New Britain herald., 1926-07-28
(BY BILLY EVANS)

Victory No. 13 has surely been a jinx for Pitchers Herb Pennock of the New York Yankees and Ted Lyons of the Chicago White Sox.
 Lyons has found it even more difficult to reach and then pass, than Pennock.
 Winning 12 games was com partively easy job for the two stars, then trouble started.
 Pennock, whose fine pitching has kept the Yankees in the race, after stumbling a couple of times, man aged to put over his thirteenth victory
 It was far more difficult for him to add another victory and leave the supposedly unlucky 13 behind. It required five starts before he was able to turn the trick. In the meantime, he suffered three defeats credit for games which he really deserved to win,
 Lyons had plenty of woe adding victory No. Is to his list and is pumping into even more trouble trying to leave the hoodoo figures behind.
 Likewise the crapshooter's goal, a natural Il, has been the big jiM for Flint Rhem of the St. Louis Cardinals He lost only one game win, l,n, different since.
 Reds Find Batting Punch
 For several years the pitching staff of the Cincinnati Reds has been pointed out as the best in the majors, the big reason for the club being troublesome.
 Now, good pitchers are not sup posed to cut any figure at the bat, but the National league averages re- veal the fact that the members of the Cincinnati staff can help their pitching with a base hit punch.
 Four of the Reds pitching staff, Donahue, Luque, RiXcy and Lucas boast better than 300 batting aver ages.
 Until this year. the Cincinnati team has been regarded by the ex- perts as a pretty good defensive club, plus great pitching but lack ing batting punch.
 Yet, during the greater part of the present season the Reds have topped the National league in bat ting. Without a doubt the fact that four of the pitchers have hit better than 300 has had much to dc with it.
 Incidentally Pitcher Lucas has starred in the role of pinch batter aside from performing capabiy or the rubber. Iris Speaker Below 300
 For the second time in his major league career Iris Speaker faces the prospect of falling below the 300 mark.
 Away 10 a bad start this spring which eventually led to Speaker talk, ing himself out of the lineup in ar effort to break the slump, he hal worked under a serious handicap.
 Of late he has been hitting tho | ball in old-ti1ne style and has gradu l ally fattened his mark until he i! now flirting with the charmer 300 Triss says he will be there by tn, middle of August.
 In 1919, his fourth season witt f Cleveland, he was just three hit shy of the 300 mark, his averag, being 296. That is the only sea son he has been out of the selec circle, his average for 19 years il the majors being the remarkabl total of 1852.
 Anent Cobb's Great Record
 In this connection, Ty Cobb present mark of around .33O is con siderably below his lifetime aver age of .3G9 over a period of 2 years.
 Cobb's batting eye is as good a 1t ever was, but his underpinnin, no longer has the speed of othe days. Beating out bunts for bas hits is no longer part of Ty'spro 1 gram, also he Is thrown out ol many ball to the infield that h. would have easily beaten 10 year back.
 I doubt If Cobb plays much nor baseball this year. He realizes hi legs have slowed up and that hi work is affected in the outfield a we'll as at the plate. He has