The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-28


team being very strong. They have wol
as few as ten games from one of their
rivals and as many as 16. This makes
very strong showing and shows con .
clusively that New York has been play
ing ball every day the whole year and
that weakness hasn't cropped up for
any length of time for this season of
1918.
On the other hand the Athletics have
trounced New York 16 times and their
lowest average was against Boston,
having beaten them only 10 times UP
to last Wednesday. Chicago, a fifth
place club, triumphed over the Athlet-
les on IL occasions and the margin OF
losses by the Athletics was wide as the
minimum and maximum is three and IL,
showing quite a range of form.
The Athletics have one great Thing in
their favor and that is that they can
put seven men who have played regu-
larly and can be termed regular play
ers. including the pitcher and catcher,
that bat right handed against any left
handed pitcher that New York puts in
The two left-handed hitters are Baker
and Collins and neither is weak against
off-side pitching.
On the other hand. when a right
handler faces the Athletics they can
send in seven left-handed batsmen hav-
ing only Barry and McInnls hitting
from the right side of the plate. By
this plan Manager Mack will not de-
tract from the strength of his team to
fielder in right as the left-handed
Danny Murphy may not be quite as fast
fielder in rights as the left-nanded
hitter. Eddie Murphy, and Daley may
notN be as good a batsman as Old
ring.
Clubs Appear Well Matched
Summing it all up, 1 want to reiter-
ate the statement that the contending
clubs appear we'll matched. l believe,
though that if the Giants win tho first
game, they will win the series much
easier than will the Athletics if they
capture the opening engagement.
I believe that Marquard and Denaree
will be the most effective pitchers In
the series. OF course, Mathewson has
always given the lie to those who pre-
dicted his downfall and / will not pre-
dict. 1t in this series. But believe the
style of Marquard and Demaree Will be
the more successful that Matty's. Tes-
reau is liable to run into trouble
against the. Athletics.
This whole series will not be a ques-
tion of base running and tactics so
much, excepting, of course the selection
OF pitchers. 1t will be just case of
twirlers can hold New York down just
fairly well I believe the Athletics bats
men will bang out enough runs to win
for them. On the other hand. if the
Giants show a reversal of batting form
and their pitchers hold the Mack men
down at all, New York will win easily.
Scientific tactics will not have much
to do with this series. but the game will
be competently handled and there will
not be as many mistakes as in the Sc
rieS of 1912, when in every game mis-
takes which were vital to the best in
terests OF the teams were made.
The batting and fielding records of
each club show very interesting figures
and these give the Athletics the ad
vantage over the Giants. The Athletics
in the averages published last Sunday
had accepted total of $500 chances
with only 1877 errors, the Giants having
accepted 576S chances with a total Of
224 errors. This gives the Athletics
comfortable margin.
As mentioned before. the Athletics
lead the Giants in batting. III this ye-
spect, as in fielding. the Athletics led
their league, while the Giants were
third in batting and fifth in fielding.
In long hits by clubs the Athletics lead
their league with an average of 1897.
The Giants rank fifth in their league
with 1856. The Giants do not lead in
any one uepartHleRer OIL team SsSTdSe eS'
while the Athletics lead the American
league in every department.
On the other hand, the pitcheRs of
the Giants collectively are far and away
ahead of the Athletic pitchers.
New York Has Good Reserves
The Giants are better fortified with
utility players, having Herzog. Grant
and Mccormick. the latter the depend
able pinch hitter. The only infield re-
serves the Athletics have are Lavan
and Orr. Neither can hit very WE'LL
One thing in the Athletics favor is
that they eiinched the pennant two
weeks before the time for the series to
be ain and will be able to work and
study in order to prepare for the big
battles. I thought they showed de-
cfded Improvement in the last few
games against our clubs and They have
the men who should brace and get the
machine running smoothly. However.
as I have said. / think that pitching
and batting will decide the issue-that
is, the club which combines those two
qualities best will win and there will
be no other factors in the conflict
worth mentioning.
> 1t is impossible to say at fnis timc
who will be the actual winner of the
1918 worlds series and wouldn't feel
like hazarding a guess for the Athletics
and Giants are about equally strong
Therefore / have not picked the winner
exactly, but / have tried to show how
the series hinges upon several things
and the team which best follows out
that campaign win be returned the
victor
IT