The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1915-10-08
Luck Always is the Mightiest
Factor in Settling Honors
in Worlds Series Contests.
Dope Means Little, So Toss
q Coin and Place Your
Money As You Think Best.
BY FRANK q. MENkE

NEW YORK, Oct. S.-Luck always
has been the mightiest factor in de-
Gliding a worlds series combat, and
! luck probably will figure largely In
the Red Sox-Phillies series. Stats
tics covering past performances show
only what team and what the indi-
viduals should do in a series-they
never have shown and never will show
what the men actually will do. Worlds
series games always have furnished
surprises and startling upsets of the
dope, and they have been caused by
the dabbling of fate; by the smiles or
frowns of fortune.
Baseball, the old boys tell US, is 40
per cent skill and 60 per cent luck.
Which team will have the luck-which
will get the breaks of the game? An
swer those questions and you have
named the certain winner of the
series.
The dope says the Phillies should
out-slung the Red Sox and the Sox
ought to out-run the Phillies. But the
old dope may get jolt. Fate may
twist things
Dope means Little.
Worlds series combatants rarely
play true to regular season form.
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to be tower of strength have fallen
the best example of this. Others, from
whom nothing was expected, have risen
to great heights; have, by their won
derful achievements cinched the title
for their clubs. Whitley Robe of the
1906 White Sox, is one example. Hank
Gowdy Of the 1914 Braves is another.
Fortune smiled upon the Braves in
'o14-and the Braves won; it smiled
on the Red Sox in 1912, and they won:
1t smiled on the 1906 White Sox, on
the 1911 Athletics, and they won.
Those teams got the breaks, and it
was because they got the breaks that
they became the baseball champions
of the universe.
Hank Gowdy's 1914 worlds series &C
complishments stand out as one case
where the dope went awry. Before
the series Hank wasn't figured as a
slugger. He didn't do any real clOut-
ing during the regular 1914 season,
nor has he done anything remarkable
in the batting line this year.
Luck Was With Gowdy.
But fortune smiled upon Hank dur.
ing those four worlds series days in
1914 and Hank hit for the tremendous
average of .545. He went to bat eleven
times and got six hits. Three of these
were doubles. one a triple and the
other a homer. Every one of his ex-
ira base swats came exactly when it
was needed-came at a crucial mo-
ment during the game.
Hanks clubbing feat always will
rank as one of the greatest in worlds
series history, but it must rank, too.
as a bit Of luck that an ordinary clout-
ter should be able to connect with
smuggling streak during the most crit
ical period of his career.
In 1912 the Red SoX out-lucked the
Giants-and the Red Sox won the base
ball championship of the world. In
the first seven games of the series the
Red Sox got the breaks, and they got
them in the last game. You remem-
Der it, don't you?. 1t was in the last
half of the ninth inning and the Giants
were in the lead The Red Sox went
to bat and Engle sent a fly to Snod-
grass The Giant outfielder didn't
have to move for the ball. 1t was
the easiest chance he had during the
entire series He put out his hands,
the ball dropped into them, and out
again Snodgrass had made the $780,
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foozle of his career-and paved the
way for the Red Sox rally that won
the game and the championship.
Frank Baker smote two baseballs
into the grand stand for two separate
and distinct home runs in two of the
worlds series in 1911. Certainly for
tune smiled on Baker, because the
Athletic slugger in those two games
made as many home runs as he had
averaged in every thirty-five or forty
regular season games.
And so it goes.
Luck figures in every series and in
every game, and no matter what the
dope tells you, no matter which team
plays better ball. it's certainty that
the team that gets the breaks is the
team that will win the classic battle OF
baseball.