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Show EXCITING FLAG RACE None More Promising Than Present Pres-ent in American League. Six Almost Certain Contenders for Championship in Opinion of President Pres-ident Ban Johnson Cleveland Is Doubtful. (By BAN B. JOll.NS&N. !ri-silent of the AniL-riciin .-;iynt?J With the baseball season of 1916 ir full bloom, enthusiasm in UncW Sam's great national game is everywhere apparent. ap-parent. This enthusiasm fjrnishes a striking contrast to the period immediately imme-diately preceding the campaigns of 1914 and 1915. It is needless for me to refer tu the distressing conditions under which the game labored in the last two years, for these are still fresh in the minds of every fan. Suffice it to say, that the situation having been clarified during the winter months, baseball is again duo for a period of prosperity which I hope will equal, if not surpass, sur-pass, those wonderfully prosperous-seasons prosperous-seasons of 1912 and 1913. Believing in the doctrine of preparedness, pre-paredness, the American league club owners have their teams on edge and eager for the fray, as the result of long training seasons under southern skies. We have had many exciting races for our pennants, but I cannoC recall one which was more promising than that which is now upon us. Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Washington and St. Louis are, from my point of view, almost certain contenders con-tenders for the right to get into tha world series next October. Cleveland, an unknown quantity at present, may develop enough speed and stamina to make matters decidedly lively and interesting in-teresting for the others. The Cleveland club is In the hands of the new owners this year men of Ban B. Johnson, President of Amen-can Amen-can League. brains and push and money. The-question The-question of expense will not enter Into their calculations if they can strengthen their team and make it s factor in the championship race. Another one of our clubs also changed hands du.ing the winter St. . Louis. The manager of this club is none other than Fielder Jones, who led the White Sox to the world's championship cham-pionship in 1906. Jones, when in the American league, always showed remarkable re-markable ability in handling a team,, and he knew how to get the best results re-sults out of his men. That's why I , think the St. Louis team, with Jone3 as its pilot, should be rated as a possible pos-sible pennant contender. ' ,. As for Connie Mack, he ia still en- " '-gaged '-gaged in the arduous task of rebuilding rebuild-ing his Athletics, but Connie, wizard that he is, can hardly hope to figure seriously in the race of 1916. But, at that, he may surprise us. In conclusion, I wish to Bay that with normal conditions in the baseball base-ball world restored, major and minor league club owners, the country over, face the future with a feeling of con- fideiiee a feeling that the grand old ' game has come back, and that y fans are now ready and anxiou'' support it as enthusiastically ty did in the days of its greatest perity. |
