New-York tribune., 1911-10-16
COMMENT ON SPORTS
"AS Goes the First Game, So
Gees the Series"
MATTY STILL THE MASTER
News and Views on Live Topics
Of the Day, Both Amateur
and Professional.

and Professional.
An old baseball sdaEe, or. rather. a new
baseball saving reads. "As goes the first
game. so goes the series" This has been
repeated many times since the Giants de-
feateG the Philadelphia Athletics IN the
n-si game Tor the worlds championship on
SATURDAY.. and IN a sense IL is heartening
the first blow counts. That is an accepted
fact In war or any eRdeavor as well as in
sports. and there is reason for the "fans'
20 be hopeful. The first same showed
howeye-. that 10 win be "a hgh- TO ihe
death and that the Athletics VIII take a
lot OF beating. The goddess Of luck. which
has smiled on the Giants all the year,
did not turn her back on Saturday, al-
though 90 must be said In all fairness that
a brilliant bit OF base running by Snod-
gress and clever biz of coaching by Ar
thur Deylin counted quite as much IN one
OF the runs scored by the Giants. the Win
ninE margin, by the way. as did the error
by Eddie Collins. To was aEsresslveness
trnbued iu them by John j. McGrl" and
the alevtnCs TO take advantage Jf an op-
portuuitv offered that stood out ln the
scoring o. that all-importaut run. ln tnis
connection 10 may be said tnat ] was I'M
pressed with the difference in the way n
which the two teams came ON the nelo-
The Athletics stalked out in rather phiee-
matte and dignided way, but the Giants
came ou- Oh the run, as college tootnaA
eleven does This latter way OF entrance
indicated suapiness. ginger and enthusiasm
for the work al hand, ana could not Aeip
bur inspire confidence. Personally ] am
now more than ever convinced that the
highest houors in baseball will come 10 t-lis
c.rv.
Christopher MatheWson, better Ano"H o.
cIatty. Is still the master pitcher. "teA --e
was found for two hits In the second IN
r.-E on Saturday an American League en-
rhusiast declared with all the assurance III
the world. Hes done he's seen MS pest
DAYS. These Athletics are the greatest
Eltte~s ir the country and tney VIII set 10
any riElt handler no matter VINO ne IS
liat-y was NOT done and Matty held lAe
hest hft-i-- team in the country 20 six
hits two o5 which were talr only by lncA-s-
Furthermore. be retired the side IN one,
tyvc. three order In six innings and grew
stronger and better as the game progressed.
Coming down from the grounds on Satur-
day 7 heard more than one man remark
1Iar-r." do not agree with this. Bender
pitched a wonderful game and deserved at
least a Tie score for eight innings on his
work alone. II must be remembered that
tre Giants did NOT 20 % bat ir the ninth
iruing, so that Bender had the advantage
of one frame over Natry on figures. An
analysis OF the work OF the two men IN one
OF the greatest pitchers battles Of the year
r..-l r.~r rN
basis Of opposing hatsmen getting TO first
base. which. of course, Is the thing that
counts. Bender allowed only FIVE hlts, but
gave four bases on balls and hit one bats
man. So that ten New York men reached
first base not Including the one who ar
rived az that station in safety on the error
by Collins Nar-y. or the other hand al
lowed six hits and gave only one base on
balls. SO that only seven Philadelphia play
.ers reached first base. A base on balls IS
as GOOD as a hit, even though. as In one
case az least. O. pass was purposely given
10 DOYLE. as Bender preferred TO wait FOR
Suodc-asz. who, hv the way, struck out al
that particular time Nltty did not hang
up such a string of strike-Ou-s as Bender,
rha figures reading 20 Il. bur Matty IS
famous f1r studying his batters and depend
irc or his lelde-s. and a fy ball or -eId-
tl rro1uaer is quite as effective as a strike
out a retiring the side and counts quite
a- mlch even f not so spectacular IN
viewing the work 0f a pitcher. With all
credit 20 Bender for his brilliant work. J.
consider that Natty once more proved tnat
1e is "Nng Of them al'
The stands al the Polo Grounds are not
so big after all as the fans" had been led
20 believe. There have been unofficial
statements made that 56c0 persons could
Be comfortable iu the big stadium. Tt Was
<1l t0 tre u-im ou SATURDAY and vet the
total paid attendance was as.oS-. and prob
ably 4oeu iu -acr counting the uewspaplr
rHeu and friends of the players II was
pointed out fr The Tribune o. few days ago
that the seating capacity would le $40.
and tlis was not far wronE. Charley Coz
uiskev owner of the Chicago White SoN.
saws that $4,000 persons We're TANNED .l
r.s park one SUNDAY last May. SD that tine
Polo Grounds had a close squeak lor tae
record baseball attendance.
one year ago the attendance for the OPEN
iae game Of the worlds series iu Ph-la-
delulia between the Athletics and The Chi
cagO Cubs was -5s9- and the gross receipts
s14.4 So For comparison the figures Oh
SATURDAY are repeated Attendance,
as.-g. gross receipts. s-l.-9. By this
g. may l. seen that the receipts for the
opening same this vCar We're more than
double those OF year ago. on this basis
the total for three games This series VIII
ls equal 90 the total of S-o.9so for the Hvo
games last season