The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-08-20

1T OVER
WITH JOE WILLIAMS

New ok, aug SDs
TTNLES5 my eyes betray me, the
~ Cubs and the AS are still on
sou In the big league races and the
prospects Of Chicago and Phlladel-
phia deciding the next world series
are what you might, in a burst OF
eloauence. term roseate. OF course,
a lot of things can happen between
rcu end the first week Of october.
Niagara Falls can cease falling.
Medicine Hat can go bareheaded.
And Colonel Charles Augustus Lind
bergh can join up with the Scan
DALI for fifty weeks. But there isn't
r1uch likelihood Of the Cubs doing
q Brodie or the As cracking.
sim George Herman Ruth writes IN
the daily bugles that anything is possible
in the great national pastime and that II
is always unwise to take anything for
granted. John Joseph McGraW also
writes grsvely that It is too early to count
the Giants out of the race yet. The Joker
her. is that he fails TO mention what
race. Possibly he means the human race
THE PLAIN TRUTH is THE BIG
LEAGUE RACES ARE RUNNING PRETTY
CLOSE TO. FORM. THE ADDITION OF
ROGERS HORNsBY MADE THE CUBS
sTANDOUT TO WIN THE NATIONAL AND
THEY ARE PROCEEDING TO DO so DE-
SPITE THE LOSS OF GABBY HARTNETT,
ONE OF THE BEST CATCHERS IN THE
BUSINESS.
TN many respects HornSby is
L strange young man. Personally L
always have found him a rather
Hkeable fellow, with a fair for open
faced candor that is refreshingly
rare in baseball. He calls a spade
spade and an iron head an iron head.
This characteristic hasn't added TO
his popularity among the players.
His mysterious dismissal from the
Giants never has been satisfactorily
explained by the officials. Charles
A. Stoneham said it was done for the
good of the team. The Giants
haven't had a second baseman since
he left.
Beyond costing the Giants the 1928
championship and very likely the 1929
championship i. was a splendid move and
no doubt has enriched the clubs treasury
beyond all expectations. One of the shock
ing complaints against Hornsby as Giant
is that he attempted to correct the third
basirg technique of young Freddie Lind
strom. gratuitous gesture which Lind
strom is said TO have resented with no
little heat.
The idea OF him trying to tell a young
man ike Lindstrom anything about base
BALL Stoneham is again to be con-
graduated on his sagacity in Immediately
eliminating such terrible person from
his ball club. There is no telling what
havoc he might have wrought if he had
been permitted to tarry at the Polo
Grounds any longer. It is even possible
that he might have become so brazen as
to try to show Francis Hogan how to
steal bases.
NATURALLY it is a bit mystify-
II ing to note the esteem in which
HornSby is held by the ChicagoanS.
1 am told he is somewhat of an idol
at the north side grounds and that
on occasions tn admiration of the
citizenry rises to point practically
verging on delirium.
Perhaps this merely goes TO prove the
moral and material difference between the
two sectional communities In Chicago
they want their ball players for what
they can do at the bat and in the field,
whereas at the Polo grounds, servilty,
establishment and a boisterous respect
for certain favorite attaches of the front
office, appear to count most.
On reflection I imagine I am being I'M
gracious in reopening an old wound but
the abrupt dismissal of Hornsby by the
Giants always has been a puzzle to me
and his present meritorious performance
with a club that Is about to win cham
pionship doesn't make the situation any
easier to understand.
IF Hornsby can get along with
Il Wrigley he ought to have got
along with Stoneham and if he can
play for Mccarthy he ought to
have played for McGraw. These
things are basic. fundamental and
important. In baseball 1 fail to
see where anything else matters, but
then I'm not seeing as we'll as used
to. and maybe I'm all wrong.