Baseball Classic Replays

  The story of the last week: the Chicago Cubs taking over the top spot in the standings.  Honestly, no team in the league really lit it on fire this week, but the Cubs played better than the Giants and now find themselves with a slight lead.  With the Phillies offense, it is no surprise that they are making a push as well.  The real underperformers in the National League are, still, the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Although, while the Pirates did end up finishing second in the NL in 1929, they were only .500 at this point in the season, so there is still time for them to turn it around.  Here is the link to Baseball-Reference with the actual standings on 5/12/29. ***NOTE: It was pointed out to me by Cyrus, the developer of Skeetersoft, that there are a few games that were called as ties up to this point in the season.  I have chosen to go ahead and finish those games, primarily because my games in those situations were not tied at the end of 9 innings.  Thus, you will notice that teams like

  Miraculous, against all odds, the Senators hold on to the top spot in the American League.  I keep assuming that they are going to start to fade, but they simply haven't done so.  The Athletics got within a half game of the Senators earlier in the week but couldn't get any closer.  It feels like the Athletics and the Yankees will start to pull away from the rest of the league, which is what ultimately did happen in 1929, but at the same time the Senators blueprint keeps working - they score early and enough to hang on to leads through the end of games.  Here is the link to the Baseball-Reference page showing the standings at this point in 1929.  You will notice that the Browns are quite underperforming relative to the real-life standings. The Yankees got hot over the last week, with the bat of Ruth finally starting to come alive.  Ruth and Gehrig have both started the season slow, but fast starts from Tony Lazzeri and Bob Meusel have kept the team going. The Tigers, who are

 5/11/1929 Chicago Cubs (13-8) at New York Giants (9-7) Teams     1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9   R  H  E --------      -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --       -- -- -- Cubs       0  1  0  3  1  0  0  3  0    8 14  0 Giants     0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0    0  9  1                         Hack Wilson (CHC)                                                      Sheriff Blake (CHC) After having a Stellar Performance last week and finding himself listed in the NL Top 10 Position Players list, Hack Wilson promptly went into a serious slump.  No more.  Yesterday at the Polo Grounds he busted out of the slump, blasting two home runs, knocking in 4 runs in route to going 3-3 with 2 walks on the day.  This monstrous day brings his home run total to 6, only two behind league-leading teammate Rogers Hornsby.  It also brought his season average back to .300. While Hack was doing damage at the plate, Sheriff Blake shined on the mound.  Blake surrendered 9 hits, but went the distance and did not allow a run.  Bl

 5/11/1929 Philadelphia Athletics (12-7) at Cleveland Indians (10-12) Teams        1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9   R  H  E -----------      -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --     -- -- -- Athletics    0  6  1  0  0  0  2  0  0   9 12  2 Indians      0  0  0  0  0  0  0  2  0    2  7  1                           Jimmie Foxx                                                                      Lefty Grove Al Simmons and Bing Miller have been spearheading the potent Athletics offense this season, but the bat of Jimmie Foxx came alive today in Cleveland.  Foxx homered in his first two trips to the plate, driving in 4 runs - which is far more than needed with Lefty Grove on the mound.  While Foxx was driving them over the fence, Grove was pitching a gem.  Grove went 8 innings, giving up 6 hits while striking out 7.  The two runs scored by Cleveland in the bottom of the 8th were both unearned.  With the win, Lefty moves to 6-0 and has been invincible all season.  With his own big day, Foxx now has 6 home

 5/10/1929 Cincinnati Reds (7-13) at Boston Braves (7-9) Teams     1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10   R  H  E --------      -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --       -- -- -- Reds         0  0  0  0  0  0  1  0  0  0    1  6  0 Braves    1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  1    2  6  1 Reds                                ab  r  h bi bb  k  p  a  bvg     ---------------                   -- -- --  --  -- -- --   --  ----     Evar SWANSON cf     5  0  1  0  0  0  2   0  259     Hughie CRITZ 2b       4  0  2  0  1  0  1  5  241    Curt WALKER rf         5  0  0  0  0  0  8  0  235    Joe STRIPP 3b            5  0  1  0  0  0  1  1  100     Ethan ALLEN lf            4  0  0  0  0  0  2  0  311  George KELLY 1b     2  0  0  0  2  0 10  0  338     Hod FORD ss              3  1  0  0  1  1  3  4  231     Johnny GOOCH c       4  0  2  0  0  0  2  1  286     Red LUCAS p            4  0  0  1  0  2  0  1  188     Si JOHNSON p         0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  000                                              -- -- --

 5/10/1929 Boston Red Sox (5-13) at St. Louis Browns (9-11) Teams      1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9   R  H  E ---------      -- -- --  -- -- -- -- -- --       -- -- -- Red Sox    0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  2   2  9  1 Browns     0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0   0  8  2 Red Ruffing (BOS) Red Ruffing pitched a complete game, 8-hit shutout today in St. Louis, to help continue the mini "spark" of life that the Red Sox have shown of late.  While still in last place, the Red Sox have at least gone 5-5 in their last 10 games, and some of those losses have come in close games.  Ruffing was spectacular today, going the distance and striking out 3 along the way.  The game was tied going into the ninth inning, as Browns starter Jack Ogden was also brilliant, not allowing a run until the top of the 9th. With the win, Ruffing improves to 2-3 on the season.