The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-29
Boston Braves Lead League In Fielding-Majority of Clubs Field Poorly-Wag- ner Leads the ShOrtstOps. Good Fielders Rare

Boston, by small fraction. led the National league in fielding during the 1915 season over the Cincinnati Reds. Boston won with average of .9664S,
 while Cincinnati was second with the
 average of .9G647.
 Pittsburg was third with .9657, while Philadelphia ranked next with .9655, again the fraction deciding the position St. Louis came next in order with .963 and Brooklyn followed with 962 New York was seventh with .959 and Chicago last with .958.
 Besides four pitchers not a single player finished the season with perfect fielding average. Although several of the players made excellent averages no records were surpassed in any department.
 Making only seven pebbles during the season in 153 games, Fred Mollwitz led the first ba seman with an average of 996 over Jake Daubert of Brooklyn with an average of .993. On a whole, the first sac<ers played their positions well, not a single one falling below .9S5. Luderus of Philadelphia and Johnston of Pittsburg followed in the order named. George Cutshaw of Brooklyn led the second basemen by d wide margin. Cut shaw led his rivals easily with an average of .967. The nearest rival to him was Miller Hurdgins of St. Louis, with .931. Zimmerman was last with an average of
 046. The second sackers had numerous chances and this probably accounts for the low averages opposite the second basemen's s names.
 At third base little Hiene Groh of the Cincinnati Reds leads. Hiene felded with an average of .969 and led Robbie Byrne of Philadelphia by a fraction. The third sackers fielded below par but were closely grouped.
 Hans Wagner is still the premier short stop of the game. Hans led his rivals with an average of .94S and although he did fall off slightly in hitting, the Ger man proved to be the same surety on fielding his position Herzog of Cincin- natl was second with three points lower than Hans Rabbit Maranville was third with 941. Rabbit was far off his form, ranking much lower than last sea- son. which was regarded as his best year
 Good fielding outfielders were plentiful. There are at least 10 who fielded in great style throughout the season. Wilson of St. Louis leads them all with 9S4 Carey of Pittsburg, Magee of Boston, Whitted of Philadelphia and Bescher of St Lotus follow in the order named.
 "Chief' Meyers led the catchers with an average of 936. Bert Whaling of Bos- ton was second with .gS5, again the frac- tion settling the argument. snyder or St. Louis was third with .9S3. Other fa- nous catchers ranked low in the list.
 Adams of Pittsburg, Robinson of St. Louis, Demaree of Philadelphia and Schupp of New York were the only pitch CTS who went through the season without committing a bobble. Numerous pitchers errored only once and even more tWlce and three times. Perritt of New York and Schneider of Cincinnati were the rankest felders in the pitchers department, with eight errors to their credit" The fielding averages show that the players fell off in this sbranch of the game as we'll as in hitting. Last year S records show several of the players went through the season without making an error, while the present records tend to show that the national game is degrading. Other results can be blamed, however, as it may be that. pitchers may be more ef- fective and the sympathy of the offlclal scorers with the batter. Let us hope that this is the reason, for it means that Americas national pastime is not on a lower scale than it was several years ago. and that baseball fans will still see
 the game played on high plane by great players.