September 20, 1926 - 1 week left
Well it is beginning to look like our attempt to go from worst to first in the Continental Association will fall just short. The New York Stars pitching is just too good, and the two-time defending CA champs have been red-hot for two months and now lead us by a game and a half with just over a week remaining in the season.
How hot? On July 4th we were 49-31 and tied with the Philadelphia Sailors for first. The Stars were 5.5 games back at 42-35. Since then we have not been bad at all, playing at a .623 clip, going 43-26. New York has gone 49-18 for a .731 winning percentage.
So here are the standings today:
We are a game and a half back with 5 left to play for us. Two against Toronto and 3 against Chicago - all at home. The Stars have 10 games remaining including 3 home games against both Philadelphia and Cleveland, 1 game at Montreal and then they finish things with 3 in Baltimore. Even if we run the table and win all five of our remaining games, we need the Stars to go 6-4 just to force a playoff. A chance, yes, but realistic thinking is that we will finish second.
We picked a bad week to struggle as we dropped 4 of 7 games while New York went 5-1. We also lost yet another player to injury as rookie Harvey Rodgers lasted just 3 pitches in a 9-1 loss to the Sailors before leaving with a shoulder injury. It is not serious, but it does end his season with an 11-7 record. Leon Campbell's incredible 14-0 start came to an end when the pitcher went the distance but lost 3-0 to Philadelphia on Thursday. And there will be no triple crown for catcher Mickey Dowell. He has the rbi race pretty much sewn up with 115, and a lead of 16 on Red Brown of Philadelphia, but Dowell is now second to Baltimore's Sandy Lovelle with a .349 batting average and his 14 homers are 4 back of Montreal's Hal Eason, who exploded with 4 dingers this past week.
One sim left for us. We need to win all 5 and hope we get a lot of help.