The acquisition of Gandil from Montreal plugged a hole at first base which had defied the efforts of several predecessors to stop and it helped make a brilliant infield, for it gave the youngsters something they were not afraid to throw at. In giving credit for the work of Griffith's infield, the inclination is to overestimate the worth of the new stars. But there was a tower of strength at short in George McBride, who has been playing steadily and consistently at that position for several seasons without being given one-tenth the credit his work has merited.
The Washington team at one time or another occupied every position in the race except the first and last. The Senators were in seventh place for a few days in the opening weeks of the season, but not anywhere nearly as long as they were in second place later on. They climbed out of the second division by rapid stages and after May 1 they were driven back into it only once during the rest of the year. That was for three days in the beginning of June. In the meantime they had knocked Boston out of second place for a short while in May and, most of the way, had enjoyed a close fight with Philadelphia for third and fourth spots. Near the middle of June, after the Red Sox had ousted their White namesakes from first place, the Senators also passed Chicago and started after Boston. But the youngsters were not yet hardened to the strain and soon fell back to third and fourth. On July 5 Washington went into second place and held onto it, with the exception of three days, for a period of two months. September brought a slump and Griffith's men surrendered the runner-up position to the Athletics for about two weeks, then came back and took it away from the Mackmen at the end.
What happened to the world's champion Athletics the public did not really know until after the middle of the season. Then the suspensions of Chief Bender and Rube Oldring blazoned the fact that Manager Mack's splendid system of handling a Base Ball team by moral suasion had fallen down in the face of overconfidence and too much prosperity. Few people saw any reason for changing their belief in the prowess of the Athletics during the first half of the season, because they were in as good position most of the time as they had been the year previous at the same stage of the race. They were expected to make the same strong finish that swept everything before it in 1911. Not until the second half of the season was well under way did the adherents of the Mackmen give up the battle.
Philadelphia's sterling young infield seemed to stand up all right all the year, but the outfield and the slab staff gave Connie Mack sleepless nights. When Dan Murphy was injured in Chicago in June it was discovered what he had meant to the team. Dan was what the final punch is to a boxing star. His timely batting was missed in knocking out opponents, and the injury kept him out all the rest of the season. The strain which Jack Coombs gave his side in the world's series of 1911 proved more serious and lasting than was expected, and if Eddie Plank had not come back into grand form it would have been a tougher season than it was for the Athletics.
The Mackmen made a bad beginning for champions, and on May 1 were in the second division. During all of May and part of June they climbed into the first division and fell out of it with great regularity. Not until near the middle of June did the Athletics gain a strangle hold on the upper half of the league standing, from that time on they kept above the .500 mark, and toward the end of June they met the White Sox coming back. There was a short scuffle during the early part of July among the Athletics, Senators and White Sox for the possession of the position next to Boston. Then Chicago was pushed back, leaving Philadelphia and Washington to fight it out the rest of the way. Trimming the Phillies four out of five games in their city series did not lessen the gloom of the Athletics.
The White Sox by their meteoric career demonstrated the value of good condition at the start. Although the Chicagoans experienced tough weather in Texas last spring they fared better than any of the other teams in their league, and that fact, combined with the readiness with which youth gets into playing trim, enabled the White Sox to walk through the early weeks of their schedule with an ease that astonished everybody. Even prophets who were friendly to them had expected no such showing. So fast did the Callahans travel that on May 3 they had lost only four games, having won thirteen in that time. But Boston was hanging on persistently. Chicago's margin over the Red Sox varied from four to five and a half games; during May, on the fourteenth of that month the White Sox had won twenty-one games and lost only five, giving them the percentage of .808. During part of this time they were on their first invasion of the east. May 18 saw the Chicago men five and a half games in the lead and their constituents were dreaming of another world's pennant almost every night.
Even the doubters were beginning to believe Manager Callahan had found the right combination. Just then came the awakening. The luck which had been coming their way began breaking against them with remarkable persistency. Plays that had won game after game went wrong and youth was not resourceful enough to offset the breaks. The White Sox began to fall away fast in percentage, but managed to cling to the lead until June 10. Boston passed them right there and the Chicagoans kept on going.
By mid-season Manager Callahan was fighting to keep his men in the first division and their slump did not end until they landed in fifth place for a couple of days in August. Then in desperation Callahan began switching his line-up and by herculean effort—and the help of Ed Walsh—climbed back into the upper quartet and stuck there to the finish. It was a desperate remedy to take Harry Lord off third base, where he had played during most of his professional career, and try to convert him into an outfielder, a position in which he had had no experience at all. But Lord was too good an offensive player to take out of the game, in spite of his slump at third base, and he was willing to try the outfield. Results justified the move. Lord learned outfielding rapidly, and Zeider proved that third base was his natural position. The acquisition of Borton for first base enabled Callahan to put Collins in the outfield, and the White Sox in reality were a stronger team when they finished than when they started their runaway race in April. With one more reliable pitcher to take his turn regularly on the slab all season the White Sox would have kept in the race. Callahan's men made up for some of the disappointment they produced by beating the Cubs in a nine-game post-season series, after the Cubs had won three victories. Two of the nine games were drawn and one other went into extra innings, making a more extended combat than the world's series.