, 1891-05-31
PROPHETS PUT OUT
Early Baseball Predictions
Have All Gone Wrong.
ABOUT ANsON, KING OF CAPTAINS

or Ever win Draw the Breath Of Life
on the Diamond.
The early predictions about the League
clubs have been knocked upside down and
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 peunAnt 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 ia
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
AaAA1 ~ A@Ao1@e - eehA "a " ~
In the very first game Ward, who has not
had an accident in years that kept him
from playing very long, managed in a col
lision at second base to dislocate and break
his thumb. He is travelling with the team
and directing 1t 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 Ia something abDut Adrian & An
son that compels the admiration OF every
man whO knows the least thing about
baseball The old man" always turns up
when the bell rings with a rafting good
team-with a few strangers, mayhAp, upon
1t, but ball players all. You seldom hear
Of Anson's pitchers having sore arms or
glass legs OF anything Of that kind. II a
man has got a sore arm he has to prove Il
to the captain. and the way he proves il Is
by going in the box, where he generally
pitches the game OF his life. II he really
has a bad arm. and Is unable 10 pitch from
natural causes-and the old man" gen.
orally knows where his men Are all the
time-he finds in Arson a good nurse, and
is allowed the proper time to recover.
II within u reasonable time the pitchers
arm fails TO mend, and II 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 10 cotton batting.
US Director Billings, OF the Boston club,
once suggested should be done TO Rad
bourn. The great c~aptain-and he is the
greatest the game has ever known or ever
will know-tells a pitcher 10 40 in the box,
and II he does not do good work the cap,
tain nearly always has another pitcher to
take his place. They have not seen his
team this year in the east as yet, but he
will be among them within n 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 kid named
Dahlen. who has filled 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 C~hicago's year to
win the pennant.
The Boston team, which keeps alternat-
ing with Chicago in the lead, Is putting up
a very strong game, as IL always does In the
sprinRtime. The Bostons have had some
hard luck with their pitchers being III, but
when they get back to their own bailiwick
they are liable TO win a great many games.
There are still something like "A hundred
and twenty games for each team to play,
and within ten days the situation, so far
as the pennAnt Is concerned, may be eu
tirely changed. Indeed, this is very likely.
Luck may change for some teams which
are now in a dead calm.
The enthusiasm in the game, outside Of
Cleveland. has not been so marked rs 1t
was in the east, but still the general re.
yiyAl 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, IL seems to me. show a dnau
cial profit for any club save those with low
salaried teams. The Boston Reds have got
a good lead, and It looks as II they would
hold it They are four games the best OF
Baltimore. 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 Tn loss OF HArdie Richardson
does not seem TO have crippled the team, ~
1t continues to win with about the same
regularity as before.
THINGS THAT ARE SAID.
That Buck Ewing has proved himself ~
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 a great
many games for Cincinnati.
That John Ward will be able to play very
soon, and when he does the fur will hy
wherever the champions appear.
That no one knows when Buck Ewing
will play, and that pretty soon no one will
care.
That Arson has a wonderful team for
discipline and obedience. and that such q
team is the only one that can play sue.
cessful ball.
h Dahlen, Anson's only colt, is a won,
der with the stick He recently made four
hits out Of six chances against the great
Loyett
That Clevelanders are gradually getting
wild over their team. even though they ART
only in sixth place
That the Bostons are playing in great
luck
That individually the Cincinnati team Is
composed of some great players, and it Is
a mystery why they should be at the bot
tom Of the list w. l. HARRIS
~ Could Move the World
If | had something to rest my lever o.,
said Archimedes. Large bodies move
or are moved slowly. But it is no impos
sible or even. difficult task to rendeI
those small bodies. the kidneys
active when they are not so. Don't tn
70 do fhfu 18th ,,n.I;.tol I.LzIs