The Washington times., 1914-06-14

| seasons. johnson was d winning finger
| with i club which belonged m the joke
| class. He was fully as good then as
! he is now with a winning combination
| behind him. RucEer never has had a
| fair CHARGE to pitch Winning ball with
/ the Brooklyns, who always have been
| fioundering around in the seconi divis-
ion since he Joined them, except when
| making an occasiona! squirt. These two
men are exceptions 10 the rule that ii
| takes club enthusiasm to bring success.
| Detroit has two veterans, Dauss and
Duouc. who are not liked By oatsmen
who are trying to fatten up their aver
ages. Dubuc has been somewhat handi-
! capped by poor physical condition this
season, but, nevertheless. has done great
work. Hauss' curve La1 is tie bane
Cf many hitters' existence. He is about
as deadly TO Washington as Walter
Johnson IS 10 our club, and suppose
that the two We're hook Up in a
mound duel when each is at his best
| the game will last a month before any
body scores.
along nicely. They have run into some
tough luck now and then, particularly
on the recent Eastern trip, when the
! club was giving them very loose sup
port, but you can count on Coveleskie
and Main to be among the winners
when the season is over.
Chicago's hurting is probably the best
in the league. 1t has to be if the Sox
ever want to win a game. for their at
tack is very feeble. Eddie Cicotte, Jim
Scott, Joe Benz, and "Reb" Russell are
pitcing magnificent ball. It is good
thing that pitchers are no longer ranked
by their victories and defeats, but by
the number of earned runs allowed per
game. Under the old system of rank
ing, Scotty and Cicotte would be well
down the list, but now they must be
somewhere near its head.
With a club like the Tigers or Ath-
letics behind them, the two stars of
Callahan'S staff hardly ever would be
beaten AS it is, they consider it an
event when they win a ball game. 1t
really seems too bad that such pitching
should be wasted on an outfit which is
so helpless in the matter of scoring
runs.
1t looks to me as though the Sox
Were being a little over-managed. L
mean by this that Callahan, in his anx-
iety to get the club going, is trying too
many experiments with his men. If he
would let them be natural for. a time
and encourage them into the belief that
they can hit, perhaps they would do so.
But, by changing the lineup often and
putting in pinch hitter every time
there is man on base, Cal has con-
WINGED almost all of his regulars that
lHSy are uuDS WIN the mace.
In q recent game in Detroit, he took
out Alcock. who had made a double, a
single and a sacrifice up to the time Of
his removal, and put in Fournier as
pinch sticker. OF course, Callahan
figured that, as he was three runs be-
hind at this time, he had to have a
long wallop 10 get into the game, but l
believe that it would have done more
good in the long run to have let Alcock
bat. even if he didn't do anything, than
Inr do rH-~s rHv,nn
even if Fournier had hit a home run.
BY permitting the youngster to take his
regular turn. the manager could have
shown confidence in him that would
have meant a lot in the future Win
ming this particular game was not
nearly so important as encouraging a
boy who is trying hard to earn major
league berth, and who needs only bat
ting ability to he a valuable player.
Another club which has good pitching
is St Louis. Weilman and Hamilton
are hard men to beat at any time and
Baumgardner at his best is tough
bird. Many ball players insist that
Weilman hasn't anything at all on the
getting away in this league like he is
must have something more than just
luck.
II is a peculiarity of ball players to
say that a pitcher who beats them
hasn't anything, while one off whom
they get a million hits has every
thing" ! have heard a fellow come
back to the bench when some good
pitcher was working at his best and
say: Gee. how does that guy get away
with it? He hasn't shown me enough
to fool a blind man. Probably this
mans record uD to the time OF speaking
was three strikeouts and a foul to the
catcher
Another day when some dub is blow
ing the ball up TO the plate a man who
has made two or three doubles and
homer or so will say: Gosh, I never
have seen that pitcher so fast. He's
got the greatest curve today | ever
looked at, and did YOU notice the splitter
he has developed?''
Western cities in the American League
are now getting their first look at the
Eastern clubs Of the circuit, while the
Eastern rooters in the National are Civ
ing the Western athletes the once-over.
In Ban JohnsOn's organization there are
very few strangers to be inspected and
criticised. Philadelphia, Washington.
and Boston are playing about the same
line-upS that they had last season,
barring some new pitchers. New York,
however. has a whole raft of recruits
In fact. HartZell, Peckinpaugh. and
Sweeney are the only men on Chance s
club other than the hurlers who are
known in the West
Can the Pirates come back?' is the
question that National League fans are
asking themselves. The Clarke tribe :
slump was one of the surprises and
shocks of the season, and nobody seems
able to account for 1t at all Unless
the Smoky City boys get themselves to-
gether on this Eastern trip and begin
to win some ball games, it looks TO me
as though the National League race is
about over. Cincinnati has been dong
wonderfully well, put / doubt whether
HerZog has the team this season to
fight the Giants all the way to the
wire.
/ hand it to "Ruck" for doing a great
lob in putting the Reds in the first
division. His material is not the best
in the world. take il all the way down
the line but the men are hustling and
pIaying ball all the time. which
counts Tor a lot If Hcrzog can
straighten out the internal differences
on his squad and get Chief johnson
back with his heart In the game, he
may be able to sustain the pace all the
way through the season.
II would be a great thing for base
ball II the Reds Won the pennant. Gin
cinnati would go mad over winning
club. and the fans deserve one, after
putting up with a poor outfit for so
many years. The only trouble about
grabbing a flag in Cincinnati Is that
the team would have TO keep on win
ming forever or the knockers brigade
would make life unbearable for the
PLAYERS as soon as they fell into a
slump i do not suppose the Cincin-
natl fans have begun to take the Reds
seriously as yet. but II they make a
should get some regular crowds when