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Show V PITCHING WIZARDS FOE 191? WORLD'S SERIES -Jv . v . WAW pAte . . ;r - v-W t -. - w"mm - H i feSippp pi Tr 7 j mm ' iWr& f I - - i... Ir V- TBSJZEAUf ?S ' V L "V V ivfe if ) diAk . 4kHin iM - r ilJgt"- H t : " S lXtMW rv iiiiv teiii 'pli:te t...i :.:z " t vHBfflffS-- ' " " : .z AJzjzy PICKING WINNER IN 1917 WORLD SERIES FANS' MAIN PASTIME Salt Lake Solidly Behind White Sox on Account of Williams and Lynn; Six Ex-Coasters on Chicago Club; Left-hand Pitchers Will Be Chief Reliance of Giants; Cicotte Re-garded Re-garded as Westerners' Best. By J. C. D. 0XCE more f lie hour is at hautl when the baseball fans of tbe nation na-tion and thousands who this year are not actually in tbe nation na-tion as a geographical division, but who are the most intensely national of us all the hour is at hand when millions mil-lions of b:ischa!l lovers Throughout the universe arc called upnn to sharpen their wits for world 's series calculation and prophecy. The races in the major leagues are apparently all but over. Only" the utter ut-ter annihilation of the White Sox by scourge or the destruction of the Giants hv catastrophe can prevent, those two clubs from winnir.c the pennants in their re-pective leac'tics. Boston in the American and Philadelphia in the National Na-tional still have a last-crisp chance to overtake the leaders, hut already the asp lias turned to a urle. rind, in the vern"eular. with I1in::i "the stuff's off." Whatever the outcome cf the baseball classic this year, it is certain that at- I tendance records will be broken. It may be that the total attendance marks will cot be menaced, but unquestionably unques-tionably the records for game-attendance will go to smash. With the series se-ries opening at Chicago on Saturday, October (i, and with a Sunday game to follow, there will be' a tremendous turn-out, turn-out, not only of Chicago fans, hut also of thousands who will travel to Chicago from the great expanse of the west. There is no question that tbe attendance atten-dance at New York will exceed that of any previous series. If it should happen that the series runs into seven games crowd figures are sure to be smashed. Champion for West, With Chicago bearing the banner of (he American league into battle, the wpM. for the first time in seven years, will have a champion. lu late 'rears the ca-t has mnQJil world 's scries sc-ries honors, and the continual winning of league pennants by eastern clubs has not been beneficial to baseball. At 1 (Continued on Page Tnree.) PICKING WINNER IN 1917 WORLD' SERIES; (Continued from Pa&e Cne.) j least, that is what folks say who pro-L'ctis pro-L'ctis to know. For our purl, wo don't lu-liovo Hiiythiiifj ol" the kirul. Consecutive Consecu-tive sectional victories may bo disappointing disap-pointing to tii e soctiou wliieh is not the victor, but it does not necessarily follow fol-low that interest in baseball as a sport wanes it is not always tha championship champion-ship club which has the largest following, fol-lowing, a fact clearly proved by the instance in-stance of Portland, where tho fans,' in spite of five or six pennants, are not crashing tho gates of Mc.Credie '& grounds. However, if baseball theorists insist that 'the "winning of a pennant by a western club "is the best thing that has ever happened in baseball,'' well and good. It is uot a point about which to quarrel. Salt Lake for Sox. Naturally Salt Lake will be with the White Sox in its battle for the world's championship. Salt Lake has two players on the Chicago club in whom local fans take a keen interest. Pitcher Claude Williams put the Saints in second sec-ond place in the if Ho race and Catcher Byrd Lynn also did h'w bit in that race. Lefty has had a good year with the Whito Sox. The last .available records show that Lefty has won seventeen sev-enteen games and lost eight. In addition to Williams and Lynn, the Coast league is represented bv Charley Risberg, who is almost a Utan man himself, since ho got his start with the Ogden club, and by Fred Mc-Mullin, Mc-Mullin, formerly with the Angels. All of these have displayed their wares bo-fore bo-fore Salt Lake crowds since the town's entrance into the circuit. Other const players, of the days before Salt Lake was a member of the league, are Buck Weaver, formerly with the Seals, and Chick Gaudil, formerly with Sacramento. Sacra-mento. All of these former Coast leaguers are White Sox regulars or near regulars. With this representation on the Chicago Chi-cago club, it can not be otherwise than that the west will he solidly behind the .White Sox in spirit, in pulling and in : rooting. Compared with this group of fnr-westernors fnr-westernors on the .Chicago list, one finds that tho Giants have but one former Coast leaguer .Toe Wiihoit, formerly of the Tigers, and .Toe is not a regular. New York Spirit. Since New York will be in the series it is pretty safe to predict that Gotham money will make the Giants the fn-jvorites fn-jvorites in the betting, but the odds will be slight. New York, having the reputation reputa-tion of being the smallest, most provincial pro-vincial and the self -centered town in vincial and the most self-centered town in the world, of course, will be able to see only the Giants in tho world's series. Indications are that, while the clubs which New York and Chicago enter in the series will not be the best ball clubs that ever took part in the great contest, they will be as evenly matched as any two champion-ship contenders. New Yorkers hold that the Giants will ram their way through with slugging; Chicagoans. on the other hand, contend that the club which depends on sacri- fi ec hitting, base running and inside baseball generally can beat the (dub which phu-es its sole reliance on battering batter-ing the ball. Jn this contention the adherents ad-herents of the westerners point to the superiority of the base-running game over the hammering game, and say the White Sox will, with their speed, play j the Giants off their feet. Style of Game. ' j By referring to the Giants as a slug-j giug club, the reference is not to be taken as it wouid .be it applied to. say,1 tho Brooklyn club of l!Hij. The Giants do not by a ny ineau.s nt gleet the sac-ri sac-ri firing and base running end of their offence, but they do not rely upon it as miirh as they do upon their power to drive the ball out for clean hits. Persons who have se..'n the White Sox play say that while the Chicagoans try a great" deal of inside bssehail they fail to get away with half their attempts. One writer' severely criticises tho Sox for their inabiliry to plav the bunting ariie Mi'-eessf ully. Another who ad- ! mils he hi an ' ' expert, ' ' says he dis-tinctly dis-tinctly remembers eighteen games lost by the White. Sox irrr.use they could not make their infield tups harmonize with base running. Now, we submit that anybody who can remember the exat reason down to tho m i nut est detail de-tail why any club lost eighteen ball games must indeed .be an "expert," and his astonishing gift of recollection is confessedly a siunner. We arc willing wil-ling to accept this ' expert 's ' 1 views with the same readiness that we accept the views of any of the other hundreds of " experts'' who bob up around world's series time. Nevertheless, the Chicago club has the reputation 01 performing better on the bases than the New York club, and the New York club ha the reputation of being more deadly with the bat. The difference in the style of game played by these two clubs, however, will be vastly slighter than the difference between be-tween the .style of play used by the Ited Sox and the Dodgers. Jt has been said, voo, that the White Sox are not an aggressive club. Still, the least of us rtcall account after account ac-count of ball games during the summer that were won by the Chicagoans on rallies. Thnre never has been a question ques-tion as to the aggressiveness of the Giants. That is one of the traditions of the game the aggressiveness of any club that plays under John McGraw. Left-handers Prominent. Naturally, both clubs lay claim to having hav-ing the best pitchers. That is a point which cannot be decided until the pitchers pitch-ers show what they can do in a short series. The 1917 championship is likely to be derided by left-handers. Chicago's Chi-cago's left baud squad is perhaps inferior to New York's. The White Sox have Williams, Iteb Russell and Dave Danforth. The Giants have Ferdie Schupp, Rube Benton and Slim Salleo. If it were up to ns, we would give the Giant sidewheclers a considerable shade. By the same token we would' give the White Sox the shade on right-handers even if we were limited to Eddie Ci-cotte Ci-cotte alone. As .1 matter of fact, Cicotte, upon his showing this year, is the superior su-perior of the entire Giant combination of Al Demaree, Jeff Tesreau. Fred Anderson An-derson and Poll Perritt. The White Sox have Joe Benz and Urban Ifaber Jo uphold the right hand honorswith Cicotte. Ci-cotte. Possibly Mose Wolfgang may also get in. At this distance it looks as though Slim Sallee, Giant left-hander, and Eddie Ed-die Cicotte, White Sox right-hander, will open the series. Cicotte's "Jazz" Ball. There has been a good deal of discussion discus-sion respecting Cicotte's delivery. It is admitted that Cicotte has developed a freak ball, and that, after three seasons sea-sons of ineffectiveness, he has come i back in sensational fashion. Some oC : the American league managers have al-' al-' leged that Cicotte's nmv tangled ball is iuenal the finger-miil ball, tuoy call it i our own Kuho V'vnns is aecused of I using if. Whether tins ieliverv will bo ! ehnllcnfred by the National loniruers is a question. Investigation by Proident 'Johnson of the American league exon-: exon-: ernted Cieotte. and there is no ritnibt : that Johnson will stand by his league's j pitchers to the last ditch. Time was when tho fast ball and curve .ball piMier was supreme. That ; day seems to be done. The pitcher of modern ti mips who has not learned to control a freak ball would best not en-! en-! ter baseball. There is a variety of freak balls the shiner, tho spit ter, tho ! licorice ball, tho mnd "ball, the tobacco ball, tho upside-down spitter, the wheat ball, the rice ball, and goodness knows how ninny more. Technically they may all be more or less illegal, but tbev pass the censor and no doubt, they will pre-i pre-i vail in the coming world's series; espe-! espe-! cially will thov prevail if Eddie Ci-1 Ci-1 cotte is left unhampered. ! How They Line Up. A preliminary analysis of the batting ; and fielding strength of the rival clubs brings us to these conclusions: Catchers Ray Schalk of the Whito Sox is the greatest catcher in the game today. Pitchers Left-handers: Benton, Schupp and Sallee, Giants, as a whole are better than Danforth, Williams and Russell. Right-handers: Cicotte far superior to any Giant right-hander. Practically no choice between Tesreau, Demaree, Anderson and Perritt for tho Giants and Benz, Faber and Wolfa.ng. Faber possibly better than any of the Giant right-handers. First base Walter Holke better .than Chick Gaudil. Second basei Eddie Collins, White Sox, generally choice over Charley Herzog. Her-zog. Giants. There are many, however, who think Herzog the better man in a short, sories, an opinion 'based upon al- j leged greater aggressiveness and punch on the part of Herzog. We take Col- lius. Third base Heinie Zimmerman even j with Buck Weaver, if Weaver is in; i better than .McMullin. Shortstop Swede Risberg can field baseballs that Arthur Fletcher wouldn't attempt to go after. Riaberg is also a superior thrower if his accuracy happens hap-pens to be in working order. Wo incline in-cline to Risberg over Fletcher if he is right; if he is wrong, Fletcher should easily walk off with shortstop honors. Outfielders Kauff, Burns and Rob- 1 ertson superior over Felsch, John Collins Col-lins and Jackson, unless Jackson hits better than he, has been, doing lately. Felsch and Collins are probably inferior fielders to Robertson and K!auff and the hitting power, which is an outfield's out-field's main business, appears to lie with the Giants also. However, tho outfielders on both sides are tremendous tremen-dous hitters. A Few Figures. Comparisons, based on the last available avail-able batting averages, man for man, show the following strength: OUTFIELDERS. New York. Chicago. Kauff 310 Felsch S1S Burns 310 Jackson 24 Robertson 2t'5 J. Collins Wilholt 300 'Murphy 27l Thorpe 216 'Leibold 243 Substitute outfielders. CATCHERS. New York. rhlcngro. P.aridpn 272 Schalk 2T! McCarty 2:4 Lynn 212 FIRST BASEMEN. New York. Chicago., Holke 202 Oandil 263 SECOND BASEMEN. New York. Chicago. Herzog 22? Collins 279 THIRD BASEMEN. New York. Chicnpo. Zimmerman . . . .291 Wr-nver 271 McMullIn 237 Substitute third baseman. SHORTSTOPS. New York. Chicago. Fletcher Risberg 205 CLUB BATTING. New York 264 Chicago 25 1 CLUB FIELDING. New York 966 Chicago 068 PITCHING RECORDS. New York. Won. Lost. Anderson (r) 9 S Perritt (r) 12 7 Tesreau (r) io 7 Demaree (r) 7 33 Schupp (1) 17 7 Sallee (1) 17 r. Benton (1 ) iff 6 Includes Chicago record. Chicago. Won. Lost. Cicotte (r) -; u Faber (r) ?, j Benz (r) f, 7 Russell ) ir, a Williams (1) y; s Danforth (l) 9 4 |