The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-02-23
By Ted Sullivan.

BY Ted Sullivan.
CHICAGO. Feb. 23.-The two major
leagues-American and Natlonal-are
massing their forces for the season of
1907. Each organization is strength
ening within its own lines, and the
rAce in both of them should be closer
than last season. Baseball as a pas
time and business furnishes nothing
hut surprises. and the unexpected
looms m when matters seem to be
settled in one clubs favor or the other
The result of the world series last Dc
tober in Chicago has driven the tneor-
lists. sophists and phrase makers OF
the game to cover. and baseball
prophet of today is looked upon as a
bore.
The American Leagues race next
season should be the closest and most
exciting in it's history, as two clubs
of that league that finished in the Sec
ond division last year will be stronger
the coming seasOn-namely. the ST
Louis Browns and the Washlngtons.
Connie Mack never tires, and the Atm
letics are liable to be punched with
the leaders down to the last call of the
umpire. | once told Andrew Freedman
who was president of the New York
club, that 1.-The longer a man was in
baseball the less he knew about 1t.
0. P. Caylor, the great baseball writer
and critic. who was in the Office al
the time. grasped the logic of the as
sertion and remarked. "A very wise
saving" 1t was, of course, expressed
in the sense that ball men VINO are
old in the business are used to dis
amendments in the improbable skill
Of the player who is great one. year
and poor another. Well. on the other
hand, the new man in the game thinks
that a player should do one day what
he did another. and this magnate is
like the scholar who after his first
year at school imagines he knows 1t
all and there is nothing more for him
to learn.
Likes the White Sox.
For me to say who will win the
American League championship in
1907 would be presumptuous and SAVIOR
of egotism. The New York Americans
| IN their last three games in Chicago
last wear put up a brand of speedy
| ball that two straight weeks or even
eight days of such work might have
landed them first, but the baseball
thinkers must know that it is the long
stretch of the schedule that counts,
and not the squirt or slump of a team.
l hope | shall not be accused of par
tisanship toward the White SoX when
| state that that band of baseball war
riors. wno broke through all the base
ball barriers and leaped the highest
hurdles in their own league last year
to attain supremacy and VINO after a
slight breathing spell tackled and
/ trimmed the champions of the Nation
al league. does any one think that the
| SoX. with this unparalleled record be-
hind them. which gives them prestige
and courage. willObe anywhere at the
end of next season but in the front
! rank and neck and neck with the
best of them? And Furthermore. let
! the Whites be where they may during
the months of the playing schedule, 1T
will not be the cold, individual, me-
chanical playing skill of the Cleveland
the other clubs will fear but it will be
the combined indOmitable pluck, grit
and team work that brought the Sox
from seventh place last season to first
| in their own league and made them
| conquerers of two baseball worlds.
Those are the attributes of greatness
the other seven clubs will fear and
nothing more.
National League Better Balanced.
The National League teams next
! season look as if they would be a lit
tie better balanced, that is, the second
| division at least. The unexpected
strength in all teams comes from the
second Or third years service of the
young bloods These young men de-
velop every year until they reach their
top speed in the game. This has been
the experience of every ball club in
the last IS years. The Baltimores of
1894 is an example of this assertion.
No one expected that young team
would win out that season against the
we'll seasoned clubs of that 12-club Or
ganization. but they did. But where is
the baseball market today in the min
ors where you can pick up such skill
full kindred and magnetic spirits as
Jennings, McGraw, Joe Kelly and
Keller That brand of baseball play
ers of those days is as scarce at the
present time in the ball market as
white crows or red-headed Italians.
The inevitable baseball route of all
young and ambitious players of high
grade skill when they join the ranks
of the majors is this-they go on year
OF