Los Angeles herald., 1910-12-15
ATHLETICS HAVE
BRIGHT PROSPECT
Connie MaCk's Diamond Aggre-
cation Not Yet in Top Form
and Speed

NEW YORK, Dec. 13.-A champion
ship baseball team is not built in a
day, and the Philadelphia Athletics are
apt to hold the title until they reach
the very top of their perfection, and
some younger team develops strength
enough to climb the championship hill
and push the White Elephants over the
ridge Once a club reaches it's highest
degree of efficiency all attempts to re-
main stationary are vain, and retro
gression follows.
The Athletics have not even yet
reached their top speed. Collins, Bar
~, Oldring, Thomas, Lapp, Baker
Strunk and Livingston may all be eX-
pected to play faster ball during the
next two years than they did last sea-
son. Bender, Coombs, Plank and Nor
gan can be relied upon to decrease the
batting averages of opposing teams
Murphy and Davis are still two of the
best players in the game, while Lord
and Hartsel are still fast.
Perhaps the one greatest asset of the
White Elephants is their manager
Connie Mack. His judgment, his knowl-
edge of the game, and skill in devel-
oping players are all unsurpassed. Ii
is difficult to see how next year, al
least, any team can be developed suf-
ficiently to stop the machine which
Mack has set IN motion.
Players outlive their usefulness In
time, and while one weak spot In the
nine may be patched up, soon four ol
five appear. That means going back
to the beginning and building up a new
championship aggregation.
RECORDS SUPPORT THEORY
To prove this it is only necessary tc
open again the history of the game and
go over the records. In 1894 Hanlon
McGraw, Jennings and Robinson put
together the Baltimore machine, which
won for four consecutive years. The
next two seasons Frank Selee took the
title with the Boston club. In 1899 anC
1906 Hanlon led the Brooklyn team tc
victory. The three following seasons
saw Pittsburg triumph under the lead
ership of Fred Clarke, who is still il
command.
McGraw. with a pitching staff com
posed of Mathewson, Wiltse, Ames, Nc
Ginnity and Taylor, brought the cham
pionship to New York in 1904 and 1905
Then Frank Chance perfected the Chi
cago team. which was champion fol
three straight seasons and held the
worlds title in 1907 and 1908. In the
meantime Jennings had won the Amer
lean league championship twice witt
f1iU Detroit Tigers, but never could
1QRe the worlds series from the repre-
tentative of the older league.
The reason was that while Jennings
had built up club that would fight al
the way, he never had a perfect team
There was always a weak spot or TIVE
for his opponents to break through.
In 1909 the great Chicago machine
had begun to be less efficient and wal
forced to leave to Pittsburg the de
feat of Detroit, which had finished frs
in their organization for the third time
This season the Cubs managed to win
their league title again, but the team
which had won the name of "the great
est baseball machine the game eve
produced" had gone down hill fast
Brown and overall were no longer ter
rors to opposing batsmen. TIL, .l
who for years had been the idc 4 t1
Chicago fans, was almost a 0g aatl
figure His experience and L C.u
ming still remained, but he rad l.#
strength and stamina. Chance iiEo
that he must reorganize his te n.
start again
1t is probable that next sd 1.
Younger man will replace Harr, loiu
feldt at third base, and perhap ohm
nv Evers may not be able to CO. .aC
ond with his old-time ability. l mag
be that Sheekard will have to
his place to some youngster as WI.
lSnown and Archer viii probably 0C fr
chief baekstop.