The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-12-15
AMERICAN LEAGUE IS
 FASTER THAN NATIONAL

Which major league is the strong CT. American or National? Conserva- tive estimates fix the number of times that questions has been asked at Ill., 900, 900 per day in round numbers That means 4,015. 900 times year taking the country by and large. Ii will start an argument anywhere that baseball is spoken and no answer yet has been devised that will satisfy more than one side.
 One would think that after the beat ing the Athletics gave the Giants in the worlds championship series, after cleaned up the Cub runners up to the Giants, in four straight games for the Chicago title, and after the tail end St. Louis Browns licked the Cardinals for the championship of the Mound City, National League adherents American League, for the present at least, says l. B. Sanborn in the. Chi cago Tribune.
 ; Nothing Of the sort. Instead, ad- herents of the veteran organization point to the series between Cincinnati and Cleveland as proof positive that the American League is a minor cir cult because Cleveland finished third and Cincinnati sixth.
 When pressed into corner Na- tional leaguers fall back upon the longer record of the parent body and insist it must be the stronger league because of it's age. Never while there is breath, in their bodies. will Nation al League fans admit the American is anything but a bush league or that its victories are due to anything eX- cept luck Or the fact it's pitchers hap pened to be in better form.
 From all directions have come re- quests for dope with which to con vince doubters, but the prize request came from Burlington, Ia., where a frantic bug wants animuntion to use against st American League idiots" to substantiate his@contention that "dur- ing the last ten years the National League has earned a fair right to be ranked first and foremost in orga- nized base balldom.'
 There is only one basis on which to make a comparison in baseball. That is actual results, and results do not go back ten years as the present ma- jor leagues have been playing inter league contests only nine season. Talk the only means of ascertaining any thing definite it looks as if the Am erican League idiots' had the better of the argument, and that the Ameri- can instead of the National League had learned a fair right to be rank ed first and foremost
 Since they began playing each oth- CTS teams the American League has won 183 games and the National Lea que ITO in these interleague combats That would be considered a substan- tial margin in a pennant race and there is no other known way of de- termining supremacy on the diamond than by percentage of games won. The American Leagues percentage for nine years is 51S and the Nation al Leagues for the same period is .4S1
 For the first four of those nine years the American League had all the better of the argument Begin ming with the supremacy of the Cubs in 1907, the National League held the advantage for three seasons. In the last1Stwo years the balance has been pretty even, the American League gaining a slight advantage in 1910 an dthe Nationals having a margin of two victories in the 48 games that were played this year.
 This gravitation of the honors is due to the aging of star players and the time required to develop new ones After the baseball war the American League had the pick of the experience ed stars and the National League set out to introduce new ones In four years it's younger players surpassed the veterans of the American League. Now, by the inexorable law of time, the Nationals players have aged and