Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-08-06
VIRGINIA LEAGUERS
Clubs Are Now on the Home
Stretch.
FINAL GAMES WILL BE HOT
Petersburg, Most Formidable Team
for Pennant, With Warm Fight
for Second Place.
FINAL GAMES WILL BE HOT
Special Dispatc to Tho Star.

Special Dispatch TO Tho Star.
LYNCHBURG, Va. August 5.-The
clubs of the Virginia League are now en-
tering the home stretch, for less than a
month of the playing season remains. for
the curtain drops September 6. and the
clubs are so close that it is impossible to
forecast who will be the winner. Indeed,
while it is hardly probable for the Dan
vile Red Sox to take the championship
again. it is not possible. Three weeks
ago the champions were considered out
of hailing distance, but now they are in
striking distance of the top. for they are
only ten games behind the leaders.
During the month Of July Lynchburg
made the best showing in the race and
Roanoke the worst, but toward the end
of the month Roanoke began to win and
Lynchburg to lose, each team showing a
reversal of work. Norfolk managed to
about maintain the standing the month
was started with, but Petersburg made a
slight gain, while Richmond, apparently
dropped out of the race.
The record of the clubs in July was as
follows:
hyneh5urs I 10 $40 Petersbu.s. 1911 sts
Danviile- 10 10 .Sn Richmond. 10 ~ $50
Norfolk. 49,. IA IL $50 Roanoke. % 41
On form displayed during the season
Norfolk, Portsmouth and Lynchburg ap-
pear to be the best teams, but Lynchburg
has developed batting slump in the past
ten days. while Danville and Roanoke
have come strong. Petersburg is gener-
ally regarded as the most formidable team
for the rag, with a hot fight between
Lynchburg, Norfolk and Roanoke
for second place. Unless Richmond
can get better results that team will
wind up last. and Danville will finish
fourth or better
There is little doubt but the finish will
be even more exciting than the race has
been thus far, and the team that has the
best break Of luck with its men will be
the one to win out.
Should Lynchburg come back to the
form displayed during the first twenty
five games of July the Shoemakers will
be in the thickest of the fray. but they
will have the Petersburg crowd, stronger
than ever to combat, and the Buschites
are displaying that do-or-die spirit that
will make it hard for them to be stopped.
Norfolk has made a hard fight, but the
TarS are not as strong as they were
month ago. and with three of the other
teams much stronger, the Tars will live
hard from now until the close of the sea-
son, especially as it is true that all of the
teams are putting their best efforts forth
to down the Tars.
Danville has signed and will give
trial to Pitcher Jackson of Leesburg. who
was given trial by Richmond which
team let him go because of his mex
perience. Jackson ought to make the
league now.
The Petersburg team is making an eff
fort to buy Baker, the clever infielder of
the Richmond team, Baltimore lad, who
has been playing great game for the
Colts. 1t is not known whether the deal
can be pulled off by the Cockade city
people or not.
Jack Law, the Norfolk first baseman,
has just completed his second suspension
during this season for umpire batting, the
suspension at the time it was made being
an indefinite one. Several of the Nor
folk players, feeling that the punishment
was a bit severe on Law, threatened to
jump the team, but the veteran prevailed
upon them to stick to the team. This,
no doubt, influenced President Williams
to make the punishment lighter than he
originally intended, and Law is now back
in harness again.
Law is not the worst offender in the
league in this respect by any means, but
he seems to have gotten the worst of it.
1t is probable that he deserved all that
has been melted out to him, but there
are some others almost as bad and who
seem to know just how far to go to keep
the same time make life as miserable for
them as possible without having to suf-
fer for it themselves.
Joe Murden. a hard-hitting outfelder
of the defunct Portsmouth team, is now
with the Norfolk Tars. He bungled up
two plays in his first game. He was a
hard hitter in the Tidewater. >
One of the best evidences of the stabil-
ity of the Virginia League lies in the
fact that the circuit this year is paying
debts incurred last season. when the
league had to carry the defunct Ports
mouth team for month at a dead loss
of several thousand dollars.
The Lynchburg team is arranging for
a transforming trip under the direction
of Manager Stocksdale after the close
of the season, and 1t is expected that
games will be arranged in Washington,
Baltimore. Hagerstown and Frederick,
Md, and probably at Martinsburg, W.
Va; Brunswick, Md. and probably.