Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-07-28
Speaker Will Be King If Bos-
ton Wins.
us BEST PLAYER TODAY
So Says One Base Ball Expert in
Speaking of the Great Red
Sox Outfelder.

BOSTON. July elf the Boston Rec
| Sox win the American League pennan
this year Iris Speaker probably will b.
1 hailed as a new king Of base ball. Bos
ton bought him for $500 five years ago.
Speaker does not shine so much to the
d.sparagement of his mates for two
| reasons-first, their own individual ani
collective ability, which saves then
| from suffering by contact with Speaker
and, second, Speakers own modesty OF
the base ball field.
| The others are generally SO good thai
| Speaker does not appear. like Cobb. As
/ the one man of the team, apd that Is
] why Jake Stahl was able to tell his
| players:
This is not one-man team; you are
all entitled to the credit"
| But here is what one base ball expert
| says of Iris Speaker. and the opinion is
beginning to be shared by others. The
critic is Billy Murray, the Pittsburgh,
scout, whose business it is to watch and
study base bail players and their rec
ords. Murray has no personal interest
In Speaker, and is not fooled by daz-
zling performances on the diamond or
fattering press comments which EN-
phasize the odd and interesting acts of
the stars and make their general base
ball ability a secondary feature.
This is what Murray says:
You can praise Ty Cobb. Joe Jack
son and other great outfelders In the
big leagues. but none Of them is In the
class with iris Speaker of the Red Sox.
Speaker Is the best player h,,. on the
thrower and base runner he has Ty Cobb
and others beaten
Murray Crowns iris King.
Il have seen all OF the stars OF
| twenty-five years. and iris Is the
king"
He Is only twenty-three years old
this young Texan-and he Is getting
better every year.
Because so many Of his plays on the
base ball field are spectacular some
fans" call Speaker a "grandstand
player" No gan deserves the appella-
tion less. Speaker is never on parade.
rarely bothers the crowd. has few &C.
centricities noticeable to the roOters,
| and secs about his business in bust
nessllke way.
His batting success does not seem to
be due to any particular style. He has
an eye for all sorts OF balls. Jack
Coombs. Chief Bender, Ed Walsh.
Walter Johnson and some of the other
star pitchers say he is the hardest man
to fool in the league They can fire.
stance. and make the Georgia Peach
look foolish. but rarely put one over
on Speaker. In this respect he is
more or less like Nap" Lajoie.
Speaker hits like bull. II there is
anything he lacks 1t is fnesse. and
that is why he is often not SO formi-
dabie in pinche5 as Ty Cobb and some
of the others. But he is such a long
distance hitter. smashes them so hard
and SO frequently that he is just as
successful in the long run-but he
loses the advantage Of being consider
ed clever. and thereby getting his
name In the papers"
Good Judgment on Bases.
When he is "on''-being base ball for
on the bases-he still seems to lack
finesse simply because he plunges
along and appears to make his way by
sheer brute force. As q matter OF fact,
Speaker does use rare Judgment on the
bases, seldom overlooks chance for an
build, and has stolen more bases this
year than any other man except Milan
Of the Nationals. He thinks quickly and
gets away with many steals because OF
his speed and ability to get promptly I'M
der way He appears to be clumsy. but
that is because of his build.
He seldom strikes out. His eye for the
ball is SO good that Speaker almost in
variably hits it somewhere. which Is an
other asset In the .'hit-and-run'' play.
No record is kept of strike-outs. but 1t
is possible that Iris Speaker misses con-
nections less than any other batter in
either league.