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Week 22 Summary

Week 22 is in the books and only two weeks remain in the regular season. Boston (AL) clinched their spot in the World Series this past Wednesday and St. Louis (NL) currently has a magic number of one so it won’t be much longer. New York (AL) has thirteen games remaining in the final fourteen days while Detroit is at the other extreme with only eight games remaining. Teams are continuing to finish up their season series against opponents and teams are activating their late-season call-ups. There are also players that have played their last game in 1949 to make room for the callups, and in some cases, played their last ML game.

St. Louis is currently on a seven-game winning streak as they look to clinch the NL pennant. Brooklyn lost yesterday but had six-game winning streak until then otherwise St. Louis would have clinched already. The rest of the standings appear to be locked into place, with the exception being the Chicago and Cincinnati duel for seventh place. Chicago currently leads Cincinnati by 1.5 games, but the Cubs know they have five games remaining with the Cardinals, so their destiny is in their own hands, so to speak.

Boston’s only remaining question is to how many games will they win. They do have five games left with New York, but they are of no consequence to the pennant race at this point. Those games are important to New York though because they are currently mired in third place, 2.5 games behind Cleveland. Both teams have put on a late surge in the quest for second place. They have one remaining game against each other – tomorrow- and if Cleveland should win a 3.5 game lead would be difficult to overcome for New York. Detroit has been playing well by utilizing pitching and hitting at the same time, something they have struggled with over much of the season. Philadelphia’s struggles have continued and they have allowed Chicago to slide past them into fifth place. In the race for seventh place Washington currently holds a 2.0 game lead over St. Louis.

Joe Page
Enos Slaughter saw his batting average dip to .396 this past week and while .400 is doubtful, he does have five more games against the Cubs. Behind Slaughter are Stan Musial (.346), Ralph Kiner (.330), and Red Schoendienst (.326). Slaughter still leads the entire league in hits (210) over Musial (192) and Richie Ashburn (191). Kiner still leads in runs (131) over Musial (125) and Schoendienst (122), and Kiner still leads in RBI’s (151) over Musial (127), and Bobby Thomson (110). Del Ennis has reached the 40 doubles mark, Andy Pafko is second with 34, and then four are tied at 32: Roy Smalley, Whitey Lockman, Jackie Robinson, and Slaughter. Kiner has been on a homerun binge the last two weeks and is at 51, well ahead of Musial (36) and Hank Sauer and Thomson, both with 29. Eddie Stanky still leads in walks (118), just ahead of Kiner (115) and Pee Wee Reese (101). Warren Spahn (22-6) and Harry Brecheen (21-6) still lead in wins, with Don Newcombe (19-7) right behind.

Roy Campanella
Ted Williams might have cooled off a little over the past week but is still hitting .379, well ahead of George Kell (.347) and Hoot Evers (.341). Williams did pass the 200 hit mark (202), on top of Vic Wertz (190) and Dale Mitchell (189), Williams leads in runs scored (158), and of teammates Dom DiMaggio (127) and Vern Stephens (126),and leads in RBI’s (159), ahead of Stephens (151), Wertz (113), and Sam Chapman (105). Williams and Kell both have 34 doubles, leading Mickey Vernon and Stephens, both with 33. Williams leads in homeruns (53), well ahead of Stephens (44) and Tommy Henrich (30). Eddie Joost still has the lead in walks (149), just ahead of Williams (147). Teammates Ellis Kinder (23-5) and Mel Parnell (23-7) lead in wins, with Bob Lemon (20-10) right behind.

Not much to say at this point really. This is the point in the replay where teams are finishing games against each other, some players are finishing their season early while others are getting their chance to come up and impress the big club. From an APBA perspective, it might look odd to let players that performed poorly get repeated opportunities, but that is the nature of a replay. Two weeks to go – let’s finish this thing.




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