New Britain herald., 1915-10-04
. O&, LIGHT d:I'<5I 1T
 , 1.

Cobb, Crawford and Veach.
 It can be done, but it's quite an as- signment as assignments go.
 The Two Pitching Staffs.
 Alexander stands in baseball today among pitchers where Mathewson stood ten years ago. The Red Sox will find him the hardest man to beat they have ever tackled, for they have never before faced a pitcher with that pug zling side-arm motion or one who had such control of a low ball, the hardest ball of them all to hit.
 The Red SoX can applaud their lucky fortune if they beat big. Alec enc time out of three starts. But, having accomplished this task, they will then have all the best of it with Foster Shore, Ruth and Leonard to throw against the rest of Moran's staff.
 George Chalmers is first class pitcher There is good stuff in the arms of Rixey, Mayer and Demaree Also McQuillen., But none of these can be figured upon a par with any enc of the Red SoX four-all fine pitchers and more. than ordinarily good against the test.
 For at home and on the road, at tight spots along the way, no club has been able to break through their 1 barb wired defenses-not even an at tack launched by the greatest attack ing machine of the year-the Tigers, led by Cobb and Crawford.
 The Tigers were unable to bag a series from the Red Sox-out of six played. They won but 8 of their 22 games against the leaders-and the Tigers, with batting average above .265 and a. machine always rushing forward with aggressive speed-may be used as a complete test.
 As It Works Out. ...
 So the rival pitching comes to this if the series goes to seven games the Red Sox will have pitching ad- vantage in four games and the Phil lies in three.
 If the series goes to six games which it almost surely will-the Phil lies will have pitching advantage in Alexanders three games--and the Red Sox will have the advantage in tho other three. But the Red Sox will have a greater pitching margin in these other three games than the Phillies will have on Alexander's starting days. Briefly, the Red Sox are fairly sure to get high grade pitching every game. The pitching power of the Phillies is a gamble and a guess on the days that find Alexan- der reposing on the bench.
 Picking the Pitchers.
 Moran has Alexander primed for three starts. Next to Big Alex, Mayer and Demaree have done the best work with Rixey and Chalmers trail ing a length or so back.
 Yet Chalmers, now in fine condition, is rated by many as Alexander's main aid.' Which doesn't mean that Moran isn't banking just as heavily upon Scissors Mayer, the lank young citizen with the spiral twist.
 Carrigan will have a harder time picking his pitchers. Shore has won 20 games and lost '; Foster has won 22 games and lost 8; Leonard, after late start, has won IA games and dropped 6; Ruth has attached 16 vic- tories against defeats. 4
 These four were the ones used with almost equal effectiveness in the more important series of the year There is no vast difference in their work upon a general average. All four can throw that baseball, which is a lead Ing feature. rOSLer pTOUdDly Has d slight shade on the. bunch, with Shore rated second. But any one of the four is well capable of giving Alexander a close, hard battle. And any one of the four will carry to tattle an advantage over any other Philadelphia pitcher.
 But for Boston to win, one of the four must beat Alexander in one of his three starts. Which will develop into a pretty fair afternoons work plus trif1e on the side.
 The Main Argument. The entire matter finally reserves itself into this dizzy debate-for world series work--for five, six or seven games-is one great pitcher plus two or three average pitchers as effective just below greatness and we'll above average worth?
 It's ticklish problem. But it must be rememb bered that Mathewson needed a McGinnity in 1905; that Coombs needed a Bender-and Ben der at his best needed a Plank. That Joe Wood in his great year needed a Bedient.
 Alexander can't win this series alone. He must get some effective ritching help from his mates-from ] Mayer or Chalmers or some one else! Unless he does, Boston, even against the known and proven greatness of AIexander will have a pitcl,ip a1uar