Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-06-22
BY J. ED GRILLo.
speciaI Dispatch TO The star.

Special Dispatch 10 The Star.
PHILADELPHIA. June 22-Having de-
feafed the worlds champion Athletics
twice in four days and thus annexed his
sixth straight victory. II seems high time
10 figure Bob Groom among the most eff
fective pitchers of the league. Grooms
performance yesterday. when with but
Two days rest he moved down the hard
hitting Mackmen. as If they were lot
of bushers. deserve no end Of credit.
Groom pitched even better ball than he
did in Washington Tuesday In that
game he seemed to grow weak near the
end. but yesterday he finished as strong
as he started.
He has not lost a game since ne
pitched the second half of that double
header in Boston He has beaten every
team he has met since and has slipped 1t
over on the Athletics twice. He. In fact
seems TO be the only member Of Grtfiths
pitching staff who has nothing to fear
from Collins or Baker. This pair OF
sluggers always look like pygmies when
they are facing Groom and in fact there
is not a man on the team who appears
TO take a liking to his delivery.
When the fact is taken into coDsidera-
ton that Groom has pitched both games
against the Athletics while suffering from
the effects Of a surgical operation and
while by no means in his best form his
performance is truly remarkable.
This promises to be by far the most
successful year in Grooms career. He
has been a consistent winner this season
right from the start, and barring accident
he will establish an enviable record during
the present campaign. which will be Sec
l,1x %Hat 80 oltn Irhv
After yesterdays game Groom departed
for Washington. as his services here will
not be needed there being but one more
game to play.
While II is but natural that the Ath-
letics should be public favorites in the
present pennant race, yet 1t is hard to
see how Mack will be able to land on top
with but three pitchers that he can rely
upon. Any time he gets into a series In
which double headers are called for 1t
will be no easy matter to present a good
twirler every day. Plank. Coombs and
Bender are the only three twirlers who
can be relied upon. and Bender VIII nave
to improve a whole lot before he will be
anywhere near as good as he was last
year. OF the rest of the pitching stan IT.
tie or nothing is to be expected. morgan
may find club now and then that ne
can beat. but they are few and Tar be-
tween, and as for the bunch OF recruits.
there is not promising youngster among
them. That was demonstrated yesterday
when Mack had three of them In against
the acknowledgements, Barry and Her
rail-. Not one of the trio showed enough
to win anything. and when 1t Is rea1izeo
that Mack will have to depend on them
to a certain extent 1t Is hard to hgure
how he Is going to land at the top OF the
heap this year.
Every time one of the Athletics hap
pens to have his shoes scraped by the
spikes of an opposing player there are
columns in the papers uubraiding roWdy
base ball and sympathizing with these
nice clean gentlemen who are drawing
salary from Connie Mack. That is what
Is vtkgarly termed the bull. II ever there
was a deliberate effort made to put
player out of base ball Is was Collins
assault on Gandil. He deliberately took
his knee and hit him in the face as ne
was sliding into the bag There was no
occasion for the play for Gandil was
clearly out.
Collins is reputed to have said when he
saw Gandil was hurt: We'll l got YOU
picked out by Mack's players for their
rowdyism Is hard to understand unless 1t
is that he has been thorn In their size
in the present series. lie has done most
of the hitting against them and they may
have figured that he would be good
man to have out of the way. 1t will be
remembered that in Tuesdays game
Thomas threw Gandtl into the air when
In making these attacks on the WASH
ington players the champions may have
made a mistake. Griffith has players
who will resent such tactics and they
won't be polite about doing 1t. There Is
a whole lot of Srumbling in the ranks
and when the Athletics visit Washington
next week Ii is needless to say that tney
won't find any dull spikes.
There is chance Of both Barry ana
McInnes being out of todays game
Barry in fielding hit over second base
took bad fall on his shoulder. and had
TO retire from the game. while Shanks
spiked McInnes in the foot while return
catcher in the second. He put deep cut
into the foot and while McInnes remain
ed in the game IL was evident that the
injury was bothering him during the
closing innings, and il is likely that he
will be out of IL for while. When Barry
and Mcfnnes are out OF the running the
teams chances are greatly diminished,
for there are not two more valuable men
on the team than this pair.
One of the things that was said detri-
mental to Gandil about the time that
Griffith purchased him from Montreal was
that he was easily hurt and frequently
out of the game. In other words II was
insinuated that il did not take much to
make Gandil lie idle. But that report
must be absolutely erroneous. for IL ever
a PLAYER had reason TO stay out Of ball
right side of his face badly bruised his
dill never made murmur, but played his