Baseball Classic Replays

 5/7/1929 Boston Red Sox (3-12) at Cleveland Indians (9-9) Teams      1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10   R  H  E ---------      -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --       -- -- -- Red Sox   0  0  0  0  0  1  0  0  0  0   1  5  2 Indians     0  0  0  0  0  1  0  0  0  1   2 13  0             Jack Russell (CLE)                                        Wes Ferrell (BOS) In what was undoubtedly the best pitching dual of the entire 1929 season thus far, Jack Russell and Wes Ferrell both started the game and pitched into extra innings before this one was walked off in the bottom of the 10th inning.  Look at these incredible stat lines Red Sox                   ip  h  r er  w  k       era     --------------------       --- -- -- -- -- --       ------  RUSSELL (L 0-4)    9.0 13  2  1  1  2   4.74   Indians                        ip  h  r er  w  k     era --------------------           --- -- -- -- -- --       ------     FERRELL (W 2-1)       10  5  1  1  0  3   2.83 The game was tied 1-1 after nine innings

 5/6/1929 Chicago Cubs (10-6) at Philadelphia Phillies (6-7) Teams       1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9   R  H  E ----------      -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --       -- -- -- Cubs          0  1  4  0  0  0  4  1  5    15 15  0 Phillies        2  0  0  3  0  0  3  0  1   9 13  1                 Rogers Hornsby (CHC)                                        Lefty O'Doul (PHI) The stars showed up today in Philly, as the two hottest hitters in the game squared off and both delivered spectacular performances.  While his Phillies fell 15-9 (although the game was much closer than this before the Cubs blew it open in the top of the 9th), Lefty O'Doul did everything he could to keep his team in it - going 4-6, knocking in 5 runs, and hitting a home run in the 4th inning that, at that point, tied the game.  But even that performance was outshone by "The Raja" whose hitting performance is almost too good to believe: 4-5, 1 walk, 2 home runs (one of which was a grand slam), and 7 RBI.  Horn

 5/6/1929 Boston Red Sox (3-11) at Detroit Tigers (10-9) Teams      1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9   R  H  E ---------      -- --  - -- --  --  -- -- --   -- -- -- Red Sox    1  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0   2  7  2 Tigers       0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0   0  3  1 Milt Gaston was nearly unhittable today in his complete game, shutout performance against the Detroit Tigers.  Pitching on the road, and trying to spark some life into the last place Red Sox, Gaston went the distance and gave up no runs on only 3 hits while striking out 3.  Gaston did allow 4 walks but was able to tiptoe around any issues those might have created.  With the win, Gaston improves to 1-1 on the season with 3.71 ERA.  The Red Sox move to 3-11 and hope that they can start to climb their way out of the cellar.

 5/6/1929 New York Yankees (7-6) at Chicago White Sox (7-9) Teams        1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9   R  H  E -----------      -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --    -- -- -- Yankees      4  1  1  0  0  0  0  0  0   6 10  2 White Sox    0  0  0  0  0  0  1  0  0   1  5  4                          Babe Ruth                                                                      Fred Heimach The bat of the Babe is starting to come alive.  Today in Chicago Ruth homered in his first trip to the plate, sparking a 4-run first inning, and continued hitting throughout the rest of the day - he finished 3-4, with a walk, a home run, and 3 RBI.  After a very sluggish start to the season, Ruth now has 3 home runs and 11 RBI on the year and his slugging percentage is up to .500.   Fred Heimach was also dominant today on the mound, going the distance and giving up only 1 run on 5 hits.  With the win, the Yankees now go over .500 for the season and trail the first place Senators by 2.5 games.

Through this week in the season the Giants continue to be the class of the National League, extending their lead to 1.5 games - they went 3-0 on the week and are rolling.  The powerful Cubs lineup, led by Rogers Hornsby and Hack Wilson, though, appear to have found their stride and not sit three games over .500 and in second place behind the Giants.  Taking a look at the link to Baseball-Reference which shows the actual standings at this point in 1929, you can see that the Giants are certainly outperforming what they did historically.  Conversely, the  Cardinals are underperforming and currently sitting in the cellar at 3 games below .500.  The Pirates and Reds also had rough weeks, both picking up only a single win on the week.  The Phillies, at 6-6, are probably the most fun National League team to play with for me, as their offense featuring Lefty O'Doul, Chuck Klein, and Don Hurst always keeps things lively. NL Batting Leaders         National League - Top 10 Hitters         

  Now into the first week of May and things continue to heat up in the American League, as the shocking Senators remain atop the standings at this early point in the season.  The Athletics continue to stay close to them, led by a powerful offense and the incredible arm of Lefty Grove.  At the same time, some familiar bats have also started to come alive, with players like Ruth, Lazzeri, and Simmons now starting to knock balls out of the park and climb up the lists of league leaders.  Let's take a look at where things stand through May 5, 1929: American League Team Wins Losses Games Back Win Pct Home Road Strk L10 Senators 9 3 - 750 4-1 5-2 W-2 7-3 Athletics 9 5 1 643 4-1 5-4 L-1 7-3 Tigers 10 8 2 556 4-5 6-3 W-1 5-5 Yankees 6 6 3 500 2-2 4-4 L-1 5-5 Browns 8 8 3 500 4-5 4-3 W-2 6-4 White Sox 7 8 3.5 467 5-4 2-4 W-1 5-5 Indians 7 9 4 438 4-5 3-4 L-5 3-7 Red Sox 2 11 7.5 154 1-7 1-4

 5/4/1929 Chicago Cubs (9-6) at Philadelphia Phillies (6-6) Teams       1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9   R  H  E ----------    -- -- -- -- --  --  -- -- --   -- -- -- Cubs         0  1  0  0  0  3  0  3  1   8 11  0 Phillies     0  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0   1  5  2                              Hack Wilson                                                                           Charlie Root After dropping the first game of a double header against the Phillies, centerfielder Hack Wilson and starting pitcher Charlie Root teamed up to ensure that game two was different.  Wilson led the Cubs offense in posting 8 runs in route to the victory - homering in the 2nd inning to kick things off, then going for back-to-back home runs with Rogers Hornsby in the 6th.  Wilson finished the game 3-4, with 2 home runs, a triple, a walk, and 3 RBI, as well as scoring 3 runs himself. Equally as impressive was starting pitcher Charlie Root, who went the distance and allowed only 1 run on 5 hits.  While such a pe

 5/2/1929 Philadelphia Athletics (9-4) at Boston Red Sox (1-10) Teams        1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9   R  H  E ----------- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  -- -- -- Athletics    1  0  1  1  0  0  3  1  5  12 19  0 Red Sox      0  0  0  0  0  0  1  0  0   1  5  1 Lefty Grove was dominant in Thursday's game in Boston, both on the mound and at the plate, continuing a dual trend that Lefty has been playing out all season.  Grove turned in a complete game, 1 run, 5 hit performance, which was more than enough for a victory considering the 12 runs that the Athletics put on the board.  But Lefty didn't simply rely on the explosive offense provided by his teammates - he contributed as well, going 3-5 and knocking in 2 runs himself. It's early in the season, but based on how he has started, Grove seems poised to make a run at an MVP.  With this win he goes to 4-0, pitching complete games in all of his starts and logging one shutout in that span.  His 0.56 ERA leads the American League a

 As explained in the earlier post of the American League, this Week in Review covers the first two weeks of the 1929 season.  As in the AL, and perhaps even more so, there were some incredible offensive performers to open the season.  Let's start with the standings through April 28, 1929: National League Team         W   L   GB   PCT  Home  Road Strk  L10 -----------   ---  ---  ----    ----     -----    -----   ----   ---- Giants        5    2    ---    714      4-1     1-1    W-2 5-2 Reds          6    4    0.5    600      4-3     2-1    L-2 6-4 Pirates       5   4     1.0    556      2-1     3-3    W-1 5-4 Cubs          5   5     1.5    500      3-3    2-2     W-2 5-5 Robins       5   5     1.5    500      3-3    2-2     L-3  5-5 Phillies      4   5     2.0    444      2-1   2-4     L-1  4-5 Braves       3   5     2.5    375      1-2   2-3     W-1 3-5 Cardinals   4   7     3.0    364      1-3  3-4      L-1 4-6 Once again, here is the link to the Baseball-Reference page for the s