Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-03-05

As Snowman, John McGraw
could give most exhibitors cards ana
spades, and win easily. Never a
vear but he does not frame up some
+hins as a card with his team. He
even carried crazy Bugs" Raymond
some months merely because ne en-
tertained the crowd, and Tom
Thorpe served the same purpose Tor
a while.
When Mac made his deal for Hal
Chase he had something OF this kind
in view, although McGraw must es-
innate that Hal is still about the
best first baseman alive. Neverthe-
less, Chase will be worth money TO
the Giants as an advertising stunt
and the team which has no star
whatever seldom gets the crowd
which will flock to see some uncom-
mon player.
Under McGraw, it is possible
that Chase will be more brilliant
than ever in his career, and, II so,
he means a big help in the pennant
race. For several years Hal had the
entire first base spotlight. No one
had really shone since Fred Ten
ney, who is given credit for devel-
oping this position. Time was when
the first sacker stuck to his bag like
a cootie to a Hun; Tenney made it
a fielding place.
While Tenney actually may be
credited with being the pioneer of
modern first basemen. Hal Chase,
who succeeded him to the first base
crown, was even more brilliant than
Fred, played a still deeper first base
and made plays on bunts and to
other bases that even Tenney did not
think of.
In addition to remarkable grace
and dexterity, making it possible for
him to take all sorts of wild throws
in awkward positions, Chase also
was one of the quickest thinkers
baseball ever has known. No play
er ever was quicker in sensing a
play, and no player ever has been as
proficient as Chase in breaking up
the bunting game.
While at the top of his career,
Chase even played bunts hit down
the third base line, and frequently
made plays that were ruined for him
by the w-thinking infielders he
was associated with. While Chase
was accused of laying down in the
latter part of his Yankee career, he
once remarked bitterly of his BROTH
er infielders. What is a fellow TO
do If whenever he let's go of the ball
he has to be afraid of hitting those
bones on the head?"
Jake Daubert. who came to Brook
1yn in 1910, five years after Chase
came up with the Yankees, was little
behind Chase in all-around brill
lance. Unfortunately, he, too, was
a player with moods, who had to
be humored and frequently gave the
impression that he was harboring a
grudge.
Daubert played as deep a game
as Chase, but in some things lacked
Chase's finesse, and, though a quick
thinker himself, Daubert never had
|Chase's ability to grasp situation
as 1t came up.
"Stuffy'' McInnis is now the
greatest right-handed first baseman
of baseball. Brought into the Amer
lean League at the age of II when
he was a high school shortstop, Nc
1nnis succeeded the veteran Harry
Davis, quite a crack first baseman
himself in his day, and H>devel-
oped into one of the great defensive
and offensive stars OF baseball.
McInnis has been described as a
shortstop playing first base, and he
fits the description. He is a player
with Chase's quick brain and also
has an uncanny ability in playing
units and the proper sense as TO
where to play them. Even as a kid
substitute on the Athletics, he would
|sit beside Mack and suggest plays as
occasions would come up. John