The Washington times., 1929-10-09

LAUDED BY
BABE RUTH
By Babe Ruth

CHICAGO, Oct. st takes
no deep insight and no great
baseball knowledge to find the
high lights in that first game
of the world series.
The things that happened. hap.
pened right out there on the field
where everybody could see the
breaks. 1t was simply a case OF
great ball club, aided by phenome
nal pitching and inspired pitching
beating a great ball club that had
pitching almost as good but not
quite.
Howard Ehmke was great-the
greatest l have ever seen him. He
proved two things to me. He
proved, first of all that he can
pitch under fire and under strain.
And he proved that the Cubs. with
all their slugging prowess. can be
stopped by smart pitching that in
cludes a change of pace and plenty
of slow stuff. The thing that i'm
pressed me most was the way ths
Cubs slashed away on the swing
of Ehmke's arm, completely thrown
off stride by that snaky motion
and the slow stuff that Howard
threw.
OF course breaking the world
series strike-Out record was
great thing. but / wasn't half
so much impressed by that as
was by the way Howard kept
constantly ahead of the hitters
and the smart way In which he
pitched to every hitter. Where
Tia A. Unf fhoir d0nA I dnr1f
know, but they had the Cub
sluggers figured to . fare you
well.
There were two real breaks in the
game, both of them fielding plays.
one came in tho fourth inning when
Dykes made great diving catch of
Stephenson's srounder. Had that
ball gone by 1t would have been
good for two bases at least. and
since there had been no scoring, 1t
might have upset the entire plan OF
play.
The other break came in the very
next inning when Simmons chased
we'll over into the fringe Of the
left field boxes to pull down Tay-
lor's drive that had three-bagger
written all over 1t. Taylor was the
first man up In that inning, and
had that bail gone safe the Cubs
would most surely have scored and
taken the lead.
Ehmke himself waved the ball
game in the third. With one out
Mcmillan singled and English dou-
bled. 1t was a tough spot. Any
sort of a hit meant a run. real
hit meant two runs. And right
there Howard showed HIS stuff by
striking out Hornsby and Wilson in
order. thus disposing OF the two
toughest hitters in the Cub lineup.
Again in the sixth Howard was
great when he struck out three
men in q row-but that feat, great
as 1t was, wasn't half AZ great as
the other. There. with two on and
one out, was q real show of nerve
and spirit.
The best Chicago play / think
was Wilson's diving catch Of
Simmons liner. 1t took nerve
to make that play. Lots Of out
fielders would have stood back
and played the bali safe by
letting 1t drop for q single.
But Hack gambled. II he missed
the ball he knew 1t would 60 for
three bases at least and perhaps for
a homer. It's trying for plays like
that that are real tests Of nerve,
whether such a play is good base
ball or not.
Now a word about Charley Root.
Ehmke was so good that most folks
overlooked Charleys pitching. But
| he would have won nine games out
OF ten by his work. In the seven
innings he was out there he allowed
only three hits and with any help
from his mates at ali in q scoring
| WaY he would have had q breeze