The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-02-21
SOx LOOK STRONG
Comiskey Has Best Looking
Club in American League.
Chicago South Side Fans Feel
Sure They'll Cop the Flag.
BY JACK VEIOCK.

| new OTk, feD. Z1."1neTe Is no
spot on the baseball map where the
loyalty of the fans runs more truly
to form every year than Chicago's
great South Side.
| Mere mention of the South Side of
Chicago brings the thought of that
grand old Roman, Charles A. Comis-
key and his battling White Sox, to the
mind of every follower of the game.
1t has often been said there is more
of genuine baseball spirit and loyalty
| to the square foot in the neighbor-
| hood and environs of Comiskey park
/ than anywhere else in the whole
swatting universe.
The season of 1917 is not afar off,
and with its coming comes also the
| 'hunch" that the South Side of the
| Windy City will be heard from with
greater frequency this year than for
| several seasons past.
Last year Comiskey's Pale Hose
were very much in the running for
premier honors in the American
| league. They finished second to the
Boston Sox, and a good second, too.
But the driving power of Carrigan' S
them over, and the Windy City Sox
had to be content with a finish that
| placed them two full games behind
Boston.
Out for First Honors.
| But 1917 is another season, and Co.
miskey has decided to give Clarence
Rowland another chance to show the
baseballing public that he has the
goods. The SoX stack up as great
| outfit on paper. And in the mean
| time those terrible Bostonese will be
without the guiding hand and the
fighting influence of Bill Carrigan.
That they will feel the loss of Car
rigan keenly is the honest belief of
baseball critics all over the country,
and this opinion is given with due re-
spect for Jack Barry, who is a grand
ball player and acknowledged to be
one of the smartest men in the game.
1t is only logic to figure the Red
SoX on the decline. They will have
greater opposition than ever before,
and as the teams of the American
| league stack up against them it ap-
pears that the White Sox, Yankees.
Tigers, Browns and Cleveland Indians
are sure to crowd those Red Hose for
| the first division berths
A glance over the field fails to re-
veal a better looking team than CO.
miskey's Rowland will start the
training season with an even stronger
array of talent than he had last year,
and if the White SoX pitchers can
avoid the hospital it looks from this
distance that the South siders will be
off to flying start.
STRONG squad OF vets.
The seasoned vets of the Sox-Col-
Inns, Weaver, Schalk, Fourier, Felsh,
Jackson, Leibold, Ness and Lapp-
represent a world of driving and de-
fensive power The pitchers for the
most part are seasoned men, and the
youngsters who will be tried out come
from their respective leagues with
good records.
l. A peculiar feature of the Sox spring
trip will be the trying out of three
new first basemen. They are Boil
Hasbrook, from Muscatine; Theo
Western league, and Frank Henry
who comes from the Petersburg club
Jourdan bumped the ball for an aver
age of .314, Henry hit .254 and Hans
brook .272. Jourdan is the best field
er of the trio, according to the figures
Ross Eldred, from Seattle, will bat
tie for an outfield berth. In the line
Iup of the Seattle club Eldred slapped
the pill for 1892 average last veal
and fielded .955 in ninety-two games
Two New Catchers.
Two new catchers, Gray, from
Wichita, and jenkins, from Houston
both hit better than 800 in 1916
Swede Risberg can be counted upo1
to show better form as a second base
man this year and Bruno Haas,
utility man, with Elwood Martin
Oakland hurler, will complete tn
Rowland kindergarten, according t.
the latest list of players sent out b.
the Old Roman from Chicago.
With this array of rockies on hand
it appears that Rowland and Comis
key have prepared to meet emergen
gencies in the way of injuries to play
ers Without the recruits the Whit
Sox look strong enough to give
strictly first class account of them
selves and White SoX fans are just
fled if they indulge in sweet dream
of a pennant for the South side mex
fall.