Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-25


will land the Nationals in fifth place.
No team that Washington has had ever
played better ball than the Nationals
are playing right now. McAleer's team is
going along as well as any team in the
race. not even barring the Athletics, al
though there is, of course. big differ
ence In the relative batting strength of
the two.
But the Nationals are playing a good
sort Of base ball. Their work is clean,
their hitting timely and there is an alb
sence of bone plays such as used to char
acterize the work of the teams in years
gone by. What Is more, the players are
ambitious because there is an incentive.
To have a chance to lead the second di-
vision is by far better prospect than
local team has had in recent years.
This fact has an effect on the players.
This thing of being last or near 1t Is de-
pressing; OF that there is no doubt. To
be a tailender makes playing base ball
hardship. while with good position in
prospect the work on the field becomes a
pleasure. Then, too, a winning team
for we dare say that compared with for
gets the better end Of the breaks of luck,
which, of course, is essential
Failure and inability to sacrifice was
very much In evidence on the part OF the
locals yesterday. and as a result the Sox
inning Gessler drew a pass with none out,
but Mcbride. instead of moving him up.
hit. and a double play resulted Unglaub
in the third hit safely to start with. but
was forced by Ainsmith. who hit. Nc
Bride could not sacrifice in the ninth, and
forced Gessler, who led off with hit. and
even Milan failed in the tenth. with Gray
on second and none on. But the spot
where, but for lucky break. the fall
ure to sacrifice would have been most
q
first and second occupied. and none out.
Elberfeld made two futile attempts to lay
the ball down. but failed, and then had to
hit out. Fortunately. his grounder Rugged
feet as a sacrifice. and Ainsmith's hit
made it possible to tie the score.
There was many a hard-hit ball handled
by the Chicago fielders which bounded
just right for them, or the game would
not have gone into extra innings
Mclean, who created the impression Of
being a good hitter here. did not loom up
so we'll against a left-handed pitcher.
striking out twice. But he may overcome
his fault. Ty Cobb was none too good
against southpaws when he first broke in
but today they bother him no more than
right handlers.
In speaking of his feat of catching
three balls from the Washington Monu-
ment yesterday. Billy Sullivan said: 1.-The
trick Is not hard to do II there is no wind
but IL was blowing over there when 1
made the catch, and this made ii diff
cult to judge the ball 1t comes with ter
rifle speed. but is light for all that. I'll
tell you what it's like:
Say II was possible for Walter John
son or Ed Walsh to stand about forty
feet above you and then shoot one of
their fastest balls down at you. That is
about the speed the ball comes at you.
but ii does not hurt your hand IL you get
1t into your mitt properly. I would not
be afraid to try il with finger. glove IL
knew how to handle one Of them ex-
pertly. i always considered the feat COM
paratively, easy, and for that reason was
anxious to try II. 1 have convinced my
self that most any ball player can turn
the trick. and under good conditions l
venture TO say that I can catch eight out
Of ten balls thrown from the Monument :"
Clyde Milan. who seemed much inter-
ested in Sullivan's account of the feat.
expressed a desire to try to make the
catch with a finger glove. though 1t is not
likely that this will be allowed, for there
would be a certain amount of danger at
tached 10 such an attempt and Milan can
not be spared by the Nationals just yet.
II was a busy day for Mcbride and
Zeider at short field. Mcbride had fif-