El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-07-16

New York, July 16.-As q general
thing, about this time. some correct line
can be had each year as to what club
will win the championship, but the
present season has afforded so many
surprises and so startling changes Of
form by the various teams that to pick
the winner of this years gonfalon is
very difficult proposition to tackle
The Cubs, after a poor start, have
come back closer to their old time win
| ming form than any other team. with
the possible exception of the Giants,
and the latter, although they are hold
ing down second place and are cltng1ng
to the skirts of the Cubs with a firm
clutch, still McGraw's men are playing
very erratic ball. They have lost many
games that they looked to have cinched
with a leadpipe certainty, and blow
up" by them is constantly feared by
Gotham fans. Still they have as good
chance to win the pennant as any other
club. Many of the older players, who
have been more or less tied up by the
beastly weather of the spring months
have thawed out nicely and most prom
isingly under the influence of the hot
spell, and they can be depended on TO
keep their stride until the end of the
season.
CUBS Have Best Machine.
The Cubs, without doubt. have the
In fact, they are a far classier aggrega-
! ton than the Giants. but that does not
guarantee them the rag" Their pitch
ers appear to be going back just at
present, with the exception of Three
fingered Brown, and that is a bad
sign, for pitchers should be coming
now instead of retrOgrading-
Brown lost about ten games before
he gained his first brackets, but he is
pitching splendid ball again. But he
cannot hold up the entire pitching de-
partment of the Cubs no more than
Mathewson can for the Giants.
1 am of the opinion that the Giants
are better off for pitchers than the
Cubs and that asset is bound to count
good and strong in the long and pun
ishing race that is ahead.
The Pittsburg Pirates fall from their
high estate is due partly to their pitch
ers falling to make good, but more TO
the surprising tumble from form that
Wagner has shown this year. The big
Dutchman has been pretty near the Pr
rates whole team for ten or a dozen
years, and his failure to come back
this season has thrown the worlds
champions into a ''rut' that 1 can't fig
ure how they can get out Of
The Philies and the Cincinnatis have
played some very gOodAand some very
bad ball this season, but 1 look for the
The championship lays between the
Cubs and the Giants, and it looks to
me to be about an even proposition.
School for I mpires.
Why not establish a school for base
ball umpires?
Surely President Tom Lynch and Ban
Johnson would advocate such an educa-
tional scheme for the betterment Of
umpires and consequent increase in
popularity of the great national game.
Umpires can do as much, if not more,
toward popularizing baseball than a
star player, but the great trouble is
! that the general run of umpires are so
dense that they couldn't appreciate the
fact. They go along antagonizing both
the baseball public and the players as if
that was what they were appointed for
"a sort of preordained right and priv
1 ilege that they refuse to relinquish.
| There have been schools for players.
| but 1 know of no department of base
/ ball that needs so much Improvement
/ as that of umpires.
| These officials require more school
| ing in the finer points of the game
The majority OF them possess little more
| than a mere superficial knowledge of
| what is known inside" baseball. and
as for being polite and Ievel-headed.
! the general run of bali players have
| umpireS beaten to a frazzlc.
J UmpireS of today have failed to ad-
vance at the same pace that the sport