Evening Star Newspaper, August 18, 1937, Page 12

- The Foening Star Fporls x & WASHIN . WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1937, 1938 Base Ball to Be Hurlers’ Joy : Hefty Hitter Now Griffs’ Need MAJORS T0D0OM CHEAP HOME RUNS Johnson Last A. L. Pitcher | to Beat 2.00 Average'in Earned Tallies. BY GRANTLAND RICE. EW YORK, August 18.—The boys put a gopher inside the American base ball so people | would forget that some of the greatest ball players that ever lived | had played to lose against Cincinnati. | It was about 15 years ago that the | take-their-minds-off-it campaign was | hatched, and they put in the gopher— | and now they want to take it out. Bome of the high-fly home runs will | be putouts a year from now, and a| pitcher will have at least a mathe- matical chance of getting below two | earned runs in the averages. | The world series scandal of 1919 didn't break, you will remember, until | 1920, although one or two pretty good | broad hints bounced off the bar- | tenders on the South Side of Chicago ! that the White Sox infield suddenly had taken to closing their eyes and | wearing their gloves on the wrong hand. It was such a terrible mess | that big base ball needed a whitewash and something brand-new to talk about. | Made It a New Game. “‘HAT came rolling out of the hotel conference rooms after the | Winter of 1820-21, besides the sched- ules, was a lively apple that would seil over practically any fence in either league except the Cleveland Municipal Stadium, and that hadn't been built yet ‘What happened actually was that a pew game was invented. The em- phasis had been changed. Look nli sarned-run averages of the leading pitchers in either league five years be- fore and five years after the first rabbit ball was thrown out by Presi- dent Harding. Grover Cleveland Alex- ander of the Phillies and the Cubs was the big pitching star from 1915 | %0 1920, and his earned-run averages went 1.22, 1.55, 185, 1.72 and 191 Yet. in 1921, up went the league’s | Jowest earned-run average—Eppa | Rixey's—to 2.78. The best mark was 3.00 next season, | and only twice again was a National League pitcher to break 2.00 earned runs. Luque of Cincinnati in those days had a 193 in 1923, and Carl | Huobell the Great had a 1.66 in 1933. The rest—and there were some fine pitchers among them—ranged between | 2.09 and 347 as league-leading pitch- | ers. It was a whole new game, base | Dall was. In the American League. same thing happened in the American League. Before 1920, | the earned-runs champion invariably was below 2.00. Walter Johnson was | @& 1.00 pitcher in 1912. There hasn't been a pitcher below 2.00 in the Amer- $can League since. Mostly the pitch- ing champ has been closer to 3.00 Batting averages went up, naturally, end home runs were no longer mat- sers for exceptional hitters like Home Run Baker. Pitchers began swatting high flies and trotting around the diamond, while John McGraw and OConnie Mack swore these distinctly were not the good old days. Stolen bases flopped. What was the use of atealing a base, sacrificing a player to third and scoring him on a fly out, when, with one blow, almost any body on the other squad, including the dat boy. could lift a pitch out of the park? The managers stopped telling | their scouts to look for pitchers and sent them out for high-fly hitters who weren't afraid to swing at anything. The scores got higher. In 1919 they had averaged 5 to 4, and in 1930 the winning team usually had to get 7 to win—on the average, of course. ‘There still were 1-0 games, but there were more big innings and more double-figure scores. The Cubs and the Phillies did it up right in the Fall of 1922, when the Chicagos had to score 26 runs to defeat 23 Philly runs. Usually it took less in 1905 to 1920 to win the batting championship than it took after 1920. In 1922 Hornsby hit for .401 and Sisler led the other league with .420. Practically all the extra base records were murdered after 1920. Only a few of Ty Cobb's great base ball achivements have outlasted the rabbit. But with three-base hits, the total has been about the same before and after the lively ball came fn. Maybe a three-base hit still is the real hi. in any man’'s ball park. Maybe that's why. Fewer Home Runs in 19387 OME runs, naturally, won't be as frequent next season if the two big leagues adopt the ball they say they will. Pitching will get the break 1t deserves, but at the cost of a lot of excitement. If they took the forward pass away from foot ball or penalized & team every time a pass failed there wouldn't be so many fireworks, maybe the fans wouldn't like foot ball #0 well. Base ball may suffer similarly, though to some old-timers it will be base ball again and not the alias of the 1920s. In the National League, the batting pitcher now must use, as a tester, about two dozen new “dead” balls. So far there has been no report. Ford Frick tells us that the new apple has less rubber in its insides than the rab- bit. Ty Cobb believed in the sanctity of the one-base hit. He believed it took real skill to place a hit..and he proved that he had such skill. A single yet may be brought back to the place of ‘honor. The fans may not like the deader ball, but third basemen will. Since 1920 third-base averages have dropped from 5 to 10 points, and the third baseman who has finished a season with 150 games or more and 150 stitches or less has won a special league trophy. The way that modern ball comes down the third-base line man. and | < Time Has Nicked “Old” Nick, but He Still Has His Niche in the Great National Pastime Altrock’s vocal cords still are ample for his coaching job. He also still retains his ability to keep others in a happy frame of mind, as Johnny Stone (left) and Walter Millies are willing to testify—Photos by John Mueller, Star Staff. ‘POPPINGE: OFF Utan d we gl The Title Is Farr, Farr Away. | Srecial Dispzten to The star. ONG BRANCH. N. J., August 18.—Mr. Tommy Farr's training camp must be one of the strangest in boxing history. over the place and Mr. Farr, Yankee Stadium. seems to be with fighting with his manager and complaining of his press notices. stranger than any other item. is why Broad “a's” echo all who meets Joe Louis August 26 in A most irritable sort of & chap, what But, Promoter Mike Jacobs did not build a 30-foot fence around Mr. Farr and his associates and liberally embellish it with “keep-off” signs For Tommy, it develops. has scored anything but a hit with the boys who make their living by pretending to know fighters cannot punch, for one thing. and that he is easy to hit. They say that he To be very blunt about it, nearly everybody who comes here to look at Mr. Farr leaves with the conviction that he is a bum as a fighter. The most optimistic of the more valued predictions so far envisions Louis hitting a home run off Farr's chin in the third round, and even your niave and imaginative correspondent George Washington Bridge Natie Brown in the ring. and pushes in close. of those base ball trades that Clark Griffith did not make. All Natie gives his opponents to shoot for is a small portion of a very durable skull. The kind of appraisals that Mr. Farr has been drawing then can do no good for the box office and most of the bays think that Mr. Jacobs should have done the the same thing Tex Rickard did when Carpentier was train- ing for Dempsey. Tex took a look at Carpentier and decided it would never do for the writing boys to see much of the orchid In the first place he was not the fighter Dempsey was, pound for pound. And in the second place Car- pentier's fighting weight was only 163 pounds. Fanciful Stories on Carpentier. “J RECALL that fight well,” said one of the grizzled group that was watching Farr. “In fact this fellow makes me think of Carpentier all the time except that he can't fight as well. “Rickard wouldn't let Carpentier train in public,” he went on. “Demp- sey, who weighed 189 at the time, was at his peak. Carpentier was only & middleweight. He was 168 when he weighed in for the fight, but I happen tc know definitely he was only 163 when the bell rang for the-first round. " They probahly filled him up on water or something when they weighed in. | “Rickard knew what he was doing when he made Carpentier train in private. A good deal of phoney ballyhoo came out of his camp, but at least nobody could come right out and say he was a bum. And that's what they are saying about Farr.” It may be recalled that some very fanciful publicity was written on Carperf®ier, at that. There was Francois de Champs, his manager, Riggs Due for BY EDDIE BRIETZ, Associated Press Sports Writer. EW YORK, August 18.—A smart lad up in the Bronx parlayed $10 on the Ath- letics in the recent Yankee series and made himself a cool $600 New York newsreel audiences applaud Tommy Farr's picture . . . Walter Hagen's pals say he is all set for a great golf comeback when he comes back from Australia or wherever he is. is inclined to agree. . who currently is dickering for the When Farr shoots his \ who was supposed to be able to hypnotize the Frenchman's foes with his evil eve. And there was a story going the rounds that trained in private only because he was perfecting a new, throw at Dempsey. The funny part of it was that Carpentier really did wind up and clock Jack on the chin with a right hand that made Dempsey's ears wave at Boyle's Thirty Acres. But, in the end, Dempeey did exactly what those who knew boxing expected him to do. Only he made it a little strong. He almost killed Carpentier, Complains of Pictures. [TARR is cocky enough, if that means anything. He was saying in camp today that “Louis knows that ’e is licked. I am going to win the cham- pionship by fair methods. And the malicious scoundrel who says I butt with my ‘ead to cut a man, is most unfair.” Word has gone out, you know, that Tommy uses his head in the ring, but chiefly to open the eyes of his foes. 1Izzy Kline, who trains Max Baer, is a disciple of this doctrine. |12zy claims that Parr defeated Baer |only by 'butting a gash over Max's eyes, causing the flowing blood to blind Baer. Farr spent part of the day vigorously denying this accusa- tion and another part of it com- plaining of the photography connected with his training. “They always pick the worst pic- tures to put in the papers,” lamented Mr. Farr. “They all show me off balance or getting 'it.” It's never seemed to occur to Tommy, nor did anybody care to remind him, that it is difficult to make cameras lie. If he was shown getting konked, or off balance, he must have been konked or was off balance. He probably has the worst staff of sparring partners in history and if he cannot pose well against them, he is in bad shape, indeed. ‘Wonder what he will say when he sees the papers of Priday, August 27? Or is that nice to say? hind Don Budge . . . (Which is just what Bobby has been con- tending all along). Marcel Thil, the French mid- dleweight, is completely bald . . . A Western school has its eye on smart old Bill Alexander of Georgia Tech (but doubts if it can lure him away) . . . Also more than one college is watch- ing Lawrence Spearman, new as- sistant coach at Little Davidson, Farr looks something like | He has a fair sort of a left hook and he erowds The only difference between British Tommy and Natie is that you'd have to bet on Brown if they ever met. left hook, his jaw stands out like some < Carpentier | secret punch to | PITCHES SHUTOUT mez Receives Tidings of Mother’s Death. BY BILL BONI, Associatea Fress Bporis Writer, HERES a well-known motto, often abused, but backed up by | solid tradition, in the canons of the theater and, to a less- | publicized extent, the professional | sports field: “The show must go on.” Those words, hackneyed perhaps, joked about frequently, must have flitted through the mind of a slim young Californian as, before a mid- week crowd of some 30,000, he warmed up early yesterday afternoon Yankee Stadium For Lefty Gomez, southpaw star of the champion Yankees, had «just been had died. Less than a week ago Lefty had returned from her bedside in the belief that she was recovering. Next to His Best. T WAS his turn to pitch in the opener of a double-header against the Washington Senators, riding high on an eight-game winning streak Manager Joe McCarthy, hard-pressed | for pitchers, gladly would have ex- cused Gomez from. duty. But Lefty trudged to the mound, turned in a three-hit, 8-0 shutout, helped himself to two singles—sensa- tional batting for the reedy southpaw —and hung up his fourteenth victory of the year. Only once before had he bettered that performance, when he pitched a one-hit game against the Athletics on June 30, equaled it, against the Tigers on May 4. But neither of those games were turned in under the circumstances that surrounded him yesterday. After Lefty had subdued the Sen- ators, the Yanks came back to win the nightcap, 6-4, on the strength of & five-run scoring spree in the eighth. Thus, as the Tigers kept sec- ond place safe by battering the White Sox into 11-7 submission, the cham- pions ran their American League lead to 10!z games. Cub Margin Shrinks. LESS fortunate were the Chicago Cubs. Held in check, 4-2, by Ed Brandt and Mace Brown of the Pi- rates, they saw their margin over the Giants shrink to three games as Clift Melton pitched a five-hitter that took the sting out of the Boston Bees by a 4-1 count. Melton, second only to Hubbell on the Giant staff, thus gained his and the team's victory over the Bees in Boston. Philadelphia retained one and lost another cellar occupant. The Ath- letics, with son Earl Mack replacing father Connie at the helm for a day, remained in the American League rumble seat by absorbing a 6-1 defeat from the Red Sox, while the Phils moved out of the National League cellar for the first time since July 11 N VENTIG R ¢ “Show Goes On” When Go- |¢ at| told that, in Rodeo, Calif., his mother | | New York Once before, too, he had | with and 11-1 triming of the Dodgers, who replaced them. 2 Two Bad FIRST GAME. WASHINGTON. R. H. Lazzeri. 7h, Hoaz. rf Gomez, p. S Home runs—Dic- e—Crosetti. Washington Gomez, 4. off t By Ap. Hite— ick out Gomez 3 Hi 7gs; off Chase, pitcher—Apple: Hubbard, Dinneen ime of game—1.55. SECOND GAME. WASHINGTON. AB. R Almada, cf. Lewis ab, Travis, 8s. Stone ' If 1b, ton. 1: off Chase s pleton. 5: by Chase. 4: b in innings Losing Mesers > E =80 3D B Dy [EIPTAVESE De Shong. p. Cohen. p. 5| 2l > 2l ses Di Maggio. cf. Geh 1b. PPN o Dickey. c. Powell 1f. *Selkirk _ Henrich. rf Hoag. rf-If, Heffner, Hadley. Murphy, orroasensmy ol P, P - Shp PETEEY Totals 34 611 27 14 *Batted for Powell in sixth. ‘Washington _ 111 000 001—4 100 000 05x—6 Runs batted in—Stone (2). Gehrig_( Sington. Di Maggio. Dickey (2). Hoax Two-base hits—Singion. De Shong. Stone Three-base hits—Gehriz. DI Maggio Hen- rich. Home run—Dickey. Stolen base— Almada Double _ plavs—Gehrig Dickey: Travis, Mver and Kuhel. Left bases—New York. 6 Washington, Bases on balls—Off Hadley 6: off Shong. 2. Struck out—By De Shonz. 1 v Hadlev. 3 s—Off De Shong. 11 in 71 innings: off Cohen. 0 in oft Hadley. 8 in R innings (none out ninth): off Murphv. 1 in 1 inning. Hit by pitcher—By Hadley (Myer). ~Winning pitcher—Hadley. _ Losing _ pitcher—De Shong. Umpires—Messrs. Dinneen Kolls and Hubbard. Time—2:05. Attendance— 25.R88. Griffs’ Records BATTING. G. AB.R. H. 2b.3b Hr.Rbl.Pct. 2, inning: EPNE ) Myer Mihalic Weaver W. Perrell 3ington R, Ferrell Linke Appleton De Shong _ a8 1 PPN u_-m St Eeestg Appleton Cohen guest . . . He looks like a mil- lion dollars and talks that kind of fight. Although War Admiral appeared to be in fine condition when he breezed a quarter mile at Sara- toga Saturday he will not be raced until the Lawrence Realization at Belmont Park. The Son of Man o' War has not had a hard work’ out yet, but the long rest seems to have helped him. His smooth Hagen Comeback Is Predicted When He Ends Tour 0. 2 Tennis Spot Back of Budge—War Admiral Looks Better Than Ever. approach it since he made his debut on the major tracks. Riding on the “frying pan” circuit, Turner rode six winners in one day then came back the next to ride six more. The champion 2-year-old colt of the year may be seen in action at Saratoga next Saturday. Tiger, the Milky Way Stable star, which ran & dead heat with Teddy's Comet in the Arlington PFuturity, has been named for the Grand He continues to .Schucht Cleans field in the pre-game warm-ups. bat ‘em to the in- he is ad B Up as tlmm While Nick, Slowed by Injury, Carries On as Griffs’ Coach BY DILLON GRAHAM, Axsoctated Press Sports Writer. A while Nick Altrock, his one- time pardner in base ball's most famous comedy team, carries on as a Washington coach. Schacht. a familiar figure in Ameri- can League parks for years, left the Boston Red Sox last Fall to take his cut-up act about the country. Re- ports say he's been knocking them in the aisles, | | Rift Never Was Closed. JCHACHT and Altrock were wash- ! ington coaches 15 years ago. They | before and during games, and their stuff went over so big they were given a vaudeville billing. Their tour was !F\A(‘Ctiifu], but an argument halted it and the pair split. Although they were together with the Washington club for years afterwards, acquaint ances said they never spoke. Some times they'd go through their laugh- | producing routine on the field, but | their friendship was ended. Nick was an artist at pantomime. He would strut along a coaching box mimicking an umpire for minutes on end while spectators lost interest in the game. He was good at drawing a laugh from an unexpected situ- ation. Al thought up many of their pre-arranged stunts. Al is tall, slender, dark-haired. Nick | is short, fat and has touseled gray hair. Nick evokes guffaws by merely jerking his base ball cap askew. Schacht moved on to Boston a few | years ago as a third base coach. His loud whistle was recognized by fans all over the loop. He continued his stunting. Injury Slows Nick. Bl A LTROCK rarely is on the coaching line these days. infielders in pre-game warm-ups. Sometimes, when the fancy strikes him, he’ll do a stunt or two, and he still gets the laughs. His “stuff” al- ways went over better in some towns than others and in these parks he still turns on the comedy occasionally. Nick's ankle was broken by a batted ball last year and the injury slowed him up. He hits to the L SCHACHT is clowning for | minor league fans these days, | | locker | devised stunts to entertain the fans | 24 LA-ZORA e Altrock is an ardent a southpaw and pl course here almost ev morning the team is in town. He shoots a good game, too, often in the 70s He still is a big favorite with the players, and his playfulness in the rooms keeps them in lively spirits. They're always thinking up jokes to play on him. golfer. He's s a municipal His off-time is spent at golf at which ept. MIDDLE OF STICK ORDER PUNCALESS Travis No Longer Sustains League Statistics AUGUST 1R, 1937, AMERICAN. RESULTS YESTERDAY. New York. 8-#. W e - x10X MoN| “eamuaoag [ 1 GAMES ToDAY Wash, at N. Y. 21 Cleve at St L. Boston at Phila Detroit at Chicago. NATIONAL. RESULTS YESTERDAY. New York. 4; Boston Philadelphia. '11: Brookiyn, Pittsburgh. 4: Chicago, 2 Only games plaved 2 2 | Cni— 1110 611l 61110641617 | NY6—1010 61110 GAMES TOMORROW. New York at Boston. Phila. at Brookiyn. GAMES TODAY New York at Boston, Phila. at Brooklvn. | double-header and | place. New York won, 8-0, 6-4. | double-play. | he struck out St. Lonis at Cincl Chicago at Pi St. Louis at Cin Chicago At Pittsh as far as you can smoke it Club as Pitchers Jar Down on Leader. Sraff Correspond fT Btar. EW YORK, August 18 —Wanted occasionally connects, for work in middle of batting order. Harris, Washington base ball club. Bucl knew it couldn't go on fore suspected the Yanks would have somee thing to say about snapping it, too. BY FRANCIS E STAN, One healthy swinger, who Hours good, pay s Apply Stanley ever . . . that winning streak. He But Bucky would have felt better | along about dusk yesterday if he had That lack cost the second game of a incidentally, fifth weeks now the Nats, to be frank. have been depending on Cecil Travis to do the big work with the stick. And Cecil did it. Almost single-handedly, the young shortstop pounded the Griffs to victory * | after victory, and in the process he batted himself into the leadership of the American League with an average that once reached .389, Kuhel Is Stopped Cold. BUT once Cece got into this strata the pitchers began to work on him. They put something on every pitch. They began to walk him rather than give him something good to hit, And Travis' average began to drop. But did anybody else step up and volunteer to shoulder the load? Not as far as Harris has been able to see. Given one opportune hitter in the nightcap yesterday the Nats would have had an even break and retained their hold on fifth place. Joe Kuhel has been the weak sister of late. Not only did he fail to get a hit, but he went hitless all day yesterday, and once he hit into a On two other occasions In the last 16 games played by the Nats, Joey has made only 12 hits in 61 times at bat. This is an average of only .197. He has driven across, from (See STAN, Page A-13) « « « and even farther aAZoO () | TODAY Distributor el GAR ¢ Always MILD Daniel Loughran Co., Inc. 402 11th St. S.W., Washington, D. C. from & powerful right-handed hitter was enough to scare Pie Traynor into managing the Pittsburgh Pirates.| have a lot to say about who wins There hasn't been a star third base- | the Natignal League pennant race man since Pie left to sit with a score | . . . Latest Semi-official dope is card, and if you don't believe it, try | that Bobby Riggs, the California to pick one for an all-star team. You ! youngster, can count himself in cant’ think of any of their names. that No. 3 tennis spot—vight be- A A § whose Chester (§. C.) high teams lost only four games in nine years. Harry Smith, veteran sports edi- tor of the 8an Prancisco Chronicle, is back from a jaunt to Europe and will stay here until after Louis and Farr do their stuff , . , Farr was Jack Dempsey's Iluncheon action and graceful stride look laugh at the Cincts You can laugh at the Cincinnati more effective than ever. ‘ Always UNIFORM Reds all you like, but they may ALL LONG-FILLER A Prodnet of G. H. P. Cigar Ce., Inc. Union Hotel Stakes along with J. H. Whitney's Pumpkin, C. V. Whit- ney's Dauber, the Wheatley Stable's Stromscud, the Belair stud’s Fight-~ ing Fox and Wise Fox, E. R. Brad- ley's Born Wise, Calumet Farm's Chic Maud and Bull Lea and Mrs. P. A. Clark’s Encors. ' Leonard Turner, contract jockey for the Bomar Stable, claims & riding record which probably never has been duplicated by sny rider, but he ham't been able even to A