The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-06-16
R0PHEIS PUT OUT
Early Baseball Predictions
Have All Gone Wrong.
ABOUT ANsON, KING OF CAPTAINS

clu DS nave 0een knocked UPSIDE down ana
ripped fore and aft by the fierce winds Of
baseball hard luck, and laid low on the
rocks Of adversely. Everybody is more or
less astonished, and in many cases bitterly
disappointed. But baseball Is baseball,
and this general wreck of newspaper teams
and calculations merely serves to show
the peculiarities and uncertainties attend
ant upon our national game, and to illus
trate the utter futility of making up cham
pion teams on little pieces of paper.
Look at the great array and the bold
front made by the gallant New York
Giants in the early springtime, when
ranged upon the paper field, and look at
them again on the actual field of battle,
struggling away to keep out Of eighth
place. The gallant champions from Brook
Ign who won last years pennant are bare
ly in the first division, while Chicago, al
ways strong but never thought this year
to be as formidable as usual, is basking in
the front row of carriages.
The element of luck has entered largely
! into all these calculations and assisted in
smashing the combinations. The Brooklyn
club released its great shortstop, George
Smith, to make room for John NJ Ward.
! In the very first game Ward, who has not
had an accident in years that kept him
from playing very long, managed in col
| lision at second base to dislocate and break
his thumb. He is travelling with the team
and directing it from the bench, but he has
not been able to play since the season
opened, which has been a terrible handicap
to the champions. Despite these facts the
team is now playing winning ball.
There is something about Adrian G. An
son that cempelS the admiration of every
man who knows the least thing about
baseball ",Rhe old man" always turns up
when5the bell rings with a rafting good
team-with few strangers, mayhap, upon
it, but ball players all, You seldom hear
of Anson,s pitchers having sore arms or
glass legs or anything Of that kind. II
man has got sore arm he has to prove it
to the captain, and the way he proves it is
by going in the box, where he generally
pitches the game Of his life. If he really
has a bad arm, and is unable to pitch from
natural causes-and "the old man" gen.
orally knows where his men are all the
time-he finds in Arson good nurse, and
Is allowed the proper time to recover.
If within reasonable time the pitchers
arm fails to mend, and it appears that the
player has lost his grip, he is released.
Oddly enough, too, the weather does not
seem to affect Anson's pitchers. He has
no need to swathe them in cotton batting,
as Director Billings, of the Boston club,
once suggested should be done to Rad
bourn. The great captain-and he is the
greatest the game has ever known or ever
will know-tells pitcher to go in the box,
and if he does not do good work the cap
tain nearly always has another pitcher to
fo1y \, ,o1n l.
team this year in the east as yet, but he
will be among them within a month, and
he may be expected to show some surprises. |
Arson has only one sick player, Tom |
Burns, a remarkably valuable man to the |
team. But "the old man" found a kidnamed |
Dahlen, who has filed the bill so far at third |
base in a most satisfactory manner. An
son will take with him all the confidence |
of a conqueror. He says nothing can stop !
his team, and that this is Chicago's year to
win the pennant.
The Boston team, which keeps alternat-
ing with Chicago in the lead, is putting up
very strong game, as it always does in the
springtime. The Bostons have had some
hard luck with their pitchers being i'll, but
when they get back to their own bailiwick
they are liable to win a great many games.
There are still something like hundred
and twenty games for each team to play,
and within ten days the situation, so far
as the pennant is concerned, may be en-
tirely changed. Indeed, this is very likely.
Luck may change for some teams which
are now in dead calm.
The enthusiasm in the game outside of
Cleveland, has not been so marked as it
was in the east, but still the general re-
vival of interest has been very strong, and
there is no doubt that the game will soon
reach its old footing in the west. Hence
there will be something for all the western
clubs when the balance is struck at the
end of the year. The eastern clubs should
make a pot of money.
The American association fight goes
merrily on, to small crowds in some cities
and fair ones in others. The final evening
up cannot, it seems to me- show finan-
cial profit for any club save those with low
salaried teams. The Boston Reds have got
a good lead, and it looks as if they would ,
hold it They are four games the best of
while the Orioles have about
the same advantage over St. Louis, al
though the Browns have won one more
game. These are the teams that are max
ing and will make the running, and one of {
them will win the flag. My choice is Bos- .
ton or Baltimore, with the chances in favor
Of Boston. The loss of Hardie Richardson
does not seem to have crippled the team, as
t continues to win with about the same
regularity as before.
THINGS THAT ARE SAID.
That Buck Ewing has proved himself a
poor manager.
That Tim keefe's arm Is gone
That the rumors about keefe are entirely ,
untrue.
That "Old Hoss" Radbourn Is still very
much in the ring. and Will win q great
many games for Cincinnati.
That John Ward will be able to play very
oon, and when he does the fur will fly ]
wherever the cham pions appear
That no one knows when Buck Ewing
viii play, and that pretty soon no one will
are. ]
That Arson has a wonderful team for !
discipline and obedience, and that such a :
cam is the only one that can play sue q
essful ball v
That Dahlen, Anson's only colt, is a won I
er with the stick. He recently made four Q
its out of six chances against the great I
1ovett q
That Cevelsnders are gradually getting :
Tild over their team, even though they ara y
My in sixth place z
That the BostoRs are playing in great Z
1ck- Il
That Individually the Cincinnati team is
of some great PLAYERS, and it is
mystery why they should be at the bot
ON of the list WI HARRIS
Cream Pudding.