Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-21
BY j. ED GRILLO.

BY j. ED GhlLLO.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
CHICAGO, October 21.-At no time this
season. including the exhibition games.
have the Athletics been up against easier
game than the Cubs are proving.
1t is no longer a contest, but a rout.
The lowest minor league team could put
up a better argument than have the
National League champions. Starting
with their pitchers, the entire Cub outfit
seems to be on the down grade There
is no comparison in the two teams when
one sees them in action. The one fast
and active. with batting eyes which
would make most any pitcher tremble,
the other slow, weak hitting. and last,
but not least, giving indications of an
unmistakable decline.
With every game the humiliation in
fiicted on the Cubs has been greater than
the preceding one Yesterday it was
a farce There was nothing about the
work of the National Leaguers to indi-
cate they had won a pennant in a ma
Jor league. They were like so many nov
ices in the hands of real champions, and
they went down to defeat smothered
under an avalanche of hits and runs.
With three victories to their credit
there can of course be but one outcome
to the series. Base ball luck might
possibly give the Cubs victory to-
day. but alas what have they in the
way of pitchers to come back with for
the crucial game?
And how can it be figured that a team
which has shown lamentably wea
against Jack Coombs pitching will be
able to redeem itself against so great an
artist as Bender. the Indian, who is card
ed to pitch the fourth and proba-
bly, final game of the series?
Miner Brown, who on the occasion of
the second game of the series was I'M
mercifully pounded, will probably be sent
In against Bender. Brown does not fig
ure to win. but what else is there Tor
chance to do but work him? He has not
the slightest confidence in Cole nor does
he feel that he can afford to pitch
Richie. so there is nothing left for him
to do but work Brown, or Mcintyre
Reulbach and Pfeister were all used up
yesterday.
That there must be an enormous differ
ence In the pitching in the American and
National League is priven by the wonder
ful stick work the Athletics are doing
in this series. At no time this season
have they pounded the ball as they have
against the Cubs. All the pitchers look
alike to them, while 1t will be remember
ed that during the regular season they
tightly pitched games in which a single
run often decided the victory.
Two years ssgo it seemed positive that
the National League was the stronger of
the two Today conditions are exactly
reversed. and principally because the
Junior league has the greater pitching
strength. The fault with the American
until recently was that it was forced to
rely on lot of old material which was
on the down grade. while the war had
forced the National to go out and dig
up new material which developed. But
these have also grown old and are no
longer at their best while the American
has made progress in the way of deve-
Oping and today is unquestiOnably the
stronger of the two.
1t is a good bet that in a series of
seven games even the Nationals. who fin
ished but seventh. would make a better
showing against the Athletics than have
the Cubs, and if pitted against the Cubs
they would deserve to be the favorites.
Nothing tests a team better than a
worlds series, and the Cubs showing in
dictates that Chicago will have a hard
time upholding it's base ball reputation
in the National League next year unless
the team is entirely rebuilt. With the
Athletics it is different. The nucleus of
the team consists of youngsters just
budding into their prime, and it is sure
to be good for many years yet True,
Davis is no longer a star and that out
field Is not classy, but that 1nfeld ana
those pitchers are wonderful to behold
and incidentally very hard to beat
II Bender should win his game today
Connie Mack will have established the
wonderful record of winning four straight
games in a worlds series with two pitch
ers. both right-handers.
Jack Coombs' work yesterday, consider
ing the fact that he had had but one days
rest since last facing the Cubs, was a re-
markable exhibition. True, he did not
have hard game to pitch after the
third inning, but he showed much better
form than on the occasion of his previous
appearance, and but for an unlucky wild
a run after the second inning.
And II was anything but a good day for
a pitcher to work Pitching in a driz-
zling rain and cold with an arm that un-
doubtedly must have shown the effect of
the strain of working SO often was not an
easy matter, and yet Coombs more than
made good.
We hear much of the Cubs remarkable
infield, and IL may be argued that the alb
sence of Evers made II impossible to show
that department at its best. but Evers
could have played but one position. and
IL was held down about we'll as two
of the other places on that infield The
Athletics infield quartet has proven itself