Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-07-08
NO CLUB MANAGER
SURE he CAN WIN
BUNTING IN 1922
Ancient Adage About July
Fourth Position Does
Not Work Out.
BY GEORGE CHADWICK
Special Correspondent Of Crest Falls Tribune

| SopyrlGnL. 1917, by Inc GTeat FAILS IIipuuc.
New York, July Tt is nearly mid
season today in both major leagues. 1t
is also within three days of the fourth
Of July, which has come to have some
sort of mystic about it because once
upon a time a fellow discovered that
the team which was the first in the
league on the glorious fourth was also
first when the season was over.
The hunch-or the omen, or what
ever it may be-doesn't work out.
Barney Dreyfuss and George Gibson
will tell you so. On July 4, 1921, they
were basking in the smiles of fortune,
as the good novel writer would say, and
and when it came October there wasn't
a soul in Pittsburgh would do them
reverence. One fan was so ALFRED
mad that he thought Barney's goats
Dad fooled the Pittsburgh %populace
SO strategiously.
When it comes to the middle of the
season. however, the. manager begins
to cast up. He knows the value of
everything that he had on hand and
from then until the last hour of grace
the best of every player on his pay
roll.
There is not a manager in the ma
tional league today who is really sang
uine of much of anything except the
manager Of the Giants. He will not
saw that he will win even 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
! still thinks that his St. Louis Card
inals will show a squirt similar TO that
which they exhibited in the closing
days of 1921. He seems to forget that
the squirt which they made then really
had no bearing on the outcome of the
! race.
Chicago. Pittsburgh. Cincinnati, Bos-
ton and Philadelphia have nothing to
! look forward to. Brooklyn isn't Civ
ing up yet, but the Brooklyn club has
| too much weight and too little speed
| to have little more than a distant hope
that it will beat New York. There is
enough hitting among the BROOKLYN
players TO help. but they started
sluggishly.
is sanguine that he will win the pen
nant. higgins, with his stars and his
men of presumable individual ability,
realizes the undertaking of the group
IF which he is the head. Ihere is DO
stability. Never mind what Ruth has
done or what happened to him. 1t is
a debateable problem whether he has
hurt or helped the team this year.
Lee Fohle is too cautious to say that
he will win with the st. Louis Browns.
Part of his team is playing better
than it did last summer and part of it
is playing worse. His pitchers are
more helpful and his infield is not so
proficient as it was in 1921, but his
outfield is sagging.
Ty Cobb openly declares that be
will win the championship and his team
needs but a little to come through
marching with the head of the pro-
cession right up to the last day of the
! race. 1t 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 one in every
series from now until the last day of
the year, he could handle his other
pitchers so that he might be a pen
nant contender.
Griffith has not given up with Wash
ington yet, The senator's. as has often
been the case. are standing outside
the wall waiting for the apples that
fall when the wind blows instead of
being inside and picking them from the
trees.
What Cleveland will do is probe
| NAUTICAL, although Cleveland does not
at the moment look like a pennant