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Show Lucas Is a Valuable Player 1 O ' I ViKY voted Paul Waner the most valuable player in tlie National $ 8 I league, and Friseh and Hornsby and Hoot were the runners- 5 up. P.ut there are many shrewd judges who thought that "Red" S 2 Lucas of the Reds was about as valuable as anybody when all angles of Iff rt value are subjected to close scrutiny. Haying with a team that was ijo 'A in last place the first part of the season, I.ucas pitched winning ball g g from the start and batted effectively in the pinches. M 3 When It Is considered that those four Red pitching stars and o, g standhys, DonoUue, Rixoy, Luque and Carl .Mays all got off to a ltd $J q start last season, showing none of their old-time effectiveness uniil 5 0 . lie-; If K i midsummer, and that I.ucas, the Boston castoff and second string pitcher, had K bear the brunt of the 3 enemy batting attack along will Jakie May, also a -ft relief pitcher, his work can well be termed remark- S able. These two second string pitchers of 1020 won games for the Keds last season, which was 8 exactly the number won by the former Rig Four X of the te;.m. Lucas won 13 games and lost 11. S As pitcher and pincli hitler he appeared in SO 3 games and batted .;!i:. 3 The part played by Lucas the first half of las; Q j g ' --" season is unique in the annals of baseball. His rec- ft 1 P "Red" Lucas. ord of the past three years bad showed him to be M ' h jack-of-all-trades in baseball and good at none. 5 He started as a pitcher with McGraw in 1!23 and was let go with g 8 the advice to try for the outfield. The Braves tried him in l(.)2."i as a 8 &) secoivj baseman ami he fell down sadly on that assignment and bis 8 ft batlns; was also weak. The Reds bought him from Seattle in 102G Q j S Ad used him as relief pitcher. He won 8 and lost u. As a pinch hittei jjj l-i hatted u little over .300. The castoff bad showed some improvement. 3 r His club had been in first place most of the season and finished a close Q second. Bui last spring t lie four great pitchers of the Reds all reported & R in bad shape. Carl Mays was sick. Donohue had lost his skill. Rixe.v 8 g and Luque were not in condition. And the three batsmen, Hargrave, g ft Bressler and Christensen, who had led the league the year before, nil 8 8 had slumped at the bat. And so it was thai Red Lucas was shoved inlo 3 ft this batting and pitching breach, and tinder the strain suddenly flashed 8 ffi inlo a star. He was born in Columbia, Tenn., twenty-five years ago. |