The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1911-12-25
Giants Speedon Bases
Revelation TO CubanS
Matte Says Players Are Weak on Curve Pitch
ng-McGraw's Men Steal 20 Bases
in Nine Games.
Special to The Washington Herald.

Special to The Washington Herald
New York. Dec 24.-Almost as many
tears have flowed from Cuban eyes the
past couple of days as when Gen.
Weyler was boosted out of his job and
shooed back to the ancestral bungalow
in Spain, or wherever it is the Weyler
homestead is located.
The Giants were met with brass
bands and most of the standing army
upon their arrival, but it is not re-
lated that the islanders flew to arms
to prevent their departure after the
Almendares had been beaten to
in the twelfth and last game of the
series.
Mathewson returned from Cuba We'd
nesday laden with fruit and few
relics. The Giants pitcher says Cuba
will in a few years take her place
among the leaders in baseball.
They are learning very fast down
there" said Matty. Even now they
can beat a lot of our teams.
when the Cubans learn how to his
curve pitching they will be as great In
baseball as any of our best men.
They have wonderfully strong arms
and can throw as straight as any or
US. When they let fly, the ball surely
does steam across the diamond, and
it is mighty dangerous to take any
liberties with the outfielders once they
get their hands on the ball. Their
fielding improves with every game.
They seem to have been given the
impression that successful pitching Is
all speed, and probably devote all their
time to practicing hitting against
speed.
81 worked every kind of curve on
them and had them guessing. The
change of pace also was a puzzle to
them. could get them on this nearly
every time.
They attract record crowds, which
proves how popular the game is. Many
of the natives cannot talk or under
stand our language, but they know
every point of the game.
You ought to hear them growl
when the umpire makes a mistake.
This fellow Mendez Is great
pitcher. but his color bars him in this
country"
Cubans Shown Up.
McGraw's campaigners, representing
perhaps two-thirds of the real strength
of the second best team in the States,
consistently walloped the choicest out
fits the Cuban could pit against them
For the time being, at least, Cuban
hopes of recognition as contenders Tor
the baseball championship of the uni
verse are badly shattered, not to say
completely wrecked.
The successes achieved by the Giants
surprised the islanders more than
leaguers and critics who have seen the
Cubans in action. Cubans are natur-
ally good balN players. but they have
never been led and drilled by compe-
tent managers. and conditions are such
that the professional game does not
attract as many recruits as 1t should.
Now that the system has been shown
I'D by the only American team that
ever took it's Cuban trip seriously, 1t
is likely there will be changes that
will make 1t harder for the Giants to
win next year-if the experiment IS
repeated-but at present any American
or National League club, with the pos
sfble exception of the st. Louis Browns,
would figure logical faVorite over the
Cubans.
A BIT of Speed. :
With the Giants it was only a ques-
ton of getting caught up with their
regular game, or something like 1t.
Just as soon as McGraw had made his
athletes understand that it was strictly
a business, not a JOY trip, the disparity
between the American and Cuban
games was made glaringly apparent.
ElR1I new OTh NlClOl lCS III lhO AdSl
nine games played were enough to
convince even the islanders that no
outsiders need apply for share of the
worlds series for several years to
come.
Most other big league clubs that
have played in Cuba have been out
pointed not only in hitting, fielding,
and run scoring, but in base running
as we'll. In a climate where charley
I'm
ball player is usually an extremely
shifty proposition.
Complete records of only nine of the
twelve games played have been re-
ceived in New York, but as the Giants
won two of the last three 1t Is safe to
take the preceding nine as indicating
the probable edge on the entire series.
In these nine games the Giants stole
twenty-nine bases, as compared with
eighteen pilfered by the natives. Nc
Graw's speed wonders grabbed eleven
sacks, to which only their ability en-
titled them, in the ninth game alone.
Most of the twenty-nine, however,
were picked up in the five games in
which the Havana Paks furnished the
opposition.
DonIin Hit .353.
Gonzales, the Almendares' catcher.
held the Americans to six steals in
four games. He is by far the greatest
backstop the island has. ever produced,
and but for his color would probably
be on the pay roll of an American or
National league club. He has been
variously nicknamed The Streak"
THE Demon" and half dozen other
things.
Had all the Giants been hitting up
to National League form, it is alto
gether likely that they would have
stolen forty bases. Devore, Herzog.
Wilson, Hartley, Crandall. Matty, and
Paulette, however, were far below par
in the first six games, and found 1t
too hard to get on to take many
chances In the base-running line
Larry Doyle, Mike Donlin, Beals
Becker, Arthur Devlin, and Arthur
Fletcher hit hard all the way. Doyle
missed his hit only twice, going
through his second and eighth games
without connecting, while Donlin's only
failure was registered in the fourth
engagement, when Mendez set him
down without a safety in two times
at bat. Mike hit something like 1853
for the nine games. leading his team
with a bit to spare.
Doyle Best on Bases.