The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-31
PAST YEAR A SUCCESSFUL
 ONE IN THE WAY OF SPORTS
By WALTER MARcHAND

New York. December S0.-While the year 1911 has not been a phenomenal year in sports in the way of sensational per formances it has in all lines except horse racing been a successful one.
 Tn baseball, athletics, boxing, on track and field. and in the water, great per forn1ances were recorded and more suc- cessful seasons were experienced than ever before.
 New York was especially a sport centre in 1911. The Giants won the National League baseball title, and in the result ant worlds championship series record crowds and records sums were reached.
 While no titles changed hands among the boxers this year the game was bene- fitted by liberal legislation and it flour ished as a result. The Frawley law in New York paved the way for many very excellent bouts
 The so called white hope" crop bloomed and multiplied, withered and died and then sprang into blossom and bloomed again. The year will die out leaving two buds on the white hope" tree. These are Al Palzer and Carl Morris. But Carl has been a bud so long that it is prob able he will never become full blown.
 Baseball is undoubtedly the great na- tional sport. The main features of the season of 1911 are too well known to re- auire repetition, but there are some facts and figures which are worth mention.
 Following are the attendance figures for the two big leagues during 1911:
 National--Chicago 1906. New York 9s5,- 6oa. St. Louis S20, ,0e0, Boston 701 240, Pitts burg s90o7O. Philadelphia SIS, ,140, Brooklyn 5s0. 400. Cincinnati 5S0, ,12o; total 5,S00,12S
 American-Philadelphi 61S,160, New York COP, ,51o, Chicago 502, 1S0, Boston 498,- 72O Detroit 4S0,070, Cleveland 460,000, St Louis 42O,720, Washington 3S0o0; total 3,962, 40.
 No National league pitcher, during the 1911 campaign, pitched a no hit game. Stelle of Pittsburg came within one man of it. On August 26 he retired 26 men before a hit was made. There were 10 no pitched r two hit games, as against 1a in 1910, and 2S three hit games, as against 3S in 1910.
 During the 1911 season there were also fewer shut out games than in sev- eral preceding seasons. The National league shuteut record for year is 163 games, made In 1908. As against this there were OulJ Siiul Oul 6diilto in 1911.
 During the 1911 season 15 or more hits in a game were made in "A con- tests. as against 39 such games in 1910. The highest figure for one game was 23 hits, made by Cincinnati off Pitchers Ferguson, Curtis and Parsons of Bos- ton on June 4. Three times 21 hits were made by one team. Nineteen hits in game were made five times. There j,, xxyfi oh fS made; IA games in which IT hits were made; 10 games in which 16 hits were made and 34 games in which 15 hits were made.
 Cincinnati carried off the National leagues high run mark for 1911 with 26 tallies registered against Boston in a nine inning game. There were many more high scores in the 1911 season than in other recent years. In 4S games one team scored 12 runs or better. There were only 28 such games in 1910. Three times last year a total of 29 runs were made by both teams in a game.
 Fifteen tie games were played during g the 1911 season as against IT in 1910. The National league record for long games is 20 innings, June 3, 1892.
 During the American leagues sea son two no hit games were pitched, one by Joe Wood at Boston against St Louis on July 20, and one by Ed Walsh of Chicago against Boston. Au- gust 27. Twelve one hit games were pitched. The number of shut out games was greatly reduced. The league record for a season is 145 shut outs, whereas during 1911 there were only so shut outs
 In 1911 American league batsmen scored more hits and runs than in any preceding season. During the past season there were 90 games in which one team made 15 or more hits, as against 59 such games in 1910. The high water mark was 21 hits made twice-by Washington and St Louis. Nineteen hits by one team in a game were made seven times; IS hits seven times; r hits 21 times: 16 hits IS times, and 15 hits 29 times.
 The American league record for slug ging in game is 25 hits made in 1908 by Detroit against the Athletics.
 Coincident with the increased batting was the far greater number of runs scored. In 1910 there were only IT games in this league in which one team -~made a dozen or more runs In 1911 there were AZ games in which 12 or more runs were piled up on one side. The highest total was 20, made by De- troit and Cleveland. Ga
 During the 1911 season there were only four tie games.
 The American league record for the longest game is A innings, played September l, 1906, Philadelphia l. Bos- ton l.
 Not worlds championship changed hands among the boxers in the season of 1911. This was remarkable. inasmuch as there was action galore. with more bat ties fought than in any other year.
 At the close of the year, Jack Johnson still is the heavyweight champion. Ad Wolgast, lightweight champion. Abe At tell, featherweigllt champion, and Johnny Coulon, the bantamweight champion The middleweight and welterweight titles were not fought for. The death of Stan ley Ketchel left the middweight cham- pionship open, which has been claimed by many. Although Mike Gibbons is cred 1ted with being the welterweght cham pion, he did not fight for the tite
 The season was remarkable not only for the large nmber of fights that took place, but from the fact that at least two of the