The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1928-08-14
Expected
81 I||V|P He
SAYS
By Babe Ruth

BY 6aDe 6ubu
BOSTON, Aug. IA The real
fight FOR the American League
pennant il just started. Friends
Of mine, since the Athletics
started their squirt, have been
asking me all sorts Of cues
.tions.
What's the matter with the
Yankees? Will the Yankees come
out of their present slump? Can
the Athletics keep going at their
present rate
OF course, can't answer those
questions definitely. If could,
then i could tell you right now
who viii win. But there are certain
things that can be figured on
averages. First Oft, what's the
matter with the Yankees2
The answer to that Is nothing.
Probably that will make you laugh,
but consider this. The Yankees
have had q perfectly normal slump,
in which they lost 10 out Of ~
games played over q three-Week
period. That's lot Of games to
lose, but IL YOU go back over the
baseball record YOU will find that
every team in every league has q
slump Of that sort in "a out Of 70
years OF play. We had one like IL
IN 1927, even when we walked IN
with the pennallt.
The thing that has made our
slump look particularly bad IS
the fact that the Athletics hap
pened to be In d squirt at the
same time we were In B slump.
We lost 10 games, and every
one Of those 10 games cost US
something b the percentage
table.
IN other words, the thing that
cost us q lot of our lead was not
the fact that the Yankees dropped
half their games. 1t was the fact
that the Athletics won all Of lleiss
Personally, don't expect the
Athletics to keep going at that
speed to the finish. And / don't
expect the Yankee slump to con-
finue either.
Though LET me make myself clear
about this. II the Athletics can
continue to the end of the season
playing the brand of baseball they
have played IN the last three
weeks they'll win the pennant.
And deserve TO win. too. If they
do that we're beaten now and adj
NIT it,
That's why as ball club we're
rot particularly concerned with
what the Athletics do. We're in
terested in ourselves. It may seem
strange to the outsider but on the
Yankee ball club you don't hear
much said about the Athletics win
ming. Every man on our club ii
interested in the Yankees winning
their ball games day by day. III
we can win our own games we
can win the pennant. and il we
can't win our own games we don't.
deserve q pennant.
The next two weeks win prob
ably tell the story. We're back
home off the road We've got
chance to settle down In oar
own park. and the other fellow
has to carry the war to us for
awhile. II we can't win, under
circumstances. like that, then
were whipped and well take
the trimming with grin.
want to put myself on record on
another thing too. A lot of people
say we're losing ball games because
OF our pitching. That's not fair to
the Yankee pitchers. Occasionally
we have lost game because it was
badly pitched, but the real facts are
that our pitching has been a lot bet
ter than our hitting. The real rea-
son we've lost so many ball games
lately is that our sluggers haven't
been slugging when hits means runs.
We lost a lot OF bali games that
could have been won easily by a
single base hit delivered when it
counted.
And in most OF those games we
had not only one opportunity but
three or four of them in the nine
innings. When you@lose ball games
like that you cant blame 1t on the
pitching. It's the hitting that's all
bad-and the Yankees as ball
club, aren't going to fail with the
stick for ever. They're bound to
hit sometime. We know it.
And IL we do--WeW we're still In
first place and no club ever stayed
In first place and lost a pennant.
copyright, 1923, by The Christy
Walsh Syndicate1