Evening star., 1923-02-16
HO,U american League
Helped in Development
of Base BalL-OLd Ath.
letics One Of Greatest
CIubs-The Team, That
Stole q Pennant.
THE five years between 1907 and
/ 1912, in many, ways, was, to

INHE FIVE years between 1907 and
1912, in many, ways, was, to
my mind, one of the most in
teresting and important periods in
major league base ball. The Ameri-
can League had completely estab-
liShed iteslf as permanent fixture
inn the history of the game, and
bitterness had begun to die away.
everybody realized that the two
major leagues had proved a good
thing for the game rather than a
detriment. 1t enabled us to establish
as a permanent classic the annual
world series.
with this feeling came hard, con-
structlve efforts to build up great
tta teahns1 IN, hach League was on it's met
Tie. The public was being given the
pest that money and Intelligence
could provide. Appreciation of this
was shown by an immediate growth
IN attendance all over the country In
other words. base ball had etertd a
new era. Since that time it has never
Jagged. except. Of course. during the
world war
Three Great Clubs Formed.
An evidence of the Importance of
thls era was the development of at
least three great ball clubs-the Ath-
Ietlcs. the Giants and the Cubs
To this day those three teams are
used as a basis for comparison in
judging the strength of pennant win
ners. There have been constant ars1l-
ments as to the respective merits of
those three clubs.
As I have said before, | think my
1905 team was the smartest of the
clubs that / have handled. Though
1t was not so fast il was much
smarter than our clubs Of 1911-12-13
/ nave never regarded the Chicago
club of 1906-7-s as the greatest Of
ball clubs. 1t had determination and
f1ghting spirit. and it had smartness,
but 1t did not have the natural
strength Of the Athletics of 1911 or
of the 1905 New York team
Mackmen Had Everything.
Nobody appreciates the efforts of
the famous Cubs more than myself.
but in all frankness / must say that
Chances club was not as good as the
Athletics of 1911-a team that lasted
until Connie Mack finally broke it up,
deliberately.
In that team Connie Mack had
practically everything that is needed
for a great club. There were no weak
spots that one could indicate with
certainty.
In the first place it had wonderful
ever equipped with such pitchers as
Bender. Plank and Coombs. All of
these were thinking pitchers. In ad-
dition they had the goods physically.
A club with trio of such pitchers
would be pretty hard to beat in a
season or in a series any time.
Always Packed a Punch.
/ don't remember ever having seen
a much better combination around
second base than Eddie Collins and
Jack Barry. Then, at third. there
was Frank Baker. Stuffy McInnis
field pretty nearly perfect All of
these men could hit and all knew the
tricks of the game in the field.
The Athletics had a punch at all
times. Our pitchers realized that to
their sorrow the first time we ran
against them. On the other hand our
batters knew what they were up
against when they had to face such
pitchers as Plank, Coombs and Ben
der.
/ have no hesitation in expressing
the opinion that the Athletics of that
period were one Of the greatest ball
clubs of all times.
We had to face them for the world
championship in 1911.
Giants Possessed Speed.
Going into that fight we had one
of the fastest clubs that New York
smartest club by any means. We
were just emerging from the period
Of completely rebuilding team with
younger blood.
We had made many trades and had
dug up several youngsters since the
stormy days of 1907 and 1908. Final
ly 1 got together this outfit, and it
won the pennant: Meyers, Merkle,
Doyle, Fletcher. Herzog, Sohaefer,
Murray, Snodgrass. Devore. Mathew
son. Marquard, Tesreau and Wiltse.
Mighty few ball clubs ever put to-
gether were faster than that combi-
nation. That, think. was the great
est base running club / ever saw.
We stole so many bases-led the
league so far In that respect-that we
were jokingly referred to as having
literally stolen the pennant.
Uniforms Were I'm Tatters.
The players got the notion that
thew could steal on anybody, and that
helief was SO strong that they went