El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-07-21
Pennant Is Not Cinched
In American Or National
Race Is Half Over but Leading Teams Are in Front With
Only Slight Margin; Pittsburg and Boston Have
Proved Bitter Disappointment; Federals
Are Playing Poor Article of Baseball
BY MONTY.

, 20 games played by the Brooklyn club a.
! Washington park. we present this opinion
Z To the man who Is not a student o.
I baseball and does not appreciate all tbs
finer points OF II. there would be found
( little difference Between the Federal show
and that in the two major leagues Ths
pitchers seem to use the same assortment
Of curves the batters seem TO hit the bal
just as hard. the fielders seem to make
same general assortment Of tactics in run
ming the bases is witnessed with no no.
ticeable difference in the speed OF the run
FederaIs Play Badly.
But 10 the SD degree student OF the
game. certain facts viii be apparent at
the observer. enthusiastically a 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.
a fast runner, with nobody out The batter
hit a tremendously long clout. but 50 high
Up IN the air that the fielder chasing II
had an even chance OF catching it. The
runner on second went half way to third
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 or second to watch the play II
the fielder had missed the ball the clout
was 50 long that the runner would have
got home with ease Or IL, as happened.
the fielder caught It, the runner would
have made third without troubis after the
catch
Runners Both Out.
Another time there were men on first
and second with two out A snap throw
by the pitcher trapped the man off first
and he was in sure death runup When
the man on second headed for third, the
first baseman threw the ball there 70 cut
him down. After half a dozen throws
back and forth, the two men were safe on
the bases ahead. having negotiated a lucky
double steal. Now, since the two were out,
why didn't the infieId simply run down
the man off first and pay no attention to
the other fellow? That's what a quick
Witted team would have done
Bone No was pulled by Monte Cross
umpire on bases. throw from the short
stop beat the batter TO first by several
steps But the first sacker dropped the
ball 'Out," said Cross. though the ball
had not been held by the baseman for as
much as q full second. 1T was held mo-
mentarily.' he explained after a big argu-
ment had been quieted- Never before had
any body in the press box seen an umpire
interpret the word '.momentarily" 50 liter
ally
The Empires "BOnehead"
Goeckel. umpire behind the plate, pulled
the other bone which was in direct viola
ton OF all baseball rules A player kicked
on a called third strike and was put out OF
the game by GoeckeL Then. when Il was
that teams turn TO take the field in the
opponents half Of the inning. the manager
pleaded with his jumps TO let the player
back. saying his team was so crippled by
injuries that he didn't have another infield
substitute left The umpire let him return
to the game.