Omaha daily bee., 1922-05-07
Pennant Raising
on Opening Day
a Jinx to Clubs
White Sox Hois,ed Flag or
First Day Of Season in
1907 and Had a Long
Run of Hard Luck.
By I. Z. sANBoRN.

Dame Fortune apparently has
queer notions, one oi them being thai
. major league pennant should mol
be ehfisiened ON the opening day o.
q season. although that occasion APP
peals to nearly everyone else as
eninen,iy fitting and proper for re.
niinding the fooiers oi the joyful
days of the previous year.
Once upon a time. when the ma.
tons paslime was less than = OF
per cent commercial. II was the IN
variable custom To hoist champion,
ship flag on the opening day OF the
next campaign. That was before
somebody realized that opening days
meant big crowd anyway. and !,
would mean a few more dollars 10
withhold the pennant christening
until midseason or later so as 10
whet anew the aIP,,i,es OF the fans
after interest had commenced to
Tag.
lmbued with the desire to iniusc
more OF the old-time sportsmanship
into baseball the two colonies. Rup-
pert and Huston. who own the New
York Yankees. revived the custom
OF christening the emblem OF VIC
tory on opening day at the Polo
grounds. But Dame Fortune clsmped
a clamny jinx on the joy session
by sending gale which blew the
pennant off the pole and out OF the
lot almost before the rootcrs had
ceased yelling about il.
The last previous effort TO hois, a
pennan, on opening day was made
by President Comiskey OF the White
Sox and il was even less OF a sue.
cess. That was in the spring OF
1907, following the triumph OF the
Sox over the Cubs in the first
worlds series ever staged entirely
in one city. II wasn't the wind tina.
iinxed the proceedings that day, but
the hosting halyard which ran off
the top pulley. Fielder Jones and
his crew kept right on pulling at
the rope and snapped the pennant
pole off in the middle before the flag
had been hoisted halfway.
Superstitious pessimists predicted
at the time Seven years OF hard
luck" for Comiskcy and the White
Sox. II was | years before they
won another pennant. Everybody
hopes the Polo grounds accident this
year will not breed similar jinx for
the Yankee Colonels, simply because
they tried to show themselves good
sportsmen by not delaying the pen
uant raising until a later date. But
there was another coincidence be-
tween the two flag mishaps. Both
happened in the springs following
worlds series between two teams
representing the same city.
Magnates who have refused to
give their patrons chance to point
with pride" to league pennants until
mid-season-sometimes not until
after all the pride had been knocked
out of them by second division teams
will now point warning fingers at
anyone who suggests risking jinx
by departing from the more COM
mercial custom of recent years.
The Yankees appear to have their
hands full without any frowns from
Lady Luck. The bacteria which
usually infects teams of champions
seems to have found fertile ground
i'll the temperamental athletes who
owe allegiance to Miller Higgins.
Symptoms of enlarged Uranium
cropped out in midwinter and dis
position to take things easy was no
ted in spring training. But Hug
gins apparently whipped his high
salaried stars into shape before the
real battles began. In reducing the
size of the Yankees headgear the
diminutive manager undoubtedly
was helped by the fact his team
was the first American league outfit
to lose worlds series OIL the level
III seven years.