Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1914-07-12
Sport Writer Says Pennant
in American League Will
Go to Some Other Team.
PREPARE FOR LAUGH
Declares Showing This Year to BE
Poorer Than Any Season for Several
YearS-Depend Too Much on Old
Veteran Pitchers,
(By Monty.)

(By Monty)
New York, July 11.-Prepare for a
! little laugh at our expense. All ready?
All right. here goes-the Athletics
will not win the American league pen
nant.
About once a year, if not oftener
each one Of us feels certain of some
thing that nearly everybody else de-
rides. No matter how others may
differ with the opinion, it continues
| to exist. Here is our once-a-year
! There may be human beings somewhere
that share this view of the situation
in the Ban Johnson circuit, but if
there are we are forced to the truth
full admission that we have failed to
meet them yet. However, that state
ment goes-the Athletics will not win
the American league pennant of 1914
and we only ask that the loud guf-
faw be postponed until October so that
all can be sure that the correct side
OF the mouth is doing the haw-hawing.
Ii the Athletics are not going to
win the pennant, who is? That's a
natural questions, and as for the an
sWer to it, you can search us. Maybe
there will be something more pointed
along these lines about the first of
September, but as for the present we
can't even guess. How is it then that
we have this idea the Athletics will
lose if we can't name the winner?
That also sounds reasonable But the
answer to that is easy. There are
five clubs in a more or less compact
bunch-Detroit, Washington, Chicago,
Boston and st. Louis-anyone of which
may come along and nose out the
worlds champions in the home
stretch.
Athletics Are Weak.
The way things look through our
glasses, just now, the Athletics are
the weakest club among the first six
in the American league race. Sixth
place is where we think they really
ought to finish, if all the clubs would
play strictly to our reckoning of form
from now on to the end. The Tigers,
Senators, White Sox, Red SoX and
Browns all appear to us to be stronger
clubs than the Mackmen and from
what we have seen of them-and
heard-these clubs all have played
better ball to date than the Athletics
Another question, then-how is it
that the Athletics have led the league
for so long a stretch if they have not
played the best ball? The answer is
this. only this-their reputation has
scared every rival club. Fear on the
part of the opposing side, has tighten
ed the task of the Mackmen. Whenev-
err a champion and challenger meet
in any line of sport, if on strict abili
ty the two seem perfectly evenly
matched, who is the favorite? Isn't
it always the champion? Why? Be-
cause the contender is awed by the
reputation of the title holder, bucking
against something that figures to car
~ an edge of superiority whether it
actually does or not.
Better Years Ago.
Though the other clubs-any ball
player in the league will tell you So
realize that the Athletics of this year
are nothing like the Athletics of a
year and three years ago, the con-
tenders forget this when they engage
in battle with the champions and,
subconsciously are swayed by the
idea that they are up against some
thing that can't be beaten. Games are
not decided strictly on the merits of
the battling teams this year when the
Athletics are party to them. The
other clubs get uncertain of them
selves, fidget around and wonder con-
stantly what the Mackmen are going
ITO spring next, just as they did when
in their prime. The fact that they do
not spring the old tricks-double
squeeze plays and such-in the way
they used to makes little difference.
The contender is just as much up in
the air as if the Mackmen were going
to do so, and a margin of about 80
per cent of the fight is put on the
side of the Philadelphians in this way.
In a word, more bad baseball has
been played against the Athletics than
against any other team in the league
that in a nutshell, is why they
have beeen "up there" as the ball
players say it.
But the other clubs are beginning
to get next to the Athletics-to the
real state of affairs.
Gradually they are getting their
confidence when they buck the 1913
pennant machine, beginning to play
the same game against the champions
that they do against one another. And,
unless we are led badly astray by our
eyes and ears, some one of those five
clubs mentioned, and maybe several of