The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-02-28
RED SOx CHANCES
Champions Are Picked to Do
Some Slipping This Season.
Critics Predict They Will Miss
Old Bill Carrigan.
BY JACK VEIOCK.

gan was still at the helm in Boston the
average baseball fan would not pom
der a great deal over the Red SoX in
his preseason calculations regarding
the chances those Bostonese will have
for another pennant in the American
lea que
But Bill Carrigan is now retired,
banker at Lewiston, Me, and Jack
Barry is the guiding spirit of the
worlds champions. So, instead of TAX
ing it for granted that those Red Hose
will be very much in the battle from
start to finish, MI A. Bug finds him
self bordering where last year and the
year before he had the Sox down as
sure cOntenderS
A glance backward to the season of
1916 brings the remembrance that
Boston had a hard fight up to the last
stage of the race One recalls that the
White Sox, Tigers and Browns were
all in the running twenty days before
the season ended, and the fact that
the first seven teams were pretty we'll
punched on the first day of September.
when there were but forty nine points
between the Red Sox, in first place,
and the Cleveland Indians, in sixth
pla ce, gives us plenty of reasons for
specializing against the chances of
Boston this year.
Chances Much Weaker.
Even tho Carrigan was still the
pilot of the champions, the dopist
Boston's chances for 1917 are much
weaker than they were last year AS
a team the Red SoX seem due to slip.
They are really on the decline, for, as
they stood last fall when they won
from the Dodgers they had passed the
pinnacle and were already started on
a backward trend.
Manager Jack Barry is smart ball
player. But what he can do as
manager remains to be seen. That
no ha1 10 or
slip this year has been proven already
by his attempts to purchase recruits
from the minor leagues and the talk
that he might not be averse to sew
eral trades. 1t isn't the usual thing
for a manager to be stalking players
at this time of the year but Barry,
you'll remember, was not appointed
manager of the SoX until January ..
Barry may and may not play regu-
larIy with the Sox this year. 1t all
depends on his ability to get into his
old-time condition. If he doesn't get
into the lineup Hoblitzel, Scott, jan
win. and Gardner will probably make
up the infield unless McNally can beat
somebody out of a berth. In the out
field Hooper and Lewis may be ex-
pected to fill regular berths, with
Walker, Walsh and Shorten fighting
it out for the odd position.
In the catching department the Red
Sox are strong in numbers Cady,
Thomas, Agnew, Wilder and Devine
are the windpad artists who will have
it out for regular jobs behind the bat.
The last two named are rockies, and
the first trio doesn't figure with the
ranking backstops of the major
leagues as sensational performers,
tho all three are good, steady catchers-
1t appears that the brunt of the
pitching this year will fall almost en-
tirely upon the shoulders of Babe
Ruth Dutch Leonard and Ernie Shore
three good hurlers- George Foster,
after announcing his retirement last
fall, has decided to try out his wing
one more year at least, but his ability
to get the old souper into condition
to do yeoman duty is doubtful. Last
year he suffered physical torture with
ed after the middle of July.
The other Boston pitchers are Mays,
Wyckoff, Jones, Gregg and Pennock,
none of whom is to be classed as a
World-bea ter.
Chance for Injuries.
The uncertainties every ball club
faces in the course of a playing sea-
son with regard to injuries to players
applies to the Red SoX as well as any
other team. Last year those SoX were
fortunate in most ways, while the
Yankees and White SoX, two teams i
that stacked up as hot contenders on
paper, were handicapped at critical
times.
Dame Fortune spills off the wheel,
and all the dopester has to figure on
is paper calculations" From such
an angle the Red SoX do not appear
destined to grab the gonfalon this
year. For despite Barry's class as
player and his probable virtues as
manager, the Sox seem due to slip,
and don't forget that they will miss
70 rriq n