Omaha daily bee., 1898-07-31
SPORTS OF THE LAST WEEK
Events Of All Sorts Reviewed from the
Advantage Of Hindsight
CINCINNATI STILL MAKING TROUBLE
Reds Flowing Along mt About Six
teen Knots nm Hour, While the
Rest Can Barely Keep I'm
Sight of Them.

~ hNNAAhn
jon in which the Reds persist in maintaining
their lead in the major league pennant race.
Anyway, that is probably the way that sew
eral major league magnates unquestionaoly
look upon It. Buckingham Ewing's. band
insists on keeping way ahead, but there is
an iota of satisfaction in the fact that they
have made no appreciable gain during the
week. They have maintained the same dis
tance between themselves and the Bean
eaters, but have not succeeded In increas-
ing It. On the other hand, they have re-
fused to allow this lead to be cut down.
And there you are.
or course, there are two months and more
OF the season to be played out, but the
race has safely narrowed down to four
observation-disclosures Boston, Cleveland
and Cincinnati. Chicago, the next in the
race at the present time, is too far behind
to be able to pose as a dark horse any more
Some 1870 points and more now separate
them from the leading position in the race.
That is altogether too much OF a handicap.
New York comes next and has not the stun
in it's team to make the necessary squirt
and Pittsburg Is out of 1t altogether.
And OF these three other possibilities be-
sides the Reds, there is but one upon whom
any hope can be placed. Baltimore has poor
support at home; no one seems to give a
tinker's continental whether the Orioles win
out or not. Cleveland never had an aggre-
cation that was a pennant possibility, be-
cause the right spirit does not live in the
Spiders. Tebeau may declare that he has
q team that will win the pennant, but he
never believes it and the men behind him
know this and do not believe it either. A
further obstacle in the way of any PEN
nant possibility in the team lies in the fact
that they are homeless and wanderers.
This leaves the Beaneaters alone as the
rivals of the Reds and they appear to be
in absolutely no condition to overhaul the
leaders. With Hamilton, Stahl and Tenney
all out Of the game, they are in a pretty
bad fix and no amount of patching can re-
place the yawning gap in their ranks. There
is but one chance for the Reds to drop
back; that is in their meeting some of the
hard luck which has burdened some of the
other teams. Baltimore, Chicago, Boston
and New York have at one time or an
other had bands of cripples upon their hands
and 1t would be no more than an evening UP
OF providential fate II the Reds should be
presented with their quota Of hard luck.
The entire race is not as close as it
promised to be in the earlier part of the
season. No more than a month ago but
$50 points separated the leaders and the
tailenders. A gap of 400 points now
stretches between the two. Louisville has
been going upward and so has Philadelphia.
In fact, the latter during the last two weeks
have doomed into first division possibilities.
The Quakers have been playing a great
game since the divorce from Sailing and
are rapidly crawling up on Pittsburg, New
York and Chicago. They cannot hope to be-
come the rivals of the Reds, but they GER
tainly are threatening to land high and dry
in the upper division If they keep up the
gait they have been setting of late.
The advantage that attends a team play
ing on the home grounds has been exem,
plified in the last week by the upward move.
ment in the Western league of Kansas City
and st. Paul. Milwaukee and Columbus
have both fallen backward in the race ant
indianapolis has taken quite a tumble. Wher
the Cincinapolis aggregation started on Its
western trip a week ago they were pretty
nearly sixty points to the good, but thiE
lead has been cut down to less than forty
Yet there seems to be small hope for the
Cowboys and the Saints to overtake tn,
Hoosiers before the trip Is concluded, fol
indianapolis is dallying with an easy thint
Just now in the Millers and has but ont
more foreign team to meet-St. ~Paul-befor
it returns to the HON grounds. Kansa,
City can be expected to give a good accoun
of itself on the next eastern trip, for tn,
championship bee is buzzing in the bon
nets OF the Cowboys, but the Hoosiers hav
a disagreeable habit of taking the big ma
jority Of games in the east and the chance
are that their lead will not be overcome.
I. II. Rogers, a business man of Clevelant
and a manager of a local club, has a ney
and novel idea in base ball. His schem
originated from the fact that it is possibl
for one side in a game to make twenty
seven base hits in a nine inning game with
out counting a run. 1t Is also possible TO
the opposite side to make one hit, a scratcI
home run, and win the game. This, Will
possible, is not probable, but has been ap
proximated. 1t very often happens that tn
club making the largest number OF hits
stealing the most bases and playing tn
better all around game loses by hard lucl
This will not be possible, Mr.. Rogers de
%clnres, II his plan is adopted.
"A base hit should be of the same valu
at all times" says Mr.. Rogers. Imagine
iirst-class batter going to bat time afte
time, making each time a base hit, doubl
or triple, without contributing one iota [
the ultimate success OF his club, becaus,
forsooth, the batters following him cannc
touch the ball. His hit only counts in tn
score, with the present method, provide
there are players on the bases. This
manifestly wrong. II a man can face or
OF the puzzling twirlers of the present da
and place a ball out of the reach of eigl
active athletes in front of him he should NJ
only be entitled to a credit OF a base hi
which helps him individually, but the clu
which pays him a high salary should ais
be entitled to something. When a pitch,
paid a high salary cannot control the ba
sufficiently to put four good ones over II
plate it should cost his club something II
him to fail to do so.
"In other words, the new plan is to coul
one-quarter of a run for each base secure
no matter which base it may be. If a ma
makes a base hit and reaches first base, tn
gives him one-quarter; II then he stea
second he is credited with another quartz
making one-half; II he can steal third h
club Is credited with three-quarters of
run. and they are entitled to it. With II
wonderful throwing and expert feldiI
which can be seen in any league game now
aeles I Owrtaxs