The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-07-02
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Special Correspondent of Inc ACe- HeraIl Copyright, 1922. by The Age-Herald)

Copyright, 1S2Z, Dy The ABe-heraadl
 New York, July Tt is nearly mid season today in both major leagues. It Is also within three days of the Fourth of July. which has come to have somer sort of mysticism about it. because once upon time a fellow discovered that the team which was first in the league on the Glorious Fourth was also first when the sea- son was over.
 The hunch, or the omen, or what ever it may be. doesn't work out. Barney Dreyfuss and Georgu Gibson will tell you so. On July 4, 1921, they were basking in the smiles of for tune, as the good novel writer would say, and when 1t came October there wasn't soul in Pittsburg would do them reverence. One fan was so all fired mad that he thought Barney's ground should be shut up because the team had fooled the Pittsburg popu- lace so outrageously.
 When it comes to the middle of the season. however, the manager begins to cast up. He knows the value of everything that he has on hand and from then until the last hour of grace which dawns on him he plans to make the best of every player on his pay roll.
 Giants Hopeful
 There is not manager in the Ma tionaI league today who is really san- guine of much of anything except the manager of the Giants. He will not say that he will win with the season half behind him. but he knows that he has a better chance than any of the other clubs. if his pitchers last long enough.
 Branch Hickey Is optimistic He stiil thinks that his St. Louis Cardi- nals will show a spurt similar to that which they exhibited in the closing days of 1921. He seems to forget that the spurt which they made then real ly had no bearing on the outcome of the race.
 Chicago. Pittsburg, Cincinnati. Bos- ton and Philadelphia have nothing to look forward to. Brooklyn isn't giving up. Yet the Brooklyn club has too much weight and too lit- tie speed to have more than a dis tant hope that 1t will beat New York There is enough hitting among the Brooklyn players to help. but they started sluggishly.
 Uncertain in American
 No manager in the American league is sanguine that he will win the pen nant. Huggins. with his stars and his men of presumable individual ability. realizes the uncertainty of the group of which he is the head. There Is no stability. Never mind | what Ruth has done or what hap pened to him. It Is a debatable prob 1 lem whether he has hurt or helped the team this year. There are players who are as uncertain as he. and more than all the rest there Is that feeling which pervades those who follow baseball that the Yankee players are factional and notional. The pitchers | are not the best pitchers this year. whatever they may have been last l season. and the taciturn Mays and the headstrong and egotistical Hoyt are not carrying the Yankees to glory on their shoulders like pack bearers talk | ing a load over the mountains.
 Lee Fohl Is too cautious to say that he will win with the St. Louis Browns. Part of his team is ploying better than it did last summer and part of 1t Is playing worse. His pitchers are more helpful and his infield Is not the porus plaster that it was In 1921. but his outfield is sagging.
 Cobb Is Confident
 Ty Cobb openly declares that he will win the championship and his team needs but little to come through i marching with the head of the pro cession right up to the last day of the race. It has enough In it to be in front if the luck of the game , breaks its way. Were Cobb possessed of one pitcher who could win once in eVery series from now until the last day of the year. he could handle his