Wichita eagle., 1888-06-17
THE AMERICAN PENNANT RACE.
The End of the First Eastern Tour Of the
Western Teams.

/ The End of the First Eastern Tour Of the
Western Teams.
! The four Western teams of the American
Association finished their first Eastern tour
on June z, and they came out of the series
of contests in a manner which not only sur
prised the Eastern teams but greatly dis
. gusted the Cincinnati, st. Louis and Louis
vile people. The Cincinnati team entered
! upon their Eastern tour with a margin OF
victories at command, which it was fully
expected would enable them to go through
the trip and come out with the lead, and
certainly the st. Louis team had no fear of
getting the worst of it in their series of
contests in the East; but both Of these
teams, says Chadwick, in Sporting Life,
counted without their hosts, and the Brook
lyn team happened to be the stumbling
block to their anticipated success, the Ath-
letics and Baltimore also being thorns in
their path to a more or less extent.
The Cincnnatis encountered the Balti-
mores first and got the worst of the fight,
and but for Greenwood's unlucky fall from
grace just as the home team had to meet
the st. Louis champions, the latter would
have Jared no better IN Baltimore than the
Cincinnatis did; but, as 1t was, Greenwood's
weakness and absence helped st. Loui. to
champions could not do better than quit
even with the Athletics, they fully calcu-
lated upon doing up the Brooklyns, es-
pecially after their opening victory at Ridge
wood. 1t was when the Cincinnati team
struck Brooklyn on Decoration Day and lost
their two games there that day, that "the
coming CHAMPIONS from the West took a
bad tumble. They fought plucldly against
their fate, but the Brooklyns not only held
their own, but laid out their Western rivals
with four straight victories; and the de-
moralizing effect on the CIncinnatis was
shown in their subsequent games at Phils-
delpha with the Athletics, when four more
straight defeats crushed them
After their Sunday triumph at Ridgewood,
the st. Louis champions were as sanguine
Of winning at least three out of their series
with Brooklyn as any team could be, but for
once they were out in their calculations as
to Brooklyns ability to cope with them, and
before the series ended it was made very
plain to the st. Louis clubs captain and
lieutenant that the Brooklyn team of 'S6 was
far different team TO that Of 81 and one
that the champions would this season find
10 be the chief obstacle to their success ia
winning the pennant. As regards the other
two teams of the Western Guartette, while
Kansas City was looked upon as pretty GER
tain to be fourth on the list during the tour,
ii was thought that Louisville would recover
much of the ground lost in the early part Of
the May campaign. But to the sad regret
of the Western friends of the Louisvilles
they made a complete failure during the
trip.
1t was not so bad beginning to quit even
with the Athletics, but to lose three out of
four at Baltimore, and then four straight
at Brooklyn, and that, too, in the face OF
some very good play on their part was
hard The climax was reached in Louis
vile, however, where they again had to
submit TO four straight defeats. Kansas
City did fairly satisfactory work in coming
out OF the four next to St Louis, while Gin
ciInati had TO submit to ten defeats out of
fifteen games, and Louisville to thirteen
out Of fifteen, the latter's record being the
worst the club has ever made on sn East
ern trip. No wonder Manager John Kelly
should sigh for the comparative ease Of
league umpire's life IN the place of the
torment Of being the manager of an uu-
lucky team. All clubs are liable to strike
veins of success and defeat at times, but
from the first week of the Louisvilles tour
10 the last, misfortune did not let up on the
Kentucky team