Evening star., 1915-03-28

a ball clubs great
ness depended to a large extent on It's
pitching staff
Tho Chicago club of 1906 was a very
ordinary aggregation when given the
ONCE over 1t was a pretty fair fleld-
,np club. faster than the average on
fbe pases, but the weak showing ol
+be club at the bat caused It 10 pe
1-,ov-n in the base ball world as 1he
..t,.,ess ,ronders' The team as Whoie
.;,isbad a bad last III the Americah
1sapne batting records, with an aver
acc or 2os. 1t is the first time IN the
bi,,ory of major league base baii thae
tho club that was the weakest fhttihs
,1yreeation in the league should no
only win the pennant, but the "oi''
,annionsbip as well. The Ihiedf'o
y-,,ita Soy of 1905 was to me the oes'
sannle ever offered of the srede Nai"
of an alright pitching stan, +n,t
II would hardly seem possio sins,e
o1,,h that failed to boast OF "a slns, i -,
aon hitter should win the AmeTi.ail ai
eague honors. That is just ,ne :, II
tke Chicago club turned III isoo. MS
1sbe1- the clubs leading h,tteI, ,,t a
twsnty-sixth in the averages, VIZ de
WI of 80. only three others peslue
IshaII batted better than 25o- Seoi r. e
paws was only two points oe ,,ti1,ty
heu while Robe, who playeu the
roles. hit .25s and Jiggs - s5s Most
LII ciyhs look to the outneid 20 SUI
NV much of their batting strens W h,ga
fhis respect the 1906 Sox were Ianes
Joke. O'Neil hit .24s. fieIes aa1
I'm roupherty 226 and Ham
Isr;te ~ the weakness of the helders -
,he hat. they were hard quai I,te
itch TO- because they huggeo lne n.rer p
CLOSELY. often getting MT, am ~ Init
failed to work the pi.chei et on they
When they did manage 10 set i oi Nv
,made the most of their opportuhi.ies
,aIinp long chances. and, as Is
often the case, getting away
majority of them.
Chicago's Great Staff.
.r,,a c,uh boasted a grand catcher IN
,;,,,, su,Iivan. and what whale OF q
n,tchin1 staff. 1t was in 1906 tnat Du
T.,,.h came into his own and galheo
for himself the title of the spit pan
.;ny" In Doc White and Nick AltrocA
,ha c,ub had two of the best soutn
naws in the game Both were pltsneIs
Of the brainy type, VINO toHa ,ua onnosi
tage of every weakness OF tne Upp that
t;pn Roth had motions to nrst tna
t.snt tbs runners almost glued TO the
bases and. of course. preventeo .he w
posing team from tak,n Ovens
chances There were also ZIP Wv Rov
mn
Patterson, a high-class twirler: anu
Frank smith. Some pitching staH' pc
ieye me. If you have any doupIs a5ou. in
II Just ask any veteran WIZ ~ ions
the American League oulihe
All the Chicago pitchers asked oi
their teammates was run or wv,
Comiskey's pitching stan oiuh 10 order to
make a game look like cinch. a run
was regarded as pretty fa,r ma III
TO work on by the son, TOT thes - q
mighty difficult task to score many
runs on the style of pitching ane Snt-
cago twirlers would serve Inc
fectlve pitching OF the InicagO ,,,e ci,,h
"a shown very clearly by the numpeT
Of shut-out games in which the cl4o
took part During the season OF tof
contests the - sos ,5eh eheas oae Of the teams
was blanked The fact that on thiIty
occa sions the visiting team was Whlte-
washed smphassizes, saz s,.chiIso strohgiy s,sf INC
Aside from its great pitching stan
tbe gameness of the club was great
aid in winning many OF the pitter
struggles that were s.agea ouri tniri;n@
played the leading role. Practically
one-third of the games played oy the
Chicago team were decided oy one
run margin. The fact that or these
pames the Sox won twenty-nine and
lost only nineteen just about explains
how the pennant was won
Pitchers Play Big Part.
This brief review Of the extraordi-
nary season of 1906 as enjoyed by the
Chicago club clearly demonstrates the
value OF star pitching staff. Next.
perhaps, in importance to having such
a staff is the selection of the manner
in which the pitchers shall work.
Fielder Jones in winning for the Sox
in 1906 handled his pitching staff in
such a way that he got the very best
possible out OF every member In fact,
he probably got bit too much eff
fectiveness from Ed Walsh. IT was the
custom of Jones to send Walsh to the
rescue any time his club had a slight
lead and the pitcher working showed
the slightest signs of faltering. Walsh
always responded to the call and did
yeoman service. Other managers who
later looked after the direction OF the
Chicago club. knowing the results at
tained by the methods adopted by