New Britain herald., 1915-07-07
Midsummer Roundup.
No. II. The National League.

Midsummer Roundup.
 No. Il. The National League. The late MT. Shakespeare once tore off an established offering known as "A Midsummer Nights Dream < This might be entitled . Midsummer Pipe Dream as one musr necessarily soak the old Pipe in grarpling with this baseball lore, whatever the stage
 Back in April the enc club picked far and wide was the Boston Braves. They were held to be the class of the circuit, with only New York and possibly Chicago left to give Stallings a battle. But pounding along within few Jumps of the half mile post this dope has been utterly wrecked wrecked worse than any dope we have seen wrecked for some tin1e--ard we have seen our share.
 New Entries
 So far there have been at least six surprises in this. N l.. race. 1. Sur prising strength shown by the Phillies. 2. Power and consistency shown by the Cubs g. Pittsburg's revival. A. The fight St. Louis has made With Magee, wingo and Perritt missing. B.. II uG SluHlp OI ltlC DIdkCc. IVY V'95 York's inability to reach the first division
 The strength shown by the first four clubs was not taken seriously for the first six weeks. But any club that can batter along in the running for half the distance must at least be consider ed in the prophecy of the times. In place of breaking. Cubs, Phillies Pi- rates and Cards have shown enough form to be classed as pennant possi- bilities-with machines greatly inn proved instead of weakened power.
 The Brave Outlook.
 With Ewers back in harness and with James. Rudolph and Tyler at top form we still figure Boston has the best club in the older circuit
 But there are other things to con- sider. It is by no means certain that James, Tyler and Rudolph will regain the unbeatable form which marked their pitching last summer. And. as important as this, it must be rernenn- hered that while last summer nearly every entry curled up and quit before the furious drive of the Braves, this summer there will be bitter lighting to the end. Both Cubs and PhiIlfes have shown conclusively that they are in this pennant jamboree to stick. The Cards are sure to keep hustling and the Pirates will stick to the finish. Sc in fighting their way back the Braves have a different line of trenches to take than those of 1914. They have an organized defense to batter down now and only great base ball will ever carry them back.
 1914 and 1915.
 Last summer the Braves overhauied lead of sixteen games and packed on ton more for full measure. They made a net gain on the rest of the league of more than twenty games from July to October. But to accom- plish this Rudolph, James and Tyler even against reeling circuit-had to give the best pitching witnessed 2 decade.
 The sole chance Stallings has to lead his people back is to get the same fine pitching-and even then he will be in for a harder battle than he had 1ast year The long absence of Evers snd the epidemic of poor pitching upset the Big Chiefs calculations, but 1t will be doubly interesting to see whether or not he can put through another drive against an even harder com bination.
 The Three Leaders.
 While both St. Louis and Pittsburg have their flag chances, we figure that by September the National league race will be three-cornered affair among the Cubs, Braves anad Phillies.
 Judged upon the showing of the first three months and the prospects that wait ahead, the race may De divided