The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-08-25

Either Fred Mitchell constructed ball team more cunningly than We have given him credit for doing, or there is much unsuspected strength and adaptabiity lurking among the Cubs.
 No one would, at first venture, com pare any one of the Cub outer garden CTS favorably with either Speaker or Hooper, who by the way are two of the greatest that ever covered an outer garden, yet, for the purpose of the series this fall, the Cub trio, men rated as mediocre, and one as an almost passed veteran, figure close up to their rivals, in spite of Ruth's dangerous driving power which is largely re- duced by hitting against Tyler and Vaughn.
 The reason is that Speakers strength in attack is largely reduced by the Cubs play, he will bat practically} all the time against two corking left handed pitching and, in spite of his tre- style which troubles him most.
 Speaker, of course, hits any kind of pitching, even the good 1eft-handers, but some he cannot hit as well as oth- D. completely stopped by cunning left handed pitching and, in site of his tre- mendous driving at bat and the ex- treme shortness of the right field at Chicago, he does not figure as nearly as dangerous against Tyler and Vaughn as might be suspected Be- sides which, we cannot figure Ruth in the outfield for the entire series. It probably will be the strategy of Bar row to pitch Ruth against one or the other and to use him as an outfielder against righthanded pitching.
 When we started this doping I cer- tainly expected to find that Hooper would shine high in the figures. Hooper, l know is one of the greatest and probably the most consistent outfield- CTS that ever played the game. His figures, both on seasons work and on comparative figures in worlds series have shown him to be the best of all, possibly with one or two scattered ex- captions, and. over a period of years, he ranks alone. Yet the dope on the Cubs and Red Sox shows him only slightly the superior of F'lack who, while a corking young fellow, fast, clever at bat and almost the equal of Hooper as a thrower, cannot be classed the same. This is detracting nothing from F1ack, but merely giving Hooper what is coming to him. Yet this year Hooper shows much lower figures than he has ever done in dope on any worlds series since he has been play tng-not that he has deteriorated but because he loses on two counts, first because he is against pitching which naturally cuts his attacking average, and again because the shortness of the right field in Chicago detracts from his fielding ability. The truth is that a short right field makes one man almost of E. comes to being familiar with the angles of the wall so as to judge the rebound quickly. and in this respect Flack will have slight edge on his greater rival
 It may be something of a surprise to note how high Joe Wood figures in the dope. especially in fielding. How ever, it will not surprise those who have seen Woods steady improvement in the fielding end of the game. Be- sides that any fielder who plays either right or left with Iris Speaker in cen- ter must be given additional points as fielder, because Iris can cover so much ground that they are free to work closer to the four lines, and thus cover more ground and play better, more fear1essly. especially when a bat ter has known weakness of hitting fin any given direction, as we will be certain to observe when it comes to the study of some of the men.
 Take an instance such as Chick Gandil of the Chicago White Sox, who hits hard but practically all the time to right field. He may hit the Boston or Cleveland pitchers quite as hard as he does the pitchers of some other teams, yet he will get fewer safe hits because Hooper and Wood (the latter helped by Speaker), will catch a mum Der of drives that otherwise would go safe. Cleveland loses some points be- cause Wood probably will play first in two games with Beacher in right.
 Cleveland gains somewhat because of Graney's style of hitting, making it likely that he can hit the left-handed Cub pitchers. and loses considerably because of the weakness of Graney's