Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-11-12
THOMAS AND BAKER HEROES WHO WON SPURS ON SF1

lctfcs. and he announced Bender as his
choice.
This move took nerve for II Bender
lost we would also have lost one 81 or
best frst-st..ng pitchers. Perhaps no
one but one o. Is realize what IL
would have meant for us to start the sec
ond game with the fact confronting Us
that we did not have Bender and We
were one game behind.
But the decision 81 Connie Mach 10
kill Off MatheWson in the hr>t came
worked better than We anticipated. We
lost that game, ana the worst Bender
should have received was tie game
but Bender pitched the heart oct Of
Mathewson.
Every player Of our team who step
! ped to the plate faced Matty with the
| one idea in his head TO take the fade.
away We knew every ball Matty would
| pitch We learned that from his mo-
/ tons We knew when the fadeawaE
was coming, and | can safely say that
| Matty never saw Athletic bat swuns
/ at his 'fadeway.
| he was pitching inning after inning this
| famous ball SO deceptive as 10 battle al
most any batsman. and he saw Our play
ers watching them so by and heard the
umpires calling them all balls. race to
face with this situation. Matty had then
only two balls 70 fall back upon. his drop
/ curve and his fast one. and when he
began to use these increasingly We began
I to hit him, ana we NIT every Dali idiu
Although we lost that game and MatiN
beat US we all felt that We had done
what We set out to accomplish, XII
Matty off, Matty pitched himself out IN
that game and we all felt that he coulo
never beat us again, which he did not
/ Thomas wonderful record seemed to
have been lost sight of when the possible
heroes of the 1911 series were enumera.eo
| before the big games were played ne
/. only game that Detroit won from Pitts
| bureh In the worlds series of zoos was
| the one when Thomas was behind the
| bat
Just as Baker talked Of prior 10
the series of 1910 so was he talked ol
before the series with the Giants wa:
begun. Only this time the argument
took on different aspect. 1t was M
batting that was bellttled. some cFitic'
said that because Baker was a eft-hande,
Rube Marouard, the wonderful New 1ori
| '.southpaw,' would make him look fool
ish. Baker batted better than 300 durini
the whole series and got two hits In al
most every game. The hrst uiie "a
faced Marauard he made himself wori'
famous by hitting the ball over the r1gn
field wall for home run. scoring Col
Inns ahead of him and winning the game
Mathewson explained that Marauard ma
made mistake and the MT was cahe'
lucky.
Bakers Home Runs.
Then came the memorable game IL
New York. when Mathewson ant
Coombs held each other almost to {
standstill in one Of the most wonderful
games ever pitched. and when the Att
letics went to bat in the ninth lnnint
, New York led by one run TO none.
| as almost 10o-to-l shot that IN
| Giants would win, but again Bake
stepped into the breach. and while tn
Athletics followers were hopin;
, against hope. Baker hit home rul
, off Mathewson, a hit that VIII long d
remembered, tying the score am
. breaking Matty's hold on the Athletics
The Champions won out two inning
, later. and even then Bakers two hon
! runs in consecutive games each, com
, ing In what is called 1.-THE pinch. wer
i | called lucky.
!, These are the men. whose achieve
| ments when analysed are all the NOR