The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-05

With his weight and strength, Cady is
 the ideal man to catch speed pitching. , tils chief reputation as a catcher has been due to the fact that he has caught smoky Joe Wood, which Is one of the
 hardest tasks in the business, especfasiy when Wood is bit wild. Csdy handles W'od to perfection and he and Wood have become baseball affinities, and since Wood certainly will work in two games Cady becomes correspondingly important as a factor in this series.
 Thomas has been doing more catching this season than either Cady or Car r'gan, and his handling of the Ieft-hand- CTS has been excellent. He has enabled Carrigan to stay closer to the bench and devote more time to running the team. He is not a great catcher, although he is faster than either Cady or Carrigan and throws very well, even if erraticaliy. It Is well for Boston that the Phillies are not base running ball club. A team of speed boys might upset that catching staff, which has not had much practice in throwing this season chiefly because their pitchers did not allow op- posing runners to reach first. It Is rule of baseball that player must reach first iAfore he steals second and that kept Detroit from beating the Red Sox out of the pennant because two of the Red Sax pitchers do not hold runners close to the bases.
 In offensive strength We find the Bos- ton catchers leading the Phillies by a comfortable margin, and they also are ahead bit in defensive operations and on the seasons worth. For worth in the coming series Philadelphia makes a bet ter showing. This is because of Killi- fer-always provided he is in playing con- ditionA
 Bill Killifer is magnirlcer catcher If he were at the top of his form Just r,a ho f<,x pbafh fha,- oi not he would not reverse the figures. Of course, Killifer lost caste when he jumped to the Federal league and then jumped back. 1t hurt him. He has not received the press agenting or the admi- ration since then that was lavished upon him before. You don't read so much about Killifer, but the fact that his name is not so prominent in the papers does not detract from his worth out there in t-:at whitewashed angle.
 Kilifer Is one of these hustling agile, cat-like moving catchers that have be- come so popular in modern baseball. He Is quick, flash thrower. making quick
 ana unexpected pegs around the bases,
 and he backstops we'll. He handles Alex ander's speed and Rixeys uncertain I shoots with equal facility, and he catches all styles of pitching, which. oddly enough. the Boston catchers prefer not to do. Killifer has more speed elan any of the catchers of either team and Is likely to take a chance on the bases. He hits normally about .250 and hits well at any kind of pitching.
 If he has managed to get into condi- tion for the series, he will improve Phil adelphia's chances a great deal with his l fighting spirit and husting. aggressive style
 Burns, his understudy, is a mediocre catcher, and husting fellow with a lot of baseball brains He has done grand service during the incapacitation of Kill l lifer and is fair catcher, willing, and a good backstop, fair thrower and a weak hitter who Is dead on the bases.
 Moran will not use him If he can avoid l it. Neither will Moran figure as a
 catcher. although Pat might do worse than to step in himself and steady up
 Rixey if that cratic genius commenced | to wabble.
 l Tomorrow we tackle the pitchers, and l that is the crux of the whole situation.
 as Tommy Rice use to say. until some one asked him what crux meant.