The San Francisco call., 1913-10-06
Athletic War Clubs Pitted Against Giant Slab Stars
BY MONTY

few YORK, Oct. 6.-The Ath-
IN letics are facing the best
rounded pitching staff that
ever entered a worlds series, and
yet should be regarded as the
favorites to win by odds of at
least 5 to 4. Mathewson. Mar
guard, Tesreau and Demaree, the
Giants leading mound artists,
rank right at the top-ail of
them. Brown, Overall and Reul-
bach of the 1908 Cubs, and Bender.
Blank and Coombs of the 1911
Athletics are the best hurting
corps of past worlds series. In
these cases there were three stars.
while now the Giants have four,
the Athletics possessing only two
seasoned experts-Plank and
Bender-since Coombs has been
laid on the shelf by sickness.
With only two crack pitchers
opposed TO the Giants four, how
are the Athletics going to win?
Mathewson and Bender probably
Will be the slab opponents in the
first game on Tuesday. Plank VS..
Marquard is the likely card on
Wednesday; Thursday probably
will find Carroll. Brown, Bush or
Shawkey pitted against Demaree;
Friday Bender viii be ready to
come back, probably against Tes-
reau. and oppose the Giants again,
and Saturday Plank Will be ready
for his second game.
1t is within the bounds of possi-
bility, in our humble opinion, that
the series will come TO an end
with the Saturday game, the
Mack men winning four games Of
the first FIVE played, Bender TAX
ing two of them and Plank two.
This conclusion is not based on
any superiority of Bender and
Plank over the rival hurlers-
Bender is a great workman when
under an unusual strain. but even
then we do not consider him the
equal of Mathewson. In his pres
ent venera BILE condition Plank
hardly is as capable as either
Marquard, Demaree or Tesreau-
Then arises the question again:
How re these somewhat inferior
pitchers going TO obtain four YER
diets in four times out over their
superiors? The answer is: There
are eight men on basebalI team
besides the pitcher.
The Athletics as a batting team.
without taking into consideration
the opposing pitchers, far out
rank the Giants. In the American
league race just closed they hit
for a team average of more than
.2SO. while the Giants batted un-
der .27O In the National. More
over. the Athletics have six men
Collins. Baker. McInnis. Dan
Murphy. Strunk and Eddie Muir
phy-among the % leading bat
ters of their league. while the
Giants have only one Of the lead
ing Is National league hitters,
Chief Meyers.
Another thing to take into con-
sideration in the batting propo-
sftion is that the Athletics have
only an average pitching stan,
and. accordingly, their batters
faced the best pitchers In the
American league whereas the
Giants have by far the best
mound corps in the National
league. and consequently faced
pitching that was weaker than
the National league average.
Frank Chance, now manager of
the Yankees. ought to be in
better position to know the rela-
tive strength of the two leagues
than any one else, being fresh
from the Cubs, and he says that
the American league pitchers OF
the present time are quite bit
stronger than those Of the Ma
tional.
Thus the Athletics have the
better batting and the Giants the
better pitching. Some contend
that these two elements Will
eaualize one another. There is
this factor, though-the Giants
have nlauled the tar out OF poor
pitchers, but have been stumped
By good twirling. whereas the
Athletics have whaled the stars
of the American league at almost
the same rate as they have hit
the mediocre men.
IN event that the star pitching
of the Giants should curb the star
batting of the Athletics to about