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Show Hitting Favors White Hose in World s Series Predlrtinc the result of the world series se-ries this year is like predicting the weather, lor Pal Moran ami Kid Clea-son Clea-son are two managers who will make great use of the human factor that cannot be judged bj an) advam s dope But figures are fact- and "facts are stubborn things." And in looking over the unofficial dope sheets which arc usually ar curate, the White Sox have a great advantage In hitting According Accord-ing to these figure- in 127 games played by the White Sox Ihev have made 1061 hits and scored 539 runs Their batting average is .282. The Reds, however, in 128 games have made 101S hits and scored 502 runs Their batting average Is .268. These are statistics that in mOSi Cases mean nothing, but it would Indl cate thai the Sox are h ;nng the ball i much more (insistently than their Ohio rivals But with the (fighting I spirit that the Reds have shown In a pinch a mere lead ol it points in bat ting could easily be overcome. But I these same statistics show that the Rods took 2.03 hits to make one run while the Sox were able to score on every ev-ery l 7s hits. This adds to the disadvantage disad-vantage that Moran mus' overcome, lor if his team does not hit up to the gait set by the Sox and murt have more hits to make the runs he- will come out of the pones with fewei games. Theory Held Good in Past. But no dopestcr will accept any s -tern of prediction that does not have a precedent in searching through th" j baseball archives we find that only on I three occasions in the phi I nine years has a team with a higher average of hits per run taken the all important series In 1910 the Athletics were 16 points behind the Cubs in Ibis scoring average but won the series. Again In 1914, the Boston Braves were ll points behind the Athletics, hut won four straight. The Red Sox in 1912 wore only two points behind the Giants in scoring efficiency, but took the flag. However, in the other six series played in the last nine years the team winning the series had a lower average aver-age of hits per run than the loser. In the first exception to this rule, In 1910, there seems to be no explana lion, except, perhaps, the sagacity of t.onnie Mack for tho Athletics, while taking 2.03 hits for every run made during the season to the Cubs' 187 hits per run won four out of five games The Boston Braves in 1914 were undoubted the most sensational 1 winners in the history of big league ball, m) thai it. would be natural to ex-! ex-! pect the dope to be upset in this se ries. The third exception was in a series ' which was won by a nose by the Red SOX, although they were only two points behind iu hits per run. The Giants lost in a close elght-gume series se-ries and only then because ..nodgrass of the Giants dropped a fly ball at a crucial moment. This last exception may with the permission of the dope-eters dope-eters be thrown out irom the consider atiou of tho value of the hits-per run theor . Consequently ihe question dwindles down to whether Pal Moran can ihe same sort of a sensational victory over the White sox this year that George StalllngS did over the Athletics in 1914. Both teams are conceded to be almost equal in fielding and pitching, pitch-ing, nnd the result would seem to lie witn the offensive or 'littijig and oase-running oase-running abilit The Reds, under Moran's guidance, have proved great finishers and in man cases have won in the linal in nini.M of the game over what St I tn d to be overwhelming odds. This lighting i-piril is the same sort that brought the Braves through to victory in 1914, ?nd in sptle of Kid Qleason's advantage advan-tage in batting and scoring mis new miracle man may put h over as the ether miracle man did five years ago. |
