The first (or second?) Independence Day of the new century revealed a tight race in the National League:
The Cup-holding Cincinnatis, the defending pennant winners from St. Louis and the usurping Orioles were locked in a three-way tie, with the Colonels just a game back and the Cubs and Braves well within striking distance: fully half the loop was in position to play for the hardware in October.
And Cleveland...well, they
had improved (how could they not?) but were still hanging out in the cellar:
The Spiders tried a new strategy in '01: they actually acquired men who could play baseball, such as Brooklyn's "Wee" Willie Keeler and the perhaps ironically-named Win Mercer, who did double duty on the mound and in center field.
In the American, the spanking new Athletic Club of Philadelphia, with Lajoie and Delahanty, shot to the top of the table, while the defending champion Detroits slid back to the middle:
