The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-03-02
Spectacular Plays
 In Baseball History

is given him by nature. he never be- comes a star.
 To exemplify this I wish to recall a play made by Larry Doyle of the Giants. In many ways it was one of the most remarkable examples of quick thinking ever made in cham pionship game.
 The Cubs were the opponents at the time and had a. runner on first and a strong hitter at the bat. The batter caught the ball squarely and smashed liner that hit the ground immedi- ately in front of Doyle with such force as to knock him flat on his back. As he fell, the runner who had been on first made dash for second.
 Doyle had kept his grip on the ball, but, being on his back, could not make a throw to second. But he did a thing even better. By swinging his body half around he managed to reach out and touch the runner as he sped past and then, struggling to his knees so as to get a good swing into his right arm, he shot the ball to first base and caught the batter by three or four feet.
 IL WAS d OOuDIo pldy, LllS l1hS OI which will seldom be seen again. In cidental1y it headed off a rally for the Cubs and helped the Giants to a victory.
 l Getting back to the Worlds Series those classics of baseball, everw play
 of which is kept fresh for months in the mind of the fan-a game between the Cubs and Tigers stands out by reason of the action of Mordecai Brown For pure science baseball his play leads them all
 In one of the close games at Detroit the Tigers had runner on second and Ty Cobb at the bat. The Cubs felt that if the Tigers got that man to third the game would be lost. With Cobb a sacrifice hit seemed almost a
 certainty.
 In a situation like that the batter
 nearly always b11nts the ball toward third so as to draw away the third
 baseman and leave the bag uncov-
 cred.
 Brown, who was pitching, tried his
 best to give Cobb ball that he could
 not bunt, but was finally forced to put
 one over. Before doing so, however
 he went and whispered something tC
 Stefnfeldt. who was covering third
 Then he went back to the box, put tht , ball over the'plate and, without wait
 ing to see what would happen, threw
 himself toard third base. Sure ) enough, he had called the turn. Cobb bunted the ball in the direc ) ton Brown had expected and he wa ; in position to field it. Instead of com I fTr in CtainfoJ1f n tho SI7rnriSn n the Tigers, stuck to the bag. Brow,
 fielded the ball cleanly and got it t , him in time for put out. The daring of this play may not l appreciated by the unititiated. unIes they understand that Brown had 3 take the chance of Cobbs not bunt
 ing the ball toward third base. H :, had simply called the turn an ' gambled on it,
 s The most remarkable base runnfn s play of which I have knowledge wa made by John MeGraw and Willi
 KeeIer, when they were the stars C 3 the famous Baltimore Orioles, bac n in the nineties. The success of thei l, unusual stunt was due to it's darin n and also to the ability of McGray n who engineered it, anticipating th
 move of the man with the ball. d McGraw had reached first base an n Keeler, at bat, got the hit and ru r. sign. As MoGraw started, Keelt k drove the ball into left field. As tt o hit was sharp and came to him C n the first bound. the fielder natural e thought that MeGraw would stop -e second. But McGraw had figure
 that he would think just that WE n and deliberately held back until l 1T saw the fielder 1eisurely lobbing u le ball to third base-the customat IL way of tossing it in when no play as expected. Then McGraw started ii as a shot.
 IT, The third basemaa saw that u h. runner would get to the bag safe as land, in turn, took his time about picl CT ing up the ball. But, instead of sto re ping at third, McGFaw picked ne speed and spriRted for the plate IT 1e infelder was so surprised that al made a bad throw to that direetio ng and McGEaw slid in safely. As
 struggled to his feet to shake off t sh dust there was a scuff1ing sound b d, hind him and Willie Keeler had s1 in in not 20 feet in his wake. he In other words, NfcGfaw had figur e. out the play and Keeier who was jJ
 as quick of wit, had followed it | u- knowing that the attention of the 0 nd position would be directed on M gh Ciraw.
 te- That is probably the only time ut record when two runs were scored
 single.
 cal It was the sudden shifting of pia )e- CTS in the. outfield that won the De lar nant for the Giants in 1865, or rath Iey that cinched the last game at Ci
 cinnati and made possible anott is wonderful play.
 big The New York club needed just o lty more game and were working vi