Maybe some perspective:
Compare the 1925 team with this one. The '25 team won its 27th game on June 1, to reach 27 - 15. Bucky Harris, player-manager, had had no serious injuries. His regular lineup had future Hall of Famers in CF and LF, and that game was started and won by Walter Johnson. In addition to the HOF-bound Sam Rice (.366 BA .862 OPS) and Goose Goslin (.355 + 1.011 OPS), Bucky had Joe Judge at 1B hitting .293 with .910 OPS, young Ossie Bluege at 3B hitting .302, Muddy Ruel, the catcher hitting .292, and the pitcher, yes, Johnson himself, going 2-for-3 batting .472. Bucky was hitting .275 and Roger Peckinpaugh, the old SS, was hitting .285.
No injuries. An equivalent to Davey's situation might have had Goose Goslin out with a stressed shoulder muscle, Bluege out a couple of weeks with a bad shoulder, Judge out for a week or so, Ruel out for the year, and Sam Rice down and out with a broken wrist. Fred Marberry would not have thrown in a game yet.
Davey has managed this team close to the track of a Washington bench-mark pennant-winner, and this team has had an unreasonable number of injuries.
Take a look at the Bucky Harris team, box-score, at
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA192506010.shtml
