The Topeka state journal., 1911-09-23

shadows before, and the shade pre-
ced1ng the worlds baseball champion
snip battle next month falls unnlis-
takably in the form of a large brawny
person engaged busily with an ele-
phant that may as we'll be white. No
team IN either league seems able to
uefeat the American and National
League leaders, so the pennant winners
are practically decided.
More Equal Than i'm 1910.
Taking it, that the New York giants
are to combat for baseball's highest
honors with the Philadelphia Athletics,
appears impending. The reason is,
pitchers Last year the Cubs fatal
weakness was on the slab. The Ath-
lettcs main strength was there. The
/ cubs pitchers failed in all except one
game to hold the Athletics to a close
enough score to enable the Cubs to put
in practice their boasted inside attack.
The Cubs won that game, in the tenth
inning. In the other contests, the Ath-
letIes hit out a commanding lead so
speedily that the Cubs were needing,
not the one or two ta1lies that could
be made by the walk, sacrifice and sin
gle style of attack, but the four or
five runs that must be walloped out
by main force of timber, If at all. And
the Athletic slabmen were too strong
for that
This tin1e-basing the conclusion on
present informatIon-it will be differ
ent Granted that Bender and Coombs,
the only Athletic pitchers performing
in the last worlds series, are as good
as they were then, they will be pitted
against the old master of the game
Christy Mathewson, who once beat the
Athletics three games in one series,
and the most brilliant of the new hur1-
ing stars, Rube Marquard, southpaW.
Purely on form, it is hard to give either
pair any decisive edge over the other.
And W1ltse, AneS and Crandell, as re-
serves, may be set off against Plank,
Krause and Morgan. with a small ad-
vantage to the Athletics, in that old
season than Wiltse, the crafty Giant
southpaw.
Looks Like stand on.
Which makes it look, at this dis
tance, like a fair standoff in the pitch
ing departments.
a technical discussion comparing the
infields and outfelds,s and even the
hack stopping, would lead only into a
maze of figures and percentages that
could prove nothing and probably
would be shaken down to a pretty
even basis.
Then comes the attack. That gener-
ally is taken to mean batting. And
there the percentages to date give Phil
ade1phia hefty margin, .293 in club
batting for the Athletics against .270
for the Giants. And yet that circun-
stance doesn't mean anything at all.
Tor the ACnIGIlcS' percentage was not
made aginst Mathewson, Marquard
and Crandall, nor was the Giant bat
ting average compiled off Bender,
COombs and Plank. 1t has become
proverbial that batting averages. club
and individual, are regularly upset in
short and crucial series of any kind,
particularly in worlds series. Yet it
may be taken that the American
Leaguers are hitting harder than the
Giants day in and day out and that
fact is bound to cut into the preli1nf-
nary figures on the series.
But here another interesting and less
widely known factor may be men
toned. Among the ten leading base
stealers on the National league, no few
er than seven are on the Giants pay
roll. The Giants top the league IN
stolen bases, having pilfered nearly
twice as many sacks as even the shifty
Cubs, their closest rivals. 1t is said
that McGraW's team of this season is
the greatest base running club in base
ball history, and the bare figures ap-
pear to bear out the statement On the
other hand, the Athletics have only one
base steaIer in the upper ten" of the
American league-Eddie Collins rank
ing sixth with tnirty-three stolen bases
to his credit. Five Giants-Devore,
Murray, Snodgrass, Merkle and Herzog
have stolen more bases than that,
and two others, Doyle and Sweeney.
have close records to Collins, at twen-
ty-nine and ewentyeight bases each.
Now, that is a better point to specu-
late on than batting percentage. Thom-
as and Lapp are no better than the
average National league backstops,
whose roster easily outclases that of
the American league catchers, and
Meyers and Wilson win size up well
enough with the American leaguers in
pegging at second. Which makes it
look as If Connie Mack's help were in
for a highly interesting and industrious
session when the flying Giants once
again get a toe hold on the bases. In
any close series base running counts
heavily, and the Athletics know full
we'll the effect of swift, dashing work
on the paths when it comes to breaking
up a tight game. Witness one Tyrus
Raymond Cobb, for instance.
In all, it looks to have the makings
of a very pretty struggle, this pros
pective series between the Giants and
the Athletics, and quite close enough to
be decided either way by the breaks
in. baseball luck, which, after all, gov
ern every really close game and series.
The Athletics will play their final
game October z, while the Giants do