New-York tribune., 1920-10-07


that Sir Edward Shepherd Greasy, al
though not primarily a baseball writer,
took the reporters remark to heart
and boiled tie whole story Of civiliza-
ton down into ljttl, volume called
Fifteen Decisive Battles OF the " orld"
This system of compression and Sc
lection is enormously convenient for
baseball reporters and historians, since
1t enables them to throw aside entire
innings and centuries as periods when,
for all the sweat and turmoil. man did
no more than vamp till ready.
Johnston Leads Way
Yesterdays game might have been
made for the system, because the break
came in the first inning, and when that
is told we can go on to local color
and heart interest. IVY Olson was the
first man up in the second half of the
first inning, and went out on little
took q strike and then raped a
grounder to deep short. Sewell had to
go about fifteen feet to his right for
stop, and needed long throw. He
hurled the ball at the first baseman's
feet, but it was hit, anyway, because
Johnston beat the bad throw by foot
He stole second q moment later, and
went to third while Griffin was being
thrown out at first.
Now here comes the break. Wheat
smashed the second ball pitched for
q line hit to center field. OF course,
Johnston scored but Speaker made
clean pickup and everybody was
startled to see Wheat dash for sec
ond. There didn't seem to be any
sense in it. Speaker had only short
throw and his arm is one of the
best in baseball. He did throw we'll,
although d little slowly, but something
else happened to save Wheat
Seweu took the throw and turned
around expecting to find Wheat at
tempting to hook around into the bag
Wheat rode straight into second and
Seweu missed him. By being absolute
y frank and foolish in his movements
Wheat upset & smart team which looked
for subtlcty.
4 lot Of history is just like that.
Wellington and Biucher, both Of whom
were thick, beat Napoleon at Water
loo simply because they were so stupid
he couldn't figure them out. You may
also remember that Jim Corbett, who
can do monologues and make after
dinner speeches, was knocked out by
Jeffries.
However, having identified the break,
we are entitled to omit the rest of the
game. Sergeant jim Bagby, of Cleve
land, was hit hard, but remained en-
tirely calm and unruffed. This, we
think is not admirable behavior under
the circumstances, although it is ira
ditionally correct.
Neeps Himself Into Action
For our part the man worth while
is the fellow who rushes around
wringng his hands and shouting "This
is awful" when things begin to go
wwng. Generally he eventually weeps
himself into doing something about it,
We have never had any respect for the
man who has been quoted as boasting
"Mv head is bloody but unbowed." He
would have done better to have ducked
few
But, as we were saying, Brooklyn
beat Cleveland yesterday by a score
of to o, and the break came
in the first inning. That is the scien-
tifc explanation. There is also room
Tor sentimental one. This we did
not observe for ourselves. but when we
got back to the Office the story was
spread before us in photograph
which lag on the desk. 1t showed Bur
leigh Grimes in uniform shaking hands
with a woman in the field box. ! he cap
tion said: "'Good luck Burleigh.'
Mrs. Grimes greets her husband just
before yesterdays game at Ebbets
Ficld'
Now. if you like, it may be imagined
that whenever Grimes got into a hole
with count of three balls and two
strikes that final Good luck Burleigh"
rang in his ears and he nipped the
corner of the plate with a splitter.
1t must be admitted that stimulus of