Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-21
MAJOR AND MINOR
LEAGUE DOPE
Easier to Pick Pennant Winner
in the Big Show Than in
the "BuSheS."

It's a good deal easier to place the gooG
old dope on a big show team than upor
one in the minor league family. No,
that the dope always pans out properly
in the majors, but at least the prophet
has fighting chance for his tip and a
better-than-even break to land some
where close to the money
But down in the minors the dope Is
only the one best guess, and that about
let's it out.
team that wins the pennant one
season In the majors Is fairly certain
TO either repeat or at least stick to the
running the next. Either the entire
team Is returned or the one or two weak
spots shown are plugged up with prom
Using debutants or by trades that bring
IN hrst-class actors from other clubs
In the last nine seasons of the National
race P1ttsburg, New York and Chicago
each COPIED three years in succession
and as rule these three clubs have
always been in the thick of the run
ming. You can bank largely, for ex-
ample, on the 1909 lineup from wha,
the 1908 bunch cut loose as the bulk OF
the payroll will he the same
But the minors come in only as a tall
guess. The club that slips over a pen
nant winner one season is just as likely
10 hnish seventh as first the next. 1t is
generally TO minor league pennant win
ners that big league scouts are sent,
and here the harvest of budding talent
is always larger than from d second di-
vision club
If Bill Smith had been able to hold
ms 1901 club there isn't any great doubt
as TO where the 1908 banner would have
finally come. But when the dragnet re-
moved Smith. Paskert, Spade Sweeney
and Leller the flag machine was disman-
tied and there was nothing TO do but
take "a chance on filling star roles with
experiments who might or might not
make good.
From his 1908 pennant- winning roster
Bill Bernhard loses McElveen, Daubert,
Hunter and possibly Sitton-uuite a
chunk to be lifted from one lineup. but
not enough to wreck his outlook Even
at that, to lift cracking good first
baseman and third baseman from a ball
club is something of Wallop, and there
isn't any forecasting the situation until
their successors are tried under fire.
AS a general proposition. you can figure
that a tail-ender I'm the big show has q
long, hard grind ahead through many
seasons 10 come before the first division
is reached-much less the top. A club In
the eighth place one year figures on land
ing in sixth place-maybe-the next or
simply climbing out Of the rut.
Last season in Dixie the club that COP
ped the cellar championship in 1907
bounded from the bottom to the top
covering seven runs Of the pennant ladder
from April to September. In the big
show this jump would probably have alb
sorbed about eight years Of terrific ex-
pense. amending worry and the hardest
sort of work. with package of good luck
linked on.
In the National League, Boston. ST.
Louis, Cincinnati and Brooklyn haven't
been able to emerge from the second d.
vision for the last five years. during which
epoch the Cincinnati club, especially, has
paid out more coin and tried out more
managers and ball players than any other
club in history-with the possible excep-
ton of the Giants, fighting to crawl into
select society several seasons back.
The eight American League Clubs are
better balanced, but even here Washing
ton has never been able to take the hur-
dies, and after the Boston champs hit the
chutes three years ago they have been
floundering badly ever since in an effort
to regain a small portion of their lost
ground.
All of which tends to make the fight
more interesting in the minors than the
majors. from one viewpoint, at least. The
minor league bug can. forget the tail
ender of one season and look forward to
pennant winner or first-divison club the
next. In the big show the bug in a tall
end township knows that. barring an
earthquake. the stuff is off for a long
run Of weary-campaigns to come.