The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-07-05
CASE OF BENDER
Big Chief Is Evidence That
Feds Had Fast League.
He Is Winning More Games
This Year Than He Did Last.
BY FRANK G. MENKE.

New York, July 5--Some folks
might find in the case of one Charles
(Chief) Bender an argument to show
that the Federal league of 1915 was
somewhat speedier than the National
circuit of the present time.
Bender worked for the Baltimore
Feds last year, and his performance
was something awful. He labored in
20 games and the result was: won 4,
lost 16, average zoo. That tended
to show that Bender, as big leaSuer'
was very much through
And now in 1916 we find the abo-
rigine heaving in the National league
and standing most of the opposing
batsmen on their domes. Just a rev
days ago he pitted his lin against the
Giants, supposed to be the heaviest
clouting organization in the game, and
he beat them without any undue eX-
ertion The same curves and SLOW
balls and speeders which the Fed
mace artists batted hither and yon, de-
ceived the Giants to such an extent
that they looked quite foolish IN thelr
efforts to hit.
Bender has worked in nine games to
date as PhiIlie. He has won five OF
those contests. In two of the four ne
lost he had the toughest kind OF luck.
Furthermore, Bender, who yielded an
average of APT runs per game as
runs in the National
Watson, what do you deduce?
White Sox Are Coming.
The Comiskeyites at last are begin
ming to show sc netting. After hump
ing along in an errauc fashion during
the first two months of the campaign,
and sending their rooters into the pit
of despair the White hosed persons
have started. Slowly but surely they
have improved their percentage and
wormed their way up toward the top.
Barring accidents, the White Sox
will be in the thickest part of the PEN
nant fight all the rest of the way,
Chicagoans say. 1.-The boys have pow
er in every department of the game.
Heretofore, it wasn't concentrated.
Now it is, and nothing can hold them
back
One of the big causes of the White
Sox uplift is the tremendous banging
of Josephus Jackson. The "Shoeless
Wonder" started punkily, but during
the past month he has been thunder
ing along. He is swatting out two and
three hits a day-and most of them
are long drivers. He has lifted his
average from a mark around ESQ to
1872 and right now is only few
points back of the league leading
Speaker. In another week or two, if
he maintains his pace. he will pass the
Indian slugger and probably bust
right into the .4UU DIVISION.
And remember this" urges the
White Sox hacker "Our boys have
come along pretty fast during the last
month without any real batting help
from Collins and Fournier. Both men
are far below normal. Sooner or later
they are going to begin to connect.
When they do, it's the pennant for
u.s."
Phillies Play Consistently.
No team has ever played more con-
sistent baseball than the Phillies.
From the time the season began, they
have been within striking distance of
the league leadership. The Phillies
are not subject to any slumps or
spurts. They aren't winning ten or
twelve games in row and then COM
ing right back with a flock of success
sive losses.
They are plodders, those Phillies.
and the plodding club is the one that
They fight grimly and with a fearful
determination. They play good ball
day after day. They realize that theirs
| isn't an all-star cast and that they
| must play at top speed all the time.
/ They do it. They battle every inch
of the way. No opportunity escapes
them. When they are beaten they
have no alibis to offer. They always
play their best.
A team with such a spirit is a team
that every other club must fear.
Indians Slipping.
The Indians are skidding, not rap
idly but they are slipping just the
same. For the past three weeks they
have been settling into their real
stride, and, as a result, their fat per-
| centage mark of June LIST has shriv-
eled away.
| Out in Cleveland the natives still
nurse world series hopes. But it
doesn't seem as if they will be realized
this year. The Indians seem to lack
| the all-around power necessary for a
six months pennant drive.
They got away well and have sur
prised baseball by their game fight
ever since. But their high place in
the table up to date probably can be
explained by the fact that the class
clubs hadn't started. The Red and
White Sox, the Yankees and the I'll
| gers-even the Browns-played in
and-out baseball during the fast 2
weeks of the campaign. All those
| clubs at last seem under way.
AS a result, the Indians aren't win
| ming with the regularity of the spring
time. They are being bumped quite
frequently. Glass eventually tells. and
the Indians are settling toward their
natural level-sixth place. Their
early squirt may enable them to hold
the bottom rung of their division
and it may not
tRENNTE KAHFF IS