Since July 23rd, the 1912 Red Sox have played .650 ball. Yet their lead shrank from 8 to 5.5 by August 7th. Today, though, August 14th, the lowly Browns came to town, and Boston swept a doubleheader, extending their league lead to its biggest margin yet, 9.5 games, with a little more than 40 games remaining.

Over this last 21-game stretch, Smoky Joe Wood started 5 games and won them all. Several papers reported that most of the American League's managers predicted that the Red Sox would take the pennant. The team's record at the end of today, August 14th, was 75-34, a .688 winning percentage. Only the Giants are doing better; at .716, they lead the N.L. by 6 games.

Coincidental note: In the August 9th game in Detroit, league president Ban Johnson was on hand to present the great pitcher Wild Bill Donovan with a gold watch on behalf of the Tigers' fans. Donovan had been injured and was on his way out of Detroit, going to Providence to manage the Grays of the International League. Donovan would manage Babe Ruth in 1914 while leading Providence to the championship. (A decade later, Donovan would die in the wreck of the "20th Century Limited" train.)

Labels: 1912 Red Sox