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Show wB tfBBkJBHBiBkBn W B If agggapsPN - ' ZIl jLiuujMMMrSFlfl i 1 -It Is Always the 'Unexpected That Happens I '- M;M - Jb ' -11 j -Lessons Are Drawn From the Recent gfet 7m r;- -J 1 Contest Between Boston and Philadelphia SCHAWK TAGeiNC AUST1N rffl!rSWi, 1 As Well As, Previous Series f , nTF! ;; If Can you "dope" a world's aeries? Jl In the opinion of a protagonist 4; among baseball writers this can be 1$ done, and'after voluminous lucubra- J tlons this expert before the recent K world's series laid comparative flg- J urea before his fans. MM He compared inflelders, outfielders jy and catchers. 1W The pitchers also wereMood for H comparison and, of course, Alexan- m. der was the most highly rated of m them all. f Yet in the very first gamer of the m world's series Ernest Shore, a gaunt jf, collegian, who has been In the big M leagues but two short seasons, cut- k pitched the far-famed Grover Cleve- c land Alexander and would have beat- I en him, too, had tho Boston Red 1 Sox played their normal offensive I same. j The fact that Shore outpitched 1 Alexander and that the Boston Red j Sox played sub-normally would tond Ij to prove nght on tho jump that 1 world's series games are "un-dope- able." f They are. 1 A critic might analyze two teams 111 find with fair accuracy tell which one would prove tho superior over a ihe course.of a Bcason of play. But X to call the turn in a seven-game se- I xics Is another thing and a widely m different thing. H For instance in the eighth inning W of that first game one very important I I play the play, in fact, which al-H al-H lowed Philadelphia to tally the win- W ulng run based itself about an m- H field grounder, a slow one, too, that W went straight at Shore and appealed S to be an eaBy out as all the pitcher had to do was to pick up the ball and throw it to tho first baseman, fa Yet that ball was diabolically pos- $ aessed. As it neared Shore it took I I an unexpected quirk to one side, the t fl hg pitcher fell over it and the man I arrived safely at first and another I l scored on what 99 times in 100 m "ould have been an easy out. Could any man living call the turn i on such a freak of fortune? CertaJn- ii lynot. I li Baseball is so executed in unccr- I tainty that no one can Tuth positie V accuracy call the turn on I one single play. Wo might state ft that it is certain the pitcher will throw the ball to the catcher. Is it? 1 At that particular time we call the turn, as wo think, the pitcher may miss the catcher entirely and' cxe-. cxe-. cuto a wild pitch. MoBt of them do m mako wild pltcbes. LI; JUST COKSIDEB P COBB. Hj In the regular season of play it Is ft most unusual hen Cobb does not M contribute some exceptional featuro m at least once in three days. Yet he Ij went through three world's series Without in anywise doing anything I that would stamp him as better than ! m an ordinary ball player. I W "Babe" Adams, who wa8 almost & unknown up to a world's aeries and I I counted upon little or none, was tho r I Pitching star of that play which sent ! m a world's championship to tho home jlj of the Corsairs. J i Joe Leslie Bush, a kid in his teens, 11 If if a J HUGMAI3ED1EN7 t Lt ! K trounced the New York Giants soundly after Bender and Plank, from whom ever thing had been expected, ex-pected, failed. In 1914 Mack's $100,000 infield looked more like ten cenU, than its putatho worth. Merklc, who is one of the best first basemen in tho National league if not tho very best cost the Giants one pennant byfaillng to touch second sec-ond and in the world's series of 1913 his failure to properly pursue a foul ball ultimately led to defeat in the game that decided the series between the Red Sox and tho Now V - York Giants, Snodgraas, a fast aggressive outfielder, out-fielder, muffed one fly thatcost tho Giants their chance. Snodgrass hadn't missed one fly in 100 previous to that error nor has he muffed cno In 100 since. U-EXPECTD iiorrEits. Hugh Bedicnt, a pitcher from whom nothing had been expected, won that 1912 series for the Boston Red Sox. In 190G Mordccal Brown and the pre-eminent ball t team that plajcd ior Chance in those heroic day3 of baseball, went Into the series against tho Whlto Sox a prohibitive favorito and yet wore soundly trounced Later the Cubs with the luster of their star still ascendant lost twice to tho Philadelphia Athletics, v-ho were coming then. Hans "Wagner has neen one of the more notablts "frosts" of world's series. se-ries. Tho "Flying Dutchman" could hit .300 blind-folded, as the saying goes, but in a world's series he couldn't hit .280 with the cyc-slght and iuusclo nature endowed hfm with. There waa tno ball that seemed an animate thing and jumped away fiom Shore. In tho very same game Bancroft, hit over second, ,hat looked llko a suro single. Yet Barry Bar-ry went behind the bag and grabbed tho ball with ono hand. Since thcro was a man on first It looked like an easy force-out, and yet ScQtt, tho Boston Red Sox shortstop, never thought Barry had a chance to nab tho ball and had started to back up third. Too late ho saw that Barry had made the stop. He could not get back to second and what would have been a sure force-out v8 scored as a safo hit and Philadcl- mm ; a T fl h' Xmv It wm .- ' fits immmi I phla had two men abase and one out vherc there should have been one man on and two out. AXD HERE IS ANOTHER. Tho net day Foster let Philadelphia Philadel-phia havo only thioe hits, while, ihe Eoston Red Sox made ten off Major. Yet Foster had every break. What looked like a sure home run off the bat of Paskeit was captured at tho centcrfield fence by Tris Speaker. "Foster was hit harder than Major, tho experts said, yet he did not got scored upon, but once while Mayer' was twico nicked. Thus did tho Red Sox mow down the opposition and win the world's championship after tho Phillies had the jump by winning the first game. This shows that the ccilaln thing about baseball apparently isithat nothing Is certain. , Critics in the spring of 1915 pick- 1 0 cd the New York Giants to tuu a m sure one-two in tho National league ! ff and they finished last Yet, even m : defeat, many excellent authorities 'i m held that man-for-man the GiaDts !- had tho best balanced ball club In m the league sae for pitching. It W seemed so. And they finished eighth. E Critics said Connie Mack could Ij dispose of all his high-class stars t ij and still assemble a team that would J K mako troublo in tho American I league. They said this beforo the J Ameiican leaguo season opened. J Thorcaftor they had plenty of time f, to chango their minds. I ? Therefoio when a critic tries to l j analyze a world's series befoio it ? has happened and takes himself sc- i ai rlouslj in so doing, he may icpent U at leisure. Tho easiest way is to flip L! a coin and let that decida. I W j. K |
