July proved to be the most important month of the season's race, as it was in this month that the New York team as effectually rallied under the personal influence of Mr. John B. Day, who from that time out took personal cognizance of the doings of the "Giants." The first week in July saw the New York team drive Boston out of third place, while Pittsburg, for the time being, was forced to occupy seventh position, Indianapolis leading them for a week in July. During the last week in July, Chicago — which club had held the lead consecutively from May 5 to July 23—took a bad tumble, and fell back to third position, while New York and Detroit stood tied for a few days for first place, until Chicago rallied, and then the Detroits were driven back; the end of July leaving New York in the van, with Detroit second, Chicago third, Boston and Philadelphia close together in fourth and fifth positions, while Pittsburg, Indianapolis, and Washington occupied the rear positions. It was now that the race began to be intensely interesting. The steady play of the New York team gave a new feature to the contest, and it now began to be a nip and tuck fight between the "Giants" and the Chicagos for first place, with Detroit close to them as a good third. August saw the steadiest running of the season in the race, but few changes being made in the relative positions of the contestants, the last week of the month seeing New York in the van, Chicago second, Detroit third, Boston fourth, Philadelphia fifth, and Pittsburg, Washington and Indianapolis in the rear.
The promise for an exciting close of the campaign loomed up very bright in September, and during that month, while New York and Chicago still retained their leading positions, Boston temporarily rallied, and got into third place for a week; but Detroit pushed them back, while Philadelphia began to rally for a closing dash for one of the three leading positions. At the close of September the record left New York in the van, with the assurance of a successful termination of the campaign for the "Giants," while the struggle for second place between Chicago, Boston, Detroit and Philadelphia greatly added to the excitement of the closing month of the campaign. Chicago held on to second place, and Philadelphia, which club on September 29 stood in fifth place rallied brilliantly in October, and drove Boston to fourth place and Detroit to fifth, Boston having occupied fifth place on the 6th of October, Pittsburg, Indianapolis and Washington finally bringing up the rear.
A feature of the campaign was the fact that at no time after May was it doubtful in regard to the position of Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Washington as the three tail-enders of the race. But for this the campaign would have been the most brilliant on record. As it was, however, the contest for the three leading positions by the other five clubs made it exceedingly interesting throughout, New York's final success giving a new impetus to the succeeding campaign of 1889.
THE STATISTICS OF THE CAMPAIGN.
During the League championship season of 1888 an aggregate of 552 games were played, of which 530 were victories and defeats; and 22 were drawn games, and two were won by forfeit. Of the 552 games played and won, no less than 432 were won by single figure scores, and but 98 by double figures. A noteworthy feature of the campaign was, that while the New York Club won the championship by 84 victories to Chicago's 77, with but 47 defeats to Chicago's 58, they failed to score as many runs in the aggregate as the Chicago Club did by 659 to 725, the Chicago's majority of runs being 66. The New York Club's score of runs, in fact, was exceeded by Detroit, Boston, and even Indianapolis, the latter's aggregate of runs being 666.
Below will be found a complete summary of the statistics of the League campaign of 1888:
| | | P | | | | I |
| | | h | | | | n |
| | | i | | | | d | W
| | | l | | | P | i | a
| N | | a | | | i | a | s
| e | C | d | | D | t | n | h
| w | h | e | B | e | t | a | i
| | i | l | o | t | s | p | n
| Y | c | p | s | r | b | o | g
| o | a | h | t | o | u | l | t
| r | g | i | o | i | r | i | o
| k | o | a | n | t | g | s | n
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | .
————————————+——+——+——+——+——+——+——+—
Victories | 84| 77| 69| 70| 68| 66| 50| 48
Defeats | 47| 58| 61| 64| 63| 68| 85| 86
Drawn Games | 7| 1| 1| 3| 3| 4| 1| 2
Total Games Played | 138| 135| 131| 137| 134| 138| 136| 136
Won by Forfeit | 1| 0| 1| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0
Lost by Forfeit | 0| 1| 0| 0| 0| 1| 0| 0
Per Cent. of Victories |.641|.570|.532|.522|.519|.493|.370|.358
Series Won | 5| 4| 2| 2| 3| 2| 1| 0
Series Lost | 1| 1| 2| 2| 1| 1| 6| 5
Series Tied | 0| 1| 0| 0| 2| 1| 0| 0
Series Unfinished | 6| 4| 6| 4| 5| 3| 3| 5
Chicago Victories | 19| 13| 16| 7| 10| 13| 6| 6
Chicago Defeats | 3| 9| 7| 13| 5| 19| 11| 23
Home Victories | 44| 43| 37| 34| 41| 38| 31| 26
Home Defeats | 23| 26| 31| 29| 26| 30| 35| 38
Victories Abroad | 40| 34| 32| 36| 27| 28| 19| 22
Defeats Abroad | 24| 32| 30| 31| 37| 70| 50| 48
Extra Innings Victories | 2| 1| 8| 6| 3| 6| 3| 0
Extra Innings Defeats | 2| 1| 3| 8| 6| 0| 5| 4
Single Figure Victories | 70| 55| 62| 58| 50| 57| 37| 44
Single Figure Defeats | 44| 45| 55| 49| 51| 58| 67| 65
Double Figure Victories | 12| 22| 6| 12| 18| 9| 13| 4
Double Figure Defeats | 4| 12| 6| 15| 12| 10| 18| 21
Batting Average |.240|.247|.229|.240|.243|.223|.233|.207
Fielding Average |.918|.906|.919|.904|.916|.914|.904|.899
Highest Score in Games | 19| 21| 17| 20| 18| 14| 15| 22
Worst Defeat |4-11|0-14|1-14|0-13|2-12|1-16|0-13|0-14
Won by One Run | 21| 18| 28| 16| 10| 10| 13| 12
Lost by One Run | 12| 7| 16| 21| 19| 16| 28| 17
Total Runs Scored | 659| 725| 536| 669| 716| 531| 666| 482
The following is the record of the single figure victories scored in the
League championship arena in 1888:
SINGLE FIGURE| | | P | | | | I | ||
VICTORIES. | | | h | | | | n | ||
| | | i | | | | d | W ||
| | | l | | | P | i | a || V
| N | | a | | | i | a | s || i
| e | C | d | | D | t | n | h || c
| w | h | e | B | e | t | a | i || t
| | I | l | o | t | s | p | n || o
| Y | c | p | s | r | b | o | g || r
| o | a | h | t | o | u | l | t || i
| r | g | i | o | i | r | i | o || e
| k | o | a | n | t | g | s | n || s
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . || .
——————-+—-+—-+—-+——+—-+—-+—-+—-++—-
New York | —| 12| 10|8[1]| 5| 11| 13| 11|| 70
Philadelphia | 4| —| 9| 5 | 8| 7| 9| 10|| 60
Boston | 8| 9| —| 9 | 5| 6| 12| 9|| 58
Pittsburg | 7| 6| 7| — | 8| 8| 8| 13|| 57
[**Proofreaders note: The data for the last two teams was not included**]