New Britain herald., 1915-10-13

There has been some gossip from time to time as to the makeup of the greatest ball club that ever played. A certain number of votes have been cast for the old Boston machine of 1898, where Penney, Lowe, Long and Collins composed the infield. Other votes have been cast for the old Orioles, and the talent has also pro- vided heavy backing in the dope for the Cubs of 1906-07 and the Mack men of later seasons.
 The greatest scoring machine of them all was the Mackmen, with the old Baker-Collins- McInnis arr tiIlery. The club was the hard est club of them all to hold in check as run making array. But the Red Sox, while not as great a club as some others in past history, undoubtedly stand as one of the greatest defensive clubs of the game, if not the greatest that ever played.
 Red Sox Alone.
 There may have been a greater de- fensive club than the Red Sox at their best-when once keyed up-but we doubt it. No other club has been so well supplied with every detail of de- fensive stuff. They have three first class catchers in Thomas, Cady and Carrigan. Beyond the catching there are three trenches upon defense-the pitching, the infield and the outfield. The Mackmen had better infield, but the Mackmen never had five pitchers like Wood, Foster, Shore, Leonard and Ruth. And the Mackmen never had an outfield to compare with Speaker, Lewis and Hooper. The closest approach to the Red Sox de- fense was exhibited by the Cubs of former years, when they had Kling and Archer catching; Brown, Overall, Pfister, pitching; Chance, Evers, Tinker and Steinfeldt for the infield, with Schulte, Holman and Sheckard for the outfield.
 The Red SoY of 1915 are not as great a ball club as the Cubs of 1910. They don't know as much baseball and lack the all-around keenness of that old Cub array. But as a de- fensive clan they are fully as good if not a whit better. For there isn't a l break in that Boston defense at any | point.
 Two Runs Enough. |
 Few people," remarked Eddie Col 1 fins after Mondays game against | appreciate how hard it is | to score on this Boston club. Runs | are harder to make against this ma | chine than any ball club I have ever \ seen. If you ever get to hitting the pitching, which isn't often, you've still got the inffeld to pass, and if you get by the inf1eld you've still got that which can cover more ground thon any other outfield I have ever seen. The Red Sox are not any won ders upon attack. They are not the best run-getters that ever played. But they don't need many runs with that defense. About two runs, as a rule, are enough. And a good part of the time one is sufficient. Weil- man, of the Browns. pitched three games against the Red Sox and held tbem to one run each start. But he lost all three games by the score of to O."
 Consistency Counts.
 It isn't so much a matter of a few games,' continued Collins. Tt is the , of the Boston defense that . wins the prize. Tn four game series he opposing club gets Shore, Foster, Ruth and Leonard. All stars and all hard to hit. You can never figure that you'll get a weak pitcher tomorrow And in addition to this speedy pitch- ng, always good, you are always up against the rest of the club, especially hat outfield, which has cut off more rasehits than any other cutf1eld in the game. Scoring runs against Boston S about the toughest job in baseoall. At least. the toughest one that l ever ackled"
 A Welcome Change.
 It Is at least a welcome change to get variety of world series stufI' Tor the last few seasons that attack las always been featured, especlaliy where the Mackmen were concefheu' But this season we are gettlns nance to study the rate value or de- ense fully as important feature or 'aseball as the attack. The Tigers lad the beJt attacking club in the anne, but the best defensive club beat hem out.
 It was thfe Red Sox line Of trenches which so bothered the Phillies in the rst thr<e games. on several occa- ions it looked as if they had broken h hroueh. onIv to have the last line hrow them back. Take that game :, Nondav. when Alexander lost. Tn he third inning Barry saved the day ,it,h a miraculous catch back of eolond an almost certain hit. This tdlI left a runner on third, with two ut.
 C,ravath then smashed one of his oightiest blows-a wallop that would ave been good for a home run on 1ost National league grounds and