The Washington herald., 1921-06-21
Griffs 2 Games
Behind Yankees
Fur Will Fly When Grifs
Hit NelD York This,
Week. ,.y
By JACK ,NYE.

and are now two games to the good
That isn't such a hefty margin. II
the Griffs can do as well as the
Hugmen for the next three days,
there is going to be merry little
war when they debouch at the Polo
Grounds next Friday, for. a series of
four games. .,~.@
Having found It useless to de-
pend on other teams to bring. the
Yanks down a few notches, II will
be strictly up to MeBride's boys to
turn the trick themselves. They
will enter the series with world
Of confidence. as they are two sannes
up on the Ysnks in the games
already staged. The teams have
clashed 1s times and the Griffs have
copped seven Of the. decisions.
AS, matter Of fact Mr.. Grifith's
athletes have the edge on every
team they have played, with the
exception of Boston, and Detroit .l
They have won five out Of eigh:
games from Cleveland, five out OF
nine from St Louis, six out OF nine
from Chicago, and the same nun: :
ber from Philadelphia. Against
Boston and Detroit they have won
but three. games and dropped Ave
DEACON sam Jones is the chief rea-
son why the locals haven't as
much as ian even break against the
Red Sox. He has trimmed them On
every start. ~. ....
Washington set fast pace
against the, Western inyaders, who
retired from the Eastern division
| Sunday, winning IL and losing 9
battles Boston alone maintained an
equal pace, with 10 victories and )
defeats. New York copped 10
games. but dropped Z. while the
| Athletics got away with only 4
victories out of IL games.
The trip into the East was a sad
one for Tyrus Cobb's jungle cats,
who left home with pennant as
pirations. The Tigers played 16
games and won but S of them, drop
ping back below the 500 mark
and into the second division. They
continued their remarkable hitting,
but the pitching STAFF went to pieces
and is still il a bad state Of disin-
tegration. H
The Grifs continue to make the
ether teams of the league di.zy by
the way they run bases and have
gone quite away ahead Of Detroit
on the paths. with 81 stolsn bases.
through last Thursday. they can
Justly call themselves a speedy
crowd But over In the National
League the Pirates have them
topped by a couple OF stolen sacks,
their total being S.. =
Individual theft hopors remain
with the American League, as
George .Sisler is riding out IN front
with 1s Max Carey Is the best
base stealer in the National with
Il, a mark that Is tied by Buckley
Harris in the Johnson circuit.
why" queries a fan, was. Char
rity credited with, passed ball ny
The Herald on the play that lost
the final game Of the series with
the Browns Sunday" -,
Attention Is .called by this cor
respondent to the fact that the ma
jority Of the press box inhabitants
string along with the idea that Wal
ter johnson was guilty Ola wild
pitch and that the popular Mr.
Charity " as blameless.
Turning to rule No. S., section 10,
Reach's official Baseball Guide, we
find the definition of a passed ball
as follows:
"A passed ball is legally de-
Iivered ball that the catcher should
hold or control with ordinary ef-
fort but his failure to do so enables
the batsman. who becomes a base
runner on, such q pitched ball. to
reach first base, or a base runner
to. advance"
That's the situation in q nut
shell. To the editor 1t appeared
that sJohnson's heaye. which 'ad;
mittedly didn't go. where it twai
intended to 60. should have been
held by Charity with ordinary
effort"
Contrary to the contentious OF
some spectators, the ball was not
out of Gharrity's reach. IT came
in q little over shoulder high and
the receiver might have stopped IL
without moving. from his feet: As
it was, 1t touched the tip of his
glove and sailed to the grandstand
Allowance must be made for the
fact that the ball broke badly, but
such things do not usually worry
cur sterling catcher. He has often
stepped feet out of the box "a
rake in 4 wild heave. Under such
circumstances It is not too much 10
expect him to stop balls which DC
rot cause him to move from his po-
sition. -
It was one of those plays that
might be decided either way and
we viewed it from a passed ball
angle. We still view II that way,
though the Interpretation. Of Mr.
Hip Dugan, whose word at this time
Is official. will go into MreBan john
sons records.
Johnson's only wild heavs tof the
game, in the writer's opinibn, was
ladelivered in. the fourth inning after
Williams had singled. It was hope
Iessiy wide and Charity had no
chance to intercept 1t, Williams
strolling to second base.
-ss .s-F = 2
COMMERCIAL LEAGUE. =,
Andrews Abb 0A B. .-Ross Ab n oA
krucon % . o. . Johnson.ss.. 8 1 o