The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-11
WORLDS SERIES
 GREAT TOPIC NOW
Fans Think That Pennant Winner in National and American
 League Decided

New York. Aug. 11.-A1though the concluding games of the major league baseball season are still two months away. interest in the pennant races IS already overshadowed by the possl- bilfties of play in the worlds series This unusual situation in the camp of the national sport is due entirely to the runaway race being made by the leading teams in the National and American leagues. Not in some years have such wide margins separated the first and second clubs in both major associations at this stage of the pen nant races. There have been several examples of the so-called runaway race in one or the other of the two big leagues, but simultaneous and sus- @ained sDurts like these uncovered by both the Giants and Athletics are un- usual
 A glance back over the records Of the clubs in both leagues during the past few years shows that as a ruIe where one league had a leader vel out in front the struggle for the other pennan& was close and the outcome uncertain at this period of the season While the Athletics and Giants are leading their respective leagues Dy ap- proxtnately a hundred point margin over the runner-up, the 1912 recoros show the Boston Red Sox had but half that advantage and the Giants about three-quarters of their present mar kin. In the National League New York had won seventy two and lost 4xrentv-seven games for a percentage of T27 on August g. The Chicago Cubs were trailing second eighty-sev- en points in the rear, with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia holding third ana fourth places The American League standing showed Boston to have won sseventy-one and lost thfrty-five games, with Washington second with sixty five and forty giving Jake Stahps Red Sox a lead of fifty points. The Ath- Ietics were still in the race and the Chicago White Sox had an outside chance from fourth place.
 The 1911 races were far closer, for the Athletics had but twenty-two points over the Detroit Club in the American League, and Chicago was leading Pittsburg by just nine points in the National. But fifty points separated the first four clubs in the senior association while the New York team holding fourth place in the American League was 135 points in the. rear of the Athletics, with Detroit and Boston between 1t and the lead CTS The races of 1910 as viewed at thfs date showed conditions more closely resembling the present situa- ffou The Athletics were travelling at top speed, with a clear lead of eighty points over Boston. The Detroit Fig CTS were third thirty points in the rear of Boston, and New York was fourth but nine points below the Tigers. In the National League Chicago was 1 seventy points ahead of Pittsburgh, l with the New York Giants third, ten points separating them from the Pirates. Philadelphia was a poor fourth,
 Pittsburgh and Detroit were the pacemakers in 1909, but neither team | had anything like the margin of safe | ty that the present leaders possess. | The Pirates had won sixty eight and 1 lost twenty-seven games for a percent age of .715- The Chicago Cubs were | right at their heels, less than thirty | points separating leader and runner | up. The New York and Cincinnati | clubs were third and fourth respec- ! lively. but far below Gne percentage standing of the first and second | clubs The American League race was even closer. Detroit with sixty-two | games won and thirty-eight lost had | just twenty points over Philadelphia | which club had won sixty and lost 1 forty games for a percentage of 500. Boston and Cleveland were both with in striking distance of the leaders, for there were but seventy-ffve points be- tween the Tigers in first place and l the Cleveland club in fourth.