New-York tribune., 1918-05-01
Vean Gregg the Victim

Vear Gregg the Victim
1t was consequently the irony of fate
that to Vean Gregg himself could be
traced the Yankee victory. The YAM
KEGS have not won so many victories
this season that they cannot be traced,
even by the most amateur of baseball
detectives.
And they are particularly easy to
trace when the score has the reason
able ring of 2 to 0. For the deep stu
dents of the innermost secrets of base
ball who followed the Is to massacre
in Philadelphia we have naught but the
greatest pity, but to game gives
plenty of opportunity for thought and
dialectic exercise.
The game was going along nicely at
evens right up to the fifth inning
Vean Gregg opposed Slim Love, and he
pitched with that airy grace that may
be found in dactyllic verse. He re-
minded us of those lustrous Greggian
days of Cleveland, which antedated his
Boston occupancy.
He was pitching curves and fast ones
at the Yanks with such good judgment
and mechanical skill that they were
receding to the bench in waves. Wal
ter Pipp, the Michigan Mauler, was first
up in the fifth inning, and he was bam-
boozled into hitting at sharp curve.
The Mauler had no relish for fast
curve; he was off his balance when he
hit it, and the tap was puny affair at
i,ext. 1t rolled out tantalizingly to
Gregg. who picked it up deftly. The
Mauler meantime was stretching his
scissors-like legs for first, and Gregg,
for an inexplicable reason, or simply
because he is associated with the Ath-
life. threw the ball with cyclonic force
point-blank at Burns, who used to play
with an American League team in De-
troit.
Burns's Part Discretion
Burns was not set for such an un-
reasonable throw. He would have will
lingly. even gladly, accepted the toss
which is customary under these con-
{ ditions, but when he saw the ball com
ing at him like the Empire State Ex
press he went fooie in the flbert, or
philly in the philbert, as it were.
He missed the ball completely. If the
words and music for the miss had been
written by Miller Higgins himself
though, of course, Miller would do
nothing like that-it could have been
no more satisfying, from a Yankee
standpoint.
So Pipp was on first and Burns had
long scar in the shape of an error on
his escutcheon, when, of course, in the
z
that should have been defaced, or what
ever happens to wayward escutcheon.
Francisco Pizzola, of old San Fran
cisco, promptly sacrificed, neatly if not
gaudily, and L. Mer Miller hit the
Michigan Mauler home with a safe
wallop to right field.
That, in nutshell, was the story of
the game, for both Love and Gregg
pitched with considerable skill and
grace. 1t was, indeed, one of the pref
test pitching duels of the present sea-
son, the Athletics nipping Love for but
three hits--one of them an .infield
scratch by Jamieson-whi}e Gregg and
Myers between them yielded but four
hits.
Love Threatened But Once
Only once was Love in a tight hole.
In the eighth inning Joe Dugan shot
double over Bodies mansard top, and
McAvoy had walked ere Slim recovered
his balance. A snappy double play. with
Del Pratt working in the Important
pivotal role, busted the Macks off. and
their final chance to tie was gone. 1t
was "Rube" Oldring, who was The hero
OF a double play from Mack to the
Yanks to Mack, that hit into this dual
murder.
To make room for Oldrinp Mack was
forced to eliminate Gregg, and Myers
ascended the turret. He was exceeding
ly wild and walked three men, an addi-
tion to allowing Peckinpaugh to hit
safely. That brought home an unnec-
essary tally that did not obscure the
disaster of Gregg's Wild Western