Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-02
BY Rube Marquard.

nected with this thirteen"
= combination, after all l never
have been superstitious, nut after
watching this present 1913 campaign,
as far as it has gone, I must con-
fess that it has me wavering.
To date II has been mighty funny
year for both leagues. The dope has
all gone topsy-turvy. We Giants
were picked to run away from the
field; and. truth to tell, l myself
thought that by this time we would
have "A much greater lead than we en-
ioyed year ago at this time. Then
il was believed we would better the
Cubs record of 1906. when Chances
vrecking crew won lie games in one
! campaign.
| | am as confident as ever that the
| Giants will eventual" triumph,
| though undoubtedly it will be sitter
! fight than We anticipated. Ihoush
/ why we haven't been and are not
| making better progress Is more tnah
| | will venture to explain. There SIM
! ply is no explanation.
| Some sort of iinX seems lowering
over organized baseball in general,
/ as exemplified in the big leagues,
/ save only in Philadelphia. Its blight
| has not affected Quaker Town-at
! least not as yet Connie Macks
| Athletics are running wild toward
| another pennant 'The Phillies re
! fuse to be shaken in their purpose OF
| having a little worlds series ali in
! Slumber Land. Players are not nm
mune from the evil influences of the
I i'm
Mathewson Still Great.
There has been there is, and there
will be only one Christy Mathewson.
Who ever saw him better than
| against Brooklyn a few days ago.
! He pitched nine innings Of shut-Out
| bail. delivering only 10 balls, despite
! the fact that he used II pitches III
| one inning. the eighth. That more
plainly than anything else points out
| the complete mastery he had over
| the ball and over the batsmen.
Other leading pitchers in both
! leagues are seasoned performers. Ed
] die Plank, the great SOuthpaW who
/ broke in about the same time as Mat
/ tv. is MaCk's main reliance. "Chiet
Bender. the tried and true Indian has
| won almost so per cent of his
/ games.
Nov this season may eventually
adjust itself along safe and sane
| lines; but so FIR it surely has devel-
| oped any NUMBER # unusual kinks.
| We will glance over several Of the
I most startling instances as briefly as
| | ossible.
Cobb's Throne lettering.
To begin with, Ty Cobb's throne
| has been uslrped for the time by
"Shoeless joe jackson, of Cleve-
! land. do not sc where Ty has
much kick coming. for he is still
away abOrt the $50 notch. which is
mighty fair batting for most any
major league performer. But l read
/ ily understand tine sentiments of the
| Georgian Peach as the result Of hi"
I recent slump. To a 900 hitter like
| Cobb $50 appeals in the light Of
about .O67 to the average pitcher.
| Who this spring would have be
! Iieyed that Pittsburg would now
be trailing in the second division,
with Just about one chance in q nun
dred for lOOk-in at the worlds
| series uriZe2 In a great many re-
! spects no team in. the league can
| show as much strength. on paper. as
| can the Buccaneers. Clarke mas a
rafting good intield. a Well balanced
| outfiCld, hitting strength, defensive
strength, speed what was usually
! considered the DESl BiiCIlllS Sldll ia
major company and d we'll balanced
catching department.
Yet two months after the season
! opened Fred Clarke was trailing the
Boston Braves. a club that was the
laughing stock Of the league when
/ the campaign began. It IS true that
I Pittsburg's catching corps has suf-
| fered greatly from injuries; it is also
! true that the pitchers have never
! been in frst-class shape. But al
most without more than mediocre
/ battery strength, This team might be
! expected to stay somewhere close to
| the leaders.
Champions Start Slowly,
The worlds champion Boston Red
Sox furnish another example. They
finally have Crawled up somewhere
1 in the neigh borho0d Of where they
| belong in the American League
I standings But for the first six weeks
| of the season the team that last fail
/ won from us the highest honors Of
] baseball showed a little better form
| than the tailender of the Johnson cir
/ cult
/ For some ineXplainah.e reason the
! aggregation simply could not pull to-
gether properly. 1t is true that the
| full strength was not in The field.
But BOstOn's showing was worse than