The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-10-01
Right off the Bat.
HANLON and his Brooklyn Supe'

n still remain in the National league
a lead. There is still a chance Of
Clarke and his men from Pittsburg
| overtaking them and the rooters in the
cities all over the circuit are industr
| ously whOoping 'er up for the hard
| working Pirates.
The Philadelphias now seem fairly
sure of third place. The Giants have
| been hard on the heels of Cincinnati
all week and may yet pull out of
| last place. Only Il little more than
two weeks of National League base
| ball now remains, but numerous
| changes may yet occur. New York
has an excellent chance to make sixth
place and Pittsburg may pull down
the lofty Brooklynites from their ex-
| allied position, if the fates are kind.
new era seems to be dawning in
base ball and the days of the slug
ging hitter seem doomed. The Dan
Brouthers, Dave Orr, "over-the-fence"
hitters seem to have shot their
bolt, and it is the so-called scien-
tific hitter who can beat out infield hits,
who is in demand. The difference in
value of the two classes of players is
strongly eXemplified by contrast of
the Brooklyn and Philadelphia teams,
first and third in the race. With the
Phillies there are the ever-mighty
Delehanty, the giant Lajoie, the ter
rife hitting Flick, hardy Mcfarland,
the strong-htting catcher, and VOL
verton, all of whom belong to the class
of "sluggers.' Even among the pit
chers, there is mighty man with the
stick, for AL Orth is the sort OF twirler
who frequently drives the ball over
the Quaker wall. Thomas is the only
man on the team who can be really
said to use his brain to any extent,
! while at the plate, and as result,
while his batting average does not as
sumo giant proportions beside that of
Del" or Larry" he makes more runs
than any man on the team. On the
Brooklyn nine, Joe Kelley and Lave
Cross are the only men who belong to
the long-hitting aggregation, and yet
up to recently, the Superbas have been
jogging away easily with the National
League pennant, with no opponent
anywhere near them. 1t is the clever
hitters, like Hughey Jennings, Billy
Keeler Fielder Jones and DAILY, who
are successful in the long run, and
Brooklyn. with that quartette of dia-
mond scientists, has maintained its
the Pittsburg team, which has worked
it's way up steadily during the season
and is now crowding Brooklyn hard
for the honors. Honus Wagner and
Jimmy Williams are the only members
of the home-run. three-bagger, fra
ternity on the team, and the rest of
the players from Captain Fred Clarke
to fast little Ritchey, are of the mod
ern school of batsmen. And then or
one more illustration, behold the New
York tail-enders. Elmer Smith, Sell
bach, Davis, Van Haltren, Doyle and
Hickman. all sluggers of note. and yet
the Giants are at the foot of the lad
der. All of the above quin-
tette can bang the leather outside of
the lot and young Hickman, in par
ticular, Is an adept at this style of
hitting. He is one of the big league
leaders in "heim laufs" and "drei
swats," and yet see tine ignominous
position in which his Seam at present
rests.
This year has been free from
any great batting feats and \
Beaumont's record of twelve bases
for last year has not yet
been equalled.N In 1899 the Pittsburg
center fielder drove out three triples,
n double and single, against Philadei-
phia. Three times this year eleven
bases has been the total reached by q
player. Both Flick and Lajoie have
driven out two homers ard a triple in
one game and Wolverton, In a game
against Pittsburg, gathered in bunch
of three triples and two singles. Ed.
Delehanty's great feat of four homers
and single, made few years ago
against Adonis Terry, of Chicago, does
not seem to be in any imminent danger
of being equalled.
Tom Loftus has signed Pitcher Ea-
son, of Cortland, for his Chicago team.
Eason began the season of 1900 with
Elmira, and pitched the opening game
In this city. LOTUS signed him at
the recommendation of Bradley, who
Is an eX-New York State Lacquer and
has big opinion of the youngsters
twlrling ability.
Bradley, of Chicago. is one of the |
crack all-around play ers of the Ma
tional League. All through the sea-
son he has been doing grand work at
third base, and after Strang was signed |
and proved such a star third baseman,
Brad was put on first to take the place |
of CANCEL. retired on account of in
juries. The erstwhile third baseman Is