The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-09-18
HOW IT WAS DONE
Why White Sox Finished in the
Cellar.
Things That Gave Wichita
Pennant Winners.
WENT AFTER PLAYERS.
Kimmel Didn't Haggle About
the Price.
Some of the Changes a Season
Brought Forth.
AFTER PLAYERS.


Joplin and tied the percentages of both
teams at 400. Both teams lost eighty
of the 134 games played.
Wichita won the pennant in the
most closely contested race in the
baseball world this season. No other
league in the county has finished or
has any prospects of having the WIN
ner and tailender but 1913 points apart.
Wichita won because she had a man
ager who knew a ball player when he
saw him and was willing to pay the
price to get him. When Kimmel
heard of a player that was loose or
Of one who was about to be farmed
out he was after him to get him at
any price. He secured Gehring who
has since proved to be the best pitcher
in the league and Bemis, another good
man from the Minneapolis team of the
American Association, Miller from the
st. Joe team of the Western League
at big cost and Holland the captain
and first baseman has been drawing a
monthly stipend that would give some
OF the club managers heart failure.
Upon Fillman'S failure to make good
with the Kansas City club kimmel Sc
cured the heady shortstop when any
other club in the league would have re-
celved him with open arms. After
Tricks desertion from the Seattle club
of the coast deague, Kimmel as usual
was glad to pay $3.50 to secure him
as he is with the possible exception
OF one, the best third baseman in the
league. OLeary, a catcher who bat
ted 1913 last season was also secured
from Minneapolis and Milton, one of
| the star pitchers of last season was
frozen onto before any manager had
thought of him deserving Risley. He
probably got little the worst of it
on the trade of McLear for Bank
head nf cfo n
for McLear's sulking tactics and kim
mel made the trade for the sake of
harmony.
Such managers as these get results
in the long summers race and they
also realize that the winning club
| draws the people. With a. losing team
in Wichita during that towns first
| season of professional baseball the
| crowds would have made life miser-
| able for the club owners and although
| the team was winning right along, d
gang of kickers was knocking on some
| of the members continually. The
Wichita Beacon says that the PLAYERS
all stand for Kimmel and would follow.
| him in a minute if he should come to
Topeka.
Oklahoma finished twenty-six points
behind the leaders and ten points ahead
! of Leavenworth. The sale of Prick to
| the Coast league, that of Halla to Cleve-
| land and the desertion of Hurlburt in
midsummer put that club out of the
10
energy put the club back up in second
place after it had fallen to the second
division.
Armstrong; debut at Leavenworth
was successful in every way except
that he did not win the pennant With
himself behind the bat and either
| Speer or Quiesser in the box the club
presented as strong a front as the
| strongest team in the league. Had he
not suffered a. broken thumb in the hot
test part of the race he surely would
have been a contender for the pennant.
| But his injury put Speer, the best
southpaw in the league, and Ashley,
| both youths at sea, and knocked him
out of at lease second place. He pick
| ed UP a find in WoOley, the lightning
| left fielder who batted over 400 part of
| the season and who is probably the
| fastest man on bases in the league. Al
| though his team was made up of the
most part of caSt-offs with a man in
condition to play ball on the first sack
and a heady third baseman there would
| have been another version Of the pre-
ceding chapter.
| Sedalia, the other club in the first di-
vision, had a good club but they hardly
deserve any better than they received.
| The pitching staff with the exception of
| Cravens was unreliable, Wescott pitch
| ing shutout ball one day and being bat
| ted out of the box the next. Dummy
Curtis suspension also knocked the
club out of a crack pitcher, but he
|
| Leist, Rohn & Co. The club also lacked
batters. Cheek, Perch and Lee falling
to connect with the pill with any reg
ularity.
| Guthrie probably made the fewest
| changes in the personnel of its team
! of any of the clubs but it could not
win. However, there are a few mem
| bers on that team that should graduate
| next season, among them being Center
| Fielder Graves who is yards too fast
| for this league. Henderson and Hickey
are the others.
Joplin finished in sixth position with a
team that probably looked the best on
paper at the start of the season. But
| the suspension of Third BaSeman Pen
dry and the illness of Indian Morris and
the constant injuries of Vanderbilt and
the sale of Fillnan to Kansas City
knocked that club so. far out of the race
that it could not recover in time to
make a showing. They however, picked
| Bayless and Morris should graduate this
season sure. Olson should get out after
next season.
Now comes the hard luck story.
Topeka, which has tried from the start
to win one championship or the other
| chose the other as usual and was beaten
! because they got the decision over
| Wichita in the closing game yesterday.
Last season they were hopelesSly dis
tanced by the Fort Scott Giants who
started the season by losing Il straight
games and finished with 35 games won
out of 124, while the Saints won As out
| of 121, finishing the season with a per-
centage of 372, but this year everything
was different. They always had a
chance and their ambitions were realized
until the Highlander's club was so badly
idfsorganized by injuries that they pick
ed up amateurs in every town and had
pitchers in about three positions of ev-
cry game. Then it was that the Soz
couldn't help but pull out of the hole
only to fall back to have to share It witt
another club. The season was a failure
all around They lost out after all or
the coveted position and now Topeka
| fans can boast of nothing.
Springfield was another failure, hnan-
Icially and otherwise. Picked as a firsi
ess-.-s~.e team at the start. the club Los.