Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-09-10
BY ED BANG.

: Suppose the Athletics were to win thu
American League pennant with a per
centage of $50 and the st. Louis Gard:
were to win the National League pennan
| with a percentage of $50. Here is 6
clear margin of 100. representing thu
greater ease with which the Athletics
went through their pennant race. Now
if you know nothing about either team
to prejudice you In its favor. which would
you pick to win the worlds championship
the Athletics or the Cards?
In the earlier days Of base bail. every
fan who kept himself fed on the dope OF
| the game would have picked the team
| with the lower percentage. And prior to
1850 he would have won in seven cases
| out Of ten.
Two of the seven worlds championship
| series between National League and
American Association teams ended in ties.
| due to cold weather. OF the remaining
| five series, only one was captured by
team that showed stronger than Its con-
tender in pennant race percentage
| Three Of the five contests between first
| and second teams in the National League
| In 1892 1894, 1895. 1886 and 1897, ended
| the same way.
| With the score then to 5 in favor of
| the team with the smaller seasons per-
centage the American League entered
| the field. and thereafter the dope was
| completely upset.
| Ten times have American League cham
pions faced National League pennant
| winners In struggles for worlds honors
and in eight of those ten instances the
70 he hn fool
that had scored the bigger percentage of
victories in its regular season. The two
exceptions were the White Sox of 1905
and the Athletics Of 1913.
The White Sox won their pennant by a
margin Of three games over New York
and ended the season with a percentage
of GIG Against them were the marvellous
Cubs. who had won 116 games. beating
the nearest team by twenty ful games,
age of 1853. an extraord nary record. And
the Sox won the series, four to two
Last fall New York romped home with
the National League flag and a per-
centage of 1884. In the American League
one of the severest of pennant races
ended with the Athletics ahead and
percentage to their credit Of .627. The
advantage was McGraw's, hguratively at
least but Mack's men upset the dope
and won four of the FIVE games.
But the Sox and the Athletics were ex-
ceptions to the general rule of recent
times. Eight out of ten worlds series
have gone to the team with the big per-
centage, and SO the conclusion must be
reached that, based on the history of
Standardization league contests for
the worlds honor. It is to shot that
the team winning the highest percentage
of victories in its championship race will
divide the big END of the worlds series
gate money. Which leads to the forecast
that unless some National League team
books wonderfully successfully winning
streak without further delay, and there
by runs up an enormous percentage,
Connie Mack will have something of a
historical advantage.
The 1914 worlds series will be the
twenty-third, loosely speaking. and the
eighteenth, strictly speaking. From 1882
to 1880 the National was 4 twelve-club
body without competition. Therefore It
was impossible to find a worlds cham
pion challenger, and there were no
worlds series In the strictest sense of the
term. But in 1892 the season was divided
into halves and the winner of each half
played a post-season series. In 1894 to
1897. inclusive. the first and second teams
in the National race played post-season
games for the Temple cup. These con-
te~ is are entitled to some historical rec
ignition. and it does no harm to include
them in the record of worlds series.
Unless Washington SHOULD happen to