Evening star., 1926-08-25

I still favor the Pirates. as they
should have a little the better of it
in the September fighting. All four
Of the western cOntenderS close in
the East, and the Pirates. having
been through the mill. should be bet
ter campaigners than the others.
Cincinnati, especially has Jared
poorly on it's former visit to the East
Then the Pirates also should have
Glenn Wright back I'm the game
when they make their last swing
around the circuit.
st. Louis, of course. has great
pennant chance. and should the
Cardinals come through no one will be-
grudge the Missouri town it's first
National League championship How
ever. HornSby's club has a tough
September ahead of it. After Sep
tember l all of their games are on
the road. And while the Cards lost
around the East. the team is most
effective at Sportsman's park.
Cards Indebted to Dodgers.
ThesSt. Louis club and fans may
thank Brooklyn for the present fine
position of the Cardinals In the race
Early in the month the Giants appar-
emily knocked the props from under
the Cards with four straight past
ings at the Polo Grounds. Imme-
diately after that trimming in Man
haitian the Cardinals had the good
fortune to catch the Dodgers at
their worst. They keeled them over
six times hand running. Recently
they cleaned up another Brooklyn
series in st. Louis, making it nine
straight from the Dodgers. The Dodg-
ers are not a first-ClaSs ball club,
but St. Louis had no license to beat
them nine straight. But then. for
that matter. the Giants had no
license to win ten straight from the
Reds.
Then. Billy Southworth. traded by
McGraw for Heinie Mueller. has been
a wonderful acquisition for Horpsby.
Billy and Lester Bell have been
the offensive stars of the team.
The Giants again struck a snaG
at a time when they were primed for
dash through the standing. They
have been the champion in-an-out
probably are out of the pennant
racket for good.
Schedule Good to Reds.
After the Reds dropped four out of
five to the Giants, the schedule was
good to them, as it provided them
with eight successive games with the
Phillies. And if there is one thing
that Cincinnati can do better than
anything else it Is bella boring the poor
PhillieS. They now have F'letcher's
band Is games to 4. Incidentally, it s
a good thing for Hendricks that Garry
Hermann did not accede to his request
to give Mays the gate i'll the late
Spring. Carl has been pitching his
best ball since 1921.
The Cubs deserve the admiration of
the base ball world for their plucky
fight. and last years tail-enders are
battling hard for a first division berth.
The Dodgers have blown up COM
pletely, and Bancroft of the Braves
has hope of slipping into sixth place
next month, as he slipped from last
to fifth unobserved last September.
The YankS are coming out of the
throes of their latest slump. while the
teams below them continue to knock
each other off. After leaving Cleve-
land with a lead of II full games
while on their last Western trip, the
Yankees lost 9 of their next 13 games,
but lost only , games of their lead.
Wherein Yanks Are Lucky.
The Yankees have had their share
of bad breaks this season. with Sc
we're injuries to Muesel. Shawkey and
Dugar and lesser ones to HOyt, Ruth,
Pat Collins and Combs. But they have
been most fortunate in the manner i'll
which the other clubs have fashioned
their campaigns. When Philadelphia
was coming strong in July, the In
dians took pleasure in humping them
off. Then when the Indians became
the runners-up the Athletics turned
on the Clevelanders.
There still may be little fun in
those : remaining Athletic-Yankee
games. 1t will be recalled that after
the Yanks won their first three games
from Philadelphia this year the Ath-
letics won 10 of the next II. They
have seven more games to play in
early September. If Philadelphia ran
continue to hang it on the Yanks In
those games they still have a chance
to get back in the race. But that
Yankee lead looks very safe.
However, after their numerous
slumps. the Athletics again loom up
as the best bet for second money
Cleveland hasn't been the same since
its great drive of July and early Au-
gust was stopped.