The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-08-26

Burlegn Grimes, flinging for the Pi- rates in 1917. won out of 19 games for the awful average of. .15S. Grimes gained for himself the unenviable reputation ot being the worst pitcher in the big leagues last season by losing 13 games in a row. Only the end of the baseballing year halted him il, bis apparent effort to bea. the record os Jack Habors, who lost 20 straight for the 1916 Athletics.
 Yet this same Grimes is one of the pitching sensations of 1918. Traded by the Pirates to the Dodgers, the youngs-eI found" himself under the splendid tutor ship of Wilbert Robinson. To date, with a miserable ball club behind him, Grimse has triumphed in + out of A diamond duels and just the other day 'blew' him. self to his ninth straight victory.
 That's just one of many flip Hops tha. moundsmen have been executing in this off season. Never have there been more form reversals in individual play than 1918 has brought about.
 Second only to Grimes in the matter or sensational "reformation' is the case of Sam Jones. He used to be an Indian. but the war whoop leaders thought so little of him that they turned him over to the Red Sox as the ito boot part of a trade Through 1917 Jones figured in but one combat, and he lost that finlsh- ing the year with mark of 0OO.
 But today it is this same cast off Jones who is the actual twirling leader of the American league. He has garnered IA victories in 2c starts and his sterling per. fornances on the mound have been among the mightIest factors in the great battle the Bostonians have made for the pen nant.
 Then there's Claude Hendrix of ths Cubs. At the outset of the 1918 warfare he wasn't figured as Cub asset, Why should he have been? He had won only 10 out of P games in 1917. and he was considered 9 veteran then. Many fig ured Hendrix as through" But tha. same hurler. performing in fashion more remarkable than at any time in his career, has pitched brand of baseball ir 1918 which has been excelled by no other moundsman. Seventeen victories in ,; starts-thats his record so far. And bc fore the final flag falls he may make | 20 triumphs for a twirling average close to the 800 mark.
 On the other hand:
 Eddie Cicotte topped the American league pitchers in 1917 with 2S victories against 13 set-backs for the splendid av. craze of 6ss: Backed through the larycl
 part of the 1918 season by the same clal that won worlds championship year ago, Cicotte has been the greatest pitch ing disappointment of the year.
 Hammering the twisters of the .sshint
 ball. king to all portions of the lot na been one Of the simplest things for op posing batsmen to do. Time and agail the invincitle- Cicotte of year ago ha been de e~icl.ed. And today, with recor, of 15 defeats in 27 starts he is listed nea the bottom of the pitching ladder.
 Fred Toney was wonder pitcher year dgo. So brilliant was his Rhinelan perfoi(mances that he was regarded cy erywhere as among the five greates pitcherS in the game. He concluded n year wi3h pitching mark of .600-a won derful afhievennent wh8n one recalls tha he had tlhe support of only .506 team. Toney. playing rart of the 1SlS seaso' with tlIe .Sco DOT cont Reda and the othe