El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-08-12
Monte Lines Them ALI Up
and Decides in Favor of
Tiger Catcher.
(By Monte).


New York, N T. Aug 12-There
are catchers and catchers. but there
seems to be no such thing as "the best
catcher'-at least not just at present
Rather there is one-of course there
is q "best'-but nobody can place his
finger on him and say with truthful
certainty: There he is
Almost daily we hear Of somebody
saying that such and such a man is the
classiest thing in backsteps. Such per-
sons don't know what they're talking
about But they think they do and
they have their reasons for thinking
so: they spin fabric Of sophistry.
which they call logic dealing out the
facts that exist and supplying from
their own fertile imagination those
that do not exist. The whole thing is
a matter of opinion, the same as every
comparison of this sort.
Seven Top Notchers.
There is one fact, however, that i'm
presses itself on every fan who is nom
partisan in temperament That is the
supremacy of the National league in
the receiving department. The senior
organization boasts no less than seven
catchers who are topnotchers in every
sense of the word. Enumerate them:
Johnny King, Roger Bresnahan, Geo.
Gibson, Chief Meyers, Larry Mclean,
Red Doom, Jimmy Archer. In other
words, every club in the league has a
first caliber receiver excepting Brook
lyn- The Dodgers have a man who,
strictly as a catcher, compares favor
ably with any, but as a batter or
baserunner he is not worth his salt.
That is Bill Bergen. Bill is a wonder
behind the plate, but heaven help the
team that has to send him to bat in
NJ
are the exact antithesis of Bergen in
this respect, as their batting averages
attest And they are all pastmasters
at handling the big mitt, Combining
the versatile ability, each individual
one of them is the equal of any catcher
in the rival organization.
The American Bunch.
AS against this array, the American
league offers Charley Street, Ira
Thomas, Ed Sweeney, Ted Easterly
Jimmy Stevens, Billy Sullivan, Bill
Carrigan and Oscar Stanage All good
men: otherwise they wouldn't be big
leaguers. But, where do you find a
star in the whole bunch? Home team
partisans will pick out Street, Thorn
as or Sweeney and the man will be
1auded as the greatest in the business.
If the fan will carefully analyze his
man and weigh him part by part with
the cracks of the National league he
will realize that there is hardly a
team in the Lynch organization that
cannot put forward better man.
During the last few weeks I have
asked every club manager-National
and American-for his opinion as to
the truth of that broad assertion.
Without exception the American
league mogu1s refused to discuss the
matter, saying there was no way of
deciding it Several National league
leaders were willing to talk lucidly on
the subject. They declared their as
ISOLATION far superior to the rival in |
the catching department.
The taciturnity of the American |
leaguers on the general subject serves |
as a verdict that is as near to final as |
could be desired.
Promising catchers is a different |
matter. In this line the American |
seems to have a little the better of |
the argument With the youngsters
like Stanage and Easterly showing the |
form they are there is good ground |
for the prognostication that one Of /
the pair will surely become a world |
beater before Father Time calls him
from the game to gentler pursuits.
Both young men are put up along the
same lines physically, and their me-
chanical actions are much alike; they
would be dead ringers for one an
other in moving picture. Who has
the greater "noodIe?" Apparently Sta
mage; at least he seems to have exer-
cised his more than his rival, and that
is the thing that Will count in the
long run.
The youngster who sprouts into a
great ball player, one whose name
goes into the baseball hall of fame. is
not often he who startles the circuit
with phenomenal work the moment he
strikes the big league. Nor is he the
man who after laboring along as a
mediocre performer for some time,