Arizona republican., 1912-09-22

players now of a certain high standard than there used to be-
 Just where to draw the line between the modern and the past is not easy to decide. There are players of the mod ern era who were in harness up to a year or so ago who certainly don't be- long to the past. even if not playing this year. Were they to be included in the bygone regime the past would nave an enormous advantage over the present in the far greater number of years represented. In any event the stars of today compare favorably with those of any one bygone year.
 Take an array of first basemen con- posed of McInnis, Chase, Daubert, Ko- netchy. Gainor, Merkse, Chance and Tenney, and there is no other lot to equal 1t. This is true, even eliminating Chance and Penney, who retired only last year. "Jiggs" Donohue, who played up to a few years ago, was as great as any, whereas a group consisting of Tucker, Tebeau. Doyle. Comiskey. Reil- ly, McKinnon, Anson and Brouthers didn't have the fielding range of the modern group.
 There has been no better second base man than Collins, Lajoie or Evers, but from the past may be picked larger number of first class men, such as Dunlap. Pfeffer. McPhee. Richardson, and, of a between period. Lowe Reitz and Childs. The dim past never had two as accomplished shortstops as Long and Jennings, the greatest con- temporary pair of all. It is a question
 if there have ever been two the equal nf ftun nf ha
 ent period or of the remote past. Long after the days of Williamson and Glass cock came Corcoran, McKean, Ger many" Smith, Dahlen, Parent, Fiber field and Turner. a group. as a whole,
 better than any predecessor group, but
 with which the strictly modern group consisting of Barry, Bush. Tinker, Wagner, Fletcher, Mcbride, Wallace and Doolan does not suffer in compar-
 ison.
 Latter day third basemen are much i, more numerous and most of them rep
 resentative of more all around skill
 than those of earlier times. Long since the days of Denny, Sutton and Smith came Collins and Bradley and Leach
 the first named of these three the great
 est third baseman of any time-and since tnelr Oay worthy successors In Baker, Devlin. Lord and Byrne. It is only in the outfield that old time stars are to be found with whom one is slow to match outfielders of later times. The old timer is prone to make something of a fetish of the Welches. Fogartys, McAleers and Johnstons. To these may be added Griffin. Corkhill. Hornung and Evans.
 Outfielders who could cover ground and judge flies as these could are hard
 to find. but does not their fame take
 on an added glory merely from recol- lection? Isn't Speaker practically as good as any one of them? Of the later
 corners Fielder Jones and Bill Lange are not to be overlooked, and what
 about Milan, Keeler. Cobb and Clarke In speed and judgment Speaker and Keeler may be more nearly the equal
 of McAleer than the pedestal on which ! those of us who remember his work
 may have placed him warrants. The best catchers the game has pro- duced are not of the present They are of the past. The best one catcher is. anyway. for Buck Ewing was the
 best backstop of any time. And there were Bennett Daly. Bushong, Kelly.
 Farrell. Martin. Bergen, Flint, Robin
 son and Criger. a group of far and near past receivers which the group en-