Waterbury Democrat., 1902-08-04
BASE BALL NENS.
Fight For the Pennant Has Nar-
 rowed Down to the Leaders.

rowed Down to the Leaders. New Haven and Springfield Seem to
 Have the Call for the Flag Water
 bury Stands Second So Far For
 Long Hitting Waterbury Lost Last
 Week in Fielding and Batting We
 Have Dropped to Sixth in Fielding
 and Third in Batting-Results of
 Games Saturday.
 New Haven, August 4.-Unless Bridgeport and New London develop unexpected possibilities in strength, or New Haven and Springfield fin uR- looked for slump in playing, the pen nant race in the Connecticut baseball league has by the results of the last week been narrowed down to the two present leaders. The rapid advance of Springfield, coupled with the losses sustained. by the Bridgeports, have virtually taken the latter out of tho riirni1Ig. New Haven was peculiar ly unfortunate in having two games with the weaker clubs postponed by rain during the week, while it was compelled to play the games with it's closest competitors on foreign grounds. SIrlngfeld's recocd however, shows fous more games played than New Hayen's. and brings iG ED to within six points of the leaders. Predictions on the pennant chances are not al- ways to be relied upon at this stage of the season, for any club is likely to meet with misfortune in the loss of players services or become crip- pied in a dozen other ways but as- suming that the clubs will be able to play in the same form as they have shown during the heart of the season, Bridgeport and New London do not now look like pennant possibilities. Provided the clubs shall be able to play off all their postponed games, New Haven will have Al and Springfield S7 yet to play. If both win a bare majority of them they would close the season tied at 64 games won and AS lost In order to arrive at this stand- ing, Bridgeport would have to win 24 out of it's 39, and New London 26 out of it's 40, a record that neither club has attained this season. Should New Haven and Springfield win in the same ratio as during the last six weeks, the final standing would be: New Haven 10. won, 42 lost, percentage .625; Springfield 67 won, 45 lost, per- centage .595. But Springfield has shown materially increased strength during the past two weeks and New Haven will have to maintain it's rec ord of winning four out of six games for the remainder of the season in or der to keep at the top.
 In the long hitting record by teams, Norwich up to August 1 had made the greatest number of extra bases, 190. Waterbury was close second with 1S6; Springfield had ITO, New Haven 164, Meriden 155, New London 152, Bridgeport 126, and Hartford TIT.
 In team batting for the week Spring field gained 2 points. Hartford 2, and New Haven 1 point; Meriden lost 6, Bridgeport 3, New London and Water bury 2 each. and Norwich point. In fielding Hartford advanced 2 points, Bridgeport, Springfield and New Ha- ven 8 point each; Waterbury lost 2, New London and Waterbury a point each. The averages are as follows:
 BATHING.
 1soA H1Sh =. ssss- = ts .ss sse q = ss ss s'<sOA New Haven ........ ............255 Waterbury ... ..254 Springfield ........ ...... .......254 Hartford ..251 Meriden .... ... .245 New London .. ..241 Bridgeport ..... .241
 FIELDING.
 Bridgeport ..-....... s...... .....939. Meriden .......929 NorWlen ........s :.--........ .9zo HartIorQ s........- .......s..-.. ..0zS Springfield ...... .....E ..925 waterbury ........ --923 New Haven .... ... ......91S New London ........9l1
 Springfield went through the week without the loss of any of it's six games played; New Haven and New London broke even on their four games, Meriden and Hartford had an even break on their six games, Bridge port lost four out of six, Norwich and Waterbury each three out of four. The standing to date is as follows:
 Meriden, Aug 4-The Meriden's took revenge on the Harrington out fit from Waterbury at Hanover park grounds Saturday afternoon III the presence of nearly 1000 people, by the. score of 6 to 4. Meriden is now in sixth place.
 For the first three innings both teams gave a very ragged exhibition. Tn those innings six of the eight errors registered during the game were made and eight of the ten runs went over the plate.
 For Waterbury Captain Kiernan at short played the star game. Slater at the initial sack also did we'll, as did Cavanaugh behind the bat
 Burke got the biggest hit of the game. to left center for two bases, but was closely followed by McAndrews, who put the leather over Walsh's head in center. The score:
 w. l.. PC. New Haven ....43 28 .606 SnringfieId ...45 30 500 Hridgeport 40 B 548 New I.ondon .38 34 .52S Norwich .....35 3S .479 Neriden Al .43S Hartford ..31 40 .437 rNfx4