second division. During all of May and part of June they climbed into
the first division and fell out of it with great regularity. Not until
near the middle of June did the Athletics gain a strangle hold on the
upper half of the league standing, from that time on they kept above the
.500 mark, and toward the end of June they met the White Sox coming
back. There was a short scuffle during the early part of July among the
Athletics, Senators and White Sox for the possession of the position
next to Boston. Then Chicago was pushed back, leaving Philadelphia and
Washington to fight it out the rest of the way. Trimming the Phillies
four out of five games in their city series did not lessen the gloom of
the Athletics.
* * * * *
The White Sox by their meteoric career demonstrated the value of good
condition at the start. Although the Chicagoans experienced tough
weather in Texas last spring they fared better than any of the other
teams in their league, and that fact, combined with the readiness with
which youth gets into playing trim, enabled the White Sox to walk
through the early weeks of their schedule with an ease that astonished
everybody. Even prophets who were friendly to them had expected no such
showing. So fast did the Callahans travel that on May 3 they had lost
only four games, having won thirteen in that time. But Boston was
hanging on persistently. Chicago's margin over the Red Sox varied from
four to five and a half games; during May, on the fourteenth of that
month the White Sox had won twenty-one games and lost only five, giving
them the percentage of .808. During part of this time they were on their
first invasion of the east. May 18 saw the Chicago men five and a half
games in the lead and their constituents were dreaming of another
world's pennant almost every night.
Even the doubters were beginning to believe Manager Callahan had found
the right combination. Just then came the awakening. The luck which had
been coming their way began breaking against them with remarkable
persistency. Plays that had won game after game went wrong and youth was
not resourceful enough to offset the breaks. The White Sox began to fall
away fast in percentage, but managed to cling to the lead until June 10.
Boston passed them right there and the Chicagoans kept on going.
By mid-season Manager Callahan was fighting to keep his men in the first
division and their slump did not end until they landed in fifth place
for a couple of days in August. Then in desperation Callahan began
switching his line-up and by herculean effort--and the help of Ed
Walsh--climbed back into the upper quartet and stuck there to the
finish. It was a desperate remedy to take Harry Lord off third base,
where he had played during most of his professional career, and try to
convert him into an outfielder, a position in which he had had no
experience at all. But Lord was too good an offensive player to take out
of the game, in spite of his slump at third base, and he was willing to
try the outfield. Results justified the move. Lord learned outfielding
rapidly, and Zeider proved that third base was his natural position. The
acquisition of Borton for first base enabled Callahan to put Collins in
the outfield, and the White Sox in reality were a stronger team when
they finished than when they started their runaway race in April. With
one more reliable pitcher to take his turn regularly on the slab all
season the White Sox would have kept in the race. Callahan's men made up
for some of the disappointment they produced by beating the Cubs in a
nine-game post-season series, after the Cubs had won three victories.
Two of the nine games were drawn and one other went into extra innings,
making a more extended combat than the world's series.
* * * * *
Cleveland's 1912 experience was almost identical with that of 1911, even
to swapping managers in mid-season. Harry Davis, for years first
lieutenant to Connie Mack, took the management or the Naps under a
severe handicap. He succeeded a temporary manager, George Stovall, who
had made good in the latter half of the previous season, but who could
not be retained without abrogating a previous agreement with Davis. The
public did not take kindly to the situation when the Naps failed to get
into the fight, and the new management had a pitching staff of
youngsters with out much of a catching staff to help them out when in
trouble.
The Cleveland team never was prominent in the race after the first
fortnight, although it retained a respectable position at the top of the
second division, with an occasional journey into the first division
during the first month or six weeks. In the middle of June the Naps
dropped back into sixth place, below Detroit, for a while, then took a
brace and reclaimed the leadership of the second squad for part of July.
Midway in August found Cleveland apparently anchored in sixth spot and,
with the consent of the Cleveland club owners, Manager Davis resigned
his position.
The management was given to Joe Birmingham, who took hold of it with
enthusiasm but without experience, just as Stovall did the previous
year. He infused new life into the team, shook it up a bit, and improved
its playing so much that Cleveland passed Detroit before the end of the
race, and was threatening to knock Chicago out of fourth place at one
time. This would have happened but for the brace of the White Sox.
Profiting by previous experience the club owners did not look around for
a permanent manager until they saw what Birmingham could do, and in
consequence were in position to offer him the leadership of the Naps for
the season of 1913.
* * * * *
What was left to Manager Jennings from the great Detroit team that had
won three straight pennants was slowing up, with the exception of Tyrus
Cobb, who has yet to reach the meridian of his career, and the Georgian
got into trouble fairly early in the season, with the result that he was
suspended for a considerable period. That and the strike of the Tigers
in Philadelphia threw a monkey-wrench into the machinery, resulting in a
tangle which Jennings was unable to straighten out all the season. There
was a problem at first base which he had a hard time solving. The break
in Del Gainor's wrist the season before had not mended as it should have
done, and he was unable to play the position regularly. Moriarty was
pressed into service there and did good work in an unfamiliar position;
then the infield was shifted several times without marked benefit.
Donovan, who had always been of great help on the slab in hot weather,
was not equal to the task of another year and was made manager of the
Providence team. Jean Dubuc was the only one of the young pitchers who
proved a star, but his work kept the Tigers from being a lot more
disappointing proposition than they were.
* * * * *
St. Louis and New York were outclassed from the start. Two weeks after
the season opened it was apparent they were doomed to fight it out for
the last round on the ladder. That the Browns finally escaped the cellar
in the closing days of the race was due largely to the efforts of
Stovall, who was made manager to succeed Wallace near the middle of the
season.
As early as the first of May it was seen the Browns and Yankees were
destined to trail. The New York team quickly gravitated to the bottom.
It started without the services of Catcher Eddie Sweeney, who held out
for a larger salary, and it had a manager at the helm who was
inexperienced in major league leadership. Not until April 24 did New
York win a game and in that time it had lost seven straight,
postponements accounting for the rest of the time.
St. Louis got a little better start and for a while was inclined to
dispute sixth place with Detroit, but on May 1 the Browns found only New
York between them and the basement. In the middle of May the Yankees
passed St. Louis and ran seventh in the race until July. 4. But accident
and injury, and the loss of Cree, shot the Yankees to pieces. For nearly
six weeks, however, it was a battle royal between New York and St. Louis
to escape the last hole, but in the middle of August the Yankees again
established their superiority, retaining seventh place until after the
middle of September. In the homestretch the new blood given Stovall
enabled him to pull his men out of the last notch just before the
schedule ran out. This feat was soon forgotten in the defeat of the
Browns by the Cardinals in their post-prandial series for the
championship of the Mound City.
* * * * *
The year was not prolific of freak or record-breaking performances in
the American League. Walter Johnson of Washington, and Joe Wood of
Boston were credited with sixteen straight victories, which raised the
American League record in that respect from fourteen straight, formerly
held by Jack Chesbro of the Yankees. Mullin of Detroit and Hamilton of
St. Louis added their names to the list of hurlers who have held
opponents without a safe hit in nine innings. Mullin performed his
hitless feat against St. Louis and Hamilton retaliated by holding
Detroit without a safety. The number of games in which pitchers escaped
with less than four hits against them was smaller than usual, however.
There were only seventy-eight shut-out games recorded last season by
comparison with the American League's record of 145.
The longest game of the younger league's season lasted nineteen innings,
Washington defeating Philadelphia in that combat 5 to 4, and it was
played late in September when the two teams were scrapping for second
place. The American League record for overtime is twenty-four innings,
held by Philadelphia and Boston. There were a lot of slugging games in
1912, but not as many as during the season of 1911. Philadelphia piled
up the highest total, 25, in eight innings, but it was made against the
semi-professional team which wore Detroit uniforms on the day the Tigers
struck. The highest genuine total of hits was twenty-three, made by the
Athletics against New York pitchers. The Athletics also run up the
highest score of the league's season when they compounded twenty-four
runs against Detroit In May.
The semi-monthly standing of the race by percentages follows:
STANDING OF CLUBS ON MAY 1.
Club. Won. Lost. PC.
Chicago 11 4 .733
Boston 9 5 .643
Washington 8 6 .615
Cleveland 7 6 .538
Athletics 7 7 .600
Detroit 6 10 .375
St. Louis 5 9 .357
New York 3 10 .231
STANDING OF CLUBS ON MAY 15.
Chicago 21 6 .778
Boston 16 8 .667
Washington 12 12 .500
Cleveland 11 11 .500
Detroit 13 14 .481
Athletics 10 12 .466
New York 6 15 .286
St. Louis 6 17 .261
STANDING OF CLUBS ON JUNE 1.
Chicago 29 12 .707
Boston 25 14 .641
Detroit 21 20 .512
Athletics 17 17 .500
Cleveland 18 19 .486
Washington 19 21 .476
New York 12 23 .343
St. Louis 12 27 .308
STANDING OF CLUBS ON JUNE 15.
Boston 33 19 .635
Chicago 33 21 .611
Washington 33 21 .611
Athletics 27 21 .563
Detroit 26 29 .473
Cleveland 23 28 .451
New York 17 31 .364
St. Louis 15 37 .288
STANDING OF CLUBS ON JULY 1.
Boston 47 21 .691
Athletics 39 25 .609
Chicago 38 28 .576
Washington 37 31 .551
Cleveland 33 38 .492
Detroit 33 36 .478
New York 18 44 .290
St. Louis 18 45 .288
STANDING OF CLUBS ON JULY 15.
Boston 56 26 .683
Washington 60 33 .602
Athletics 46 36 .668
Chicago 44 35 .567
Cleveland 42 42 .500
Detroit 40 43 .488
New York 22 53 .298
St. Louis 22 56 .282
STANDING OF CLUBS ON AUGUST 1.
Boston 67 31 .684
Washington 61 37 .622
Athletics 55 41 .573
Chicago 49 36 .516
Detroit 48 42 .485
Cleveland 45 43 .464
New York 31 53 .333
St. Louis 30 56 .312
STANDING OF CLUBS ON AUGUST 15.
Boston 76 34 .691
Athletics 66 43 .606
Washington 67 44 .604
Chicago 54 55 .495
Detroit 55 58 .487
Cleveland 51 59 .464
New York 36 73 .327
St. Louis 36 74 .321
STANDING OF CLUBS ON SEPTEMBER 1.
Boston 87 37 .702
Washington 77 49 .611
Athletics 73 50 .593
Chicago 62 61 .504
Detroit 57 70 .449
Cleveland 54 71 .432
New York 45 78 .366
St. Louis 43 82 .344
STANDING OF CLUBS ON SEPTEMBER 15.
Boston 97 39 .713
Athletics 81 56 .591
Washington 82 57 .590
Chicago 67 69 .493
Detroit 64 75 .461
Cleveland 62 75 .453
New York 48 88 .353
St. Louis 47 89 .346
STANDING OF CLUBS ON OCTOBER 1.
Boston 103 48 .691
Washington 89 60 .567
Athletics 89 60 .567
Chicago 74 76 .493
Cleveland 72 77 .483
Detroit 69 80 .463
St. Louis 52 98 .347
New York 49 100 .329
STANDING OF CLUBS AT CLOSE OF SEASON
Bos. Wash. Ath. Chic. Clev. Det. S.L. N.Y. Won PC
Boston -- 12 15 16 11 15 17 19 105 .691
Washington 10 -- 7 13 18 14 14 15 91 .599
Athletics 7 18 -- 10 14 13 16 17 99 .592
Chicago 6 9 12 -- 11 14 13 13 78 .506
Cleveland 11 4 8 11 -- 13 15 13 75 .490
Detroit 6 8 9 8 9 -- 13 16 69 .451
St. Louis 5 8 6 9 7 9 -- 9 58 .344
New York 3 7 5 9 8 6 13 -- 50 .329
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Lost 47 61 62 76 78 84 101 102
NATIONAL LEAGUE
STANDING OF CLUBS AT CLOSE OF SEASON.
N.Y. Pitts.Chi. Cin. Phil.St.L. Bkln. Bos. Won. PC.
New York -- 12 9 16 17 15 16 18 103 .682
Pittsburgh 8 -- 13 11 14 15 14 18 93 .616
Chicago 13 8 -- 11 10 15 17 17 91 .607
Cincinnati 6 11 10 -- 8 13 16 11 75 .498
Philadelphia 5 8 10 14 -- 11 13 12 73 .480
St. Louis 7 7 7 9 11 -- 10 12 63 .412
Brooklyn 6 8 5 6 9 11 -- 13 58 .379
Boston 3 4 6 11 10 10 9 -- 52 .340
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ----
Lost 48 58 59 78 79 90 95 101
The Chicago-Pittsburgh game at Chicago, October 2, was protested by the
Pittsburgh club and thrown out of the records, taking a victory from the
Chicago club and a defeat from the Pittsburgh club.
CHAMPIONSHIP WINNERS IN PREVIOUS YEARS.
1871- Athletics .759 | 1885- Chicago .770 | 1899- Brooklyn .682
1872- Boston .830 | 1886- Chicago .726 | 1900- Brooklyn .603
1873- Boston .729 | 1887- Detroit .637 | 1901- Pittsburgh .647
1874- Boston .717 | 1888- New York .641 | 1902- Pittsburgh .741
1875- Boston .899 | 1889- New York .659 | 1903- Pittsburgh .650
1876- Chicago .788 | 1890- Brooklyn .667 | 1904- New York .693
1877- Boston .646 | 1891- Boston .630 | 1905- New York .668
1878- Boston .683 | 1892- Boston .680 | 1906- Chicago .765
1879- Providence .702 | 1893- Boston .667 | 1907- Chicago .704
1880- Chicago .798 | 1894- Baltimore .695 | 1908- Chicago .643
1881- Chicago .667 | 1895- Baltimore .669 | 1909- Pittsburgh .724
1882- Chicago .655 | 1896- Baltimore .698 | 1910- Chicago .676
1883- Boston .643 | 1897- Boston .795 | 1911- New York .647
1884- Providence .750 | 1898- Boston .685 |
INDIVIDUAL BATTING.
Following are the Official Batting Averages of National League players
who participated in any manner in at least fifteen championship games
during the season of 1912:
Name and Club G. A.B. R. H. T.B. 2B 3B HR SH SB PC
Zimmerman, Chicago 145 557 95 207 318 41 14 14 18 23 .372
Meyers, New York 126 371 60 133 177 16 5 6 9 8 .358
Sweeney, Boston 153 593 84 204 264 81 13 1 33 27 .344
Evers, Chicago 143 478 73 163 211 23 11 1 14 16 .341
Bresnaban, St. Louis 48 108 8 36 50 7 2 1 -- 4 .333
McCormick, New York 42 39 4 13 19 4 1 -- -- 1 .333
Doyle, New York 143 558 98 184 263 33 8 10 13 36 .330
Kuisely, Cincinnati 21 67 10 22 35 7 8 -- 1 3 .328
Lobert, Philadelphia 65 257 37 84 112 12 5 2 10 13 .327
Wiltse, New York 28 46 5 15 17 2 -- -- 1 1 .326
Wagner, Pittsburgh 145 558 91 181 277 36 20 7 11 26 .324
Hendrix, Pittsburgh 46 121 25 39 64 10 6 1 2 1 .322
Kirke, Boston 103 359 53 115 146 11 4 4 9 7 .320
Kelly, Pittsburgh 48 132 20 42 52 3 2 1 7 8 .318
Marsans, Cincinnati 110 416 59 132 168 19 7 1 9 35 .317
Kling, Boston 81 252 26 80 102 10 3 2 7 8 .317
Donlin, Pittsburgh 77 244 27 77 108 9 8 2 10 8 .316
Stengel, Brooklyn 17 57 9 38 22 1 -- 1 1 5 .316
Paskert, Philadelphia 145 540 102 170 221 38 5 1 11 35 .315
Konetchy, St. Louis 143 538 81 169 245 26 13 8 17 35 .314
Crandall, New York 50 80 9 25 25 6 2 -- 3 -- .313
Titus,
Philadelphia-Boston 141 502 99 155 224 32 11 5 15 11 .309
Merkle, New York 129 479 82 148 215 22 6 11 8 37 .309
Daubert, Brooklyn 145 559 81 173 232 19 16 3 14 39 .308
W. Miller, Chicago 86 241 45 74 93 11 4 -- 8 11 .307
S. Magee, Phila 132 464 79 142 203 25 9 6 29 30 .306
Wheat, Brooklyn 123 453 70 138 204 28 7 8 7 16 .305
Huggins, St. Louis 120 431 82 131 154 15 4 -- 11 35 .304
Carey, Pittsburgh 150 587 114 177 231 23 8 5 37 45 .302
Edington, Pittsburgh 15 53 4 16 20 -- 2 -- 3 -- .302
Simon, Pittsburgh 42 113 10 34 38 2 1 -- -- 1 .301