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Show H Tension of Great Championship Games Wm. -.- ''-s, VvV$1l! 'r rc1;a ifBllr Causes Players to Go Back to Simple Knock - ;:;VJ- -1 r, WM A A'Wj 1 i f v - ti vl k r ArXy' l" i" O if; H "InBide. baseball 1b a pretty thing H o talk of, but when it comes to the H -world's series the team that is Hl strongest in the three fundamentals Hf of the game pitching, hitting and Hj fielding wins. H Tho above statement made by a H major league manager rather depre- H cates tho exaggerated importance of H scientific baseball as applied to a Bj singlo series in which the tension H is great. H . It was this fact, this manager av- B erB, which caused the Boston B Braves to win over the Philadelphia H Athletics in 1014. Considered on H the year the Braves did not begin B -to play tho superb quality of sclen- B tiflc ball tho Macks displayed. Yet H in a singlo scries this ability to play B brainy baseball availed tho Macks H -nought for tho pitching of the B Braves one of tho fundamentals of B the game kept tho Mack Men off B the sacks and on those occasions H when they did begin the circuit drive B they depended upon hitting rather' B than fancy base running to drive B their runs in. B It is for this reason, this men- j nger believes, thero never can bo H intrinsically an cxhorbltant favorite B in a world's series no matter what B the comparative reputations and rec- B ords of the clubB may be up to the m timo the play for tho world's title M begins. H Onco thore aro 40,000 fan3 howl- M ing and tho players under a conee- M Qucnt high tension the game is dc- H prlved of its finish and reduced to B tho fundamental or back-lot stage Hj in which tho hitters merely try to B lilt and tho pitchers to pitch. f "How often, in a closo world's se- J Ties game, havo you seen the squcezo j play essayed?" this manager ask?. H CASE TS . H roixT. m Indeed, how often? Probably ncv- H cr. Were ono team far enough B ahead to take a chance this highly H scientific and arUstic bit of basc- H ball might bo given a trinl but where B ono run wins, when tho series is j short and tho tension high tho play- B crs and managers arc going to dc- H pend upon the good old base knock B to bring over tho run that counts. H Were It otherwise, and were tho H most scientific team always to win It Hj Is difflcult to see how the Phlladol- i Dhia Mack Men of 19H ever could m he beaten. Likewise tho Boston m Red Sox In 1915 would, on form. H havo had the edgo over tho Pbila- j dclphla Nationals. j Yet all tho vaunted team play and K ability to hit-and-run of the Boston Hji Red Sox was, before tho series, off- H! set by the fact that Alexander was Hjj known as a winning pitcher, a great- 1 pitcher and pitching Is ono of thoV Hi l fundamentals of tho game. "The combativeness of tha Boston Braves and their pitching in 1911 successfully off-set all tho suporior science of the Mack Men," said tlm iranagor, a National lcaguo manager, manag-er, by tho way. IXSriRED : BASEBALL. "Tho Braves were playing inspired baseball, but It was plain, every-day baseball with no frills to It. It was the kind of baseball the Braves had been playing from day to day. "On tho other hand CollinB, Strunk, Barry, Mclnnis, Baker and the rest , of the valiant Mack crew had been use'd to pulling fancy, or sciontinc stunts, during their American Amer-ican lcaguo games. They figured tho season was long and if an artistic artis-tic play was broken up and the g?me lost they still had sufficient timo to "win tho pennant for they woro a great ball club even in the fundamentals funda-mentals of tho game. "But onco in tho world's series with tho Braves, beset by the verbal fires of tho Stallingsltes and running run-ning Into better than ordinary pitching pitch-ing they were thrown off what might t bo called their scientific or" fancy strido and their plain game so greatly great-ly demoralized that they lost four in a row. "World's series games aro ployed under terrific tension. I know players play-ers who do not sloop at all on the night preceding the opening game. These aro dangerous fellows. They may go out and win a gamo with a single hit or in their highly nervous nerv-ous stale they may "b!ow"a game away when most unexpected as Snodgrass did in 1912. V2sI)Ell GREAT TEXS10 "Other player take a world's series se-ries much as they do any other scries. sc-ries. Their nervous system resists all strain. They nover see tho crowd. They nevor hear it. Doyle of the Giants, Speaker of tho Rod Sox and Cravath of the rhll3 aro . such players. ' '. !1 Xt CTNflsrvsv'w ?V p OOHNSON SLIDING Wfhj'?-:-' WKm ' IMP ' Aw EDDIE MUPPHY MIt all comes down to what the Players call guts and that's as good a word for It a3 any other." Tho world's series is too short to sufficiently establish tho superiority of a team. Tho active baseball man admits tho world's scries is a uicc "show." but of twenty critics uot ono would "admit that a team's superiority su-periority over another could be satisfactorily sat-isfactorily sottlcd In anything less BBSSfCj,-i' y 'l y)lt ui than twenty games. It Is noliccablo in tho team sories of tho regular schedule that- an unexpected un-expected Incident In an opening gamo may affect an entlro aeries. To win the first game, most managers think, la the most important thing connected with a scries and for this reason they Invariably start their top-card pitchers on the first dav of a.ncw scries. gjvljglBBBMBBHBBfB mi Alexander all season long opened II .; each-series for tho Phillies. Moran If figured, and correctly with the first IE same won it gave his men the bulge J on tho second. Cheney, in 1914, O which was his big year, opened each f Jp series for the Cubs and Mathowson 7 until he began to loBe his effective k ncss led off for McGraw. j THE riTCIIER'S f I y TART. I y The first game of tho world's se- 1 0 rlC3 no doubt exerts a psychological 1 offect even greater than in tho regu- flj , lar seasonal plaj fjM , The views of the National league a manager responsible for tho forego- r it ing loaves room for interesting de- . I 1 ductlons. 'i For instance. If the teams aban- y V a don their hit-and-run, "squeeze-0 1 ; l plays and offensive tactics of like ' s p kind and do not attempt "delayed" i I , steals, double steals and other bits 1 of artistic baso running that are of , I P the regular baseball curriculum, it 1 , is obvious that tho spectator is pay- ! P ing advanced prices to sco baseball ( (d which is not a a a par with that he 1 1 y may behold during a regular game ,p of tho schedule. t But, It has been proved, that class )'. ! 9 In baseball Is an entity that moat r genorally escapes the majority of t fans. What they want Is a contest ' and a close score, or even better a' jf i closo big score covers a multltudo i of technical sins. ' ii . For this reason the spirit of com- j r bat of world's series is in no wio I h j affected because tho teams do not J M t play their regular game, but conccn- M ' trate on the fundamentals of blttinp. 1 S fielding and pitching. 1 jj Indeed the spirit of combat Ib even more rampant for the stake is Irs- Ij W cr, the crowds more excited, and tho m white light of publicity beats bard- 'J or about this annual play. f But a man who is looking, for m baseball class will not go to a v ffl world's series to find it even though i Wj the teams competing are suppoeed m to be tho cream of th"e baseball uoi . t. m verse. sjl lVar Tropliios. wHI Curio dealers from England and Offl from the continent are roportcil to IffM be in tho vicinity of battle fields in fjW northern France endeavoring to buy ffl trophies of the war which they hops jju in timo may be valuable. They find, h KS It Is said, somo difficulty In driving J fmc bargains. Amateurs who have corns 3 $J into possession of trophies hold igi them for high prices or will not sell g on any consideration. It is recalled jjjjg; that after the American civil war fc camo to an end a book-seller in the ; S&.-- Bermudas, when tho cargoes of the blockado runners in tho harbor of Jffifc Hamilton were sold at auction, iJaSfe1 bought a number of package casei w- without tho least knowledge of their (tfr contents. Among these were several v boxes of brass buttons consigned to !f the confederate army for ubo od i?ol- J JfiVh dlers uniforms. Somo twenty years 1 W$'6 later tourists discovered theso old sj; confederate buttons. A Now York gjffe dealer made a high bid for the entiro fJWS!11 supply. This bid was refused, and i &$', these buttons, for which In tho pre- , We!i ceding years a small fraction of a '? Jj cent was paid, have been selling at iffi?. J5 cents and ?1 each. J fcf1 if ml t,- |