Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-06-08
C0L0RFUL PLAYING GETS
BIC CROWDS FOR GIANTS
Team Reflects Personality OF John
McGraw in It's Fighting,
Pcppery Work.
ARE ALWAYS AGGREssoRs
Ty Cobb Combines Picturcsqucncss
With Great Hitting, Bascrunning
and Fielding Ability, and Is
Tigers Best Drawing Card.
by JAMES J. CoRBEI"r.


Those. after all is said and done.
are the nighticst factors in making
success for athletes and combinations
Of athletes.
Through the years there have been
greater ball clubs than the Giants, but
none that has been so wonderful a
drawing card az the clansmen OF John
McGraw. What has made them SO at
tractive. what has made them mag
net that has drawn millions of fans
through tho turnstiles? Color. that's
the thing. The Giants. rejecting the
Aas,iing personality OF their leader.
have been the most colorful team tho
game has known; lighting. pcppery
and sometimes staggering aggrega-
ton: a crew that has been involved in
dividualiY and collectively in more dia :
mond rows than amy other in baseball
history.
Yet that very trait of the Giants,
called rowdyism by some is the thing
mat has made them. They never play
the game twice in the same way:
never PLAY it listlessly, never without
pep They are aggressors always.
And they are always doing the un-
expected; always pulling" something
new and out OF the ordinary. And IL
is because the fans like to see that
very thing that they swarm into the
bail parks to see the Giants in action
Evers CoIorfuI Player.
Johnny Evers viii live in memory as
long as the game lasts. Why? Be
cause of his great batting? No. for
Evers never was more than just fair
with the mace. And he was not quite
superlative as n fielder. Those we're
not the things that made him stand
out. Personality did it. The scrappi-
ness or Evers became by-word n The
baseball world. He became the 'hI,na
crab Evcrs Will be remembered hc-
cause or his quick thinking. his tight
Ing, nature and his colorful antics.
~ COBB Is marvel in mechanical
baseball play; hitter superior 10 any
that ever lived; a wonderful base run
ncr; grand fielder. and a man with n
throwing arm excelied by few. That
In itself would make Cobb wonderful.
but the added touch is color For, Of
all the players that have been involved
I'm baseball in the last two decades,
none Is more picturesque than this
fiery Southerncr. His every action on
the ball field br!stles and sparklcs. lie
10 constantly doing tho unexpected and
the unusual. He never plays TWO games
day TO another. The personality Of
cobb radiates on the ball field ard
makes him super-draw!ng card.
Famous and Picturesque.
Charlie licrzog. li.inie Zimmerman.
BABE" Ruth. Iris Speaker. Ping Bodic
Rabbit" Maranvi!lc and Cactus
cravath are others that one hears AMI
reads about day after day They ere
continually in the spotlight. Why?
Because OF their greatness in mcchami-
cal play? No, but because they are
colorful and picturesque: either pug
nacious.or doing something out OF the
ordinary with almost unfailing reSu-
larlty.
ON the other hand one rarely hears
the name OF George Burns mentioned.
He is perhaps the most valuable ALL
around ou'heidcr in the National
League. Zach Wheat. OF the Dodgers,
is another that rarely sees his name
in the headlines. Yet Wheat is a star
Of stars In the National. There are a
dozen other players in the class OF
around the country simply because they
lack color and personality. They go
about their work in Il commonplace
fashion, they do nothing with a wild
hurrah. make the most spectacular per
formanccs OF their own look simple.
They do mightier deeds week after
week than - per cent OF the players
in the game. yet they do II quietly and
in mattcr-of fact fashion that at
tracts no attention.
Orinlcs Were Scrappy.
II is with ball clubs as il is with
individuals. The best remembered ball
club Of all time is the Baltimore
orioles that dominated nearly twenty
five years ago. 1t listed such stars as
in the lineup, and every one was a
warrior. The Orioles were the most
picturesque and the scrappiest team
the game has produced Their only
.
the Cleveland Spiders. led by Patsy
Tebeau. And when those two clubs
met on ball field the police usually
sent dozen riot squads to drive back
the fans that almost tore down the
fences in their anxiety to'get into the
park.
OF all the great teams ever put to-
gether, perhaps none was superior in
mechanical play to the Athletics of
l909-ls If ever there was, super
ball club. that was it. It knew the
inside and the outside OF baseball and
was an almost peerless combination.
Yet that club couldn't draw ut any
time during its career crowd. season
after season. that has compared with
the outDourings that visit the PARKS
where scrappy and coiorful athletes
are at work.
It's personality, reflected either by a
ball player or by team that keeps
the treasurer burning the midnight oil
when counting up receipts.-Copyrigh
1919, by King Features Syndicate, Inc