OCR Text |
Show EDDIE COLLI! JUST Should Be in Pennant Race With Famous Star's Timely Thumps. DETROIT, Feb. 6.AmCrK:an league fans have every reason to rejoice in the sale of Kddie Collins to the Chicago White Sox. The transfer of this player insures two things, the weakening of a t-lub that has monopolized tho pennant, altogether too long and tho strengthening of another thut j is about due to get into the ruo6 with ! something like a fair chance. Nobody need be particularly surprised by Connie Mack's letting Collins go. The leader of the Philadelphia club tipped it oft" a long time ago that he would not nt-tempt nt-tempt to win another pennant at present and that he intended to get rid of his hi.t;n-priced p!aj-ers. The last' time Connie Mark was in Detroit De-troit he mt'.mated to the writer that he would not attempt to drive his men to another an-other championship. "It is too much of a strain," he said. "After thev have won ijH5 ao many pennants thev are like an old hors-e that is always lookins: around and hoping that you will sav: -Whoa.' I am going to take it ea.sy next year." Has the Right Dope. Mack has the right dop'e. too. Philadelphia Phila-delphia has shown by its failure to support sup-port the Athletics that it is tired of champions. cham-pions. Baaseball is bound to be bad in the QuaKer city for several vears. After a lew lean seasons the fans may get Into a frame of mi-nd wherein they- wil demand de-mand another winner, but for' the pres-eent pres-eent a chean chih is about n P-miti an all-star collection at hlbe park. Collins's transfer to the White Sox will put new life in Comiskev's club and will make tt a real factor In the 1915 race, providing the pitching staff does as well as it ought to do. For several seasons the Sox have felt the need of one or two hard, reliable hitters to drive in runs. They have had such men as Bodie and Fournier, who "kill" the ball when they get hold of it, but nobody who could be depended on to deliver in the pinches. Collins is exactly . the man whom thev need. He will bat in a flock of tallies for them and will get on himself so often that he will be able to profit by the hits of the men lower down in the batting order. Need Reliable Hitters. Chicago scored only 4S7 runs In 157 games last season, the fewest made by any club in the league. A great many games were lost by one run. A fellow of Collins's caliber would have won a , big percentage of these with a timely thump or a daring steaL This was particularly par-ticularly true in the series against Detroit. De-troit. All year the Tigers mauled the Sox to their hearts' content simply because be-cause Callahan had nobody who could inject in-ject a hit at the right moment. It should make a difference of many points in the percentage column to have Collins with the Chicago club. Not only will he hit in and score runs, but he will cut off a lot of them by his brilliant fielding. He is undoubtedly the most valuable man in the country for that -oarticular team. For a long time the Sox have been floundering around without a high-class second baseman. They have tried a lot of players in the position, but have not found anybody who could hit, run the bases and field. Biackburne in 1914 hit only .222 and wasn't a. good enough fielder to make up for this poor batting. |