Evening star., 1938-09-21
BUG ACE PRODUCT
Of CHAIN SYSTEM
Loss of Whitehead, Another
Player st. Louis Let Go,
Ruinous to Giants.
BY GRANTLAND RICE,
Special Correspondent Of The Star,

Special Correspondent Of The Star.
NEW YORK, Sept. 2l.-When the
Pirates finally have clinched the Ma
tional League pennant--as it seems
they will, after all the stumbles that
lie behind them and all tie pitfalls
that lie ahead-there will be credit
enough for all. Pie Traynor-Mace
Brown-all the infielders, beginning
with Gus Suhr at first base and end
ing with Lee Handley at third-the
Waner brothers-credit enough for all
these.
But II one player were to be singled
out for q special award, he could be
Johnny Rizzo, the left fielder. Thus is
winning history repeated once
more, because Rizzo, a Cardinal cast
of, had only an outside chance for
glory. And If he isn't the No. l man
| with the Pirates this year, he Is finish-
ing in the money. He was brought
up in the Cardinal chain-store system,
| yet wasn't considered good enough for
the Cardinals. So Branch Hickey
sold him to the Pirates, and, as say.
pennant-winning history once more
takes an old, familiar turn.
Giants Miss Whitehead.
| How? Well, the Giants won the
pennant in 1886 and again in 1887 be.
cause they had Burgess Whitehead at
second base-and, If you're looking
for reason why they aren't winning
it again this year, you don't have to
| On ho1y0 ha of
head. Whitehead, too, was sold off
by the Cardinals. He got past the
chain-store system, he played with the
Cardinals. After the trade was made
Whitehead for Roy Pasmelee-there
was that famous exchange of cracks
between Frisch and Terry.
! whitehead won't play a complete
season for you," Frisch said.
That's all right" Terry countered.
"Parmelee won't pitch complete game
for YOU"
In this instance, at least, Frisch was
wrong and Terry was right. Parmelee
was Of small use, if any, to the Cardi-
nals-and, without Whitehead, the
Giants could not have won the pen.
nant.
Luque Another Example.
1t has been like that down through
the years. The Giants may have won
anyway in 1888 But the fellow who
clinched the pennant-and the world
series-for them was Adolfo Luque.
The Cuban had been around for years
and years. He was supposed to be all
| ho {rxal
chance on hinn-and he paid of with
the greatest relief pitching of the year.
There were times that year, as there
always are in the pennant pursuit By
any ball club, no matter how good.
when the manager has his heart in his
mouth and is reaching out desperately
for q pitcher who can stalk into ball
game and bring it back just as 1t seems
about to slip into the clutches Of the
enemy.
In 1888, whenever Terry found him.
self in spot like that, all he had to
do was to call on Luque and his trou-
bles were over. He was an old fellow,
as ball players go-the other Giants
called his papa and the rest Of the
clubs didn't want him-but he meant
the difference between second place
and pennant to the Giants.
Martin Comes to Front.
This sort of thing doesn't happen
every year, Of course. But it happens
often enough to be interesting. Go
back to 1881, when the Cardinals
brought kid outfelder up from the
minors. He was rugged, hell-for-
leather kid who played every ball game
as though his life depended upon it.
The Cardinals had a lot of good ball
players that year.
The Gas House Gang still was three
years of, but this was a good Cardinal
team, too, and rising to the peak it
was to hit in 1894. It had won the
pennant in 1880, but had lost to the
Athletics in the world series. Now it
was on the march again. 1t crashed
through and won the pennant again,
and, in the world series, met the
Athletics again and beat them this
time.
That world. series Of 1881 threw the
spotlight full on a kid named John
Leonard Martin, from Temple, Okla.
Before that series was over, everybody
knew all about Martin. But long be-
fore that-as the championship sea-
son rolled along and the Cardinals
faced one crisis after another and beat
them all down-there was q fellow
named Martin, playing in the outfield,
who grabbed line drives, drove runs.
ISoo PTZZO pora AIcN