The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-14
OSCAR STANAGE REASON OF
 DETRIOT TIGERS SUCCESS
LITTLE CHARACTER SKETCH OF ONE OF THE BEST YOUNG RE- CEIvERS PLAYING BASEBALL" HIS GOOD POINTS

his finger on him and say with truthful certainty: There he is'' The whole thing is matter of opinion, the same as every comparison of this sort
 There is one fact, however. that impress ses itself on every fan who is non-parti- san In temperament. That is the supre- macy of the National league in the re- oeiving department. The senior organi- zetion boasts no less than seven catchers who are top-notchers in every sense of the word. Enumerate them: Johnny I<Iing, Roger Bresnahan. George Gibson, Chief Myers, Larry Mclean, Red Dooin. Jimmy Archer. In other words, every club in the league has a first calibre re- ceiver, excepting Brooklyn. The Dodgers have a man, who, strictly as catcher, compares favorably with any, but as a batter or baserunner he Is not worth his salt. That is Bill Bergen Bill is a won der behind the plate, but Heaven help the team that has to send him to the bat in a pinch.
 As against this array, the American league offers Charley Street. Ira Thomas, Ed Sweeney. Ted Eastery, Jimmy Stew
 
 car Stanage. All good men: otherwise they wouldn't be big leaguers. But where do you find star in the whole bunch? Home-team partisans will pick out Street, Thomas or Sweeney and the man will be landed as the greatest in thesbusiness. If the fan will carefully analyze his men. 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 for yard a better man.
 Promising" catchers is a different mat ter In this line the American seems to have a little the hotter of the argument With two youngsters like Stanage and Easterly showing the form they are, there is good ground for the prognostication tbat 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 tho same lines physically and their mechan- ical actions are much alike; they would be dead ringers for one another in a picture. Who has the greater ''noodle?' Apparently Stanaxe; at least he seems to have exercised 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  for some time, suddenly strikes his gait and flashes forth, as 1t were, over night. The greatest players. almost without exception, are those who started out as an average sorr of worker, getting little better each month and season, un- til at last they have reached the bunch, passed them, and then left the others be- hind Such was Mathewson, such was Wagner. such were Kling, McGraw, Wal lace and Cy Young when they were just growing into stars.
 Such is Oscar Stanage.
 The Detroit Tigers have been plunging, tearing. banging their way pennantward despite the nasterful game of the Ath- letics. The Jennings tribe is made up of hard hitters and daring base runners; they are about the best run-getters in the world And Stanage sticks the pellet at a clip that keeps him we'll up with the band wagon. But neither Detroit nor any other team could win games by sheer scoring unless it had some way of keep ing the other fellows tallies from be- ing too numerous. Detroit is not a good fielding team as a whole. Consequently the burden of keeping the opposition safe devolves upon the pitchers and the catch CT in keeping the enemy from running wild on the bases. Leave the latter task to Stanage. He is there; probably the greatest young backstop in the business, figuring him from any angle. sN nfa
 One Detroit writer has paid tribute to the youth thusfy: "Cool-headed, quick thinking, strong-arrned Oscar, the boy with the broad shoulders and massive muscle development. who can throw the ball like shot and hit 1t mile, is the man to whom much of the credit for tho success of Detroit's pitching stan Is due.'
 Tiger pitchers have pitched not alone good ball. but in several instances phe-. nomenal ball. against their rivals. There are performances by Mullin, Summers, Donovan and Lafitte that stand out as ac- complishments in pitching far above the ordinary. Due credit is given these twirl- CTS for their masterly performances. but in this case as in others there is ''man behind" and In this particular case the man behind'' is the youthful Californian who receives the shoots, curves, fast balls, spitters and slow ones of the Tiger hurlers. Bt 1t known. Stanage is not lone pitcher man. He can catch any member of Jennings staff.
 Stanage seldom asks for pitch-out. He does not need 10 yards elbow room to get of his throws He depends on a good arm to get the man stealing When he does ask for wide pitch the chances are four out of five that the runner for whose benefit or rather detriment, the wide pitch is ordered will try to advance. In three games during the recent Detroit Philadelphia series Stanage asked for total of five pitch-outs. Four times he guessed it right and got an Athletic run ner in an attempt to steal. once he guessed wrong. But four out Of i've Is doing pretty well. thank you
 When Jim McGuire was catching Jim always asked for pitch-out With men on
 bases. Jim got Ithe pitch-outs and he' also got the pitcher In hoies. me pitch CT has to get the ball over the plate then ,Tbe batter knows this generally and co,,nts on n fast ball over So to feel the hottar Him always asked for curve haiI The result was that in the majority os cases the curve ball went wide and the batter walked. AZ
 Tt~er pitchers do not find themselves in
 q hole because their catcher asks them to hitch out. When they do, pitch out. something generally happens.
 Was Stanage as brainy when he first entered the big league? No. But he used his think tank just as much only he didn't know as we'll how to use 1t then. Six months passed and he had risen one reg on the baseball ladder. Six months