It’s Labor Day, which means there is only a month to go in the baseball season, and I have a few questions and random observations.

How can it be Labor Day, and there be only six players hitting over .300?

How can it be Labor Day with only two players in the National League hitting over .300?

How can it be Labor Day and there already be 104 hitters with over 100 strikeouts?

How can it be Labor Day and there already be 12 hitters with at least 150 strikeouts?

How can it be Labor Day when eight teams have the day off? While researching a couple of other items for this post, I saw that 16 of the 20 teams in each league played doubleheaders on Labor Day in both 1962 and 1964. I understand that MLB and the players no longer want to play two, but it seems crazy that every team isn’t in action on the final holiday of the season. What would Ernie Banks have to say about that? “It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame. Can we at least play one?”

It’s Labor Day, and the South Side of Chicago is the baddest part of town. That’s because the White Sox have only 31 wins and are on pace to lose the most games in major league history. The 1962 New York Mets’ won only 40 games, but they had an excuse; they were an expansion team. On Labor Day in 1962, the Mets had played 138 games, the same number as the White Sox, and they already had 35 wins. At their current pace, the White Sox will win 36 games.

It’s Labor Day, and Aaron Judge has seven more home runs (51) than Shohei Ohtani (44), yet I don’t seem to hear much about Judge, but I get a notification from the MLB app every time Ohtani ties his shoes.

It’s Labor Day, and it doesn’t appear that any team will win 100 games. The Los Angeles Dodgers at 82-55 have the best chance, but they would have to go 18-7 the rest of the way to get there, so it seems unlikely.

Here on Labor Day, three of the six division leaders have a firm grip on first place. In the National League, the Phillies lead the Braves by seven games in the Eastern Division, and the Brewers lead the Cubs by nine games in the Central. In the West, the Dodgers are in good shape, as they are up five games on the Diamondbacks. Six teams– the Diamondbacks, the Padres, the Braves, the Mets, the Cubs, and the Cardinals–are within five games of the three Wildcard slots.

In the American League, the Astros lead the West by six games over the Mariners. The Eastern Division is up for grabs, as the Yankees and Orioles are in a virtual tie, and in the Central, the Guardians lead the Twins and Royals by just 3 1/2 games. Five teams are within five games of the three Wildcard spots. In addition to the Orioles, Twins, and Royals, the Red Sox and Tigers are still in the running.

I used five games as my cutoff for teams still having a chance, which may seem a bit arbitrary. But on Labor Day 60 years ago, the Phillies held a 5 1/2-game lead over the Reds and a 7 1/2-game lead over the Cardinals. The Phillies led by 6 1/2 games with 12 games remaining in the season and somehow lost the pennant to the Cardinals.

So even though it’s already Labor Day, anything could happen.

(All statistical data are from MLB.com, Retrosheet, and Baseball Reference.)