The Washington times., 1915-10-07

| am glad the newspapers have
kept putting Alexander before the
series. The more they talk about
him and the more they dwell upon
the necessity for him to win three
games, the bigger the strain he will
go into the series under. Sometimes,
since we have been sure which teams
would meet in the worlds series,
have wondered how Alexander has
felt with all this talk Of what Is ex-
pected Of him. It IL water on our
wheel, but tough on him.
"Pat" Moran, Alexander, and KILL
fer were in New York the first part
Of the week watching us play the
Yankees. They saw Leonard and
Foster both get beaten in one day.
Naturally neither was working his
arm off. pat" came down to our
bench between the games Of tho dou-
bleheader, and had talk with me.
How are you. BILL" he said. "Who
are you going to use Friday?"
Il don't know" told him. II will
look them over q little before I PICK
| one"
Better start a good one"
This the drst time you've seen our
club" I asked Moran.
| He nodded.
Get any Information
| He shook his head.
SEQ us?' no asked.
, Against tho Braves when Alexander
was going great guns" told him.
He looked pretty good. didn't hef"
Moran asked with a smile.
ALEC" did look good that day In Bos-
| ton. but 1t has been the reputation OF
our club that 1t is the hard ones We
heat. Frequently the Red Sox will slop
along against the easy teams. but. when
sass. m :ns s % ,bsr SI rss,band Tx sn
hittcrs. won't do much against our left
| handlers. My southpaws have been ef-
fective against righthand mtters all
| season.
We are not making many plans on
| the Information that has been handed
to us BY baseball men who claim TO
know the Phillies. l prefer to work
or course. we know that Cravath and
| Luderus are the men we must stop
hitting in the series. and we arc rgur-
ing to look them over carefully every
| tlre Inev COIne 10 Dht DUN dTc udH-
gerous, since either one is apt to get
a toe-hold and break up q ball game.
II is bad to let a player get . toe-hold.
, That is the reason Ty Cobb so otten
Seaa is"k' He psnsr stands JUS, 'S soss to the
| plate as the chalk line will let him
and just as far up In the box. He
is always right up on the corner of the
is bound to keep him lodging. and It
| would be foolish to let a dangerous
| hitter like Ty dig his toe In BY pitch
ing to him on the outside. We know
and Detroit would decide the race.
, Therefore. we were out to win II. pitch
! ing to every batter the best we knew
! how.
years ago. about 1908. and he did rot
; look like so much OF batter then. lie
| was on the Boston Red Sox at that
/ time. so l knew his style pretty well.
about him now. and he may have i'm
proved whole lot. as his present bat
ting average would indicate. But he
Will also see some pitching that may
bother him more than the stun he has
all season did.
AS I have said before. all this dope
, and figuring may have little to do With
; the actnal outcome OF the series. for
is expected that comes through with
the big play. 1t was the tailend OF
the Braves batting order which did
most of the hitting last fall. Gowdy
got away good and he continued to hit
good ball all through the series. That
may happen again this yeer. It had
before last fall.
Then again II Is frequently some lit
tie break In the luck that changes the
much to take into consideration. 1t Is
hard to figure at all accurately. I be-
licve II was break In the luck. moth
ing else, that gave US the nnal Fame OF
that with the championship. from the
Giants In extrs innings. The critical
man In that final inning was Iris
Speaker. Matty was still pitching his
than he had used In any other battle of
the series. He worked In three alto.
gethe. that year 1t looked to me AZ Il
the old boy was using all he had and
life. H- acted ns II he wanted to win
that one. and. n he could do It, then he
didn't care whether he ever pitched
another or not. and It was not his fault
When Speaker came to the bat in that
last inning with the Giants leading he
was the critical man of the game. We
on the bench felt that; Our , lives had "a
SnodgTass' @ mum. We did not look for
such good fortune again. When
smoke pushed Up an easy foul fly
down the first base line. we on tho
bench thought the thing was over.
"I ran out the ball to nrst base. think
ing Il might drop safe" said Speaker to
me afterward. "I heard some one on
the Giants veil. Take IT, Chief to
Meyers as the Indian numbered for the
bali. but the wind was drifting 1t away
from him 7 had intended to yell for
Merkle to take 1t to confuse the play.
but. seeing how fast the wind was car
ryins the ball, 1t did not look to me AS
II Meyers had any chance to reach Il,
so I kept quiet When I saw that ball
fall In there. knew we would win, II
could feel II. And their club knew they
had lost. The New York team seemed
to go dead on Its feet after that"
Speaker has told me since that the
ball pitched to him. on which he made
n foul, was perfect strike. while the
one on which he made the single a min |
ute later was a bad ball figure about |
az many hits ore made on bad balls as
good ones II they are within three or
four inches OF that plate. only men
ton the incident of the other series
to- show that little break In the luck, |
some small thing on which no one can
calculate before the opening contest, |
lray decide it. The wind and the mis-
understanding between Merkie and
Movers cost tho Giants that victory
Sone such IIttle thing NAV derida ,bis