The Washington times., 1933-07-31
CRUCIAL SET TTESTING STAMINA0F BOTH GRIFFS, Y
TEAMS UNDER
STRAIN IN
GAMES
By GARRETT WATERS

~y NSSSVSSA@ w "A A&SS
When a series is tense,
crucial and as important as
the current one between the
Griffmen and New York
Yankees, most anything is
liable to happen during the
course of the immediate
game.
The breaks may go to the home
team, they may favor the enemy.
But after all is said and done the
players themselves know best
whether they've been il a set Of
tedious battles or not.
Although the scores have been
rather one-sided in couple Of
instances the contests in this cur
rent "croocil" series between the
Griffs and Yanks have been bat
tIes-and battles to the boiling
point limit.
The performers have had to
stand the greatest strain, although
the fans have had their share Of
squirming, catching their breaths,
cheering and all that sort of thing,
and the same said players are
most willing to tell you today, if
they should be asked, that they've
been through the toughest mills"
in years.
Take last Thursdays opener of
the series for an example. It was
a battle to the last ditch that day,
as each and every performer on
the ball field went through mental
agony until the final putout be-
cause so much was at stake.
Same Thing
Then Saturday, it was the same
thing despite the fact that the
Griffs took a toe hold on the
situation early in the game and
made victory certain by batting
Johnny Allen out of the box and
continuing on Danny MacFayden
and Charlie Devens, relief men.
The strain of always keeping
ahead of the dangerous Yanks
kept the Griffs on edge in that
contest while a feeling of hope
lessness filled the hearts of the
Yankees because they knew they
were dropping precious ground in
the race all the while they were
losing their second straight game.
That fray yesterday, in which
the Yanks got into the winning
column by scoring a decisive z
to 2 triumph, taxed the strength
and stamina of the athletes to
the highest degree since the series
started. The Yanks, with their
backs conclusively to the wall,
played under the strain that they
just had to win to preserve their
chances for a possible pennant
later, while the GriffS worked
under the strain of what it would
mean to hold the big lead that
would become theirs if a third
successive triumph was registered.
And so, dear friends, if you're
still listening, this baseball busi-
ness is quite a strain on those
who play it and particularly
when the players involved are
fighting tooth and nail for what
usually goes to the league win
ner each year-the gonfalon (peIl-
nant to YOU'D.
A few paragraphs above we
said that Lost anything can hap
pen in the games because of all
the strain and Importance at
tached to them. This is true
and was brought out most en-
phatically yester day as the Griffs
went sometime short of haywire
in the eighth inning when the
Yanks scored four runs.
Ruth's walk ted it, Gehrig's
pop bunt over Bluege's head kept
it going, while Tommy Thomas
error a few moments later fin
iShed it, although hits by Lazzeri
and Dickey Immediately follow
ing figured in the fourth run
counted during the frame.
And there you have an eX'
ample of items happening that,
in the end, always turn the game
one way or / other. The Griffs
happened to be the victim in this
instance, but it was one of those
cases where the strain and ten
sion had reached a boiling point
and something just had to oc.
cur, either in the 'Yanks' favor
or the GriffS. In this case it
was all in the favor of the New
YorkerS.