New Britain herald., 1915-08-17

The pennant aspects Of the present
even the dope of the unpires. We
were talking over a few details Of this
famous flag hurly-burly with one of
the leading arbitrators OF the game,
who has operated among the zig-zag
fortunes Of the different clubs and
has had unusual opportunity to make
observations. His comment outlined
the situation thoroughly.
IT have seen a number of pennant
races in my day. said this arbiter,
"but nothing like the present one. I
change my mind as to the October
winner about four times a week. In
one series I will be certain that Pitts
burg will land the prize. They will
furnish every mark of champions. In
the next series against Il weaker club
the Pirates will look like tail enders.
The same dope is true of all the
others. The Braves, Phillies and
Dodgers will look almost unbeatable
for three Or four games, and then will
cut in with a series of Glass X base
ball. In one series one OF these con-
tenders will look strong in the box
at bat and in the field. In the next the
pitching will be bad, the batting weak
and the fielding ragged. I've never
seen anything even approaching these
sudden shifts from good to bad form
- and back again."
Lack of Consistency.
1.-THE lack of consistency this sea-
son. he continued, has been beyond
any past turn of the game. ONLY
four clubs have shown any consistent
striking strengthened these four for
only short distances, The Phillies
played grand baseball for the first
three weeks of the race. They have
barely broken even since. The Cubs
had one drive for three weeks that
made them look Formidable They
have never been anywhere since The
Dodgers had the longest stretch of all
when they won twenty-one out of
twenty-six games-play;ng pernant
baseball for a full month before they
And the Braves had their
turn in July, when at one stage they
won something like fourteen out of
sixteen games. But outside Of these
few Instances no club has been able
to hit off any consistent pace and
hold it,"
Picking the Winner
When we put UP the proposition Of
to pick the winner the
umpire baked.
"There are too many ifs in the
way" he said. "In spite of Pitts
burg's bad showing against the Reds,
if she can put away fair record
on this Eastern trip I believe she has
fine chance with those rWenty-three
home games through September; for
viii la
McQuillen Clarke has fine pitching
staff, and he also has the fastest club
in the circuit. In order to crowd
Pittsburg out Brooklyn, Philadelphia
and Boston must hit East clip at
home between now and September.
The club that doesn't is out of it.
There isn't enough room now for any
club to have a home slump and make
UP the gap later on. Of the three 1t
wouldn't surprise me in the slightest
to see the race come down to final
clash between Brooklyn and Pitts
burg, with Philadelphia close behind.
Boston doesn't look anywhere near as
good as she did back in JULY
The Tip-off.
| The main tip-off as &c form, dope
! and the twist thereon in the National
| league is shown by the records.
The two clubs that lead the batting
are St. Louis and Cincinnati, the only
| tail-end contendcrs.
The best fielding club, by the
| records, is Cincinnati. Here we have
the Reds second in batting, first in
fielding-and last in the race Yet
batting and fielding are supposed to
be two fairly important points of
baseball as the game is played.
No One-Man Reign.
There is no one-man reign now in
either golf or tennis in this country.
Last summer Mclaughlin beat Brooks
and Wilding, but Williams beat Nc
I.oughlin and Church beat Williams.
So far this season Clarence Griffin
has beaten-both last season and this
! Mclaughlin, rated as the greatest of
all living tennis players, has been
J dropped by two Of his countrymen in
two important matches-and those
who beat him have fallen before the
| charge Of others.
The same holds for golf. Ouimet
beat Travers at Ekwanok last fall
but Travers countered by beating
Ouimet at medal play in the recent
| Open, where the Massachusetts star
was supposed to have the winning
edge Travis beat Trave-s at Apawa.
mis- in June.
/ What will happen at Forest Hills in
lawn tennis and at Detroit in golf
within the next fortnight should add
many interesting pages to the history
| OF American sport. For in neither
sport is there any one entry whose
| prowess is all prevalent.
The Zig Hunt.
This country, and other sections of
the universe, spent five years finding
a man to beat Jack Johnson.
HiS Name Is Willard