (.276). The Giants hit often and with power.

However, it is McGraw's mound corps that make the difference between the two clubs. New York is ranked second in the NL with a 3.69 ERA, while the Cubs are seventh with an unimpressive 4.36 ERA. Starters Johnny Antonelli (6-2), Christy Mathewson (7-3) and Juan Marichal (6-2) have been the standouts so far. In the bullpen Marv Grissom (3-1) continues to excel with 10 saves.

The Chicago Cubs batting order brings smiles to Manager Jolly Cholly Grimm's face. It has been a robust year for Cool Papa Bell (.375), Turkey Stearnes (.317), Tetsuharu Kawakami (.284) and Billy Herman (.284).

The Cubs best hurlers have been Mordecai Brown (7-2), Ed Reulbach (7-4) and Rube Foster (5-4). Grimm needs help in the relief department as Bruce Sutter (3-3) has skied to a 4.38 ERA, but has turned in 12 saves.

The rest of the National League are at least 7 games off the pace and not in contention at this point in the season. The Brooklyn Dodgers are sparked on the field by Zach Wheat (.353), Jack Fourrier (.312), Cristobel Torriente (.307), Jackie Robinson (.295) and rookie Maury Wills (.287). On the hill, leading the pack are Sandy Koufax (7-2), Dazzy Vance (5-4) and rookie Brad Penny (4-3). The Dodgers are hitting well at .269, but are in dire need in the hurling department, both starters and relievers. They are rated fourth in ERA at 4.31.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are in fourth place in the National League, 8 games back. The Buccos are fortunate to be this high in the standings with an outrageously high 5.31 ERA. No one else is close to being that bad. Only good hitting keeps them there. The Pirates have compiled a .272 mark with the bats, led by Paul Waner (.380), Pie Traynor (.324), Honus Wagner (.300), Smokey Burgess (.295), rookie Jim Pagliaroni (.292), Arky Vaughan (.276) and Brian Giles (.267).

Bob Veale (8-2) and Rip Sewell (6-3) have been Danny Murtaugh's only dependable arms. Even the Bucs fine reliever Kent Tekulve (1-4) has had a difficult year. Pittsburgh is desperate for good pitching. Their season depends on it.

The Cincinnati Reds are 8.5 games behind the leading Giants and tied for the fifth spot with Philadelphia. Cincy is just the reverse of Pittsburgh, they have good pitching, but their hitting has waned this year. They are batting only .237, last in the league. Junior Griffey is the only regular above .280 except for parttimer Ernie Lombardi, who is hitting .365 and platooned at catcher.

The Redlegs pitching staff has compiled the best mark in the NL with a 3.66 ERA. Tom Seaver (6-2), Johnny Vander Meer (4-4) and Gary Nolan (5-5) have done well as starters and Rob Dibble (3-1) has performed well as the closer.

The Pirates just need to perk up with the bats. The pitchers have been doing their job.

Picked to finish third this season, the Philadelphia Phillies have fallen on hard times and are currently tied for fifth place. A 4.45 ERA is the Phils downfall. Only starters Steve Carlton (5-4) and Pete Alexander (4-4) have given consistent quality outings. Relief has also been almost non-existent with Tug McGraw (4-6) a big disappointment. His ERA has shot up to an unacceptable 5.67 this season. Manager Danny Ozark has replaced McGraw as the closer with lefty Billy Wagner, who is 1-0 with a 3.41 ERA in 26 games.

But the Phillies can still bang the baseball with the best of them, hitting a strong .269 and topping the National League in homers with 65. Leading the attack are Lefty O'Doul (.331), Chuck Klein (.327) and Biz Mackey (.320). Mike Schmidt (.261) and Ryan Howard (.259) have 12 and 13 roundtrippers respectively. Klein is leading the league with 16 home runs and 50 RBIs.

Another big disappointment are the St. Louis Cardinals , who were picked to challenge the Giants for the flag this year. The Redbirds are another club with pitching woes and have sagged to seventh place, 10.5 games off the pace, mainly because of a 4.36 ERA. Only Harry Brecheen (5-4) and Dizzy Dean (4-4) have had any success as starters and none of the relievers have produced. Skipper Tony Larussa is one of many NL managers who will soon be searching the bushes for pitching help.

Luckily for the Cards they still have a group of veteran hitters like Johnny Mize (.333), Rogers Hornsby (.322), Stan Musial (.312) and Austin McHenry (.307) that have hit a composite .272 on the year. However, they are having trouble outscoring the pitchers this season.

In the basement and living up to expectations are the Boston Braves . They are dead last and 11.5 games out of first place, but they do hit home runs and are tied with the Phils for NL lead. Chipper Jones (.320) has slammed 14, Eddie Mathews (.302) 9 and Buck Leonard (.268) 11 to spark the offense.

Only reliever Steve Bedrosian (2-1) has put up good numbers with 11 saves and a 3.27 ERA in 31 games. All of Bobby Cox's starting rotation have struggled with a 4.30 team ERA. John Smoltz (5-4), Carl Morton (4-5), Greg Maddux (4-7), Tom Glavine (4-5) and Warren Spahn (3-7) have been inconsistent this season.

Eugene Church · 09-12-2007, 01:32 AM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Wednesday, July 9, 1910

AMERICAN LEAGUE

BROWNS HOLD SLIM LEAD OVER TIGERS

The St. Louis Browns are still in the top spot in the American League at the All-Star Break, however the Detroit Tigers are breathing down their necks just two games behind.

American League standings
Team W-L GB
SLB 57-35 --
DET 55-37 2
CWS 46-44 10
BOS 48-48 11
NYY 43-47 13
PHA 43-49 14
WAS 42-50 15
CLE 34-58 23

Thus far this season the Browns have hung tough and seem to be for real. Manager Earl Weaver still has them playing good baseball at the halfway point. Since June the Brownies have gone 21-17, the second best record in the league. Only Detroit did better at 24-14.

St. Louis is led by a fine starting rotation, featuring Ned Garver (11-4), Mike Cuellar (9-4), Dennis Martinez (8-3), Jim Palmer (7-3) and Hoyt Wilhelm (7-7). They have combined for a 3.78 ERA, second to Detroit's 3.64. The Browns only weakness is the closer position. Both B.J. Ryan (4-4) and Armando Benitez (4-2) have struggled in that slot. It looks like Weaver will sink or swim with Benitez as Ryan has been shipped to the Baltimore Orioles in the International League. Two former Browns have been recalled from the Orioles. Ben McDonald and Dave McNally will get another chance in the AAA. They are slated for long relief and perhaps spot starts.

The Browns are still the best hitting team in the AL with a .276 BA. Josh Gibson (.324), George Sisler (.325), Ken Williams (.320), Eddie Murray (.294) and Cal Ripken (.267) continue to sizzle with the bats.

The Detroit Tigers have played outstandingly this year, especially in the last month. They have shaved three games off the St. Louis lead. Fine pitching is the reason. Heading the Tigers list of twirlers are Hal Newhouser (11-4), Jack Morris (11-4), Masaichi Kaneda (9-6), Hilton Smith (6-4) and Tommy Bridges (8-8). In the bullpen John Hiller (4-2) is having a career season with 23 saves.

Although not the offensive club they have been in the past, the Tigers have been more than adequate with Ty Cobb (.320), Charlie Gehringer (.296), Alan Trammell (.291) and Ivan Rodriguez (.277) the top batters. Detroit is fourth in the league and have averaged .265. Skipper Hughie Jennings is waiting for Hank Greenberg (.238), Harvey Kuenn (.257) and Harry Heilmann (.261) to kick it up a notch in the second half of the season.

It looks like there is no one else to challenge St. Louis and Detroit this year. The Chicago White Sox are in third place in the standings, but far back, 10 games out. The Pale Hose were 19-20 over the past month and lost ground to the two leaders.

In the Windy City, hitting is the name of the game. The White Sox are averaging .270 as a team, good enough to be second (tied with the Senators) to the leading Browns. Joe Jackson (.348), Dick Lundy (.330), Eddie Collins (.300) and Magglio Ordonez (.271) are having solid seasons. Jackson and Lundy are having career years.

Manager Al Lopez has a top-notch set of starters in Billy Pierce (8-3), Ed Walsh (9-4), Wilbur Wood (6-9) and Dave Stieb (7-3). Wood (6-9) is much better than his record. His ERA is one of the best in the American League at 2.97. Lopez still hasn't found a stopper in the bullpen. He just recalled Bobby Thigpen from the Memphis Chicks in the Southern Association to replace Bobby Jenks. Thigpen has been in Double A ball for the past two seasons. Lifetime with the Chisox he is 22-40 with a 3.90 ERA and 86 saves. Jenks was a mediocre 2-3 with a 5.40 ERA and is headed to Memphis.

Rounding out the first division in fourth place are the Boston Red Sox. They compiled a 20-19 mark since June and now trail the Browns by 11 games. The Bosox are a good club with the bat, but fall short in the hurling department. Boston is hitting .263 in 1910, topped by Wade Boggs (.314), Ted Williams (.307), Joe Cronin (.288), Jason Varitek (.284), Nomar Garciaparra (.280) and Oscar Charleston (.274).

On the hill Manager Joe McCarthy has limited resources. Only starters Mel Parnell (10-6) and Pedro Martinez (9-6) have done their fair share. Young closer Jonathan Papelbon (4-3) has been very impressive and already has chalked up 21 saves so far.

Heading the second division in the fifth spot in the American League race are the New York Yankees. Manager Casey Stengel has gotten somewhat better pitching over the last month and ended up with a 20-18 record since June. But his club's hitting still is the lowest in the league at .236. The Bronx Bombers are still first in homers with 124, but sorely lack consistent contact. The Yanks have recalled Wille Keeler, a light-hitting outfielder, who hit .296 over his three-year AL career. He last played with the Yanks in 1908. Keeler replaced Charlie Keller (.056) on the roster. Second sacker Tony Lazzeri also has been summoned from the Newark Bears in the International League. He replaces Alfonso Soriano (.239/9 HR), who continued to struggle at bat this year.

Only Lou Gehrig (.303) and Joe DiMaggio (.283) get on base with regularity. But NY can still yank 'em out of ballpark with regularity. Babe Ruth (.254) has 27 homers to lead the league. Alex Rodriguez (.250) is fourth with 21, Gehrig has 18 and Mickey Mantle (.233) has hit 14 in the power-packed lineup. But they still have trouble getting over the .500 mark.

Stengel has gotten good work on the hill from vets Whitey Ford (10-6), Lefty Gomez (5-3), reliever Mariano Rivera (3-0) and rookie David Wells (8-5). To try and turn things around in the second half of the year, Stengel has promoted two righthanders from the farm system. Vic Raschi and Bob Shawkey have been with the Triple A Kansas City Blues in recent years. They replaced Andy Pettitte (3-4 6.39) and Fritz Pedersen (2-2 5.63) on the roster. Raschi spent 7 years with New York and is 50-43 lifetime with a 3.80 ERA, while Shawkey had 4 previous seasons with a 17-22 mark and a 4.25 ERA.

Next in the AL standings are the Philadelphia Athletics. Manager Connie Mack's club is sixth, trailing the Browns by 14 games. During the last month the A's put up an 18-20 record. They are sixth in batting with a .260 average and also sixth (tied) with a 4.20 ERA. Nothing outstanding here.

Checking out the hitters, Alejandro Oms (.310), Al Simmons (.306), Bing Miller (.292), John Henry Lloyd (.287) and Mickey Cochrane (.279) are the best Philadelphia has in the lineup. On the mound, Barry Zito (8-6), Bobby Shantz (7-8) and Rube Waddell (8-9) have pitched well.

Skipper Clark Griffith of the Washington Senators has a better ballclub this year, but they are still seventh in the league and 15 games out. He has piloted the Senators to 19 wins and 20 losses since June 1st. The Nats bat well with Heinie Manush (.340), Cecil Travis (.322), Rod Carew (.317), Joe Mauer (.316) and Goose Goslin (.299) in the forefront. So they can hold their own in that department. Griffith is adding Harmon Killebrew (.232) and Mickey Vernon in at first base in a platoon situation. Eddie Yost will be inserted at third base for the rest of the season. Vernon and Yost had previous trials with the Nats, but did not hit well enough to stick. Killebrew hammers the longball, but never has hit for average.

Washington's pitching corps is fourth in the American League with a 4.08 ERA and is led by Walter Johnson (9-7), Dick Redding (8-7), rookie Jerry Koosman (3-2) and Bert Blyleven (8-9). Relief specialist Eddie Guardado (2-4) has impressed with 17 saves. Koosman has stood out since being added to the starting rotation a few weeks ago. He recently tossed a no-hitter against the Yankees and struck out 11 in the game.

The Nats have promoted pitchers Camilo Pascual and Frank Viola from the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern Association. They return to the parent club after several years absence. Pascual compiled a 78-89 record and 3.81 ERA in 8 years with the Senators, while Viola was 32-36 with a 3.90 ERA.

It has been a pathetic year for the defending American League titlists, the Cleveland Indians. Very little has gone right and they are drowning in the cellar, 23 games off the pace. The Tribe is hitting only .242 and the pitching staff sports a whopping 4.63 ERA. They had a poor first two months of the season and then it got worse. Since June the Indians are a woeful 14-25. At the midyear mark Manager Steve O'Neill only had four players on the roster having good years -- pitchers Bob Feller (8-5) and Herb Score (9-4) and center fielder Tris Speaker (.314) and left fielder Juan Gonzales (.277). To show you how bad it has gotten, last year's AL Golden Bat winner, shortstop Willie Wells is now benched. He has hit only .226 in 1901. To try an salvage something positive for the season Cleveland made major changes in the roster, calling up 6 pitchers and 4 position players.

The new pitchers are Early Wynn, Mike Garcia, Johnny Allen, Sam McDowell, Wes Ferrell and Ray Narleski. The new position players are outfielders Albert Belle and Rocky Colavito, and infielders Omar Vizquel, Kenny Keltner and Hal Trosky.

O'Neill said he didn't think things could get any worse.

We'll just wait and see.

Eugene Church · 09-12-2007, 01:46 AM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Wednesday, July 9, 1910

AMERICAN LEAGUE

BROWNS HOLD SLIM LEAD OVER TIGERS

The St. Louis Browns are still in the top spot in the American League at the All-Star Break, however the Detroit Tigers are breathing down their necks just two games behind.

American League standings
Team W-L GB
SLB 57-35 --
DET 55-37 2
CWS 46-44 10
BOS 48-48 11
NYY 43-47 13
PHA 43-49 14
WAS 42-50 15
CLE 34-58 23

Thus far this season the Browns have hung tough and seem to be for real. Manager Earl Weaver still has them playing good baseball at the halfway point. Since June the Brownies have gone 21-17, the second best record in the league. Only Detroit did better at 24-14.

St. Louis is led by a fine starting rotation, featuring Ned Garver (11-4), Mike Cuellar (9-4), Dennis Martinez (8-3), Jim Palmer (7-3) and Hoyt Wilhelm (7-7). They have combined for a 3.78 ERA, second to Detroit's 3.64). The Browns only weakness is the closer position. Both B.J. Ryan (4-4) and Armando Benitez (4-2) have struggled in that slot. It looks like Weaver will sink or swim with Benitez as Ryan has been shipped to the Baltimore Orioles in the International League. Two former Browns have been recalled from the Orioles. Ben McDonald and Dave McNally will get another chance in the AAA. They are slated for long relief and perhaps spot starts.

The Browns are still the best hitting team in the AL with a .276 BA. Josh Gibson (.324), George Sisler (.325), Ken Williams (.320), Eddie Murray (.294) and Cal Ripken (.267) continue to sizzle with the bats.

The Detroit Tigers have played outstandingly this year, especially in the last month. They have shaved three games off the St. Louis lead. Fine pitching is the reason. Heading the Tigers list of twirlers are Hal Newhouser (11-4), Jack Morris (11-4), Masaichi Kaneda (9-6), Hilton Smith (6-4) and Tommy Bridges (8-8). In the bullpen John Hiller (4-2) is having a career season with 23 saves.

Although not the offensive club they have been in the past, the Tigers have been more than adequate with Ty Cobb (.320), Charlie Gehringer (.296), Alan Trammell (.291) and Ivan Rodriguez the top batters. Detroit is fourth in the league and have averaged .265. Skipper Hughie Jennings is waiting for Hank Greenberg (.238), Harvey Kuenn (.257) and Harry Heilmann (.261) to kick it up a notch in the second half of the season.

It looks like there is no one else to challenge St. Louis and Detroit this year. The Chicago White Sox are in third place in the standings, but far back, 10 games out. The Pale Hose were 19-20 over the past month and lost ground to the two leaders.

In the Windy City, hitting is the name of the game. The White Sox are averaging .270 as a team, good enough to be second (tied with the Senators) to the leading Browns. Joe Jackson (.348), Dick Lundy (.330), Eddie Collins (.300) and Magglio Ordonez (.271) are having solid seasons. Jackson and Lundy are having career years.

Manager Al Lopez has a top-notch set of starters in Billy Pierce (8-3), Ed Walsh (9-4), Wilbur Wood (6-9) and Dave Stieb (7-3). Wood (6-9) is much better than his record. His ERA is one of the best in the American League at 2.97. Lopez still hasn't found a stopper in the bullpen. He just recalled Bobby Thigpen from the Memphis Chicks in the Southern Association to replace Bobby Jenks. Thigpen has been in Double A ball for the past two seasons. Jenks was a mediocre 2-3 with a 5.40 ERA and is headed to Memphis.

Rounding out the first division in fourth place are the Boston Red Sox. They compiled a 20-19 mark since June and now trail the Browns by 11 games. The Bosox are a good club with the bat, but fall short in the hurling department. Boston is hitting .263 in 1910, topped by Wade Boggs (.314), Ted Williams (.307), Joe Cronin (.288), Jason Varitek (.284), Nomar Garciaparra (.280) and Oscar Charleston (.274).

On the hill Manager Joe McCarthy has limited resources. Only starters Mel Parnell (10-6) and Pedro Martinez (9-6) have done their fair share. Young closer Jonathan Papelbon (4-3) has been very impressive and already has chalked up 21 saves so far.

Heading the second division in the fifth spot in the American League race are the New York Yankees. Manager Casey Stengel has gotten somewhat better pitching over the last month and ended up with a 20-18 record since June. But his club's hitting still is the lowest in the league at .236. The Bronx Bombers are still first in homers with 124, but sorely lack consistent contact. The Yanks have recalled Wille Keeler, a light-hitting outfielder, who hit .296 over his three-year AL career. He last played with the Yanks in 1908. Keeler replaced Charlie Keller (.056) on the roster. Second sacker Tony Lazzeri also has been summoned from the Newark Bears in the International League. He replaces Alfonso Soriano (.239/9 HR), who continued to struggle at bat this year.

Only Lou Gehrig (.303) and Joe DiMaggio (.283) get on base with regularity. But NY can still yank 'em out of ballpark with regularity. Babe Ruth (.254) has 27 homers to lead the league. Alex Rodriguez (.250) is fourth with 21, Gehrig has 18 and Mickey Mantle (.233) has hit 14 in the power-packed lineup. But they still have trouble getting over the .500 mark.

Stengel has gotten good work on the hill from vets Whitey Ford (10-6), Lefty Gomez (5-3), reliever Mariano Rivera (3-0) and rookie David Wells (8-5). To try and turn things around in the second half of the year, Stengel has promoted two righthanders from the farm system. Vic Raschi and Bob Shawkey have been with the Triple A Kansas City Blues in recent years. They replaced Andy Pettitte (3-4 6.39) and Fritz Pedersen (2-2 5.63) on the roster. Raschi spent 7 years with New York and is 50-43 lifetime with a 3.80 ERA, while Shawkey had 4 previous seasons with a 17-22 mark and a 4.25 ERA.

Next in the AL standings are the Philadelphia Athletics. Manager Connie Mack's club is sixth, trailing the Browns by 14 games. During the last month the A's put up an 18-20 record. They are sixth in batting with a .260 average and also sixth (tied) with a 4.20 ERA. Nothing outstanding here.

Checking out the hitters, Alejandro Oms (.310), Al Simmons (.306), Bing Miller (.292), John Henry Lloyd (.287) and Mickey Cochrane (.279) are the best Philadelphia has in the lineup. On the mound, Barry Zito (8-6), Bobby Shantz (7-8) and Rube Waddell (8-9) have pitched well.

Skipper Clark Griffith of the Washington Senators has a better ballclub this year, but they are still seventh in the league and 15 games out. He has piloted the Senators to 19 wins and 20 losses since June 1st. The Nats bat well with Heinie Manush (.340), Cecil Travis (.322), Rod Carew (.317), Joe Mauer (.316) and Goose Goslin (.299) in the forefront. So they can hold their own in that department. Griffith is adding Harmon Killebrew (.232) and Mickey Vernon in at first base in a platoon situation. Eddie Yost will be inserted at third base for the rest of the season. Vernon and Yost had previous trials with the Nats, but did not hit well enough to stick. Killebrew hammers the longball, but never has hit for average.

Washington's pitching corps is fourth in the American League with a 4.08 ERA and is led by Walter Johnson (9-7), Dick Redding (8-7), rookie Jerry Koosman (3-2) and Bert Blyleven (8-9). Relief specialist Eddie Guardado (2-4) has impressed with 17 saves. Koosman has stood out since being added to the starting rotation a few weeks ago. He recently tossed a no-hitter against the Yankees and struck out 11 in the game.

The Nats have promoted pitchers Camilo Pascual and Frank Viola from the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern Association. They return to the parent club after several years absence. Pascual compiled a 78-89 record and 3.81 ERA in 8 years with the Senators, while Viola was 32-36 with a 3.90 ERA over 7 seasons.

It has been a pathetic year for the defending American League titlists, the Cleveland Indians. Very little has gone right and they are drowning in the cellar, 23 games off the pace. The Tribe is hitting only .242 and the pitching staff sports a whopping 4.63 ERA. They had a poor first two months of the season and then it got worse. Since June the Indians are a woeful 14-25. At the midyear mark Manager Steve O'Neill only had four players on the roster having good years -- pitchers Bob Feller (8-5) and Herb Score (9-4) and center fielder Tris Speaker (.314) and left fielder Juan Gonzales (.277). To show you how bad it has gotten, last year's AL Golden Bat winner, shortstop Willie Wells is now benched. He has hit only .226 this year.

To try an salvage something positive for the season Cleveland made major changes in the roster, calling up 6 pitchers and 5 position players.

The new pitchers are Early Wynn, Mike Garcia, Johnny Allen, Sam McDowell, Wes Ferrell and Ray Narleski. The new position players are outfielders Albert Belle and Rocky Colavito, and infielders Omar Vizquel, Kenny Keltner and Hal Trosky.

O'Neill said he didn't think things could get any worse.

We'll just wait and see.

Eugene Church · 09-12-2007, 11:24 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Wednesday, July 9, 1910

NATIONAL LEAGUE

NY GIANTS 5 GAMES UP ON CUBBIES

New York and Chicago continued to battle it out in the National League chase. The Cubs are playing well, but the Giants are playing even better and have opened up a 5-game margin.

National League standings
Team W-L GB
NYG 60-32 --
CHC 55-37 5
PHI 47-45 13
BRO 44-46 15
CIN 42-50 18
STL 41-49 18
PIT 41-51 19
BSN 38-58 24

It might be deja vu all over again in the 1910 NL race. Last season it was close until midseason and then the New York Giants made it a runaway. In the last month John McGraw's boys have the best record in baseball, winning 27 and losing only 13. The Cubs were also one of the best -- they were 23 and 15 -- but lost ground and now trail by 5 games.

The Giants are terrorizing NL pitchers with a sensational .288 team batting average. They are on pace to top the old AAA mark they set in 1902 with a .281 average. Detroit is the AL titleholder, hitting .279 as a team in 1901 and 1908.

New York's potent lineup consists of Bill Terry (.347), Barry Bonds (.333), Willie Mays (.325), Martin Dihigo (.306) and Mel Ott (.291). This lineup leads the league in homers and is the top run producer, too.

With an imposing attack like that, it makes it easy for the Giants talented pitching corps. McGraw's starting rotation is strong and steady, headed up by Christy Mathewson (11-6), Johnny Antonelli (10-5), Juan Marichal (10-4), Joe McGinnity (8-5) and Sal Maglie (4-1). Only Carl Hubbell (8-9) is having an off year. In the bullpen 5-year vet Marv Grissom (6-1) is having his best year yet with 20 saves. New York also is ranked number one in the league with a 3.66 ERA.

The runner-up Chicago Cubs are having a pretty good season with the bat, hitting .273, but fall far short with a 4.56 ERA. Better pitching is a must, if the Bruins hope to close the gap with the Giants.

Skipper Charlie Grimm has made some changes in his staff, calling up Ferguson Jenkins, Bill Lee and Carlos Zambrano from the PCL's Los Angeles Angels and demoting Bob Rush (1-1 9.78), Larry French (2-1 6.75) and Rick Reuschel (3-5 5.68). His mainstays on the mound this year are Mordecai Brown (10-6), Ed Reulbach (10-8) and the surprise of the season, Claude Passeau (7-0). Except for a brief stay with Chicago in 1905, Passeau has been a career minor leaguer. Grimm is also switching Bruce Sutter (6-4 4.86) and Lee Smith (3-0 2.68) in the bullpen with Smith going to the closing role and Sutter to long relief.

The Cubs manager has also inserted the fine hitting talent Riggs Stephenson (.375) into the left field spot, replacing Hack Wilson (.248). He loses a lot of power, but gains much in on-base percentage. It is a trade-off in defense. To replace Wilson's power, veteran Ernie Banks (.214) is also taking over the shortstop position from rookie Woody English (.242). Banks has been an important part of Chicago success in past years. He has played very little up to this point in the year.

The National League batting leader Cool Papa Bell (.364), Golden Bat slugger Turkey Stearnes (.298) and Tetsuharu Kawakami (.293) have been Grimm's main run producers this season. He is hoping Banks and Stephenson can boost the Cub attack. Grimm is giving up defense for more longball power. Since his hill corps can't stop the opposition, he is hoping to outscore them.

The third place Philadelphia Phillies are another club playing very well the last month or so, but which also lost ground to the torrid Giants. The Phils put up a 22-17 record, but are now 13 games out of first place. They are doing with the bats, hitting a solid .273 and ranking third to NY in homers, blasting 93 compared to the Giants 103. Chuck Klein (.343), Ryan Howard (.267) and Mike Schmidt (.245) have each knocked 19 roundtrippers this season to lead the club. Biz Mackey (.325) and Lefty O'Doul (.316) are banging the ball well, too. Glovemen Granny Hamner (.329) and Larry Bowa (.300) are now sharing the shortstop slot and contributing to the offense as well.

But manager Danny Ozark grimaces, when you mention pitching. His staff ERA is way up there at 4.53, sixth in the National League. Steve Carlton (8-6) and Sid Fernandez (7-2) are his best starters and Billy Wagner (5-0 4.02) has done well since moving into the finisher role, replacing Tug McGraw (5-6 5.25). A couple of former Phils have been brought back from the minors. Jiro Noguchi and Akiro Bessho will be middle relievers. Both last played in the majors in 1907. Lifetime Noguchi is 58-49 with a 3.79 ERA, while Bessho comes in with a 36-43 mark and a 4.13 ERA. For Philadelphia's other starters Robin Roberts (8-10), Pete Alexander (5-9) and Curt Simmons (3-2), it has been a rough year.

Fourth place belongs to the Brooklyn Dodgers. They went 18-20 in the past month and have fallen 15 games off the pace. The Bums are hitting .269, sixth in the NL, and the pitchers are third with a 4.02 ERA. Manager Tommy Lasorda has a well-balanced club, but is missing a good closer. Eric Gagne (3-8 7.04) has slumped to the point, he is now toiling for the St. Paul Saints in the American Association. He has been replaced by Ron Perranoski, who is back for another try with Brooklyn. He has compiled a fine 26-13 mark and a 3.46 ERA over seven seasons, the last one was 1908. Don Newcombe is back again as well. He will be used as a spot starter. Newcombe has a record of 29-47 in three full seasons and two short stays with the Dodgers. However his career ERA stands at a respectable 3.88.

The Dodgers have some dangerous hitters in Zach Wheat (.343), Jack Fourrier (.305), Jackie Robinson (.293), Cristobel Torriente (.285) and Mike Piazza (.268). Rookie shortstop Maury Wills (.299) has hit for a good average as well.

Sparky Anderson's Cincinnati Reds have not been the club he thought. They are simply not hitting. The Reds carry a pathetic .237 batting average at midyear -- worst in the NL -- and are in fifth place, 18 games out of first. So far, pitching has been Cincy's only good point. They are second behind the Giants with a 3.89 ERA. Anderson's starters have kept games close enough to win, if the hitting is there. He has gotten quality starts from Tom Seaver (10-4), Gary Nolan (8-8), Johnny Vander Meer (6-7), Don Gullett (7-8) and Eppa Rixey (5-10). However, the bullpen is another story. Rob Dibble (3-4 5.29) is in the throes of a bad season. Look for someone else to move into that slot.

Of the Reds regulars only Junior Griffey (.278) is producing. Ted Kluszewski (.237), Frank Robinson (.247) and Pete Rose (.261) have had much better seasons in the past. That's how dire it is in Cincinnati.

The Reds were 17-22 over the last month.

The St. Louis Cardinals are in sixth place, just one percentage point behind Cincinnati and trailing by 18 games. The Redbirds were 19-20 since June 1st. Manager Tony Larussa still has some quality hitters, but had dipped in the power department, ranking last in homers. The Cards are second to NY with a .274 batting average, but the team ERA is up around 4.24, which is not conducive to success.

Larussa's lineup is headed by Johnny Mize (.324), Stan Musial (.322), Rogers Hornsby (.307), Austin McHenry (.280) and Jim Edmonds (.280). His best hurlers are Harry Brecheen (9-6) and Dizzy Dean (8-6). All the rest have fallen on hard times.

With a 5.22 ERA the Pittsburgh Pirates have little hope this season. The hitters are holding up their end of the bargain with a .270 BA, but there is no way manager Danny Murtaugh can overcome such dismal pitching. The Buccos are seventh, 19 games out, and getting worse. They were only 15-23 last month. Only last place Boston played poorer baseball.

When it comes to hitting Roberto Clemente (.344), Paul Waner (.344), Pie Traynor (.296), Arky Vaughan (.293), Smoky Burgess (.280), Honus Wagner (.279) and Brian Giles (.273) can do it with the best of them. But it is hard to consistently win games this way. Only Rip Sewell (11-4 4.09) has managed to keep his head this season as pitching for the Pirates could be hazardous to your health. Bob Veale (9-6 5.22) has a good record, but that is misleading, if you don't see his ERA.

The worst team in the National League last season, this season and since June is the Boston Braves. Their record this past month was an awful 14-24, good enough to keep them well-entrenched in the league cellar, 24 games behind the league-leading Giants. The Braves are batting only .246, not nearly enough to support the better-than-average starters Greg Maddux (7-11 3.64), John Smoltz (8-8 3.90), Carl Morton (7-7 4.11) and Tom Glavine (6-8 3.58). It's not just the hitting that is killing Boston, it's the relief corps, too. To improve his mound staff, Bobby Cox has called up Bob Buhl from Triple A Milwaukee and Charley Radbourne from Double A Atlanta and move them into the rotation with reliever Kid Nichols (1-2 3.62). Smoltz will take over closing duties from Steve Bedrosian (2-6 4.41). Warren Spahn (5-12 4.68) is also headed for the bullpen.

What little offense the Braves have is the product of Eddie Mathews (.294), Chipper Jones (.278) and Buck Leonard (.263). Former Braves Bob Elliott, Jeff Blauser and Johnny Logan are back from the minors, hopefully to instill a little badly-needed offense.

Eugene Church · 09-13-2007, 11:49 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Sunday, August 10, 1910

AMERICAN LEAGUE

TIGERS FINALLY OVERTAKE BROWNS

It's been a two-team race in the American League all year long between St. Louis and Detroit. The Tigers roared to a 19-11 record this month and swept past the Browns, who stumbled to a 12-18 mark and fell 5 games off the pace. It was the wrong time for St. Louis to have a bad month.

The very solid Detroit pitching staff continued to rank as the best in the AL with a 3.55 ERA. Manager Hughie Jennings has a fine group in the starting rotation. He has consistently gotten good outings from Jack Morris (14-5 3.23), Hal Newhouser (14-7 3.59), Masaichi Kaneda (12-8 3.39), Tommy Bridges (12-9 3.72) and Hilton Smith (9-5 3.25).

The Tiger attack is the number three team with a .266 average, topped only by the Browns at .271 and the Senators at .270. It has been another good season for Charlie Gehringer (.311), Ty Cobb (.306) and Ivan Rodriguez (.289). Four players have 14 roundtrippers each: Gehringer, Rodriguez, Rudy York (.259) and Hank Greenberg (.238). They are also bunched for the team lead in RBIs. Greenberg leads with 69, followed by York and Rodriguez with 67, Gehringer 66 and Cobb 63. Topping the club in runs scored is Cobb with 71 and Gehringer with 68. And Cobb is the AL's best base stealer with 51.

Skipper Earl Weaver of the St. Louis Browns doesn't have the depth in pitching that Jennings does, but he does have three impressive hurlers in Jim Palmer (10-6 2.52), Ned Garver (14-6 3.66) and Dennis Martinez (11-6 3.51). Palmer is tied with Cleveland's Bob Feller for the best ERA at 2.52 and he is tied with two Tigers, Morris and Newhouser, with 14 victories apiece.

But his batting order is strong with Josh Gibson with a .290 average, 27 homers and 81 RBIs, George Sisler .315, 9 homers and 88 runs, Ken Williams .309, 10 home runs and 68 RBIs, Eddie Murray .297, 15 roundtrippers and 57 RBIs and Cal Ripken .280, 12 home runs and 60 RBIs.

The Boston Red Sox had a good month of play and finished it with 17 wins and only 10 defeats. They held on to third place and are 9.5 games off the lead. Mel Parnell is 13-8, Pedro Martinez 12-8, George Ruth 13-10 and Cy Young 10-5 as starters, while Jonathan Papelbon has stood out in relief with 29 saves, 4-3 record and a 3.16 ERA.

On the hitting side of the ledger sheet, the Bosox are fith in average at .263 and third in homers with 111. In the power department, the Yanks are first with 167 and the Browns number two with 114. The Red Sox are led in hitting by Wade Boggs (.305), Ted Williams (.303), Nomar Garciaparra (.293) and Oscar Charleston (.278). The club home run leader is David Ortiz at 24, Williams and Charleston with 18 and Garciaparra at 13. Ortiz also tops on the team with 75 RBIs, followed by Garciaparra and Williams with 74 and 72 respectively. Charleston is number one in runs scored with 77 and Williams is next at 73.

The Chicago White Sox didn't have a good month, ending it with a 13-18 mark. They now trail the Tigers by 14.5 games, but they did manage to hold on to fourth place by one game over New York. The Yanks were 16-17.

Al Lopez's best performers this season has been pitchers Billy Pierce (11-7 3.56), Ed Walsh (11-6 3.54) and Dave Steib (9-6 3.97) and regulars Joe Jackson (.341/5 HR/83 RBI), Eddie Collins (.302/2 HR/75 R), Dick Lundy (.300/13 HR/80 RBI) and Magglio Ordonez (.272/18 HR/52 RBI).

The New York Yankees are making a bid to move into the first division in the final days of the regular season. An improvement in pitching has been the momentum for the late season surge. Whitey Ford (13-7 2.90) has been outstanding this year to led the staff. Rookie David Wells (12-7 3.87) might be the best newcomer in the American League. And two late year call-ups, Vic Raschi (4-2 3.35) and Bob Shawkey (2-1 1.72) had great months.

The home run happy Bronx Bombers are powered by Babe Ruth (.269/35 HR/90 RBI/90 R), Lou Gehrig (.294/24 HR/74 RBI/81 R), Joe DiMaggio (.283/17 HR/93 R), Alex Rodriguez (.248/30 HR/92 RBI) and Mickey Mantle (.240/20 HR/62 RBI). Ruth and Rodriguez are 1-2 in the AL in home runs. Ruth leads 35 to 30. They are also the top two in RBIs with Rodriguez nosing out Ruth 92 to 90. DiMaggio has the league lead in runs with 93, one ahead of Rodriguez and three in front of Ruth.

The sixth place Philadelphia A's concluded the month with a 14-17 mark and trail by 17.5 games. Not much to brag about in Philly this year. Pitchers Barry Zito (10-8 3.18) and Bobby Shantz (10-9 3.60) have done well on the hill, while Alejandro Oms (.312/13 HR/56 RBI) and Jimmie Foxx (.280/18 HR/65 RBI) have been the only standouts with the sticks.

The seventh place Washington Senators had a mediocre 13-17 month and continue to wallow 19 games in back of the leading Tigers. The best thing the Senators have going is some good hitting. They are second to the Browns with a .270 team batting average, sporting four .300 hitters in Heinie Manush (.327), second in the league to Joe Jackson's .341 average for the White Sox, Goose Goslin (.315), Rod Carew (.309) and Joe Mauer (.304).

Walter Johnson is the only pitcher of note with an 11-9 record and a 3.69 ERA. He leads the American League with 184 strikeouts.

Pulling up the rear and riding in the caboose are last year's champions, the Cleveland Indians. They trail by 23 games, but did play well recently. In the last month the Tribe was 17-13. It has been an atrocious season for manager Steve O'Neill. But he did get superb years out of Bob Feller (12-7 2.52) and Herb Score (13-5 3.05). Feller is tied the Browns Jim Palmer with a fine 2.52 ERA and Score is second in strikeouts with 176.

Most of the credit for the good month goes to new pitching acquisitions Mike Garcia (2-0 2.95), Johnny Allen (1-2 2.63) and Ray Narleski (0-1 3.44). Narleski picked up 7 saves during the month.

The Indians only hit .246 this year. The only regulars who performed well were Tris Speaker (.310/10 HR/58 RBI), Nap Lajoie (.293/4 HR/44 RBI) and Juan Gonzales (.260/24 HR/80 RBI).

Eugene Church · 09-14-2007, 06:10 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Sunday, August 10, 1910

NATIONAL LEAGUE

CUBS CUT GIANTS NL LEAD

It has really been a battle royal in the National League. A month ago the New York Giants opened up a 5-game lead over the Chicago Cubs. But since then, the red-hot Cubs have won 22 of 30 games to chop the lead to just 1.5 games. During the same period the Giants have played very well, too, running up a 19-11 mark.

The wonderful New York Giants pitching staff have gotten a wee bit better of late and lowered their ERA 3.53, the best in the NL. Christy Mathewson (17-7 3.03), Johnny Antonelli (15-6 2.80), Juan Marichal (11-6 3.37), Sal Maglie (6-2 3.34) and bullpen ace Marv Grissom continue to set a high standard.

While the Giants hitting has paled lately from its record-breaking pace, it still is more than enough to get the job done. Bill Terry (.326/6 HR/86 RBI), Willie Mays (.323/24 HR/90 RBI), Martin Dihigo (.302/18 HR/74 RBI), Barry Bonds (.285/25 HR/68 RBI) and Mel Ott (.287/19 HR/79 RBI) are hitting .279 as a group, second best to Chicago's .281.

Several roster changes have put some pizazz in the second place Chicago Cubs and they are now seriously contending for the National League flag. When manager Charlie Grimm put Claude Passeau (10-1 2.72) and Bill Lee (5-0 1.51) into his pitching rotation, the team took off. Another positive step was placing Lee Smith (4-0 2.51) in the closer spot. Add them to Mordecai Brown (14-9 4.05) and Ed Reulbach (11-9 4.77) and the future looks bright for the Bruins. Newcomer Fergie Jenkins (1-1 3.52) has looked good in two recent starts as well, since being called up from the PCL.

Lineup changes have also given Chicago a big boost. Riggs Stephenson (.397/2 HR/33 RBI) in left field and Ernie Banks at short (.218/6 HR/20 RBI) have given new life to the offense. Turkey Stearnes (.297/27 HR/94 RBI) is having another standout season, ranking high in homers and RBIs. Other contributors are Tetsuharu Kawakami (.281/9 HR/71 RBI), Aramis Ramirez (.265/23 HR/69 RBI) and Billy Herman (.288/2 HR/65 RBI).

Both clubs are playing well. It looks like it will go down to the wire.

Philadelphia and Brooklyn are fighting for the third place spot in the standings. Cincinnati, St. Louis and Pittsburgh are contending for fifth place, while Boston will have last place all to themselves for the third year in a row.

Over the last month the Philadelphia Phillies recorded 16 victories and 14 losses. Manager Danny Ozark's crew is third, 15.5 games behind. They are being carried by good hitting and good power. Chuck Klein (.338/24 HR/98 RBI) is having a career year to lead the way. He is getting help from Mike Schmidt (.232/24 HR/74 RBI) and Ryan Howard (.277/23 HR/73 RBI).

Sid Fernandez (10-4 4.00) and Steve Carlton (10-7 3.92) are the Phils top twirlers.

The fourth place Brooklyn Dodgers had a good month, too, going 18-15. They trail the Giants by 17.0 games. Since joining the team in July, closer Ron Perranoski (0-0 3.22) has collected 8 saves and Don Newcombe (3-2 3.54) has impressed as a starter. Of course, Sandy Koufax (15-8 2.02) and Dazzy Vance (12-8 3.15) are the Dodgers main strengths and workhorses.

Brooklyn's top bats are Zach Wheat (.325/12 HR/53 RBI/89 R), Jack Fourrier (.309/7 HR/78 RBI), Cristobel Torriente (.293/12 HR/70 RBI), Jackie Robinson (.292/12 HR/78 RBI/84 R) and Mike Piazza (.278/23 HR/73 RBI). To add some more firepower, Babe Herman and Gary Sheffield have been summoned from the Montreal Royals of the International League. They will platoon in left field.

Cincinnati went 14-16 during the last month, St. Louis 13-18, Pittsburgh 10-20 and Boston 9-18.

The Cincinnati Reds need all-around improvement and are 22.5 games back in fifth place. Sparky Anderson's top pitchers are Tom Seaver (12-6 3.76) and Gary Nolan (11-11 3.56). His best batters are Ted Kluszewski (.258/20 HR/70 RBI), Junior Griffey (.254/24 HR/58 RBI) and Frank Robinson (.258/21 HR/64 RBI).

In sixth place and trailing by 24 games are the St. Louis Cardinals. Skipper Tony Larussa's hitters do well, but the pitching corps has not delivered. The Redbirds are ranked third in the NL with a .271 team batting average, paced by Stan Musial (.319/21 HR/81 RBI/84 R), Rogers Hornsby (.308/7 HR/68 RBI) and Johnny Mize (.305/15 HR/82 RBI). The Cards mound staff comes in with a less-than-impressive 4.26 ERA. Dizzy Dean (12-8 3.72) is the best they have to offer. There is little else behind him.

The Pittsburgh Pirates pitching is just plain bad -- that's why they are in seventh place and 27.5 games out of first place. A 5.01 ERA won't get you very far in any league. Other than Rip Sewell (13-8 4.17) the mound staff has floundered badly. The only other players to cheer about are Sadaharu Oh (.268), who is quietly having a fine year with 30 home runs,107 RBIs and 96 runs scored, and Paul Waner (.318/1 HR/47 RBI/79 R). Oh tops the National League in homers and RBIs.

The Boston Braves are slack in almost all areas of the game, batting only .243 and possessing a 4.29 ERA. They only excel in power, second in the NL in home runs. New York is the only team with more. The Giants have blasted 129 homers to the Braves 115. Tom Glavine (8-10 3.17) and Greg Maddux (9-16 3.63) give the club quality starts, but not a lot of victories because of the poor hitting. Only two Braves are enjoying decent years - third baseman Eddie Mathews (.273/20 HR/59 RBI) and left fielder Chipper Jones (.273/23 HR/64 RBI) -- and they are not much to brag about.

Eugene Church · 09-15-2007, 05:42 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Monday, August 25, 1910

There are only a couple of weeks left in the regular season. In the American League the Detroit Tigers hold a 3.5-game edge over the second place St. Louis Browns and in the National League the New York Giants have a slim one-game lead over the Chicago Cubs.

All of the contenders have 14 games remaining, except for the Browns, who have 13.

In the AL, Detroit will battle the White Sox and Yankees over the last two weeks, while the Browns will close out the season against Philadelphia and Washington. Each club will have a home-and-away series against each opponent.

Both the Tigers and the Browns have had an easy time with their opponents. Detroit is 13-2 in the season series against the White Sox and 10-5 against New York. St. Louis went 12-4 against the A's and 11-4 over the Senators.

Beginning today, the Browns will play host to the fifth place A's in a three-game series at Bill Veeck Stadium in St. Louis, while the Tigers will be at home at Briggs Stadium for a four-game set against the sixth place White Sox. Dick McNally (2-1) will pitch for St. Louis with Jesse Flores (7-2) on the mound for the A's. It will Hilton Smith (10-5) for Detroit and Ed Walsh (13-7) for Chicago.

Over in the National League, New York will end the year with the Cubs and the Braves. Chicago will go up against the Giants and the Phillies. These series will also be home-and-away, too.

Head-to-head the Giants have a slight 8-7 edge over the Cubs for the year and 10-5 over Boston. New York has the easier task of the two contenders as Chicago went 8-7 against the Phils.

And this afternoon at the Polo Grounds in New York, it's the first of two showdown series between the National League's top two teams. In the opener of this very important series, the Giants will pitch Juan Marichal (12-7) against the Cub ace, Mordecai Brown (17-9). The clubs will also play four games in Chicago next week, beginning with a Labor Day doubleheader on Monday.

Eugene Church · 09-16-2007, 09:45 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Monday, August 25, 1910

American League

TIGERS AND BROWNS BOTH WIN

Both of the top two clubs in the American League won today. The first place Detroit Tigers maintained their 3.5-game edge over the second place St. Louis Browns.

At Briggs Stadium in Detroit, the Tigers squeezed by the Chicago White Sox 4-3 behind the pitching of Hilton Smith (11-5 3.18) and John Hiller. Smith got the win with eight solid innings, yielding two runs, six hits, struck out five and walked none. He left it leading 4-2 and in the hands of Hiller, who got the first two guys out, but then it got interesting. An infield error put a runner on base and Magglio Ordonez made it 4-3 with a double. Hiller then got Louis Santop on a flyball to win the game. It was Hiller's 32nd save of the season.

Detroit tagged losing pitcher Ed Walsh (13-8 3.46) for four runs in the second inning, three of them unearned. Harvey Kuenn (.264) led the Tigers with two RBIs. Walsh went the route and surrendered only seven hits.

The Browns has a much easier task. They scored six runs in the opening inning on the way to a 10-3 shellacking of the Philadelphia A's. St. Louis lashed out fifteen hits with four players rapping three hits apiece to backup a fine pitching job by Dave McNally (2-1 3.00).

Cal Ripken (.280) went 3-5 for the Browns with three RBIs, Eddie Murray (.294) 3-5 with three runs scored and an RBI, Vern Stephens (.346) 3-4 with two RBIs, Bobby Grich (.245) 3-4, a home run and three RBIs. George Sisler (.328) had two hits, including a solo homer and a double.

Rookie Jesse Flores (7-3 2.89) didn't survive the first inning and absorbed the defeat.

Eugene Church · 09-16-2007, 10:52 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Monday, August 25, 1910

National League

NY'S MARICHAL BLANKS BRUINS

Juan Marichal, the Dominican Dandy, was the man of the hour for the New York Giants as he shutout the second place Chicago Cubs 6-0 in the opener of possibly the most important series of the season. The victory moved the Giants two games ahead in the tight National League pennant chase.

Marichal (13-7 3.20) dominated the hard-hitting Cubs, stopping them on just six hits. He fanned six and issued only one walk.

Mordecai Brown dominated the Giants on a one-hitter and matched Marichal for five innings, holding them scoreless. But New York busted loose with four runs in the sixth. Mel Ott (.288) doubled in the first run of the game, Bill Terry (.336) and Jeff Kent (.246) added RBI singles and Gary Carter (.246) chipped in a sacrifice fly. That was all the runs Marichal needed.

Scheduled to pitch in the second game of the three-game series are Christy Mathewson (18-8 3.09) for the Giants and Fergie Jenkins (3-2 3.89) for Chicago.

Eugene Church · 09-17-2007, 02:36 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Tuesday, August 26, 1910

American League

DETROIT GAINS GAME ON ST. LOUIS

Detroit staged a dramatic 5-run rally to nip the stunned White Sox 6-5. Rudy York's three-run triple in the bottom of the eighth won it for the Tigers. Frank Tanana (5-2 3.19) notched the win in relief, while starter Wilbur Wood (9-13 3.27) lost it. Detroit upped its American League lead to 4.5 games over the St. Louis Browns, who lost to the Athletics.

With 24 hits in a game, you could hardly call it a pitcher's duel -- but it was. Rube Waddell (9-16 4.13) of the Philadelphia A's shut out Ned Garver (14-10 3.87) and the St. Louis Browns 2-0 on a 10-hitter. Garver "held" the A's to 14 hits. Both of them whiffed five, walked two and went the route.

Jimmie Foxx (.279) homered in the fourth and Buddy Rosar (.204) had an RBI single in the sixth to account for all the runs.

National League

CHICUBS RAP GIANTS...TRAIL BY ONE

Chicago's bats came alive and battered first place New York 8-5 with a solid 12-hit attack. Turkey Stearnes (.303), Aramis Ramirez (.272) and Johnny Kling (.319) each drove in two runs to secure the victory. The win cut the Giants National League lead to just one game.

Rube Foster (13-9 4.66) was the winning pitching. He tossed seven-plus innings and allowed five runs and seven hits with nine strikeouts. Bruce Sutter and Carlos Zambrano protected the lead for him. Loser Christy Mathewson (18-9 3.24) was hit hard, giving up five runs and five hits in only three innings.

The teams will play the rubber game of the three-game series tomorrow with Chicago's Claude Passeau (12-2 2.85) and NY's Johnny Antonelli (16-8 2.81), the expected starters.

Eugene Church · 09-17-2007, 04:00 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Wednesday, August 27, 1910

American League

TIGERS WIDEN MARGIN OVER BROWNS

The American League-leading Detroit Tigers battled long and hard and finally subdued the Chicago White Sox 3-2 in twelve innings. Coupled with the St. Louis 3-2 loss to Philadelphia, the Tigers have jumped to a 5.5-game over the second place Browns.

Detroit pitching was outstanding. Tommy Bridges went ten innings and checked Chicago on two runs and seven hits. The victory went to John Hiller (6-7 3.55). He tossed two scoreless innings. Tommy John (0-6 4.56) lost it in relief on a one-out double by Bobby Veach in the twelfth.

In a strong outing Lefty Grove (13-11 3.81) derailed the Browns faint pennant hopes with a 3-2 win. He stopped them on two runs and five hits in eight innings of work. Grove walked two and fanned eight. Dennis Eckersley got his 21 saves with a scoreless ninth. Dennis Martinez (13-8 3.42) was the loser.

National League

ANTONELLI SHUTS OUT CUBS IN SHOWDOWN

The Giants took the rubber game of the three-game series with the Chicago Cubs. Johnny Antonelli (17-8 2.70) fired a 3-0 shutout in the decisive third game victory with Claude Passeau (12-3 2.88) taking the loss. Antonelli permitted eight hits, struck out four and walked only one to send New York up by two games in the National League pennant chase.

New York scored two in the first frame as Barry Bonds and Bill Terry drove in runs. In the fourth Jeff Kent plated the last run.

The two clubs will tangle again in a crucial four-game series beginning Monday.

Eugene Church · 09-17-2007, 04:18 PM

ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION

Thursday, August 28, 1910

American League

TIGERS FALL...AL LEAD CUT TO 5 GAMES

Only four games in both leagues today with only one pennant contender in action and they lost. The first place Detroit Tigers took it on the chin in a 10-5 twelve-inning loss to the Chicago White Sox and saw a half-game disappear from their lead over the idle second place St. Louis Browns. The Tigers are now 5 games in front. Reliever Ted Lyons (7-9 5.25) was the winner and Troy Percival (3-4 5.85) the loser. The Pale Hose outhit Detroit 15 to 13.

09-06-2007, 02:18 PM	#784 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Wednesday, April 9, 1910 *SCRIBES PICK TRIBE TO WIN AGAIN IN AL* The Cleveland Indians coasted to the American League pennant last season and won by 9 games. This year the Baseball Writers of America have overwhelmingly chosen them to take the title again. In the BWA preseason poll, the Tribe was named on 85 of the ballots, easily outpointing the Detroit Tigers, who received 15 votes. The St. Louis Browns finished third in the poll with 7 votes, followed by the Athletics with 5 and the Yankees with 3. No other clubs received any votes. American League 1. Cleveland Indians 2. Detroit Tigers 3. St. Louis Browns 4. Philadelphia Athletics 5. New York Yankees 6. Chicago White Sox 7. Boston Red Sox 8. Washington Senators In the preseason analysis by the baseball journalists, the Cleveland Indians were picked to repeat as American League champions. Manager Steve O'Neill has a very solid and well-balanced team. He has the league's best pitching staff that was first with a fine 3.48 ERA, backed up by the highest-scoring offense. The Indians were second in hitting to the Tigers .272 with a .268 average, but still scored the most runs. Leading the Cleveland charge in 1910 will be pitchers Addie Joss (15-5 3.07), Bob Lemon (14-9 3.19) and relief ace Doug Jones (9-4 2.69). Mix in veterans Bob Feller (12-14 3.92) and Herb Score (13-13 4.02) and you have the potential for an outstanding staff. O'Neill will also be able to call on Mel Harder (4-2 2.90) and Stan Coveleskie (9-4 3.00) the whole season. They joined the rotation when Joss was lost to injury for two months late in the season and both did a fine job replacing him. In the batting department, the Indians will feature Golden Bat winner, Willie Wells (.312/30 HR/119 RBI/98 R/35 SB), who led the league in batting and RBIs, along with Earl Averill (.281/21 HR/102 RBI/90 R), Tris Speaker (.287/17 HR/78 RBI/109 R) and Nap Lajoie (.307/6 HR/62 RBI/109 R). The only newcomer to the Cleveland roster will be slick-fielding second baseman Roberto Alomar, promoted from Indianapolis in the American Association. The 20-year-old hit .336 with 20 homers, 100 RBIs, 113 runs scored and 30 stolen bases. However, he will be groomed to replace Lajoie and will be used as a utility infielder for the time being. The Detroit Tigers were third last year and trailed the Indians by 13 games. The Tigers get by on excellent hitting, paced by superstar Ty Cobb (.301/9 HR/85 RBI/100 R/55 SB), Charlie Gehringer (.306/13 HR/86 RBI/80 R) and Hank Greenberg (.257/28 HR/95 RBI/82 R). Detroit has an abundance of good hitters throughout their lineup. On the hill skipper Hughie Jennings has good starters in Tommy Bridges (17-8 3.18), Jack Morris (14-9 3.42), Masaichi Kaneda (13-11 3.99) and Hal Newhouser (11-11 4.04), but he is looking for improvement in his relief corps, a problem in past seasons. John Hiller (3-0 2.93) will be his closer this season. Hiller has failed to nail down the job many times in the past and was exiled to the minor leagues for most of the last two years. He was recalled from Toledo late last year and did well, when rookie Francisco Cordero (4-7 5.16) struggled in the role. Just in case Hiller doesn't do the job, Detroit has added Troy Percival as insurance. Percival stood out at Double A Little Rock with a brilliant 1.92 ERA, 40 saves and a 10-2 won-lost mark. Solving this dilemma could go a long way in getting the Tigers back in contention for the AL pennant. Manager Earl Weaver of the St. Louis Browns has quietly created a good ballclub. He has done it with pitching and defense. His mound corps is rated number two to Cleveland's with a 3.60 ERA. Heading the list of hurlers are Hoyt Wilhelm (19-9 2.34), the ERA leader, Ned Garver (17-8 3.31), Urban Shocker (12-9 2.71), Mike Cuellar (10-15 3.45) and Jim Palmer (8-8 3.92). Like Detroit, the Browns lack a good closer. B. J. Ryan (2-7 4.01) floundered last year and will be replaced by Armando Benitez, purchased from the Baltimore Orioles of the International League. The 21-year-old Benitez had an outstanding season with the Orioles, chalking up a 9-4 record with 41 saves and a 2.96 ERA. St. Louis has to do it with pitching and fielding. The Browns were tied with New York for the worst batting average with a .250 mark. Weaver's best batters are Ken Williams (.293/13 HR/87 RBI/66 R), George Sisler (.287/6 HR/47 RBI/75 R/44 SB) and Josh Gibson (.2151/32 HR/83 RBI/79 R). A lack of depth in the starting rotation is the reason why last year's second place team is forecast to finish fourth in 1910. The Philadelphia Athletics have a good nucleus of starters in Rube Waddell (20-9 2.94), Lefty Grove (14-11 3.63) and Bobby Shantz (14-10 4.16), but will need a revitalized Ed Plank (8-11 5.06) to challenge the leaders. Plank had to endure his worst season last year. Bullpen ace Dennis Eckersley (11-4 2.64) is back after a career year with a record-breaking 41 saves. Another righthander Danny Haren was bought from the Oakland Oaks. Haren compiled a 14-6 record and a 2.87 ERA. He and returning holdovers, Barry Zito (3-2 2.92) and Tim Hudson (1-0 4.80), will vie for the fifth slot in the pitching rotation. Manager Connie Mack's A's were down near the bottom in offense last year as Jimmie Foxx (.241/25 HR/74 RBI), John Henry Lloyd (.247/15 HR/73 RBI) and Mickey Cochrane (.254/6 HR/54 RBI) all suffered down seasons and the team had a composite batting average of only .252, next-to-last in the AL. This trio will need a rebirth for the Athletics to finish higher in the standings. Philadelphia's only reliable batters were Alejandro Oms (.312/13 HR/65 RBI/99 R), Al Simmons (.281/14 HR/93 RBI/68 R) and Frank Baker (.280/25 HR/84 RBI/88 R). Mack has gone out and purchased several players from the Pacific Coast League. Righthander Jesse Flores was 17-10 with a 2.75 ERA with a mediocre Sacramento club. His teammate, outfielder Sam Chapman, batted .325 with 25 home runs, 106 RBIs and scored 99 times. The Bronx didn't have much to cheer about in 1909. The mighty New York Yankees dipped to fourth place, 18 games off the pace. It was their worst season ever. Even worse is predicted this year. The BWA has voted the Bronx Bombers to end up in fifth place. Poor hitting and so-so pitching is the reason. The Yanks were dead last with a .250 batting average and fourth with a 3.97 team ERA. This has to change for them to challenge for the AL flag. New York can not be successful by just hitting home runs. They topped the league again in homers. But they need to have baserunners on when they hit it out of the park. 199 roundtrippers translated into only 683 runs, fourth best in the league. Manager Casey Stengel's got a great season from Mel Stottlemyre (22-8 3.38), but only a fair performance from Whitey Ford (12-12 3.74) and a lousy performance from Lefty Gomez (7-12 5.04). Gomez will begin the season in the bullpen and work long relief. In the bullpen, relief specialist Mariano Rivera (4-7 4.13) had a subpar year. However, rookie Randy Johnson (13-12 3.65) showed good promise in his freshman season. This year's rotation will also include Ron Guidry (9-7 3.69) and two minor leaguers, rookie David Wells and Andy Pettitte. Wells went 18-4 with a 3.49 ERA for the Kansas City Blues in the American Association. Pettitte is back in the majors for his second trial. He was 1-3 with a 5.36 ERA in 1906. Last year at Newark in the International League, he was 18-7 with a 2.78 ERA. First baseman Lou Gehrig (.295/24 HR/90 RBI/83 R) and center fielder Joe DiMaggio (.292/18 HR/64 RBI/92 R) had good years at bat, but the rest of the Bronx Bombers bombed a bit. Babe Ruth (.269/31 HR/83 RBI/104 R) had a disappointing season by his standards, hitting only .269. The highly-regarded youngsters Alex Rodriguez (.249/34 HR/92 RBI/68 R) and Alfonso Soriano (.214/22 HR/56 RBI/80 R) hit for power, but not for average. They also struck out too much. It is rumored Stengel will replace Soriano at second base with the veteran, Joe Gordon (.235/9 HR/21 RBI/13 R), who was the backup last year. In addition to Wells and Pettitte, outfielder Charlie Keller will get another opportunity on the parent team. He starred for Kansas City by batting .296 with 33 homers, 122 RBIs and scoring 102 times. Keller's only previous stay in New York was short-lived in 1903. He batted only .190 in a parttime role and went back to the minors. He is only 26 years old, yet has 8 years experience. The Chicago White Sox, managed by Al Lopez, are slated to finish sixth this year. The Pale Hose are mediocre in most categories and have several talented ballplayers, but no stars. The Chisox were next-to-last with a .257 batting average and fifth with a 4.05 ERA. You name it and they need it. Lopez has the basis for a good pitching staff in Ed Walsh (14-12 3.34), Dick Donovan (15-10 3.28) and Ted Lyons (15-7 3.84). Chicago just needs Billy Pierce (2-14 5.36) to regain the form that made him a consistent winner in past years. Wilbur Wood will be taken out of the bullpen -- he was the closer last year -- and be restored to a starting role, where he has had success in the past. Dave Steib (4-11 3.61) will also get a shot at starting. Pierce and Wood could be the keys to the White Sox sneaking into the first division. Bobby Jenks will be Wood's replacement as the closer. He had 37 saves for Double A Memphis in 1909. He won 10 and lost only 2 for the Chicks with a sparkling 2.67 ERA. Jenks' last foray into the majors was 1908, when he had a dismal 2-9 mark with a very poor 6.22 ERA. Offensively, the White Sox don't have much to boast about. Joe Jackson (.311/5 HR/83 RBI/89 R) consistently hits .300, but has little help. Gold Glovers Dick Lundy (.279/18 HR/87 RBI/83 R) and Eddie Collins (.299/1 HR/43 RBI/89 R) are also good, dependable contact hitters. What Chicago is sorely lacking is someone to hit the long ball. They need more power at the plate to compete with the first division teams. Only Frank Thomas (.226/27 HR/98 RBI/67 R) is a threat to go long, but he hits only .226. If he would hit .300, it would make a world of difference in his overall numbers. Louis Santop (.246/18 HR/71 RBI) and Magglio Ordonez (.254/17 HR/59 RBI) fall in the same boat. On paper the Boston Red Sox should be able to compete with anybody. The Bosox have great personnel, good enough to rival any of the other teams, but when they get on the field, they just don't produce. Manager Joe McCarthy is bewildered by it. They have finished sixth and eighth the last two seasons. Only George Ruth (16-10 3.42) had a good season on the hill. Second year man Bill Monbouquette (10-6 4.01) and vet Mel Parnell (7-6 4.02) had decent years, but the rest were not very effective. The Red Sox had a terrible 4.68 ERA, one of the worst in AAA history. That's why they ended the season in the cellar, 33 games out of first place. Roger Clemens (8-14 4.27), Pedro Martinez (3-8 5.51) and Cy Young (0-4 5.31) did not pitch up to their potential. Boston will add three hurlers to the mound corps. Rookie Josh Beckett has been promoted from the San Diego Padres of the PCL, where he compiled a 17-6 record with a 3.03 ERA. Beckett won a starting role in spring training. Two other pitchers will be making return appearances to the Red Sox. The new closer will be Jonathan Papelbon, who went 8-0 with a splendid 1.61 ERA in a half season with the Louisville Colonels of the American Association. He had started the season in Boston, but was a disappointing 2-3 with a 6.14 ERA. Tim Wakefield was also called up from the Colonels. He chalked up a 16-7 mark with a 2.95 ERA. Wakefield was 6-10 with a 4.18 ERA in two short stints in 1907-08 with the Red Sox. He will initially be used in middle relief, but will get a shot at starting, if any of the other starters falter. If the pitchers could pitch like the Bosox batters hit, things would be alright in Beantown. Ted Williams and Company hit a composite .260 (4th) with a 160 home runs (2nd) and ranked third in runs scored. Williams (.288/36 HR/110 RBI/99 R) was the AL leader in home runs and finished second in RBIs. He was aided by Oscar Charleston (.299/25 HR/81 RBI/101 R/59 SB), David Ortiz (.239/29 HR/92 RBI/70 R) and the Rookie of the Year, Johnny Damon (.277/14 HR/67 RBI/84 R). Another good bat has been added to the roster. Outfielder Mike Greenwell will be used as a utility outfielder this year. He had an outstanding season in San Diego, hitting .325 with 22 roundtrippers, 119 RBIs and scored 86 times. Some good pitching could do wonders for the Bosox. Good seasons from third baseman Nomar Garciaparra (.250/21 HR/72 RBI/77 R) and shortstop Joe Cronin (.272/7 HR/59 RBI/71 R) could do wonders, too. The Washington Senators were seventh in 1909 and are expected to slip to the basement in 1910. Only a handful of players stood out for the Senators last year. One of them is their fine righthander, Alvin Crowder (15-10 3.69), who is 68-53 in his six years with the club. The others are Golden Glove winner Paul Molitor (.296/9 HR/59 RBI/78 R) and journeyman outfielders Goose Goslin (.270/19 HR/81 RBI/80 R) and Heinie Manush (.294/6 HR/73 RBI/68 R). Manager Clark Griffith will pretty much go with the current personnel. The only newcomer is rookie lefthander, Jerry Koosman, who had an impressive season with the Double A Chattanooga Lookouts in the Southern Association. Koosman starred there with a 21-10 record and a remarkable 2.49 ERA with a seventh place team. He will do time as a middle reliever at the beginning of the season, but will step in, if any of the starters struggle. Washington is building its hopes for a better year on pitcher Walter Johnson (7-15 4.36), who had a rare bad season in 1909. Griffith is looking for Cannonball Dick Redding (11-15 3.88) to continue to improve. He thinks Redding has the talent to be an elite pitcher in the American League. Griffith also puts second year pitcher Dean Chance (9-9 4.70) in that same category. The Senator skipper also expects better things from starters Bert Blyleven (5-9 3.66) and Jim Kaat (2-1 3.39) and Eddie Guarado (1-2 3.83), who took over the closer spot from Rick Aguilera (6-8 4.45) at the end of last season. Washington also has some great young talent in first baseman Justin Morneau (.256/14 HR/86 RBI/68 R), center fielder Torii Hunter (.255/17 HR/82 RBI/70 R) and catcher Joe Mauer (.266/3 HR/42 RBI/62 R). All of them are ready to move up in class. Last edited by Eugene Church; 09-07-2007 at 07:46 PM.

09-07-2007, 10:20 PM	#785 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Wednesday, April 9, 1910 *GIANTS AND CARDS IN A SCRAMBLE FOR NL FLAG* The Baseball Writers of America have predicted the New York Giants will repeat as the National League champions. John McGraw's Polo Grounders were the choice of 70 voters in the preseason baseball poll. The St. Louis Cardinals were the runner-up choice with 30 votes. The Phillies came in a very distant third with 6 votes, followed by the Reds with 4 and the Dodgers with 2. National League 1. New York Giants 2. St. Louis Cardinals 3. Philadelphia Phillies 4. Cincinnati Reds 5. Brooklyn Dodgers 6. Pittsburgh Pirates 7. Chicago Cubs 8. Boston Braves The New York Giants made shambles of the National League pennant chase last year and have been picked by the baseball experts to do the same this year. The Giants boasted the best ERA last season with a 3.60 mark, hit more homers than anybody else, were second with a .264 batting average and second in runs scored. That's why they won by 10 games and then whipped Cleveland in the World Series. The Giants were the best team in both leagues. It could be more of the same in 1910 with a World Series rematch with the Indians, who are picked to win the American League. Manager John McGraw has a wealth of pitchers and position players. On the hill, he has Christy Mathewson (18-8 3.16), Carl Hubbell (16-9 2.47), Johnny Antonelli (15-8 3.23), Juan Marichal (12-11 3.98) and bullpen ace, Marv Grissom (7-4 3.01). New York has added rookie hurlers Red Ames and Jesse Barnes to the roster, along with Jason Schmidt, who has sat out the last two years with an arm injury. Ames and Barnes both pitched for the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association with Ames registering a 22-8 record with a 2.74 ERA and Barnes going 16-10 with a 3.06 ERA. Schmidt has a career 8-9 mark and a 4.05 ERA in two short stints with the Giants in 1907-08. All three are scheduled to be middle relievers. The other two spots on the staff will be filled by Sal Maglie (5-2 3.05) and Joe McGinnity (5-4 1.73), who were very effective in the second half run in 1909. They will share the #5 starter slot. New York excels in the hitting department, too. The Giants big bats are Mel Ott (.282/28 HR/105 RBI/117 R), Martin Dihigo (.301/36 HR/119 RBI/84 R), Barry Bonds (.277/31 HR/73 RBI/116 R), Willie Mays (.264/23 HR/85 RBI/96 R) and Billy Terry (.318/6 HR/89 RBI/53 R). What a year the St. Louis Cardinals hitters had last season. They led both leagues with a .276 average, but it wasn't enough to beat the Giants. The Redbirds pitching corps labored most of the year and compiled a 4.07 ERA, only good enough for sixth place in the NL. Manager Tony Larussa has more .300 hitters on his roster than he can fit into the starting lineup. Leading the Cards are Stan Musial (.301/29 HR/115 RBI/106 R), Johnny Mize (.300/26 HR/94 RBI/91 R), Rogers Hornsby (.301/11 HR/86 RBI/81 R) and Austin McHenry (.302/15 HR/66 RBI/101 R). To bolster the mound staff the Cards have restored longtime stalwart Harry Brecheen (6-3 3.34) to the starting rotation. He was 61-37 from 1901 to 1906. Brecheen spent 1907-08 at Rochester in the International and was recalled last season. Larussa moved him into the starting rotation in August and he responded well. Bill Doak will be the only rookie on the team this year. He was 20-12 with the Columbus Redbirds of the American Association in 1909. Doak will be used in long relief at first with the possibility of some spot starting. Rookie Dan Quisenberry (4-5 3.49) proved to be a good closer last season and will be used there again this year. For St. Louis to contend with New York, the key will be the pitching, both starters and relievers. If the Cards get improvement there, they will give the Giants a lot of competition. Last year the Philadelphia Phillies hung close to the Giants until midseason, but couldn't match their torrid second half pace and eventually lost out by 12 games and finished in the third spot in the standings. This season the baseball scribes think that is where they will end up again. Manager Danny Ozark has stayed pat with his roster and will start the season with the same players as last year, hoping they can remain in the race the whole year. The Phils have to improve in the batting department to challenge the Giants and the Cardinals. As a club they hit only .254 in 1909, fifth in the National League. No one on the Philadelphia squad had a good year, they all fell below career levels. Ed Delahanty (.246/5 HR/50 RBI/60 R), a lifetime .315 batter, had a terrible season. The best the Phillies had to offer were Chuck Klein (.299/21 HR/78 RBI/88 R), Biz Mackey (.294/15 HR/88 RBI/74 R) and Billy Hamilton (.288/4 HR/50 RBI/93 R/33 SB), but their numbers were down as well. It will take good years from them, plus Ryan Howard (.213/25 HR/79 RBI/66 R) and Mike Schmidt (.256/22 HR/79 RBI/63 R) for Philadelphia to be contenders. Pitching-wise Ozark is in pretty good shape with the likes of veterans Steve Carlton (17-10 3.57), Robin Roberts (15-11 3.49), Chris Short (13-10 3.63) and Pete Alexander (11-12 3.60). In the bullpen Tug McGraw (0-1 2.70) did a capable job after he replaced Billy Wagner (6-11 4.97) as the closer. Vincent Padilla (4-4 4.37) and Sid Fernandez (4-2 5.40) will be the #5 starters, replacing Curt Shilling (3-6 5.48) and Curt Simmons (6-7 4.33). Fourth in the preseason poll were the Cincinnati Reds. Sparky Anderson's crew made good progress last year and stayed in the race until the halfway mark in the schedule, trailing by only 4.5 games. Rookie of the Year Junior Griffey (.266 /32 HR/93 RBI/100 R) played a big role in that improvement, along with vets Ted Kluszewski (.288/26 HR/107 RBI/87 R) and Frank Robinson (.274/33 HR/95 RBI/92 R). Returning to Cincinnati's roster this year is 1907's sensational Rookie of the Year Chris Sabo. Anderson is hoping Sabo will recapture the magic of that season, when he hit .290 with 20 homers and 100 RBIs. He went to the bench the next year. Sabo will be installed at third base and Dave Conception will be given the shortstop position. Journeyman Conception is brilliant with the glove and would be a great addition, if he can hit consistently. With regular play, Sparky thinks he can. Conception has been at Nashville in the Southern Association for the last three season. He hit .305 there in 1909. Decent pitching also played a part in Cincy's rise in play. They ended up in sixth, 20 games out, but played a good brand of baseball. The team ERA was 3.90, second to New York's 3.60. Starters Gary Nolan (14-10 3.41) and Eppa Rixey (13-12 3.81) had good seasons. So did Don Gullett (6-4 3.21) and Tom Seaver (6-9 3.21), who were moved to the starting rotation at the season's mid-point. Closer Rob Dibble (8-9 3.17) had a fine year, too. 1910 is looking good for the Reds. A relief whiz from the Nashville Vols has been added to the roster. His name is John Franco. He might give Dibble some strong competition for the closer spot. Franco compiled a 12-3 mark for Nashville with a sensational 2.18 ERA. Also promoted from the Vols was Johnny Vander Meer, who charted an 18-12 record and a 2.87 ERA. Vander Meer will used as a spot starter by Anderson. The Reds also are looking for good things from Noodles Hahn (1-3), who impressed with a 1.47 ERA and 3 saves in 20 relief appearances last season. The BWA has forecast a fifth place finish for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Manager Tommy Lasorda's ballclub was tied for fourth last year with the Pirates and ended up 17 games behind the leader. The Dodgers need pitching. Sandy Koufax (19-7 1.89), the best pitcher in baseball, can't win a pennant by himself. He will need help from Dazzy Vance (11-15 3.45), Fernando Valenzuela (6-4 3.47) and the others in the starting rotation like veterans Van Mungo (9-8 4.23) and Claude Osteen (10-8 4.41) and rookies Brad Penny and Dutch Ruether. Last year Penny went 15-4 with a 2.82 ERA at Montreal in the International League, while Ruether was 19-6 and 2.91 with the St. Paul Saints in the American Association. Lasorda will have the capable Eric Gagne (6-4 4.14) in the bullpen. Brooklyn hits well, ranking fourth in the NL with a .262 average. They hope rookie outfielder Raul Mondesi will add a little spark to the attack. He batted .310 with 30 home runs and 92 RBIs for the Montreal Royals in 1909 and will platoon in right field with Duke Snider (.252/10 HR/36 RBI). The leaders in the lineup this season are expected to be Mike Piazza (.292/37 HR/101 RBI/81 R), Cristobel Torriente (.299/13 HR/93 RBI/87 R), Jack Fourrier (.304/14 HR/73 RBI/92 R) and Jackie Robinson (.297/16 HR/68 RBI/100 R/36 SB). Improved pitching could move the Dodgers higher in the standings, but it is not likely they will challenge the Giants and the Cards. Third may be the best they can do. The Pittsburgh Pirates were in the thick of the battle up until midseason last year. They were in a three-way tie for first place at the midpoint mark, but slumped badly in the second half and ended up tied for fourth with Brooklyn. The Bucs don't really do anything very well on paper, but they won some ballgames last year somehow, mainly via home run power. They were sixth in hitting with a .253 mark and next-to-last in pitching with a dismal 4.32 ERA. Skipper Danny Murtaugh will have basically the same regulars, but has dipped into the farm system for pitching. Vic Aldridge has been promoted from the Hollywood Stars of the PCL and Al Mamaux called up from the New Orleans Pelicans in the Double A Southern Association. Aldridge compiled a 16-9 mark with a 3.48 ERA, while Mamaux was 21-15 with a 2.53 ERA for the seventh place Pels. Both of these youngsters will have to stand by in the wings. They will have to do time in middle relief to prove themselves. Pittsburgh's starting rotation will include Deacon Phillippe (12-12 4.22), Bruce Kison (12-8 4.01), Rip Sewell (9-6 3.93), Bob Veale (4-10 3.12) and Doug Drabek (5-10 4.83). Murtaugh is blessed with a fine closer in Kent Tekulve (9-5 3.41). Pacing the Pirate attack will be the NL batting champ, Honus Wagner (.332/17 HR/81 RBI/91 R/43 SB), Sadaharu Oh (.234/32 HR/101 RBI/82 R), Brian Giles (.252/24 HR/90 RBI/79 R) and Dave Parker (.240/25 HR/75 RBI/72 R). Rookie Dick Groat will take over at shortstop and move the versatile Wagner and Golden Glover back to second base. The 21-year-old Groat batted .319 for New Orleans, hitting 6 roundtrippers, drove in 73 runs and scored 83 runs. To get more punch in the lineup, Murtaugh intends to give infielder Arky Vaughan, a career .281 hitter, and outfielder Roberto Clemente, a lifetime .271 hitter, more playing time this season. Good fielding rookie catcher Jim Pagliaroni is slated to play a lot this year as well. He impressed at the PCL's Hollywood Stars in 1909. The 19-year old already has two years of pro ball under his belt. Pagliaroni batted .295 with 17 homers for the Stars. The up-and-down Pirates could do it again this season and contend, if the pitching improves. Second or third is not out of the question, but sixth is more likely. The Chicago Cubs went from the penthouse to the outhouse in one season as they tumbled from first to last place -- from World Champions to the cellar. Pitching was the culprit -- the Cubs team ERA soared to 4.41 and a good pitcher was hard to find -- Moe Brown (15-8 3.30) was still solid, but skipper Charlie Grimm had little else. Ed Reulbach slumped to 10-16 with a 3.54 ERA, Rube Foster staggered to a 10-17 mark and a poor 4.88 ERA and bullpen ace Bruce Sutter struggled at times and ended the season with a 7-6 record as his ERA ballooned to 3.99. To rectify the situation, the Chicubs are writing it off as a bad season. Grimm will keep the rotation pretty much the same as last year. He is glad to have Pat Malone (6-4 3.39) back from injury. He was one of the few bright spots before being laid up in July. He is fully recovered and ready to go this year and will be the #4 starter. Larry French (3-2 4.02) and Rick Reuschel (2-2 4.50) are the other hopefuls for the #5 slot. The Cubs fall from glory couldn't be blamed entirely on the pitching, the batters had their problems, too. The remarkable Turkey Stearnes (.322/41 HR/134 RBI/106 R) and Cool Papa Bell (.298/11 HR/71 RBI/112 R) almost carried the offensive load by themselves. Little help came from the rest of the lineup. Ernie Banks (.233/17 HR/75 RBI), Aramis Ramirez (.234/15 HR/47 RBI), Gabby Hartnett (.248/10 HR/42 RBI) and Bill Dahlen (.254/4 HR/28 RBI/33 R) all had a part in the collapse. To energize the offense, Grimm has restored left fielder Hack Wilson (.299/4 HR/19 RBI)and first baseman Tetsuharu Kawakami (.306/3 HR/17) to fulltime status. Last season they were on the bench much of the season. He has also summoned Woody English from the farm team in Los Angeles. He hit .319 with 117 runs scored, 4 homers and 53 RBIs for the Angels in the Pacific Coast League. English won the shortstop spot in spring training. The preseason sportswriters poll shows Chicago seventh in 1910. However, they could finish anywhere from seventh to fourth, but not much higher than that. The Boston Braves finished 22 games out of first in 1909 and were tied with the Cubs for last place in the National League. According to the pollsters, manager Bobby Cox's squad will have sole possession of last place this year. The Braves are simply the worst team in the Alltime Allstar Association. They hit only .238 last season and will have to greatly improve this to climb in the standings. Only Buck Leonard (.289/28 HR/105 RBI/82 R), Hank Aaron (.288/20 HR/72 RBI/78 R) and Hubert Long (.291/13 HR/51 RBI/83 R) carried their weight. Boston needs Chipper Jones (.254/20 HR/72 RBI/78 R), Eddie Mathews (.226/23 HR/76 RBI/53 R) and the rest of the regulars to get it into gear. Cox is bringing in a rookie outfielder from the American Association, John Francoeur. He batted .294 for the Milwaukee Brewers with 29 home runs and 103 RBIs. He will split time with Tommy Holmes (.267/2 HR/16 RBI) and Dale Murphy (.244/4 HR/15 RBI) in right field. To shore up the shortstop position the Braves will give the sure-handed Rabbit Maranville another chance in the majors. He has spent the last six seasons in the minors. In 1909 Maranville played for Milwaukee and put up a .295 batting average, scored 115 times and drove in 63 runs. Cox would be overjoyed, if he could come close to those numbers in the National League. If they could get decent run support, Boston has some good arms. Year-after-year Greg Maddux (14-13 3.35), Warren Spahn (12-14 3.48) and Tom Glavine can pitch with the best of them. Cox is glad to have Glavine back after he missed two years with a bad elbow. Lifetime he is 74-66 with a 3.83 ERA. Toss in newcomer Carl Morton (17-8 3.53), who is 25-8 with a 2.94 ERA over the last season and a half and you have a solid group of pitchers. New to the roster this year are pitchers Charlie Leibrandt and Don Rudolph. Leibrandt is a rookie and earned the promotion by going 19-12 with a 2.66 ERA at Milwaukee in Triple A. He will share starts with Glavine and be used in long relief. Rudolph pitched for the Atlanta Crackers in the Southern Association, racking up a 17-9 mark with a 2.69 ERA in 1909. He will work middle relief this season. Rudolph had brief trials in 1902 and 1904 with the Braves and is 1-5 with a 7.53 ERA in the majors. He has been with Atlanta for the last five years. In the bullpen, Steve Bedrosian (3-6 4.99) has impressed, but needs to be more consistent. He had 32 saves last season. Too many home runs inflate his ERA. So goes the hitting, so goes the Boston Braves. They have the pitching to compete at the first division level. Last edited by Eugene Church; 09-24-2007 at 09:32 PM.

09-09-2007, 11:10 PM	#788 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Sunday, June 1, 1910 AMERICAN LEAGUE *BIG SURPRISE! BROWNS ON TOP OF AL!* All it took was good hitting and the St. Louis Browns have taken charge of the American League race. In the first two months of the season the Browns are ranked number one in pitching with a superb 3.38 ERA -- but they are surprisingly the best hitting and best scoring team, too. Put it all together and Earl Weaver's bunch have bolted to a five-game lead. American League standings Team W-L GB STB 36-18 -- DET 31-23 5 CWS 27-24 7.5 BOS 28-29 9.5 PHA 25-27 10 NYY 23-29 12 WAS 23-30 12.5 CLE 20-33 15.5 No wonder St. Louis is in first place in the AL -- they are hitting .271 as a team and have a 3.38 ERA -- both numbers are the best in the league. Coming into the season they knew they had good pitching, but the hitting has been amazing. Josh Gibson (.353), Brooks Robinson (.301), George Sisler (.296), Ken Williams (.296) and Cal Ripken (.275) have been blistering the ball and giving great run support to the Browns mound staff, who have done their job very well, too. Mike Cuellar (8-1), Dennis Martinez (4-1), Ned Garver (6-3), Jim Palmer (4-2) and Hoyt Wilhelm (5-4) have been outstanding so far this season. Although he had been inconsistent, rookie reliever Armando Benitez (2-2) has saved 13 games already, but he will have to bring his 5.58 ERA down a lot to retain the closing role. The only club to stay close has been the Detroit Tigers, who trail by five games. Ordinarily it's the Tigers hitting prowess that take precedence, but this year it's the pitchers leading the way. Manager Hughie Jennings starting rotation has stood out with Jack Morris (7-2), Hal Newhouser (6-3) and Masaichi Kaneda (5-3). The bullpen has been sensational with John Hiller (2-2) already having 15 saves and rookie Troy Percival (2-0) piling up 9 more. As a team the Tigers are second in the league with a 3.80 ERA. Detroit batters are not having a good season. The Tigers are hitting only .256 and are ranked sixth in the AL this season. Only Alan Trammell (.368) and Ty Cobb (.312) are doing well. The Chicago White Sox have also hit the cover off the base in this young season and have improved their league standing over last year. They are in third place and 7.5 games behind the Tigers. Usually a league doormat, the Pale Hose have been pounding the ball at a .267 clip, sparked by Joe Jackson (.352), Dick Lundy (.319), Magglio Ordonez (.317), Eddie Collins (.296) and Luke Appling (.286). Skipper Al Lopez's pitching corps has backed up the fine hitting with some good pitching and they are rated third with a 3.90 ERA. Billy Pierce has comeback from a lousy year in 1909 and leads the staff with a 4-1 mark. Other fine contributors are Dave Steib (4-2), Ed Walsh (4-3) and Ted Lyons (5-4). Fireman Bobby Jenks (2-1) has been effective in relief and has converted 6 saves for the Chisox. The Boston Red Sox have staged a good comeback this season and improved to fourth place, but still trail by 9.5 games. The Bosox's rise can be attributed to an improved pitching staff, that's fourth in the league with a 4.17 ERA -- last year it was an abysmal 4.63. Four pitchers have paved the way for Boston this season. At the top of Manager Joe McCarthy's rotation are Mel Parnell (6-2), Cy Young (3-1) and Pedro Martinez (5-4). Young Jonathan Papelbon (3-2) has been his main relief specialist with 6 saves. The Red Sox are still doing a good job with the bats, hitting .261. They still have some firepower with Ted Williams (.293), Joe Cronin (.321), Oscar Charleston (.302), Kotsuya Nomura (.286) and Normar Garciaparra (.279). The Philadelphia Athletics are at the top of the second division, resting in the sixth spot, 10 games off the pace. The offense has rebounded in 1910 and pretty much carried the load for Manager Connie Mack's club. They are hitting a composite .263, headed by Al Simmons (.353), Bing Miller (.310), Alejandro Oms (.310), Mickey Cochrane (.306) and Jimmie Foxx (.276). On the hill, the A's are next-to-last in the American League with a 4.28 ERA. Most of the pitching rotation have been inconsistent this year. Mack's most dependable hurlers have been Lefty Grove (5-3), Bobby Shantz (5-4), Rube Waddell (5-5) and Barry Zito (4-4). Relievers Dennis Eckersley (2-1) and Huston Street (1-1) have been reliable, too. So far, this has been the worst season the proud New York Yankees have had to endure. They are batting only .234 and are resting in sixth place, trailing the Browns by 12 games. They still hit lots of homers, but little else. Babe Ruth has 18 roundtrippers and Alex Rodriguez 15, but they are only batting .250 and .263 respectively. The only bright spots in the Yanks lineup are Lou Gehrig (.327) and Joe DiMaggio (.283). On the mound Manager Casey Stengel's top pitchers are Whitey Ford (8-2), rookie David Wells (5-2) and relief ace Mariano Rivera (1-0). The Washington Senators are seventh in the American League standings, 12.5 games back of St. Louis. It has been a good year for Senator batters as they are whacking the ball at a solid .265 pace and the pitchers have compiled a decent 4.02 ERA, but this improvement hasn't pushed them up the ladder at all. Manager Clark Griffith's lineup card has a host of good hitters -- Heinie Manush (.322), Rod Carew (.311), Cecil Travis (.304), Joe Mauer (.281), Mule Suttles (.281), Goose Goslin (.279) and Torii Hunter (.268). Washington's downfall is the lack of power. They are last in home runs and seventh in runs scored. Bert Blyleven (5-4), Dick Redding (5-4) are Griffith's prime starters with reliever Eddie Guarado (1-3) doing well with 6 saves. Last season the Cleveland Indians went from last to first, now they have made an about-face and gone from first to worst. The Tribe is already 15.5 games out of first place. Manager Steve O'Neill has seen his wonderful pitching staff disintegrate to a 4.69 ERA, down from 3.48 last year. In the batting department they have gone from .268 to a dismal .244 average and are last in run production. Except for pitchers Bob Feller (7-1), Herb Score (5-3) and center fielder Tris Speaker (.340), no one has performed well. It looks like a season Cleveland will want to forget. Last edited by Eugene Church; 09-09-2007 at 11:24 PM.

09-10-2007, 05:23 PM	#789 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Sunday, June 1, 1910 NATIONAL LEAGUE *GIANTS AND CUBS 1-2 IN TWO-HORSE RACE* The National League is "hit happy" in 1910 with the New York Giants batting a lofty .281 and are at the top of the standings. The Chicago Cubs are second with a .277 batting average and 2 games behind in second place. Both clubs are a "pitcher's best nightmare". Team W-L GB NYG 33-19 -- CHC 32-22 2 BRO 26-26 7 PIT 26-28 8 CIN 25-28 8.5 PHI 25-28 8.5 STL 22-29 10.5 BSN 24-33 11.5 Manager John McGraw has a slew of sluggers like Barry Bonds (.327), Bill Terry (.318), Jeff Kent (.308), Willie Mays (.298), Martin Dihigo (.287) and Mel Ott (.276). The Giants hit often and with power. However, it is McGraw's mound corps that make the difference between the two clubs. New York is ranked second in the NL with a 3.69 ERA, while the Cubs are seventh with an unimpressive 4.36 ERA. Starters Johnny Antonelli (6-2), Christy Mathewson (7-3) and Juan Marichal (6-2) have been the standouts so far. In the bullpen Marv Grissom (3-1) continues to excel with 10 saves. The Chicago Cubs batting order brings smiles to Manager Jolly Cholly Grimm's face. It has been a robust year for Cool Papa Bell (.375), Turkey Stearnes (.317), Tetsuharu Kawakami (.284) and Billy Herman (.284). The Cubs best hurlers have been Mordecai Brown (7-2), Ed Reulbach (7-4) and Rube Foster (5-4). Grimm needs help in the relief department as Bruce Sutter (3-3) has skied to a 4.38 ERA, but has turned in 12 saves. The rest of the National League are at least 7 games off the pace and not in contention at this point in the season. The Brooklyn Dodgers are sparked on the field by Zach Wheat (.353), Jack Fourrier (.312), Cristobel Torriente (.307), Jackie Robinson (.295) and rookie Maury Wills (.287). On the hill, leading the pack are Sandy Koufax (7-2), Dazzy Vance (5-4) and rookie Brad Penny (4-3). The Dodgers are hitting well at .269, but are in dire need in the hurling department, both starters and relievers. They are rated fourth in ERA at 4.31. The Pittsburgh Pirates are in fourth place in the National League, 8 games back. The Buccos are fortunate to be this high in the standings with an outrageously high 5.31 ERA. No one else is close to being that bad. Only good hitting keeps them there. The Pirates have compiled a .272 mark with the bats, led by Paul Waner (.380), Pie Traynor (.324), Honus Wagner (.300), Smokey Burgess (.295), rookie Jim Pagliaroni (.292), Arky Vaughan (.276) and Brian Giles (.267). Bob Veale (8-2) and Rip Sewell (6-3) have been Danny Murtaugh's only dependable arms. Even the Bucs fine reliever Kent Tekulve (1-4) has had a difficult year. Pittsburgh is desperate for good pitching. Their season depends on it. The Cincinnati Reds are 8.5 games behind the leading Giants and tied for the fifth spot with Philadelphia. Cincy is just the reverse of Pittsburgh, they have good pitching, but their hitting has waned this year. They are batting only .237, last in the league. Junior Griffey is the only regular above .280 except for parttimer Ernie Lombardi, who is hitting .365 and platooned at catcher. The Redlegs pitching staff has compiled the best mark in the NL with a 3.66 ERA. Tom Seaver (6-2), Johnny Vander Meer (4-4) and Gary Nolan (5-5) have done well as starters and Rob Dibble (3-1) has performed well as the closer. The Pirates just need to perk up with the bats. The pitchers have been doing their job. Picked to finish third this season, the Philadelphia Phillies have fallen on hard times and are currently tied for fifth place. A 4.45 ERA is the Phils downfall. Only starters Steve Carlton (5-4) and Pete Alexander (4-4) have given consistent quality outings. Relief has also been almost non-existent with Tug McGraw (4-6) a big disappointment. His ERA has shot up to an unacceptable 5.67 this season. Manager Danny Ozark has replaced McGraw as the closer with lefty Billy Wagner, who is 1-0 with a 3.41 ERA in 26 games. But the Phillies can still bang the baseball with the best of them, hitting a strong .269 and topping the National League in homers with 65. Leading the attack are Lefty O'Doul (.331), Chuck Klein (.327) and Biz Mackey (.320). Mike Schmidt (.261) and Ryan Howard (.259) have 12 and 13 roundtrippers respectively. Klein is leading the league with 16 home runs and 50 RBIs. Another big disappointment are the St. Louis Cardinals , who were picked to challenge the Giants for the flag this year. The Redbirds are another club with pitching woes and have sagged to seventh place, 10.5 games off the pace, mainly because of a 4.36 ERA. Only Harry Brecheen (5-4) and Dizzy Dean (4-4) have had any success as starters and none of the relievers have produced. Skipper Tony Larussa is one of many NL managers who will soon be searching the bushes for pitching help. Luckily for the Cards they still have a group of veteran hitters like Johnny Mize (.333), Rogers Hornsby (.322), Stan Musial (.312) and Austin McHenry (.307) that have hit a composite .272 on the year. However, they are having trouble outscoring the pitchers this season. In the basement and living up to expectations are the Boston Braves . They are dead last and 11.5 games out of first place, but they do hit home runs and are tied with the Phils for NL lead. Chipper Jones (.320) has slammed 14, Eddie Mathews (.302) 9 and Buck Leonard (.268) 11 to spark the offense. Only reliever Steve Bedrosian (2-1) has put up good numbers with 11 saves and a 3.27 ERA in 31 games. All of Bobby Cox's starting rotation have struggled with a 4.30 team ERA. John Smoltz (5-4), Carl Morton (4-5), Greg Maddux (4-7), Tom Glavine (4-5) and Warren Spahn (3-7) have been inconsistent this season. Last edited by Eugene Church; 09-11-2007 at 08:29 PM.

09-12-2007, 01:32 AM	#790 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Wednesday, July 9, 1910 AMERICAN LEAGUE *BROWNS HOLD SLIM LEAD OVER TIGERS* The St. Louis Browns are still in the top spot in the American League at the All-Star Break, however the Detroit Tigers are breathing down their necks just two games behind. American League standings Team W-L GB SLB 57-35 -- DET 55-37 2 CWS 46-44 10 BOS 48-48 11 NYY 43-47 13 PHA 43-49 14 WAS 42-50 15 CLE 34-58 23 Thus far this season the Browns have hung tough and seem to be for real. Manager Earl Weaver still has them playing good baseball at the halfway point. Since June the Brownies have gone 21-17, the second best record in the league. Only Detroit did better at 24-14. St. Louis is led by a fine starting rotation, featuring Ned Garver (11-4), Mike Cuellar (9-4), Dennis Martinez (8-3), Jim Palmer (7-3) and Hoyt Wilhelm (7-7). They have combined for a 3.78 ERA, second to Detroit's 3.64. The Browns only weakness is the closer position. Both B.J. Ryan (4-4) and Armando Benitez (4-2) have struggled in that slot. It looks like Weaver will sink or swim with Benitez as Ryan has been shipped to the Baltimore Orioles in the International League. Two former Browns have been recalled from the Orioles. Ben McDonald and Dave McNally will get another chance in the AAA. They are slated for long relief and perhaps spot starts. The Browns are still the best hitting team in the AL with a .276 BA. Josh Gibson (.324), George Sisler (.325), Ken Williams (.320), Eddie Murray (.294) and Cal Ripken (.267) continue to sizzle with the bats. The Detroit Tigers have played outstandingly this year, especially in the last month. They have shaved three games off the St. Louis lead. Fine pitching is the reason. Heading the Tigers list of twirlers are Hal Newhouser (11-4), Jack Morris (11-4), Masaichi Kaneda (9-6), Hilton Smith (6-4) and Tommy Bridges (8-8). In the bullpen John Hiller (4-2) is having a career season with 23 saves. Although not the offensive club they have been in the past, the Tigers have been more than adequate with Ty Cobb (.320), Charlie Gehringer (.296), Alan Trammell (.291) and Ivan Rodriguez (.277) the top batters. Detroit is fourth in the league and have averaged .265. Skipper Hughie Jennings is waiting for Hank Greenberg (.238), Harvey Kuenn (.257) and Harry Heilmann (.261) to kick it up a notch in the second half of the season. It looks like there is no one else to challenge St. Louis and Detroit this year. The Chicago White Sox are in third place in the standings, but far back, 10 games out. The Pale Hose were 19-20 over the past month and lost ground to the two leaders. In the Windy City, hitting is the name of the game. The White Sox are averaging .270 as a team, good enough to be second (tied with the Senators) to the leading Browns. Joe Jackson (.348), Dick Lundy (.330), Eddie Collins (.300) and Magglio Ordonez (.271) are having solid seasons. Jackson and Lundy are having career years. Manager Al Lopez has a top-notch set of starters in Billy Pierce (8-3), Ed Walsh (9-4), Wilbur Wood (6-9) and Dave Stieb (7-3). Wood (6-9) is much better than his record. His ERA is one of the best in the American League at 2.97. Lopez still hasn't found a stopper in the bullpen. He just recalled Bobby Thigpen from the Memphis Chicks in the Southern Association to replace Bobby Jenks. Thigpen has been in Double A ball for the past two seasons. Lifetime with the Chisox he is 22-40 with a 3.90 ERA and 86 saves. Jenks was a mediocre 2-3 with a 5.40 ERA and is headed to Memphis. Rounding out the first division in fourth place are the Boston Red Sox. They compiled a 20-19 mark since June and now trail the Browns by 11 games. The Bosox are a good club with the bat, but fall short in the hurling department. Boston is hitting .263 in 1910, topped by Wade Boggs (.314), Ted Williams (.307), Joe Cronin (.288), Jason Varitek (.284), Nomar Garciaparra (.280) and Oscar Charleston (.274). On the hill Manager Joe McCarthy has limited resources. Only starters Mel Parnell (10-6) and Pedro Martinez (9-6) have done their fair share. Young closer Jonathan Papelbon (4-3) has been very impressive and already has chalked up 21 saves so far. Heading the second division in the fifth spot in the American League race are the New York Yankees. Manager Casey Stengel has gotten somewhat better pitching over the last month and ended up with a 20-18 record since June. But his club's hitting still is the lowest in the league at .236. The Bronx Bombers are still first in homers with 124, but sorely lack consistent contact. The Yanks have recalled Wille Keeler, a light-hitting outfielder, who hit .296 over his three-year AL career. He last played with the Yanks in 1908. Keeler replaced Charlie Keller (.056) on the roster. Second sacker Tony Lazzeri also has been summoned from the Newark Bears in the International League. He replaces Alfonso Soriano (.239/9 HR), who continued to struggle at bat this year. Only Lou Gehrig (.303) and Joe DiMaggio (.283) get on base with regularity. But NY can still yank 'em out of ballpark with regularity. Babe Ruth (.254) has 27 homers to lead the league. Alex Rodriguez (.250) is fourth with 21, Gehrig has 18 and Mickey Mantle (.233) has hit 14 in the power-packed lineup. But they still have trouble getting over the .500 mark. Stengel has gotten good work on the hill from vets Whitey Ford (10-6), Lefty Gomez (5-3), reliever Mariano Rivera (3-0) and rookie David Wells (8-5). To try and turn things around in the second half of the year, Stengel has promoted two righthanders from the farm system. Vic Raschi and Bob Shawkey have been with the Triple A Kansas City Blues in recent years. They replaced Andy Pettitte (3-4 6.39) and Fritz Pedersen (2-2 5.63) on the roster. Raschi spent 7 years with New York and is 50-43 lifetime with a 3.80 ERA, while Shawkey had 4 previous seasons with a 17-22 mark and a 4.25 ERA. Next in the AL standings are the Philadelphia Athletics. Manager Connie Mack's club is sixth, trailing the Browns by 14 games. During the last month the A's put up an 18-20 record. They are sixth in batting with a .260 average and also sixth (tied) with a 4.20 ERA. Nothing outstanding here. Checking out the hitters, Alejandro Oms (.310), Al Simmons (.306), Bing Miller (.292), John Henry Lloyd (.287) and Mickey Cochrane (.279) are the best Philadelphia has in the lineup. On the mound, Barry Zito (8-6), Bobby Shantz (7-8) and Rube Waddell (8-9) have pitched well. Skipper Clark Griffith of the Washington Senators has a better ballclub this year, but they are still seventh in the league and 15 games out. He has piloted the Senators to 19 wins and 20 losses since June 1st. The Nats bat well with Heinie Manush (.340), Cecil Travis (.322), Rod Carew (.317), Joe Mauer (.316) and Goose Goslin (.299) in the forefront. So they can hold their own in that department. Griffith is adding Harmon Killebrew (.232) and Mickey Vernon in at first base in a platoon situation. Eddie Yost will be inserted at third base for the rest of the season. Vernon and Yost had previous trials with the Nats, but did not hit well enough to stick. Killebrew hammers the longball, but never has hit for average. Washington's pitching corps is fourth in the American League with a 4.08 ERA and is led by Walter Johnson (9-7), Dick Redding (8-7), rookie Jerry Koosman (3-2) and Bert Blyleven (8-9). Relief specialist Eddie Guardado (2-4) has impressed with 17 saves. Koosman has stood out since being added to the starting rotation a few weeks ago. He recently tossed a no-hitter against the Yankees and struck out 11 in the game. The Nats have promoted pitchers Camilo Pascual and Frank Viola from the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern Association. They return to the parent club after several years absence. Pascual compiled a 78-89 record and 3.81 ERA in 8 years with the Senators, while Viola was 32-36 with a 3.90 ERA. It has been a pathetic year for the defending American League titlists, the Cleveland Indians. Very little has gone right and they are drowning in the cellar, 23 games off the pace. The Tribe is hitting only .242 and the pitching staff sports a whopping 4.63 ERA. They had a poor first two months of the season and then it got worse. Since June the Indians are a woeful 14-25. At the midyear mark Manager Steve O'Neill only had four players on the roster having good years -- pitchers Bob Feller (8-5) and Herb Score (9-4) and center fielder Tris Speaker (.314) and left fielder Juan Gonzales (.277). To show you how bad it has gotten, last year's AL Golden Bat winner, shortstop Willie Wells is now benched. He has hit only .226 in 1901. To try an salvage something positive for the season Cleveland made major changes in the roster, calling up 6 pitchers and 4 position players. The new pitchers are Early Wynn, Mike Garcia, Johnny Allen, Sam McDowell, Wes Ferrell and Ray Narleski. The new position players are outfielders Albert Belle and Rocky Colavito, and infielders Omar Vizquel, Kenny Keltner and Hal Trosky. O'Neill said he didn't think things could get any worse. We'll just wait and see. Last edited by Eugene Church; 09-13-2007 at 02:32 PM.

08-18-2007, 02:53 PM	#781 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Tuesday, September 23, 1909 *AL AND NL GOLD GLOVERS SNAG AWARDS* The American and National Leagues have picked the best defenders for 1909. The announcement was made today at the AAA headquarters in St. Louis. In baseball parlance a player with good range, good arm and good hands is a great catch. Clubs strive to be strong especially "up the middle." Solid defenders can make a difference in the outcome of tight games and tight pennant races. In the American League second baseman Eddie Collins of the White Sox continues to dominate his position and won for the Gold Glove for a record seventh time. Two of his teammates also picked up trophies with first baseman Frank Thomas taking the honor for the fourth time and shortstop Dick Lundy winning a third time. Alejandro Oms of the A's was selected as the top center fielder for the second time in his career. All others were first time recipients. Right fielder Turkey Stearnes of the Cubs tops the National League list of defenders and has been selected for the seventh year. Left fielder Barry Bonds of New York will pick up his fourth Gold Glove, while Honus Wagner of the Pirates will get also get his fourth, but he has won it three times for second base. This year he was named the best shortstop. Two Phillies won the honor for the third time each, third baseman Mike Schmidt and catcher Biz Mackey. Pittsburgh first sacker Sadaharu Oh also garnered the award for a third time. Cool Papa Bell of Chicago was named the best fielding center fielder for a second year. The other honorees are first time Gold Glovers. Good defense will be honored this weekend at the annual Baseball Writers of America sports awards banquet. This year's American and National League Gold Glove Awards will be presented to these standout defenders: American League Gold Glove Winners Pitcher: Bob Lemon (Cleveland) Catcher: Bill Dickey (New York) First Base: Frank Thomas (Chicago) Second Base: Eddie Collins (Chicago) Third Base: Paul Molitor (Washington) Shortstop: Dick Lundy (Chicago) Left Field: Ted Williams (Boston) Center Field: Alejandro Oms (Philadelphia) Right Field: Goose Goslin (Washington) National League Gold Glover Winners Pitcher: Carl Morton (Boston) Catcher: Biz Mackey (Philadelphia) First Base: Sadaharu Oh (Pittsburgh) Second Base: Bill Mazeroski (Pittsburgh) Third Base: Mike Schmidt (Philadelphia) Shortstop: Honus Wagner (Pittsburgh) Left Field: Barry Bonds (New York) Center Field: Cool Papa Bell (Chicago) Right Field: Turkey Stearnes (Chicago)

08-25-2007, 08:17 PM	#782 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	I took a few days off. I am in the process of getting the rookies for the 1910 season. It is getting very hard to get good rookies now. Most of the good players have been added over the first nine years of the league.

09-06-2007, 01:00 PM	#783 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	Sorry, I am a dunce. I spent all day yesterday writing up the preseason analysis for the 1910 season for the American League and wiped it out by mistake. I opened a PM, while I had the thread open and lost it. I should have used the "back" button, but didn't. I will get busy today and complete both leagues, so I can play the 1910 season.

09-12-2007, 01:46 AM	#791 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Wednesday, July 9, 1910 AMERICAN LEAGUE *BROWNS HOLD SLIM LEAD OVER TIGERS* The St. Louis Browns are still in the top spot in the American League at the All-Star Break, however the Detroit Tigers are breathing down their necks just two games behind. American League standings Team W-L GB SLB 57-35 -- DET 55-37 2 CWS 46-44 10 BOS 48-48 11 NYY 43-47 13 PHA 43-49 14 WAS 42-50 15 CLE 34-58 23 Thus far this season the Browns have hung tough and seem to be for real. Manager Earl Weaver still has them playing good baseball at the halfway point. Since June the Brownies have gone 21-17, the second best record in the league. Only Detroit did better at 24-14. St. Louis is led by a fine starting rotation, featuring Ned Garver (11-4), Mike Cuellar (9-4), Dennis Martinez (8-3), Jim Palmer (7-3) and Hoyt Wilhelm (7-7). They have combined for a 3.78 ERA, second to Detroit's 3.64). The Browns only weakness is the closer position. Both B.J. Ryan (4-4) and Armando Benitez (4-2) have struggled in that slot. It looks like Weaver will sink or swim with Benitez as Ryan has been shipped to the Baltimore Orioles in the International League. Two former Browns have been recalled from the Orioles. Ben McDonald and Dave McNally will get another chance in the AAA. They are slated for long relief and perhaps spot starts. The Browns are still the best hitting team in the AL with a .276 BA. Josh Gibson (.324), George Sisler (.325), Ken Williams (.320), Eddie Murray (.294) and Cal Ripken (.267) continue to sizzle with the bats. The Detroit Tigers have played outstandingly this year, especially in the last month. They have shaved three games off the St. Louis lead. Fine pitching is the reason. Heading the Tigers list of twirlers are Hal Newhouser (11-4), Jack Morris (11-4), Masaichi Kaneda (9-6), Hilton Smith (6-4) and Tommy Bridges (8-8). In the bullpen John Hiller (4-2) is having a career season with 23 saves. Although not the offensive club they have been in the past, the Tigers have been more than adequate with Ty Cobb (.320), Charlie Gehringer (.296), Alan Trammell (.291) and Ivan Rodriguez the top batters. Detroit is fourth in the league and have averaged .265. Skipper Hughie Jennings is waiting for Hank Greenberg (.238), Harvey Kuenn (.257) and Harry Heilmann (.261) to kick it up a notch in the second half of the season. It looks like there is no one else to challenge St. Louis and Detroit this year. The Chicago White Sox are in third place in the standings, but far back, 10 games out. The Pale Hose were 19-20 over the past month and lost ground to the two leaders. In the Windy City, hitting is the name of the game. The White Sox are averaging .270 as a team, good enough to be second (tied with the Senators) to the leading Browns. Joe Jackson (.348), Dick Lundy (.330), Eddie Collins (.300) and Magglio Ordonez (.271) are having solid seasons. Jackson and Lundy are having career years. Manager Al Lopez has a top-notch set of starters in Billy Pierce (8-3), Ed Walsh (9-4), Wilbur Wood (6-9) and Dave Stieb (7-3). Wood (6-9) is much better than his record. His ERA is one of the best in the American League at 2.97. Lopez still hasn't found a stopper in the bullpen. He just recalled Bobby Thigpen from the Memphis Chicks in the Southern Association to replace Bobby Jenks. Thigpen has been in Double A ball for the past two seasons. Jenks was a mediocre 2-3 with a 5.40 ERA and is headed to Memphis. Rounding out the first division in fourth place are the Boston Red Sox. They compiled a 20-19 mark since June and now trail the Browns by 11 games. The Bosox are a good club with the bat, but fall short in the hurling department. Boston is hitting .263 in 1910, topped by Wade Boggs (.314), Ted Williams (.307), Joe Cronin (.288), Jason Varitek (.284), Nomar Garciaparra (.280) and Oscar Charleston (.274). On the hill Manager Joe McCarthy has limited resources. Only starters Mel Parnell (10-6) and Pedro Martinez (9-6) have done their fair share. Young closer Jonathan Papelbon (4-3) has been very impressive and already has chalked up 21 saves so far. Heading the second division in the fifth spot in the American League race are the New York Yankees. Manager Casey Stengel has gotten somewhat better pitching over the last month and ended up with a 20-18 record since June. But his club's hitting still is the lowest in the league at .236. The Bronx Bombers are still first in homers with 124, but sorely lack consistent contact. The Yanks have recalled Wille Keeler, a light-hitting outfielder, who hit .296 over his three-year AL career. He last played with the Yanks in 1908. Keeler replaced Charlie Keller (.056) on the roster. Second sacker Tony Lazzeri also has been summoned from the Newark Bears in the International League. He replaces Alfonso Soriano (.239/9 HR), who continued to struggle at bat this year. Only Lou Gehrig (.303) and Joe DiMaggio (.283) get on base with regularity. But NY can still yank 'em out of ballpark with regularity. Babe Ruth (.254) has 27 homers to lead the league. Alex Rodriguez (.250) is fourth with 21, Gehrig has 18 and Mickey Mantle (.233) has hit 14 in the power-packed lineup. But they still have trouble getting over the .500 mark. Stengel has gotten good work on the hill from vets Whitey Ford (10-6), Lefty Gomez (5-3), reliever Mariano Rivera (3-0) and rookie David Wells (8-5). To try and turn things around in the second half of the year, Stengel has promoted two righthanders from the farm system. Vic Raschi and Bob Shawkey have been with the Triple A Kansas City Blues in recent years. They replaced Andy Pettitte (3-4 6.39) and Fritz Pedersen (2-2 5.63) on the roster. Raschi spent 7 years with New York and is 50-43 lifetime with a 3.80 ERA, while Shawkey had 4 previous seasons with a 17-22 mark and a 4.25 ERA. Next in the AL standings are the Philadelphia Athletics. Manager Connie Mack's club is sixth, trailing the Browns by 14 games. During the last month the A's put up an 18-20 record. They are sixth in batting with a .260 average and also sixth (tied) with a 4.20 ERA. Nothing outstanding here. Checking out the hitters, Alejandro Oms (.310), Al Simmons (.306), Bing Miller (.292), John Henry Lloyd (.287) and Mickey Cochrane (.279) are the best Philadelphia has in the lineup. On the mound, Barry Zito (8-6), Bobby Shantz (7-8) and Rube Waddell (8-9) have pitched well. Skipper Clark Griffith of the Washington Senators has a better ballclub this year, but they are still seventh in the league and 15 games out. He has piloted the Senators to 19 wins and 20 losses since June 1st. The Nats bat well with Heinie Manush (.340), Cecil Travis (.322), Rod Carew (.317), Joe Mauer (.316) and Goose Goslin (.299) in the forefront. So they can hold their own in that department. Griffith is adding Harmon Killebrew (.232) and Mickey Vernon in at first base in a platoon situation. Eddie Yost will be inserted at third base for the rest of the season. Vernon and Yost had previous trials with the Nats, but did not hit well enough to stick. Killebrew hammers the longball, but never has hit for average. Washington's pitching corps is fourth in the American League with a 4.08 ERA and is led by Walter Johnson (9-7), Dick Redding (8-7), rookie Jerry Koosman (3-2) and Bert Blyleven (8-9). Relief specialist Eddie Guardado (2-4) has impressed with 17 saves. Koosman has stood out since being added to the starting rotation a few weeks ago. He recently tossed a no-hitter against the Yankees and struck out 11 in the game. The Nats have promoted pitchers Camilo Pascual and Frank Viola from the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern Association. They return to the parent club after several years absence. Pascual compiled a 78-89 record and 3.81 ERA in 8 years with the Senators, while Viola was 32-36 with a 3.90 ERA over 7 seasons. It has been a pathetic year for the defending American League titlists, the Cleveland Indians. Very little has gone right and they are drowning in the cellar, 23 games off the pace. The Tribe is hitting only .242 and the pitching staff sports a whopping 4.63 ERA. They had a poor first two months of the season and then it got worse. Since June the Indians are a woeful 14-25. At the midyear mark Manager Steve O'Neill only had four players on the roster having good years -- pitchers Bob Feller (8-5) and Herb Score (9-4) and center fielder Tris Speaker (.314) and left fielder Juan Gonzales (.277). To show you how bad it has gotten, last year's AL Golden Bat winner, shortstop Willie Wells is now benched. He has hit only .226 this year. To try an salvage something positive for the season Cleveland made major changes in the roster, calling up 6 pitchers and 5 position players. The new pitchers are Early Wynn, Mike Garcia, Johnny Allen, Sam McDowell, Wes Ferrell and Ray Narleski. The new position players are outfielders Albert Belle and Rocky Colavito, and infielders Omar Vizquel, Kenny Keltner and Hal Trosky. O'Neill said he didn't think things could get any worse. We'll just wait and see. Last edited by Eugene Church; 09-12-2007 at 01:49 AM.

09-12-2007, 11:24 PM	#792 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Wednesday, July 9, 1910 NATIONAL LEAGUE *NY GIANTS 5 GAMES UP ON CUBBIES* New York and Chicago continued to battle it out in the National League chase. The Cubs are playing well, but the Giants are playing even better and have opened up a 5-game margin. National League standings Team W-L GB NYG 60-32 -- CHC 55-37 5 PHI 47-45 13 BRO 44-46 15 CIN 42-50 18 STL 41-49 18 PIT 41-51 19 BSN 38-58 24 It might be deja vu all over again in the 1910 NL race. Last season it was close until midseason and then the New York Giants made it a runaway. In the last month John McGraw's boys have the best record in baseball, winning 27 and losing only 13. The Cubs were also one of the best -- they were 23 and 15 -- but lost ground and now trail by 5 games. The Giants are terrorizing NL pitchers with a sensational .288 team batting average. They are on pace to top the old AAA mark they set in 1902 with a .281 average. Detroit is the AL titleholder, hitting .279 as a team in 1901 and 1908. New York's potent lineup consists of Bill Terry (.347), Barry Bonds (.333), Willie Mays (.325), Martin Dihigo (.306) and Mel Ott (.291). This lineup leads the league in homers and is the top run producer, too. With an imposing attack like that, it makes it easy for the Giants talented pitching corps. McGraw's starting rotation is strong and steady, headed up by Christy Mathewson (11-6), Johnny Antonelli (10-5), Juan Marichal (10-4), Joe McGinnity (8-5) and Sal Maglie (4-1). Only Carl Hubbell (8-9) is having an off year. In the bullpen 5-year vet Marv Grissom (6-1) is having his best year yet with 20 saves. New York also is ranked number one in the league with a 3.66 ERA. The runner-up Chicago Cubs are having a pretty good season with the bat, hitting .273, but fall far short with a 4.56 ERA. Better pitching is a must, if the Bruins hope to close the gap with the Giants. Skipper Charlie Grimm has made some changes in his staff, calling up Ferguson Jenkins, Bill Lee and Carlos Zambrano from the PCL's Los Angeles Angels and demoting Bob Rush (1-1 9.78), Larry French (2-1 6.75) and Rick Reuschel (3-5 5.68). His mainstays on the mound this year are Mordecai Brown (10-6), Ed Reulbach (10-8) and the surprise of the season, Claude Passeau (7-0). Except for a brief stay with Chicago in 1905, Passeau has been a career minor leaguer. Grimm is also switching Bruce Sutter (6-4 4.86) and Lee Smith (3-0 2.68) in the bullpen with Smith going to the closing role and Sutter to long relief. The Cubs manager has also inserted the fine hitting talent Riggs Stephenson (.375) into the left field spot, replacing Hack Wilson (.248). He loses a lot of power, but gains much in on-base percentage. It is a trade-off in defense. To replace Wilson's power, veteran Ernie Banks (.214) is also taking over the shortstop position from rookie Woody English (.242). Banks has been an important part of Chicago success in past years. He has played very little up to this point in the year. The National League batting leader Cool Papa Bell (.364), Golden Bat slugger Turkey Stearnes (.298) and Tetsuharu Kawakami (.293) have been Grimm's main run producers this season. He is hoping Banks and Stephenson can boost the Cub attack. Grimm is giving up defense for more longball power. Since his hill corps can't stop the opposition, he is hoping to outscore them. The third place Philadelphia Phillies are another club playing very well the last month or so, but which also lost ground to the torrid Giants. The Phils put up a 22-17 record, but are now 13 games out of first place. They are doing with the bats, hitting a solid .273 and ranking third to NY in homers, blasting 93 compared to the Giants 103. Chuck Klein (.343), Ryan Howard (.267) and Mike Schmidt (.245) have each knocked 19 roundtrippers this season to lead the club. Biz Mackey (.325) and Lefty O'Doul (.316) are banging the ball well, too. Glovemen Granny Hamner (.329) and Larry Bowa (.300) are now sharing the shortstop slot and contributing to the offense as well. But manager Danny Ozark grimaces, when you mention pitching. His staff ERA is way up there at 4.53, sixth in the National League. Steve Carlton (8-6) and Sid Fernandez (7-2) are his best starters and Billy Wagner (5-0 4.02) has done well since moving into the finisher role, replacing Tug McGraw (5-6 5.25). A couple of former Phils have been brought back from the minors. Jiro Noguchi and Akiro Bessho will be middle relievers. Both last played in the majors in 1907. Lifetime Noguchi is 58-49 with a 3.79 ERA, while Bessho comes in with a 36-43 mark and a 4.13 ERA. For Philadelphia's other starters Robin Roberts (8-10), Pete Alexander (5-9) and Curt Simmons (3-2), it has been a rough year. Fourth place belongs to the Brooklyn Dodgers. They went 18-20 in the past month and have fallen 15 games off the pace. The Bums are hitting .269, sixth in the NL, and the pitchers are third with a 4.02 ERA. Manager Tommy Lasorda has a well-balanced club, but is missing a good closer. Eric Gagne (3-8 7.04) has slumped to the point, he is now toiling for the St. Paul Saints in the American Association. He has been replaced by Ron Perranoski, who is back for another try with Brooklyn. He has compiled a fine 26-13 mark and a 3.46 ERA over seven seasons, the last one was 1908. Don Newcombe is back again as well. He will be used as a spot starter. Newcombe has a record of 29-47 in three full seasons and two short stays with the Dodgers. However his career ERA stands at a respectable 3.88. The Dodgers have some dangerous hitters in Zach Wheat (.343), Jack Fourrier (.305), Jackie Robinson (.293), Cristobel Torriente (.285) and Mike Piazza (.268). Rookie shortstop Maury Wills (.299) has hit for a good average as well. Sparky Anderson's Cincinnati Reds have not been the club he thought. They are simply not hitting. The Reds carry a pathetic .237 batting average at midyear -- worst in the NL -- and are in fifth place, 18 games out of first. So far, pitching has been Cincy's only good point. They are second behind the Giants with a 3.89 ERA. Anderson's starters have kept games close enough to win, if the hitting is there. He has gotten quality starts from Tom Seaver (10-4), Gary Nolan (8-8), Johnny Vander Meer (6-7), Don Gullett (7-8) and Eppa Rixey (5-10). However, the bullpen is another story. Rob Dibble (3-4 5.29) is in the throes of a bad season. Look for someone else to move into that slot. Of the Reds regulars only Junior Griffey (.278) is producing. Ted Kluszewski (.237), Frank Robinson (.247) and Pete Rose (.261) have had much better seasons in the past. That's how dire it is in Cincinnati. The Reds were 17-22 over the last month. The St. Louis Cardinals are in sixth place, just one percentage point behind Cincinnati and trailing by 18 games. The Redbirds were 19-20 since June 1st. Manager Tony Larussa still has some quality hitters, but had dipped in the power department, ranking last in homers. The Cards are second to NY with a .274 batting average, but the team ERA is up around 4.24, which is not conducive to success. Larussa's lineup is headed by Johnny Mize (.324), Stan Musial (.322), Rogers Hornsby (.307), Austin McHenry (.280) and Jim Edmonds (.280). His best hurlers are Harry Brecheen (9-6) and Dizzy Dean (8-6). All the rest have fallen on hard times. With a 5.22 ERA the Pittsburgh Pirates have little hope this season. The hitters are holding up their end of the bargain with a .270 BA, but there is no way manager Danny Murtaugh can overcome such dismal pitching. The Buccos are seventh, 19 games out, and getting worse. They were only 15-23 last month. Only last place Boston played poorer baseball. When it comes to hitting Roberto Clemente (.344), Paul Waner (.344), Pie Traynor (.296), Arky Vaughan (.293), Smoky Burgess (.280), Honus Wagner (.279) and Brian Giles (.273) can do it with the best of them. But it is hard to consistently win games this way. Only Rip Sewell (11-4 4.09) has managed to keep his head this season as pitching for the Pirates could be hazardous to your health. Bob Veale (9-6 5.22) has a good record, but that is misleading, if you don't see his ERA. The worst team in the National League last season, this season and since June is the Boston Braves. Their record this past month was an awful 14-24, good enough to keep them well-entrenched in the league cellar, 24 games behind the league-leading Giants. The Braves are batting only .246, not nearly enough to support the better-than-average starters Greg Maddux (7-11 3.64), John Smoltz (8-8 3.90), Carl Morton (7-7 4.11) and Tom Glavine (6-8 3.58). It's not just the hitting that is killing Boston, it's the relief corps, too. To improve his mound staff, Bobby Cox has called up Bob Buhl from Triple A Milwaukee and Charley Radbourne from Double A Atlanta and move them into the rotation with reliever Kid Nichols (1-2 3.62). Smoltz will take over closing duties from Steve Bedrosian (2-6 4.41). Warren Spahn (5-12 4.68) is also headed for the bullpen. What little offense the Braves have is the product of Eddie Mathews (.294), Chipper Jones (.278) and Buck Leonard (.263). Former Braves Bob Elliott, Jeff Blauser and Johnny Logan are back from the minors, hopefully to instill a little badly-needed offense. Last edited by Eugene Church; 09-13-2007 at 05:57 PM.

09-13-2007, 11:49 PM	#793 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Sunday, August 10, 1910 AMERICAN LEAGUE *TIGERS FINALLY OVERTAKE BROWNS* It's been a two-team race in the American League all year long between St. Louis and Detroit. The Tigers roared to a 19-11 record this month and swept past the Browns, who stumbled to a 12-18 mark and fell 5 games off the pace. It was the wrong time for St. Louis to have a bad month. The very solid Detroit pitching staff continued to rank as the best in the AL with a 3.55 ERA. Manager Hughie Jennings has a fine group in the starting rotation. He has consistently gotten good outings from Jack Morris (14-5 3.23), Hal Newhouser (14-7 3.59), Masaichi Kaneda (12-8 3.39), Tommy Bridges (12-9 3.72) and Hilton Smith (9-5 3.25). The Tiger attack is the number three team with a .266 average, topped only by the Browns at .271 and the Senators at .270. It has been another good season for Charlie Gehringer (.311), Ty Cobb (.306) and Ivan Rodriguez (.289). Four players have 14 roundtrippers each: Gehringer, Rodriguez, Rudy York (.259) and Hank Greenberg (.238). They are also bunched for the team lead in RBIs. Greenberg leads with 69, followed by York and Rodriguez with 67, Gehringer 66 and Cobb 63. Topping the club in runs scored is Cobb with 71 and Gehringer with 68. And Cobb is the AL's best base stealer with 51. Skipper Earl Weaver of the St. Louis Browns doesn't have the depth in pitching that Jennings does, but he does have three impressive hurlers in Jim Palmer (10-6 2.52), Ned Garver (14-6 3.66) and Dennis Martinez (11-6 3.51). Palmer is tied with Cleveland's Bob Feller for the best ERA at 2.52 and he is tied with two Tigers, Morris and Newhouser, with 14 victories apiece. But his batting order is strong with Josh Gibson with a .290 average, 27 homers and 81 RBIs, George Sisler .315, 9 homers and 88 runs, Ken Williams .309, 10 home runs and 68 RBIs, Eddie Murray .297, 15 roundtrippers and 57 RBIs and Cal Ripken .280, 12 home runs and 60 RBIs. The Boston Red Sox had a good month of play and finished it with 17 wins and only 10 defeats. They held on to third place and are 9.5 games off the lead. Mel Parnell is 13-8, Pedro Martinez 12-8, George Ruth 13-10 and Cy Young 10-5 as starters, while Jonathan Papelbon has stood out in relief with 29 saves, 4-3 record and a 3.16 ERA. On the hitting side of the ledger sheet, the Bosox are fith in average at .263 and third in homers with 111. In the power department, the Yanks are first with 167 and the Browns number two with 114. The Red Sox are led in hitting by Wade Boggs (.305), Ted Williams (.303), Nomar Garciaparra (.293) and Oscar Charleston (.278). The club home run leader is David Ortiz at 24, Williams and Charleston with 18 and Garciaparra at 13. Ortiz also tops on the team with 75 RBIs, followed by Garciaparra and Williams with 74 and 72 respectively. Charleston is number one in runs scored with 77 and Williams is next at 73. The Chicago White Sox didn't have a good month, ending it with a 13-18 mark. They now trail the Tigers by 14.5 games, but they did manage to hold on to fourth place by one game over New York. The Yanks were 16-17. Al Lopez's best performers this season has been pitchers Billy Pierce (11-7 3.56), Ed Walsh (11-6 3.54) and Dave Steib (9-6 3.97) and regulars Joe Jackson (.341/5 HR/83 RBI), Eddie Collins (.302/2 HR/75 R), Dick Lundy (.300/13 HR/80 RBI) and Magglio Ordonez (.272/18 HR/52 RBI). The New York Yankees are making a bid to move into the first division in the final days of the regular season. An improvement in pitching has been the momentum for the late season surge. Whitey Ford (13-7 2.90) has been outstanding this year to led the staff. Rookie David Wells (12-7 3.87) might be the best newcomer in the American League. And two late year call-ups, Vic Raschi (4-2 3.35) and Bob Shawkey (2-1 1.72) had great months. The home run happy Bronx Bombers are powered by Babe Ruth (.269/35 HR/90 RBI/90 R), Lou Gehrig (.294/24 HR/74 RBI/81 R), Joe DiMaggio (.283/17 HR/93 R), Alex Rodriguez (.248/30 HR/92 RBI) and Mickey Mantle (.240/20 HR/62 RBI). Ruth and Rodriguez are 1-2 in the AL in home runs. Ruth leads 35 to 30. They are also the top two in RBIs with Rodriguez nosing out Ruth 92 to 90. DiMaggio has the league lead in runs with 93, one ahead of Rodriguez and three in front of Ruth. The sixth place Philadelphia A's concluded the month with a 14-17 mark and trail by 17.5 games. Not much to brag about in Philly this year. Pitchers Barry Zito (10-8 3.18) and Bobby Shantz (10-9 3.60) have done well on the hill, while Alejandro Oms (.312/13 HR/56 RBI) and Jimmie Foxx (.280/18 HR/65 RBI) have been the only standouts with the sticks. The seventh place Washington Senators had a mediocre 13-17 month and continue to wallow 19 games in back of the leading Tigers. The best thing the Senators have going is some good hitting. They are second to the Browns with a .270 team batting average, sporting four .300 hitters in Heinie Manush (.327), second in the league to Joe Jackson's .341 average for the White Sox, Goose Goslin (.315), Rod Carew (.309) and Joe Mauer (.304). Walter Johnson is the only pitcher of note with an 11-9 record and a 3.69 ERA. He leads the American League with 184 strikeouts. Pulling up the rear and riding in the caboose are last year's champions, the Cleveland Indians. They trail by 23 games, but did play well recently. In the last month the Tribe was 17-13. It has been an atrocious season for manager Steve O'Neill. But he did get superb years out of Bob Feller (12-7 2.52) and Herb Score (13-5 3.05). Feller is tied the Browns Jim Palmer with a fine 2.52 ERA and Score is second in strikeouts with 176. Most of the credit for the good month goes to new pitching acquisitions Mike Garcia (2-0 2.95), Johnny Allen (1-2 2.63) and Ray Narleski (0-1 3.44). Narleski picked up 7 saves during the month. The Indians only hit .246 this year. The only regulars who performed well were Tris Speaker (.310/10 HR/58 RBI), Nap Lajoie (.293/4 HR/44 RBI) and Juan Gonzales (.260/24 HR/80 RBI). Last edited by Eugene Church; 09-14-2007 at 02:01 PM.

09-14-2007, 06:10 PM	#794 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Sunday, August 10, 1910 NATIONAL LEAGUE *CUBS CUT GIANTS NL LEAD* It has really been a battle royal in the National League. A month ago the New York Giants opened up a 5-game lead over the Chicago Cubs. But since then, the red-hot Cubs have won 22 of 30 games to chop the lead to just 1.5 games. During the same period the Giants have played very well, too, running up a 19-11 mark. The wonderful New York Giants pitching staff have gotten a wee bit better of late and lowered their ERA 3.53, the best in the NL. Christy Mathewson (17-7 3.03), Johnny Antonelli (15-6 2.80), Juan Marichal (11-6 3.37), Sal Maglie (6-2 3.34) and bullpen ace Marv Grissom continue to set a high standard. While the Giants hitting has paled lately from its record-breaking pace, it still is more than enough to get the job done. Bill Terry (.326/6 HR/86 RBI), Willie Mays (.323/24 HR/90 RBI), Martin Dihigo (.302/18 HR/74 RBI), Barry Bonds (.285/25 HR/68 RBI) and Mel Ott (.287/19 HR/79 RBI) are hitting .279 as a group, second best to Chicago's .281. Several roster changes have put some pizazz in the second place Chicago Cubs and they are now seriously contending for the National League flag. When manager Charlie Grimm put Claude Passeau (10-1 2.72) and Bill Lee (5-0 1.51) into his pitching rotation, the team took off. Another positive step was placing Lee Smith (4-0 2.51) in the closer spot. Add them to Mordecai Brown (14-9 4.05) and Ed Reulbach (11-9 4.77) and the future looks bright for the Bruins. Newcomer Fergie Jenkins (1-1 3.52) has looked good in two recent starts as well, since being called up from the PCL. Lineup changes have also given Chicago a big boost. Riggs Stephenson (.397/2 HR/33 RBI) in left field and Ernie Banks at short (.218/6 HR/20 RBI) have given new life to the offense. Turkey Stearnes (.297/27 HR/94 RBI) is having another standout season, ranking high in homers and RBIs. Other contributors are Tetsuharu Kawakami (.281/9 HR/71 RBI), Aramis Ramirez (.265/23 HR/69 RBI) and Billy Herman (.288/2 HR/65 RBI). Both clubs are playing well. It looks like it will go down to the wire. Philadelphia and Brooklyn are fighting for the third place spot in the standings. Cincinnati, St. Louis and Pittsburgh are contending for fifth place, while Boston will have last place all to themselves for the third year in a row. Over the last month the Philadelphia Phillies recorded 16 victories and 14 losses. Manager Danny Ozark's crew is third, 15.5 games behind. They are being carried by good hitting and good power. Chuck Klein (.338/24 HR/98 RBI) is having a career year to lead the way. He is getting help from Mike Schmidt (.232/24 HR/74 RBI) and Ryan Howard (.277/23 HR/73 RBI). Sid Fernandez (10-4 4.00) and Steve Carlton (10-7 3.92) are the Phils top twirlers. The fourth place Brooklyn Dodgers had a good month, too, going 18-15. They trail the Giants by 17.0 games. Since joining the team in July, closer Ron Perranoski (0-0 3.22) has collected 8 saves and Don Newcombe (3-2 3.54) has impressed as a starter. Of course, Sandy Koufax (15-8 2.02) and Dazzy Vance (12-8 3.15) are the Dodgers main strengths and workhorses. Brooklyn's top bats are Zach Wheat (.325/12 HR/53 RBI/89 R), Jack Fourrier (.309/7 HR/78 RBI), Cristobel Torriente (.293/12 HR/70 RBI), Jackie Robinson (.292/12 HR/78 RBI/84 R) and Mike Piazza (.278/23 HR/73 RBI). To add some more firepower, Babe Herman and Gary Sheffield have been summoned from the Montreal Royals of the International League. They will platoon in left field. Cincinnati went 14-16 during the last month, St. Louis 13-18, Pittsburgh 10-20 and Boston 9-18. The Cincinnati Reds need all-around improvement and are 22.5 games back in fifth place. Sparky Anderson's top pitchers are Tom Seaver (12-6 3.76) and Gary Nolan (11-11 3.56). His best batters are Ted Kluszewski (.258/20 HR/70 RBI), Junior Griffey (.254/24 HR/58 RBI) and Frank Robinson (.258/21 HR/64 RBI). In sixth place and trailing by 24 games are the St. Louis Cardinals. Skipper Tony Larussa's hitters do well, but the pitching corps has not delivered. The Redbirds are ranked third in the NL with a .271 team batting average, paced by Stan Musial (.319/21 HR/81 RBI/84 R), Rogers Hornsby (.308/7 HR/68 RBI) and Johnny Mize (.305/15 HR/82 RBI). The Cards mound staff comes in with a less-than-impressive 4.26 ERA. Dizzy Dean (12-8 3.72) is the best they have to offer. There is little else behind him. The Pittsburgh Pirates pitching is just plain bad -- that's why they are in seventh place and 27.5 games out of first place. A 5.01 ERA won't get you very far in any league. Other than Rip Sewell (13-8 4.17) the mound staff has floundered badly. The only other players to cheer about are Sadaharu Oh (.268), who is quietly having a fine year with 30 home runs,107 RBIs and 96 runs scored, and Paul Waner (.318/1 HR/47 RBI/79 R). Oh tops the National League in homers and RBIs. The Boston Braves are slack in almost all areas of the game, batting only .243 and possessing a 4.29 ERA. They only excel in power, second in the NL in home runs. New York is the only team with more. The Giants have blasted 129 homers to the Braves 115. Tom Glavine (8-10 3.17) and Greg Maddux (9-16 3.63) give the club quality starts, but not a lot of victories because of the poor hitting. Only two Braves are enjoying decent years - third baseman Eddie Mathews (.273/20 HR/59 RBI) and left fielder Chipper Jones (.273/23 HR/64 RBI) -- and they are not much to brag about.

09-15-2007, 05:42 PM	#795 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Monday, August 25, 1910 There are only a couple of weeks left in the regular season. In the American League the Detroit Tigers hold a 3.5-game edge over the second place St. Louis Browns and in the National League the New York Giants have a slim one-game lead over the Chicago Cubs. All of the contenders have 14 games remaining, except for the Browns, who have 13. In the AL, Detroit will battle the White Sox and Yankees over the last two weeks, while the Browns will close out the season against Philadelphia and Washington. Each club will have a home-and-away series against each opponent. Both the Tigers and the Browns have had an easy time with their opponents. Detroit is 13-2 in the season series against the White Sox and 10-5 against New York. St. Louis went 12-4 against the A's and 11-4 over the Senators. Beginning today, the Browns will play host to the fifth place A's in a three-game series at Bill Veeck Stadium in St. Louis, while the Tigers will be at home at Briggs Stadium for a four-game set against the sixth place White Sox. Dick McNally (2-1) will pitch for St. Louis with Jesse Flores (7-2) on the mound for the A's. It will Hilton Smith (10-5) for Detroit and Ed Walsh (13-7) for Chicago. Over in the National League, New York will end the year with the Cubs and the Braves. Chicago will go up against the Giants and the Phillies. These series will also be home-and-away, too. Head-to-head the Giants have a slight 8-7 edge over the Cubs for the year and 10-5 over Boston. New York has the easier task of the two contenders as Chicago went 8-7 against the Phils. And this afternoon at the Polo Grounds in New York, it's the first of two showdown series between the National League's top two teams. In the opener of this very important series, the Giants will pitch Juan Marichal (12-7) against the Cub ace, Mordecai Brown (17-9). The clubs will also play four games in Chicago next week, beginning with a Labor Day doubleheader on Monday. Last edited by Eugene Church; 09-15-2007 at 09:53 PM.

09-16-2007, 09:45 PM	#796 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Monday, August 25, 1910 American League TIGERS AND BROWNS BOTH WIN Both of the top two clubs in the American League won today. The first place Detroit Tigers maintained their 3.5-game edge over the second place St. Louis Browns. At Briggs Stadium in Detroit, the Tigers squeezed by the Chicago White Sox 4-3 behind the pitching of Hilton Smith (11-5 3.18) and John Hiller. Smith got the win with eight solid innings, yielding two runs, six hits, struck out five and walked none. He left it leading 4-2 and in the hands of Hiller, who got the first two guys out, but then it got interesting. An infield error put a runner on base and Magglio Ordonez made it 4-3 with a double. Hiller then got Louis Santop on a flyball to win the game. It was Hiller's 32nd save of the season. Detroit tagged losing pitcher Ed Walsh (13-8 3.46) for four runs in the second inning, three of them unearned. Harvey Kuenn (.264) led the Tigers with two RBIs. Walsh went the route and surrendered only seven hits. The Browns has a much easier task. They scored six runs in the opening inning on the way to a 10-3 shellacking of the Philadelphia A's. St. Louis lashed out fifteen hits with four players rapping three hits apiece to backup a fine pitching job by Dave McNally (2-1 3.00). Cal Ripken (.280) went 3-5 for the Browns with three RBIs, Eddie Murray (.294) 3-5 with three runs scored and an RBI, Vern Stephens (.346) 3-4 with two RBIs, Bobby Grich (.245) 3-4, a home run and three RBIs. George Sisler (.328) had two hits, including a solo homer and a double. Rookie Jesse Flores (7-3 2.89) didn't survive the first inning and absorbed the defeat.

09-16-2007, 10:52 PM	#797 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Monday, August 25, 1910 National League NY'S MARICHAL BLANKS BRUINS Juan Marichal, the Dominican Dandy, was the man of the hour for the New York Giants as he shutout the second place Chicago Cubs 6-0 in the opener of possibly the most important series of the season. The victory moved the Giants two games ahead in the tight National League pennant chase. Marichal (13-7 3.20) dominated the hard-hitting Cubs, stopping them on just six hits. He fanned six and issued only one walk. Mordecai Brown dominated the Giants on a one-hitter and matched Marichal for five innings, holding them scoreless. But New York busted loose with four runs in the sixth. Mel Ott (.288) doubled in the first run of the game, Bill Terry (.336) and Jeff Kent (.246) added RBI singles and Gary Carter (.246) chipped in a sacrifice fly. That was all the runs Marichal needed. Scheduled to pitch in the second game of the three-game series are Christy Mathewson (18-8 3.09) for the Giants and Fergie Jenkins (3-2 3.89) for Chicago. Last edited by Eugene Church; 09-16-2007 at 10:55 PM.

09-17-2007, 02:36 PM	#798 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Tuesday, August 26, 1910 American League *DETROIT GAINS GAME ON ST. LOUIS* Detroit staged a dramatic 5-run rally to nip the stunned White Sox 6-5. Rudy York's three-run triple in the bottom of the eighth won it for the Tigers. Frank Tanana (5-2 3.19) notched the win in relief, while starter Wilbur Wood (9-13 3.27) lost it. Detroit upped its American League lead to 4.5 games over the St. Louis Browns, who lost to the Athletics. With 24 hits in a game, you could hardly call it a pitcher's duel -- but it was. Rube Waddell (9-16 4.13) of the Philadelphia A's shut out Ned Garver (14-10 3.87) and the St. Louis Browns 2-0 on a 10-hitter. Garver "held" the A's to 14 hits. Both of them whiffed five, walked two and went the route. Jimmie Foxx (.279) homered in the fourth and Buddy Rosar (.204) had an RBI single in the sixth to account for all the runs. National League *CHICUBS RAP GIANTS...TRAIL BY ONE* Chicago's bats came alive and battered first place New York 8-5 with a solid 12-hit attack. Turkey Stearnes (.303), Aramis Ramirez (.272) and Johnny Kling (.319) each drove in two runs to secure the victory. The win cut the Giants National League lead to just one game. Rube Foster (13-9 4.66) was the winning pitching. He tossed seven-plus innings and allowed five runs and seven hits with nine strikeouts. Bruce Sutter and Carlos Zambrano protected the lead for him. Loser Christy Mathewson (18-9 3.24) was hit hard, giving up five runs and five hits in only three innings. The teams will play the rubber game of the three-game series tomorrow with Chicago's Claude Passeau (12-2 2.85) and NY's Johnny Antonelli (16-8 2.81), the expected starters. Last edited by Eugene Church; 09-17-2007 at 03:06 PM.

09-17-2007, 04:00 PM	#799 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Wednesday, August 27, 1910 American League *TIGERS WIDEN MARGIN OVER BROWNS* The American League-leading Detroit Tigers battled long and hard and finally subdued the Chicago White Sox 3-2 in twelve innings. Coupled with the St. Louis 3-2 loss to Philadelphia, the Tigers have jumped to a 5.5-game over the second place Browns. Detroit pitching was outstanding. Tommy Bridges went ten innings and checked Chicago on two runs and seven hits. The victory went to John Hiller (6-7 3.55). He tossed two scoreless innings. Tommy John (0-6 4.56) lost it in relief on a one-out double by Bobby Veach in the twelfth. In a strong outing Lefty Grove (13-11 3.81) derailed the Browns faint pennant hopes with a 3-2 win. He stopped them on two runs and five hits in eight innings of work. Grove walked two and fanned eight. Dennis Eckersley got his 21 saves with a scoreless ninth. Dennis Martinez (13-8 3.42) was the loser. National League *ANTONELLI SHUTS OUT CUBS IN SHOWDOWN* The Giants took the rubber game of the three-game series with the Chicago Cubs. Johnny Antonelli (17-8 2.70) fired a 3-0 shutout in the decisive third game victory with Claude Passeau (12-3 2.88) taking the loss. Antonelli permitted eight hits, struck out four and walked only one to send New York up by two games in the National League pennant chase. New York scored two in the first frame as Barry Bonds and Bill Terry drove in runs. In the fourth Jeff Kent plated the last run. The two clubs will tangle again in a crucial four-game series beginning Monday. Last edited by Eugene Church; 09-17-2007 at 04:02 PM.

09-17-2007, 04:18 PM	#800 (permalink)
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 17,080 Thanks: 100 Thanked 100x in 52 posts	ALLTIME ALLSTAR ASSOCIATION Thursday, August 28, 1910 American League *TIGERS FALL...AL LEAD CUT TO 5 GAMES* Only four games in both leagues today with only one pennant contender in action and they lost. The first place Detroit Tigers took it on the chin in a 10-5 twelve-inning loss to the Chicago White Sox and saw a half-game disappear from their lead over the idle second place St. Louis Browns. The Tigers are now 5 games in front. Reliever Ted Lyons (7-9 5.25) was the winner and Troy Percival (3-4 5.85) the loser. The Pale Hose outhit Detroit 15 to 13.

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