The Washington herald., 1912-07-21
By oHRrsrr MArHEwsos.
OF the Giants.

By CHRIsTY MATHEWsoN.
OF the Giants.
II has been effectualiy demonstrated
in the last two weeks that the race In
the National League Is going to be close,
and that, as some persons declared. the
Giants have not got the championship
SO sure that all they win have to DO Is
-to go down and pick out something nice
In pennants The Giants still have the
hardest part of the schedule left 70 play.
The National League schedule was so
arranged this year that the New YORK
team played most of its games with tne
easier Eastern clubs in the frst part OF
the season, while the Westerners were
wrangling among themselves. Up to the
Sth of July we had met the CUBS just
twice From now until the end OF the
season. with only a slight relief about
Labor Day, the Giants will be meeting
the Western teams continually, and It Is
going TO be hard fight The only ac-
curate way in which a line could be
obtained on the exact standing OF the
clubs at present would be 10 take the
number of games played with each indi-
yidual team so far and then compute
the number won and the number LEFT to
play. and the relative strength or eacn
one would be the result We were rat
tening up largly on Brooklyn, Boston.
and Philadelphia, and now We nave
hard schedule TO play until the end OF
the season, and there should be plenty
OF thrills.
Meet Western Cubs.
As soon as the Giants get home the
Western teams will swing East, and
then Immediately after that series the
Giants again invade the West. getting
absolutely none OF the easier picking
before September. In the meantime, the
two biggest contenders, Chicago ana
Pittsburg will be meeting such oppo-
nents as Boston, Brooklyn, and Phiia-
deIphia when they are not playing US.
II does not take clairyoyant 10 see
that II is going to be race. The Giants
will win it, will win on the long stretch
of home games in September, II on noth-
ing else, but they will surely WIN
Since the club left home. the team mas
been In one of those combination siumps-
. hating. fielding and pitching-and, De-
sides. everything was breaking against
us. which is often the case in slump
Take a team that is winning ball games
consistently. and they take chances, and
the fans exclaim: ''Oh, those guys are
luckyi Everything breaks for them
Maybe they are lucky, but they are
getting the breaks because they are TAX
ing the chances and have confidence in
themselves, inspired by the string or
victories that are being piled up When
Marouard was indulging in his winning
streak, several eyewitnesses of some or
the games applauded and shouted: II
that fellow was not lucky, he wouiont
have won that one!
He didn't win it because he was lucky,
but because he had confidence In MS
own ability. Then the club lost a game
on the Western trip, and Marquard was
beaten, and they lost another game, and
everything they tried went wrong, and
the fielders We're kicking the important
chances which grew up to be runs, and
the team felt that everything was break
ing against it. Everything was, be-
cause We lacked the confidence to pull
anything
Cubs Get Breaks.
On the other hand, the Cubs were get
ting all the breaks because they were
playing good ball behind good pitching.
They had the confidence in themselves
our lead was cut almost in half, and
the team was oadly upset The pitch
ers failed to hold the other team TO
small scores, and the unbeatable margin
by which we were leading the league,
when we left home. began to look very
small and emaciated.
expect TO see the Giants take a sud-
is there, and the pitchers, who were the
first men to fall down. will improve.
Giant followers are worried over '-Rube'
Marquard, and some have gone so far
as TO declare that he is gone. 1t is
ridiculous, quite as ridiculous as the
statement which Chance gave out after
we left Chicago on our second trip there
last week when we played one game
that the Cubs would surely win the pen
a a Il In TAD mt las
week, was under a terrific strain from i
his record-breaking pitching perform
ance, and it VIII take him some little
time to recover but he Is one of the
greatest southpaws in the game to-day,
because he has the material with which
TO work. Tesreau has proved, through
the force of circumstances, that he is
man to be depended upon. He went into
the box at Chicago last week and pitch
ed beautiful game, and one that he
should have won If he had received any
batting and fielding support. He was
beaten by errors, and it was not hi.
Pitching which beat him
McGraw is the sort of man who hates
to lose ball games, and he is also the
one who will remedy this as soon as Dos
sible. When his pitching staff had ap-
parently blown up on him last week, he
set about to find some new talent even
If he had to sacrifice good men to
get II He threatened a trade He also
gave the club some heart-to-heart talks
which should benefit the men and make
tnem realize that they are not SO far
ahead that 1t is only parade and not a
race.
Devore Valuable.
Josh" Devore win play great ball
now because McGraw has been after him
He is ffne man in a pinch and valu-
able when he can be stirred up to his