The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1913-10-13
NEVER HAD 4
| O()K IN
-NAITY
BY CHRISTY MATHEWSON
Star and Only Pitcher of the Giants

NEW YORK, Oct. l1.-Tnis
seems TO me to be the time 10
write q funny story. only I
haven't any more laughs left in
me than there is "stun left in nv
arm right st this minute / feel
as Il II would be more approprf-
ATE now to write my baseball
Naleoictory- But / suppose 1 will
De traihng south with the club
Tor spring practice next March
Therefore it must be fnnnv
story. Certainly there was lot
of humor in that game. you
should have watched il from,
where I did and you would have
been handed many a laugh.
Did Home Run" Baker win the
game for the Athletics? Ger
talnly he did. Whereabouts in
the stands did he drive the bal2
why. he didn't drive the ball into
the stands at all, but he won il
with what is known as a "Cincin-
natl basehit,' which resulted in
two runs. That was just as good
or even better than a home run.
except that no fan has a base
bail to take home as a souvenir.
DIAGRAM FOR THIS JOKE
Don't you get the laugh in that
yet? Well, maybe you don't
know what a Cincinnati base
hit is. If you do, skip the first
two or three lines. Al ways pre-
vious to this season when there
were men on bases and the ball
was hit to the infeld. if the play
was made to some other base be-
sides first and the attempted play
did not go through it was scored
as fielder's choice in all towns
on the circuit except Cincinnati.
This year the scoring rules were
revised SO that it is scored In
every town as a hit, instead of
being confined to the locality of
Cincinnati. Hence it is known
as Cincinnati base HIT and it
was Bakers terrific Cincinnati
base HIT which resulted in the
two runs that beat US.
But can't keep up the pace
any longer.
Plank beat me by pitching Won
derful ball, and I take my hat off
TO him.
LAUGHS ARE EXHAUSTED
Now that the funny story is all
torn TO pieces because I have ex-
hausted my laughs, ! want to say
that I'm responsible myself for
the first run. Murphy got a hit
over second base in the first
inning, but Oldring forced him.
Then I made my mistake I put
one where Collins cohId get hold
OF it, and this is bad taste any
time you are pitching to that
boy, because ne usually responds.
He did today with a base hit to
right field, and Oldring moved to
third. That was my mistake, to
give Collins bali he could get
hold Of. Baker pushed a fly 10
left field, and Oldring scored after
the catch.
The Athletics are a great ball
club. We tested them Thoroughly
in this series and did not find
weak spot in their armor. Ba-
ker. Barry. Collins. Bender. Plank.
McInnis. Oldring. Young. Schang.
all of them played wonderful ball.
Collins, in my opinion, il the in
dividuaI star of the series, with
his fast fielding and his great hit
ting. As j have said, he was re-
sponSibIe for the first run today.
but he Is not the kind of player
who seeks individual glory. He
is always working for his team,
as Is shown by the fact that he
Sacrifices when that looks like the
best play. IEe could take a chance
ON slammlng the ball out and get
ting better press notices, but he
is playing TO win. To my mind,
this is the greatest type of BAH
player
HERE'S HOW MATTY FELT
I suppose that the baseball fol-
lowers want 10 know how / felt
when I went out there to pitch
today. when the hope of the Giants
staying in the series was hanging
by a slender thread. went ont
there TO pitch to finish because l
realized that it might be my last
worlds series game. There are few
pitchers in baseball who have got
into as many of the big contests
as I have and who have got out at
the wrong end of so many re-
Gently. I am not complaining or
apologizing The returns are in,
and 1 have never made it a habit
to go behind the returns They
beat me.
Our only chance to get into the
game today occurred in the fifth
inning, when Shafer walked with
one out. Murray hoisted a simple
little fly toward the pitchers box,
and Plank. Baker and Collins at
tempted to collaborate in catch
ing tx. know what "coIlaborate"
means now. because that is what
I did on a play mean drama
recently Baker stuck his hands
higher than the rest, and in the
confusion the bail fell to the
ground.
II looked as if this break might
be important. because such little
slips frequently are. Shafer had
reached second handily. since
Jack Barry had been employing
the time worn trick of scrabbling
about on the ground as if to field
q ground ball to lead .Shafer on,
figuring on double play It
was Barrv's trick which landed
sbafer safely on second base, be-
cause he fell for il. If the ball
haa been caught the Athletics
would have had an easy double
play.
something is going to break
for us now. Sa4o A1cJfaW on the
bench. That is the first slip
they have made"
But it didn't break.
NO EXCUSES TO OFFER
There are many excuses which
could be made for the result Of
the series. but the trouble with
these alibis Is that they won't
ft the returns. There is that old
one about the lame players. and
then Meyers hurt resulted in the
Younger pitchers like Marquard,
Tesreau and Demaree being han
died by a strange catcher But
TO get the real answer il is only
necessary to compare the batting
and fielding averages of the two
teams.
It is a great question whether I
will ever get into another worlds