Grand Forks daily herald. (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1914-1916, 1914-09-08
GAVE FORKS
GREAT BALL CLUB
Best Team Did Not Win the
Pennant-Pitchers All
Darby Had.
UMPIRING STAFF
NOT
Too East For Them to Shirk
~Duty-Burmeister Did
We'll, However.
by Ben

tBN Benz
Eddie Wheeler. who got together
Ind led the hest a%il-round ball team
IN the Northern league. is spending a
couple of days in the city before cav
ing for his home at South Bend, Ind.
The Grand Forks manager deserves
unlimited praise for his work. Press
.ncomiums are not sufficient. He
ought to have the glad-hand and loyal
support of every fan in III city.
Wheeler is an excellent player and
. good general. A few years ago. he
was n of the best performers in the
American association. Since then he
had successfully led minor league
cams
This year. he assembled for Grand
Forks A team that any city Of its size
pr vastly larger could we'll be proud.
He had a chance to win h pennant.
nut the ~exigencies of the fight were
against him. After a long slump-the
longest of any team in the league-he
got them on the right road again and
brought them in third.
And local residents have no COM
plant to offer. A third-position team
s good enough for any city.
So, all honor and praise for Eddie
Wheeler!
With the exception Of the pitching
department, Grand Forks had abso-
.utely the strongest and fastest team
n the league.
This is not to be gain said, for any
good baseball judge around the cir
suit will admit it.
If Grand Forks had not been out
pitched. she would have won the
Northern league pennant and won Its
hands down.
Even with the present pitching staff.
which has done remarkable work dur
ing the past month, there was a
chance. But the hurlers did not hit
their proper stride until past mid-sea-
son. If Donley, Larson and Snow had
rounded into their present form early
IN July, the Flickertail standing would
nave been much better.
The Grand Forks team played the
most consistent ball throughout the
season. 1t won and lost more gawes
by the one-point margin than any
other organization. And it had the
healthy respect Of every nine in the
Burmeister loop.
In Carrigan. McGraw and Flaherty.
Grand Forks has the class of the
league in outielders. In Freer. Nif-
necker, Wheeler and Anderson. they
have the classiest in1eld. In Peters
and Sampson, they have two catchers
that can hold their own with any
DacKStOpS IN the league.
Nifnecker. Peters, Larson and Don
ley go to st. Paul. Dutch Altman
already has gone to the Chicago White
Sox.
Five men are quite n bunch for one
minor league team ia send I'D
And. If given the proper backing
next year, the locals can send others
up.
Patrick Flaherty. the easy-going,
genial right fielder. has been a tower
Of strength to the ~Flickertails. His
bludgeon work during the past month
has broker up more han one game
and turned it into victory for the To-
calls.
1t is not amiss to say that Flaherty
Is the best, the classiest. the headiest
~all-round player in the Northern
league.
Patrick himself will tell you differ
emily. but Patrick's modest is one of
the best things about him.
And SO, while dragging others into
the limelight, we turn the spot on him
for this brief moment.
The only regrettable feature of the
Northern league race is the fact thai
the best team did not win.
Duluth. a fifth-rate team at the
most, won the pennant.
But, as we declared yesterday. the
phenomenal work of four pitchers
was responsible for it.
So far as infeld and outfeld are
concerned. In one of four teams
Grand Forks, Winnipeg, Virginia OF
W1nona-could out-class the Docks.
So far as Darby O'Brien is concern
ed, any one OF three we
could name could out-general him.
1t was Messrs. Eel, Withers. Gun
bingham and Blancke that won the
Northern league pennant and not the
Now that the season is ended. i,
might be well to point out one or two
seeming faults.
The umpiring staff, for instance. was
not quite infallible.
It Is not our intention to drag In
the umpire alibi at this time, for
whatever Grand Forks has suffered al
the hands of poor arbitrating. has
been showed into its limbo.
But the F%lickertails. as well as 9TH.
er teams, paid for umpire mistakes OF
bias decisions.
The particularly bad feature. how.
ever, is the ease with which umpires
get out Of officiating. The pIayer-um.
pfre is a poor n at best, for he en-
genders Ill feeling and. when integrity
uiSdils HotIin8, Is absolute robbery.
Grand Forks paid dearly for her ex-
perience with player arbiters. We
know OF three games on the home
grounds that would have resulted diff
ferently had II not been for decisions
mad by q certain player, who prac-
tically had to favor his own team.
We remember one day on which
Tim Flood was absent, when, SO far
Is can be learned, he had no excuse
for leaving. It was during the August
Wtnona series. and Grand Forks went
from here to the southern Minnesota
city at Its conclusion. Flood was bill
ed to umpire in Winona, and he left
Grand Forks-at least he did not show
up Ct the grounds-the day before the
local series was concluded. No excuse
va offered. So far as Is known. he
wAs not i'll.
There have been occasions when
uynpfres have been Ill. Elliott was too
AL 70 umpire once and last week Car
was 30 badly injured in one same
thai he could not appear the next day.
Up In Virginia 1 Few days ago, there
49, AL kinds of trouble because there