Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1913-08-10
PENNANT RACES as. IN B|G LEAGUES Monty Says Giants and Ath- letics Ought to Hold
 Their Leads IS A 1000 TO l BET Believes Athletics Will Play Better Ball From Now On-RcvicwS
 League Standings.
IS A 1000 TO l BET
(By. .MONTY)

New York. Aug 9.-Though partis-
 ans of the Maps and Phillies still pro-
 fess to see a chance for their favorites
 to come through. the two big league
 pennant races may be considered clos
 ed out. The setbacks suffered i'll a
 few spots along the trail of the last
 few weeks by the Giants and Athletics ] have cut into their respective leads somewhat, but there is still so much distance between the pacemakers and
 the rest of the fields as to preclude
 any likelihood of their missing out on the two flags. Of course lots of things
 may happen in baseball, as the time worn saying gees. but if we were anxious to win an extra five dollars and had to give our life as our end of the wager, we would plank down the bet in the twinkling of an eye- lash. The odds should be close to d thousand to one against either of the leaders being beaten out
 The first placers and the runnerups in both leagues have all played ap- proximately a hundred games each. This leaves fifty-four nattleout ahead
 And handicap of six or eight games with fifty-four left to go is consider able handicap. It is an unsurmount- able handicap when the one on the long end of it is the better speeder
 close scrutiny of the situation in the National League leads to the belief that the Giants will need none of their allowance. If they were on even terms with the Phillies today. they seem to be powerful enough to draw away and win in the final sprint by a margin at least equal to the one they now possess. Which means that. if the Phillies had lead over the Giants of, say eight games at this stage, the New Workers would be able to catch them and spurt under the wire first.
 From this quarter the American League layout frames up about the same. The Athletics ought to play better ball from now on than any other team in the organization and not only keep their advantage but in crease the margin of it. Both the Athletics and Giants are the classr oi their own circuits by several large strides and the alibi commissioners of the two leagues will have little to crow over after one of them loses the worlds series in the fall.
 ''Lfttle Mems Year,"
 This has been sort of little mems year" in the National League. First of all three new little managers are in the fold in Huggins, Evers and Tinker. Then Johnny McGraw, the sawed off leader of the Giants, has his team out in front. Also a bunch of midgets have made good on the play ing field. Viox, formerly only util- | ity man used in about one game every two weeks, has become a star second baseman since Fred Clarke has put him there regularly for the Pirates. Heinie Gorh, whom McGraw foolishly traded to the Reds, also has blossom ed forth as crack second sacker this i year.
 But the greatest Of the new tinies | is little Maraville of the Boston Braves. This plucky youngster, who was called to small for big league ball, has shown them. He has not pasted the ball very hard-his batting average has lowered around .24o for the last few weeks but he has prov 1 ed veritable wonder at fielding his | position. One humorist said of him: "He covers more ground than Ping Bodie sitting down." and when Ping sits down he surely covers some ground. Maranville, not only can shift from one side to the other in | twinkling but he is cham nighttime at getting rid of the ball. once The 1 has captured it, and he throws bSth | with velocity and precision. He is the premier shOrtstop developmentIo Iof i the year.
 Baseball men in the East are 4e- 1 ginning to see real menance to dr- ganized ball in the Federal Leagle 1 with it's new plans of branching llt and expanding. A story is going he rounds that it will be taken into ke fold, probably as Class. "A or |B league, but it is not believed tn lt there is much truth in the yarn. IT e Federals are backed up by big mono [. :Mofeotef they have more Ithall broke even on this, the first season of el istence. The new plan which sud gests two leagues, with one in tn
 East and one nthe Middle WestI