Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1889 — THE BASE-BALL FIELD. [ARTICLE]

THE BASE-BALL FIELD.

NEWS AND GOSSIP ABOUT THE NATIONAL GAME. I The League Battle for the Championship Pennant an Interesting One—The Boston Club Leading—What the Other Teamsi Are Doing. [CHICAGO CORRESPONDENCE.] i With the exception of the three games which Chicago will play in Cleveland. June 14, 15 and 17, the team will play an unbroken series of a month’s duration upi on the Chicago grounds, beginning with Cleveland this week and eading with Washington on July 6. Anson’s men are just now pretty well down the list among the candidates for league honors, but the i close of this long series upon familiar 1 soil, and fair umpiring, will be very apt to find them a good deal nearer the front I than they are at present. The Eastern trip just completed was a, sad disappointment to Adrian C. Anson. He felt full of confidence that Chicago would take at least half of the games played, and when the trip ended up bythe Blacks dropping four straight to Boston, “The Old Man” was decidedly, warm under the collar—not at the team, but at the miserable umpiring, which is mainly responsible for Chicago’s poor showing on the trip. Chicago was. without doubt, outbatted and outfielded in the fifteen games it played with Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, but it played good ball despite that, andwould with little question, have won, at the least calculation, fully two-thirds of its games but for the incompetency of Umpires McQuade and Barnum. Speaking of the trip, Anson said to me the night we left Boston: “We’ve done poorly on the trip, and* it takes no figures to convince me of it. If we’d hit the ball as hard as we usually do we’d have taken two games from Boston, and possibly three: we’d have taken, three fiom New York and at least two from Philadelphia, which, together with the two at Washington, would have given us a pretty good record. We didn’t hit the ball, however, particularly at Boston. You know, and so does everybody else who saw the games, why we didn’t. Of all the outrageous decisions ever given by an umpire those of Bartmm were the worst! Understand, though, I’m not offeiing any excuses or making any ‘ kick.’ Chicago isn’t where it would be in the race if I’d been able to get my men together last spring and put ’em through the course of training, which I mean to let nothing on earth interfere with hereafter. I know what my team’s capable of, and the fact that we’ve not won more games on this trip doesn’t worry me anv. if we’d had anything like a fair deal in the umpiring we’d have won a majority of the games, and my team wasn’t playing up to its speed at that.” When asked what he really thought of Boston’s chances in the race—if he, like m:*ny others, thought it wou d win, he

said: “No, I don’t think they will win it. The Bostons have been playing in the biggest kind of luck. I think it has but one pitcher, and that is Clarkson. I am sure he is the only one that will last. The Boston te.iip is strong behind the bat, but it is, I think, a weak fielding combination. They have been gettiog ail the best of the umpiring —something they won’t relish when ihey come West, if they have to face the same luck that Chicago has so far. I consider Chicago just as strong as any team in the League. I have not weakened. I think Boston will get one of the first four positions, but which one I cannot say, as New York, Philadelphia and Chicago are in the race.” “What do you think of Boston as a batting combination?” “ Very good, but I’ll bet a suit of clott.es that Chicago has a letter average at the end of the season than Boston.” “Why do you think Chicago is going to beat out Boston?” “In the first place, Chicago has the best pitchers. You may pick out one man in several clubs that can outpitch my men, but for a crowd of good, sound pitc hers that are going to last through the season, I tell you I have the men. This is a very young season yet, and the Chicago club has been away from home in all but four games, winning three of them from our Johahs, the Pittsburgs. You know we never allow any one to come to Chicago and take away games without a hard fight. lam not boasting when I tell you that Chicagb, with Ned Williamson in his old position, is a stronger team than ever represented the Windy City, and you will all have to admit it before the season is over.” DIAMOND NOTES. Chicago now has a clean stretch before it, and should do something toward regaining public confidence before it makes its next trip East. Anson is still willing to back Chicago in the race. Wouldn’t it be funny if Chicago w ere to turn the tables on Boston for four straight when the latter got here this month? Clarkson is pitching great ball this season. Chicago has a Class A catcher in Sommers. Ad Gumbert is a remarkably hard-hit-ting pitcher. Big Dan Brouthers leids Anson by thirteen hits in the batting race between the two. A great deal of rivalry exists among the members of the Chicago team in the try for batting honors, and the following statement of the stick-work done by the team on the last Eastern trip will show what the boys are doing: A. B. B. H. Percent. Duffy 68 23 .338 Ryan ....67 22 . 328 Van Haltren 61 20 .327 Gumbert 31 - 10 .322. Pfeffer 62 18 .290 Burns 59 17 .288 Anson 63 18 .285 Farrell 51 13 .254 Dwyer .......17 4 . 235 Bastian 18 2 .111 Tener 10 1 .100 Sommers.. ...21 2 ■. .095 Hutchinson 11 1 ,090 Flint .....12 1 .083 Krock 12 0 .000 Little Duffy, it will be seen, leads the lot, while the “ old man ” is pretty well down. Ryan and Pfeffer are batting about the usnal speed—perhaps a trifle below it—and Van Haltren, Gumbert and Burns are all doing well.