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Show Mack Is Seer of Baseball World; I i Champion Team, Work of Years j By W. J. Macbeth i NW YORK, May 4. The public-sits in admiration and' awe , of .Connio Mack's . world's champion Athlcticu. The leu in which humblod the Giants in tho world "s, series Inst fall is universally conceded to bo ono of the very best aggregations aggre-gations produced ' iu tho history his-tory of tho national pajstime. Yet, in its vonoration of tho capability, of that, wonderful machine, th public is prono to overlook tho gonitis gon-itis of the man who fashionod it. Connio Mack did not faU hoir to any such collection of stars. Ho had to dig up cach and cvory one of them. His ultimata success is but a tribute to his forosight arid rare judgment. For in his own unassuming, un-assuming, quiet way, Matjk has changed tho business policies of Miq great organized profession. The leader of tho Athletics was a pioneer pio-neer In his way. Ho foresaw ten years ago the great development to which this sport would" attain in a decade. Ho realized that rach year it would bocomo moro difficult" diffi-cult" to sccuro ' desired talent through -'purchase aud trade. Bu .'.fore' tho rival managers oyer ' dreamed -of paying serious' attention atten-tion to 'the scouting end of the business, bus-iness, Connio Mack had raked tho . minor organizations and collogos . Vith a fiiip toolh comb. '.No other club in organized baseball base-ball has such a perfect scouting system as that of Connie Mack. Ho himself is tho great chief of the' sleuthing department, nnd his is the final judgment. He is tipped off to moro good green players ; than any other three managors, pimply bocauso his groat . network of capionago was established before rivals woko up to his won doff til ad--vnntage. Tho Athletics were in on the ground floor, and so long as Muak remains in tho gamo Philadelphia Phil-adelphia 's Amoricans will oontinuo to havo first call, UNTIL Connio Mack entered the major fiold, managors looked little further ahead were content to dwell upon the prpsont so far as results woro concerned. con-cerned. Mack studied tho future. He planned fully five years ahead. He:looked tho situation squarely in , tho "face. Ho saw in evory one of his baseball stars not his present capability, but tho day whon he must begin to palo and fade. Ho - figured to have by that day somo newcomor- to step into the declining declin-ing veteran's shoes; nmd ho always al-ways planned on having in his substitute a man far moro capablo in every department, of the game. Connio Mack was caught napping nap-ping just twice. That; was in 1906. He waB fooled by his champion aggregation ag-gregation of 3005 tho buuoh that was so badjy shown up by the Giants. Muck overestimated tho period of usefulness of many of his voternns. Tho aeries with tho Giants opened his eyes to his mistake. mis-take. There was a general house-cleaning house-cleaning tho following year. Then, it was that tho wily Quaker sot out iu earnest to dovelop almost single handed tho great mnchino ho now controls. - W His case was similar to that of McGraw. Tlio gallant loador of tho Polo, ground ors was in identically the samo fix as Mack, though ho did not know it. Half tho old champions of 1905 had cracked on McGraw fa hands during tho hot pennant pace. Tho world's Borios of that year, gavo McGraw no warning. A disasfcrouB campaign followed the next season. Tho Now York leader immediately bogan tho wooding out process, which cvent- -ually TOBiiHcd in tho wondorful team now at homo in BruBh stadium. stad-ium. THE 1913 Giants appear to outclass out-class the National leaguo as Jar as the .1931 Athletes outclassed out-classed tho American league; Eliminating Elim-inating unusual misfortune, each should have a strangle hold on its pennant long befor fall. . In many respects tho rival aggregations aro very similar. McGraw specializes on spued; Mack on hitting ability. bino all -possible of the one with ;j J. the other. Both are solidly.es-tablishcd solidly.es-tablishcd in thie matter of youth. Yet each is fortified with unusual- , ' ,ly. brilliant substitutes. McGraw maintains that as -a chain is no t'hl strouger than its weakest link, a team is no stronger than its sub- if , 1 stitutoa. ,' , Of tho two teams the Athletics 1 appear the stronger. Whether they 1-, 'i will' prove so at the end of a stren- uous campaign may remain for the !. -jnoxfc world's series to show. Mack'3 J- flayers have tho advantage of longcrexporience together. It is ft.f a moro!;- seasoned array in. every way, evon though tho players may .pj. bo every bit as young in years as !?';! Now Yorkte. Mack has far more jj:" BoaBoned. pltchora than has Mc- . ' , .Grow. Matbewspn isNew-York's S'' 'i r- solo vetorauandby, whilo. Bender, -1 Coombs, Plan'k and Morgan have ; shown year in and year out for sea- Jl . .sons that there are fbw better so ' long as they can cheat, old Father " f- 7;, Timo. " .jf''.;! TMackalso. has a lot of promising : 'd. h yotfbg' toss'ers who may deliver when-tho opportunity arises. None ' ;l.' havo shown tho promise of ' Bubo " v !, ; :r, ; Ma'rquard. McGraw has the greatest ). - crttchor of tho ago in Chief Meyers. v Wilson is s. fino a seond string r, :-hinn as could be foWd anywhere. But' the world 'a champions aro not weak behind the bat. Thomas and W m Lapp aro of.fcho best in tho leaguo, hifc - perhaps almost tho equal of Mr. .tt'tt'! MoGraw's Indian , in plain back- yj&t . stopping and throwing, though not, r!r!ji of .course, so doadly with tho ash, McGraw's team is the faster; . Mack's the much more powerful 1 j'.L; hitting. "A club that hits close to , the .300 notch collectivoly con do . hA farlly well in any league behind Jj-jK even mediocre tossing. Give it,on jrjjj of the finest battery departments in " tho game, such as tho Athletics ffiil' boasf, and it will prove woll nigh . Wml invincible. ' uiiGsS 4 1 ' lWh IN" THE opinion of. most experts, : 'fifif Connio Mack has the greatest: ft' infiold ever shown. This goe tfb, doubly strong if little "Stuffy' K?' iniBLE MACK HAS OIGJiL WS (Continued From Page ' l;) IcJnncs can deliver 6Uch' goods at first as ho showed last season. Balcer, Barry, Collin and IcTuiios Iormrthc most, perfect fieidinu t quartette imaginable. Tt is doubt- ful even if Tuhnny tlvors was; ever as great as 'Collins. Barrj-Ms tho jrro.atest shortstop of tho ape managers man-agers will ndd -of all time. Baker needs no indorsement. And cvory ono of the four can hit liko a demon and skirt tho sacks liko a flash. After tho final game of the world's scries in Philadelphia last fall Manager McGraw of the Giants paid a fitting tribute to Conuio Mack's infield. "It is the greatest inicld T ever saw,' ho said. "Not even the old Baltimore bunch could show it anything. Collins and Barry are tho greatest 'pair that ever graced the keystone. Why, not once in the whole series wero we able to fool those two Uids. It made no difference through which side we atteiupfcd the hit and run, the right man always held his station to break it up. If wc hit at Barry's Bar-ry's division Collins always covered. cov-ered. X aetunlly bolievo this pair is fast onough to wait until tho ball is hit to lij?ure out the proper : defense. We were beaten bv one of the greatest teams of nil history his-tory and by a team whoso infield is ono of its fnaiu towers of strength." Connio Hack '3 club has nlwavs been a great trouble maker for other teams in tho American league. He novor before hnd such a wonderful won-derful club as t lint whic-h ho now omrannds. For the nnxt three or four years his younghtcrs are bound . mwvtfuhu going to be right in tho thick of baseball fame. When Collins, Barry, Bar-ry, Baker and Mclnnos begin to go, Conni'o Mack will undoubtedly produce competent successors to (hem. He has dozens upon dozens of athletes "planted" in the minor leagues for 'development. Any one of them ho can call upon -at short notice. Thus is tho leader of the world 's champions absolutely fortified forti-fied against the future. |