The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-01-04
WHICH QUARTET
 WOULD YOU PICK ?
Choice of Pitchers in Major League Ranks Hard
 To Make.

If you were manager of a major
 league team and had the chance to
 take your pick of all l~ the major
 four right handlers or four left hand 1efs which would you prefer--a.
 quartet of southpaws or one compos-
 cd entirely of northpaws2
 Just by way of illustrations if you
 Had to make the choice between a
 sun of the Senators, Joe Wood of the.
 Red Sox, BiH James of tlne Braves
 and Grover Alexander of the RIaiI-.
 Hes. and another staff made up of leonard and Collins of the Red Sex,
 Sa1lee of the Cardinals, and Rucker
 Of the Brookiyns. which weuld you
 This is. noe saying that the four ri siht handlers named are the best of sheir kind lin the game today or that tne four south paws tn entioned would ephstituEe the best quarfet of that parsuaafon that could be se lscted. That's wholly matter of 0 si1aien,' and there are great many oRinions in the world oE seBall. :.
 somS fans 1z gers 1aiglEt pre- they are. to arT of be rishtt -handad hlrIers named Bfg Ed walsh; has been quite some slabman and a lot of people still believe he can come hack There area few other north Haws of note, sEach as Dabuc of De- tr Sit. Tesrsau cf the Giants, Scott and Cicntfes of the White. Sox, Cheney ofstha Cubs. Keatfng Of the Yankees, RNdolphs oE the Braves. Shawzxey of tne AfhIet1cs. dams of Pittsburgn, and others too numerous to mention
 here doubtless are a lot Of per sons who wouId prefer Plank or Vaughn, o1dsas they are, or Mar quard or Russell cratic as they are
 to some of the Ieft-handed pitchers included in the foregoing quartet
 Then there are Cove1eskies of Detroit
 Gregg of the Red Sox, Benton of Gin cfnnatIs Allen Of Brooklyn, ,e Tyler of the Braves and a few other south paws whose names have been carved Into baseball history pretty perma- nently, and still are in their prime
 But there isn't a manager in the Iand who would refuse to accept either of the quartets we first select ed, provided they could get them at any cost within reason. The argu- 11ae1t 1s whether staff composed en- ttFely Of 1eft-handers would be as ef- fective fn a pennant race as one made up entirely Of rleflt-handers. TO make it more concrete, W oIalds four JpAnsons be better than four Leon ards, provided their defensive or of fensive support were eqaaI? si
 sAVe have asked quite a few persons whose opinions are worth it, and they differ considerably. Some of then, pFeferred the right-handers and otj, CTS the southpaWs, and a few decIarl ed it would not make much differ ence, because a good pitcher is a good pitcher, irrespective of which side Of hts anatomy does the mechanical V9Fk Admfttlng, that brains count fer more than mere skill in pitchine the point still is interesting and the writer inclines to the belief that four left-handed pitchers on one teana rlght-handers on the same team as the major leagues are made up today. ake the batting averages of theeI American and National Leagues for t7e last two or three seasons and vo,l.i VIII find that the majority Of the regulars who bat up near the ton l each year are left handed in handling 1a1e stick In four years there have been selected by a nonpartisan jury eight payers who were considered The pest in their respective league. These esght winners Of the Chalmers trf,- phy were Ty Cobb, Iris Speaker Walter Johnson and Eddie Collins in | the American League, and Frank ] Larry Doyle, Jake Daubert and John Evers in the National | League-
 Seven of those eight 'sbest pIavers,, I bat left handed. The only right hand a batsman picked for the trophy was Johnson, g pitcher and the onIv pitcher to gain that honor. He was selected for St1is defensive ability alone. The others were chosen chief ly for their offensive strength. a1- though none ,of them is a weak 7e- Eens1ye player of course