The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-16
WORLDS GREATEST PITCHERS
Grand Baseball Field Meet of Pitching Stars Great
 Trio Mathewson, Johnson and Walsh.

IQree months ago the bdSeDdll Magazine approached the problem of the greatest players in a somewhat novel manner. The best records of players were brought forth and offer ed in competition much in the man. ner of college field meet. For in- stance, the player who had the great est batting average who had the sec ond best batting average three points and the player who had the third best average one point, just as in a track event. In this way, by comparing a certain number of. records in batting. base stealing and run scoring, and adding up the points won by the vic tors, it speedily appeared that some half dozen players greatly outshad- owed the rest of the field. while " Cobb was easily supreme, just as most people thought he would be.
 A pitchers greatness is determined by a number of factors. In the first place, the amount of work he is able to perform Is a notable feature in his effectiveness.
 Another indication of a pitchers s greatness is the percentage of games he is able to win for his club.
 A third is the number of games he has won during sceason.
 And then there is the question of control More than any other thing. control spells success in pitching.
 These factors and few others which might be mentioned may be said to determine a pitchers compar- ative ability beyond question. Following the system in vogue in f.--- .I~l~ allowing first place honors to carry five points credit second place three, and third place one. we find that the situation sums up as follows:
 Christy MAthewson has two first place records, three second place, and one third. The Giant star totals an even 20 points.
 Grover Alexander is tied for sec ond place once. is third twice and is tied for third once. yielding a total of four points. Joe Wood is first once. netting five points.
 Walter Johnson Is first twice, sec ond twice, tied for second once and third twice. The great Washington star gets a place in seven out of a possible eight events and has total percentage almost exactly like Math- ewson's namely, 19h.
 Ed Walsh also gets a place in seven out of possible eight events. He is first three times, second twice, tied for third once, and third once. His total is 22M.
 In our grand field meet comparison of baseball stars Ty Cobb swept the boards by wide margin. The Geor- gian had no close second. The pitch ing situation was not parallel case. We candidly confess that before we began our reckoning we expected AL exander to loom higher in the list and we didn't know that Ed Walsh had been quite such power as he appears We did expect Mathewson and Walter Johnson to be close rivals and they are.
 In the September issue of this mag azine the records of the greatest pitchers are offered in the same man. ner and it is by following this imag- mary field meet that the names of Mathewson. Johnson and Ed Walsh fstand out pre-eminent as the greatest pitchers of the decade. The article in part says: III dly C1Sf llc IcCOTuS are uu- biased. They tell their straightfor- ward story. If the man who was the chief bulwark of the White Sox club for many years needs fresh laurels he will find them in the knowledge that he excels all modern pitchers in the magnitude and variety of his ex- ploits. In the tremendous volume and uniform excellence of his work he was clearly unrivaled and even in the un- expected item of control we find his name pushing strongly to the fore, though the spitball which he employ ed most effectively is in its very na- ture difficult to control. Ed Walsh was wonder pitcher and if his day is indeed done he may rest content in the knowledge that he has left the rest a mark to shoot at that should last for a generation.
 Mathewson's day, too. is drawing to a close. And the wisest pitcher the game has ever known may also rest content on his illustrious laurels. The melancholy fortunes of Joe Wood are an unsolved mystery. The man who won 1 6 straight victories, who estab-