Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-09-17

as O rule, prontaDlo perlOu 10 any OF
these clubs. The Western association for
the first time in two years has been com
PEELED to reduce its circuit from eight
cities to six before its pennant race is end
ed. Had the season ended Sept. l the
break would not have come. In all the 9th
er minor organizations the season will end
more promisingly probably. Toronto has
not favored its club with the support which
it's owners believe it deserved, and they
have therefore sent the team away to finish
the season on the grounds of the other
clubs. Usually such move is poor policy
and is almost as bad in effect as disband-
ment.
But, looking at the whole minor league
field, the September situation is wonder
full to contemplate. Never since baseball
was played were there So many professional
clubs in the field at this season of the year
as there arc now. 1t shows the healthy
state into which tho national game has
settled after many years of fluctuations
and trials.
Some wonderful reversals of form have
been seen during the past month among
the National league teams. The greatest
of ali is that of the Pittsburgs. On the
10th of August Manager Mack's men held
the proud position of second place in the
ponnant race On tho 4th Of September
they had dropped into seventh place, or had
passed into the second division. The team
left homo for their last eastern trip in
fairly good condition. They lost their
first game in Brooklyn, but won the sec
ond day in New York. Then came ten
successive defeats, which l believe is the
National league record for the year.
In this case it was not a series of acct
dents which pulled the team down, but
simply one of those unaccountablo slumps
in which every man on tho nine seems to
have lost his batting eye and his field skill.
Similar periods of inability, though not of
SO long a stretch, We're experienced by the
New Yorks, Brooklyns, Cincinnatis, Phil
adclphias and Bostons earlier in the season.
An eastern newspaper offered $50 prize
to the first reader who should correctly
place the first six clubs of the National
league as they would be found on the
morning of Aug. 81. The contest opened
July II and closed Aug. 10. OF more
than 10000 gucsses sent in one only was
correct and it was blind luck which gave
the winner tho prize. when l state that
on Aug. 10, when the contest closed, the
Pittsburgs were second and the Philadel-
phias were eighth and that 20 days later
when the clubs We're marshaled for the
prize, the Phillies We're third and the Pitts
burgs sixth, it will be seen why l say the
winner in that contest was in blind luck.
As the season Of 1895 closes the many
weak points in the big professional teams
become moro apparent. With the excep-
ton of the two clubs at the head of the
list not one Of the IL is satisfactory in its
makeup The great Bostons, which were
looked upon last spring as second to none
in their pcnnant prospects, are utterly
broken up and demoralized Lately acct
dents to players have had much to do with
the teams i'll success but those accidents
came after internal discussions had first
put the club out of the race. Something
very nearly approaching a feud sprang M
last spring and divided the players of the
nine pretty evenly. Nobody was able to
wipe out that difference in the team, and
now accidents to three of the best PLAYERS
on the nine have put the club in deplora-
BILE condition for the closing of the season.
The New York club has suffered from
lack of discipline, unusual accidents and
weakness ON the infield The Giants have
been a monumental disappointment in
Gotham. But in spite of blasted homes
The enthusiasm of metropolitan rooters
cannot be downed. Thirty nine Thousand
people We're on the Polo ground to see the
games on the four days from Aug. 81 to
Sept. 4, inclusive.
Labor day furnished one more proof of
the unimpeachable honesty and ''square-
ness" of baseball. On that day the New
Yorks and Clcvelands met for two games.
The Clevelands were the dangerous rivals
OF the Baltimores in the fight for the
championship. They alone had a chance
to beat Hanlon's men in the race.
Mark the situation on the morning of
that day. Between the New York and
Baltimore players there exists a feeling al
most of hatred. 1t is a personal enmity
which grew out of the Temple cup series
last October and which eliminated when
sheriff attempted to arrest Captain Davis
during the Giants recent visit to Balti
more. The prosecutor was McGraw, and
Davis escaped legal squabble only by Sc
cretly leaving that city. On the contrary.
Davis and Doyle were formerly members
of the Cleveland team, and there is no per-