The Key West citizen., 1940-12-18

J. Carbonen. PIP II "a 3 20
r. Smith. HIS 10 A 2 "a
Woodson, PIP IL l 13
made by Rolfe of New York in
1899. and eight more than Green
berg himself smashed out thai
year. Rolfe, while seeing his
batting average melt 79 points to
$50 in 1910, also declined to a 20
total in hitting two-baggers.
The diadem for the most hits
in the league in 1910 was shared
by a trio Of expert swatters. in
Guiding Rip Radcliffe of the
Browns, who set the pace in hit
ing Until the final stretch, Bar
ncy McCosky OF Detroit, and ROg-
CT Fit" Cramer o. the Boston
Red SoX. Each player accumu-
lated exactly 200 safeties during
the race. This tails below the
nigh total of 2l3 made by ROlfe
of New York the year before.
For the second year in success
sion there was no competition for
George Case of Washington in
the lost and neglected art of
stealing bases, although he him
self fell quite a bit below his pre-
vi0us years exceptional record.
In the full campaign of 154 games
in 1910, Case swiped 35 bags. In
only 123 games in 1899 the same
alert speed demon accomplished
81 thetts. The nearest competitor
to Case in 1910 was his team
mate Gerry Walker, who pifered
q times in 40 contests.
Consistency in speciality was
also demonstrated by Mike Kree-
vich of Chicago who for the sec
ond straight year set the pace for
his circuit in successful bunting,
with 81 sacrifices to his credit.
This talent is really worthy OF
more commentator than it re-
CeiveS. since many ball players
insist that it is more difficult to
bunt consistently than to hit re-
gularly. Also, there are a good
many games in which the sue
cess or failure of a bunt is the
tell-tale play.
While the foregoing particular
players had big seasons in their
special fOrtes. other stars of the
loop had some great and out
standing days or single games
during the long campaign For
example. Joe Cronin, the Splen-
did shortstop and manager. and
Joe Gordon. Yankee keystone
star. each enjoyed the unusual
feat of hitting for the cycle
single. double, triple and homer
during the course of the season.
Frank Higgins, Detroit third
basing star, smashed out three
homers in the game against BoS-
ton on May 20. thus engraving
his name on the comparatively
short list of major leaguers who
have done this.
Two pitchers of the league de-
cided that turn-abOUt was fair
play when each contributed a
brace of circuit clouts in a single
game. These slugging-tw irlers
were Jack Wilson of Boston and
Spurgeon Chandler of New York.
Over the course of the race
Joe Kuhel of Chicago eqUalled
the record of "Zeke" Bonura. for
whom he was traded. for the
most home runs for one player in
. enc season on that particular club
with 81. Bonura hit q for Chi
cagO in 1884
Home run hitting continued TO
be an American League Charac-
teristic in 1910 with numerous
ether examples of mass long
range cunning. The high rate of
home run hitting in the league
shattered the circuits record in
total homers with 883. which was
10 more than the high mark of
1898.
AS a result of another great
wear of lengthy pill-driving. the
Yankees now hold a record of 100
or more home runs for 10 years.
sixteen of which are consecutive.
Both of these figures make new
major league records.
Detroit in winning the pennant
turned in the lowest percentage
of games won by a championship
team in the American League in
history with .584 The former
low record pennant-winning per-
! centage of .588 was registered by
the same club way back in the
youthful days of Ty Cobb in 1908
Compiled bv Howe News
Bureau of Chicago, Ill)