The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-10-02

their fads and foibles-not to me
breakfast foods. cigarets and motto
comparative strangers in the series S
few of them.
Well take Charley Grimm to be-
giil with. Mr.. Grimm isn't precisely
a stranger. AS a matter of fact he
has been around a long time. AS
far back as 1916 he was trying to
convince the good people of Phila-
delphia he was a first baseman. But
something was wrong with the gen.
tleman'S act. Either he lacked a
theme song or a stooge.
But that is neither here nor in
HOboken. Mr. Grimm comes to us
this time in brand new role. He
comes TO us as a miracle man. AS
such, he is the first since George
Stallings won with the Braves of
1914. To become a miracle man,
Mr.. Grimm took a club that was
10l5 games out of first place on
July 4, the date on which cham
pionships are theoretically decided,
and won a pennant with it.
Cubs Started From Fourth
In the case of Mr.. Stallings his
Braves we're in last place on July 4;
they started to win and kept 'on
winning until they had won the
pennant and the World Series in
four straight games against Connie
Mack's supposedly invincible Ath-
letic.s. Relavitely speaking then Mr.
Grimm is not a genuine blown in
the bottle miracle man. His Cubs
we're in the first division when they
started to go places.
regret to report there are certain
sour puss cynics out here refuse to
accept Mr.. Grimm as a miracle man
in hattering sense. They say,
Yes, he is miracle man. 1t is
a miracle the man amt back in the
Carolinas He just did win a pen
nant with ball club that should
have won it by a dozen games"
You know how sour pusS cynics
are. They are always looking for
the silver lining in bullets. What
they can't understand about Mr.
Grimm is how he waited so long to
make up his mind about a winning
combination. He had a pennant
winning team at his command from
the start of thes pring training sea-
son but he waited until midsummer
to put it on the field.
Finally Discovered Root
In rebuttal of course, Mr.. Grimm
can point out that after he had
wasted so much time on the Kleins
and the Cuylers and for weeks had
ignored the pitching possibilities Of
the veteran Root he finally did put
a ball club on the field that was hot
ter than a pair of house dice. At
any rate his Cubs were hot enough
to win 81 games in a row to turn in
the most sensational stretch drive
any National League winner has
ever shown.
The Napoleonic gifts and inspira-
tional powers of most managers are
over-rated anyway, so the chances
are Mr.. Grimm il bringing his Cubs
home in front die no more or no
less than any of the master minds
who preceded him. 1t is altogether
possible that Mr.. Grimm's genius for
the miraculous would have suffered
sharply if his pitchers hadn't sud-
denly started to pitch.
Gabby Always Chattering
So much for Mr.. Grimm. If one
man contributed more to the sue
cess Of the Cubs than any other in
dividual it was Charles Leo Hart
nett, the catcher. They call Charles
Leo "Gabby." He is always chat
tering. They could just as appro-
priately call him happy. He is al
ways laughing. He's a round-faced,
big-girthed, red-faced Turk from up
New England way. He has more
vitality than a Missouri mule and
is as profane and as gusty as a sea-
going sailor. He reads detective
stories, likes cowboy films, takes in
all the melodramaS. He had a sort
Of fearful sinister admiration for
Al Capone. One day at the Cubs
park he had his picture taken with
sweet little Brooklyn schoolboy
who had to go West to make good
This shocked the league officials.
They came up with rule forbid
ding ball player to speak to a
spectator.
He's Backbone of Bruins
"Gabby" joined the Cubs in 1922.
He has been with them ever since.
He is the greatest catcher in the
National League. He would like to
prove he is the greatest catcher in
baseball He thinks he can do this
by outplaying Mickey Cochrance in
this series. This is a high tribute
to the Tiger manager and a game
challenge by the WoonSocket harp.
He's the backbone of the Cubs
attack. Although he's slower than
a deep South River packet, he's the
cleanup hitter for the National
Leaguers.
In a game against Pittsburgh late
in the saason something happened
to Mr.. Hartnett's ankle He was
carried off the field. 1t was thought
his ankle was broken. Mr.. Grimm
shook his head sadly and said,
There goes our last chance to win. =
Immediately the Cubs went into a
nose dive. Fortunately Mr.. Hart
nett's ankle wasn't broken. Shortly
he was back in the game. The Cubs