The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-02-20
BY FREDERICK C. LlEe.

Cleveland never has known what 1t
means to hold a baseball championship.
Until the 1919 season Ohio was base
balts most conspicuous jinX state. Some
unCanny power seemed to camp on the
coat tails OF the teams from Cincinnati
and Cleveland by which the great Buck
eve state was kept perpetually In the
baseball background. After years OF
torment the Cincinnati Reds kicked
their ink into the Ohio river last sea-
son and won baseball $ greatest honor,
but Cleveland-as usual-is talking oil
next year"
The 1905 race was the closest and
most exciting in American league his
tory. All four Of the Western CLUBS
were running neck and neck on Labor
day, when the St Louis Browns start
ed to slip, leaving 1t up to the other
three cluba-Cleveland, Chicago ano
Detroit--to fight it out for the cham
pionship.
There was some great baseball that
September, but toward the end of the
month Cleveland began to draw~a little
away from the others. And then came
brutal wallop from an unexpected
source. Washington though a chronic
second division outfit, was Cleveland
bette noir On Sept 20, 80 and Oct. |
lust a week before the season closed
the Senator's, bad seventh, took thre'
straight games from the Cleveland lead
ers, and there was wailing and gnash
ing of the teeth in the Forest City.
Joss Defeats Walsh.
And then on oct ,, the late Addi'
| Joss, one of the bravest and sweetes
characters baseball ever has known
| won one of the most famous pitchers
battles of all time, defeating Ed Walsl
| of the White SoX by a score of l to U
in which not a Chicago player reached
| first base, Walsh, in the same game
struck out Is men.
The race then frightened up to suci
| a degree that on Sunday, Oct. 4, tw'
days before the end of the season, /
was anybody's race. But Clevelant
| had one advantage. II the Maps couh
win three straight from the Brown
| they would win the pennant regardles
of anything that happened in the clos
| inc chicago Detroit series in Chicago
| The series started in st. Louis OF
Sunday Oct. A, and the first game end
ed in an thinning to tie. Barne!
| Petty opposed Dusty Rhoades, Heinz
Berger and Adde Joss. Had Clevelan'
won this game, the Maps probab
would have won the pennant, as JOS
then could. have pitched the vital gam
the next afternoon. But with a res
of only one day, Joss finished the game
permitting only two hits in six an
one-thir innings.
The tie necessitated a double heade
on the following afternoon. If tn
Maps won this double header and tn
single game on the following Afternoon
the pennant would be theirs.
Lajoie was hard-pressed for pitch
ers, but decided on Glen Liebhardt, VIII
had come up from Memphis,
pitch the game which proved the, mos
important in Clevelands baseball his
tory. Cleveland's chances hung on tn
first game of that double header. One
St. Louis won a game, the Maps wer
out of 1t.
Bill Dineen. one of the Browns bes
bets, was McAleer's pitching choic
against Liebhardt in the first game
| the double header, and Cleveland
lpennant hopes were dashed against tn
powerful delivery Of the sturdy righ
handler.
Dineen held Cleveland sluggers to fol
hits, singles by Bradley, Hinchman an
Bemis and a double by George StoVa
The great Lajoie was up four tint
in Cleveland most important gan
without getting a single hit.
Glen Pitched Well.
The Browns got nine hits off Liel
hardt in eight innings. Chech pitch'
; the ninth inning for Cleveland al
retired the side in order. Liebhar
; had pitched well enough to win an o
binary game, but errors behind hi
in the sixth inning helped spill Il