San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-08-22
iris SPEAKER
IS ENJOYING
GOOD SEASON
Having Big Year as Player
as Well as Man.
ager.
HAS A GRAND RECORD
In Fifteen Years Has
Drcpped Below 500
But Once.
HAS A GRAND RECORD
By JOHN II. FOSTER.

3
New York. Aug. 22-Tris Speaker
is having good year not only as a
manager but also as player. If his
legs will stay by him he viii not be
through for five years yet.
Speaker has said that he would Goa
tinuc TO manage the Cleveland team
as long az he was wanted and he en-
ppctcd 10 win another championship.
They all expect to win championships
but Spoke" has been building towarl
Pernant Town and this years work OF
his team proves it. because he has the
best-looking team in the AmericaL
League except the Yankees.
This is Speakers fifteenth year OF
big leagueing and. while he never has
batted 100. he never has been below
300 except in the one treacheTous sea
son of 1919. He did not bat poorly
that year because he had Il mark OF
..9G. but that was poor for him. !.
he had hit three or four more singles
that year he would have been over the
mark. One man even went so far as IL
rev lew all the scores of that season IL
see il there wasn't some way by which
iris could squeeze into the select class.
An error must have been made, he
thought.
His Batting Record.
In 1909 Speaker baited 800. IL
each successive year up to 1919 ii was
$40. .327. 49,. $50. .33S. .322. .3Sj
3d.. 80. Then came 1919. He bat
ted 1888 in 1870. 1862 in 1921 and .3Ic
last year. This season he is Joggips
along at . 800 clip and i fighting fc'
third place among the batters OF tnf
league.
Attention may be called to ont
thing. Speaker made his best record
when there was not the excuse of tbs
lively ball. Away back in 1912 he hi
for .3S2 and they were playing will
practically the same ball then the:
are now. but they were playing a diff
ferent kind Of game. Some of the
best pitchers that ever lived wei'
throwing the ball in those days bul
they did not run around in circles and
abb for Speakers .3S2 on the ground
that the ball was lively. Nor did thes
do it in 1916 when he batte1 the ball
for 1886. If this lively ball junk haO
anything behind il. men like Speaker.
who are natural hitters. should be
clouting the ball over 400. You don't
see them doing ii. They are going
about the gait that they set when
they were at their best against other
pitchers in former years.
Inspires His Team.
Speaker was never spryer than he
was this spring when he began to plav
in practice and his spirit and dash
infused his whole team so that II
started with a lot of real baseball en-
thusiam and it has been hanging onto
it ever since.
Ii Speaker outlasts Ty Cobb as a
player the former may not quite reach
Tvs grand batting average because the
Georgia peach has gone up into the
400 class three times. Ty was more
of a poke 'em-through-the- hit
ter than Speaker and he got perhaps
a dozen more hits than Speaker each
year because he could do that. Nat
urally that would lift his batting aver
age. say 10 to II points, and as HI
runs about that much better. it is easy
TO draw a line between the men.
Blucge. the kid third baseman Of
Washington. was right on top of the
third baseman's record for the Amer'
lean League Sunday with eleven
chances accepted. The league record of
twelve was made by Sam Strang fol
Chicago July 4. 1902. The National
League record is thirteen. Four men
hold it and every one made his record
in the month of May. Arthur DevliD
did it May -. 1905: Bill Joyce, Mag
26, 1891: Bill Kuchnc. Pittsburg. May
-. 1887: Jerry Denny, New York.
Nav ~ 1870