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Show Lucas Is a Valuable Player g g f"T"VlEY oted Paul Wnner the most valuable player In tlie National 5 3 I league, and Frlsch and Hornshy and I!iot were the runners- ijj 3 np. Rut tliere are many shrewd Judges who thought that "Red" :5 Is Lucas of the Reds was about as valuable as anybody when all angles of W value are subjected to close scrutiny. Maying who a team that was :5 j$ In last place the flrtst part of the season, Lucas pitched winning ball 5 3 from the start and butted effectively In the pinches. 3 5 When It Is considered that those four Red pitching stars and js 2 standbys, Donokue, Rlxey, Luque and Carl Mays all got off to, a bad 3 5 start last seiiKon. showlne nnn f iln.lr nM-tlma ciruptivunni. i.mii h j 5 "Red" Lucas. midsummer, and that I.ucas, the Boston castoff and second string pitcher, had bear the brunt of the 8 enemy butting attack along with Jakle May, also a g relief pitcher, his work can well be termed remark- 8 able. These two second string pitchers of lirjfj won q 33 games for the Reds last season, which was 2 exactly the number won by the former Rig Four 8 of the team. Lucas won IS games and lost 11. 8 As pitcher and pinch hitter be appeared in 80 8 games and batted .31.1. Q The part plnyed by Lucas the first half of last season Is unique In the annals of baseball. Ills rec g ord of the past three years had showed him to be O i Jack-of-ull-trades In baseball and l'imm! !i He sturted at a pitcher with McCraw In 1923 and was let go with 8 j the advice to try for the outfield. The P.raves tried him In 1!I2."i as a f seeon-l baseman and he fell down sadly on that assignment and his fi $ but'ns was also weak. The Reds bought him from Seattle in H)2li 8 ij Md tired him as relief pitcher. He won 8 and lust S. As a pinch hlitei S !. batted a little over JMMt. The castoff had showed some Improvement Q ' His club had been In lirst place most of the season and finished a i-iose f, second. I. lit last splint, the four great pitchers of t lit Red all reported 5 I In bad shape. Carl Mays was sick. Iintioliue bad lost his skill. Kivey 5 and l.tique were not in condition. And the three batsmen, Margrave, j? ( Rressler and ChrlMensen. who had led the league the year before, nil 8 ( had slumped at the hat. And so It was that Red Lucas was shoved Into 8 i this batting and pitching breach, and under the strain suddenly dashed 6 i Into a star. He was horn In Coluiubia, Tenn., twenty-five years ago 2 |