We're coming down the home stretch in the fourth season of my nineteenth-century Strat-O-Matic baseball league. The Canaries and Haymakers are tied at 10-6 and will spend the last few games of the season jockeying for first place and, as a result, home-field advantage in the championship series. (I'm replacing the playoff format from previous seasons with a single best-of-three series between the first- and second-place teams.)
It's been a great campaign with lots of memorable moments, but it looks like three men will stand out as the stars of Season 4. On the pitching side, the clear-cut MVP is Mickey Welch of the Haymakers, who might just finish the year with an ERA under 2.00 -- a feat that no starter has ever accomplished in this league. I can picture Welch's absolutely filthy screwball diving across the plate to freeze right-handers, while lefties swing and miss at its late-breaking action. After three seasons of maddening inconsistency, Welch has finally put it all together. Can he carry his mates to a third consecutive league title? He'll have help from right fielder Sam Thompson, who has bashed his way into the conversation for MVP of the position players. Thompson has been on quite a tear, and his three homers are second in the league to George Davis of the Canaries. Davis, meanwhile, has tied King Kelly's single-season home run record with four bombs (set all the way back in Season 1) and his superb all-around play (he hits for average, he's a fantastic base stealer, and he provides adequate defense at third) have put him in the driver's seat to win his first MVP trophy. I can't wait to see Welch and Davis square off against each other in the championship series. It's going to be epic!
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