New Britain herald., 1926-09-11
MAJOR LEAGUERS
 BATTING TITLES
Two NeW Champions Likely to
 Be Crowned This Year

Chicgo, Sept. II PITwo new major league batting champions are on the way, with prospect that the | crowns will be knocked down for bids considerably below those of last year.
 Detroit's best offer to retain the American league title which Harry Heilmann earned with 1893 hitting is .3S0 average while the Nation al's best current bid for the honors won last year by Hornsbys .40S slugging is the .S64 hitting of liar grave. Reds catcher.
 Manush, who hit 1908 for the Tygers last season, has forged to the top of the American regulars to join Fothergill in a race for the title which their teammates .S63 average has slim chance of holding.
 The Cincinnati backstop's present prominence is even more singular, for he wound up the 1925 pennant race with an even 300 percentage, way down in the list. Engaged in a drive for the flag, the St. Louis manager has permitted his average to drop to .S12, something new in Hornsby's history.
 Hagen Cuyler's % stolen bases make him, by averages including Wednesdays game and released to- day, the leading contender for the majors title his team-mate, Max Carey, brought to Pittsburgh in l 1925 with a total of 46. The Pirate is, however, but a jump ahead of 1 Johnny Mostil of Chicago, who has pasted his 1925 record and leads in the American with 25, but one short of the 26 total which was the i leagues best last year.
 Other new title holders many of them entirely unexpected as con- 1 tenders when the year opened, loom as the teams press toward the clos ! ing two weeks of the pennant chas- i es. And George Burns of Cleveland l has assured at least one new all- time record, by passing the previous high total of 59 doubles in any sea- son.
 Cincinnati has the three leading hitters in the National, with liar grave, Bressler and Christensen punched at the top. Pittsburg is fighting for the pennant lead with two players among the leading ten, while the Cardinals have but one, in Lester Bell. The Reds also place Eddie Roush, who is hitting ten points below the .341 average that made him champion batter of the National in 1917.
 The three clubs fighting for the lead have become similarly punched in their slugging, with the Reds on top. Cincinnati leads with a team average of .292, the Pirates are hit ting .2S7 and the Cardinals are next
 with .2S4, an average shared by Chi
 cago and Philadelphia, however.
 Among the pitchers, Kremer of
 Pittsburgh had 17 victories and five
 defeats for Pittsburgh after We'd
 nesday's games and his teammate
 Meadows had an 1S-7 slate. Rhem
 of St. Louis had his nineteenth vic
 tory and sixth losing start on record
 Charley Root of Chicago rated strike
 out king, with 120 to his credit.
 Leading individual batters in the
 National: Hargrave of Cincinnati,
 .S64: Bressler. Cincinnati. .S57; Christensen, Cincinnati, .S52; Earl
 Smith, Pittsburgh, 1852; Stephenson,
 Chicago, $40: Grantham. Pitts
 hurgh, .335; Brown, Boston, .332;
 Roush. Cincinnati, .3S1; Williams
 Philadelphia, .32S; l.. Bell of St : Louis, .327.
 In the American, Babe Ruth, still : well below his record in homers
 trails Manush and Fothergill at the top of the regular batsmen, witt Heilmann of the Tygers fourth. Tl Cobb again breaks into the first ter to join that other veteran, Eddie : Collins of Chicago, although they are slightly separated.
 Five clubs are punched in the hit tings. The Yankees lead after Wed
 nesdays games with .294, followed by Washington with .293, Detroi : with .292, Chicago with .290 ant Cleveland with .2S9.
 George Uhle tops the fingers z Wednesdays games leaving hin with 23 victories for Cleveland anC nine defeats Herb Pennock of New York had 21-10 record and Shock CT of the Tanks one of 19-S. , Leading individual American hit , ters: Manush, Detroit, .SS0: Fother gill, Detroit. .3S0; Ruth, New York
 .S71; Heilmann, Detroit, .363: Cos , lin, Washington, .S62; Burns. Cleve , land, 1858; Collins. Chicago. .S47
 Miller, Philadelphia-St. Louis, .346 } Falk, Chicago. .345; Rice, Washing ton 2oq. Cohb Detroit S3q