[legendsport]

BROOKLYN AND WASHINGTON TO FACE OFF IN WORLD SERIES

The up-and-down season continued for the Giants. Mediocre at the start, great in the middle, but mediocre again at the end, the defending world champs were overtaken by both Boston and Brooklyn and finished third, five games behind the Brooks. The Superbas put together a fine season, finishing tops in BaTTY in hitting (.277) and home runs (52) on the offensive side and first in runs allowed (523) and second in ERA (2.73) on the pitching side. Boston finished strong, but ended up three games back of the Superbas.

In the American League, Washington rode the league's stingiest pitching staff (2.72 ERA) and some solid hitting (679 runs scored - best in BaTTY) to the American League flag, passing the defending AL champion Tigers, who had led the league for most of the campaign. The Tigers fell off the pace despite outstanding pitching, because their offense failed to match the pitchers' efforts during August and September.

Looking at the upcoming World Series, this appears to be a clash of titans. The Senators feature three twenty-game winners with a fourth (Steve Woodard) sitting at 19 victories as well as a talented offense built around George Scott (.320, 25 steals), Oscar Azocar (.309-4-77) and Gene Richards (.320-5-63). The Superbas were, pun intended, superb this season, with slugging Curt Blefary (.303-13-92) and Bill Greenwood (.318-7-70) leading a dangerous offense and a mound corps headed up by Danny Jackson (23-12, 1.96).

Tiger outfielder Kirby Puckett won the AL batting crown with a .366 average, while the NL hit king was once again Cap Anson of the Reds, who hit .399 - the first time in his career that he has failed to top the .400 mark (though he sure did come close). Three Finger Brown went 29-19 to lead the NL in wins, while Jackson's 1.96 ERA for Brooklyn was tops in that category. Top AL hurlers? The Tigers Randy Jones was 25-12 to lead in victories - his team mate Andy Hassler's 2.32 ERA was the best mark in that category.