Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-10-08
Connie llack's Athletics Should Defeat
George Stallinsss Braves in Great
Worlds Series Baseball Battle.

Picking the winner of the world:
series is a cinch. All you have to dc
is to say the Philadelphia Athletics
will win or the Boston Braves
will win It is simple, isn't it
If your selection wins you are
wise guy" II you fail to name the
successful team you are something
else Those who do much picking are
generally something else although
there is so much satisfaction in pick
| ing a winner that the humiliation suf-
fered in selecting four or five losers
is more than offset. That's why /
| like to name winners-name winners
in big events If you are on the right
side-outside of those who will say
you are lucky and simply guessed it
you are a dandy; but if you are on
the wrong side you are dub. But,
incidentally, more people seem to be
aware of the fact that you have picked
the loser than If you happen to select
the winner. In my case. l know this
to be so. and I have received more
unpurchasable advertising by naming
the loser than ] have when my pre-
diction was the winner. Yes, it is easy
and delightful to pick the winner, and
am today enjoying the pleasure of
il all.
o
But to get right down to brass
tacks, the Athletics, in my opinion,
should win the worlds series.
have been trying for more than
week to see if / couldn't make the
Braves beat the Mackmen, but
couldn't do it nohow. OF course, you
could pick the Bostons to win and
let 1t go at that but you couldn't
back up your argument by any sane
facts or figures. Philadelphia is the
better team by good margin and
those who are selecting Boston are
doing so out of sympathy or on n
"hunch." Nothing in the way of
sound argument can be advanced to
show that the Braves should win,
yet of course they may win, and
win beyond a question of doubt
That would be what is known in
sports as luck, and luck has not been
a stranger in sports.
o
There are good many reasons to
advance why the Athletics should win,
but there is just one reason, you could
say. why the Braves should win. The
Mackmen are best in an all-arourd
way. That is, they have the better
team from top to bottom. from stem
to stern. Boston, perhaps-perhaps
only. mind you-excels in one par
ticular-in the pitchers. In Rudolph,
James and Tyler the Braves have
three twirlers who are in great form
and who are we'll able TO take up
their turn in the box as often as 1t
comes around. This statement, of
course is made on what the men have
been doing all season. The Mackmen
also have some pitchers, Bender and
Plank, for instance; but they haven't
a first -class third man to follow up
with. That means a lot. They might
use young Bressler, a left-hander, like
Plank, or Joe Bush, who won his
game last year. Then there is Shaw
key and Pennock and Wyckoff; but,
after looking all over the field, you
must fall back on Bender and Plank
as the only two reliables. In this
particular department Boston sure
has shade. but you may go through
the two teams with a fine-tooth comb
and YOU will not be able to give them
a look-in otherwise That is Boston's
one chance-phenomenal pitching
and it will have to be phenomenal
pitching to stop that artillery of hit
smiths that come to bat every other
inning or SO from the Mack firing line.
@
BY giving Boston the best of it in
regard to pitching doesn't mean that
the Boston pitchers will be able to
stop the Philadelphia hitters. With
both pitching stats equal, the Athlet-
les would win, for they are the harder
hitters by a country mile or so, and
they excel the Braves in every other
department of the game. But, as fol-
low-up pitchers, one after the other,
Boston has the call. Three pitchers
are a-plenty to work in the big series,
but two pitchers are not enough
That is the one and only spot where
the Boetons figure best, yet this ad-
vantage is generally offset by the SUI
periority of the Mackmen in other
quarters
o
Taking the outfields of the two
teams, Philadelphia easily has the
/ call Strunk, Oldring, Murphy and
/ rsp ina . low