The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-28
ON TAIL-ENDERS
Hitters Have Better Chance
Than on Pennant Winners.
Fall Is the Best Time for Fat
tening Up Averages.
BY FRANK G. MENKE.

New York, June 2S.-"A player on
a tail-end team ought to hit from ten
to thirty points higher than he would
if he were on a pennant battling
crew." ventured a fan the other day.
"Howzat ?"
well, pitchers rarely work their
heads off against cellar champs.
Glass tells in baseball. Usually before
the fifth or sixth inning comes along,
the good team is SO far ahead that the
game is practically sewed up. There
fore, the pitcher on the top-heavy team
saves his arm. He doesn't pitch his
course, the batsmen get more hits,
thus fattening their averages.
Now take the case of the Giants
and Larry Doyle last season." con-
tinued the tanner. I'm 1915 the Giants
blew themselves to the first champion
years. Also, the Giants finished in the
cellar. After August Is they never
had a chance to win the bunting.
And so, from that time on, the OPP
posing pitchers didn't work so awfully
hard against the Giants-and Larry
Doyles average grew so large that at
the end of the year he led the pack.
Lajoic and Others.
| Napoleon Lajoie never played on
championship team. Yet his batting
average, year after year, was wonder
full. His grand hitting mark ranks
among the highest ever turned in.
Only twice during his long career had
Lajoie been on a club that actually
was in the fight for any extended
period. Opposing clubs rarely found
it hard to beat Lajoie's team and so
the rival pitchers frequently took it
easy when heaving to Napoleon.
''Ty Cobb did his most tremendous
hitting during the years when the
Tigers were not actually in the fight
for the bunting. During other years
when the British crowd kept in the
fight all through the season, Ty faced
pitchers who were pitching to the full
limit of their arms and brains, in ar
effort to halt the Tigers.
Joe Jackson averaged somewhere
around $40 while he was with the
Cleveland club. He was shipped tt
the White Sox, team that was in the
pennant hunt for a while in 1915, ane
Joe turned in an average Of 1903 las
year.
practically every batsfnan in tn,
game hits far better during the las
month of the season that he does dur
ing the first four months. But that il
easily explainable. During the open
ing month of the campaign most o
their darndest. And only the sta
Fingers work during that period.
Aren't Autumn Blossoms
But toward the fag end of the sea
son managers of clubs that are on
of the race begin experimenting 70
the next season. They work thei
youngsters, fresh from the bushes
Veteran batters find it easy to connec
with their twisters and slants, and, a
a result, tie averages fatten.
you've often noticed, too, tina
some of the minor league batting star
getting a major try-out in the fal
; show up well with the bludgeon. /
5 sees then that the majority will LAND
But in the springtinte they cannot d
! any consistent hitting. Here's the an
Swer:
, 1.-The minor league batters, gettin
a fall trial in the majors. rarely fac
/ major league pitching. They go u
t against the minor league hurlers, VIII
are getting their trial. The bush hit
tiers, therefore, face the same calibe
and of course find no trouble main
tanning their minor league averages.