New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-18
Felsch' S Stop on
Robertson Big
Play Of Series
Other Thrilling Fielding Feat
ures Mark Games for
World Baseball Series
By Louis Lee Arms

X. X Moulton, the famous Michigan
poet, arises to ask us what was the
greatest play made during the 1917
world SERIES Fortunately that Is easy.
The greatest single play in the world
series was made by gentleman whose
seat in the press box was near ours.
He bet us forty men that the White
Sox would win the sixth game.
There were several other remarkable
plays, but the one that we shall long
est remember was Hap" Felsch's stop
on Davey Robertson in the opening
game at Chicago.
That game was so close that the
tiniest slip meant disaster. 1t being
the first game, the athletes were un-
der n tremendous strain and each team
eyed the other avidly for signs of a
crack.
With two down in the fourth inning,
Robertson stepped forward in the bat
ting box and caught one Of Cicotte's
knuckle balls ere it broke. The world
knows Robertson can hit. The crack
of the bat and the sight Of the bali
spinning past Eddie Collins were stimuli
taneous. J. Collins in right field start
ed across to intercept the ball, saw he
could not reach it, and turned tail for
the fence.
1t seemed then that the hit was a
sure triple; perhaps with Robertson's
speed "A home run inside the field. But
a white streak came flashing over the
green, and it was Hap" Felsch. He
was running directly at a right angle
10 the ball. II seemed impossible that
he could reach it, but it was good
race.
Scoops Up Ball
Yet he did Scooting along. his body
crooked like cane, he scooped the
ball into his hands, and while still
at top speed he turned and, though
off his balance and out Of position TO
put power behind a throw, he pegged
perfectly to Collins at second.
Robertson, who was stepping high
toward second, took a long slide to
beat the ball. Cicotte coolly forced
the next man out-and the danger Of
losing the Jump" on the Giants was
past.
Felsch must have felt fairly salts
fed with that stop He came up in the
Sox half Of the inning and whaled the
ball into the left field bleachers.
In the same game Jackson made a
diving catch Off Lew McCarty But it
was bad baseball. No score was i'm
minent. and if the ball had got through
him. as it often does on shoestring
catches. e.. Benny Kauff- it would
have gone for home run. However,
mechanically it was a great play.
Chick" Gandil, on a comparatively
strange field the Polo Grounds
walked over 70 the grandstand in the
third game and plucked a foul of the
concrete with his gloved hand. The
feel" Of the grandstand, which is IN
answer to the primal law of self-pres-
ervation, is usually fatal to such
catches.
In the same game Davey Robertson
leaned against the right field wall to
make a similar catch. But Dave ranks
as first class pilot in those waters.
Great Catch for Herzog
In the first game at Chicago, in the
first Inning, with a man on second
Charlie Herzog went into short centre
field for a fly ball and gbt it. 1t was
mechanically a great catch, and its par
ticular importance at that time hardly
could be exaggerated.
Buck" Weaver took a ground ball
that was DETECTED from McMullen in
the sixth game, and almost nailed
Fletcher at first. The fact that Nc
Mullen slowed the ball by touching it
was all that prevented the hero Of the
famous double play, Collins to Weaver
to the grandstand, from completing the
best infield play of the series