Page:Spalding's Baseball Guide (1894).djvu/14

 10 of making teams, selected by lot, work harmoniously together, for, under such circumstances, they would be little else than mere "picked nines" and not nines for team work together.

But something should be done by the League magnates to equalize the playing strength of the twelve club teams of the League each season, as on that depends largely the financial prosperity of the campaign each year.

The Boston club began the championship campaign in New York on April 28th, in a series of three games with the New York club, rain preventing the games scheduled in the east for April 27th. They won the first game on the 28th, but lost the second on the 29th, and then made an even start in their first series. They closed the brief April campaign on the 30th of that month with a percentage of victories of .500, Cleveland holding the lead in the race at that date, without a defeat being charged to them; with St. Louis and Washington tied for second position, and with Baltimore in fourth place; all the other clubs—including the Boston—except Louisville and Pittsburgh, being tied for fifth position with a percentage of .500 each, Louisville being eleventh with .333 and Pittsburgh the tail ender without the credit of a single victory. Early in May the Boston got among the six leaders, and by the end of the month they stood third in the race, with a percentage of victories of .586 to their credit, Pittsburgh leading with the figures of .667, while Brooklyn occupied second place with .630, the difference at this time—May 31st—in percentage points, between the leading club and the tail ender, being no less than .500 points, showing a very one-sided race at the very outset. Early in June the Boston club got into second position in the race, but during the second week of that month they fell off badly, they being forced back to fourth place by the 9th of June, after which they rallied well, and by the end of the June campaign they again had pulled up to a tie with the leaders, they having a percentage of .654 on the 30th of June, and on that day they were tied with the Philadelphia and Brooklyn clubs for first position.

The Bostons opened the July campaign as occupants of first place in the race, their percentage figures on July 1st being .660, with the Philadelphia and Brooklyn clubs tied for second place with .642 each. On July 8th the Bostons lost the lead, they being replaced by the Phillies; but they retained second place, Brooklyn retiring to third position;