Pirates and Cardinals Set for Showdown as National League Race Tightens
The National League pennant race reached a fever pitch on June 22, 1926, as the Pirates and Cardinals prepared for a crucial series in St. Louis while writers debated whether Rogers Hornsby's club had the pitching, stamina and star power to challenge Pittsburgh and Cincinnati for the flag.
Content from the Pittsburgh Press - June 22, 1926 - Evening
In This Edition
- Scene Changes but Pirates and Cards Continue Battle
- Baseball Summary
- Ralph Davis Says
- Playing the Game With the Pirates
- Cardinals Face Test This Week
- Advertisements
SCENE CHANGES BUT PIRATES AND CARDS CONTINUE BATTLE BUCCANEERS IN ST. LOUIS
Pirates Open Three-Game Series With Western Sluggers; Songer and Keen Opposing Moundsmen Today
St. Louis, June 22.—After an absence of nearly a month from home scenes, the Cardinals returned here this morning to open a three-game series with the world's champion Pirates. The locals, who are now in the fight for the leadership of the league, left this city May 27, playing in Cincinnati and Chicago before they dashed east for the first invasion of the year.
The success of Rogers Hornsby's men along the Atlantic Coast has brought them into more favor than ever with fans of this city. It is felt that for the first time in many years, St. Louis has a chance at the flag and to greet their athletes and thus show that they are with them heart and soul, fans in great numbers will turn out for the homecoming battle.
On eastern soil, the Cardinals made a better record than any team in the loop. They won all but one of the games they played on the coast, sweeping the engagements at Philadelphia, New York and Boston and losing the lone contest to the Dodgers. Not only is that the best record a St. Louis team has ever compiled on an eastern invasion but it is one of the finest credited to any team on foreign soil in the last decade.
BUCCOS GREAT FAVORITES
The Buccaneers are also great favorites in the Mound City. Their hustle and never-say-die spirit has always made a great hit with fans here and it is realized that if the Cardinals are to cop the pennant they must wipe out the Corsair menace first of all. The first step in that task comes this afternoon and with so much depending on the impending series, it is certain that both teams will call into play all their power and skill to get away with the right foot.
The Pittsburgh pitching selection for this afternoon also is an attraction to local fans. Don Songer, the newest hurling sensation of the National League, is slated to oppose the slugging Cardinals and if he is as successful against them as he has been against eastern teams, fans here will be willing to certify that he possesses the goods. Songer is a Kansas City boy and has numerous friends in this city.
Victor Keen, who came here from the Chicago Cubs, is doped to work for the Cards. With Flint Rhem and Bill Sherdel he forms the big three of the local mound staff and his fine work helped the locals greatly in piling up their recent brilliant record. But that he will have his hands full today is apparent from the manner in which Rhem, another ace, was slugged by the Pirates yesterday.
KEEP PACE WITH LEADERS
The Pirates kept pace with the league-leading Reds by winning yesterday's game. They are still one point to the rear of the head club, but if the Reds stumble have an excellent chance of rising to the top. The Cardinals can't overtake the Pirates by a single stroke, for they are just a little over a game behind the runner-up berth.
Pirates and Cardinals were still talking about yesterday's slugfest at Pittsburgh when they arrived here this morning. Everything they swatted fell in safe territory, each side collecting 14 safeties. The final score was 13 to 11 with the Buccaneers on the long end, but until the last man was out it was anybody's contest. Six pitchers were used by the Cards, while the Pirates were forced to employ four members of their mound staff.
Manager Rogers Hornsby was the most disappointed man on the team this morning. With his club two runs behind, two men on and two out in the ninth inning, he appeared at the plate. It was his chance to play the hero role, but he flunked out, lifting a soft fly to Max Carey.
BASEBALL SUMMARY
RALPH DAVIS SAYS
Dizzy Flag Race In National
McCarthy Is Manager With Character
How Will Mueller and McGraw Hit It?
By: Ralph Davis
THE NATIONAL league is engaged at present in one of the dizziest pennant races it has had for years. The first three clubs are so closely bunched that a misstep on the part of any of them is fraught with risks.
THE CHASE IS so close that any day may witness changes in the standing of the leaders, and there is no telling what the ultimate outcome will be.
IT LOOKS very much as if it is going to be a question of stamina, with the pitchers playing a mighty important part. Cincinnati is better fortified in the slab department than either Pittsburgh or St. Louis, but the Reds are sadly deficient in other departments, and it is a question whether they will be able to stand the grind much longer.
ROGERS HORNSBY and Bill McKechnie would both welcome the services of at least one more first-class twirler, but they don't know where to secure him. It may be that in the end one club will stagger into the championship ahead of the others, with the twirlers gasping for breath after their strenuous labors.
PITTSBURGH and St. Louis both have real wrecking crews to back up their hurlers, and in this respect are better off than their rivals. In some quarters the opinion still prevails that the Giants will yet come to life and get into the running, but they have deferred their start a mighty long time.
SOME BASEBALL fans have been inclined to censure Joe McCarthy, manager of the Chicago Cubs, for disciplining Grover Cleveland Alexander, the great veteran pitcher, for his breach of discipline.
BUT IT IS hardly fair to McCarthy to look at the matter in that light. Joe is responsible for the success of the team which he is piloting. If the team fails, he must take the blame, and no alibis or excuses will carry weight.
JOE HAS been in the big league for only a few months. Grover Alexander has been in the National circuit for about 15 years. But that did not stop Joe from suspending the big fellow when the veteran broke training.
ALEXANDER has cut up whenever he felt like it, according to common gossip. But until McCarthy appeared upon the scene, no one ever took the trouble or had the nerve to punish him.
McCARTHY seems to be a leader of some character. No wonder players who were with him in the American Association say that he will have a winner in the Windy City if they give him a little time.
JOE SEEMS to know one thing, at least—that no manager can hope to succeed if he makes fish of one player and flesh of another. In other words, he knows that discipline must be impartially enforced, and that the veteran star must toe the scratch just as squarely as the veriest rookie.
OUT OF THE camp of the Cardinals has come the story of why Rogers Hornsby traded Heinie Mueller for Billy Southworth of the Giants. Mueller is a younger man than Southworth, and mechanically has always been a good ball player. He can hit, throw, chase and get long flies, and is a fast man on the bases. But he has been guilty of many serious mental lapses on the ball field. It remains to been how he will get by with them with John McGraw.
ONE OF Mueller's "miseries" when Branch Rickey was handling the Cardinals was his inability to remember the club's signals. Under Branch the Cards had more signals than a railroad system. Heine always had difficulty in memorizing the hit-and-run signals, and one morning, in the course of one of those famous blackboard lessons, Rickey startled him out of his usual German stolidity by firing an unexpected leading question at him.
"WHAT ARE the club's hit-and-run signals, Mueller?" snapped Rickey.
"I DON'T remember, Mr. Rickey," he said.
"WELL, WHAT'S So-and-So's sign? You ought to know that. He bats right behind you."
"I DUNNO, Mr. Rickey," answered the imperturbable Mueller.
"JUDAS PRIEST," exclaimed Rickey. "When you're on first and So-and-So's at bat, how do you know when to run if you don't know the signal?"
"WELL, Mr. Rickey," answered Mueller, brightly. "It's this way—the coach always tells me."
Pitcher Working For Degree
Ted Lyons of the Chicago Whitesox, is a pitcher with perseverance. Ted is a graduate of the high school at Vinton, La., where he finished his course in 1918. He then entered Baylor university at Waco, Tex., where he pitched for the ball team in 1921, 1922 and 1923, winning a lot of games. Before he had finished his college course he was steered into the camp of the Whitesox, where he has been since.
BUT HE STILL hankers after a college degree, and he has been taking the necessary work by correspondence. He expects soon to go back for final examinations, and to receive his A. B.
A Cagy Clubowner
LAST FALL John McGraw made the Columbus club a present of Hank Gowdy in order that he might be made manager of the club. Not long ago Thomas Wilson, owner of the Columbus franchise, deposed Hank as manager. Then he tried to sell him back to McGraw, who had given him away.
MR. WILSON was determined to get something out of Gowdy, and he finally succeeded in disposing of his services to another Association club for $3,000. He then proceeded to give George McQuillan a nice deal. He made McQuillan the new manager, but just before doing so he sold the two best players on the team. He sent Paul Strand to Portland, and Second Baseman Mervin Regan, Oakland boy, was sold to the Boston Red Sox. No doubt Regan was glad to get away.
WILSON SAYS he fired Gowdy because he didn't get results. And then he deprives his new manager of the men who might have gotten results for him. McQuillan is doomed in advance to failure, under such a system.
Is There a Moral In This?
A TOOTH BRUSH bristle is blamed for Helen Wills' attack of appendicitis, which laid her low in France, and prevented her competing in the Wimbledon tourney in England.
ACCORDING to the story, a few days before she was taken ill, Miss Wills swallowed the bristle while scrubbing her teeth. A million youngsters who detest the daily necessity will tell you the moral is. Don't brush your teeth.
EVEN IF the story isn't true, it makes good reading—two continents desolated by a tooth brush bristle. Wimbledon's Golden Jubilee as a result lost its great attraction.
IT WAS THE prospect of a match between Helen and Suzanne that caused a sell-out of the famed center court at Wimbledon months ago. Now Suzanne finds no one worthy of her mettle in the tourney. Of course, it cannot be said that Helen would have won over the French queen, but she stood a better chance than any other woman.
Players Appreciate Ruth
NOBODY is taking more interest in Babe Ruth's tremendous home run clouting this season than other big league players. They are said to be rejoicing with the Bambino every time he hits a circuit smash. This is true in the National as well as in the American league.
IT'S THIS way: Ruth has accomplished much for the game. He just about saved it during that dreaded season of 1921, when the confidence of the public was rocked to its foundation by the Blacksox scandal.
THE BABE stepped in then, kept the mind of the public off everything else with an unprecedented flurry of home runs, and put baseball upon a firmer financial plane than ever before.
RUTH'S OWN salary jumped from a few thousand dollars a year to its present figure of $52,000. And the salaries of other players jumped also. They did not leap to anything approaching Ruth's, but they did increase incomes.
THE TAIL of the Ruth comet carried the salaries of other players skyward.
Somebody Head Him Off
SPIKER KELLY warns that he is developing another Jess Willard, and one wonders what grievance he has against the world at large.
Another Prize Dumbbell
ANDY ON the elevator says he met a guy so dumb that, when a friend told him Vic Aldridge was going on the firing line, replied that he didn't know America was mixed up in another war.
Don't Make Kenesaw Jealous
A CLEVELAND pitcher, weighing 240 pounds, is credited with being the biggest man in baseball, but they'd better not let Kenesaw Mountain Landis in on the secret.
Playing the Game With the Pirates
ONE LITTLE POINT KEEPS THE PIRATES OUT OF FIRST PLACE. THEY SPANKED THE CARDINALS YESTERDAY, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, BUT AT THE SAME TIME THE LEAGUE-LEADING REDS CALLED INTO PLAY ALL THEIR RESOURCES AND TRIMMED THE CUBS IN 16 INNINGS. IT'S GETTING TO BE A HECTIC FIGHT.
They say lefthanded batsmen can't hit southpaws. However, Paul Waner, that sort of slugger, doesn't seem to have any evident trouble meeting the balls served up by left wingers, fairly. But then that is Waner all over. Daily he proves that a really good ball player can play the game well as long as there's a ball, a bat and a glove lying around.
THEY HIT THE BALL AND RAN—THAT WENT FOR BOTH TEAMS YESTERDAY. BUT IT WAS NOTICEABLE THAT THE PIRATES MADE THEIR SMASHES COUNT FOR A LITTLE MORE THAN THE CARDINALS DID. AS OFTEN AS THE OPPORTUNITY PRESENTED ITSELF, PIRATES DASHED FROM FIRST TO THIRD WHEN THE BATSMAN TAPPED A BASE-HIT. TAKING THAT EXTRA BASE IS ONE REASON WHY THE BUCCO ATTACK IS THE MOST DANGEROUS IN THE GAME TO-DAY.
Don Songer has hung up three straight victories. The chance for him to produce his fourth in a row comes today. If he can trim the Cardinals, a powerful slugging aggregation, as he did the Dodgers, Phils and Giants, doubters will be forced to admit that he is the pitching find of the season. With many that fact has already been established.
RHEM AND MEADOWS WERE BOTH LUCKY. THE FORMER HAS WON 11 OF 12 STARTS AND THE LATTER'S RECORD SHOWS SEVEN STRAIGHT TRIUMPHS. BOTH WERE BATTED OFF THE MOUND YESTERDAY AND NEITHER IS CHARGED WITH A DEFEAT. HUNTZINGER WHO WENT IN IN THE FIFTH WITH THE SCORE TIED IS THE LOSER WHILE OLDHAM, NEXT TO LAST OF THE PIRATE PITCHING BRIGADE, HAS ANOTHER TRIUMPH ADDED TO HIS RECORD.
For once Rogers Hornsby was stopped and Ray Kremer had the honor of turning back the slugging Cardinal manager in the pinch. In the ninth inning with two runs needed to tie the score, two out and two of his hirelings on the paths, Rogers lifted a sorry-looking fly to center field. You can't hit 'em all the time but it's always gratifying to a hurler when he outsmarts the tricky St. Louis pilot.
"IF TOMMY THEVENOW COULD HIT, HE'D BE THE SHORT-STOP PEER OF THE MAJOR LEAGUES," WAS THE OPINION EXPRESSED BY MORE THAN ONE CLOSE FOLLOWER OF THE GAME AFTER THE BATTLE AT FORBES FIELD YESTERDAY. HORNSBY'S MATE IN THE CENTRAL SECTION OF THE INFIELD IS ONE OF THE CLEANEST AND SUREST FIELDERS IN THE GAME TODAY AND HE IS GETTING BETTER AS THE SEASON PROGRESSES.
Hazen Cuyler got three more hits yesterday and added several points to his average. However, that Kiki is leading the league in clubbing isn't news. He's been doing that very thing for several weeks now. But the manner in which he is drawing away from the rest of the clouters is the bright feature. He's 13 points ahead of Babe Herman of the Dodgers, and seems destined to land the 1926 batting crown.
CARDINALS FACE TEST THIS WEEK
Gruelling Series With Pirates and Reds Expected to Show Real Class of Hornsby's Team
New York, June 22.—After weeks of indecisive jockeying, the inevitable expose of strength and weakness among the National League contenders is due for an airing in St. Louis, starting today, when the Cardinals and Pirates will meet in the first of a three-game series. The next two weeks will have an abiding effect on the pennant race.
They will show, for example, whether the Cards' recent pace, the sensation of all baseball, was built on a foundation of concrete or cream puffs.
The club, of course, can't hope to sustain the .917 pace it carried through the stunned east. But otherwise everything points to the Cardinals being a permanent contender. Never a good road club in the past, they won 11 out of 12 in this section. That's one favorable sign. Another is the fact pitching has brought the club along, not hitting.
HITTERS MAY IMPROVE
When Rogers Hornsby rises above .340, as he must, and Jim Bottomley climbs back in the .300 class, which is almost as certain, that same pitching will be supplemented by something it obviously lacked when the outfit ran riot through the eastern field.
Following the present series between the champion Pirates and Cardinals who impressed New York equally as the most plausible of the contenders, the St. Louis entry may get a "breather" in five games with the dying Cubs, after which it will move to Pittsburgh for another show-down series.
It will be a five-game affair, starting June 30, and when it is over, the Cards must take on the league-leading Reds in five games. There should be no doubt of where the strength lies by July 7.
Anyhow, it is about time that some club stepped out and made a definite bid for the pennant. There still are six clubs in the race. By all the laws of averages, this is about three too many.
ADVERTISEMENTS
