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Show SPORTLIGHT : First Pale Sox Surge Won Pennant By GRANTLAND RICE 1 The new White Sox stampede, which the wearers of the Pale Hose started some time back, recalled again the first White Sox rally which mpipi, won a pennant and I later a world series ? 'isljV back in 1906, a mat-I mat-I r"- ter of 45 years ago. . b 4 , The 1951 charge t ls led larSe'y by I , - h fine Pitchlng' as y i , ' well as consistent r ; all - around play. I A K is also a stir-imirtiv stir-imirtiv -"I ring tribute to Grantland Rice manager Paul Richards, who has turned in an amazing job, whatever happens later on. At the time of the first White Sox upheaval, we were toiling in the Cleveland vineyard where Larry Lajoie was in charge. Late in July or early August, Cleveland had a good chance to win the pennant. The White Sox Hitless Wonders were in seventh place, and rapidly going nowhere. no-where. Then suddenly it began to happen. hap-pen. The helpless Sox began to win game after game, until they had won 19 in a row and moved into first place. How did this happen so suddenly? In the first place, they had a grand catcher Billy Sullivan. In the second sec-ond place they had a fine pitching staff headed by Big Ed Walsh, Doc White and Nick Altrock. The Sox couldn't hit but they had a strong defensive club, with Jiggs Donahue, Frank Isbell, George Rohe in the infield and a good outfield built around Fielder Jones. , The ballplayer who actually led the White Sox insurrection was Jiggs Donahue, the fiery Irishman playing first. He not only handled the bag brilliantly, but he was the flaming spirit of the team. If any one of his fellow fel-low players started loafing or not giving his entire all, Donahue Dona-hue would threaten to brain him. He rode the team with savage and untiring venom. That Sox rally won the 1906 pennant pen-nant although Cleveland had a great team, with seven or eight .300 hitters hit-ters and a fine pitching staff that had Addie Joss, William Bernhard, Otto Hess, Dusty Rhodes, Earl Moore and others. But this team, which Lajoie, Bill Bradley, Cotton Turner and Claude Rossman on the field couldn't quite meet that wild Sox counter-attack. The World Series Upset The White Sox carried their rush on through the world series, where they were not given a faint look-in. The Cubs had just won the National league pennant with 116 victorious games. They had the brilliant Johnny Kling back of the bat; Three-Finger Three-Finger Brown, Ed Reulbach, Jack Pfeister and others in the box; Chance, Evers, Tinker and Steinfeldt in the infield; plus a star outfield. They looked unbeatable. But what the populace at large overlooked over-looked was the Sox pitching staff. Ed Walsh was just coming into his own as the greatest spitball star of all time. Two years later he won 40 games and saved 12 others; working in 60 games that season. Doc White was the sole Ty Cobb nemesis. Nick Altrock was another star. There was one funny development as the series started. There was a big Irishman named Fog Finnegan who had been a hot Cub rooter. Fog worked in a saloon on the West Side near the ball park. Most of the players or many of them were his friends. Just before the first game started, Fog stood up and shouted: "Two hundred dollars on the West Side." There were no takers. So Finnegan tried again: "Three hundred dollars on the West Side." Still no takers. Then the batteries were announced: an-nounced: For the West Side Reulbach and Kling. For the South Side Walsh and Sullivan. Fog Finnegan swallowed twice, leaped again to his feet, and called out: "Five hundred on the South Side them's the byes." It has been a long, long time since the White Sox have had the chance to wipe out that 1919 series, where the white suddenly changed to black. They have been shooting at a recovery, now a matter of 32 years. The Other DiMaggio More than a few pieces for newspapers news-papers and magazines have been written about Lou Gehrig's long span under Babe Ruth's gigantic shadow. Big Lou of Columbia and the Yankees drew more than normal cheering during his brilliant career, but no one can doubt that his partnership part-nership with Ruth was on the junior side. There was only one Babe Ruth. In the same way, there is no questioning ques-tioning the fact that a better than fair player is known as Dominic. No one can doubt that Dom, as good as he is, isn't quite another Joe. Dom is about 30 or 35 points back of his older brother when it comes to his lifetime batting average. aver-age. But Dom is just about as good an outfielder as Joe or anyone else. The two DiMaggios and Terry Moore are the best centerfielders I've seen since Tris Speaker, and all three are up around the Speaker Speak-er class. |