The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-06

1 once. That was in 19O6 He was fooled by 1 his champion aggregation of 1905, the | bunch that was so badly shown up by the Giants. Mack oyer-estimated the period of usefulness of many of his veterans. The series with the Giants opened his
 eyes to his mistake. There was a general
 house-cleaning the following year. Then
 1t was that the willy Quaker set out in
 earnest to develop almost single e-handed
 the great machine he now controls
 His case was similar to that of Me- Graw. The gallant leader of the Polo grounders was in identically the same
 fix as Mack, though he did not know
 it. Half the old champions of 1905 had | cracked on McGraw's hands during the | hot pennant pace. The worlds series of | that year gave McGraw no warning. A
 disastrous campaign followed the next
 season. The New York leader immedi-
 ately began the wedding out process, which eventually resulted in the wonder : full team now at home in Brush Stadium. l The 1912 Giants appear to outclass the National league as far as the 1911 Attn letics outclassed the American league.
 Eliminating unusual misfortune each should have a strangle hold on it's pen-
 nant long before fall In many respects
 the rival aggregations are very similar McGraw espescalizes on speed; Mack on
 hitting ability. Each, of course, attempts to combine all possible of the one with the other. Both are solidly established in the matter of youth. Yet each is forti- fled with unusually brilliant substitutes McGraw maintains that as chain is no stronger than Its weakest link team is l no stronger than It's substitutes.
 Of the two teams the Athletics ap- pear the stronger Whether they would 1 prove so at the end of a strenuous cam
 paign may remain for the next worlds series to show. Mack's players have l tl.o 1.. f,rra .f
 gether. It is more seasoned array in
 every way, even though the players may
 be every bit as young in years as l New York Mack has far more seasoned pitchers than has McGraw. Mathewson l is New Yorks sole veteran standby, while | Bender, Coombs, Plank and Morgan have l shown year in and year out for seasons 1 that there are few better so long as
 they can cheat. Old Father Time. Mack
 also has lot of promising young tossers | who may deliver when the opportunity
 arises. None have shown the promise of
 ''Rube" Marquard. McGraw has the
 greatest catcher of the age in Chief Mey-
 CTS. Wilson is as fine a second string
 man as could be found anywhere. But
 the worlds champions are not weak be- hind the bat Thomas and Lapp are
 of the best in the league perhaps almost l the equal of McGraws -ladian in plain
 hackstopping and throwing, though not of | course so deadly with the ash
 l McGraw's team is the faster Macks the much more powerful in hitting. A club | that hits close to the 300 notch collective ly can do fairly well in any league be-
 hind even mediocre tossing, Give it one | of the finest battery departments in the 1 game, such as the Athletics boast, and
 it will prove well nigh invincible.
 Tn the opinion of most experts Connie
 Mack has the greatest infield ever tca.. It.
 "Stuffy" McInnis can deliver such goods
 at first as he showed last season. Baker, Barry Collins and McInnis for mthe most perfect fielding quartet immaginable. Me l lnnis last season was every bit as sensational as Chase. It is doubt ful even if Johnny Evers was ever as great as Collins. Barry is the greatest l shortstop of the age-managers will add of all time. Baker needs no indorsement in | New York. And every one of the four
 can hit like a demon and skirt the sacks | like flash.
 After the final game of the worlds
 series in Philadelphia last fall Manager
 MeGraw, of the Giants paid a fitting | tribute to Connie Mack's infied. Tt is 1 the greatest infied ever saw he said.
 Not even the old Baltimore bunch could
 show it anything. Collins and Barry are 1 the greatest pair that ever graced the i keystone Why. not once in the whole series were we able to fool those two
 kids. It made no difference through which side We attempted the hit and run. the right man always held his sta 1 ton to break 1t up. If we hit at Barrys division Collins always covered. actu- ally believe this pair is so fast that it can wait until the ball is hit to figure l out the proper defense. We were beaten 1 by one of the greatest teams of all his l tory and by a team whose infield is one | of it's main towers of strength
 i Connie Macks club has always been a great trouble maker for other teams in | the American league. He never before l had such wonderful club as that which i he now commands. For the next three
 or four years his youngsters are bound to | improve and sthe Athletics are going to be right in the thick of baseball fame. When Collins, Barry, Baker and Mclnnis begin to go. Connie Mack will undoubt- edly produce competent successors to them. He has dozens upon dozens of athletes planted" in me minor leagues for development. Any one of them he can call upon at short notice. Thus is the leader of the worlds champions
 absolutely fortified against the future.