Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 210, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1915 — GOOD PITCHING STAFF QUITE ESSENTIAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GOOD PITCHING STAFF QUITE ESSENTIAL

(By FRANK Q. MENKE.)

What does it avail a ball club If it possesses the greatest batsmen in the land if Its pitching staff is punk? And the answer is: Nothing. A good pitching staff is far more essential to a ball club’s success than is a wrecking crew of batters. Baseball records of the past and present show the truth of that statement. Those New York Giants are in a rut although they have three men slugging over the .300 mark and three others near it. Doyle is hitting around .326, Merkle is clouting for and Robertson boasts of a .310 average. No team in baseball packs a greater batting punch than those Brooklyß Federals. Magee is hitting around .375 and Kauff is near .360. Three other Brookfed regulars are over the .300 mark —yet the Warn is in the second division. The Detroit outfield is swatting the well-known horse’s skin for a combined average around .360 —a tremendous clip, yet the Tigers are third in the race. Back in the bygone days the Cleveland Naps toted around the greatest collection of sluggers that ever battled under one standard —Lajoie, Bemis. Bay, Hickman, Bradley, “Nig” Clarke and a few more fence busters. Practically every man in the outfit was a .300 hitteh Yet Cleveland during those days never came near to winning a pennant. On the other hand, the Chicago

White Sox, back in 1906, had pitchers —and no batters. Yet the Sox won a pennant and a world series in that year. In 1912,1913 and 1914 the Senators, minus batting power but plus some mighty pitchers, acted as run-ners-up in nearly all three pennant battles. Getting right down to this present day and age we find the Phillies clinging to the top of the National league heap. Outside of Luderus and Cravath, the Phillies haven’t any batters—but they have Grover Cleveland Alexander and a few other pitching persons. The Dodgers, who have assumed the role of runner-up, have a real bat ter in Jake Daubert and a timely hitter in. Zack Wheat Their hitting power ends there. But the Dodgers have Weiser Dell, Jack Coombs, “Hasen” Pfeffer and “Nap” Rucker on the pitching staff. That’s why they are where they are. The Red Sox, as a team, aren’t hitting up to pennant-winning standard. But they have about five pitchers who are pitching a world series brand of baseball —and look where those Red Sox are located in the standing of clubs. The Kansas City Feds and the St. Louis Feds present weak-hitting combinations. But they have the pitchers —and thqy’ve been in the pennant fight since the middle of May. In other words, one good pitcher seems to be of more value to a ball club than two or three slugging infielders, outfielders or catchers