Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1914-07-19
'ANYBODY'S RACE
IN Big CIRCUITS
With Half of Season Gone
Nothing Definite to Indi
cate Winner.
FOUR WITHOUT HOPE
Yankees and Maps Have No Chance m
American League. and Boston
Braves and Pirates Are Not Con-
tenders i'm National.
nv MOntV)

gone, tnere is Stlll no Cellnlle ueNel-
opment to show with any degree of
certainty who will capture the flags.
In the American league six clubs re-
main in sight of the pinnacle, and
at least three are possibilities in the
National league.
The half way mark was reached a
week ago today. From April IA, the
opening day, to October I, the closing
date, is a stretch of exactly 1T days.
Half of the total would be So days and
a half, so that the eighty-nsnth day
is the middle. And the eighty-ninth
day was last Saturday. Altogether
each club is scheduled to play 154
games during the years campaign, or
eleven conflicts at home and eleven
abroad against each rival team. Thus
half of the total games would be sew
enty-seven. Because of the way the
schedule is arranged, including dou-
ble-headers and postponements. only
five clubs had completed half Of their
schedule by the midway mark, four
of them being in the American league.
The Detroit Tigers had engaged in so
combats, the Browns and Red SoX in
70, and the Senators in Z, the same
number as were played by the Cardi-
nails of the National league up to that
stage. The champion clubs of the
two circuits, however, had not kept
I'D to the schedule that we'll, the Ath-
letics having played IS games and the
Giants only Il. But these clubs are
all we'll past the halfway point now.
Judging from has occurred to date,
the first half of the season might just
as we'll not have been played at all,
SO far as it's bearing on the destina-
ton of the pennant is concerned. 1t
is extremely unlikely, even in a race
where the teams are SO closely
punched in the middle as they are now
in the American league, that the Win
ner's final margin will be less than
six or eight full games over the Sec
ond placer. Last year the Athletics
captured the American league pen
nant by differential of .043 in per-
centage points and 6 II games in the
other way of reckoning it. The Gil
ants edge was 12 games, or .0S1 in
percentage. At this time of the year
in 1913 these two clubs were playing
a much better grade of ball than they
are just now, and hardly anybody
could be found to bet against them.
But this year you would not have to
offer odds to get your money covered.
One thing the early season toll has
decided, however, and that is who will
NOT win the remnants. The Yankees
and Maps are hopeleslly out of the
American league pennant fight and
the Boston Braves and Pittsburgh
Pirates have no chance at all in the
National These clubs are the most
sensational disapointments Of the
year. Before the season opened, the
Pirates and the Braves were the fav-
orites of most critics to give the Gil
ants battle for the flag. The Braves
have been in last place nearly all
season. The Pirates are the greater
disappointment of the two, for they
got out ahead to a long lead in the
first month of play, and then cata-
pulled to the second division in a
spectacular slump, reaching seventh
place in five weeks.
Bone Plays.
Many fans in cities where the Fed
eral league does not play wonder
what sort of article of baseball the in
dependents really are offering. From
observation of about twenty games
played by the Brooklyn club at Wash
ington park, we present this opinion:
To the man who is not student
of baseball and does not appreciate
all the finer points of it, there would
be found little difference between the
Federal show and that in the two ma
ior leagues. The pitchers seem to
use the same assortment of curves,
the batters seem to hit the ball just
as hard, the fielders seem to make
about the same stops and throws and
the same general assortment Of tactics
in running the bases is witnessed
with no noticeable difference in the
speed of the runners.
But to the thirty-third degree stu
dent of the game, certain facts will
be apparent at times that throw a
spirit of disgust into the observer.
enthusiastically play will occur
that illustrates forcibly why many
of the men now with the Feds were
once turned down to the minors by
the big leagues Four such cases
arose in one game the other day.
At one time there was man on
second, fast runner, with nobody
out. The batter hit tremendously
long clout, but SO high up in the air
that the fielder chasing it had an
even chance of catching it. The rum
ner on second went half way to the
third sack and waited to see whether
the ball would be caught. When the
fielder made the catch, the runner had
| to hustle back to second base. A
clear thinker would have stayed on
SECOND to watch the1 play.s If the
fielder had missed the ball ,H'the clout
was SO long that the runner would
| have got home with ease. Or il. as
happened, the fielder caught 1t. the
runner could have made third without
trouble after the catch.
| Another time there were men on