Content from the Pittsburgh Press - Sunday July 4, 1926

Table of Contents

• World's Champions Win, Regain Second Place
• Irishman's Prayer Is Answered at Last as Andy Cohen Wins Berth With New York Nationals
• Players of Pirates Failed to Interpret Handwriting on Wall
• Playing the Game With the Pirates
• Six Buccaneer Regulars Clout Ball at Better Than .300 Clip

WORLD'S CHAMPIONS WIN, REGAIN SECOND PLACE

CARDS GIVEN FINE LACING

Pirates Score Eight Runs In Fourth Chapter—Pie Traynor, Up Twice In Inning, Clouts Double and Homer—Whole Pittsburgh Outfit Slams the Ball.

By LOU WOLLEN.

It was a mighty profitable afternoon for the world's champion Pirates. Not only did they haul the St. Louis Cardinals out of second place, taking that position in the National League standing themselves, but they picked up a game and a half on the league-leading Redlegs who dropped both ends of a double-header to the Chicago Cubs.

This morning, the Buccaneers are 10 points ahead of the Cardinals and three and a half games to the rear of the uppermost perch in the flag ladder. Reds and Cards tangle today while the Pirates grapple with the Cubs, so, if they win, the premiers of the universe can't help but cash in.

The victory over the Hornsby-less Cardinals was scored in decisive fashion. Basehits flitted to all sections of Forbes Field throughout the nine innings, the lustiest swatting coming in the fourth when eight runs were accumulated and the contest sewed up beyond recall. The final tally was 12 to 3.

The triumph was the third in succession over the Cardinals and followed on the heels of the worst losing streak that affected the Corsairs this season. The meaning taken from the terriffic onslaught by the 10,000 or more fans who saw the fracas is that the champs have at last found their stride and won't tarry for long below the pinnacle.

ALDRIDGE DOES WELL

Vic Aldridge produced more proof that the Pirate pitching staff as well as the slugging is coming into its own. The husky ex-Bruin started the game, and also finished it. Seven hits were procured off his delivery by the enemy, and, despite the fact that he had nothing much to worry about after the famous fourth, he worked faithfully and kept St. Louis bats swinging in circles without connecting with anything on most occasions.

Aldridge's nine-round mound tenure marked the third time in four days that a Pittsburgh hurler has gone the limit. Lee Meadows did it on Wednesday and Ray Kremer duplicated the feat Friday. To the casual observer that may mean nothing, but to

Irishman's Prayer Is Answered At Last As Andy Cohen, Texas Hebrew, Wins Berth With New York Nationals

By LEON M. SILER.

NEW YORK, July 4.—You find the name "Cohen" in the lineup of the New York Giants from time to time these days, and it isn't a typographical error.

It's the rugged, pungent, pulsating answer to a fervent Irish prayer.

The wearer of it is Andrew Howard Cohen. He has a face just like the great open spaces from which he came.

Among his other possessions are five feet eight and a half inches of height, 155 pounds of weight and some three months of professional baseball experience.

That's meager equipment for a New York Giant, in a way. But he of the solid and substantial Hebraic cognomen graced the Giant bench only for a matter of hours before he busted into the real show.

That's how glad the Irish John McGraw was that his prayer at last had produced something resembling providential response.

There's a long story back of it. Almost as long as the years McGraw has guided the Giants' destinies. But it can be told in few words.

Search the Bronx, the East Side and sundry other portions of Gotham and you will discover a million or more actual or potential baseball fans in whose veins flows the blood of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The Irish acumen of John McGraw sensed the presence of this million long, long ago.

In every minor league and on every sandlot he sought for them—a Jewish Giant star.

Bennie Kauff came to cause rejoicing in McGraw's heart for a while. But because of certain idiosyncrasies, Bennie failed to last.

This Cohen, 22 years of age and neat both at bat and on the base lines, is his successor.

Twenty thousands dollars and another player was his price. A "clever business stroke," the New York sport critics called it. The "twenty grand" will come back in two or three weeks, they hazarded, if Cohen makes good.

The sandlot of El Paso, Tex., gave "Andy" his start. Than these sandlots, none is sandier. Geographical phenomena worked with inheritance to fit Andy well for the part in the McGraw scheme of things he was to play.

Away back yonder Andy's daddy and John McGraw played baseball together on the Baltimore Orioles.

"My dad played under another name than Cohen though, I think," smiles Andy, "Jewish baseball players weren't much in demand then."

Andy specialized in basketball and football as well as baseball when he went to high school in El Paso. Twice he piloted his high school basketball fives to state championship.

Then he went to Alabama University for three years. A crack man on the diamond there, he signed up last season with Waco of the Texas League, joining that team in June.

McGraw bought him on the strength of .312 batting and .946 fielding averages in 106 games, and recently sent him a hurry call to report to New York.

It's history now how Cohen, sent to bat for Frankie Frisch in the ninth inning of his first game with the Giants, delivered a single with a man on third base, and how a few minutes later the first colorful "Cohen to George Kelly" putout was registered with Andy functioning at second.

They spin out Andy's life history with eclat and embroidery around New York now: how his Ma gave him a licking the first time he ever evinced a desire to play baseball, how his kid brother, Sidney, is setting a fast pace for Fort Bayard, New Mexico, in the Copper League, and how Andy doesn't smoke, drink, chew or swear and goes to bed regularly at 10:30 p. m.

"The big show? I like it fine," contributes the subject matter of all this agitation—

This Andrew Howard Cohen, of the long-awaited "Cohen to Kelly" combine, the answer to an Irishman's prayer.

PLAYERS OF PIRATES FAILED TO INTERPRET HANDWRITING ON WALL

WOBBLY HURLING STAFF BIG DEFECT

Stronger Pitching Might Have Carried Outfit Through Unprecedented Run of Misfortune, Accident and Illness—Slump of World's Champions Is Not Mysterious.

By RALPH S. DAVIS.

A VETERAN baseball follower in discussing the slump of the Pirates the other day, made this remark: "Slumps are a good thing for the national game. If they didn't occur, the scribes would have little to write about at times. Winning streaks would become boresome, and there wouldn't be much of a thrill to them."

IF THIS IS true, then the Pirates have been doing a lot of good for the game—and especially for the scribes—this season. The world's champions have proved ins-and-outers, and each time they have lost ground, their predicament has given rise to a flock of wild and sensational stories.

ANY PROTRACTED slump on the part of an admittedly strong combination ever produces rumors galore. The average fan never stops to think for a moment of the causes contributing to the team's failure.

ALL THAT he realizes is that the club is not getting results, and he jumps to the conclusion that there is dissension in the ranks, or that the players are dissipating, and not taking the proper care of themselves.

BOTH OF these stories accompanied the slump of the Buccaneers. First there were reports of drinking bouts, and then there were tales of fisticuffs in the clubhouse.

THE SAD thing about such a situation is that generally there is at least a modicum of truth in some of the stories. It seems to be human nature to be suspicious, and especially is this true of those who are interested in professional sports.

LET THERE be ever so slight a basis for suspicion, so far as the conduct of the players are concerned, and it is certain to be magnified. Stories about individuals are like snowballs started rolling down the side of a mountain. They increase in size as they go, until they become really alarming things before they reach the bottom.

STORIES THAT GROW.

SO IT IS with baseball stories. Let a ball player keep late hours a single night, and a tale is told that he has become a "rounder," and that he is breaking training.

LET HIM be seen taking a single glass of anything stronger than water, and he is put down in the "soak" class. Let him be overheard disagreeing with a teammate on any point, no matter how insignificant, and before the story has reached its full proportions, it tells about a genuine fistic battle, with blood spilled and all that.

THAT IS the way it has been with many of the rumors concerning the Pirates. There is no denying that a few of the stories had a basis in fact. Some of the boys did go on a night party or two. Some of them did take a drink. One or two of them even went a bit further than that.

BUT TAKING the outfit as a whole, the Pirates are as clean-living and well-regulated a bunch of young men as one could find anywhere. Most of them are entirely serious about their work, and are heart-broken over their recent failure to win.

A MAN WHO is in a position to know whereof he speaks said yesterday that he never had associated with a better lot of young men, taken as a whole.

"THEY ARE made up of the same kind of men you find in any other group," said he. "There are the jolly ones, the fun-makers, and there are the serious minded fellows. But they are nearly all high-minded, and in deadly earnest about this baseball business.

"MOST OF them would give anything short of an arm to win a ball game, and the misfortunes that have befallen them have weighed heavily on the team. They are willing to do anything at all to get results, and I don't believe there are many of them who would not sacrifice themselves completely to help the team."

KNOW HOW THE GIANTS FELT.

SOMETIMES a ball team falls into a slump, which appears difficult to account for. The players may all be in good physical condition, and yet nothing goes right—batting averages fall off, there is a corresponding deterioration in fielding skill, and base running ability is useless because of failure to reach first.

SUCH SLUMPS generally wear themselves out quickly unless there is a mental reaction which retards the improvement. But there are other slumps, which are not so hard to account for, but are much more obvious and hard to get over.

AND IT IS such a condition that has hurt Pittsburgh's chances. The Pirates have had an opportunity to realize this season what the feelings of the New York Giants must have been a year ago.

IN 1925 THE Polo Grounders were put out of the running by a combination of circumstances, over which they had largely no control. One man after another was thrown out of the lineup by illness or injury, and gaps thus imposed could not be overcome.

Pie Traynor suffered an injured ankle early in the spring which affected his speed, and finally forced him to rest.

Glenn Wright played for days with a badly injured hand, which interfered both with his fielding and batting, and later was forced out of the lineup with a threat of pneumonia.

Eddie Moore was laid up for almost two weeks, but even before he was taken sick, had been in such physical shape that he suffered a terrific batting slump.

Johnny Gooch has been playing under the handicap of a throat affection, which may yet send him to the hospital, where he would probably be right now but for the fact that he is so badly needed.

INFERIOR PITCHING STAFF.

THE PIRATES might have stood up under all these handicaps, had they been able to present first-class pitching each day. But no department was harder hit by misfortune than the slab corps.

Ray Kremer, of whom so much was expected, following his stellar stand in the world's series last fall, has been out of it for practically a month with a sore arm.

Johnny Morrison has been sick and has also had a sore wing. Aldridge was similarly afflicted for almost two weeks, and Lee Meadows was on the shelf just as long with trouble in his head.

A COUPLE of younger pitchers, who might have been a great help, failed to come through as expected, and were disposed of as worthless. The staff has been more or less "shot" all season, and has not been strong enough to withstand the attacks of opposing batsmen.

IF THERE is any criticism justifiable at this time, it appears as if it should be directed straight at the heads of the club, who were warned time and again last winter that the pitching staff was not what it should be, and that too much dependance was being placed in men like Sheehan, Oldham and Adams, and youngsters who had had not league experience whatever.

THE ACQUISITION of Paul Waner and Hal Rhyne was a ten-strike, but the club should have gone further, and given Bill McKechnie at least one or two pitchers in their prime.

HAD THE pitching been up to par right along, many of the games which were lost when the attack was functioning fairly well, would have been reversed into victories. The Pirates were downed a number of times when they made enough runs to win with good pitching.

LOCAL FANS HAVE NOT "QUIT."

IN SPITE of all the ill-luck that has befallen the champions, the fans of Pittsburgh are still loyal. A Cincinnati writer the other day remarked that "the fans of Pittsburgh quit sooner than in any other city of the league, except possibly St. Louis."

ALL OF which is a gross libel on the loyalty of the vast army of local followers of the Pirates and lovers of the national game, who never quit as long as there is a single ray of hope.

THE CINCINNATI MAN who penned the "roast" on Pittsburgh fans has "quit" oftener on the Reds than any other individual in the Queen City, and has repeatedly panned them when they failed to live up to his expectations.

AN OLD major leaguer who has played in several cities, remarked recently that in no city of the circuit did the fans appear more loyal than in Pittsburgh, and he spoke the truth.

OF COURSE, you can find knockers at Forbes Field, just as in any other park on the circuit. But they are vastly in the minority. The great majority of Pittsburgh patrons are for the team first, last and all the time, and they have by no means given up hope that the 1926 pennant will be brought to this city.

IT IS ALWAYS well to remember that the loudest yelling against the team, when it is in a slump, is done by the same birds who do the loudest shouting and who always say "I told you so" when the outfit wins.

THE PIRATE cause is by no means lost, but the task is being daily made harder by the string of ill-fortune that refuses to cut itself loose from McKechnie's men.

THE BUCCANEERS have fought gamely in the face of great odds, and even if they fail to win this year, they will be beaten not by superior teams so much as by the combination of circumstances which had prevented them from showing their full ability and strength at any stage of the race.

Playing the Game With the Pirates

THE PIRATES LEFT LAST NIGHT FOR CHICAGO, WHERE THEY ARE DUE TO ENCOUNTER THE CUBS TODAY, BRINGING THEM BACK WITH THEM TONIGHT FOR THE INDEPENDENCE DAY PROGRAM AT FORBES FIELD. THE MORNING GAME TOMORROW STARTS AT 10:30, AND THE AFTERNOON FRACAS AT 3.

The Cubs will also play here on Tuesday, that being the Pirates' last clash with a western opponent until Aug. 12. In the interim there will be two intersectional series, the eastern teams coming west on Wednesday, the Phils being first to stop here. The clashes in the west end July 24, and the very next day the western teams open in the east, with the Buc-cos in Brooklyn.

THE WORLD'S CHAMPIONS WILL RELISH A CESSATION OF ENCOUNTERS WITH THE STRONG WESTERN CONTENDERS. THEY SHOULD THRIVE MORE AGAINST THE EAST THAN THEY HAVE DONE RECENTLY AGAINST THE CARDS, REDS AND CUBS.

The National League schedule this season is a rather peculiar one, and in drafting it Barney Dreyfuss certainly did not give his own men the best of the arrangement.

THE PIRATES ARE STILL FIELDING RATHER POORLY, THEIR TEAM AVERAGE TO DATE BEING LITTLE HIGHER THAN .950. THEY HAVE GONE FAR ABOVE THE CENTURY MARK IN ERRORS, AVERAGING ALMOST TWO PER GAME. HOWEVER, THEY HAVE OUTHIT AND OUTSCORED THE OPPOSITION.

Rogers Hornsby doesn't regret the deal with the Giants, in which he got Billy Southworth for Heine Mueller. The former Pirate has been playing good ball since he joined the Cards.

Tommy Thevenow retired the side in the second inning of yesterday's game, throwing out Clyde Barnhart, Johnny Rawlings and Hal Smith in succession.

THAT WAS SOME FOURTH INNING YESTERDAY AND FATTENED SEVERAL PIRATE BATTING AVERAGES. Pie Traynor HAD A HOME RUN AND A DOUBLE AND BARNHART A SACRIFICE AND A SINGLE IN THE ONE CHAPTER. TEN OF THE BUCCANEERS BATTED AND SEVEN OF THEM HIT SAFELY.

The whole Pirate team was hitting yesterday. And when those fellows are clouting, they are poison to any pitcher. A few more games like that of yesterday, and the club's confidence will be fully restored.

WELL, THE CHAMPS ARE BACK IN SECOND PLACE, AND AS THEY ENTRAINED LAST NIGHT FOR CHICAGO EXPRESSED THE HOPE THAT IT WILL NOT BE LONG UNTIL THEY WILL BE OUSTING THE REDS FROM THE TOPMOST BERTH. THEY BELONG OUT FRONT, AND WITH A LITTLE LUCK, THEY'LL GET THERE.

Regan, the Oakland boy with the Boston Red Sox, had an off-day in the first game of the double-header with the Mackmen yesterday, foozling three fielding chances, just half of all he had to handle.

Jim Bottomley's agility cost the Pirates a chance to score more than once in the first. He harpooned Thevenow's wide throw and whizzed the ball to Les Bell, who put it on Glenn Wright as the latter slid into third.

George Grantham TURNED IN A DANDY CATCH ON SOUTHWORTH. THE CARDINAL RIGHT FIELDER BUNTED BUT HIS EFFORT RESULTED IN A POP FLY THAT GRANTHAM NABBED AFTER A FLIGHT OVER THE FOUL LINE.

Ray Blades and Bob O'Farrell were mystified by Vic Aldridge's slants in the first two frames. Both stood with bats on shoulders as the third strike flashed by.

Another slim crowd saw the Pirates and Cardinals battle in the last game of the series. Less than 10,000 fans were in the stands.

GRANTHAM'S TRIPLE IN THE THIRD BARELY MISSED BOUNDING INTO THE RIGHT FIELD STANDS. IT GLIDED OVER SOUTHWORTH'S HEAD, HOPPED UP AND STRUCK THE BARRIER ABOUT TWO FEET FROM THE TOP.

L. Bell got a single in the fourth but it wasn't Wright's fault. The spread eagle shortstop raced behind Traynor, grabbed the grounder but the throw was too long to catch the runner.

Aldridge's triple in the fourth was a tricky affair. The ball scooted along the ground and when it got near Blades, it took a high bound to the right and continued its course to the fence.

SIX BUCCANEER REGULARS CLOUT BALL AT BETTER THAN .300 CLIP

CUYLER STILL CLUB LEADER

Paul Waner Only Other Outfielder to Own Place In Select Class—Pie Traynor, Glenn Wright, George Grantham and Earl Smith Other Pirates With High Swat Marks—Cuyler Theft Peer.

Despite the fact that their collective batting average is only .281, giving them fifth place in the National League swatting list, most of the Pirate regulars are hitting better than .300. Kiki Cuyler, notwithstanding the slump that has affected him recently, is still the leader with .346, but there are others who press him closely.

Paul Waner is the other outfielder in the charmed circle. He is swatting at a .316 clip. Max Carey, Carson Bigbee and Clyde Barnhart are far down in the ranking, their marks hovering around .200. Of the infielders, Hal Rhyne, Eddie Moore and John McInnis are out of the select class. Pie Traynor leads the inner guardians with .329, Glenn Wright is next with a percentage of .324, and George Grantham is credited with .307.

Earl Smith is the only catcher above .300, his average being .344. Johnny Gooch, who divides the receiving tasks with the peppery ex-Giant and ex-Brave, has fallen off recently and now sports a mark of .287. None of the pitchers have reached even .200 in swatting, Lee Meadows with .194 topping them.

STILL TRAIL IN FIELDING.

As a defensive outfit, the Buccaneers are still the cellar champions. They have attained a percentage of .960, the result of 111 errors in 2,748 chances. A slight brace in the field, however, may see them lifted a notch higher for the Phillies lead them by only one point.

Rube Bressler of the Reds is the leader of the swatsmiths. He has compiled an average of .373. Ray Blades is first in runs scored with 60. Hazen Cuyler and Curt Walker of the Reds head the list in total hits, each with 93, while the Pirate is the best base stealer in the league with 15 thefts.

Extra base hit honors go to Jim Bottomley of the Cardinals. Besides being tied with Frankie Frisch of the Giants and Zack Wheat of the Dodgers in doubles with 21, he has cracked out the greatest number of home runs, 10. Glenn Wright leads in triples with 12.