Week Twenty-Three of the 1967 BBW Replay is in the books and
while the season is starting to wind down, there is still a lot of excitement
remaining to be played out. Over half of the teams have reached the
150-games-played mark, but the others are all at either 148 or
149-games-played, so they are not far behind. But all that means is that these
final two weeks are all going to be jam-packed.
In the
AL, Boston has a comfortable 8.0-game lead over Detroit and 9.0 over
Baltimore, with the Red Sox Magic Number being Five. The consensus is that
Boston is not going to have a historic collapse and somehow let another team
(or two) into the pennant race, but the consensus is also that even if Boston
should have a historic collapse during these final two weeks, that despite the
opportunity it would provide to Detroit or Baltimore, neither could put on the
kind of push that would make it close.
Behind
these three, Chicago, Cleveland, and Minnesota are still engaged in their
ongoing battle to reach and then stay at or above .500. All three have
occasionally gone on mini spurts to pass the other two and reach .500, but so
far none of them has been able to stay there. These three teams also relish the
opportunity to play a spoiler for the three teams ahead of them, but fighting
for fourth place and being a spoiler isn't really what any of them particularly
wanted for their 1967 season.
In the
actual 1967 season, the top of the AL standings on this date looked like this:
Everyone
in the AL, and actually in all of baseball, has fully expected that one of
these teams will put on a last-month surge and walk away with the AL pennant.
Bill Veeck said that instead of four teams fighting for first, it looked like
four teams fighting for fourth. Regardless, it hasn't happened, and everyone is
getting nervous. For one thing, World Series tickets need to be printed and
distributed. Plans have to be put in place for travel and lodging. And most
interestingly, ties have to be taken into consideration as well. What if two
teams tie? What if three teams tie? What if all four teams tie? Of course,
luckily for the AL none of these happened, but at this point in the season
discussions had to happen and plans had to be put in place for whatever might
occur. In the
NL, Atlanta remains in first place, 3.5 games ahead of St. Louis and 4.5 ahead
of Cincinnati, and with a magic Number of Ten. The Braves are on a current four
game winning streak, the Reds just came off a five-game losing streak, and the
Cardinals just seem like they are stuck in neutral. If Atlanta is going to win
the NL, they are going to have to outright win it on their own - they won’t be
able to rely on their opponents rolling over and just letting the Braves have
it. In the final two weeks of the season the Braves have seven games with St.
Louis and six games with Cincinnati, so the final two weeks in the NL are
promising to be on fire!
In the
actual NL race, St. Louis was safely in first by 12.5 games over second-place
San Francisco at this time. While it remains to be seen if the Cardinals (or Reds) can put
on a real late-season rush or not, it is safe to say no one will have a 12.5-game lead in the NL this season.
Teams
are still bringing in and using minor league call-ups to get the kids a taste
of big-league ball, plus there are plenty of veterans opting to sit out the
final few weeks to rest their own seasons-long collection of bumps and bruises
and to give the youngsters get a chance to get on the field. That can only mean one thing - let's go play!
In Memoriam: Pete Rose
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