The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-10-18
BEANvILLE LUCKY
Boston Clubs Have Never Lost
in World Series Tits.
Breaks at Critical Times Have
Always Favored Them.
BY CRANK G. NIENKE.


none ever will be conquered while
Dame Fortune continues to smile so
sweetly upon the athletes from the
city of culture and baked beans. 5
Five times Boston has entered a.
club in the blue ribbon event of base
ball-and five times has Boston taken
unto itself the first prize. Why? Part
ly because those Boston clubs have
been great ball ones, but oftener, it
would seem, because luck is with Bos-
ton; that every time some break
comes it comes to favor them.
Skidding back to 1908. when the
Hub city made it's first entry in the
big affair, one finds that luck saved
the Red Sox of that year from being
beaten when it seemed that all hope
was lost.
The game had gone to the ninth in
ming. The Sox were three runs be-
hind, and if they lost that game the
Series went to the Pirates. In some
way or other they got three men on
bases, and needed exactly four runs
to win. Two men were out. The bat
ter rolled a puny grounder to Wagner,
at short. The Flying Dutchman''
picked it up, pulled back his arm and
swung to make the throw to first for
the final out which would give the
championship to the Pirates.
Tessie Started 1t.
But at that very second the Boston
rooters' band struck up ''Tessie," then
new and popular song; it doomed
out the first strains at the very frac-
ton of a second that Wagner'S arm
was swinging for the throw and the
noise so unsettled Honus that he threw
the ball into the grandstand, permit
ting four runs to score, giving the
game-and ultimately the series-to
the Sox
In 1912 luck again was with the
Sox. They got the majority of the
breaks all the way. In the final
inning of the final game, Fortune
smiled again upon the Bostonian bat
tiers. The Giants were in the lead,
and it looked like the game and the
series for them. Up stepped Boston
batter who promptly knocked the ball
out in the direction of Fred Snodgrass
The Giant outfielder didn't have to
move more than three fet for it. 1t
was one of the easiest chances ever
offered to any player in the series. And
Snodgrass made the muff that now is
history. The foozle enabled the Sox
to rally enough to win the game and
| the championship.
If it wasn't luck, what was it that
assisted Hank Howdy in that 1914 af-
| fair? The Braves catcher never hit
much beyond $50 before that series
or since. Yet in that event he was
the batting demon; the boy who belted
the balls to all portions of the lot; who
hit for extra bases almost every time
he was up. At least a half dozen
other times in that series luck was
with the Braves-and the Braves went
over the hurdles in four jumps
Lucky in 1915.
In 1915 the Red Sox beat the Phil
lies four out of five. They were a
better team, perhaps, but none can
| deny that it was luck that aided them
materially in their triumph. Every
thing broke nicely for them. In that
! final game their only chance for vic
i tory was to pole out a few homers.
And they did it. But each of their
balls bounding into the bleachers. Not
one was an out-of-the-lot belt; not
| one would have been better than a
two bagger on any other ball field.
Coming now to this 1916 affair, one
finds that luck favored the Sox again
Even without it they probably would
have vanquished the men of Ebbets
but luck enabled them to do it quick
| ly. They won that second game, the
14-inning affair, to 1. Yet the Dod-
gers should have won it l to in nine
stanzas They didn't because the Sox
were lucky. With the Dodgers one
run to the good, and a man on third
Ruth bounded easily to Cutshaw Had
Cutshaw picked up the ball cleanly
and thrown it to the plate, he would
have nipped Scott by ten feet. But
| fate ruled that he should boble-and
Scott scored the run that tied it up
and prolonged the game until the
14th when Gamer won it with a long
single.
That was just one instance of sew
eral where the breaks favored the
Sox; where the proverbial Boston luck
which has saved its teams on four
previous occasions helped its 1916 ag-
gregation to keep untarnished the
| Beantown record of never having lost
a world series quarrel