Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 172, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1917 — GOOD CLUB ON PAPER NOT ALWAYS BEST [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GOOD CLUB ON PAPER NOT ALWAYS BEST

“Without any doubt,” remarked Smiling Bill Donovan, as he rendered a perfect exhibition of a dentifrice advertisement, “I have the strongest baseball team in the country—on paper. “I am handicapped by an attack of Cincinnatitis with which the valiant baseball scribes of this thriving little village have been afflicted. But for the fact tharall bf our players except Duke Farrell and myself were crippled at some one time last season and I strained my voice on several occasions saying sweet things to the umpires, we might have won the pennant. “Those misfortunes furnished much capital to the boy's who went down to the training camp with us this spring. They proceeded to win the pennant for us and they actually won it before April 11. They had us so far out in the lead at that time that I really did not see much reason why we should play out the schedule. Since April 11, however, we have not been quite so successful. When I picked up my pa-

per I was surprised to find that we were in third place and only a few games ahead of Detroit. I was going to call up that newspaper office, and pan ’em when I saw that two or three other papers had made the same mistake. Strongest Team on Paper. “Without any doubt we have the Strongest team in tlie league —on paper. Just listen. In the first place we have ten pitchers, which is more than any other club in the league, and every one of the ten is sound in wind, limb and appetite. According to the Morning Clarion, Bob Shawkey is the best pitcher in the league. The Evening Blatt says Ray Caldwell is the class of the circuit. The Morning Universe declared Ruth is but a novice compared with Slim Love, Mogridge or Nick Cullop. The Midnight Sun says Russell and Shocker are the two best spitball pitchers in the country, while the Broadway Bazoo asserts Ray Fisher is the greatest pitcher of the age. So, you see, we have the eight best pitchers in the league.”

SOME STARS OF NEWSPAPER CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM.