Show athe THERE HERE were vague rumors under the sunny skies of st petersburg back in march that something was just a little shy in the camp of the cardinals so far as any flaming team spirit was concerned these rumors have carried along into the starting season maybe they are true maybe they are not but if they are true the cardinals are going to hear no gonfalon ic flapping in the next flurry of autumn win ds for team spirit happens to be a vital part of N any ball club no matter how strong their I 1 individual play this brings up the point as to what teams in baseball grantland history looking rice kc back SO 30 years belong around the top where the matter of team spirit is concerned here are just a few that I 1 can recommend from rather close contact 1905 mcgraws mcgrawsr McG raws giants with matty mcginnity bresnahan devlin dahlen donlin 1906 the chicago white sox with fielder jones donohue isbell walsh altrock 1907 frank chances cubs with chance evers tinker Stem feldt kling 1914 the boston braves of george stallings with evers maranville rudolph tyler james gowdy 1934 st louis cardinals with frisch pepper martin medwick dean delancey collins durocher the old gas house gang 1936 1939 the N Y yankees of whom joe mccarthy demands team spirit even when he has to get rid of a great pitcher and a star outfielder the two tivo leaders my selections from 35 years of baseball would place two teams on top in this respect the white sox of 1906 and the boston braves of 1914 neither was anything like a great ball club then were known as the hitless wonders their team batting average was around they floundered most of the year and then under the crabby leadership of fielder jones and the almost raving upheaval of jiggs donohue at first they came along to win 19 Et straight raight bag the pennant from much better teams and then whip frank chances cubs who had won games that season and were supposed to be invincible that record of victories still stands but even such fighters as chance tinker evers and others had nothing to match the whirlwind assault of the keyed up sox I 1 recall asking hughey fullerton 1 one of the best of the th e baseball sages about isbell at second heres a funny angle hughey said isbell cant A 4 bat a lick he he cant run he has johnny evers a bad arm and he is only a fair infielder but he is one ene of the greatest ball players I 1 ever saw isbell had brains and spirit to a high degree the sox were that brand or breed of team players in 1908 ed walsh worked in 68 66 ball games won 40 and saved 12 others it takes spirit plus an arm to carry this load about the braves ol of 1914 george stallings braves were much along the order of the 1906 white sox they were no great ball club they were around last place in early july they were supposed to be the league flop and then the vital spark arrived they began overhauling one team after another with rudolph rudolp h tyler and james working in order rudolph tyler and james rudolph tyler and james day after day week after week month after month in addition there was hank gowdy back of the bat and there were johnny evers and rabbit habbit maranville working gat at second and short two disembodied spirits two 1 diminutive chunks of nerve brains 1 end and courage th they ey won the pennant they had to face connie macks brilliant team that at had won three per pennants mants a team that had bender and plank in the box and mcinnis nis collins barry and baker for an infield one of the t great teams of all time but the braves beat them four straight |