Evening star., 1907-11-17
LUCK PLAYS A BIC
PART IN BASE BALL
But the Winning Team Gener-
ally Seems to Get the
Good Fortune.
BY Umpire Billy Evans.

Dame Fortune plays prominent part
in all branches Of sport and the great
national game Of base ball is no exCep-
ton. A pennant winner must have good
fielders. hitters. base runners and pitchers.
1t must play inside ball and grasp every
opportunity offered. Yet to be real sue
cessful luck must break in its favor.
The Detroit team. in the American
League and the Cubs, in the National,
richly deserved the honors they won. The
Detroit team played aggressive, heady
ball and with the ma gne tic Jennings
leader pulled many a game out Of the fire
after it seemed hopelessly lost The team
never knew when it was beaten. for Jen-
uings had infused his fighting spirit into
every member Of the club The champion
Cubs appeared to have il on the other
clubs in the National and won in much
easier fashion than did the Tigers. Yet
the element of luck figured in many of the
victories Won by these two teams. as well
as by the other clubs. 1t seems one of the
traditions OF base ball that luck always
breaks with a winner.
One often hears the remark The Tigers
were lucky No one will question the
statement, hut with the luck the Tigers
played grand ball. When the White Sox
won the pennant the same cry was raised
their full share of luck in 1906 but luck
didn't win the world series entirely. The
White SoX played grand ball behind Sd
perb catching and pitching. The uncer-
I-tainty of base ball makes 1t the popular
sport of the aga and it's the great ele-
ment of luck that creates the uncertainty.
Every fan can readily recall some game
that he has seen lost by wild heave that
bounced into the stand, weird play by
some player. due to failure to think, or ii
An a bad hound
Throws to the Bleachers.
Detroit was fortunate enough to win
quite a number of games at home last
year due to balls thrown into the first
base bleachers. Mighty few were lost
| over the same route. | recall two games
| in particular that caused great joy in the
| camp of Jennings and deep gloom in the
| ranks OF the enemy. Connie Mack and
! Joe Cantllon were the two magnatas to
! go down to defeat over the f1uke route
! The beachers in Detroit only very
short distance back of first base. On anv
| ball thrown into the bleachers the bas,.
runners are allowed to complete the cir
| cult
! When the Athletics and Detroits met at
| The latters home on the second invasion
/ of the eastern teams only a few points
/ s-paTated the two clubs in the battle for
third place. The series was one of three
games and to the team winning two of
them would fall The honor of holding the
coveted third pace. Detroit took the rirst
game because Jimmy Dygert was unable
TO control his splitter. 1t was Waddel ver-
sus Donovan in the second game which
was played on Saturday before a big
crowd. If Detroit won it meant third
place.
Connie Mack had brought Rube in early
from fishing trip at Orchard lake The
big fellow was in great form and had the
+ Tigers at his mercy. Only three hits were
| made off him in the first seven innings
and he had famed ten men. Two runs
! had been presented 20 the Tigers on er-
/ rors by Powers and Nichols. Donovan
/ had also been pitching fine ball. and the
/ score stood 3 to when Detroit came in
! for the last half Of the eighth The first
/ two men were easy, but the third batter
! beat out an infleld hit. With a man on
| first Rossman hit slow bounder to
| Nichols, who obligingly threw the ball