Week 24 Summary (09/18/1967 - 09/24/1967)

Week Twenty-Four of the 1967 BBW Replay is in the books and with only one week remaining teams still have 5-7 games left to play. This final week is not packed as spots were deliberately left open to allow for makeup games as needed, but the last few weeks have been pretty busy, so overall it looks like the schedule is in pretty good shape.

In the AL, Boston opened in Cleveland this past Wednesday with a Magic Number of two. The Red Sox won their game and proceeded to the Cleveland locker room to await the results of the Baltimore and Detroit games. The two teams were tied for second place behind Boston, and as both teams came up on the losing end, the Red Sox clinched the AL and awaited their NL counterpart in the upcoming World Series.

 

In the NL, first-place Atlanta has struggled with late-season injuries - Ken Johnson has been struggling with a dead arm for several weeks and had to be benched for the final two weeks of the season, Felipe Alou is going to require surgery to correct a problem with chips in his elbow, relief ace Claude Raymond is seeing reduced playing time due to arm issues as well, and shortstop Denis Menke is beat up as well. The decision was made to soldier on with what they have for now and to hope for recovery when the World Series rolls around. That's a big dice roll of course, but so far it has been working.

One of the reasons it has been working is that the challengers are all struggling as well. St. Louis started this past week off by losing three home games to Philadelphia, and then even though St. Louis ended the week by taking three at home from Atlanta, they essentially were only able to recover the ground they had lost at the beginning of the week. St. Louis and Atlanta will end the season with a three-game set in Atlanta, but Atlanta's Magic Number is four, so they are hoping that maybe this will be over sooner rather than later.


With their team having secured its spot in the upcoming World Series, Red Sox fans were now pulling for Atlanta to represent the NL. The Braves left Boston after the 1952 season, these two teams never having tangled in a Boston-centric World Series. The Milwaukee Braves went to the World Series in 1957 and 1958 and then after a string of successful seasons moved to Atlanta to start the 1966 season. While no one from either team is talking about this long-lost rivalry, all involved are quite aware the press will certainly play it up.


In Memoriam: Luis Tiant









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